Post by ~ ♥ Mariska ♥ ~ on Sept 29, 2008 15:01:54 GMT
British comedians invade Wilmington for 'Little Britain USA'
Ask British comedian David Walliams about the perks of filming the new HBO series "Little Britain USA" in Wilmington, and he'll mention the hospitable local crews, the region's ability to stand in for many different locales, and the general friendliness and respect of local residents.
Pose the same question to his co-star, Matt Lucas, and the answer is a bit more precise. "Kohl's frozen custard. It was an enormous factor in filming," Lucas said. The two actors talked with the Star-News earlier this summer about their new sketch comedy show, premiering tonight on HBO.
As its name implies, "Little Britain USA" is an American spinoff of "Little Britain," a popular show across the pond that has run for three seasons on the BBC network. Though that series has gained a small cult following in the U.S., thanks mostly to DVDs and YouTube, HBO hopes to bring a wider audience to the bawdy comedy and elaborately detailed characters Walliams and Lucas are known for.
A la their British counterparts, episodes of "Little Britain USA" feature a series of short sketches designed to show humorous slices of everyday American life featuring a recurring cast of quirky characters. "USA" filmed its on-location segments around Wilmington, but its studio work was done in Los Angeles.
Alternately coarse and clever, a typical "Little Britain USA" episode features scenes of cosmetically enhanced nudity (a morbidly obese woman - played by Lucas in pounds of prosthetics - strips off her expensive clothes on a casino boat to cover her bets) followed by vignettes featuring tamer situational comedy (Walliams plays a completely unhelpful hospital receptionist who wants to admit patients for ailments they don't actually have).
Many of the more popular characters from the British version have traveled to "USA," including Vicki Pollard, the fast-talking juvenile delinquent, and Daffyd, the "only homosexual in the vil lage," both played by Lucas. (The stars spend much of each episode dressed as women.)
But Walliams and Lucas, who also produce and write the series, wanted to embrace the show's new setting. So they set out to invent new characters that were as American as guns, gyms, dogs and NASA.
In the show's first few episodes, fans will meet a pair of super-masculine workout buddies who aren't afraid to get naked in the locker room. Think "SNL's" Hans and Frans after the metrosexual revolution. Other characters include an astronaut whose only claim to fame is that he was the eighth man to walk on the moon and a woman so in love with her pet pooch that she hears him telling her to do horrible, horrible things.
"I think the exciting thing for us was creating lots of new American characters, and those gym buddies ... were really fun," Walliams said. "It's something (of a sketch) I don't think we would do in England because that seems like a very American thing."
Another new character is a Southern sheriff who gets an erection every time he handles a firearm. It's a character based loosely on a real person, though the stars won't say who.
"We did go to a shooting range in North Carolina," Walliams said. "There was a guy who did like his guns rather a lot, which to a British person is quite alien because in Britain, people just don't own guns."
Skewering American culture in a way that will make an American audience laugh can be tricky, Lucas said. "You've got to distinguish between the observations that Americans see for themselves. You've got to be careful not to make jokes about Americans that Americans won't really understand."
That's why both actors acknowledged the importance of working with an American crew, especially during the on-location shoots in North Carolina. With no studio audience offering instant feedback, the actors looked to the crew to see if their humor translated.
"When they laughed, it was an incredible boost to us," Walliams said, "that hopefully our themes are universal."
The series filmed for about a month around Wilmington this spring. Locations included Tregembo Animal Park, B'nai Israel Synagogue, Graystone Inn and the Blockade Runner hotel on Wrightsville Beach.
"We stayed right on Wrightsville Beach," said Walliams, an avid swimmer who enjoyed swimming along the coast. "People are very friendly there. It really feels very hospitable."
Though the production schedule was hectic - filming two to three sketches a day - Walliams and Lucas found time to play tourist and enjoy a few favorite establishments.
The actors sang the praises of Port Land Grille, the Cotton Exchange and Kilwin's chocolate shop in downtown Wilmington. (Lucas loves their caramels.)
Walliams said he also appreciated the history of the productions that came before his.
"I'm a massive 'Blue Velvet' fan, so I was really excited to be where that filmed," he said of the cult-fave flick that filmed here in the mid-'80s.
In addition to local crews, "Little Britain USA" employed many area actors, including a familiar face from the locally filmed TV series "One Tree Hill."
Actress Hilarie Burton (who plays Peyton on "One Tree Hill") guest stars in the fourth episode as a lesbian college student living in the same dorm as Daffyd, who now claims to be "the only homosexual on campus."
The show's broad comedy was a nice change of pace from her soapy role on "Hill," Burton said last month.
"That's much more comfortable for me, to just kind of be dorky and goofy," she said. "I definitely played the straight man, which is also fun. It was a feat to maintain a straight face with those guys. They were very cool."
Other famous guest stars will appear on the series, including Rosie O'Donnell, Vivica Fox and Paul Rudd, though they shot their scenes in L.A., not Wilmington.
"Friends" alum David Schwimmer directed the Los Angeles sketches, but in Wilmington, where the stars say about 75 percent of the show was filmed, directing duties fell to showrunner Michael Patrick Jann, whose resume includes "Reno 911" and "Drop Dead Gorgeous."
Only six episodes of "Little Britain USA" were ordered for HBO's first season, which also will air later in Britain, but Walliams and Lucas said they hope to return to Wilmington if a second season is ordered.
Walliams said he is "incredibly grateful" for the welcome reception the upstart series received while it filmed here. "It's not like Steven Spielberg comes here and everyone's being helpful. It's two British guys you've never heard of - mainly dressed as women - and everyone was still very nice to us."
