Taglines: Life’s a bitch… And then you go on a road trip.
Tammy, who was recently fired from a Toppy Jacks fast food restaurant, returns home only to find her husband enjoying a romantic meal with the neighbor. She quickly packs her necessities, and travels down three houses to her parent’s home. Upon denied use of her mom’s car to drive to Niagara Falls, she quickly resorts to an “ailing” grandmother, who also lives in the home… Only instead of traveling alone, Grandma Pearl wants in on the road trip.
After realizing Grandma Pearl has the funds, they hit the road. Pearl soon proves to be quite the alcoholic despite her diabetes, and Tammy quickly turns into the “baby-sitter.” From finding love in a bar to robbing a Toppy Jack’s in order to bail Pearl out of jail,the quirky adventure will have you finding yourself riding along for the misadventures of Tammy.
About the Production
Tammy: I lost my job, my car’s on fire and Greg is screwing our neighbor. I’m getting out of this stupid town for good.
Road trips are a tradition of comedy films, but in the hands of married duo Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy, their new movie, “Tammy,” is anything but a traditional road trip.
Falcone and McCarthy have been writing comedy material together since their early days as Groundlings, where they met. “Tammy” marks the couple’s first collaboration on the big screen as writers. It is also Falcone’s feature directorial debut, and McCarthy’s first foray into producing.
“I guess you could say it was literally a dream come true,” says Falcone, who reveals that the idea sprang from a dream he described to McCarthy about going on a crazy road trip with her grandmother. “I always love writing with Melissa, but to get to direct her was incredible because she’s so talented and, of course, funny.”
McCarthy shares, “Ben and I had always talked about writing a movie about real people who mess up and have to decide if they are going to keep making mistakes or change things. Since Ben has been directing theatre and comedy videos for years, we felt it was a natural progression for him to direct “Tammy.”
Falcone and McCarthy mined their own Midwest backgrounds to create a string of colorful characters and situations that revolve around a working-class woman who gets trapped on an interminable road trip with her rather atypical grandmother.
Producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay were already fans of Falcone and McCarthy and were eager to work with the pair.
McKay states, “Melissa is one of the funniest people on the planet and Ben is a super-talented, hilarious guy. As a producer, this meant two things: we would have a very funny and unique movie, and I would not have to work as hard because they are so good.”
Ferrell adds, “Melissa has made me laugh hard for a long time, so when I heard it was her and Susan Sarandon in a car having wild adventures, I wanted in.”
Sarandon, who stars opposite McCarthy as Tammy’s irrepressible grandma, Pearl, was drawn to the raucous road trip that Tammy and her grandmother take, which, surprisingly, becomes an emotional journey. “The script had such energy and was flamboyant in its freedom,” she conveys. “I liked that all the absurd things they go through give Pearl and Tammy the opportunity to look at where they are in their lives and take it up a notch.”
McCarthy and Sarandon are just two pieces of what turned into an all-star ensemble, including Allison Janney, Gary Cole, Mark Duplass, Sandra Oh, Dan Aykroyd and Kathy Bates. Falcone also brought fellow Groundlings Nat Faxon, Steve Little and Sarah Baker to the mix. With such a deep talent pool, he encouraged improvisation from his entire cast to extract even more humor from Tammy and Pearl’s misadventure.
As the two women take to the highway, everything that can go wrong does, and then some, forcing them to face each other’s flaws as well as their own…and put out a few fires along the way.
McCarthy says, “If you’re having a terrible day and something ridiculous makes you laugh, that’s the best. We wanted to capture that feeling.”
Falcone adds, “Tammy is not only having a terrible day, she’s having one huge, epic bad day and a whole lot of ridiculousness ensues. We had a lot of fun with that.
Behind the Dash
Pearl: Would you like a beer?
Tammy: No.
Pearl: Oh my god, you’re knocked up.
Tammy: No. I’m driving a car. Duh.
