Tuesday, February 11, 1997
Television’s ‘Friends’ co-star Matthew Perry proves he can play
it straight with his big screen debut, ‘Fools Rush In.’
By Ricky Herzog
Daily Bruin Contributor
"Oooh, wow, thank you! Wow! Thank you. Wow! Wow!"
Matthew Perry is profusely thanking room service for bringing
him his morning cup of coffee.
But Perry is not being sarcastic. He needs the caffeine. With a
starring role in the television show "Friends," and top billing in
the upcoming film "Fools Rush In," Perry’s life is getting hectic.
Yet the star is upbeat about his schedule because the movie has
given Perry a chance to exercise a new set of acting muscles.
In fact, allowing himself to stretch his acting abilities was
Perry’s main motivation for doing "Fools Rush In." He was finally
allowed to act out some serious and dramatic scenes.
"I liked the process of making a movie and being able to play
out serious scenes where I didn’t have to be funny all the time,"
Perry says. "I liked being convinced that I didn’t have to be
funny. I trusted the director, to show me how to play out a scene,
and I would watch it eight months later on a screen and go, ‘Whoa,
I kind of like that.’"
While the movie allowed him to reach a new level of acting, it
was not just a valuable learning experience. From spending three
months in Las Vegas (where most of "Fools Rush In" takes place) to
finding slanderous reports about his relationship with co-star,
Salma Hayek ("Desperado"), Perry was confronted with uncomfortable
situations.
"I was in Las Vegas for the entire time," Perry says. "I think
Las Vegas is a town that was designed for people to stay in for
three days, and I was there for three months. It’s not all Tom
Jones and polyester and the Strip, but it is living hell in that
town. It’s 135 degrees, like living on the equator. And the only
solace you can get from the heat is to walk into a room where they
take all your money."
And intense Las Vegas heat was just the beginning of Perry’s
problems. Tabloids spread rumors about everything from stories that
Perry and Hayek were a close couple to reports that they were
bitter enemies. But, according to Perry, none of these rumors were
even remotely true.
"I’m not sure what rumor to believe  whether we dated each
other or whether we hated each other," Perry says. "Both were put
in every single newspaper in the nation for a time. But there is no
feud and we do care about each other. People need something to
write about."
Hayek also asserts that these rumors are false. She explains
that the truth about their relationship is actually far more boring
than the inventive rumors.
"The truth of the matter is very sad because it’s very boring,"
Hayek says. "I didn’t take him away from Julia [Roberts]. He didn’t
kiss me. And we did get along. We got along great.
"But I have to admit that he is more than my friend. He’s my
neighbor. We live four houses away from each other and it wouldn’t
be very smart to trash him in any magazine because he’s too close
to home."
While Perry and Hayek’s off-screen relationship was not as
dramatic as the press made it out to be, their on-screen
relationship was. Their characters had to grapple with a culture
clash between Isabel’s close-knit Mexican-American upbringing and
Alex’s East Coast background. Knowing little about Mexican culture
actually helped Perry bring a realism to his role.
"My character is a complete fish out of water in the scenes with
Isabel’s family," Perry says. "If I had done any research it
wouldn’t have served me because my character didn’t know anything
about Mexican culture."
But to Perry, an even more important factor than this cultural
issue was the strong family that Isabel came from. He saw this
strong family as a major motivation for his character’s decision to
marry Isabel.
"The most interesting part of the film was not that they were
Mexican- American," Perry says. "The interesting part of it for me
was that they were a family that loved each other and cared about
each other and were there for each other. And my character in the
movie did not have that. And I struggled a little bit with
thinking, ‘Boy, this guy makes this decision to marry her fast. He
makes it in one evening. How is that possible?’ And what I decided
to draw on was that he missed that sense of family that he found
with Isabel’s family."
Working out his character’s motivations was important to Perry,
but he also had other concerns to face. Because this was Perry’s
first starring role in a film, there was a lot of pressure for him
to make a smooth transition from television to the big screen.
"It was really a lot of pressure on Matthew," co-star Jon
Tenney, who plays his best friend, says. "Here he is above the
title. He gets paid this money. He’s got to carry the picture. And
I think he really wore that with great aplomb. He was really
terrific. He put his energies into focusing on the work and
focusing on making the best picture he could."
Perry agrees that there was a lot of pressure about starring in
his first big film. But he chose to focus his energies on his main
goal, creating a good film.
"The biggest pressure I felt was for the movie to be good,"
Perry says. "My first thought was, ‘Wow, I’ve signed on the dotted
line, I’m going to Vegas, I hope I don’t suck.’ My biggest hope was
that this movie was gonna end up being good, so that people would
like it, so that I could go and do it again. That’s the important
thing, and I felt like we all accomplished that."
FILM: "Fools Rush In" will be released this Friday.
Columbia Pictures
Matthew Perry (c.) is Alex, Jon Tenney plays his best friend,
Jeff and Salma Hayek plays Isabel in Columbia Pictures’ "Fools Rush
In."
Matthew Perry stars as Alex and Salma Hayek stars as Isabel in
"Fools Rush In."