The directors of Crazy, Stupid, Love have made a candid admission about 15 years after the film’s release.
Celebrating the movie’s milestone anniversary, directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra reflected on their time making the 2011 film.
“We were shooting that backyard scene at the end of the movie, and it took us five days to shoot it. So we spent a lot of time just sitting around waiting for the camera to get set up. And we’re talking to Kevin Bacon. I was like, ‘Kevin, we’re worried we’re having too much fun.’ Because you always hear that if you have fun, the movie doesn’t come out [well]. And if you have a bad time, the movie comes out great,” Requa told People on the occasion.
Requa recalled how Bacon quickly dismissed the idea and told them not to believe the old saying that movies made with too much fun turn out badly. His words helped the directors feel more confident.
“It made us feel better because we were just having so much fun. Everybody got along and it was just a lot of improv and goofing around,” Requa recounted.
The relaxed atmosphere also gave the actors the chance to improvise many scenes.
“We would shoot the script and then we would just have fun with the scenes with the actors. So we had a lot of improv that just didn’t make it in,” Ficarra added. “But I think we kept a lot of the cream of it.”
Released in 2011, Crazy, Stupid, Love starred Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon.
The film earned more than $145 million at the worldwide box office and became one of the most popular romantic comedies of its time.
