More Blue-Collar Comedy
In Lionsgate’s new comedy Witless Protection, Larry the Cable Guy stars as Deputy Larry Stalder, who sees a beautiful and sophisticated woman (Ivana Milicevic from Casino Royale) being held against her will by four well-dressed thugs. Eager to be a hero, Larry “kidnaps” her from the men, only to learn that they are actually FBI agents and she is their key witness in an important Chicago crime case.
Even so, Larry suspects foul play and decides to solve the case on his own by taking the woman (who turns out to be a rich heiress) on a calamity-filled trip to Chicago in order to protect her. But who’s going to protect angry FBI agents, quack doctors, and high society from Larry?
With his signature catchphrase “Git-R-Done,” former stand-up comic Larry the Cable Guy had two previously successful movies with Lionsgate: Health Inspector and Delta Farce. This time, he takes his blue-collar character even further by pushing the fish-out-of-water story to the extreme when he unwittingly enters high society through the back door.
Production Highlights from Witless Protection
- Writer-director Charles Robert Carner used the film It Happened One Night and Midnight Run as inspiration when developing the storyline.
- Larry performs his first nude scene in this film when his character is stripped and forced to endure a body cavity search. He uses a strategically placed baseball cap as his only cover.
- In describing his nude scene, the actor says: “It was pretty crazy. I ain’t Brad Pitt, y’know? My hind end needs some work. I mean, it’s nice, but y’know, it looks like a hailstorm came through.”
- For the role of Larry’s eccentric brother-in-law Doc Savage, accomplished dramatic actor Joe Mantegna may not seem the most likely choice. However, as the director’s former teacher twenty-five years ago at Columbia College in Chicago, Mantegna says he jumped at the chance to take on the role and work with Carner, one of his former prize pupils.
- Bosnian/American actress Milicevic needed to “play dead” in one pivotal scene in which she has been drugged and must lie still in a coffin. The scene, which involves Larry and his brother performing a comic scene above her, was so distracting that Milicevic says she repeatedly broke character and laughed through many takes.
- Best-selling author and popular actress Jenny McCarthy (Scary Movie 3) plays Connie, Larry’s no-nonsense girlfriend who gets left behind when he journeys to Chicago. The actor says one of the best parts of making the movie was the scene where he gets to kiss her.
- Witless Protection
- Director: Charles Robert Carner
- Run Time 89 minutes
- Rating: PG-13 (crude and sexual humor)
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