Barry Watson, Michael Rosenbaum & Harland Williams Talk About "Sorority Boys" 2002

Barry Watson, Michael Rosenbaum and Harland Williams - the three "Boys" - sat down to discuss their roles in the romantic comedy, "Sorority Boys." In the film, the boys disguise themselves as girls in order to secure college housing. They ultimately discover that dressing in drag affects them in more ways than they expected.

Harland, are you the John Belushi character from "Animal House?"
HARLAND: You know, I've never seen that movie believe it or not. I've seen little clips on TV specials but I've never seen the whole movie.
BARRY: That's a compliment, by the way.
HARLAND: I haven't modeled anything after it. I don't like to do that. I like to find my own thing.

Will the audience get the positive message in this?
MICHAEL: Yeah, because it's obvious. As crazy and raunchy and stupid as this movie can get, it's right there, especially with my character, Adam. Adam is a chauvinistic pig in college and hits on all these women and teaches his friends to hit on women and go after the gross girls because you can get more. Then he becomes a woman and he's ugly in his own eyes. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that stuff. He experiences all these things, and goes through the stages of becoming a woman - he thinks he has a big ass, he gets picked on, and beer thrown at him. He starts to realize that he was really mean to women. So there is that message.
BARRY: If people don't pick it up it's just because they're not opening themselves up to see it. That could easily happen but I would think that most people will get the moral.

Were there any second thoughts about doing a drag film or about being in drag?
BARRY: If the movie didn't come out maybe the way you've envisioned it when you were reading it, then yes. If the movie doesn't come across to the audience then it could be a big flop, or it could be a success. We'll wait and see what happens.
MICHAEL: With all the horror in the world and all the crap that's going on, for an hour and a half you go eat some popcorn and laugh with your friends. That's what this movie is all about. You just go and have a good time. And really, for an hour and a half, you get some good laughs. I swear to God, there's a couple good laughs in there.
BARRY: Then you come back home and you watch the local news and you are depressed again.

Did they plan out your wardrobe ahead of time?
BARRY: We got the job and then they figured all that out. We were just kind of looking at stuff on hangers wondering how we put it on.

What was your reaction when you first looked in a mirror and saw yourself in drag?
HARLAND: It was great, I was really happy and excited. I thought I was really beautiful.
MICHAEL: I just looked in the mirror and I waited about five beats and went, “Mom?” Honestly, when she saw a preview, she called me and said, “Michael, all my friends say I look like you.” I go, “Mom, I'm a man. This is not good.” Everybody is getting a treat out of it - my parents and my friends. Actually this is my second time in drag; I was a transvestite in another movie.
BARRY: The first week was like walking by mirrors doing a lot of double takes because for the first time in my life I didn't recognize me. I don't know if anybody ever experiences looking at yourself and not being able to see yourself. That's what it was for the first week. Then I missed Daisy after shooting. I liked Daisy. I thought Daisy was a sweetheart.
MICHAEL: We miss all the girls. It was sad.

Did you learn something about women from this experience?
BARRY: As much as a man can learn about being a woman, I think hopefully we learned as much as we could. We'll never actually know what it's truly like, but yeah, I think so.
MICHAEL: There's so much to becoming a woman.
BARRY: Men getting in touch with their feminine side and women getting in touch with their masculine side. Everybody's got that no matter who you are.

Barry, did you go looking for a part like this after all the “7th Heaven” stuff?
BARRY: I remember reading it months before I actually had the meeting for it. I really kind of forgot about it until the meeting came up, and I started reading it [again]. I always want to do something different. It wasn't about trying to do something so different from “7th Heaven,” it was just about doing something that I thought I could bring to this character, and bring to the movie, and hopefully have a lot of fun doing it.

