At South By Southwest on Sunday, Seth MacFarlane was the subject of a 90-minute panel -- not only looking at his career as the creator of "Family Guy," but also sneak-peeking footage from his upcoming feature-length film debut, 'Ted." Starring Mark Wahlberg, "Ted" is the story of a little boy, John, whose wish brings a stuffed teddy bear to life. After some confusion and a little bit of notoriety -- we see Ted appear on the Carson show, thanks to digital trickery -- the film fast-forwards to 25 years later, when Ted and a grown-up John, played by Wahlberg, are living together in Boston, with Ted now voiced by MacFarlane in a Boston accent and ripping bong hits on the couch. The clips included a brutal hotel-room fight withTed -- meticulously choreographed and with brutal sound effects, as if Jason Bourne were being assaulted by a bad guy from F.A.O. Schwartz. We also saw Ted ask Wahlberg to guess the "white trash girl name" of a woman he's interested --- with Wahlberg reeling off a list of possibilities with perfect timing and comedic deadpan. As a surprise guest, MacFarlane then brought out Walhberg -- who said, blankly, "I don't know what the f**k I'm doing here …" -- to take questions from the crowd. Later, we spoke with both Wahlberg and MacFarlane about making the jump to live action, working together, and the challenges of acting opposite a co-star who isn't there.
MSN Movies: When you're doing animation, for just one example, all you do to maintain consistent lighting tone is use the same paint or digital color or whatever. What completely threw you about doing live action?
Seth MacFarlane: There's nothing that really was all that jarring. There's a lot I learned in the process. Some things I knew prior going into it. The advantage is coverage. In animation you don't have any coverage. You plan what your shots are eight months in advance, and those are the shots you have. You can change how tightly you cut them or how loosely you cut them, but you go to your close-up on this line, you go to your wide shot on this line, and that is what you have. The editing process was defintely the biggest change, because you have options you don't have in animation.
Animation is all one take.
MacFarlane: Yeah, you storyboard everything, and that’s what your animators produce.
And Mr. Wahlberg, how did you get involved in this enterprise?
Mark Wahlberg: It's funny because I was sent the script from a person from another agency who's trying to sign me. Then I go to my agent, "Sorry I just -- don't you represent Seth MacFarlane?" he's like "Yeah," and I'm like "Why didn't you f**king send me the script Ted." He goes, "Well I got to get him there. He's not there yet." I read the script, and Seth took a meeting with me, and I just told him why I could do it better than anybody else.
Is it the commonality of New England accents?
MacFarlane: That didn't hurt, I'll tell you. That was a definite advantage.
Wahlberg: Did you know I was from Boston?
MacFarlane: I knew you were from Boston, yeah, but the regional realism was something that was very advantageous to the believability of this movie.
It was very interesting seeing the footage, because most of the time, with a premise like this, it's a big secret. "The bear has to stay in the closet. The bear only comes to life when no one's around." This, on a premise level, seems to be moving forward that it be just given the bear is alive and everyone knows.
MacFarlane: That's key. I was saying five minutes ago that that's what always bugs me about this kind of movie -- that only the kid can hear the stuffed animal. I think back to the "Muppet" movies that I loved when I was a kid, and that was just the world. Kermit and Fozzie worked for a newspaper in 'The Great Muppet Caper." They were getting chewed out by their boss, and it didn't matter that it was a bear and a frog. They were just there. It's taken for granted. All those gimmicks do I think is limit you. It's a lot funnier if nobody cares.
Mr. Wahlberg, at what point did you have difficulty wrapping your brain around the plot elements, like "Wait a second, the teddy bear is inhaling weed. He's just soaking cotton with weed. How does that work?" Did you bend your brain?
Wahlberg: Yeah, I just thought that was a waste of weed. No, I believed it from the get go. Obviously if you're going to commit, you've got to commit a hundred and ten percent. My whole thing was, as crazy as this situation is, I can just play it real. If I believe it then I can try and convince an audience of it. I didn't want to try and do the over the top kind of broad comedy. I don't have the confidence and the comfort level to be able to do that.
But that fight sequence you have is comprised of meticulous timing on an editing level and on a performance level. How elaborate is that compared to fight choreography with an actual human being?
Wahlberg: It's pretty awkward. You're just flailing around. Thank God it was late in the shoot. I'd already drank the Kool-Aid long ago and put faith in Seth and what he wanted to do. He walked me through literally every single beat of it. There were moments where I was scratching my head, and I'd look over and he'd be like "Don't worry, it’s ok. It's going to be fine."
Bob Hoskins infamously said that after shooting "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." He had hallucinations, that he'd be seeing animated characters. That didn't happen to you?
Wahlberg: Bob Hoskins was a very sick man. No but I do have a big teddy bear that sleeps beside my bed, and once in a while when I'm walking from my bedroom to my bathroom we share a little wink.
Are you being facetious, or do you actually have a large teddy bear in your room?
Wahlberg: No I do. I was given a large bear by a friend before I started shooting the movie. I had it with me the whole time.
A friend with a big heart and very little imagination?
Wahlberg: Exactly. I kept it, but I loved it because actually have the bear around in this kind of weird way helped me on these days where I felt like I might've got myself into something I couldn't handle.
