In finding the right Jane, the filmmakers wanted someone who could keep up with Carrey’s highly eclectic and daring improvisation in scene after scene. “She had to have the agility of a physical comedian and the right chemistry with Jim so that the audience would believe Dick and Jane have been together in a loving marriage for ten years,” says Grazer.
“Téa was the perfect candidate,” says Carrey, “because I had seen her comedic work in Flirting With Disaster and thought she was tremendous. She’s one of the best actresses working today, so she could bring a tone of reality to the relationship. She has an adventurous spirit and a nervous vulnerability about her that I think makes her exciting and sexy, as well as endearing.”
Adds Grazer: “Téa is also comically durable and you have to be to work with Jim. You not only have to roll with the punches but create some punches that go back at him — because that’s when he’s at his best.”
“The astounding thing about working with Jim is that most of my job entails setting up the scene and then stepping back to watch him play in it,” says Parisot. “The fact that I also had Téa, who could go anywhere Jim went in her own very original and funny way, was a huge bonus. They worked so well together as a comedic couple. Their chemistry was absolutely perfect. They really complemented each other in every way. Jim has the ability to turn on a dime and try things from all kinds of different perspectives and Téa was right there with him. Watching them, I really felt that they had actually been together for years.”
For Leoni, Fun with Dick and Jane was a crash course in improvisational comedy. She and Carrey met only one week before shooting began and there was little time to rehearse. “I was just terrified,” she laughs. “For me, shooting without a rehearsal period is like the first day of school and you’ve been told that you don’t have your knickers on. But it also made it very exciting.”
She continues: “I got lucky on this film because Jim and I got this great rhythm going from day one. We were able to take a very small nugget and run with it for five or ten minutes. It was like finding someone to whom you’re very well matched for a certain parlay.”
A scene in which Dick and Jane plan a robbery disguised as Sonny and Cher is one of Leoni’s favorites because of its wacky evolution. “Originally, I was going to be Cher,” she explains, “but since Jim is 6-foot-2, it made sense for him to be Cher. What was somewhat disturbing was that we got the costumes from Bob Mackie (who designed many of Sonny and Cher’s outfits), I fit into Sonny’s costume perfectly — no alterations were needed.”
The natural chemistry between Leoni and Carrey also helped in the depiction of Dick and Jane’s reinvigorated sex life, mentions Parisot. “When they start robbing banks they spend more time together and they’re doing something together as a couple that has a wild, almost sexual excitement to it. They feel guilty about it and yet they’re excited at the same time.”
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