ne of the major draws of a new Christopher Guest film is the opportunity to see our old friends again. Okay, so they might have different names and personas: Earthy folk singer Mickey from A Mighty Wind has become deluded veteran actor Marilyn Hack, and perfectly coiffed, perma-smiling Hollywood Now co-host Cindy Martin looks a lot like no-nonsense dog trainer Christy Cummings of Best in Show. Whether he's skewering the sweetly hopeful world of community theatre in Waiting for Guffman or guiding us through the madness of Hollywood awards season in his new project, For Your Consideration, Guest always calls on a reliably hilarious ensemble of regulars to populate his films.
"The [movies are] based on the talents of these actors, who happen to be able to do this kind of work," says Guest, the actor-writer-director behind these sharply observed satires. "You don't get a chance to do this in other movies, and it's fun to do. It gives them a lot of freedom."
"It" refers to his moviemaking process, which uses the considerable improvisational skills of the actors involved. Typically, Guest and co-writer–actor Eugene Levy devise a plot outline, complete with character backgrounds and suggested jokes. Then it's up to the actors to expand on their characters and improvise the dialogue. "We write the history of the characters; we describe the characters," Guest explains. "Everyone knows who those people are. What we don't know is what they're going to say."
Such a proposition is thrilling for his ever-growing company of actors, who relish the opportunity to work in such an environment. "The good thing about the Christopher Guest thing as opposed to any other film is that it's fascinating to be in a scene with someone where you don't know what's coming out of their mouth," says Jennifer Coolidge, who plays a daffy diaper heiress in For Your Consideration and previously appeared in Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. "When you're in other movies, actors can do something surprising, like sneeze in a moment you don't expect them to, but when someone says something that is so incredibly funny, and you're trying to keep it together—there's nothing cooler than that."
That's not to say the actors simply show up and start devising glib one-liners. The character work on these films is intense and meticulous. Jane Lynch, who plays Cindy Martin in For Your Consideration, her third Guest movie, offers two words of advice for those lucky enough to be part of the filmmaker's projects: "Pack heavy."
"I've done more character work for Christopher Guest films than anything else," Lynch says. "He gives you a backstory, but you embellish it for yourself and you make it important for yourself. You're basically creating a full entity, and you show up with that full entity, and then you can be free to improvise. But you really have to know who this person is and how they feel about things before you can improvise."
Guest-film regular Catherine O'Hara—A Mighty Wind's Mickey—echoes that sentiment. "Between getting the script and the camera rolling, you just try to get as much of a real person going in your head," she says. "[They have to be] ready to express themselves organically in whatever situation. You know from the outline what the scenes are going to be, but then you never know what anyone's going to say or do in a scene. So you just try to come as ready as possible with a real character, so you can be in character, in the moment, with everyone else, because we all feed off each other."
That detailed character work comes into play even in the rare instances in which actors are given scripted lines. For Your Consideration's soppy movie-within-a-movie, Home for Purim, was written beforehand, as were the segments of a flashy, Entertainment Tonight–style infotainment show hosted by cheery Cindy and clueless loudmouth Chuck Porter (Fred Willard, another veteran of Guest's films). Still, Lynch and Willard did their usual intense character preparation. "It definitely fills the character out, and if you do any less, then you kind of look like a cardboard figure—'cause we're kind of playing cardboard figures [in this film]," Lynch says. "But as actors we have to fill them with the character's desires and aspirations. I always thought that Cindy wanted to be an Oprah Winfrey or someone with her own television show, or even, like, a Diane Sawyer—something more relevant. Instead she's kind of the spokesperson for this celebrity fascination that goes on in pop culture."
Though much of their dialogue was scripted, this level of preparation allowed Lynch and Willard to add a few stray lines here and there. "Like the blind prostitute [joke in the movie]—that's [Willard]," Lynch says. "He threw that on me; that was great."
"And you kept saying, 'Well, I'll tell ya what!'" chimes in Willard.
"'I'll tell ya what, Chuck!' That was my own little embellishment," Lynch says.
One thing many of Guest's actors emphasize is that being in the scene as your character means that the comedy has to come naturally; delivering quick-witted quips isn't going to cut it. "You think [the improv atmosphere] is going to be this high frenetic energy and fast-paced thing, where people are stepping all over each other. But the truth of the matter is, especially with this group—and I think that's why Chris tends to use the same people—is that [it's] more mellow," says Christopher Moynihan, who appeared in A Mighty Wind and is featured in For Your Consideration as an overly serious thespian. "Everybody feels everybody else out, and everyone waits for their moment, as opposed to trying to get in the scene and get funny stuff out. And it's hard because you see moments where you could get laughs and you could say something provocative or funny, and you go, 'Well, I know it will wind up on the cutting room floor because I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing.' It's a more subdued method than people would assume."
It's also different from other forms of improvisation that are a bit more freewheeling. "It is different than getting in an improv group and getting on the stage, and they say, 'Okay, you're in the desert; you're a Marine and a meat salesman—and go,'" Willard says. "We know more. We try to stay true to our characters and don't suddenly invent, 'Oh, I was on a spaceship last night.'"
