Page 48 - Peter Farrelly Issue

Peter Farrelly with John Brawley
make, and Woody’s an old friend of ours. We’ve known him ever since I got to LA. We’d met him before he was known, before he was the famous Woody Harrelson. But in any case, he wanted to make it. I was busy mak- ing a movie, so Bobby did it. I love that movie. I thought Bobby did an excellent job and Woody, too. A really great movie.
ly done much. He had played a small role in a movie called “Wildcats,” where Goldie Hawn coached a foot- ball team.
Cooper: Speaking about Hope Allen and talking with you, when we were over at your place in Santa Monica, Conundrum, Woody was there playing foosball.
Farrelly: He was one of the players. And he had also been an understudy on Broadway. I was nervous for him. But I went there, and he crushed it. And, of course, he never looked back.
Farrelly: Yeah. Woody, there’s an old saying, I think Goethe said it, something to the effect of, “Once you follow your heart, divine providence will help you in ways you couldn’t possibly have foreseen.” When I came out here to become a writer–which was a hard thing to do, but it’s something you can easily fail at–the doors that opened for me were weird. First of all, meet- ing Woody before Woody was on “Cheers” and then getting my first agent, Richard Lovett, who if you Google today “best agent in Hollywood,” his name comes up, meeting my wife—there are a million things like that. So, Woody and I and Bobby have been friends for 30, going toward 40 years.
Cooper: You and your brother came out to Los Angeles together, I would think?
Cooper: Oh, yes, definitely leaning toward 40.
Cooper: (laughs) And what was your background edu- cation-wise?
Farrelly: Yeah. I was at the first episode he ever did of “Cheers.” I was scared to death for him. He hadn’t real-
Farrelly: Accounting.
Cooper: (laughs) I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh.
48 ABILITY
Cooper: Oh, yeah.
Farrelly: No, I came out a little ahead of my brother. At the time, he had majored in geological engineering, and he was kind of doing some kind of sales thing at that time, bopping around. But then, every time I wrote a script–I was out here with my friend. And whenever we wrote a script, we’d give it to Bobby. And he would edit it and punch it up, say, “This stinks. This is good.” He had good instincts. Eventually we pulled him in. We said, “Come on, join the party.”