Sports activities are a staple of Garry Marshall’s films, as in “The Princess Diaries,” where Mia tangles with softball. She explores some new pursuits in “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement,” where her athletic endeavors contribute to the film’s laughs: “I love sports, and I feel that physical humor and visual humor is important,” says Marshall. “Words are sometimes difficult in foreign countries, but everybody understands physical and visual humor.”
“Mia participates in some new sports in this film, including archery, swimming, badminton and horseback riding,” notes Marshall. Ever true to innovation, Mia takes a ride in an entirely new sort of sport…mattress surfing!
In a lively moment of frivolity at the royal slumber party, Mia and her guests enjoyed taking turns riding on mattresses from the ballroom’s second floor to the first floor. This “mattress surfing” activity evolved during a conversation between Marshall and Anne Hathaway, who recalled using a mattress to slide down a friend’s staircase when she was younger.
“I said, ‘Well, I don’t know, maybe we can do something like that, but this is a responsible film; we don’t want kids sliding downstairs on mattresses. They’ll hurt themselves,” recalls Marshall. “So, we invented and constructed this indoor slide—which was supposed to have been in the Palace since Mia’s father was a boy—so Mia and her guests could slide safely.”
The fun the actors had was infectious— during a break in filming, many of the filmmakers and crew members grabbed a mattress to try it themselves, including Garry, producer Mario Iscovich and director of photography Chuck Minsky. “Of course, the crew had to try the slide because that’s what we do on my kind of picture,” laughs Marshall.
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