Peter Billingsley is best known for his role in 1983’s A
Christmas Story, in which he played Ralphie, the hapless kid who
wants a BB gun for Christmas. But Billingsley, whose stints as a young
actor also include playing a steroids-taking wannabe jock in an
after-school special alongside a young Vince Vaughn, has continued to
work in Hollywood, albeit often as a producer (his credits include
The Break-Up and Iron Man). With Couples Retreat, a film written by friends Vaughn and Jon Favreau, he finally gets his
turn in the director’s chair.
“I always had an interest in getting behind the scenes,” says
Billingsley via phone from Bora Bora, where Couples Retreat was shot. “I grew up on sets since I was two and a half.
I would stay on the sets and had an interest in what decisions were
being made. [Christmas Story director] Bob Clark gave me advice.
He told me to get in the editing room, so I did. That’s how I got my
apprenticeship. That was my film school.”
Couples Retreat follows four very different couples as they
head to a resort called Eden for some fun in the sun. Little do they
realize that the package deal they’ve signed up for includes therapy
sessions and spiritual workouts with the island’s pretentious spiritual
guru Marcel (Jean Reno). In one scene, the couples take a yoga class
from a bikini-brief-wearing hunk who gets a little too comfy with the
wives. While the scene is outrageous, it’s well within the realm of
possibility.
“Good comedy is the commitment to the absurd,” says Billingsley.
“The situation might be extreme, but the actors have to play it as if
it’s real. If the situation is funny like in a film with Chaplin or
Keaton, to them it’s life or death and that’s what keeps you
laughing.”
That sensibility runs throughout the film. When Dave (Vaughn) and
the guys break the rules and leave the island, they have to settle the
score with resort coordinator Stanley (Peter Serafinowicz). So Dave
challenges him to a Guitar Hero duel. And when they spend an
afternoon swimming, they end up having to escape from a group of
sharks. For Billingsley, directing Vaughn and Favreau, guys known for
improvising on the set, wasn’t that difficult.
“We prepare a lot,” says Billingsley. “We very much are story first.
So by the time we hit the set, everyone knew the script well. That
said, sometimes my job was to get out of the way. We set up multiple
cameras, so we wouldn’t miss anything. We have them do what’s on the
page, but you add those gifted actors, they’re comfortable going off
the page as well. I just had to make sure not to cut too early.”
Partners with Vaughn in his Wild West Picture Show Productions,
Billingsley says he hopes there will be more directing jobs in the
future, though he has nothing lined up right now. But the fact that
he’s kept his career going after a downturn in the ’90s is no small
feat.
“I had a great structure and foundation growing up,” says
Billingsley, who moved to Phoenix when he was in high school. “I had
a great family that could keep the experience in perspective. acne
and girls and everything. It wasn’t what defined me growing up. I was
able to get into producing, and I have great friends. That’s been the
difference.”
This article appears in Oct 7-13, 2009.
