Charlize Theron & Seth MacFarlane Explain How the West was Fun (‘A Million Ways…’ LA Conf.)

By Jorge Carreon

No, I haven’t loved watching the special effect laden behemoths that have raised the curtain on the 2014 Summer Movies season. And I know this cheese stands alone in not extoling the virtues of “Godzilla” or “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” What is putting a big smile on my face, however, are the studio comedies being counterprogrammed to offset the fan boy onslaught. And f’in A, they’re wonderfully R-rated slabs of goodness (or badness). Just when you thought the peerless teaming of Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne in “Neighbors” couldn’t be beat; here come Seth MacFarlane and Charlize Theron. Let’s just say they find beautiful new ways of scraping the bottom of the barrel with one of the most wicked laffers in recent years: “A Million Ways to Die in the West.”

You may love or hate his brand of comedic raunch, but make no mistake. MacFarlane’s growing cinematic presence reveals a filmmaker that is starting to evolve into a hybrid of Mel Brooks and Woody Allen – but with a pottier mouth. He is a defiantly 21st century cultural powerhouse, taking no prisoners with scabrous satire that is relentless. However, as he established with “Ted,” a little heart goes a long way in giving dimension to characters that are very much, well, us. The man knows what and who is funny, imbuing “A Million Ways…” with a sly joy that blends with all styles of high and low comedy, romance and technical cinematic scope into a real bounty of entertainment value. It is no mere homage to the western genre he admittedly loves, it is something entirely its own category. Yet, what really sets “A Million Ways…” apart from “Ted” is not just the sweeping vistas and time period. It’s MacFarlane himself.

No longer a disembodied voice for a baby hell bent on dominating the world or a douchebag of a teddy bear, audiences will see MacFarlane as the romantic leading man. And he’s no joke as sheep farmer Albert thanks to the effortless chemistry he has with his co-star, the statuesque Oscar winning bombshell Charlize Theron as gunslinger Anna. So good are these two together, they make “A Million Ways…” their bitch, even against contributions from such comedy titans as Neil Patrick Harris and Sarah Silverman or wild cards as Giovanni Ribisi and the great Liam Neeson (packing the biggest gun in the west).

It is definitely The MacFarlane and Theron Show on display, one that also seems to take place no matter where they go together. As the duo sat down to greet some very eager press to promote “A Million Ways…” one Saturday morning in May at the Four Seasons Hotel, MacFarlane and Theron exuded a relaxed confidence and trust. Minutes into their joint press conference, Theron stopped the show after MacFarlane humbly revealed he had a few lines on “Star Trek: Enterprise” and one rather seminal CW show of the early 00’s.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Theron exclaimed. “You were on ‘Gilmore Girls?’ I need to go Google something!”
That exchange did little to erase the lingering memory of their press conference opener prompted by the lead question mentioning one of the best lines in the film regarding Theron’s chest:

“Can you all see my tits?” Theron asked, hovering over one lucky journalist’s digital recording device. “Oh! There’s no camera on there!”

“Try not to fu*k up the thing,” MacFarlane counseled.

They couldn’t have fuc*ed it up if they tried. Here’s more with MacFarlane and Theron as they reveal why there really are “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” the secret to the film’s great cameos and why Latinos get the last laugh.

QUESTION: Seth, you are wearing multiple hats with “A Million Ways…” Were you concerned about taking on the acting challenges involved?

SETH MacFARLANE: That did make me more than a little uneasy going into this. There were things that became apparent pretty quickly into the process. The muscles didn’t take as much as reconditioning as I thought that they would. It was more like voice acting than I thought it would be. When you are doing a character, even in the booth, nobody’s watching, but my face will do different things when I do different characters. Also, I was with the most talented actress that I possibly could have…

THERON: Yes! [Laughter]

MacFARLANE: …What became clear as well…this is probably old hat to actors, but it was new to me, your performance really does depend on what you’re getting from the other person. I got so much from Charlize. I was made so comfortable by her during this process; I got to like it pretty quickly.

QUESTION: Charlize, did your early conversations with Seth give way to the “tits” line in the film?

THERON: I’m very method. It has to be real. Otherwise, I can’t do it. [Laughs] I don’t have any tits. I had to pad for this role.

QUESTION: Charlize, did Seth need to convince you to take on the role of Anna? What proved the most liberating aspect of being part of a comedy like this?

THERON: It was quite the opposite. I got to read this pretty early on. There was talk about him doing this film. Even before I read it, just the idea of doing something that’s pitched in this very unusual way of comedy-western and Seth at the helm of that? That already had me very interested. Reading the material and how well it was written…yeah, I really liked this character. I felt like I could bring something to the table. I definitely did some chasing. Everything about it was liberating. You have to feel like you can play way outside the box. If you’re with a great filmmaker and someone that you trust, that’s encouraged. Seth was definitely that kind of filmmaker and co-star. Every day just felt like endless possibilities. At the same time, there was a really good foundation that we had laid because of him; knowing what we wanted and how to be that color for him to paint with on that canvas. He’s very clear, very precise. And he’s a fun guy to be around. It was definitely not like going to the dentist every day. [Laughter] This. Doing this with him is like going to the dentist. [Laughter] We are bonded for life.

