From left, Trailer Park Boys Julian (John Paul Tremblay), Bubbles (Mike Smith), and Ricky (Robb Wells). (Aaron Harris/Canadian Press)
Sitting in a row behind a boardroom-type table, Ricky, Julian and Bubbles look like the world's least likely executives. Sideburn-sporting Ricky wears a polyester tracksuit, Julian has his trademark mixed drink in front of him, and Bubbles — well, if you don't know about the glasses, then you have a healthy disconnect from popular culture.
This pot-growing, jail-haunting triumvirate — they refer to themselves in one word: Rickyjulianandbubbles — are actors, of course. Robb Wells (Ricky), John Paul Tremblay (Julian) and Mike Smith (Bubbles) star in the TV show-cum-movie Trailer Park Boys, and this week they are being hauled around the country doing interviews in character, which is agonizing for a journalist (never attempt to match the funny, but play it too straight and nothing happens) and exhausting for the actors, a days-long game of on-your-toes improvisation. But this costly promotional tour is necessary as Trailer Park Boys: The Movie, opening Friday, is that rare Canadian film with blatantly commercial prospects.
The gritty Showcase TV series, now in Season 6, is actually a fake documentary about the raunchy criminal inhabitants of Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Halifax, and the movie is a movie about the TV show about the fake doc. In this hall of mirrors, the film's plot is secondary — the boys are trying for the Big Dirty, a major crime that will net great riches or a greater mess — but the genuine laughs come from the vulgar, dumb details of park life. Once, the big screen version of a cultish phenomenon like TPB might have aspired to nominal underground success. But Jackass 2 has earned more than $52 million US in North America in the past two weeks, and TPB has a fan base around the globe from BBC syndication and the internet. Stupid people doing stupid things is universally appealing, it seems.
“There's general happiness in the midst of the crazy dysfunction so I don't think it's negative portrayals of poor people,” says director Mike Clattenburg, who created the characters with buddies Wells and Tremblay seven years ago. “We're just exploring the depths of foolishness.”
But can TV-scale shenanigans cross over to film? At one point in the TPB movie, the camera lingers on a marquee poster for the retro-ironically titled film Foolproof (big laugh from critics), a $10-million Canadian flop that was pegged as another great box office hope. Now comes Trailer Park Boys: The Movie, reportedly budgeted at $5 million and distributed by major player Alliance Atlantis with the seal of legendary producer Ivan Reitman, director of Stripes and Ghostbusters and producer of Animal House.
“Ivan Reitman wants to release a film that's going to be successful and he brings everything he's learned to the table. He's hit it many times in a big way,” says Clattenburg, who loved Meatballs as a kid. “But I have a real personal vision of how [Trailer Park Boys] should work. Sometimes I wouldn't feel a character would do this or that, or we wanted to do something more outrageous, and Ivan and I would butt heads. But you sit back and you vet the script and give respect where respect is due. Everyone wants the movie to be good.”
Of course, the TV-to-film highway is littered with dozens of Coneheads and Pats for every Wayne and Garth passing by in a limo. Perhaps the pressure is getting to Rickyjulianandbubbles, who were game but clearly drained as they sat side by side in an overheated Toronto hotel room, plates of untouched food strewn across the table. They started in character, but in true Trailer Park fashion, it all went to hell.
Formal occasion: Bubbles, Ricky and Julian hit the big screen in Trailer Park Boys: The Movie. (Mike Tompkins/Alliance Atlantis)
Q: Sociologists say all friendships mimic families. Who's the mom, the dad and the baby with you guys?
Ricky: I'm the baby. These guys try to keep me in line. I try to run free and do what I want.
Julian: Ricky just reacts. He doesn't think
Bubbles: Sometimes his brain doesn't operate at proper levels.
R: I think you're kind of like the mom, Bubbs. You're motherly. You keep us in check.
B: You're crazy.
R: Julian's the dad, the one who's trying to make money, get the plans, takin' care of us.
J: Somebody's got to do it.
Q: What's the most important thing in life?
R: Family and friends — and dope and liquor.
J and B [same time]: In that order. [They look at each other and laugh, breaking character. Says Julian: “That was really weird.”]
Q: Now that you're movie stars, have you noticed any perks?
B: We haven't seen any yet. You're looking at it. Old tray of dirty f-----g croissants.
R: Muffins.
B: Some free pop.
J: No liquor here.
R: We're in these small hotel rooms and we get these little gift baskets but they just have wafers and crackers …
J: Fancy chocolates. No liquor.
B: Exotic jams from around the world. I thought once the movie came out there would be parties and liquor and ladies of the evening.
Q: Bob and Doug, Wayne, the Fubar guys — do you see yourselves on the hoser continuum?
R: I don't think we're gonna be near as big as those guys. It's just our lives they're capturing on the TV. Hopefully, some people will get a kick out of it.
