Fighting
fit: Bret McKenzie as Nige in Two Little Boys Source:
National Features
Vicky Roach, The Daily Telegraph, reports
Bret McKenzie took a serious hiding on his latest film, a twisted bromance set in New Zealand's deep south in the 1990s.
But it wasn't from the critics.
Off screen, the Flight Of the Conchords star got along well with new comedy bestie Hamish Blake.
But on screen, they beat each other black and blue.
"Hamish and I were so inexperienced that we didn't know how to do fake fighting," McKenzie says.
"So (director) Rob (Sarkies) just told us to punch each other to make it real.
"We ended up so bruised and beaten - particularly me, because Hamish is a bit bigger than me - that they had to put make-up over the bruises when they were filming."
McKenzie plays "another hapless fool, but an extreme version this time" in Sarkies's black comedy, which explores the dysfunctional relationship between two childhood friends growing up in Invercargill, New Zealand's southern-most "city".
When Two Little Boys opens, Nige (McKenzie) has managed to extricate himself from the clutches of a deeply possessive Deano (Blake) by moving in with his new friend Gav (Maaka Pohatu), a giant teddy bear of a man.
But after the mullet-sporting pushover accidentally runs over a Norwegian backpacker - after spilling a hot meat pie on his stone-washed jeans - he is sucked back into Deano's suffocating orbit.
For the professionally affable Blake, it was a welcome chance to play against type.
"It's great isn't it?" says McKenzie. "I love that. His character is so different from what people are going to expect from him."
Although they joked they felt like they were cheating on their long-time comedy partners - Jemaine Clement and Andy Lee - they quickly adjusted to the infidelity.
"That was probably one of the best things about the film," McKenzie says. "Even though it's a comedy, some scenes were quite bleak to shoot.
"It was great having Hamish to bounce off, because he is such an incredibly funny man."
McKenzie has his chance to play against type in his next project, the romantic comedy Austenland, in which he stars opposite Felicity's Keri Russell as a confident ladies' man.
There's been no bullying, either, on his latest project - even though he's back working with Miss Piggy.
Miss Piggy and Kermit and the gang have retired to a backlot while McKenzie and director James Bobin work on a follow up to The Muppets.
Despite the best original song Oscar McKenzie won for Man or Muppet, Two Little Boys' Kiwi black comedic tone is in some ways closer to his heart.
"It's definitely the stuff I find funny as well," he says.
"Working in Los Angeles, I have learned to tone it down. I just know that there are some things I find funny that will not make it through the system."
McKenzie expects the new Muppets movie to keep him gainfully occupied for most of next year. This will come as a disappointment to Flight Of the Conchords fans, since that means that that long-anticipated movie probably won't get off the ground.
"I'm not sure if that is going to happen," he says. "We like the idea but it's no more than an idea. We are busy doing other things and films take such a long time to make. I find it hard to imagine us finding two years to work on a film."
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