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What was difficult was the schedule. Shooting was due to start in October, but had to be postponed because of Lawrence’s much-publicised hospitalisation after lapsing into a coma as a result of heat exhaustion. In the end, filming didn’t begin until well into the New Year, with the summer release date of June 3 already locked in. Plus, Lawrence was understandably apprehensive about working in the fat suit. “It’s not the ideal thing to do prosthetics, especially after you’ve been in a coma,” he says. “But I thought it was a funny script, and it was something I wanted to do.”
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“I thought it was a real lady. And then Martin goes, ‘Hey man!’ Course, I tried to fake like I already knew that it was him under the suit. But I didn’t”
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BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE |
Friendly Productions,
The Firm, for 20th Century Fox.
Prod: David T Friendly, Michael Green, Rodney Liber; Exec prod: Martin Lawrence, Jeff Kwatinetz, Rodney Liber; Dir: Raja Gosnell; Scr: Darryl Quarrles; Ph: Michael O’Shea; Prod des: Craig Stearns; Cost des: Francine Jamison-Tanchuck; Sp make-up fx: Greg Cannom; Ed: Bruce Green; Mus: Richard Gibbs.
With Martin Lawrence (Malcolm), Nia Long (Sherry), Paul Giamatti (John), Jascha Washington (Trent), Ella Mitchell (Hattie May Pierce, aka Big Momma), Terrence Howard (Lester), Anthony Anderson (Nolan), Carl Wright (Ben), Phyllis Applegate (Sadie).
International
distribution:
Twentieth Century Fox.
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Elaborate precautions were taken. “We were very concerned about keeping him from overheating,” says Friendly. “The beginning of the movie was all on location: we shot a lot of it in Orange County, doubling for Cartersville, Georgia, and we had an elaborate system with ice water running through these tubes that were attached to him within the fat suit.
“Immediately after every take, he would go into an air-conditioned cool-off tent. We just had to be very careful. I mean, in a perfect world, was this the movie for him to do coming out of intensive care at the hospital? I doubt it! But it’s because of the strength of his character and his commitment to the project that he did not back out. And he came through with tremendous energy and a winning performance.”
A particularly challenging - and extremely funny - scene involved Big Momma playing basketball. Lawrence’s character, like the actor himself, is a basketball fanatic, and can’t resist shooting a few hoops, even when he’s in full Big Momma get-up, ending with the 300-pound grandmother running rings round the kids on the court and executing a final, triumphant slam-dunk.
The movie’s real set-piece, though, combining the comedy and the sense of community which are the keys to Big Momma’s House, was a scene in church in which Malcolm as Big Momma is singled out by the preacher and, without really knowing what he is doing, has to improvise testifying and the singing of ‘Oh Happy Day’.
“I think it was that day that Martin came with all of his abilities and all of his focus and truly knocked it out of the park,” recalls Friendly. “The first take was a long master where he had to come into the church as Big Momma, come down the aisle, go to his seat, be called upon by the Reverend to testify, go through about three pages of dialogue and then launch into ‘Oh Happy Day’. And on the first take, he did it absolutely flawlessly. I remember turning to Raja saying ‘You just shot some comedy history here!’ It was in that moment that I think I really realised the true potential for the film.”
Lawrence, too, has vivid memories of the day. “The church scene was probably one of my highlights of the film,” he says, “because everybody was a part of that: it was just a wonderful experience. I felt like I really was in church that day. It was so exciting for me, the energy that they gave to it, which in turn allowed me to give energy right back. I thought it was a wonderful scene that I’m very glad to have been a part of.”
So how would Friendly describe the movie to audiences? “I would tell ‘em Big Momma’s House is the story of an FBI agent who has to go undercover portraying a southern grandmother, Hattie Mae Pierce,” he says, “and by becoming this character, he himself becomes a better man. He learns to re-prioritise his life and he comes out of it with a whole different set of values.
“Early on in the movie, we see that he’s a solitary bachelor who has a big-screen TV in the family room and a closet full of suits in his bedroom, and not much else. And by the end of the movie he has a whole new sense of priorities and he’s cooking up a storm in his house: he’s become a different person by virtue of this experience where he had to become Big Momma.”
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