Tim Allen says he always wanted to be The Flash. From the time he was a kid reading comic books, he wanted to play the superhero who could speed around in an instant. But, now that Flash is being made into a movie by David S. Goyer and Allen is pushing 53, the chances of him playing the superhero are sputtering to a halt.So Allen helped invent this story of an aging superhero called Zoom, who has lost his powers to move quickly and gets called out of retirement to train a new group of young superheroes with unusual talents. Spencer Breslin plays a guy who can make his body parts enormous at a moment's notice, Michael Cassidy plays a teen who can make himself invisible, Kate Mara is telekinetic, and Ryan Newman has the strength of 10 men. They're more about going on a joyride in a flying saucer than learning how to train as a team, however.
The support team in this quasi-governmental training camp is portrayed by funny folk Rip Torn, Chevy Chase and Courteney Cox, who ends up being a big comic-book collector and fan of Zoom's. Cox's character starts off as a bungling, tripping and clumsy science geek but transforms, swanlike, into a sexy lady. The film is directed by Peter Hewitt, who helmed
Garfield and
The Borrowers, and the movie opens nationwide on Aug. 11.
Science Fiction Weekly talked to Allen and Cox at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Tim Allen, we heard you always wanted to be Flash. Is that true?Allen: Yeah, I wanted to be Flash, which is why this character came up. I read comic books when I was a kid all the time, and all of them had problems.
Didn't you like the other superheroes?Allen: Superman was a little bit creepy because of the Kryptonite thing, because he could be brought down by a freaking green rock. Horrible. Lex Luthor always seemed to have an endless supply of them, because he would always bring it out. But The Flash ... he was never really ever examined ... how fast he could go.
So Zoom is a bit like Flash? Allen: With Zoom, there's really no end to how fast he can go. The balance of this skewed a little bit younger, because real sci-fi had to have a lot of pipe laid and the studio said that it would just get too long. But the idea is that Zoom, if he starts running, he really doesn't know how to stop, which is how the original problem arose. He sent a guy into another dimension. He could barely stop himself, and it scared him, and so when you do something terrible you put a limit on yourself and you don't want to go back there again, and that's why I always liked The Flash. No one ever discussed how fast The Flash could run.
So Zoom can run pretty fast, too?Allen: He can run faster than the speed of light. He actually has no limit to how fast he can move, and he could go back inter-dimensionally. He doesn't really even know his power, which is why the new suit came on, the one that Chevy designs in the film. The chafing wouldn't explode. If you ran that fast your ass would explode. So I wanted to avoid that scene, which I would love to do personally. I think that's the power I would have.
It seems like the bravery for you would be to get into that suit.Allen: Oh, boy, the movie would've been getting into that suit. I actually told the producers and the writer, who's actually my partner—he and I wrote one draft of this—but that the superhero movie should be watching guys get into superhero suits, because it [would be] two guys literally moving my privates around and me screaming.
Is there a lot of stuff that was cut?Allen: There's a lot of stuff that didn't end up in this cut because it was more like knights than superheroes to me. That's what I thought. This is set up to be a parody of that, because we're putting these suits on and you'd have a trailer like Batman has. "Oh, look at Batman's trailer. He's got a huge semi and six people." And then he'd actually get dressed in that stuff and then go fight and get out of it. "Batman has to hydrate. Bring him back in." Then someone saying, "God, it's so hot in here. I didn't realize that The Flash was so strong." I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.
You seem like a big comic-book fan.Allen: I'm still like an 11-year-old here. I'm a geek. This guy Zoom, when he says that he'll be back in a second, he would literally be standing there going, "Got it." The studio went, "How do you show that?" I said, "Well, that's not my problem. My problem is that I think it would be funny if there [were] no noise. I'm just back because I can run that fast." I literally had a studio looking at me like you're looking at me right now. "Oh, that's interesting."
Do you think you or Courteney ever felt a bit out of the norm, like the superheroes in this film?Allen: Look at her face. Has she never not been accepted? [Allen laughs as he points to a blushing Cox.] She is in the popular group. The thing I like about that is that kids, especially at a certain age, feel powerless because you don't have any control over your emotions and testosterone, and fortunately comic books are an outlet for kids to feel powerful. This is a weird thing to say, but those horrible situations with the Columbine kids, the two kids that never had any adults that [knew] what they were thinking, is not unusual, all that megalomania stuff and fascination with Nazis—for some reason in a certain area of a boy's life, they feel powerless.