Nothing says ridiculous like mouth-to-mouth with a deer. That’s exactly how Tammy’s epic bad day starts out after colliding with the unfortunate creature on a deserted highway on her way to work. The deer isn’t the only impact on her day. Her creepy boss at Topper Jack’s burger joint also blindsides Tammy by firing her.
Falcone notes, “We’re immediately clued into the fact that Tammy usually takes the easy road, does the minimum required to get by. And that ripples throughout the rest of her world.”
McCarthy describes Tammy as “underdeveloped, stunted, and immature. She’s a train wreck. But with a good heart.”
Echoing that sentiment, Falcone says, “Tammy does have a good heart and so does Melissa. I think that quality is what makes Melissa so appealing to audiences. It really shines through her character.”
“My inspiration for Tammy came from an amalgamation of regular people I’ve known or observed just living their lives. Only jacked-up a little,” McCarthy admits. “Tammy hates her life, or lack thereof, but instead of changing it, blames everyone else. She just can’t get out of her own way.”
If Tammy thought her crappy day couldn’t get any worse, she’s sadly mistaken. When she finally drags through the door of her house, she finds her husband, Greg, played by Nat Faxon, having a romantic interlude with her neighbor, played by Toni Collette.
Falcone observes, “This is already the worst day of her life. We wanted to slam Tammy with enough to make her have to physically leave. There’s nowhere left for her to hide from her problems.”
So Tammy tries to get out of town, turning to her mom for comfort-and a loaner car.
Falcone and McCarthy both pictured Allison Janney for the role of Tammy’s mother, Deb. Falcone says, “We love Allison’s work and knew she would be perfect so we wrote the part with her in mind.”
“Allison is brilliant. We weren’t sure she’d do it so we plied her with several margaritas,” McCarthy jokes.
“They could have had me at one,” Janney counters, laughing. “Deb is a complicated, lovely woman, and can’t catch a break with her mother or her daughter. She’s frustrated that she doesn’t understand them and they don’t understand her, so she’s at a point where she’s going to try tough love with Tammy.”
Deb’s husband, Don, would rather get tough with Tammy’s cheating husband. Falcone cast Dan Aykroyd in the role of Tammy’s father. Falcone comments, “As a comedian, I’ve always looked up to Dan, so it was a thrill to work with him.”
Aykroyd says, “I loved working with Ben and Melissa. They’re a great team-genuinely gifted, true professionals.” Aykroyd also relished working with Janney, noting, “Allison is a veteran, a pro who immediately conveyed with simple gestures a feeling of affection and that we’d known each other for the decades Don and Deb have been married.”
“I have to thank Ben and Melissa for giving me Dan,” says Janney. “He’s the best on-screen husband I’ve ever had.”
Deb’s new tough love program begins with denying Tammy transportation. Knowing her granddaughter won’t get far without wheels, Pearl then seizes upon the opportunity to blackmail Tammy with the keys to her Buick sedan. And since Pearl controls the car and cash, she also controls the destination: Niagara Falls.
Starring as Pearl, Susan Sarandon says she loved the grandma-with-a-past role. “Pearl is smart but she’s wild, definitely a product of the sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll generation. She had a baby really young, and then her daughter had a baby really young. But she disappeared from Tammy’s life at a critical time, and Tammy resented it. So now they’re stuck in a car together and will finally have to work all that out.”
Falcone comments, “It was amazing to watch Susan bring these layers to Pearl. Pearl has definitely partied and had her fun, but she is also really smart and grounded.”
“Susan is just cool,” says McCarthy. “She came in with no judgment of Pearl and her wild past. She said, ‘It is what it is,’ and I think that approach is what makes Pearl so interesting, vibrant, and sexy.”
Pearl packs light, bringing only the bare necessities on the road: cash, booze and her crocheting.
“Pearl is always carrying around her booze and her rugs and trying to score,” attests Sarandon, who learned to make rugs like her own grandmother for the role. The rug Sarandon was actually making in the scenes kept getting bigger and bigger.
