What's it take to make a great buddy cop movie? Asking that question may be overthinking it.
According to Bruce Willis and Tracey Morgan, it's all about our enjoyment. Frankly, I'm OK with that mantra. When you've got a veteren of ass-whooping and a comedian/borderline mental patient (is there any other kind?), it might be easier to just go for the ride.
On Bruce and Tracey's chemistry:
Tracy Morgan: "That's the skipper [Bruce Willis], that's the captain right
there. It was like Deadliest
Catch, you know, he was driving the ship
and we were getting the crabs off the thing. That's what it was.
Deadliest Catch! 615 crabs, king crabs, the Bering
Sea! The skipper, he was very
happy. Those pods in the water! What it was, before we filmed Bruce and
I talked about it, gave our characters history, and by the time Kevin Smith
called action, I was already Paul and he was already Jim."
On shooting in Queens and Brooklyn, New York:
Bruce Willis: "It was like the neighborhood, being home. Especially when we were out by the
shore...it was like being home.
Everyone would feed us all day long, great food."
Tracy Morgan: "They took us to every pizza shop in
Bay Ridge. [asked if they ate Mexican food in Brooklyn] You better not go to a
Mexican restaurant in Brooklyn!
That's like getting sushi in Flatbush. You don't know how long those Jamaicans let that sushi sit
out there. You go to Chinatown to
get sushi! You should get sick if
you get sushi in Flatbush! How
long as it been sitting out there!"
Comparing Cop Out to other buddy cop movies:
Tracy Morgan: "When we were shooting, we never worried about
that. We just went towards the
funny. We never got into stuff
about buddy cops, or who we'll be compared to. We wanted to make you guys laugh.
Bruce Willis: "We never discussed any genre film that came closer
to ours...ever. Kevin didn't talk
about it, no one talked about it.
And we never thought, 'oh, somehow we have to work in this racial
problem.' We never did that. I think this is the first time in history that a black
actor and a white actor in a buddy cop movie, where they work together
everyday...where that isn't an issue."
Tracy Morgan: "We just jumped in head first. We were on like popcorn. Hot butter on popcorn."
