The Farrelly brothers have been trying to keep the comedy genre fresh with wacky and outlandish films like There’s Something About Mary, Stuck On You, Shallow Hal and the seminal Dumb & Dumber. And they’ve added another one to their arsenal, which is due for release Oct. 5.
“You know what? It’s not the money, believe it or not … It was more about, like, I’m a fan of the Farrelly brothers. You know what I mean? You know, we quote their movies around my house with my friends and family,” Carlos Mencia, one of the actors in their latest film, The Heartbreak Kid, said in a conference call.
The Heartbreak Kid tries to set another standard by being a romantic comedy about commitaphobe Eddie Cantrow (Ben Stiller), who finally decides to settle down, marrying a seemingly normal, fun and exciting woman named Lila (Malin Akerman), whom Eddie figures represents his best shot at being happy.
On the honeymoon however, Eddie meets Miranda (Michelle Monaghan), who turns out to actually be the perfect woman for him. While on the honeymoon, they continue to see each other, Eddie all the fact that he was recently married a secret. He also discovers Lila isn’t quite as stable as he thought she was.
Mencia’s character, Uncle Tito, helps Eddie reach a turning point in his life. This is a role for Mencia that he said broke new ground in his acting career.
“There’s a part in the movie that’s very — it’s a very serious moment where Uncle Tito kind of let[s] [Ben]’s character kind of realize — makes him realize that he’s been doing a lot of screwed up stuff, and he lets him know, in a very honest way,” he said.
While Mencia is interested in stretching his dramatic legs, this role, while still mostly comedic, had him a bit nervous.
“That was the part of this role that was kind of edgy for people that they were like, ‘OK, we know you’re funny, we know you’re a comedian, we know you can make people laugh, but are you going to be able to, you know, deliver this dramatic moment?'” Mencia said.
It’s a classic tactic in comedy films to have an unhinged character talked down to by someone outside his normal sphere of friends and family, and Mencia said he is eager to try more drama in the future.
Mencia, mainly a TV actor recognized for his role on the live series Mind of Mencia, found out what it was like to do comedy on film, where you have to wait to discover audience’s reactions to jokes.
“So, when I got to see the movie for the first time, you know, at a screening with a bunch of people and I heard them laugh, it was so, like, ‘Oh, my God. Yes, thank God it’s funny,’ because you believe it’s funny. You do good work, but you still, you know, need people to say it’s funny in order to actually find out whether it is or not,” Mencia said.
When asked if he would try a more dramatic role in the future, he responded, “I don’t know what I’m going to try, but don’t be surprise[d] at all if, you know, my strong point in this or some of my strong points are in more dramatic acting, believe it or not. It just seems to be something that a lot of people want me to do or interested in doing.”
