Talk Hard

With a who’s-who cast of modern comedy actors, the music-biopic parody Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is like an SNL movie, only funny. Sure, the jokes are obvious ones that practically wrote themselves, but their hilarity often lies in being so obvious—and then overtly pointing them out again and again. You needn’t be familiar with Walk the Line or Ray to get them, since most music biopics (and even many non-music ones) follow the same pattern.

Actor John C. Reilly, a.k.a. Dewey Cox, and director Jake Kasdan (who co-wrote the movie with current king of comedy Judd Apatow) were recently in town to screen the movie. Before Reilly’s live show at the Mercy Lounge—on the “Cox Across America” tour, natch—the Scene spoke with both gentlemen.

SCENE TO JOHN C. REILLY: I've read that Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan really created Dewey with you in mind. Once they told you about the role, did you immediately say yes or did you have to think about it?

John C. Reilly: They actually called me before they'd written it. Judd called me after Jake Kasdan—who'd come up with the idea and pitched it to Judd—Judd called me right after that and said, "I was just talking to Jake, and we were laughing really hard about this idea, doing a comedy version of a music biopic, and we think you'd be perfect." Judd and I had just worked on Talladega Nights together, and there was actually a big music scene in that movie that ended up getting cut out.

Scene: What was that?

Reilly: Me and Will go to this sort of country-Western concert, and we get up onstage with this guy and sing this song about America called "F-in' Red, F-in' White, F-in' Blue." And it just didn't make the final cut of the movie. It was too much of a detour from the plot, I guess. But Judd was there that day when we filmed it, and he saw me playing the guitar and singing. I think that's when he realized, "Wow, he could play a musician." That said, I knew Judd was brilliant and that it was a really good thing to work with him and that we had a great time on Talladega Nights.

Scene: So you were involved as they were writing it?

Reilly: Yeah, they encouraged me to give them any ideas that I had for the character and also the types of music that I thought I'd be good at, that I could sing. The two of them wrote it, but they kept asking me for ideas and my response to the different drafts of the script. Then we pretty much right away started recording music and writing songs, and that was a whole other discovery of the character too, finding out lyrically what he'd be saying at different times in his life and also how he would respond to the changes in music over the years. I was hesitant at first, just because I wanted to make sure that whatever I did next in terms of comedy would be as funny and as good as Talladega Nights, and as fun as that to do. As soon as I read the first draft, I realized what a dream-come-true this was going to be in terms of getting to do all the different things that I love like dramatic acting and comedic acting, and then the music.

Scene: And singing.

Reilly: Yeah, the music was a huge part of it.

Scene: In your interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, you talked about the slippery slope a rock star experiences, where you become a legend to the people around you, so then become a legend in your own eyes. When you got into the character, did you find yourself slipping into that at all?

Reilly: My own self personally?

Scene: Well did you get lost in the character at any time?

Reilly: Well that's the whole point, to try to get lost in the character if you can. I never did anything I regret, if that's what you're asking.

Scene: No, no.

Reilly: Personally I just shut that stuff off at the end of the day. I'm, like, a family guy.

Scene: So you didn't need Dewey rehab afterward.

Reilly: No, I did not. Although that said, it was really exhilarating getting to play someone as confident as Dewey is and as reckless and insane as Dewey is in the movie. It was super liberating to be able to just let go of any kind of modesty or shame. Dewey may have started off down-to-earth, but he quickly became a legend in his own mind.

Scene: Now that you're getting to perform as Dewy Cox on the "Cox Across America" tour, is it great to be able to re-live that character again?

Reilly: It's a little daunting actually to go back and start doing the character again, because I'd done another movie since I did Walk Hard. I just finished this movie with Will Ferrell about a week ago.