Sunday, June 14, 2009 | A+E, Movies, Q&A
Honest injun

Imagine that! Thomas Haden Church shines in latest role

Bruce McBroom/Paramount Pictures

“IMAGINE THAT”
Eddie Murphy, Thomas Haden Church
Directed by Karey Kirkpatrick
Rated PG
Wide release

BY BERT OSBORNE
 
Imagine that, indeed—an Eddie Murphy vehicle in which the comic superstar isn’t playing the silliest character on view. "Imagine That" casts Murphy as a divorced father whose precocious little daughter and her imaginary friends provide him with the stock tips he needs to get ahead in his career. Meanwhile, as an insinuating co-worker who passes himself off as a mystical Native American, it’s Thomas Haden Church who really gets to cut loose. The sitcom vet ("Wings"), Emmy winner (the miniseries "Broken Trail") and Oscar nominee ("Sideways") discussed the movie during a recent interview in Los Angeles.
 

Talk about walking the fine line between having fun with this role and playing it for laughs, while not making it offensive or insulting to actual Native Americans.

 Well, we kind of take the curse off of it as completely as we can at the end of the movie. I mean, the guy turns out to be a total fraud. … Look, the character is corny and cheesy, with all that "how" stuff. We talked to Native Americans and met with some tribal council people when we were shooting in Colorado, and I don’t really think they had much of a problem with it. Paramount did the political thing by reading Native American actors for the role, but he’s just so absurd in the end, I don’t think it’s much of an issue. 

 

Eddie Murphy underplays a lot of his role in the film. What was it like working with him?

 He’s such a towering presence, like a giant with a bunch of puny humans scampering around his ankles. He’s been a movie star for more than a quarter of a century, and he’s been a real hero of mine ever since I was in college and he was doing "Saturday Night Live." I’d never met him before, but he seemed to be really glad to have me in the movie. He had casting approval, so that meant a lot to me. They asked him about several different actors, but he said he liked me. That was pretty great, because I didn’t think he could pick me out of a police lineup or had any idea who I was. He was very collaborative and couldn’t have been warmer.

 

When choosing roles, do you need to like your character? What did you like about this one?

 To be perfectly honest, I liked the character because he was in a script for the first movie I’ve ever done that my 4-year-old daughter could see. I really wanted to work with Eddie, of course, but I mainly wanted to be in a true family movie. Aside from some of the voice work I’ve done ["Charlotte’s Web," "Over the Hedge"], this will be the first time she’ll actually get to see her father on screen.

 

What can you tell us about your upcoming roles in "Don McKay" and "All About Steve"?

 "Don McKay" just premiered at Tribeca and is coming out at the end of year. It’s a very dark comedy, and I’m playing a janitor who rediscovers love with his high-school sweetheart [played by Elisabeth Shue]. In "Steve," I’m a CNN reporter and Bradley Cooper is my cameraman, and we’re being stalked by Sandra Bullock’s character. It’s a little on the sillier side.

Do you have any preference between the darker stuff and the sillier stuff? Does one come more naturally or easily to you than the other?

 Not really. It’s all about working with the right director, the right script, the right character and the right co-stars—all the different ingredients that go into this tasty stew I call my career. SP