How comfortable were you?
MICHAEL: I pretty much jumped into it. I was pretty comfortable. For me, I had done it before and I think my mother dressed me up as Pat Benatar in 5th grade in full make-up and heels so I had a lot of experience at this. I jumped into it but the heels hurt, the bra straps hurt, everything hurts.
BARRY: I had blisters on my feet and stuff like that. I'd get these rubbing marks from my bra and indentions on my shoulders. It wasn't that comfortable. I tried to avoid wearing heels. I had flat sandals but the sweaty panty hose and the bra rubbing up - yuck.
MICHAEL: They asked me why I was wearing heels and I said, “I'm trying to hide my ass.” They gave me a prosthetic behind. They kept asking why I was wearing them and telling me that heels are out. I said, “But they make my ass look slimmer.“

Did you dress up and go test this out anywhere off the set?
HARLAND: Not me.
BARRY: I had my dog on the set with me one day and so at lunch I went to walk him. I was walking downstairs, down Ventura Blvd., and I kind of just forgot because we'd been working for over a month and I was just so used to it. I was just walking my dog dressed up as Daisy. People whistled at me.
MICHAEL: At the wrap party we showed up in full drag and I've never been hit on by more women in my life. I was thinking that maybe I should do this for a living - go out in drag every night.

Michael, did you shoot this before you shaved your head?
MICHAEL: I shaved my head for “Smallville.” Three days into “Smallville,” I got the part, flew down to start shooting and they didn't know I was going to be bald. We told them a few days before I was coming. I was a little worried but they just pretty much threw this mop on my head. So half the movie, I'm wearing a beanie.
BARRY: He kind of had like 'Wally' hair.
MICHAEL: Yeah, the director [Wally Wolodarsky], if you look at his hair you'll see that my hair is kind of like his in the movie.
BARRY: You look just like him.

How are things going on “Smallville?”
MICHAEL: Great. That's one thing where every week the writing gets better and better, and the quality of the show. The only thing bad is being in Vancouver. As much as I like the place, it's being away from my family and friends a lot. Being away from these guys…
BARRY: Hey, we're glad you are not here.
MICHAEL: But the show is fun; the show is strong.

How far would you like to take Lex?
MICHAEL: I think they are taking it at a nice pace right now. If I become evil too quickly, it's like, “Oh, he's evil. What's he going to do today?” The audience is embracing my character, which is nice. He's a good person, he has good intentions, and we're going to find out what makes him evil. That's the exciting part of watching the character grow.
BARRY: He'll be Matt Camden next year.

But let's say it lasts 10 years.
MICHAEL: It's not going to last 10 years. I won't let it go 10 years. I really won't because my contract says 'X' amount of years and that's what I'm doing.

Are you looking forward to playing the completely evil Lex?
MICHAEL: Eventually, yes. If I know we have one season left, then let's go for it. That would be fine.
BARRY: I can tell when I've seen it. I can see right through your character.


You three seem to have great chemistry. How did you get to that point?
HARLAND: We didn't know each other at all in the beginning.
BARRY: The first rehearsal when we first met, it just kind of jelled. I think we are all very lucky that it happened this way. We all three get along. Most people say that they are friends after they get done working together but we really hang out.
MICHAEL: We had a great bonding experience because after the read-through, we all went and got waxed together.
BARRY: Yeah, the waxing. It was the waxing that made us bond. Three guys in their underwear getting hair ripped out of their skin.
HARLAND: Where do you go from there?

Was there a lot of ad-libbing during filming?
BARRY: There was a lot of it because Wally would always let us go off and do our take. Then if he really needed to tone it down he'd go, “Come on guys, just give me one.”

Can you say which scenes were ad-libbed?
MICHAEL: All the falls. I fell 20 times during filming. I'm a big Buster Keaton fan and I wanted to do as much physical comedy as possible. I was happy they kept a couple of the falls in. Harland was always doing something. Every line - the line when we were introducing our characters, Harland was adding stuff to that like, “I smack it like a baby seal.”
BARRY: That's not in the movie.
MICHAEL: He would throw out wild, just completely random things that were just so great. I could barely keep a straight face with him.

What about the 'Wookie' thing? Was that your idea?
HARLAND: Oh yeah.
BARRY: That wasn't in the script but you didn't even read the script so you'd never have known.
MICHAEL: Every day he'd come to the set and ask. “What are we doing kids? What scene is this?