Do you think comic books could have helped them?Allen: You look at the boots and all that military stuff and you get fascinated by it all, and that's why superheroes were an outlet for me. If those kids had just had some mentors, I still believe if they had some older guys to say, "That's creepy that you're thinking. It'd be creepier to act on it, but it's not abnormal. You're not different. You just feel powerless about girls." I remember reading that kid's diary, and he said that he could never meet girls. It's so sad that something like that will fester, but when I was a kid we just dreamt—the powerlessness that you feel as a kid at about 11 or 12, superheroes exhibit that strength, especially
Spider-Man. He's a fallible guy, always twisted. When I was a kid I was like, "I'd steal some money, maybe a couple of cars." But still wanted to be good. I wanted to kind of do both. I wanted to rob from the rich, keep a little bit in your garage, and give the rest to the poor. I'm sorry I said that. That'll come up like, "He wants to rob from the rich."
Were you aware at all of some of the parallels in this movie to that of Galaxy Quest, which is still a big favorite in the SF community?Allen: Yeah. This was all about that, but it was a real tough sell because
Galaxy Quest was real delicate—the parody and the reality of it. I'm saying that out of respect for Sony, because it was tough to tell them that this is what it was all about, because there was that underlying thing. I'm still being conservative, but 85 percent of the
Galaxy Quest-ish look at superheroes is still in this. They still want to skew it so that kids don't understand, but they've left a lot of the adult references in it, especially—I remember one in there. I'm surprised they left it in there.
What was that?Allen: I told Rip Torn that for a straight guy he was awfully dramatic. I got to be this smartass, which I really wanted to be, that didn't take any of this very seriously, but in this case the guy did have a super power, and the only thing that we kind of gloss over, and I literally [always wanted that] in my life, because I love comic books.
This movie, like Galaxy Quest, brings to light some of the flaws of superheroes, and it takes a jaded look at them. How do you think superheroes would fare in the world today?Allen: What would superheroes do with what's happening in Lebanon right now? If you had flames that could come out of your eyes, would you just stand there and go, "Look out!" Have you ever seen a bus fall off of a bridge? Anyone? Anyone ever see trains derail? The reality is that superheroes would sit in superhero firehouses and wait for s--t to happen that just doesn't, and eventually one gets bored and goes AWOL and then you have to go get him back. That's what superheroes do.
I had this long speech in the movie explaining that essentially you just go get rogue guys. That's what superheroes do. You don't actually do anything. You're never around burning buildings. Superman can get there quick; he's the only guy that can do that. But how busy would he really be? He would be so busy blowing out fires and stopping domestic disputes. "Come on. Please. Don't make me break your back with my little finger." But the reality is that superheroes couldn't do what civilians get ourselves into, and that's where I wanted this parody to go, that there's just not much for us to do. That's why this guy was angry and had that speed shop. He just went AWOL himself and just didn't really want to be a part of that.
I thought that there was still an element, like the flying saucer—it's not 100 percent of what I wrote there, I wanted it like a '50s spaceship, but they got the gag. We never really figured out how fast we could make it go, so it only goes this fast. So there are all these little references to "if this was a real world, what would superheroes be?" They wouldn't be
The X-Men. I mean, I literally wanted to get into, "What are you wearing? What is that s--t that you wear? Who designed that?"
That hasn't been explored too much—Allen: The best example, unfortunately, about the same time this concept was, was
The Incredibles. There was that whole series about how they had to make the suits. There was that wonderful little woman who did that, who actually had a man's voice. They talked about why they had to have the S's and all of that stuff. It's kind of stupid, really.
The X-Men did it, and they have all that weird leather thing going on. Remember, there was a kid in that and looked at Magneto's hair and goes, "Creepy head." So the kid said what you're saying. It was a real struggle for us because as we went through it we had to keep changing it, because
X-Men was—they didn't get the parody aspect of it. They were saying that we couldn't have this or that because they own every single superhero attribute. You can't have a guy wearing glasses in a movie with one eye or something. It's weird. So we would have to change the script all the time. So it was a real struggle to keep it a satire and a parody and have a through line that kids and adults would enjoy.
Is there any movement on Galaxy Quest: The Sequel?Allen: Well, you'd have to ask Dreamworks. There is one there. To this day I don't understand what that's about. But that's all studio stuff. I really have to stay out of that stuff.
What was it like on the set with people like Courteney, Chevy and the rest of them?Allen: We were all in the same town, too, and so we had this little area that we walked to. Walking. Anyone remember walking L.A? Everyone actually lived in the same little neighborhood, and so you could walk to dinner. The whole experience was fun, but Rip [Torn] is so intense, and Chevy is like an icon. I kept saying that it was hard to be around these guys even though in this particular case I was number one on the call sheet. Rip was like, "When are you going to stop talking?!" He didn't get improv. I would keep talking sometimes, I would float a little bit and he'd go, "I gotta know when you're going to stop so I know when to start." I go, "Calm down." I'd have to give him an out point. "I'm the hammer and you're the nail." He would say all these things, and I would walk away going, "What did that just mean? The hammer and the nail thing?" "I don't know. Just don't get him irritated because he'll start yelling again." He's just so intense, and then he would just all of a sudden he would drill these lines, and it would be like he wasn't acting. He's great. But he wasn't used to being around a guy who floats a bit on the lines.