Adds Coolidge, "The Christopher Guest stuff allows you to be slow. You can be a slow improviser, which is what I am. Those great improvisers that have that incredible Oscar Wilde zinger one-liner—I don't think I really have that ability. I think I'm lucky if I'll be just sort of acting as that person and something might come out, but it happens very slowly."
Many of Guest's actors agree that one key component to this style of improv—and certainly one thing that makes his movies work so well—is the art of listening to the other actors in the scene. "A scene moves forward by talking and listening with other people," Levy says. "But that's the nature of good improvisation: Listening is as important as talking. [You should know] when to stand there and listen and not break the moment trying to go for something. Forcing comedy doesn't ever work, I would say, generally—but certainly on these movies."
Adds O'Hara, "The only note Chris gave me, before I even opened my mouth on Waiting for Guffman, [was], 'Don't be afraid to listen.' It was such a good little reminder because, coming from comedy backgrounds and stuff, everyone shows up like, 'Oh, I hope I get to use this line! Oh, I hope I'm funny! Oh, I hope I'm as funny as everyone else!' And it's such a good reminder: Just listen. In life, you have to listen."
Guest's process also presents his actors with unusual challenges. "It's entirely on your shoulders what your role's going to be," Moynihan says. "When you see [a role] in a [scripted film], you go, 'Okay, I know I'm in eight scenes and I know that I have this many lines and I know that my emotional beats to play are this.' With this, you know that you're in the scene, because you're in the outline, but it all falls on your shoulders what you're gonna say."
The solution to this goes back to the complex character preparation the actors engage in. For instance, Moynihan's character in For Your Consideration is a serious actor type, so he soaked up all the knowledge he could about Method acting. "I got these hot-button phrases, like 'foibles'—'What's my character's foible?'—and 'long-term objectives' and all this acting jargon," he says. "I just filled my head up with it. And the biggest challenge in all of this is I want to be able to talk and make it seem real and make it seem interesting, because when a script's there, you can just rely on the script, and if the scene's not working, everyone looks at the writer and goes, 'Hey, the scene's not working.' But here, if a scene's not working, it's because I didn't do my work or I'm not up to par."
Another challenge comes in the form of trying not to laugh or otherwise disrupt a take. "When you're actually rolling, those moments will never happen the same way; the words will never come out the same way, so you don't want to sabotage the take," says O'Hara. "If you're going to laugh, you find a way to laugh in character, or you go onto the table or crawl out of the scene, like Eugene did in Waiting for Guffman—he actually just lowered himself and crawled away, 'cause he was laughing. You try not to kill the take, 'cause it will never be the same again."
Even with these challenges, Guest's actors agree that they wouldn't trade the experience for anything. "It's a very liberating way to work," notes Levy.
Moynihan adds, "It's a challenge that definitely has its rewards, because you get more satisfied at the end of shooting a scene that works like this than you do with a scene that's scripted."
So how does one get to be a part of Guest's up-for-anything ensemble of performers? There's no exact formula. Many of the actors in his films have improv-heavy backgrounds, but some—such as Moynihan and indie-film queen Parker Posey—do not. "My improv background is exclusively with Christopher Guest," notes Moynihan, who was cast in A Mighty Wind after working in a series of Guest-directed commercials.
Lynch, who also met Guest via acting in commercials, says you just have to be "in the right place at the right time. I don't know how I got here. I'm so happy."
Adds Willard, "I think you have to be on the same wavelength for the comedy and be able to carry the comedy through reality, but again, it is just at the whim of Christopher. I talked to a young actress who came up to me at some function. She said, 'I'd love to be in a Chris Guest movie.' I said, 'Well, send a photo to him, say you're a fan of the movie, and nine chances out of 10 it'll get thrown out. One chance out of 10, he might look at it and say, "Let's call her in."' I know Andy Dick talked to me. He said, 'Please, tell Chris I'll do anything!' So I told Chris, 'Andy Dick would love to be in your movies.' [But] I think it has to be Chris' idea."
For Guest, the process is fairly simple. "My job is to meet with the actors and talk to them," he says. "There's no script to read; there's no audition. And it's my instinct that tells me after talking to them. Usually I can tell [in] a few minutes."
He certainly has chosen well so far. The actors all rave about being a part of his films and being able to work together on multiple projects. In using many of the same actors repeatedly, Guest has created a rarity in the film world: a bona fide acting community. "We're all fans [of one another]," Willard says. "Everyone has a great respect for everyone else and the script. And it's not like most movies: 'Hey, hi, nice to meet you.' A lot of times you'll just hang around the set and watch someone else work, which I find difficult, because you go, 'Oh, God, they're so good, dammit. How did they think of that?'"
Adds Moynihan, "I really do genuinely like all of these people, and I get along very well with them. It's a sense of community. Whereas when you get a new job, you've got to meet everybody and you've got to meet the director and then you've got to learn to work with them and you don't know if you're going to jell with people. But here you know that it's a safe group of people, and you know that everybody is really pulling for the one thing: It's for Christopher Guest. He wants to tell this story, and we're gonna do what we can to help contribute to that. I wish they were more frequent; I would do these round the clock if I could."