Red Stewart chats with Second Act director Peter Segal…
Peter Segal is an American filmmaker who has been working in the film and television industries since the late-80s. He is best known for his projects like the Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, The Longest Yard, and Get Smart.
His latest movie was the romantic comedy Second Act, which Flickering Myth had the chance to interview him about and I in turn had the honor to conduct:
Mr. Segal, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me sir. It’s an honor.
Oh absolutely, thank you.
To start with, when reading your biography I noticed that you double majored in broadcast journalism and English, which is interesting because I’ve noticed other film directors like Orson Welles and Christopher Nolan didn’t pursue film as their university major either. I’m wondering, how different do you think your directing style or approach to film would be if you didn’t have that background?
Well, yeah, I didn’t ever major in film. I do a lot of work with the film school at USC- I like to teach and lecture and participate, but, as you mentioned, I was a double major in broadcast journalism and English. And I think what that always does is it just gives you a writing background, and obviously I write on everything I do.
It’s ironic because my father and my brother and I were all English majors, and yet we all went into different careers. So you just never know what you will do with an English degree, but it seems to be a good foundation for anything in the arts.
I understand. I’m an English major as well, so I get where you’re coming from with regards to the whole arts field. Now let’s talk about Second Act. First off, congratulations on the success of the movie. It feels like every studio was trying to capitalize on the lack of Star Wars last Christmas, so I’m happy you managed to secure a good cut of the box office in this competitive time.
Well thank you, I appreciate it. It was a strategy of the studio to counter-program the big blockbusters and I am very relieved and happy to say that they were correct and successful. We did find our audience and, as Forbes magazine pointed out, we actually had the strongest legs of any of the movies that were released over the holidays, which was very much appreciated.
That’s a good segway, because I wanted to ask: I remember when the trailer came out, the biggest response to it seemed to be that it was an old school romcom. That it hearkened back to those movies like You’ve Got Mail, Runaway Bride, and, speaking of Jennifer Lopez, The Wedding Planner. And there was a period where those films were flopping at the box office. But with Second Act’s success, do you think that audiences are more open to them now? Or were they always open, and it was just a case of those films maybe going at it wrong?
Well, timing is everything, and I believe, especially in comedy, the genres within comedy are time sensitive. You know, gross out comedy was in a number of years ago, and then it went out; parody comedies like the Naked Gun and the Scary Movie franchise were in, and then they went out. And then romcoms certainly had their moments.
But I believe that there’s always been a love for romcoms, maybe there just weren’t any good ones in the past few years. I’m glad to see that there’s a resurgence, though definitely Second Act was a bit of a throwback to the Mike Nichols-era of comedies, particularly Working Girl. And this was sort of a modern-day approach to that genre, which hearkens back to Cinderella. I mean, it is a genre, again, within comedy: the, you know, mistaken identity and how far can you go under false pretense before the jig is up. And I hadn’t seen a movie like this in a long time and I felt like, between that and the Me Too Movement and the economic situation in our country with not everybody being able to afford higher education and the question of how does one succeed in the workplace….all of those seemed self-timely, and so it felt like our movie came out at the right time.
I agree entirely. It’s definitely a relatable story for any working-class person. It’s also interesting because you’ve, of course, specialized in comedies your entire career, but this might be your most, for lack of a better term, realistic comedy? Would you agree with that descriptor sir?
Yeah, the reason I did is because it tapped into certain themes that I had not explored before. This is obviously a female-driven story. And I think that it’s perhaps more grounded than most of my other movies, but it’s also telling a different kind of tale. So that’s what differentiates it from the others.
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