Sarandon felt that McCarthy provided an equally layered character to work off. “Melissa commits so completely,” she remarks. “She’s great with silly physical humor but she doesn’t patronize her characters. You recognize some of your own frailties in the mistakes that Tammy makes.”
The most recent mistake is going in the wrong direction, which takes them far afield. Tammy is ready to throw in the towel almost immediately and head home but Pearl challenges her to stop whining about missing life and get one.
Not one to back down from a dare, Tammy finds herself at a happening country-western bar. But instead of getting lucky, Tammy is lucky if she’ll be able to pry Pearl away from Earl, a random guy who ends up locked in the Buick with Pearl, fogging up the windows.
Gary Cole, who stars as Earl, says he jumped at the chance to work with both Sarandon and McCarthy. “You put Melissa in a situation where her character’s going to get in trouble, with a lot of obstacles, and you know some gold is going to happen. That, and making out with Susan Sarandon,” he laughs. “It was really a no-brainer to say, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll come to that party.'”
Falcone observes, “Gary brought a lot of fun to the character and punch to his storyline. Earl is a guy who is a good time and trouble all at once.”
Cole calls Earl “an alcohol enthusiast. Some people may say he has a problem; he would say it’s a hobby.”
Pearl is also an avid “enthusiast,” so she and Earl hit it off immediately, which is a problem for his son, Bobby, played by Mark Duplass.
Like Tammy, who has her hands full with Pearl, Bobby has the thankless-and impossible-task of keeping Earl in line. Duplass offers, “Pearl and Earl have this electric connection of debauchery, so Tammy and Bobby are caught in the middle of that dynamic as it explodes, trying to get a handle on their elders. It’s a fun role reversal.”
The dynamic between Bobby and Tammy, however, is something of a hot mess. McCarthy explains, “Their eyes don’t meet across a crowded room; it’s more sloppy. She hits on him and makes an ass of herself. It’s the perfect imperfect springboard Ben and I wanted, so these subtle changes can transpire in Tammy as she and Bobby keep getting thrown together.”
Falcone adds, “Mark is a very expressive actor and infused Bobby with a simple honesty and sweet energy. He and Melissa played off each other so well. He brought nuances that helped build an organic progression and make you really root for the relationship between Tammy and Bobby.”
Things can only go downhill from the bar and Pearl enlists the help of her cousin Lenore to mitigate some of the collateral chaos that follows. The part was written for Kathy Bates.
Bates liked the strong, positive character, noting, “Lenore is very down-to-earth, a self-made woman. She has worked hard to achieve success both personally and professionally. But when she sees that Tammy has no aspirations for her life on either front, Lenore just wants to shake her a little so she’ll wake up.”
“I walked around New York City in my twenties with a copy of the play ‘Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune,’ with a picture of her on the back, so I had to pinch myself in scenes with her,” McCarthy shares. “Kathy’s so amazing, she can send lightning bolts through you.”
“Melissa was inspiring, she’s funny as hell, and she’s emotionally full every single take,” says Bates. “And Ben created an easy environment. It was effortless, like those great friendships that are uncomplicated from the very beginning.”
Falcone states, “Kathy is all in. She didn’t even flinch at some of the crazy physical stuff, like lighting a Molotov cocktail or throwing a flaming tiki torch as a javelin. She is an exceptional talent.”
Sandra Oh joined the ensemble as Lenore’s partner Susanne. The two had previously worked together on “Six Feet Under,” though on opposite sides of the camera, with Bates directing Oh. Now, in front of the camera, their chemistry flourished.
Falcone says, “Kathy and Sandra are so great together. They just make you want to hang out at Lenore and Susanne’s house. A lot.”
“When they approached me to play opposite Kathy, I jumped at it,” says Oh. “I have great respect for her. I was excited about the opportunity to perform in scenes with her this time around because we already had such a strong connection.”
Bates agrees. “It’s always a treat working with Sandra. And from our first scene, it was like she had been my partner for years. I told her later she really gave us our on-screen relationship; her little details brought so much heart.”
