Justin Timberlake Interview, The Love Guru

MoviesOnline sat down recently to chat with Justin Timberlake about his new movie, “The Love Guru,” produced and written by Mike Myers and directed by Marco Schnabel. When Guru Pitka (Myers) is engaged to use his ancient spiritual wisdom to fix a 21st Century celebrity romance, his karma runs headlong into comedy. The all-star cast also includes Jessica Alba, Romany Malco, Verne Troyer, Meagan Good, Omid Djalili and Ben Kingsley who join Myers in this romp through the territory where enlightenment and merriment collide.

Timberlake plays the savagely seductive Quebecois goalie, Jacques “Le Coq” Grande, who lives up to his name and uses his prodigious charisma, love of chick-flicks and crooning of Celine Dion tunes to steal away the affections of hockey rival, Darren Roanoke’s (Malco) wife. When the star player of the Toronto Maple Leafs loses his wife to the L.A. Kings’ legendary goalie, his unhappy love life leads to an agonizing losing streak for his team.

For the hilariously uninhibited role, Myers immediately thought of someone unexpected:  the global pop star and multi-talented Justin Timberlake, with whom he had worked on the animated hit “Shrek the Third.” Timberlake had also been seen on a number of memorable “Saturday Night Live” sketches, but this would mark his first major comedic film character.

Says Myers about Timberlake:  “I do have a man-crush on him. He’s like the most talented human being I’ve ever met in my life. And as the most well-endowed player in the National Hockey League, he’s very funny. Justin instantly nailed the character. He also turns out to have a great goalie stance.”

“Justin’s comic abilities have been largely untapped,” notes Schnabel. “But I believe a new comedy star has been born. As Darren Roanoke’s romantic rival, Justin took it to a whole new level with his dancing and singing. We had to do take after take because we were laughing so hard. And Mike and I were having a ball because we just never knew what Justin was going to do next.”

Justin Timberlake is a fabulous guy and we really appreciated his time. Here’s what he had to tell us about “The Love Guru”:

MoviesOnline: When you tried on the costume and looked at yourself in the mirror, what went through your mind?

TIMBERLAKE: I said, ”This is going to be funny. I know! All I have to do is show up now and this is going to be funny.”

MoviesOnline: What do you think Mike Myers saw in you that made him think you could pull this off?

TIMBERLAKE: I can’t say, really. I would assume that my interaction with Mike promoting Shrek the Third and probably most likely my couple of stints on SNL let Mike know that I could play the part.

MoviesOnline: Did he just send you the script or did he call you up and describe it to you?

TIMBERLAKE: He called first and then he sent the script and our conversation went something like, “Hey, I want you to come play the villain in this new movie I’m working on. I’ve been, you know, workshopping the character.” I don't know if you guys know Mike’s process, but it’s pretty amazing, right? I wish I would have gotten to workshop Jacques Grande. That was pretty amazing. Now he’s just going to be too famous. I’m not going to be able to show up and do it.

MoviesOnline: Did you work on the accent? Did you have a dialect coach?

TIMBERLAKE: Both. Yes. I figured the best way to do it was to get the accent down proper. And so I got the accent down proper and then when we got to set, for the first couple of days that I was on set, I just kept the dialect coach with me, and said, “You have to help me find ways to milk this.” Because we’re in a Mike Myers film, okay, so we have to be funny.” I didn't think about it, somebody just pointed this out to me, I’m the only other caricature really in the film. I mean, between Mike and myself, everybody else plays it kind of straight. But we are the antagonists in the film. I’m the other guy who’s basically in a clown suit.

MoviesOnline: Does it help you to stay in character between takes? Did you keep the accent?

TIMBERLAKE: As much as possible. I would say something and then repeat it, you know, in zee accent, to try to keep it fresh. But you’re kind of just going, you know. A lot of it, like I said, was picking out certain words where you could mess with the rhythm of them and sort of make them funny.

MoviesOnline: Was comedy always something that you could do easily?

TIMBERLAKE: I don’t think it’s easy.

MoviesOnline: Why do you think you’re funny? Where does that come from?