QUESTION: How was it shooting on location in New Mexico?

THERON: It’s a gorgeous place. I understand why you want to paint it. [Laughter] I would want to paint it. I don’t necessarily want to go shoot in it again. The weather was just unbelievable. It was like Biblical times. We were all going to die horrible deaths by weather. There was this one night and Seth left before me. I got a text from him that literally just said, “The road is washing away! Get out of your trailer right now and start driving!” I was like, “I’m going to die on this movie.”

MacFARLANE: These flash floods would come out of nowhere. We were driving back, and I’m like Wayne Knight in “Jurassic Park.” [Laughter] Every weather extreme you could imagine. Often times right on top of each other. It was blistering heat; it was Arctic winds. Torrential rain, lightning storms happening all around you.

THERON: Frogs. [Pause] No, that was “Magnolia.” [Laughs]

MacFARLANE: Hail at one point! It was a perfectly nice day and then suddenly there’s like these giant hail stones coming from the sky. It slowed us down enormously. We joke about it, but it was a big problem. If we were to do this again, it would be nice to find a more temperate climate.

QUESTION: Much is being made about the “Back to the Future” gag in the film. How did it come about and does this mean that both films now fit into the same continuity?

MacFARLANE: What a nerd question. [Laughter] Like in the same universe? The Doc Brown ideas came about after we already started shooting. We went out of our way to not do those kinds of jokes in this movie. We wanted to keep more or less a real world with some exaggerations of Arizona in 1882. We were not going to fill it with pop culture references of today. It’s just a whole different tone. We didn’t want to be that broad. We did stay away from that stuff. While we were filming, we thought, “Well, you can kind of explain this away because it is a time machine. Why not?” It was something that turned out to be such a crowd pleaser that I’m very glad we put it in.

QUESTION: The film does offer very specific pop culture references from recent years. How did the Jamie Foxx as Django bit materialize?

MacFARLANE: Partially we just thought it would be cool to have him in the movie. Also, it was sort of a way to buy back what is probably the edgiest gag in the movie, which is the shooting gallery. The shooting gallery is yet another example of the terribleness that was the 1880s. I think that’s why in our test screenings people weren’t that offended. They kind of give us that one. They recognize the context. Albert points out that this is horrific. It was something that helped buy it back at the end of the day.

QUESTION: But did the Doc Brown bit take place in the same film world…

MacFARLANE: It’s in your fuc*in’ imagination. [Laughter]

QUESTION: Speaking of cameos, how do you know who and what to put in your films? And does Ryan Reynolds charge by the word?

MacFARLANE: It always depends on the gag more than the person. The only time it came out of nowhere was when Charlize said, “Ewan McGregor is doing a movie up the street.”

THERON: No, he had come to say “Hello.” And I was like, “Do you want to be in our movie?” [Laughter] He was doing a western so he was already in hair and make-up for his movie. We just threw him in.

MacFARLANE: And I was like, “Sh*t! You already offered him? [Laughter] Alright.” He’s got that beard and that mustache, which he wore for “Jane Got a Gun.” The gag is so quick; a lot of people don’t know that it’s him.

THERON: But that’s good! You watch it again or somebody tells you about it.

MacFARLANE: It just depends on the moment. Who that cameo is, not always, but generally comes second. We needed Liam Neeson’s character to kill a guy in the saloon to scare everybody. We thought, “This Ryan Reynolds thing went over really well in ‘Ted.’ Let’s just get a laugh where it would normally play as a straight moment.”

QUESTION: Is it possible that there was a missed opportunity in “A Million Ways…” You have jokes about every racial group featured in the genre. But what happened to the Mexicans?

MacFARLANE: First of all, we don’t use that word anymore. [Laughter]

THERON: Yeah, wow. That’s great. [Laughter]

MacFARLANE: There are certain films that take place closer to the border and others that take place…

THERON: Oh, is that how you excuse it away? [Laughter] That’s great.

MacFARLANE: There was a bit at the end where the Jamie Foxx ended up going in its place. Neil Patrick Harris and Amanda Seyfried, because of the shitting in the hat, he has to leave town he’s so embarrassed. The last scene is their riding into this Mexican village. She’s like, “Why Mexico?” And he’s like, “Because no one will know of my shame. We can make a fresh start here.” You cut to these two Mexican guys and one is like, “More assholes from across the border. Somebody should build a wall.” [Laughter]

THERON: I totally forgot about that!

MacFARLANE: It’ll be on the Blu-ray*. [Laughter]

QUESTION: One more thing. Did Liam Neeson need a butt double?

THERON: Well, there are some things that we talk about and some things that we don’t. Just like my tits. [Laughter]

“A Million Ways to Die in the West” is now playing nationwide. *You can see that clip below.