“We were fortunate to have an incredible cast,” says Falcone. “Melissa and I love these characters. You could tell the cast did, too, and I think the audience will feel that love.”
Detour
Pearl: Where’s the dance floor and the bar? Not in that order.
Filming took place primarily in and around Wilmington, North Carolina, which doubled for the Midwest look of Murphysboro, Illinois. At Falcone’s request, director of photography Russ Alsobrook implemented cross-shooting throughout the film, with cameras simultaneously on each actor, a method Falcone had observed on previous films in which he had worked. “It helps people keep that reaction in the moment, because later it’s really hard to go back and remember what you said if you were improvising,” the director relates.
Falcone notes that although not everyone in the cast was used to improvisation, they all ultimately embraced the opportunity. “Melissa and I both come from a background of improv, so we know it’s a great tool.”
One memorable improvisation took place between Melissa and “Stuffy,” the deer Tammy hits with her car. Made at Creature Effects, the animatronic deer was controlled by two puppeteers who could make its eyes, ears and mouth move. The props department made a double for Stuffy which could be thrown at the car to simulate Tammy hitting it. In a completely unscripted and unexpected moment, Melissa suddenly started giving Stuffy mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Falcone recalls, “It was so hot and she was down on that asphalt, and she started ‘saving’ Stuffy. I was having a hard time not laughing and ruining the takes.”
Sarandon agrees, “It was fabulous to improv scenes with Melissa. It may seem like it’s off the-cuff but she is very present; a consummate professional who never loses sight of what needs to be accomplished in the scene.”
She continues, “For me, Ben’s directing style also helped make it possible for us to go off script. He created a solid structure, and then within that structure, there was freedom, which enabled a looseness and fluidity to the performance.”
Bates also found the improvisation environment stimulating, admitting, “I told Ben to make me part of his rep company. He gave us room, and because it always comes from such a natural, real place, you really want to try things.”
Another key decision was the use of practical locations to achieve a grounded look. Falcone turned to production designer Jefferson Sage, who had previously worked with McCarthy on “The Heat” and “Bridesmaids,” to transform the locations into Tammy and Pearl’s world.
Sage started with designing Topper Jack’s burger chain, the fictional franchise that recurs throughout the film. Inspired by a now-defunct chain McCarthy remembers growing up, Sage says, “The look and corporate identity of this restaurant chain needed to feel local and dated, like they were overdue for an image re-set, but hadn’t done it yet. We used the signature yellow and red color scheme to identify with a jarring 1970s palette, emphasizing the tiredness of the place, which also reflects the dead-end nature of Tammy’s job.”
The first Topper Jack’s is the scene of an argument between McCarthy and her boss that involves throwing both insults and food. Falcone plays the boss from hell. Of her nightmare on-screen boss, McCarthy says, “We all know that guy, we’ve all worked for that guy. I have been fired by that guy for sure.” She adds, “It was fun throwing food at Ben.”
As Topper Jack’s keeps popping up on the road, they become the site of some bad decisions, which only compound Tammy’s troubles.
While Topper Jack’s color scheme pushed the envelope, Tammy’s home was specifically designed to avoid kitsch and evoke a contained feeling. “Her world needed to feel kind of small,” explains Sage. “It’s cluttered, there’s no cohesive sense of design. We crowded enough in to make it feel cramped and a bit oppressive, using a dour, dark, dingy color palette.”
Two houses down is Tammy’s mother’s house. Sage says, “Deb’s reflects a successful, happy relationship. The flowerbeds are tended, it’s comfortable inside. There is happiness here.” Fortunately, Sage found one neighborhood with the houses located right near each other on the same street, which enabled Falcone to establish Tammy’s problems quickly, and shoot her ensuing escape in a continuous sequence.
Falcone designed Tammy’s post-escape car scenes “to force the intimacy between Pearl and Tammy, whether they welcome it or not.”