TIMBERLAKE: Well look at me! Apart from that. I know that there’s certain people in the world like Mike who just enjoy making people laugh. My earliest memories as a kid was I would always try to make my mom and my stepdad laugh at dinner. Or make my friends laugh in class. I don't know. It’s just something I really enjoy doing, especially to be a part of something like this. You don’t get this call every day because Mike doesn’t do this movie but every so often. So, you know, I jumped at the chance I think.

MoviesOnline: Did you go anywhere in that outfit to see if anybody recognized you?

TIMBERLAKE: No, but funny enough, the first day that I worked there were a handful of crew members who didn't know it was me for the first half day. Actually the director came up to me and he said, “This is so funny, you’re going to love this. A couple of the crew guys just came up to me and said, “Hey, isn’t Justin Timberlake supposed to start today? Doesn’t he start shooting today?” And he was like, “Yeah. Did he not show up?” And he was like, “That’s him.” So when things like that started to come to my attention, I was like, this is going to be something memorable.

MoviesOnline: Do you know anything about hockey and are you a Celine Dion fan?

TIMBERLAKE: I’m a Celine Dion fan. Maybe not as obsessive as my character. I knew a little bit about hockey, but obviously I learned a lot. I got a crash course in how to play goalie, which is not easy at all. I was okay. I did pretty good. I got to actually [play]. I’ll tell you what’s fun is you get in these situations, because that’s what I really wanted to do when I was a kid, I wanted to be a pro-basketball player. That’s the only other thing I did that I cared about when I was a kid. I played AAU ball. I played junior Olympic. I did the whole thing from the time I was 8 until I was 14, and then all of a sudden I’m 14 years old and I get a phone call saying, “Hey, they’ll give us a record deal.” I was like, “All right, that sounds pretty promising.”

MoviesOnline: What was the most fun moment on set?

TIMBERLAKE: Well the set was kind of a party the whole time. I think the most fun moment on set was actually getting to take slap shots from Rob Blake. That was probably the most fun moment on set. Meeting these legendary hockey players and then skating around with them and them giving me tips on how to actually play goalie. I’m never going to do this after this movie’s over, it’s too painful. But I didn't tell them that, I was just like, “Thanks man, thank you.”

MoviesOnline: You’ve hosted two very good episodes of Saturday Night Live.

TIMBERLAKE: Thanks.

MoviesOnline: Do you get nervous when you’re hosting and did you know that Dick in the Box was going to be what it was? I heard you even performed it in concert.

TIMBERLAKE: Yeah, no, we totally were thinking Emmy. I was looking at Andy, I finished the last lyrics and melody, and I said—Emmy. (Laughs) Uh, no. We knew it was funny to us. We knew, we were laughing and that must count for something. And I think comedy translates that way, you know? Just like I feel like live shows translate that way. If you’re having a good time, it bleeds onto people. But it was something Lorne wanted us to do, you know, after the Chronicles of Narnia. Lorne said, “We’re having Justin on the show. We have to do some sort of digital short.” And Andy [Samberg] and I just got together, and I remember him and his co-writers, I think one of them said, “What about the old Dick in a Box Joke?” And we were like, “That could be funny.” Then all of a sudden, I can’t remember who said it, but it was like, “What if we made a cheesy, early nineties R&B song out of it?” I was like, “Alright, I got that.” And we just started writing it. They had written down a bunch of lines. You know, we came back the next day and one of his co-writers had done a bunch of lines. So I just basically modified the lines, added words here and there, and put it together like a puzzle and put a melody to it.

MoviesOnline: What about performing it in concert? How did that go over?

TIMBERLAKE: We did it at the Garden. Imagine a sold-out Madison Square Garden singing the whole song. It was pretty magical. As far as getting nervous for SNL, it’s just pure excitement. You get that little bit of nervousness because you know the next hour and a half you’re just going to be running. You don’t have time to think about it. I think that’s why they give you a week to figure it out, because you really don’t have time to think about it when it’s happening. If you’re able to, do me a favor and YouTube the Christmas episode with Dick in a Box, and watch the opening segment because I went from a suit into the Cup of Soup in literally 30 seconds. It should give you an idea. Because there’s no commercial break between the intro with Alvin and the Chipmunks and the next sketch, and I walk into the next sketch. And it’s a short amount of time. So that’s how fast you’re changing clothes. You don’t have time to think about anything when the show is actually being taped.

