Eric Christian Olsen and Derek Richardson: Not That Dumberer

It takes a lot of cajones to step into the shoes of comedy legend Jim Carrey and respected actor Jeff Daniels, the original Dumb and Dumber duo, but two young guys were game to try and they told us all about it. Eric Christian Olsen, who plays the young Lloyd in Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, had a starring role on the Fox series "Get Real" and was seen in The Hot Chick, Pearl Harbor and Not Another Teen Movie as well as in several t.v. guest-starring roles. Derek Richardson, who plays Harry, had a recurring role on the WB's "Felicity" and shots on "Law and Order" and Comedy Central after his theater experience.

When we talked with the goofy duo, who obviously had way too much fun making this film, Chris had gone back to his natural longer, blonde-haired surfer look, rather than the Jim Carrey brown soupbowl haircut, and Derek, though still blonde like Harry, had a much tamer "do". The two looked a bit like twins and there was some discussion on the transformation needed for the roles. Eric tried to present a Jim Carrey flavor without being a total copy. "You watch the original film like 30 times, and figure out the mannerisms, the nuances, and the elements, and you take that, throw it all away, and be that character", says the actor. "You find the reverse art to that and begin the evolution of those characters. I'm such a huge fan, and I know [Derek] is too, of the first film and what those guys did. It's one of the best comedies of the past ten years. Those guys are geniuses, and we've got to give props to the opportunity that we have".

Derek feels that doing a prequel rather than a sequel gave him more freedom to play with his character. "You can capture those nuances and mannerisms, cause you want people to identify with a young Harry and a young Lloyd, but it was nice because you have all this new back-story. You can use that along with the stuff they created in the first movie and sort of make it your own".

Derek was cast first as Harry and remembered the audition process for his role. "I came in several times. I remember when Eric came in because I was reading with other people for the Lloyd part, and it's such a hard part to play, finding someone to look like Jim Carrey. He came in with the energy, and we just connected really quickly".

So are these guys really that dumb or just naïve? Eric votes for innocence. "These guys aren't dumb, they're just really committed to this false reality where everything makes sense to them. In their own minds they're rock stars, and they're super cool, and they're confident. That's where the innocence comes in. That's what makes them so likeable, lovable together. You're totally behind these characters". Derek knows that, as in the first film, everything hangs on the audience liking the two dufus dudes. "They were so good about keeping them sincere and honest and giving heart to these characters. In the end, it's about these two guys that you follow on this journey. If you don't have that relationship, it won't work".

Eric had to transform the most radically from buffed-up blonde surfer hunk to nerdy, skinny, brown bowl-haircut loser. And there was more fine tuning. "Jim had this brilliant lisp for the whole first film", Eric remembers, "and just the animation of his eyes. His eyebrows, his face, and just the squints. Doing things like the 'I like it, a lot'. I think that was one of the lines that's most recognizable. But other than that, you have to be careful, because this is ten years before the original film. How different are we ten years ago, besides just the base of the character? Reverse arc, reverse evolution".

When the two actors read together, the energy and chemistry was there and they were a "go". Eric lost thirteen pounds in two weeks. Derek likes to torture him. "He would have like mixed green salads, I'd be like 'can I get a steak and a milkshake?'" Eric counters, "We'd run like 5 miles a day, and he'd be eating anything he wants, and I'd be sitting there with a carrot. But it's important, cause one of those first scenes I'm naked in the shower". Derek's real hair was poofed out into the blonde rat's nest that passes for Harry's hair and Eric had to wear prosthetic teeth for the Lloyd trademark "chip".

The torture continued. Derek gets covered in gook/poo twice in the film. How awful was that? "Yummy", grins Derek to our surprise. "It was a fun scene, a lot of room to improvise, and just to kind of go for it. I was eating it! It was paper maché. At the end, it was dirt, clearly it was mud. But the original thing, yeah, it was that Hershey bar in my back pocket". Late in the film Derek is covered in mud which got in his eyes. "Seriously, eye-drops for four hours. Not even kidding". "I was digging stuff out of his eyes with a Q-tip", says Eric.

I was thinking stunt men for one shopping cart gone wild scene but the boys corrected me. "Hey, you can see our faces for all of it", Eric insists. "They're like 'just jump on there and grab on!' They waited until the last day, just in case we died. Derek's driving so he just bails off the back, we're going twenty, he veers off, I'm just sitting in the cart going 'HARRY!!!! HARRY!!!' I nailed the curb, I fly out, it was yeah, a good time".

Oddly, Eric's resume tells us he's a Pre-Med student. So, what's he doing making movies? "I went to Pepperdine for four years. It's a liberal arts major with a concentration in biology and English. If you're going to be pre-med, which was my plan, that's what you do. I started doing this [acting] to help pay for school, scholarship didn't cover it all. I love school".

It takes concentration and a clear head to make it in the film business. We asked the guys what acts as a natural high or anti-drug for them. Derek voted for rock climbing, skiing, "adrenaline stuff. Natural adrenaline. I like running and mountain biking". "Surfing, back-packing, school. There's so many better things to be doing with your life", Eric pointed out. "There's so many things out there that you can get that rush off of. I know it sounds simplistic and ignorant, but you don't need [drugs]. It takes away all your passion you have for all those things and you watch it dwindle and next thing you know you're sitting around playing xbox, smoking a bowl". "Or getting baked, playing Grant Theft Auto", Derek adds.

We asked the guys what was next for them. Derek told us he had a hot date at seven. "I'm just waiting for the right thing to come up. You want to show diversity. Especially after doing a big comedy. You don't want to do the same thing, you want to contrast as much as you possibly can". Eric touted his new film. "I got a movie coming out in the summer, end of the summer called Local Boys, which is a drama".

Once you are playing characters as goofy and specific as Harry and Lloyd, can you leave them behind at the end of the day? Evidently, not totally. "He had this Harry walk which is kind of this little waddle thing he does", says Eric while Derek frowns. "He did it all the time. And I remember the stunt men saying to me 'Listen, you're going to be doing a lot of your own stunts, but we're going to bring someone in for Derek, cause he's kind of feeble.' Cause he was in character all the time, they thought he was going to trip! He was just wandering with this little waddle he has. They were really worried about him. I was like 'no guys, he's a really good athlete. Trust me, he's fine.' They were like, 'we just don't want him to get hurt, looks like he might break.' Derek punches Eric on the arm for telling on him.

We have never seen such a nerdy wardrobe on any two characters in a film. We wondered how the guys felt about their less-than fabulous threads. "The owl sweater?", asks Derek. "Wore it out last night, with the V neck. Actually what I really like to wear are my elastic waist, women's pants. And my tighty-whitey fire engine underwear". "And those jammies with the feet of course", Eric chimes in. 'Those were so rocking! I totally wanted to snake those but they said 'we're going to do some re-shoots, so We'll just keep 'em'.