Source
Ask British comedian David Walliams about the perks of filming the new HBO series "Little Britain USA" in Wilmington, and he'll mention the hospitable local crews, the region's ability to stand in for many different locales, and the general friendliness and respect of local residents.
Pose the same question to his co-star, Matt Lucas, and the answer is a bit more precise. "Kohl's frozen custard. It was an enormous factor in filming," Lucas said. The two actors talked with the Star-News earlier this summer about their new sketch comedy show, premiering tonight on HBO.
As its name implies, "Little Britain USA" is an American spinoff of "Little Britain," a popular show across the pond that has run for three seasons on the BBC network. Though that series has gained a small cult following in the U.S., thanks mostly to DVDs and YouTube, HBO hopes to bring a wider audience to the bawdy comedy and elaborately detailed characters Walliams and Lucas are known for.
A la their British counterparts, episodes of "Little Britain USA" feature a series of short sketches designed to show humorous slices of everyday American life featuring a recurring cast of quirky characters. "USA" filmed its on-location segments around Wilmington, but its studio work was done in Los Angeles.
Alternately coarse and clever, a typical "Little Britain USA" episode features scenes of cosmetically enhanced nudity (a morbidly obese woman - played by Lucas in pounds of prosthetics - strips off her expensive clothes on a casino boat to cover her bets) followed by vignettes featuring tamer situational comedy (Walliams plays a completely unhelpful hospital receptionist who wants to admit patients for ailments they don't actually have).
Many of the more popular characters from the British version have traveled to "USA," including Vicki Pollard, the fast-talking juvenile delinquent, and Daffyd, the "only homosexual in the vil lage," both played by Lucas. (The stars spend much of each episode dressed as women.)
But Walliams and Lucas, who also produce and write the series, wanted to embrace the show's new setting. So they set out to invent new characters that were as American as guns, gyms, dogs and NASA.
In the show's first few episodes, fans will meet a pair of super-masculine workout buddies who aren't afraid to get naked in the locker room. Think "SNL's" Hans and Frans after the metrosexual revolution. Other characters include an astronaut whose only claim to fame is that he was the eighth man to walk on the moon and a woman so in love with her pet pooch that she hears him telling her to do horrible, horrible things.
"I think the exciting thing for us was creating lots of new American characters, and those gym buddies ... were really fun," Walliams said. "It's something (of a sketch) I don't think we would do in England because that seems like a very American thing."
Another new character is a Southern sheriff who gets an erection every time he handles a firearm. It's a character based loosely on a real person, though the stars won't say who.
"We did go to a shooting range in North Carolina," Walliams said. "There was a guy who did like his guns rather a lot, which to a British person is quite alien because in Britain, people just don't own guns."
Skewering American culture in a way that will make an American audience laugh can be tricky, Lucas said. "You've got to distinguish between the observations that Americans see for themselves. You've got to be careful not to make jokes about Americans that Americans won't really understand."
That's why both actors acknowledged the importance of working with an American crew, especially during the on-location shoots in North Carolina. With no studio audience offering instant feedback, the actors looked to the crew to see if their humor translated.
"When they laughed, it was an incredible boost to us," Walliams said, "that hopefully our themes are universal."
The series filmed for about a month around Wilmington this spring. Locations included Tregembo Animal Park, B'nai Israel Synagogue, Graystone Inn and the Blockade Runner hotel on Wrightsville Beach.
"We stayed right on Wrightsville Beach," said Walliams, an avid swimmer who enjoyed swimming along the coast. "People are very friendly there. It really feels very hospitable."
Though the production schedule was hectic - filming two to three sketches a day - Walliams and Lucas found time to play tourist and enjoy a few favorite establishments.
The actors sang the praises of Port Land Grille, the Cotton Exchange and Kilwin's chocolate shop in downtown Wilmington. (Lucas loves their caramels.)
Walliams said he also appreciated the history of the productions that came before his.
"I'm a massive 'Blue Velvet' fan, so I was really excited to be where that filmed," he said of the cult-fave flick that filmed here in the mid-'80s.
In addition to local crews, "Little Britain USA" employed many area actors, including a familiar face from the locally filmed TV series "One Tree Hill."
Actress Hilarie Burton (who plays Peyton on "One Tree Hill") guest stars in the fourth episode as a lesbian college student living in the same dorm as Daffyd, who now claims to be "the only homosexual on campus."
The show's broad comedy was a nice change of pace from her soapy role on "Hill," Burton said last month.
"That's much more comfortable for me, to just kind of be dorky and goofy," she said. "I definitely played the straight man, which is also fun. It was a feat to maintain a straight face with those guys. They were very cool."
Other famous guest stars will appear on the series, including Rosie O'Donnell, Vivica Fox and Paul Rudd, though they shot their scenes in L.A., not Wilmington.
"Friends" alum David Schwimmer directed the Los Angeles sketches, but in Wilmington, where the stars say about 75 percent of the show was filmed, directing duties fell to showrunner Michael Patrick Jann, whose resume includes "Reno 911" and "Drop Dead Gorgeous."
Only six episodes of "Little Britain USA" were ordered for HBO's first season, which also will air later in Britain, but Walliams and Lucas said they hope to return to Wilmington if a second season is ordered.
Walliams said he is "incredibly grateful" for the welcome reception the upstart series received while it filmed here. "It's not like Steven Spielberg comes here and everyone's being helpful. It's two British guys you've never heard of - mainly dressed as women - and everyone was still very nice to us."
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