It’s 1987 in the grimy student digs of NYU. Guns N Roses are blaring through a sticker covered boom box. Lacklustre alumni are bobbing by in cropped perms and studded leather. Somewhere, behind one of these floral-printed walls, Adam Sandler is sitting opposite his best friend; snorting, screeching and barking like a dog.
The best friend was Frank Coraci, the manic behaviour was part of their own brand of humour, a brand that would go on to win the favour of frat boys around the world. They called it schnorf humour, we call it The Waterboy. A humour founded on funny noises, irrationality and abandoning your inhibitions.
Sandler has made name through a combination rubber-face and comedy freak outs, but it was with Coraci that gave his puerile experiments shape, a narrative, let him become more than just a jester. And as can be seen ploughing through the screen every time The Wedding Singer appears on cable TV, Coraci brings enough sentimentality to make your fingers sticky. “I’m a serial monogamist,” he says, “I think romance is the most important thing.”
Having made three movies with his cinematic-Boswell, Coraci has branched out to King of Queens star Kevin James to front his latest film, Zookeeper. A PG-friendly story of a (sorry to insult your intelligence) zookeeper, who experiences his own Dr.Doolittle moment when his animals start talking in a bid to find their keeper a lady. Nobody ever said he was releasing the next Bicycle Thieves, but Zookeeper is set to be a family movie with more charm than most.
During our 6am phone interview a over cup of weak nescafe and a fistful of sniffly tissues, Coraci was full of infuriating beans. But, like much his movies, his honesty and energy were utterly infectious. Read on to find out about Coraci’s love for Steve Coogan and just why he believes the Brits are more ‘comedy literate’ than the American critics:
THN: Can you tell us what it was like working with Kevin James?
Coraci: Well, I actually met him through Adam and he was visiting us on set when we were making Click. When he saw Click, he loved the movie it stayed in his head I guess. I just find him a really funny guy on King of Queens. I thought he was really interesting the way he isn’t goofy, he’s funny, he obviously has the physically comedy thing going on too but I like to make movies that are kind of grounded in reality and he fit right in to that. So he called me up and said, “you wanna do this movie?”
At first I was like, come on, a talking animal movie? And James was as hesitant as me. but we thought lets make it a movie that we would laugh at if it wasn’t animals. I was excited about working with Kevin as he kind of writes his own brand of humour and I’ve worked with Sandler so much I was kind of a part of the humour he created cause we went to college together. So, yeah it was cool to work with someone else. The other person I did that with was Steve Coogan and I really enjoyed that so I thought yeah, it’d be cool to work with someone new.
THN: How did you get along with Steve Coogan on Around the world in 80 Days?
Coraci: I loved it, it was so awsome. First of all, you Brits appreciate humour. In America, you just don’t get the best reviews when you make comedies. It was so nice to work with a British comedian that I respected. Some comedians will normally just do something because they THINK it’s funny, but they won’t articulate why. Sometimes, I like to try and understand why a joke is funny, or a movement. Steven is the same way, we’re really analytical about it. And I was able to give him this really miniscule direction. Like I would give comments like, “wait for a quater of a beat before you say that” and all of a sudden we’re finishing each others sentences. I love to work with Steven, we’re always talking about what we can do next, maybe something small and edgy.
THN: Speaking of developing your own humour, we read somewhere that at NYU, yourself and Adam invented your own sense of humour called ‘Schnorf’ humour….
Coraci: Yeah, it started out making these weird noises. We would sit in a circle and try to be the most uninhibited. It was actually an acting exercise, but we turned it into a sort of a game to play. Just when we up late at night, I won’t tell you what else we were doing. I think that was the weird thing about humour is that there is something that you can explain why its funny, and other things that you can’t explain why but it is. So making these noises was that kind of thing. It was about being uninhibited and building up a trust between two people. We thought some days we’d make films together, it all happened faster than any of us could have ever dreamed.
THN: How did you guys react when it started happening for real?
Coraci: We couldn’t believe it, we were all on set of The Wedding Singer late one night, when all of the ‘suit’ types had gone, and we all just sort of looked at each other we were like, “all the adults are gone” we couldn’t believe someone would actually trust us to make movies, and it is funny, we’ve tried to keep that spirit. It is a blessed thing to be able to make movies and let the world here what you have to say. You don’t ever want to loose that thankfulness.
THN: Every generation seems to breed these brat packs of young guys who develop their own humour and take Hollywood over. What do you think of the Seth Rogan, Jason Segel Apatow pack?
Coraci: I feel like they did some out of Apatows camp, the irony is that Apatow was kind of coming up with us, he’s actually in Zookeeper as the voice for the elephant. Everything grows out of everything else, the fact that there are young guys coming up behind us, and they’re making me laugh, it’s pretty cool.
THN: We read this wonderful story about the first time you watched its a wonderful life, and how you realised for the first time that a directors decisions can place someone on an emotional journey. For you, what were the decisions have you made in your movies that stand out, your Frank Capra moments?
