Paul Feig has been directing films in Hollywood for over a decade, helming comedies like Bridesmaids, The Spy, Ghostbusters, A Simple Favor and Last Christmas. He is back with his next film Jackpot, starring Awkwafina and John Cena as an unlikely duo who try their best to avoid becoming the target of a multi-billion dollar jackpot lottery. (Also Read: Shaking hands with Shah Rukh Khan at Ambani wedding in Mumbai was emotional: ‘Amazed’ John Cena recalls the meeting)
In this exclusive interview with Hindustan Times, Paul Feig talks about making Jackpot, how his love for Jackie Chan films inspired him to make an action-comedy, and what changes he would like to see in the near future.
You said in an interview that with Jackpot you finally got the chance to make a Jackie Chan film. Tell me a little about your love for those films and what inspired you the most in them
I mean, I love Jackie Chan’s style of physical comedy. He’s always been great as a sweet innocent character who gets into really bad situations and he doesn’t want to be there. It’s fun to watch him get out of it with whatever skill he has or whatever he has available to him. Whether it’s a ladder or a bottle! I find it really funny! So, I’ve always wanted to do that in one of my movies and I got a chance to play with this idea a little bit in my movie Spy… But I always felt there was a way to bring more action into it, because there are a lot of action scenes in his movies. I love his Police Story movies and they’re really fun with driving engines with good villains. I also love Drunken Master, it’s one of my favorite movies, I think the fight scenes in it are very inventive. Yeah, so I really wanted to bring all of that into this movie.
As a director, how do you see the state of comedy films today? What do you think attracts people to comedy?
I think comedy these days has to be relatable, it has to shock people but it also has to be honest. Comedy in the 90s used to be about big, crazy characters… I think people these days aren’t as interested in that because they don’t find it as honest. So they really want to invest in real characters that could be in any situation, as long as it feels believable. Even if it’s presented in situations where those characters act funny as people and not just scripted jokes.
The vision of the future in Jackpot is that there’s definitely chaos and a lot of anarchy. But there’s also room for human compassion and friendship. Tell me a little bit about that aspect and whether it was something you really wanted to bring into the script.
Yeah, I don’t think I would have done this movie if it was more skeptical about humanity. When I first started reading the script, I was like, ‘Oh, is this going to be like The Purge?’ I love The Purge movies because they’re quite skeptical. What I liked, like you said, is that there’s humanity in it. Not everybody is involved in it. The people who want to do it buy it but there are more people who don’t accept it who are around it, outside of it. The fact that it was a story about a woman who has lost trust in people and this whole big experience allows her to trust someone again with John Cena’s character. I think that’s really lovely. I’m looking for something good-natured at the end of the day. It can be dark, it can be crazy but the ultimate message is that people are okay. Humanity is not lost.
Tell me a little bit about working with Awkwafina and John Cena in Jackpot. We haven’t seen Awkwafina in a role like this, she’s doing so much action…
Yes! When I read the script both Awkwafina and John were attached to the movie, so that was a gift. I’ve been friends with Awkwafina for a while and I wanted to work with her. But what I liked about her was that she’s not known for action and that’s the character I wanted. She’s one of us who is thrown into this extreme situation and then with her training… she was just going to understand the choreography and be believable as someone who is completely in over their head and tries to figure it out. She’s very believable in those scenes where we think, ‘Oh my god, if that were me!’
Finally, tell us about one aspect of the world you would like to see changed or updated by the year 2030!
(laughs) I wish we were all a little more kind to each other. I wish we weren’t so divided in so many things. I think we’ve become so polarised because of what we read and the misinformation we read and then our opinions and affiliations to whoever happens to be our leader at the time… I think it’s become a little bit ‘sports-team’ oriented. You know how you’re so loyal to your team that your team can’t do anything wrong? I don’t think life can be like that. It’s good for sports but let’s keep it out of life. Let’s be a little more tolerant of each other.
Jackpot premieres on Prime Video on August 15.
