By the time Meagan Good gave her breakout
performance in the powerful Eve’s Bayou
in 1997, the child star was already a vet in the industry with years of cameos
and commercials under her belt.
Good’s girl-next-door image has maintained over
the years, as even her bad girl roles have taken on a prim and proper essence. We’ve
seen her in fan favorites like Deliver Us
From Eva, Roll Bounce, You Got Served, Waist Deep and Stomp The Yard,
but now Good is taking on comedy with The
Love Guru and horror films like 2008’s One
Missed Call and the upcoming Saw V and
The Unborn.
Romany Malco, also a longtime thespian, has
appeared in dozens of movies and television shows. You might recognize Malco as MC Hammer in the
2001 made-for-tv movie Too Legit. It wasn’t out of character for him to have taken the role, as he was a rapper
himself as a member of the early ’90s West Coast group The College Boyz. Although his face is
familiar, Malco was largely under the radar until 2005’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin. He’s been successful in comedy, with roles
in the Showtime series Weeds and the movies
Blades of Glory and Baby Mama. Now Malco plays a lovelorn hockey star in The Love Guru, and he’s got a lot more
up his sleeve for the future.
In the process of covering The Love Guru
release (which came in #4 at the box office over the weekend), we had a roundtable pow wow these two beautiful people to discuss
their work with Mike Myers and their individual career moves.
AllHipHop.com: Now that [The Love Guru] is out, how do you feel about the final outcome of
it?
Meagan Good: I think it’s hilarious, I really
enjoyed when I watched it. I didn’t get a chance to see everything being shot… and
to see how everything turned out, I think it turned out great.
Romany Malco: I was like, “Wow, I’m actually a
part of the Mike Meyers conglomerate now.” Let me just be honest, I was like,
“Damn, Yahaki looks awesome.” The hard work paid off because it’s not me doing
a lot of those stunts, but the thing is because of the fact that I actually learned
how to skate for real, the cuts were seamless. You don’t know when they’re
switching back and forth from me to the stunt guys. I still don’t know.
AllHipHop.com: Did you train with any hockey
players?
Romany Malco: Man, I trained with Christian LaLonde,
who is pretty much the go-to guy in Hollywood if you want to learn, because he
played pro. I trained for him for six hours a day, six days a week. No joking,
this man had a civil service wedding because he’s from Quebec, then left his
civil service wedding on a Monday to come train me. He was like, “Okay thank
you,” told the witness and his wife, “I’ll see you later” because he was so
motivated.
Six days a week, on the seventh day I would play
pick up games. That was five weeks of that, then I went to Toronto and skated
for like 12 hous a day. I lost 13 pounds, it was the most gratifying thing I’ve
done in a long time.
AllHipHop.com: You met your fiancée on set…
Romany Malco: I did meet my fiancée on set. Her
name’s Taryn Dakha. The test day, the first day we got there at the end of
August and I was speaking with Jessica Alba, talking about everything because
she’s a great conversationalist. Then Taryn walked up and I just fell like,
“Yo, who is that? What is that? Is that your friend?” Turns out she was
Jessica’s stunt double, her stand-in body double, and I was like, “Yeah I wanna
be with that woman.”
I don’t know what it is, there’s a certain thing
about women that turn me on. When I look at a woman and I see that she has the
potential to be a real cool mom, I don’t know what it is. It’s the one
“schwing” moment, look I’m becoming Mike Myers [from Wayne’s World]. That’s my “schwing” moment, [if she’s got] the
potential to become a hot mom.
AllHipHop.com The Love Guru did work for you then.
[laughs]
Romany Malco: Oh totally, I got some of the best
love advice I could have ever gotten. I learned to love myself. I’ll never
forget the second day I was on the set I went home and laid in bed and thought
to myself for the first time, “Really what are my priorities gonna be in life?
Am I gonna be somebody that works 12 months out of the year and has no family?
Is that gonna be my source of gratification?” Really I started prioritizing myself,
and because of that job I changed my life.
AllHipHop.com: Going back to the [hockey]
training, did you do any of that with Justin [Timberlake] or just by yourself?
Romany Malco: I did it by myself, but then me and
Justin did skate and stretch and stuff like that once he got on the set. But he
was only there for 11 days, and they just worked the hell out of him for those
11 days.
AllHipHop.com: In working with Justin Timberlake,
what surprised you about his performance?
Meagan Good: [laughs] Well, it was funny because
when I first heard he was doing the character I was, “Really? I wonder how
that’s going to work, is he even funny?” I had no idea what to expect, and then
someone told me to look on YouTube at [his Saturday
Night Live “D**k in a Box” sketch], so I checked it out and was like,
“Okay, wait a second he’s really funny.”
When we got to set, our second day he had on his
whole getup, and even though I had read it in the script I was like, “Is that
really what he’s gonna wear in the movie?” After the director was like, “Yeah
this is definitely what he’s gonna wear.” I was like, “Hold on for a second”
and I went into a room on set, closed the door and laughed for a good 15
minutes. But he was great to work with, such a sweetheart and so committed to
the character. He was 100% there, he came on set not as Justin Timberlake but,
“I’m an actor, I’m here to work, let’s get the scene right and let’s make it
great.”
AllHipHop.com: [You’re] playing the straight
character. Is there any part of you that wants to go off and do more comedy?
Meagan Good: Absolutely, I definitely want to do a
lot more comedy. I want to do physical comedy and just really go there. But
this was great [and Romany always says it] because I got a chance to do a lot
of reactions depending on how you perceive it. But I just kind of played it to the
reaction of the situation and the reality of the situation [was funny to me.]