I really liked doing films. I love being on films because it's a new group to annoy every new job. I've been very fortunate. I've done like six in a row and I like it. I just finished with [John] Travolta, Martin Lawrence, Bill Macy and myself doing a biker movie called
Wild Hogs. It's been the most fun. I literally went from
Zoom, which was a laugh riot and a very different situation to now this. I love doing this.
Is there anything on TV you can relate to these days?Allen: Television scares me because right now I don't know what it is. I watch for mimics, which is the low end of the spectrum and not the high end. Now it's all reality shows. Last night I flipped through and I saw something about just four good-looking, angry, sexually active kids someplace on the East Coast in a beach house. I just turned it on and it's like, "What is this?" and then it's like, "Buzz and Ray don't like Donna." I'm like, "What on earth are we watching?" I was mesmerized, because there's a camera there. They can't be normal. A girl says, "I want to get it on with whatever his name is." I said, "What is this?"
I said that other than Ray's [Romano] show, no one ever mimicked
Home Improvement. We were number one for eight years, and instead of doing, like, a family show, they've gone the other direction to mimic just more reality-based shows. So I don't know where I would ever fit into that. I think the thing Courteney is doing sounds interesting. Of course Disney is interested, and ABC has asked me several times, but I just can't think of anything interesting. I love television. I love the immediacy of it, but they don't use four-camera television anymore. It's all film. I preferred video. It's quicker and could move instead of changing mags on film. I like video, and they're not doing much video now. I don't think that there is one this year. They're doing all single cameras. So technically the business is changing.
You seem like you're on top of what's on.Allen: I watch a lot because I'm an Internet geek—I don't know what the younger generation is going to be doing. So I like to be at the forefront of things. I see kids watching movies on iPods. It's amazing to me that all the stuff that these cinematographers do is lost there, and now you might be picking up TV on iPods. I don't know what kids are doing right now.
Are you still into tools?Allen: I love tools. Right now I'm to the point, I'm so adept at it that I love buying people toolkits. I have like 40 of my own toolkits. I love it. Now when I go to people's houses, instead of a flower arrangement or a bottle of wine, which looks a little annoying, I change the dimmer out in people's houses. I was annoyed because it just didn't work, so I had to fix it.
Courteney Cox, now that you have a toddler daughter, named Coco, with your husband, do you watch the roles you can let her see?Cox: It just occasionally pops up. I just thought that this would be nice. I'm not just saying this because he's here, but I'm such a huge fan of his [Tim Allen].
Galaxy Quest is one of my all-time favorite films. So I thought that it would just be fun to play opposite Tim in something that Coco would be able to see one day.
So she can't see Zoom anytime soon?Cox: It will be a little while before she's able to see this movie [
Zoom], just because there's a lot going on. It's a little scary, and she wouldn't understand it just yet, but it'll be nice one day to see a movie with Mom in it.
What did Coco think of hearing her Mom as the voice for a cow named Daisy in Barnyard: The Original Party Animals?Cox: I did take her to
Barnyard, the premiere, and the coyotes in
Barnyard were a little intense, and she woke up at 4 o'clock in the morning going, "Movie! Movie!" I was like, "It's all right. Think about swimming and circle time. Let's go back to bed." So, that might've been a mistake.
Did your husband, David Arquette, ever find the tape he was supposed to show at Comic-Con International for his horror film The Tripper?Cox: He left it in the cab, and he got it the next day. The cab driver dropped it off at the hotel. Can you imagine David, who is as quirky as he is, and gets nervous and sweats? He goes to Comic-Con and wants to show the trailer of his movie that he wrote and directed—it's fantastic—called
The Tripper. And he goes there and he couldn't find it. So he's on the panel and it was so brutal.
What was it like being directed by him? What is your role?Cox: It was fun. I just do a little cameo of a girl who wants to save dogs. She runs out and says, "Stop your fire. Please don't shoot. These are dogs and they're God's creatures." And a dog kills me.
Have you dropped Arquette from your name now?Cox: Well, if you've ever tried to sign a name that was that many letters, you have no choice really. I haven't dropped it officially, but my dad passed away about four years ago, five years ago now, and so when he passed away I kind of thought that I actually wanted to keep my name Courteney Cox. Yes, though, I'm still Courteney Cox Arquette on my Social Security card and my driver's license, but it's also really long. So I'm just keeping it simple and I'm also keeping my dad's name around.
You had some pratfalls in your character. Did you ask Chevy Chase how to do them?Cox: I didn't ask for lessons from him. Tim helped me a bit with that. But it was fine. I was glad that that was part of my character, as opposed to just being the girl in the movie. It was fun to play kind of [a] klutz of a scientist who was obsessed with comic books.
