Es invade nuptials in ‘thrill ride’ Shotgun Wedding
D LOADED: Bride Jennifer takes her own hands and (left) arguing illa’ Duhamel on their big day r of the bride and groom play les — except here, the bride’s and father are veteran acia Braga and comedy legend Marin, and Jennifer Coolidge e Coulter play the parents of m. e (61) is very much the woman ment. At the beginning of the eceived a standing ovation as ted a Golden Globe Award for n hit series The White Lotus, lso recently starred in Netflix’s hriller series The Watcher. se, she’s best known for her nces in American Pie, Legaland A Cinderella Story, but being involved in comedies a darker edge. ke the combo of dark and really do,” Coolidge says. hen it’s incredibly real, it feels t’s very sort of scary stuff and edy is sort of mixed in. BevCop was one of my favourite hen I was growing up, so I ombo.” gun Wedding, Coolidge plays
Tom’s mother Carol, who she says is “a very simple woman in the way she looks at life”.
“She is someone who only sees the good in people, and, the way she was written, I recognised that kind of innocent, glass-half-full person and knew how to play her,” she adds.
Working alongside Coolidge is Coulter, who has previously had roles in The Conjuring and The Hunger Games.
“It’s very, very funny, but the violence in it’s... these people get in serious trouble!” he says of the film.
“It’s not like oh, wacky, lovable pirates. They’re like, murderous, it’s like, if you imagine the absolute worst possible thing to happen at a wedding, apart from the food, would be pirates.”
Playing Coolidge and Coulter’s onscreen son Tom, Duhamel — best known for starring in the Transformers film series — says he also loved the scale of Shotgun Wedding and how it blends the rom-com genre with riotous action.
“What I love about the movie, and what I think J Moore did such a great job on, is he wasn’t afraid to make this a big romp of a movie,” says the 50-year-old.
“This movie felt totally and comedically different than anything I’ve done.”
Director Moore (52) says that when he first received the script by Mark Hammer — who also wrote 2014 romcom Two Night Stand — he was initially surprised because “it’s an unusual blend of genres, balancing romance, action and comedy in a way that felt new”.
Lively
“I had never done those kinds of big action sequences before, so that was appealing to me as well,” he adds.
That said, Moore points out that Shotgun Wedding isn’t such a far cry from his previous work — which includes 2015 comedy Sisters — as his approach to filming the lively action sequences are similar to crafting compelling choreography.
“With choreography, you want it to be physically exciting and surprising, you want it to escalate, you want it to tell a story,” he says.
“You can apply those same rules to action — you want it to have pace, to build and have surprises.
“And, for me, the best action is centred around character. You can have a thousand things blowing up and cars racing, but if you don’t care about who’s driving the car, then it’s not as fun.
“I hope what audiences take away from this movie is it’s a total thrill ride with characters that you really love and care about but also laugh at the whole time.”
“I think people will feel emotional, happy, laughing, a little bit exhausted, and maybe just a little bit spent, but in the best way. I want them to have a really rocking good time... just like a good wedding.”
“I think it’s a real sort of entertainment movie,” Coolidge agrees.
“You root for them and...it’s a very sexy movie, too!”
Shotgun Wedding comes to Prime Video this Friday, January 27.