Ricky Stanicky is a new comedy film from Peter Farrelly (Dumb and Dumber). The film's ensemble features the likes of Zac Efron, John Cena, and William H. Macy.
It follows a group of guys who, as children, created the character of Ricky Stanicky. Ricky helped get them out of sticky situations. But years later, someone wants to meet Ricky. So the group of enlist the help of a washed-up actor (played by Cena) to help bring the character to life.
ClutchPoints spoke to Farrelly and Macy ahead of the film's premiere at the junket. The two discussed Macy's onboarding to the film, Cena's wheel of impressions, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
William H. Macy, Peter Farrelly-Ricky Stanicky interview
ClutchPoints: I'm going to start with you, Peter. In the film, John Cena does a good impression of Owen Wilson and not so good one of Bono. Were there any other impressions that he can do that didn't make it into the film?
Peter Farrelly: He did an impression of Christopher Walken. Oh, no, I'm sorry, not Christopher Walken. He did, what's his name from Jurassic Park? [turns to Macy]
William H. Macy: Singing?
PF: No, no, no, no, no. This was him doing an impersonation of the actor, come on, we'll give you extra time here.
One of the publicists in the room: Jeff Goldblum!
PF: Oh, oh. He did an impersonation of Jeff Goldblum that was pretty good, but it just went on too long.
CP: Speaking of John Cena, William, your character in the film, he's very anxious to hire him. Hypothetically, if you were in charge of a production and you were to hire John for a role, what are some of the traits of him as an actor or worker that would make you want to hire him?
WHM: He's brave, he's intrepid, he's game for anything, he's a team player, he's a nice guy — you'd love to go out to dinner with him.
PF: [He's] prepared.
WHM: Prepared.
The only thing [is,] he could offer to put money into the film. That's the only thing I can think of.
PF: Peter, you're given such a great cast to work with, especially William here, so can you talk to me about coming into this film? I don't know if you played a hand in casting.
PF: It's funny. I kind of take a Zen view of casting because there's somebody I always want, but you don't always get 'em. You hardly ever get 'em, in fact. And then you go down the list and ultimately I've always been happy with who I ended up with.
And this movie, [we've] tried to get this made for 10 or 15 years. There were many people that we had talked about over the years. But ultimately, I look at it and I can't imagine it being better. The lesson is, I tell people, I say, “If you get everything you want, it's going to be as good as you could have imagined it. But sometimes, when you don't get everything you want and you let the universe do a little work for you, it can be better.”
That's how I feel about this movie. It's this crazy good cast, but certainly not one I would have thought of 10 years ago.
CP: Sounds like the movie's been in conception for a long time, so when did you, William, come along?
WHM: [turns to Farrelly] You guys were already shooting when I came on.
PF: Well, no, we weren't shooting when we offered [you the role].
WHM: You were down there.
PF: Was I? No, I don't think so. I think [the] first time I talked to you I was at home.
WHM: That's right, that's right, you were at home.
Well, I read the script and I loved it immediately. I, believe it or not, well, you will believe it, I was moved at the end. I thought it was brave, it's a very high concept, and to keep that ball in the air the way they did, it was stunning.
And then I got to my character and I just loved everything about it.
PF: I remember when he did say “yes,” that he was going to do it — because we offered it to him, but I figured, He's not doing this movie, but let's offer it to him, he'd be perfect — I called everybody involved, and I said, “William H. Macy's in.”
The feeling of like, Whoa, this is a good movie, [chuckles] it's not just a bunch of comics. It classes it up, and it's a good feeling, and it gives everybody confidence.
WHM: You know, I could do that on your other films, too.
PF: I didn't think you'd say “yes”!
WHM: Well try again.
PF: We'll offer more.
CP: I was just watching the Super Bowl, I saw an ad for the new Planet of the Apes movie, which, William you're in. Are you one of the apes in the movie? And also you can tell me, what was your reaction to the script for that film? Because it seems like you loved Ricky Stanicky's, so I'd love to hear the reaction to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
WHM: We also shot that in Australia. It was just a happy incident. And no, I play a human.
It [the script] was the sublime to the ridiculous. They were weeks apart — a survivalist film and then an air d**ker in one month. What more could a boy want?
Ricky Stanicky is streaming on Prime Video.
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