Comedian Chris Kattan, who has created so many hilarious characters on "Saturday Night live," brings to life Corky Romano, the emotional son of a mob boss who's called upon to infiltrate the FBI. Kattan tried to bring a sensitivity to the character that would appeal to comedy audiences. "Corky's not an idiot — just has no sense that there could be anything bad in the world. He completely blocks out everything negative," says Kattan. "His whole life is very simple and light and nothing abnormal. Everything is cuddly, happy clouds and pretty birds. So when he's put into this situation where everything's negative, he can't even function. Everything just falls apart.
"For example, Corky believes his father is a landscaper and he thinks his father is at all these important landscaping meetings," says Katton. "They must be important because there are a lot of big important guys with sunglasses having very important landscaping meetings. Yeah, you could say that Corky's in denial about his family."
For producer Robert Simonds, the character of Corky Romano was perfectly suited to Kattan's talents. "I'd known Chris's work from five seasons on 'Saturday Night live,"' he says, "and I'd been wanting to do a film with him-one that was designed around his talents. He's got an incredible talent for physical comedy, but he combines that with a charming, accessible screen presence — he's appealing in every way.
"Chris makes me laugh relentlessly," Simonds continues. "I had no dou bt he could carry a movie. So, Dave Garrett & Jason Ward, the writers of the film, created this character who was just the sweetest, most emotional human being y ou could ever meet, but who can not handle any kind of pressure."
"Dave and Jason had this idea for a movie that was kind of opposite 'Donnie Brasco,'" Kattan explains. "They wrote the script and it was really, really funny. It had some great situations and there was a great story there."
"It's funny, though," says Simonds, "We never really thought of this as a mob comedy. The movie was always more of a domestic comedy that also mode full use of all of Chris's talents as a physical comedian. Ultimately, the movie is about a profoundly dysfunctional family of men three of whom are extremely violent and one who is the gentlest soul on the planet but completely cracks under pressure. And we put him into the most pressurized situations on the planet."
"Corky is very unique because he is this gentle, vulnerable soul who is transparent and emotional," says director Rob Pritts. "As he's put into situations that test him, he learns to think on is and becomes more confident."
Kattan's physicality often dictated how the film would be shot. Pritts kept two words in mind for the entire shoot — "Stay wide.
"You have to shoot Chris wide because he's so fast," smiles Pritts. "He moves around alot. He's one of the fastest actors I've ever seen. In one second he'll be to the left or the right of the frame. You have to stay loose with him to be able to catch his physical comedy. And so much of what he does is improvisational. He might rehearse something right before you shoot, but then he does something different. So staying wide is really important.
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