Didn't you kind of push for that yourself, too, that you wanted to have more of the physical aspect of the character?Cox: Yeah. It was one of those things where I read the script and I knew that I wanted to work with Tim, and I thought that it was a really, really sweet, fun and adventurous film, but I thought that the girl's character was just a little too much like the girl's character who at first she's not attracted to the guy and whatever—I remember Tim saying, "I wouldn't be attracted to you." [Laughs.] Not in real life, but he was wondering how he would be attracted to me. I was like, "It's a movie. Deal with it." But he wanted me to be really strong and beautiful and then I hang out at the end. I was like, "No. I should be a nerd, just obsessed with you. Yes. I'm a little goofy, but maybe I'll be funny and you'll find me endearing." I think that it worked out. But I just didn't want to play the typical girl.
Was there a lot of improvising with all of you?Cox: This movie was definitely quite a place to hang out, because we have Rip Torn and Chevy Chase and Tim Allen and myself, and then we have some younger kids. Just the personalities were pretty fascinating. Rip is someone very talented, and he's kind of out there. Then Chevy, who is always doing, not pratfalls, but everything he does is a joke, and the generation gaps, and then there was Tim, who's making the kids crazy. Tim likes to stir stuff up. So it was really fun making the movie, and very interesting. By the way, Tim cuts up all day. I mean, the only time that he gets a little not nice is around 4 o'clock, when his blood sugar has dropped and he needs some food. Other than that it's nonstop jokes from the time that you get up until the time that they call wrap—except for 4. 4 o'clock. It's like, "Tim, what happened to your personality? Get him some protein, people."
Were you happy for your time off from TV?Cox: It's been great. I'm actually about to go back to television and do [a] dramatic series for FX called
Dirt, which is great. I love it. It's great. I'm a little bit worried because David is going to be working the same time that I am, and we've never done that, so who gets Coco out of bed if I'm leaving at 5 and he leaves at 5:30? Hopefully she'll know how to do it herself. No. I'm kidding. We'll have to have someone sleep over.
Tells us the dirt on Dirt.Cox: I played an editor of a tabloid. It's really kind of a dark, salacious, sexy soap opera. Ian Hart plays my paparazzi. It's great. It's a really fantastic series. We were just producing it, and then I read the script when it finally came in and I just said, "I have to do this." There is no payback there, but we will definitely be having fun.
Did you get to talk to people who work as writers for those tabloids?Cox: I've talked to the editor of
US Weeky, and I just had dinner with Rebecca Wade from
The Sun, and yeah, I've done some research.
What about the photographers stalking your house?Cox: Oh, no, I do. Two things happened; I went to Disneyland and there was a photographer taking pictures. I was riding a roller coaster and the wind is slapping my mouth back, and I was like, "Oh, David." David jumps over the thing and grabs him and says, "You've got to get out." And calls the security because Coco was there. We were there for her birthday. So we had him kicked out, and then I felt bad. He was at Disneyland and maybe he wanted to ride some rides. So I said, "You can stay in the park and have one picture, but I have to have your card, and we want to interview you." So he came into the writer's room and gave us a lot of information. And then this guy who sits out in front of my house, I saw him behind the curtain and I said, "I see you're there, and you can have a picture, but give me your card." So I'm now making friends with some of them as long as they—I mean, that's the end of my friendship with them.
Does it give you any more empathy toward them?Cox: Well, to them it's a job, but to me it makes me want to sell my house in Malibu. A job is one thing, but do it at a restaurant. Take a picture anywhere, but don't take it in the backyard of our home. I have a house on the ocean. I don't let Tim in. [Laughs.]
What would your favorite super power be?Cox: I would like to fly.
What superhero would you like to be when you were growing up?Cox: Was
Bewitched a superhero? I pick her, because she was my favorite. I loved witches, and she was pretty and she could go from place to place with just a little twinkle of her nose.
Did you feel like you fit in as a kid?Cox: When I was a kid, I didn't feel like I fit in. This is really silly, and I probably shouldn't say it, but I didn't think that anything was funny. So I used to go home and literally cry to my mom and stepdad at the time because, well, whatever. I just didn't think that anything was funny. I couldn't laugh. All of my friends thought that everything was really funny, and I didn't. So that was really a big thing for me, to be able to learn to laugh. And then of course I got to work with Tim Allen. I got to work with some funny people, and that really helped me because I am just a snob when it comes to humor. But I got it back. After working with Allen, Jim Carrey and the cast of
Friends, my funnybone problem was cured.
So which Darren Stevens did you like best? The first, Dick York, or the second, Dick Sargent?Cox: Oh, I like the first one.
