The Hot Chick (2002)

Tom Brady, Rob Schneider's writing partner on the box office hit "The Animal," saw Schneider imitating an old girlfriend when something clicked.

"I kept hearing him do this feminine voice, and I thought, 'That's it! That's the next movie,'" says Brady. "Rob made a great animal, but it would be even more hilarious if he was an 18-year-old girl who had a few things to learn about life."

The idea – which became the impetus for Touchstone Pictures' new comedy, "The Hot Chick," immediately appealed to Schneider and to his brother, John, Rob's partner.

"Rob and I both knew that this story had to work, even if she never wakes up as a 30-year-old man," Brady continues. "So, we dropped Rob into the middle of this world. In her male body, Jessica sees her life with new eyes and begins to appreciate the people in it."

"Honestly, the idea of me playing an 18-year-old girl was more than a little scary," says Schneider. "To make it believable, yet be funny and not mock women, was a bit harrowing. I didn't exactly have a roadmap to follow. I just made myself emotionally available and tried to avoid the craft service tray."

"The thing I'm proud of is how we've tried to capture the real emotions of being a teenager in an insane and absurd situation," says producer John Schneider.

Brady makes his directorial debut with "The Hot Chick," and he was well-prepared for the opportunity. "I've studied Rob over the years," he notes. "No one is funnier in the hot seat and no one is funnier in an uncomfortable situation. So I just constantly put him in the funniest, most uncomfortable situations.

"Writing with Rob is fun – just as much fun as shooting the film with Rob," Brady continues. "One minute, Rob starts strutting around the room as a 70-year-old African-American bathroom attendant, spouting witticisms; the next, he's a Mexican gardener. He gets these characters in his head and then he becomes every one of them."

Even if Rob Schneider couldn't play all the parts, there was one he could play: the high school teenager who suddenly finds herself in the body of a lowlife criminal. (It's a part that he was born to play.) Brady, commenting on his star's methods to pick up feminine habits, says, "I think he made a lifetime hobby of studying girls."

"Before we started shooting, we would hang out a bit," says Rachel McAdams, who plays Schneider's alter ego – the criminal who wakes up a high school girl. "As we got to know each other, we'd eye each other for tips on playing the opposite sex. Once we started filming, we got more into the subtleties, like how a girl makes eye contact, or how she uses her body language."

Schneider put a lot of thought into how he would bring Jessica to life. "I didn't want to play overly feminine, for fear of the audience mutilating themselves," says Schneider.

---

Pages: [1] 2 3