Correction
In yesterday’s WildLife, Jon Heder was misidentified as a series of religious art pieces. Jon Heder is the co-star of film “”Blades of Glory.”” The Wildcat regrets the error.
Although Jon Heder’s no longer got the Napoleon-Dynamite white-boy fro, he’s still pretty funny. Heder tells us in a conference call about getting hot and sweaty with Will Ferrell, how they made love dust together and how “”Blades of Glory”” might not even be as ridiculous as the real world of figure skating.
Wildcat: When you were working with Will Ferrell on all your skating moves, did he ever get really stinky and hard to work with?
Heder: I think I got a whiff of B.O. once, although it could have been my B.O.; it was hard to tell because our bodies were so intertwined. You didn’t know whose limb was whose. But naturally, there’s going to be some male musk in the room.
W: I’m sure that between you and Will Ferrell, you came up with a lot of hilarious names for ice skating maneuvers – could you share some of the top move names?
H: We tried to use the names that they had already been given. Let’s see, I think “”love dust”” was a move I came up with, and we kind of both took to that. It’s pulling the sparkles out of your heart, blowing them into the air and then letting them fade down into existence with your fingers, all expressed with your hand.
W:There seem to be a lot of famous figure skaters on the set, and I was wondering if you had any chance to interact with them.
H: Probably the one I interacted most with was Scott Hamilton. He was really cool. I was definitely impressed by him because he has a really good sense of humor. He loved the movie, he loved being in the movie, he loved the whole idea. He was the one telling us, “”You know there’s crazier stuff in the world of ice skating. You guys need to go farther. You guys need to push it to the limits because this isn’t that far from the truth.””
W: Napoleon Dynamite has become such a huge character. Do you ever worry about getting kind of pigeonholed as Napoleon Dynamite in your career? And has that affected your career at all?
H: Has it affected it? I don’t know. I still get scripts for comedies about guys who are out of luck or kind of losers and stuff like that. They’re fun to play. I’m not too worried. I mean, if I just keep doing my best with each new project, hopefully some will see that. Plus, I want to develop some of my own projects and do that. I’m not really too worried. I mean, even if I was stuck, it’s not a bad place to be.
W: In your past work with comedies, what do you think is more important to have: a good script or good actors?
H: A good script is definitely the first thing you look for, and that definitely helps a lot. Good actors are obviously very important because they’re the ones who have to kind of bring those words to life. If you have a good director and a good script, then obviously the actor’s job is easier if his character is written really well. And I’ve seen movies that had OK acting but the direction and the script were so good that it doesn’t matter. You buy it, you believe it. So if I had to choose one, I’d say the writing is more important.
