It may have taken 15 years, but a Zoolander sequel is finally here.
All right, technically it'll be here in a few more days.
But, hopefully some lesser known tidbits about the first film will
tide you over until this Friday.
Here are Seven Things You Didn't Know about Zoolander,
probably. >> (Noise)
Todd, are you not aware that I get farty
and bloated with a foamy latte? >> Mugatu.
Some would argue he's the funniest character in the movie,
thanks to Will Ferrell's performance.
But most people don't know that the Mugatu role was originally written for Andy Dick.
Problem was Dick has a scheduling conflict and couldn't do it.
So with a busy Dick, Will Ferrell was brought in,
which ended up being great because he really made the role his own.
Besides, Dick still got to leave his mark on the film in this super memorable scene.
And Earth to anyone who didn't know that that was Andy Dick playing Alda
the masseuse because, boom, that's a bonus they needed to know.
(Music)
Not only was Mugatu supposed to be Andy Dick,
Mugatu was also supposed to be named something else.
The original name for the character was McQuicken,
which was meant to be reminiscent of McQueen as in Alexander McQueen.
But it turns out that Ben Stiller is a big fan of the original Star Trek series,
so they decided to tweak the name of a creature called the Mugato.
Which appeared in a Star Trek episode called A Private Little War.
And here's a quick bonus thing you didn't know.
The Mugatu costume actually first appeared in an episode of
Here's Lucy called Lucy's Safari.
It was probably just collecting dust in storage on the studio lot until some
costume designer on Star Trek said, let's glue some horns on that thing.
So yeah, that furry gorilla-looking thing with the horns is in some ways
the inspiration for Mugatu.
Now that I'm looking at it, they do kind of have the same hairdo.
And that's also a segue to our next thing.
(Sound) Here's something you probably didn't know,
or more accurately, probably didn't think about.
That's Will Ferrell's real hair.
When they started filming Zoolander, Ferrell's hair was barely long.
So they just bleached it and styled it to get the iconic Mugatu do.
So no, that is not a wig.
But you know who is wearing a wig?
The dog.
The poodle is actually wearing a wig in several of the scenes in the film,
like this one, which is extremely (Bleep) obvious now that I said that.
And while we're on the subject,
Jerry Stiller is also wearing a wig on his chest.
Yeah, they basically make him a chest merkin, I guess,
because that is not his real chest hair.
I also may as well mention that much like Will Ferrell,
that baby is rocking his real hair, it is not a baby toupee.
So, now you know that.
Man, I'm really killing it today with the bonus things you didn't know.
(Sound).
Let's talk about More's unconventional way of greeting his employees.
>> Look up, push and squeeze.
(Sound). >> Geez, that's a hell of an insert shot.
And yes, that is what that's actually called.
Anyway, you probably didn't know that the woman's voice that you hear afterward.
>> Ooh, Maury.
>> That's Christine Taylor,
Ben Stiller's wife, who also plays Matilda,
not the voice of the actress we actually see in the hallway.
Let's just hope that they didn't have Taylor fill in for
her on that insert shot too because that would have been all kinds of wrong.
(Music)
Like all movies,
Zoolander went through a lot of changes from its inception to the final product.
So you probably didn't know that originally Derek was supposed to have
a twin brother.
In a sequence where Jared quits modeling and goes home, we would have learned that
his twin brother was a Bruce Springsteen impersonator.
And that their dad had once been a male model for the Sears catalog.
Larry Zoolander's past as a model was meant to explain his disdain for
Derek's modeling career.
He knew that Derek wouldn't be able to turn left and
that he'd be asked to assassinate someone.
That's actually why they cast John Voight as Larry Zoolander.
>> Prancing around in your underwear,
with your weiner hanging out for everyone to see.
>> He just looks like a guy who totally
could have modeled for Sears.
Next thing.
(Sound) >> Who you trying to get crazy with ese?
Don't you know I'm loco? >> It won't come as any surprise that
there was a lot of improvisation on the Zoolander set.
But you may not have know that this line from David Duchovny was totally off
the cuff. >> But why male models?
>> Are you serious?
I just, I just told you that a moment ago. >> Right.
>> It's one of the funniest lines in
the movie, and it only happened because Stiller had screwed up his line,
teeing Duchovny up for a perfect deadpan response.
And as long as we're on super memorable lines,
>> Doesn't anyone notice this?
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills! >> Crazy pills was also an improvised
line, along with a bunch of other stuff in Mugachu's tirade,
including the part about being a monkey's uncle, and even this line.
>> They're breakdance fighting.
>> Speaking of breakdance fighting,
that sets up our last thing perfectly.
Man I'm good.
So that's Justin Theroux playing the evil DJ in Zoolander.
If you didn't know that thing, boom, bonus thing you didn't know, but,
that's not what this thing is actually about.
This thing is about how the whole breakdance fight wound up in the film.
See, Owen Wilson had several doubles for the film.
A stunt double, a scooter double,
even a yo-yo double who was Dunkin Yo-Yo Champion.
Owen Wilson also had a dance double, originally just for the walk off scene,
but Ben Stiller discovered that Justin Theroux can actually breakdance.
Stiller discovered it at his own wedding actually when Theroux surprised everyone
on the dance floor with his skillz.
And that's skillz with a z, by the way.
And that's what inspired him to add the breakdance fight at the end of Zoolander.
Stiller just wanted a way to shoehorn Theroux's
unexpectedly sick dance moves into the film.
Okay, Earth to everyone, that's it for today's episode.
But let us know if you're planning to see Zoolander 2 or
if you're going to skip it and just have a gasoline fight with your friends instead.
Thanks for watching and be sure to check out cinefix.com and subscribe for
more truish things about movies.
And sometimes busy Dicks with scheduling conflicts right here
on Things You Didn't Know.
(Sound)