Coraci: That moment for me was more like, holy crap, I feel this way because somebody made a decision, it was my first foray into really understanding what filmmaking was. There are decisions to make. With this movie, its hard to pinpoint the one decision, but for me the same things always ring true, it has to happen organically. Particularly romance, you have to be honest with every decision you make. The movie starts to become its own thing, has to have a soul, you have to be able to look at the soul of the movie and thats how you answer the questions. If someone says “what colour should that wall be?” if you really connect with the soul of your movie, that’s where the answer comes from.
The tone happens before the movie is created and becomes its own thing once it is edited together. Camera moves, lenses, all those smaller decisions just add up to give the movie this feeling.
THN: Do you feel the films you do give you a chance to experiment?
Coraci: I just did another movie called Here Comes the Boom, it’s a comedy but it has a lot of weight to it. But what I was really excited about what to go a bit cinema vertite, very thought out confident filmmaking. I usually have very polished crane moves, but with this we went very hand held, steady cam, stuff I don’t normally use. It’s a different type of comedy. It’s about keeping it fresh and staying true to the soul of that movie, too.
THN: Are you quite a romantic soul in all honesty. It’s a theme that always creeps into your movies…
Coraci: I am a serial monogamist person, I have been in a series of long relationships, thats the most amazing thing that happens in life, the romance. No matter what the story is about, like when we were making Click, it focused on the relationship with his father. The romance with his wife didn’t superceed the relationship with his dad but became extremely important but it ended up that a lot of the movie was wrapped around it. It’s just human nature. Maybe it’s just me though.
THN: No it’s not just you, we’re all secret sentamentalists. So in the same way a musician can have a relationship for every song, do you have a relationship for every movie?
Coraci: Like a different person for every film (laughs)? Well, my producer is my girlfriend and she’s been with me for the the last 4 movies, the last four have been with her, Aimee Keen. But yeah for the others there have definitely been influences for every movie. I think when I did The Wedding Singer I had just had my heart broken a couple of years before so I remember laying in bed and not being able to move, so it was easy to tap into that pretty quickly. I think the distance between those to things was good, it let me look at it differently and allowed it to be funny. I think if had happened before, The Wedding Singer would have been one seriously depressing movie.
THN: Have you got any favourite romantic films?
Coraci: I’m definitely a John Hughes fan, I grew up on all those movies and was very influenced by them. When we started making The Wedding Singer people would be like, “an 80s movie, what’s that?” we were still very much in the 90s and people thought the 80s weren’t different, but of course they really were. It’s hard to say which was my favourite, they all got me.
THN: Throughout your career you’ve had some big box office hits and some which weren’t so successful. Did the critical reaction to Around the World in 80 Days bother you?
Coraci:I gotta say, in the US, all my movies get ripped apart, in terms of comedy, Brits are much cooler and get it more and see that its harder to do. As far as box office, 80 days tanked but for me the most imporant thing with a movie, especially with comedy, that I watch it with and audience and that into the third act, the audience is still engaged and still laughing. I think that is the most important thing, that they are engaged the whole way.
Not every movie does well when it comes out, but as long as you feel good about it, you know? I mean, I have never made a movie I feel embarrassed about. When It’s a Wonderful Life came out, it was totally not well received at all. As far as the critics go, until I’m making a movie for the Brits, I’m not going to care what they say about my comedies.
THN: In LA I know it can be really difficult to get the films you really want made, can you tell me about any passion projects you’ve been pushing?
Coraci: Em, I have gone all over the place in terms of genres, some artsy, some dark stuff. But I also have a Sci-Fi called human which is a passion project. It’s about the future when people are made, gene designed and start to loose their individuality. I’m a video game buff, so it will be full of action, really innovative. So after the next one, I might shoot a pilot scene from Human to try and get it made. It’s hard for me as a comedy director to get these projects started as people don’t really imagine me in another genre. It’s backwards here, they don’t think comedys are very hard, I have to prove myself in a different genre, but thats the one I’m going to push next as I think it’s a really creative and innovative script.
THN: So, before you go, we hear you’re a pretty seasoned traveller, what’s the eeriest place you’ve ever been?
Coraci: You know, people seem to think that Casablanca sounds like a romantic place but I was location scouting and loved going to Morocco, but man when we were in casablanca, it was bizarre, dark, and I’m I am afraid to say fully on record, but to be honest, it just freaked me out a little bit. I’ve been to a lot of big cities like Bangkok and loved the vibe, I’m open to a lot of things but Casablanca was different than anywhere I’ve ever been. Go to Fez and Marakesh and see Casablanca while your there. I’m dying to see Ireland it’s supposed be gorgeous, Steve Coogan really wants to bring me there.
THN: Well, Coraci, lose the flatcap and we’ll take you there ourselves.
Zookeeper is in cinemas on July 29th. Check out the trailer below:
