"It was great assembling the family," says director Pritts. "We didn't want it to be a typical mob family that we've seen before in other movies and television shows." For the filmmakers, it was important to create a realistic family while still having comic sensibility.
"We felt strongly about surrounding Chris with the best, most intense actors," says producer Robert Simonds, "because I think you need that kind of focus in your supporting roles for the comedy to play. AIF the comedy would come from this hyper-pressurized-but-realistic world. If it wasn't that way, then every performance would have been tongue-in-cheek, and in my opinion, movies that rely on that don't work very well. "At the same time, we wanted everybody to be able to be funny — this is a comedy and we wanted to share the wealth with the laugh lines," continues Simonds. "So we needed actors who could balance the two — actors who could be funny and, at the same time, be intense." With that in mind, Simonds and Pritts turned to Chris Penn and Peter Berg for the roles of Peter and Paulie, Corky's two older brothers.
"Chris and Pete were our top choices, and the parts were written for them," says Simonds. "Both of them are incredibly focused, meticulous actors — with a capital A. They gave us a family for Corky that was just as terrifyingly angry as we needed for Chris to be as funny as he is.
"Chris and Peter were great," says director Rob Pritts. "Their characters were basically straight men for Chris to bounce off of. Almost like the edges, or the sides of a pool. They provided the foundation for him to kind of push off and swim in the middle and have fu n."
"Peter and I have stayed and token care of the family business," Berg explains about their characters. "We have been very loyal sons to our papa. Corky — there's something wrong with him mentally. He's hysterical. He's very uncoordinated. He's almost spastic. He's bumping and fumbling and breaking things. In general, he's a ph ysical and social embarrassment to the family."
Berg says his character of Paulie has a big secret. "He's prone to bursts of extreme agitation. But there is a reason, it's not just irrational, free flowing hostility. There's a source and he gets to the source. Corky helps him tap into that and it's very therapeutic for him in that respect."
"Peter's the oldest, and the only one with a little bit of sense," Penn explains. "I'm the one with the head on my shoulders. But you find out something about me later, which I can't reveal."
Penn says he had a good time working with Chris Kattan and appreciated the freedom offered by director Rot, Pritts. "We tried a lot of different approaches to each thing. Rob gives you ideas on different ways of doing things. There's not just one way of doing each scene, there are several. But there's always one take that stands apart from the rest, and that's the one they'll use in the final film."
For the role of Pops, the stricken head of the family, the filmmakers turned to Peter Folk, best known for his multi-Emmy winning portrayal of the gruff-yet-genial Lieutenant Columbo. "Peter Falk provides an incredibly powerful presence on-screen, but he's also got a very accessible underbelly," says Simonds. "Not only do you believe all along that he's a mob boss, but you also believe that he's Corky's disappointed father." "Pops' problem with Corky is he's gullible," says Falk. "He's very naive. And he's uncomfortable with the fact that Pops is a racket guy. Po s tells Corky that he's a landscaper. And, Corky believes him. It's the Lord's ideas of a practical joke for Pops to have a son that naive."
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