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JAMIE KENNEDY on 'KICKIN' IT OLD SKOOL'
Contributed by Michael J. Lee, Executive Editor
for Radio Free Entertainment
April 23, 2007
In the retro-themed comedy Kickin' It Old Skool, Jamie Kennedy is a breakdancer extraordinaire who puts himself into a coma as a teenager in the '80s busting a particularly wicked move, only to awaken in the present day as a 30-something who finds himself completely out of his element. Armed with a kid's mentality and his funky fresh breakdancing skills, he sets out to get his old crew back together and win the girl of his dreams (Maria Menounos) from his childhood rival (Michael Rosenbaum).
In this interview, Jamie Kennedy talks about the making of the movie and reminisces about the beloved decade of big hair and John Hughes comedies.
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The Interview
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MEDIA: Do you feel there is a relationship between your characters in this movie and in Malibu's Most Wanted?
JAMIE: Yes. I figured like I made Malibu's and my fans really liked it, so I thought, "What else can I do that was in that world?" So I decided to make a breakdancing movie because I thought that would be like a good bookend. Like the hip hop world of Jamie Kennedy in Malibu's, breakdancing. Then I'll go into my 40s and do something else.
What would happen if those two characters met?
I mean, you'd have one of the dopest rappers against one of the dopest dancers. It would be epic. That could be insane. Malibu vs. Encino.
What drew you to breakdancing?
Well, like with Malibu's, I loved rap, and I also loved breakdancing. I was in Australia and I saw You Got Served and I saw people going nuts when they were watching it. I'm like, "The dancing is so good but there's no comedy." I thought, "What if you made a dancing movie but with comedy?" And then I thought, "How come they're not making breakdancing comedies anymore?" Then I thought my character should be in a coma. And I'm like, "Now we're making breakdancing coma-dies." So that's how it was born.
How did you find your co-star Casper?
On the street. Hollywood and Highland, he breaks every day from three to five. And he was doing this crazy breakdance move and I said, "Do that again." And he did it. And I gave him a hamburger and said, "Do some more sh*t." And he did it, so I bought him fries. Then I'm like, "Do you want to be in a movie?" He's like, "Yeah." So then he was in the movie and then he was such a good actor, I said, "Well, do you want to act?" So we improv'd some lines and he was good. So that part was written for a 32-year-old and he's him. But the movie is like that. We brought in people. All the shenanigans of Hollywood are stupid. I think anybody can be a good actor, it's just a matter of pulling something out of them. So I knew that he was very good. He was going to play the young me, but he's too streetwise, so he played the other one.
How many times have you seen genre classics Breakin' and Breakin' 2?
Breakin' at least 12. Breakin' 2...It's hard to watch Boogaloo. They do that whole musical number in the beginning and they're all happy. I mean, they got legwarmers. I mean, I have the lime green legwarmers. I don't have them on now, but they all had legwarmers and that little Mexican kid is all happy. He's too happy. But my movies were Breakin', Wild Style, Kush Groove, Beat Streets. Beat Streets is hardcore.
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Is it different coming up with a movie character, as opposed to a JKX character?
Yeah, the whole thing with that is doing it in little increments. It's harder. This one's not so much a character as a concept. I believe in two types of movies. Well, every movie should have a great story but you can get away with three types of movies...Well, four types: Events, like let's say Spider-Man. Concepts, let's say like Blades of Glory. Characters, like Austin Powers. Or just like amazing stories...that draw you in. This, to me, was a great concept of I could see this being funny. Something for you in the '80s and something for a little kid to watch now. It wasn't like B-Rad, where B-Rad was the whole character and we had to make a movie around him.
What are the hardships of wearing a breakdancing outfit?
Well, the thing is I got my parachute pants and I have that outfit upstairs. I was wearing it, but I have to wear this underwear underneath it to keep everything in check. And also, the gloves, I don't know if you can see, they stained my hands.
How many takes were there of all the breakdancing sequences?
We kind of overshot the dancing. Like if I were to do it again, I would just use [Casper] and I would say, "Give me 10 good moves." But we shot so much that it took a long time to edit. But we would shoot wide, we'd shoot close, we shot underneath glass. We had a lot of routines though. It wasn't that hard but he just shot it from a lot of angles so you could cut in and out. But the best, intriguing stuff I think is when you see people following through the move all the way through. Like John Travolta, he said when he did Saturday Night Fever they cut in too close and his dancing was not seen, so he was really depressed. So all the dancing with him, they didn't use any of it, just the wide shots you could see his dancing and that's what got people exciting.
What bonus features will we see on the DVD?
Oh dude, tons of sh*t...You'll see this fight. There's a great fight...There's our dance training. There's me and Maria's first kiss and how we led up to it. There's the anatomy of the word f*ck, which we could only get to say once, and our fight with the motion picture board. There's outtakes, there's major extra stuff with Erik Estrada, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Emmanuel Lewis, David Hasselhoff. There's a lot.
Did you have an '80s icon?
David Lee Roth. He was the man, even though he was kind of '70s, but I grew up with him. I would come home from school every day and watch Dave TV.
Why do you think people are still obsessed with the '80s?
Because it's the last great decade of recognition? What can you remember from the '90s except Nirvana and Pearl Jam? I mean, long hair and grunge and Saved by the Bell. Seriously, what can you pull from there? You can pull from the '80s. You've got amazing John Hughes movies, okay. You've got all those great bands. And remember how many English bands came over? New wave and punk, from Cyndi Lauper to Lou Albano to MTV to Pop Rocks and Coke to rollerskating. All that stuff. The fashion. And then you had crack. It was exciting with crack. It added to it.
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