Both of you, do you feel any worry or concern about the fact that this is a film predicated on the idea of a "cute stuffed animal" which is predicated on horrible completely grown-up behavior. Is there a concern that kids are going to go bats for how cute the bear is and not realize that there's no way they should see this before they're forty?
MacFarlane: I think that's what the R rating is for. I think if a twelve-year-old kid is in the theater seeing the movie, that problem is well nestled in the home, and there's nothing we can do about it.
This is part of a not-so proud pop culture tradition. Did either of you watch a classic imaginary-friend film? The only one I can think of is "Pete's Dragon."
MacFarlane: Really, technically speaking "Roger Rabbit" is the pinnacle of how to do a movie like this from a production standpoint. But no, it's not really about an imaginary friend. It's about two real friends. Two guys who live in the real world, one of them happens to be a talking teddy bear, and that's where the unreality ends.
Do you have any sense of filter? Do you ever go "No, that jokes too much? We've got to pull that back?"
MacFarlane: Oh yeah, and even if I didn’t the audience would -- you do screenings beforehand. If a joke's not getting a laugh repeatedly, and its also fairly raunchy, you don’t want it in your movie. The jokes that are in the movie that skirt the line, are jokes that we've gotten enough laughs out of in our prescreenings that we know at least the certain portion of the general movie going public has seen this is amused, so it's probably safe.
When you're doing the voice of Ted, you're directing, how close are you to Mr. Wahlberg? Are you shouting things from behind the camera? Do you make somebody else work the camera while you stand?
MacFarlane: The trick was always to make sure I was not blocking any lights or causing any shadows or what not, but at the same time being close enough that I was echoing off the same walls as he was. Sound plays a bigger part than we think in whether the character is believably in the space or not. You can mix it all you want and fine-tune it, but there's just no substitute for being in that same space. I used a boom like everyone else. There was no special microphone. The idea was for the bear to e at least from an audio stand point, as much in that space as everyone else. I don't know that I've seen that to date in a film with a CG character, and its one thing that always kind of bugs me. I hate to keep using "Garfield" as a reference, but there's a pristine quality to Bill Murray's voice. It sounds like a sound booth. It sounds like it was recorded in a booth. Even with the best sound guys in the world, you're never quite there. The goal was to have everything be in the same space from the get go. Mark is great at improv. He's a hell of a lot better than I am at improv. It kind of frees everyone up to play around even though you're dealing with a CG character.
Mr. Wahlberg did you have any inkling that at this point in your career that you would be noted as such a gifted comedian that you would have that stuff on lock to the degree to which you do?
Wahlberg: No, I always wanted to do comedy, but it's not that easy, especially coming from a more dramatic background. I always wanted to do it, and it was just a matter of finding the right pieces of material and the right people to work with. If you don't do it right, you don't get too many more opportunities to do it.
Mr. MacFarlane there's people that just can't digest dairy. They take it in their body and it just goes out the same way it came in. Weirdly comedically, for me, that's exactly how I feel about "Family Guy". Everything else you're involved in, interviews and side projects and whatever I can appreciate your talents, but "Family Guy" just passes through me undigested. I can't watch more than thirty seconds of it … but that's the thing it doesn't really matter. Is doing "Ted" a way to reach that audience who solely knows you from "Family Guy"and doesn't like it -- and when somebody's rude enough to say that to you, as I am, do you feel bad? Or just go home and do laps in your Scrooge McDuck money pool?
MacFarlane: You hate it. You are a breath of fresh air, my friend. No, not rude at all. I like you more now, because you said that, because I secretly hate myself.
No, but seriously, is it an attempt to move beyond just animation, aclearly identified, family structure theme?
MacFarlane: You just want to do things -- when something becomes easy from a procedural standpoint, I get bored with it. I like to do things that scare me a little bit. Even in terms of "Family Guy" there are stories that we've told on the show that could potentially ruin the series, and I always feel like those are the one that are kind of worth doing. If something no longer scares you or you can't possibly torpedo your career by doing it, then there's really no point. What's the fun?
And by extension you feel great about making a product that is by definition not for everyone?
MacFarlane: Yeah, no, it's not for everyone. Its an acquired taste, but "Ted" I think what will hopefully surprise people about "Ted", certainly people who've seen "Family Guy," there's certainly more of a background to it as far as sweetness, as far as heart. Where this movie goes is something that I think will certainly surprise a lot of people.
Are you thinking about directing live action again? If so will you have any animated elements or just like actual flesh and blood, poke them and they cry, actors?
MacFarlane: I'd love to do a movie with no animated elements just to try it on for size. I've been in animation so long that it would be nice to not have to constantly worry about what's going to fit into this empty space, to have everything already there. I'd love to do another movie with this guy. I had the best experience in the world. He just knocked every kind of comedy out of the park, and we threw ever style of comedy at him. It was a great time.
Mr. Wahlberg, no resentment about getting billing below the bear in the title?
Wahlberg: Not at all. I love the bear.
MacFarlane: (Wahlberg's) credited first!
Well, the title is "Ted."
Wahlberg: Well, we're still working on changing it to "John and Ted."
("Ted" hits theaters July 13th 2012.)
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bonus video interview from ign:
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