Romany Malco: Some of my favorite stuff in the
movie is Meagan’s reaction to my mom [Telma Houston]. I like those little
magical subtleties that happen, or like Jessica’s reaction to Mike a few times,
that looked genuine and true.
AllHipHop.com: Meagan you’ve done such a wide
array of roles since you were very young. Do you find it easier progressing
into comedy because you’ve worked with such serious actors, or has it been a
challenge for you?
Meagan Good: A little bit of both. I think easier
because I’m really kind of goofy and
corny at heart anyways and it’s a comfortable place for me to be. But harder,
because even though that is how I am, a lot of that you don’t really get a
chance to show people, because everything is very professional and you’re used
to doing things a certain way and every opportunity is a new opportunity to
bring something different.
It was a little scary at first, because I was like,
“What if I try this and it doesn’t work or Mike doesn’t think it’s funny?” But
then working with everyone they were so helpful and encouraging. I would love
to do a lot more comedy.
AllHipHop.com: How did this experience differ from
Saw V which you just wrapped?
Meagan Good: It was completely different, with The Unborn there wasn’t as much
silliness going on on the set. But I love a good thriller and I love drama, to
me it’s almost like second nature. Saw
is a thing where it’s a thriller and I enjoy things like that. But like I said,
I’d love to do more comedy, because I just want to get goofy. I just want
someone to throw me in a trash can upside down.
AllHipHop.com: Can you tell us if you live long in
Saw V?
Meagan Good: I’m not allowed to say anything because
there’s a contract, and basically they shot alternate endings and they wouldn’t
release half of the script. Beyond any certain point they won’t release any
information. It’s very small, family-like and close knit, they’ve had the same
hair and nail makeup people. The director [David Hackl] started off as a
writer, made his directing debut with something else then came back and did
this. I just kind of became a fan of the franchise. I
hadn’t seen the first one, and then a friend of mine showed me the second one
and I was like, “Wait this is really kind of good and fun to watch” then I
watched the third and fourth one and just kind of became a fan of it like
anything you become a fan of, and you’re like, “I wanna do the next one”.
AllHipHop.com: Do you find you’ve learned a lot
about fake blood and guts?
Meagan Good: I’ve learned a lot about how they
make stuff look so incredibly real to the point where the person actually looks
at how the person actually breathes, and when they make the body part that
might get chopped off or whatever, the body is actually breathing from where
that particular person breathes. So however that particular person’s body
works, they’re incredibly detailed.
AllHipHop.com: The season premier of Weeds just happened, I was wondering if
you were willing to divulge any details about this upcoming season?
Romany Malco: One of the things that’s guaranteed
this season is that I won’t be in it.
AllHipHop.com: You and Steve Carrell did The 40-Year-Old Virgin together. You
guys are friends and [now] you’re toe-to-toe at the box office [with Get Smart coming out the same time as The Love Guru.] Are you guys competing
or just having fun with it? How do you feel?
Romany Malco: I don’t like the idea of coming out
on the same day as Steve’s movie because the man gave me my break and I’m
extremely grateful for that. But I also feel as though I’ve served Steve and
done my best to support his brand of comedy, and from it he’s gone quite a long
way. Not necessarily because of my support, but I just made sure that my
contribution was karmically aligned with me doing my best, and I feel like now
I’ve done the same thing for Mike Myers.
So from my position I’m really in the position of
serving at the moment, but if it’s me headlining and going up against Steve
then it’s a different situation. We’d be calling up the studios like, “I’m not
going up against my boy.” I tried to consult with Mike, but he wouldn’t get up
out of that damn Guru costume. It’s funny, I’ve been thinking about this like,
“Damn, that’s my man right there.” So I
wish both of us the best of luck, and you know what? There’s tons of people so
there’s plenty of room in the theaters for everybody. I feel like the audience
that follows Steve Carrell is different from the audience that follows Mike Myers,
and even though I know there’s going to be a little bit of sharing there they’re
still different audiences.
Mike Myers is genius at getting into the heads of
nine-year-old boys, knowing all of the things their mothers said, “Don’t do
that!” and he writes a movie that pushes the envelope for them. So when you’re
nine, you’re like, “Mike Myers is the man!”
AllHipHop.com: Are you gonna work with [Judd]
Apatow [producer of The 40-Year-Old
Virgin] again? He has a tendency of recycling actors.
Romany Malco: Me and Judd have actually discussed
doing a few projects, one of which we sold to Universal but I’m afraid to make
it now because timing wise I don’t think it’s funny anymore. It’s called The Military Recruiter, it’s about a Marine
Corps recruiter who was just relentless. He would sign up homeless people and
prostitutes. He’d literally go up to a prostitute and be like, “I can’t think
of a better clientele.”
Judd thought the idea was great, we started
writing it, we had Robert Siegel write it, Universal gave me an executive
producer and acting deal, and I’m afraid to make the movie to be honest with
you. I just feel like timing wise with Stop-Loss
and all, it would just be in poor taste. But we’ll talk and see.
AllHipHop.com: Meagan, even when you play a bad
girl, you’re still the good, pretty, coy bad girl. Have you ever just wanted to
do a breakout role where you’re just dirty with it?
Meagan Good: Absolutely, in a heartbeat. I’m
waiting for the opportunity to play a crackhead, to gain 30 to 40 pounds,
anything that needs to be done if I’m into the character and project.
and just for fun… The College Boyz “Hollywood Paradox”
