5 Fun Facts From The Super Troopers 2 Broken Lizard Q&A
Article by Aaron Haughton
Starting March 19th, the Broken Lizard crew (consisting of Jay Chandrasekhar, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, and Kevin Heffernan) embarked on a 3-week cross-country tour that spanned 12 major U.S. cities to premiere their highly anticipated new film: Super Troopers 2. Best of all, the Broken Lizard would be hanging out afterwards for a brief audience Q&A and photos. They couldn't have been nicer guys, and they were extremely humbled by all love fans showed. Steve Lemme even made the comment that they "thank [fans] two times"; one for donating to their crowdfunded efforts, and another for showing the Hollywood studio that there were still fans out there, which was something the studio system didn't have faith in.
The energy amongst fans was pretty ecstatic, and they were definitely amped to see the film, which did not disappoint and prompted a lengthy bit of applause by the end. The questions hurled out by the crowd spanned the gamut between awkward and thought-provoking, but even the most seemingly idiotic question (which happened to be an Indian kid asking Chandrasekhar if his mother ever pushed him to be a doctor) had some tidbits of revelation, like that Puddle Cruisers was financed by a credit card with an unlimited ceiling, which the Broken Lizard acquired because the financial institution thought Chandrasekhar was a doctor's name, or that the working title for a Beerfest sequel — which they seem to be seriously considering, by the way — is Potfest: Beerfest Part II, an obscure reference to Rambo: First Blood Part II.
The evening was a blast, and the film was pretty satisfactory (you can read our full review here). Out of the 24-minute Q&A session, which you can listen to in full below, we've pulled what we consider to be the most interesting factoids for your amusement. Fair warning: some of the information below contains minor spoilers, so if you're a cinema purist, stay away until you've seen the film.
- Rob Lowe was on board without even seeing a script.
Jay Chandrasekhar: I shot Rob Lowe’s show The Grinder, and on the last day I said to him: “Would you be in Super Troopers 2?” He said, “Anything! I don’t even need to see the script.” And I was like, “Okay, good!” Fred Savage was sitting right there, and he goes, “What about me?!”
Paul Soter: What was cool was that [Lowe] agreed to do it, and then The Grinder ended, and he immediately got on a medical drama. Even though he was working in L.A. Monday through Friday every week, he kept his word to do our movie. So we had him on the weekends. He would work every day on this CBS medical drama, and at the end of the day on Friday, he’d get on a plane, fly to Massachusetts, work with us all weekend, then fly back. He had 4 or 5 weeks of never having a day off and going back and forth across the country, and I thought that was pretty cool.
Steve Lemme: And you know what? Rob Lowe is fucking good looking.
Brian Cox is ready to retire as O’Hagen.
Steve Lemme: [Brian] doesn’t really like acting at night, and he would get super crusty with us from the afternoon into the evening. So, for Super Troopers 3 he’s pitched two things; one is that his character is in a wheelchair and doesn’t have to move around, and the other he pitched us was that his character dies.
Paul Soter: There was a third one where, for some reason, he and Governor Jessman (Lynda Carter) are holed up in a skeet shooting range the whole time, and we’d cut to them canoodling ever now and then.
Thorny’s lactating nipples were based on Jay Chandrasekar’s actual soy consumption.
Jay Chandrasekhar: I was having nasal congestion problems, and so I decided to switch from dairy to soy. And then, my mom’s like, "You know that’s going to give you boobs, right?" So, thanks mom…
The reason behind why the Broken Lizards have sworn off chugging syrup.
Jay Chandrasekhar: I drank 2 and a half full bottles of maple syrup and I made Erik [Stolhanske] do 3 and a half… it was bad. I mean, it was like, you know when you have too much sugar, this is like too much sugar, right. It felt like, I think I’m getting diabetes — that goes through your head. We went to my trailer after lunch and we just laid in the dark and shivered. And then, afterwards—I’ll spare you the details. (pause) Ahh, I’ll tell you what happened… We shot a full robin fetus, you know, like a leaf fully intact.
Steve Lemme: So when you drink maple syrup, you shit birds is what he’s saying.
Jay Chandrasekhar: Don’t do it.
Working with live bears can be complicated, but not as complicated as trying to direct Burt Reynolds.
Jay Chandrasekhar: The bear, you know, was a 1400 pound Grizzly Bear, and I asked the trainer, “Will it attack me?” Because it was, you know, standing six feet away from me, and he said, “Very unlikely…” But you know how when you’re in a bar fight, you can kinda see it coming. You got about 15 minutes where the guy is looking at you and pointing at you. [The trainer] said that’s what would happen; the bear will start plying the dirt and looking at you, and then you gotta go. And there’s a moment where the bear has to run in the movie, and we did it once, and I’m like, "Great let’s have it do it again," and [the trainer] goes, “No, that’s enough. Now, it’s in kill mode,” which means anything that moves fast is going to get killed. So, we put it in the cage, and [the trainer goes], “When you walk by the cage, don’t look it in the eyes.” (Pause) I did not.
Steve Lemme (to Kevin Heffernan): If [Chandrasekhar] would’ve asked you to do another take when it was in the kill zone, would you have done it?
Kevin Heffernan: Yeah, fuck it. Fuck that bear.
Steve Lemme (to Jay Chandrasekhar): Who was easier to direct: Chevy Chase, Burt Reynolds, or the bear?
Jay Chandrasekhar: The bear hit its mark and did what it was supposed to do...
Check out the full Q&A below, and see the troopers back in action this Friday, April 20th!
What do you think? Are you amped for Super Troopers 2? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!