MoviesOnline: Was acting always an extension for you of music? Was that always a plan of yours?

TIMBERLAKE: Funny enough, I remember, it’s interesting, my stepdad and I just had a conversation. He goes, “You know, it’s so funny that you’re actually still finding a way to get into film.” And I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Remember when you were 14 and you were recording demos in Nashville.” The television show had gotten canceled and I was going back to school and I was going to start high school. Our next thing was to try to drive out to LA for pilot season, and that was what I was going to do. And I got a phone call from Chris Kirkpatrick, and he said there’s a label in Germany that will sign us and we’ll have a manager. Who’d have known he’d end up spending 25 in jail—but it’s not my business. It’s just funny how it all kind of works out.

MoviesOnline: Are you surprised at the way things have turned out for you in terms of your career?

TIMBERLAKE: A lot. A lot. Every day I kind of look at it and say, “How did…?” But it’s interesting. One thing definitely leads to the other. I don't know, everybody says, “Everything happens for a reason.” I don't know about that, but I know that one thing leads to the other. I think I’ve just been lucky enough to have some opportunities thus far to do films that I think are either good dramatic roles or good stories to tell or, you know, Jacques Grande.

MoviesOnline: Do you get nervous right before a concert?

TIMBERLAKE: No, not before a concert.

MoviesOnline: What about going on set for a movie like this?

TIMBERLAKE: I think it depends. For instance, take a film like Black Snake Moan? Basically, I was just an emotional wreck the whole movie, my character. There’s a lot of concentration that goes into filming those scenes. I think you just feel the weight of them more than anything. I think for a performer, because that’s really what we all are, anytime the nervousness comes in, the focus jumps in as well and it overbears it in a way. It supersedes it. I think you just become uber-focused.

MoviesOnline: You’ve done huge arenas and stadiums. Does going before 50,000 people give you butterflies?

TIMBERLAKE: Oh, yeah, you get butterflies. It’s not like, “Oh my God, I hope I do good.” You just sort of get caught up in the electricity of it, if that’s what you mean. Oh, yeah, that still happens to this day, and when that stops happening, you should stop. It’s addictive, you know what I mean?

MoviesOnline: What keeps you grounded? How are you able to deal with the celebrity and all the fame?

TIMBERLAKE: I think that it all goes back to, a lot of it goes back to family. I think it’s how you’re raised. I think that a lot of people, it does, it is at some point or another you have a moment where things become, it becomes pressure. Because you do feel like people are watching you and you do feel like you’re going to affect people and you feel the weight of that. So you start to feel pressure. Then you deal with it one of two ways—or maybe three or four ways. But I think a lot of it has to do with however you were prepared before that moment. For me, my mom and my stepdad, I was born and raised in a home where, you know, we were always taught that everybody puts their pants on the same way every morning, so just because you can do one or two things extraordinarily... My idol when I was a kid was Michael Jordan. I remember when I was really young and my parents telling me, “He’s a great basketball player but that doesn’t make him superhuman, you know. That makes him a great basketball player.” I think that’s just what I was taught. How it’s affected me in my adult life with dealing with what might become too much pressure to meet people’s needs or fascination, is I just let it go. I don’t invest in it. And I stay away from it as much as I can.

MoviesOnline: Any new records? Do you have anything coming out soon?

TIMBERLAKE: Not of my own, but I do have a lot of creative juice going into writing and producing my artists on our indie label. It’s called Tennman Records. Tennessee Man. That’s me.

MoviesOnline: What other movies are you working on?

TIMBERLAKE: I just wrapped a film called The Open Road. I just wrapped a film with Jeff Bridges, Mary Steenburgen, and Harry Dean Stanton. A great cast. A great young writer/director, Michael Meredith. It’s kind of a dramedy. It was sort of my first time to play the lead, play the protagonist, so it was a really fun experience.

“The Love Guru” opens in theaters on June 20th.