Jason Sudeikis and Owen Wilson in Hall Pass

Jason Sudeikis and Owen Wilson in Hall PassWould you say that Hall Pass, for all of its raunchy humour, also has a lot of heart?

Wilson: There are funny scenes that kind of make you go like the fake sneeze, but there is a lot of heart. The hot-tub scene (with full-frontal male nudity), there’s a lot of heart there!

Was there anything in the Hall Pass script that kind of shocked you the first time you read it?

Wilson: Not really. I don’t know if that makes us jaded comedians. Everything was like, ‘I can see this being really funny.’

Sudeikis: Yeah, it all tracks emotionally, so it makes sense. With the Farrelly Brothers, you almost have to treat it like a musical: ‘OK, the word is that people are going to break out in song for no reason out of nowhere, and they’re all going to know the dance, and that’s the reality here.’ With the Farrelly Brothers, you know you’re going to get outside reality, to a degree, as long as it’s reality up until that moment.

Wilson: There is stuff that when you’re reading it, and it’s funny on the page, and then when it’s time to actually film it, you’re like, ‘Now, wait a second. Are we really going to do this? And the studio is OK with this?’

Such as the hot-tub scene?

Wilson: I was never able to get a straight answer if those were prosthetics or what. There seems to be a little controversy there. Going in, how do you prepare to film a scene like that? I had done Anaconda, so I guess that was some jumping-off point. (To Sudeikis) And with you, with none of that kind of background …

Sudeikis: Time spent in a mirror, I guess. Wilson: Yeah (laughs).

In an R-rated film, do you like seeing how far you think you can go?

Sudeikis: It’s a dance we do with the censors. We do get away with dirty stuff. But you don’t want to just inundate people with filth, filth, filth — because it’s diminishing returns. But when it has that hook of some emotional narrative, especially (Hall Pass), being pro-love, pro-marriage at the end of the day, it allows you to go to some creepy, goofy places.

Wilson: Wait ’til you see the DVD! Wait till you see the extras from this movie.

How do you know when you have comedic chemistry?

Wilson: Opening weekend usually tells you a lot.

Sudeikis: Yeah, box office.

Wilson: Reviews is another place to go to sometimes. But it did at times feel like Cannonball Run. We were cracking each other up. It was like, ‘We’re dying at this stuff! This is the funniest thing ever!’

Sudeikis: (He pretends to choke on laughter) You would just smack me.

Wilson: And then we just put it in front of an audience and ‘chirp chirp’.

Sudeikis: And you and I would be in the back, just rolling.

Wilson: Still rolling! ‘No, please tell me I did not do that!’

If you were married, would you consider taking a hall pass from marriage?

Wilson: Of course!

Sudeikis: I’d consider it.

Wilson: I think men would die for a hall pass. I think a lot of women would probably die for a hall pass. I think there is something to the idea. They probably do it in Scandinavian countries. They’re more evolved. You can’t do it in Latin countries. There’s too much passion.

Sudeikis: Crimes-of-passion pass.

Wilson: A hall pass in Scandinavia, there wouldn’t be anything to it. They’d just be like, ‘Oh, OK.’

Sudeikis: They might freak out if we had to be monogamous for a week.

Wilson: Hall Pass in Argentina, you’d have to have Kevin Costner and Anthony Quinn and Madeline Stowe, and it would’ve been a thriller!

How do you keep a straight face in scenes that are really funny?

Sudeikis: Pretend what you’re looking at is real. I would never laugh in someone’s face if they had stomach problems in a bathroom, to the extent that they had in the film. I think I’d probably be understanding, and then move on with my day.

Wilson: Something that does sometimes help in keeping a straight face is that you don’t want to wreck the take, especially when somebody’s doing something funny. And if you break up, you’ve kind of wrecked it. Sometimes you can’t help it though. Sometimes you get surprised by something.

Sudeikis: Getting a good night’s sleep helps, so you’re not slap-happy at 3 am.

What is it about the Farrelly Brothers that makes them funnier than many other filmmakers?

Sudeikis: I think those guys have been funny from the womb.

Wilson: I remember Woody Harrelson, when he was on Cheers, they would ask him, ‘Who’s the funniest person you know?’ And he was rooming with the Farrellys before they had done (any movies). And he said, ‘The funniest guys I know are these guys, these brothers from Rhode Island.’ And it was before anybody had heard of them.... They’ve just always been funny.

Sudeikis: It’s in their bones.