PLUME: How did the co-directorship with Rick work?

THOMAS: It was all right. There were places where it was redundant. A wardrobe girl would come up and say, “What color should her shoes be?” and I would say, “I don’t know. Blue.” Then she’d see Rick and she’d say, “Do you think they should be blue shoes?” and he’d go, “No, make them red.” Then she’d say, “Well Dave said blue.” And he’d say, “He did? Well why’d he say that?” You know what I mean? There are certain decisions that come with the job of directing a movie that only one person should make. They’re not important enough to have two people endorsing or debating them, so we ended up tripping over each other’s feet sometimes with the mechanics of the job of directing, but I would do it again with him because I enjoy bouncing off him. I think he’s very sharp and we have similar comic sensibilities.

PLUME: Was it a harmonious co-directing relationship? Very rarely does one hear of it working all too well.

THOMAS: Well, let me tell you a story that I think sets this up. The studio sent up four or five candidates for the job of producer for us to meet. They were all basically guys that MGM trusted because they had delivered movies on time and on budget before. Jack Grossberg was the one we liked the best because he had produced three or four movies with Woody Allen - Take The Money And Run, Bananas, and Sleeper. And he had produced The Producers with Mel Brooks, so clearly, Jack knew comedy. He’d also done Missouri Breaks, and King Kong for Dino de Laurentis. He had just stopped shooting Brainstorm because Natalie Wood had died, so the studio was looking to put him on our movie. Jack was one of the old lions of Hollywood. He really knew the business. The studio had fired the guy who was originally attached to Strange Brew as director, and they wanted Rick and I to direct the movie together, under the supervision of a strong producer like Jack Grossberg. Anyway, we got very comfortable with Jack very fast. So comfortable that, I remember that we asked Jack, when we were interviewing him, “If we fuck up and can’t do this, would you take over and direct it for us?” And he said, “No no no, don’t get like that. Don’t do “The Jack Story” (reference to an old joke that we knew) on yourselves, guys. You’ll be terrific. You’ll be great. I’ll help ya.” So he ended up being sort of a touchstone for both of us and I think, in many ways, that 10w-30 weight that absorbs the contention that might normally come from co-directorship. We bounced things off Jack and got his feedback for just about everything we did. In fact, he really directed the movie now that I think of it. Yep, Jack Grossberg directed “Strange Brew“.

THOMAS: We were sitting in Freddie Field’s office. Freddie was the President of MGM. And I said that, from the beginning, I had had Max Von Sydow as my choice for Brewmaster Smith. And Freddie just yells to his secretary, “GET MAX VON SYDOW ON THE PHONE!” I’m not exaggerating. She calls him in Sweden. Freddie had produced this soccer movie with Max and Sylvester Stallone, so he knew him. He said, “Max, I’m sitting here at MGM with Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis.” (No response from Sweden) “They’ve got a very funny movie they’re going to do and they want you to play a part in it.”(still no response) So Freddie just handed me the phone, “Here’s Dave.” So I had to pitch Max the story over the phone, and I went through the whole story, took a deep breath, and then Max speaks for the first time. (in Max Sydow voice), “So, it’s a comedy then.” I burst out laughing that I got pimped and suckered by this guy like that. What happened, we found out later from Max, was that he read the script, and I don’t know what he thought of it, but he phoned his son, who lived in the States, and asked him if he knew anything about the McKenzies and/or Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis. His kid said, “Oh yeah, they’re very funny! You should do that movie!” So Max Von Sydow ended up doing the movie because his kid told him to. The first day of the shoot when I met him, I said, “Max, I know everything you’ve ever done. I know all the Bergman stuff. I know you were the first Jesus to show his face in The Greatest Story Ever Told. I memorized your speech from Three Days of the Condor.” And he said (in Max voice), “You memorized it, huh? Do it for me now.” So I had to do this speech for him, and it was very embarrassing and fun, all at the same time. He ended up being a wonderful guy to work with, and we teamed him up with Paul Dooley - who we knew from Second City. Paul was a Second City alum a generation ahead of us who did a lot of character acting and stuff like that. And then we went and shot the movie.

PLUME: He really seemed to be having a good time.

THOMAS: Yeah.

PLUME: Did you get the impression that he understood the movie he was making and what he’d gotten himself into?

THOMAS: Oh yeah, yeah. In fact, he said (a la Max), “This is very funny, you know. I’m a member of one of three comedians who do movies in Sweden that are very similar to this. Three incredibly stupid guys who are so dumb, they can not even tie their own shoelaces.” It was hilarious hearing Max’s take on the McKenzies as an outsider who’s never heard of us, and that his take on it was that our characters are so dumb they can’t even tie their own shoelaces.

PLUME: He’s definitely not the first actor one would have thought of to be in a McKenzie Brothers film.

THOMAS: Uh-uh.

PLUME: And added a touch of gravity to the proceedings as well.

THOMAS: I don’t know about that. Max decided that the character Brew Meister Smith should have huge false teeth. I remember being very frightened that no one would be able to understand him. But he pulled it off. But, for me, those giant teeth undermined the gravity of his performance.

PLUME: You also got Mel Blanc for the voice of the brothers’ father. How did that come about?

THOMAS: The idea of who should do the voice didn’t come up until post production. We were doing the post at MGM down here in LA, and I said I want Mel Blanc to do the voice of the McKenzie’s father. So we get the info back from his agent, “Mel’s rate is ten grand an hour, and you’ve got to give him a limo.” So we said, “Oh well, it’s worth it. It’s Mel Blanc!” Well Freddie Fields, the president of MGM, said, “No. I don’t pay anybody ten grand for an hour’s worth of work.” I think it was an ego thing with Freddie. So we ended up having to fudge it a little bit for Freddie. We said, “We actually need Mel for the whole day, and we hammered him on his fee. He’s going to give us the whole day for ten grand.” We had to make it seem to Freddie like he was getting nine more hours out of the guy, so Freddie was getting a deal. What really happened was Mel was still in and out in under an hour, but it was like, you know, Mel Blanc. You’ve gotta get Mel. He’s got this voice. I mean, he was a tiny little guy. I’ve got a picture of the two of us together here on my wall, and Mel was a tiny little guy, but with a thick, thick pipe. His voice was so thick and rich and raspy. The minute he opened his mouth it was hysterically funny.

PLUME: The father became a character unto himself.

THOMAS: We had no idea that anybody would tune into that. That was just for my own interest.

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