February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Although the “Saturday Night Live” alum said he is a loyal, but not obsessive, fan of home teams like the Yankees, Knicks and Mets, Fallon admitted he couldn’t help getting caught up in the magic and mayhem that erupted when the Red Sox came back from a three-game deficit to beat the Bronx Bombers in last year’s American League Championship Series, then went on to beat the St. Louis Cardinals for their first World Series title in 86 years.
“I was swept up in the movie,” the 31-year-old actor said, noting that the film was being shot during the 2004 season, before it was clear that the Red Sox would even make the playoffs. “It was awesome. In Boston, it’s bigger. It’s beyond baseball. It’s not even baseball; it’s more like a religion. More like a family thing. It’s pretty deep over there. They love it. If you root for something that loses consistently for 86 years, you become a really big fan. I think when they won, most Boston fans weren’t like: ‘Wow! We have a trophy,’ or ‘We have a ring.’ It was like, ‘I have to call my dad.’ It was pretty emotional.”
Given the fact the Red Sox hadn’t won a series since 1918, it wasn’t surprising that the original script, by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (“Robots,” “A League of Their Own” and “Parenthood”), had the underdog team dropping out of the 2004 pennant race. The last 10 percent of the movie was rewritten as the Sox started to win in real life, however, and some scenes in the movie were actually filmed during the exciting final games in Boston and St. Louis.
“If we put it in the script that the Red Sox won, it would have been like, Give me a break. This is just a Hollywood ending,” the actor, an Irish-American, said. “We were more than halfway done with the movie when they started winning and we were like, ‘What if they win?’ “
Said Peter Farrelly, who co-directed the movie with his brother Bobby: “We always said from the beginning that whatever happened to the Red Sox wouldn’t affect the story. ‘Fever Pitch’ doesn’t rest on whether the Red Sox win or lose. But hopefully capturing their win the way we did makes the movie that much richer.”
Added Fallon: “Peter and Bobby were like, ‘OK, here’s the deal: We can NOT disrupt the games. We don’t want Boston blaming us for losing a game.’ “
For Fallon, working on “Fever Pitch” was a more positive experience than any he could have imagined. Not only did he have a large role in a well-written movie starring Drew Barrymore, but he also got the chance to participate in an historical event.
“This was kind of like the pinnacle for me because I was sitting there, I had a beer and a hot dog, watching a great game and I was getting to make out with Drew Barrymore,” he said. “I was like, ‘Somebody up there likes me.’ “
Fallon said he and the “Charlie’s Angels” actress had been looking for a movie to make together ever since they met on the set of “Saturday Night Live” a couple of years ago.
“Of course, I would do anything with Drew Barrymore,” Fallon said. “She’s a legend and she’s so much fun to work with.
“She produced this and she believed in me and said, ‘I think we could do a good movie together.’ We hit it off when she hosted the show.”
Inspired by soccer lover Nick Hornby’s memoir of the same name, “Fever Pitch” is the story of Ben, a charming high-school teacher who falls in love with Lindsey, an ambitious business consultant. All seems right and good in their worlds. That is, until the Red Sox start picking up steam. As Ben becomes more engrossed in the sport than in their relationship, Lindsey begins to wonder if their love can survive the season.
“I’m born and raised in New York, so if I’ve gotta pick teams, it’s gotta be someone from New York like the Knicks, the Yankees or the Mets,” said Fallom, who was born in Brooklyn and raised in Saugerties, N.Y. “But I’m not as crazy as my character in this movie. This guy’s an obsessive fan.”
Comfortable with the genre of romantic comedy, Fallon confided he would be happy to follow in the footsteps of fellow “SNL” veteran Adam Sandler and make more girl-meets-boy movies.
“I’m just lucky, seriously, to do anything,” he said. “I thought that would probably be my best genre. If I had to do a movie, I thought romantic comedy would probably be the best I could do. What I’m trained to do: I’m a comedian and I like to kiss girls.”
Just as starring in a romantic comedy came naturally to Fallon, so did playing a guy from Boston. The boyishly handsome actor and co-star Rachel Dratch appeared as loud-mouthed Beantown teens Sully and Denise on “SNL” for years. Good sport that he is, Fallon said he enjoyed the attention he received from diehard fans when he visited Boston.
“I kind of had a respect for Boston because I would do that character and I would go to Boston and people would yell out the window, ‘You’re retahded!’ and I would go, ‘You ah!’ ” he said, mimicking at Boston accent. “It doesn’t get old for me. I liked it a lot. I’d just go take a stroll for some coffee, go to Dunkin’ Donuts and you got a couple of people screaming at you. But I didn’t do the accent in ‘Fever Pitch’ because it would get annoying after three minutes.”
Clearly enjoying his transition from sketch comedy player to movie star, Fallon confessed he felt a bit lost when the new season of “SNL” started last fall and he wasn’t a part of it.
“The first couple of shows, I really missed it because you’re there for six years and you live there,” he said. “It’s like a dorm. You stay over night in the offices and Chris Kattan is next to you, snoring and stuff. It’s weird, but that’s your life. I barely saw my apartment when I was on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ By the third or fourth episode, I started going: ‘OK. I’m weaning myself off of it now. The cast is great. The show goes on.’ I definitely missed it for a while. I watch it whenever I’m around a television set.”
“Fever Pitch” opens Friday.