B: Bob and Doug did a thing with [lead singer of Rush] Geddy Lee but I did one with [guitarist] Alex Lifeson. [In a 2003 episode of TPB, Lifeson and Bubbles jam.]
R: That's true, Bubbs. You've done pretty good.
B: Bob and Doug are funny, drinking their beers and what not.
R: Yeah, those guys are good.
Q: In 2002, Stephen Harper said in the House of Commons: “There is a dependence in the region that breeds a culture of defeatism.” He was talking about the Atlantic provinces. Any thoughts?
R: Well, that's horseshit. We're from the Maritimes and if we need money, we steal some meat and sell it. If we get busted for that, we don't give up. We'll go and do something else, get some liquor shipped in from the U.S. and sell it, make money that way. I don't think it's defeatin-ism or whatever he said.
B: Maybe he should look at the way he clings on to George Bush! Speaking of dependence!
Q: Bubbles, do you ever take your glasses off?
B: Not really. I can see without them. My eyes are perfect but I'm used to them so I just leave them on.
R: Bubbs, you can't see a thing without them.
B: Yes, I can. I can see perfectly fine.
Q: Would you guys like to finish this interview out of character?
R: Oh, yeah. [Palpable exhalation of breath from all three. Mike Smith removes his glasses, rubs his eyes.]
Q: Are the lines blurring between you and these characters? You're so identified with the show now …
Mike Smith [still rubbing eyes]: Blurring, everything's blurring …
Robb Wells: For me, it's crazy because we do so many public appearances that I've had these sideburns for two years now. Everywhere you go you're kind of treated as Ricky, Julian and Bubbles even though you're acting and you're not those guys and you don't want to be those guys all the time.
John Paul Tremblay: People don't want to talk to us as John, Mike and Robb; they want to talk to Ricky, Julian and Bubbles. Sometimes you're not in the mood for it.
Q: Is it true the nurses were asking for autographs while your wife was giving birth, John?
JT: Yes. Some people came in wanting an autograph.
RW: I went through that too when my kid was born, too. Bizarre.
Best buds: Trailer Park Boys characters Randy (Patrick Roach) and superintendent Mr. Lahey (John Dunsworth). (Mike Tompkins/Alliance Atlantis)
Q: How many of you have kids?
RW: I have a one-and-a half year-old, [Tremblay] has a two and a three year-old.
JT: You miss them, doing these 16-, 17-hour days.
RW: Mike has no kids but he has nine girlfriends, as you can tell. [Smith is furiously typing on his BlackBerry.]
JT: My father passed away when we were shooting Season 7 and the nurse that was taking care of him wanted autographs and pictures and all this stuff. He had hours left to live. It was kind of f-----d up. I didn't give her anything.
[Mike Smith's phone rings.]
MS: Hey, Mr. Lahey's calling me right now. [John Dunsworth plays drunken park superintendent Lahey, who spends most of his time trying to get the boys kicked out of Sunnyvale.] Hey, Lahey, tell us all to go f--- ourselves and I'll put you in the interview. [Smith holds the BlackBerry to the tape recorder.]
John Dunsworth: You're talking to Jim Lahey! How are you doing?
MS [into BlackBerry]: We're doing an interview and we're saying what a dick you are.
JD [on speakerphone now, clearly clueless]: Oh, that'd be nice. Have you decided if you're going to California or not?
[Strange conversation ensues about auctioning goods in Los Angeles for Gambian relief. Wells grows visibly irritated, tells Smith to call Dunsworth back. Smith hangs up.]
MS: What was that? He didn't get it at all.
Q: Why do you guys think the show has resonated with the public the way it has?
RW: It's so fresh and unique. It's real. It's not toned down. We were talking earlier about the American version of The Office and how the British one was so much better because they bought into the reality of it all. They want you to believe that these people could exist, that people like them do exist in the world. People relate to some or all of the characters on Trailer Park Boys in one way or another. But we never expected it to blow up like this.
JT: We're still in shock.
RW: We broke all the rules. It's shot on hand-held, we're obviously not actors, it's low budget. We're kind of amazed it's turned into this [gestures around the hotel room]. It's cool, though.
Q: Most TV shows that become movies are not flourishing at the time they're adapted for the big screen. Usually they're exercises in nostalgia, like Bewitched or The Dukes of Hazzard, and they often bomb. Do you worry about entering those shark-infested waters?
RW: I think the biggest difference with us is that we started out doing a movie. The whole Trailer Park Boys thing comes from a black and white 1999 film we made for fun. The TV offer came up but it was never a TV concept. We always wanted to go back to film. So many people tell us the show's great but it's not enough. It starts and then it's over. So hopefully it works at a longer length. It feels natural, but I'm nervous, though. I think we all are.
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie opens across Canada on Oct. 6.
Katrina Onstad writes about the arts for CBC.ca.
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