“It was hot and there was weather and dust and a lot of hours in the car, but those were actually some of my favorite scenes,” says Sarandon.
McCarthy also enjoyed them. In addition to trading barbs with Sarandon’s character, she got to do the real driving. Stunt coordinator Peter King details, “Melissa was fearless. She has enormous endurance and a sense of natural timing, but she is also one of the best drivers I’ve ever worked with. She can hit a difficult mark, nailing it even without practice. She outdrove my stunt drivers more than once, which was fun to watch.”
“It was pretty cool,” McCarthy smiles. “Look out NASCAR.”
Their first real stop, The Blue Post, is a location that will change the course of Pearl and Tammy’s road trip. For the bar sequence, Sage added a stage and lots of neon to an existing converted downtown warehouse. The last touch for the bar was the real bluegrass band Possum Creek. Executive Producer Rob Cowan took Falcone and McCarthy to hear them at the local bar Satellite on a Sunday night and they hired the band on the spot, including using original music by the band in the scene.
Filmmakers also hired local outer banks artisans and brothers Skip and Bob Raymo, whose forte is sculpting by chainsaw, to create a piece for a seminal scene at Snow’s Cut Park, located on the inland waterway. Falcone and McCarthy wanted an iconic American theme, which the artists delivered in the form of a very unique American eagle.
Several pit stops on Tammy and Pearl’s trek also involve lakes, which posed a challenge to filmmakers as there are none in Wilmington.
To accomplish the Sea Doo sequence-where Tammy attempts to ride the power water craft but only digs herself and Pearl into more trouble-Sage built a wharf with a dock and huts where vendors are selling wares.
Once again, McCarthy wanted to execute as much of the stunts as possible. The stunt coordinator recalls how fast McCarthy picked it up. “It’s 99 percent Melissa on that Sea Doo ‘coming in hot,'” King states.
Falcone scheduled plenty of time for practice. “I figure we’d get Melissa oriented to the Sea Doo, and take it slow, but she just got on and immediately took it up to almost 50. She did a hard turn and stopped…but the Sea Doo just kept going without her. There was no stopping her from getting back on and doing it again. She’s a trouper.”
As Tammy’s troubles increase in size after her Sea Doo debacle, so does the getaway vehicle. Pearl calls her cousin Lenore, who shows up with an enormous RV so they can ditch Pearl’s Buick sedan in a big way and lay low at Lenore’s house on the lake.
On the inland waterway outside of Wilmington, filmmakers found a large Nantucket-style residence surrounded by giant oak trees with a private dock to use as Lenore’s house. A generous wraparound deck gave way to a sizeable pool area. The landscaping was so inviting Falcone moved scenes from indoors to outdoors on the property and had Sage and his team create a dance floor over an entire section of the pool.
They redressed the interior of the house, for a mountain lodge motif. Some of the key pieces of furniture were custom upholstered using antique quilts and vintage silk coverlets from the Depression era. The art was all locally sourced. Although Pearl and Tammy are hoping to hide out at Lenore’s during her annual Fourth of July party, there are more fireworks than expected.
There were some unexpected behind-the-scenes surprises as well. During an important shot that not only involved most of the main cast and lots of extras, but pyrotechnics, too, a storm came in. Falcone relates, “We were on a camera barge and suddenly lightning struck and the barge lost power. We just started to drift off out into this inlet with the storm picking up. That’s when my director of photography, Russ, looked at me and said, ‘It’s been great knowing you.'”
Tammy
Directed by: Ben Falcone
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Dan Aykroyd, Sandra Oh, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, Kathy Bates
Screenplay by: Ben Falcone, Melissa McCarthy
Production Design by: Jefferson Sage
Cinematography by: Russ T. Alsobrook
Film Editing by: Michael L. Sale
Costume Design by: Wendy Chuck
Music by: Michael Andrews
MPAA Rating: R for language including sexual references.
Studio: New Line Cinema
Release Date: July 2, 2014
Visits: 99
