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Fickman's the Man
In the end, Andy Fickman’s job on She’s the Man came down to making sure his star Amanda Bynes steered clear of too much Ice Capades or Boys Don’t Cry.
Monday, March 20, 2006
By Christina Radish
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Dreamworks
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Filmmaker Andy Fickman
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After teen star Amanda Bynes was attached to star in She’s the Man, a contemporary reworking of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night that came in fourth at the box office this weekend with an estimated $11 million, the producers picked for the project a director who was far from the obvious choice. After all, Andy Fickman’s most recent credit was the Showtime stage adaptation Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical.
But it turns out they could not have found a more suitable choice. "Before I ever met Amanda, I felt like I knew her,” explains Fickman during a recent interview with FilmStew. “Because, for the past eight years, I’ve been watching her on TV with my son.”
"Also, one of my stars on Reefer Madness, John Kassir, was one of the stars of [Disney Channel’s] The Amanda Show. I’d worked my rehearsal schedule for Reefer Madness around him doing The Amanda Show, and I told him, ‘Well, at least get an autograph for my son.’”
“ Now, I’ve got a billion autographs of Amanda."
The first thing Fickman did after coming on board was lead a massive rewrite of the script. “Amanda and I had a very strong partnership,” he says. “Once you find that relationship, it’s a really nice place to build from.”
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Dreamworks
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James Kirk as Sebastian
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The second thing he did was take Bynes to the Grove complex in Los Angeles, so that she could do a bit of guy watching to prepare for the role of Viola Johnson, a soccer player who disguises herself as her twin brother Sebastian (James Kirk) and enrolls in his place at his new boarding school, Illyria Prep.
"Andy and I went to a bookstore there because he wanted to get me a journal," recalls Bynes, the youngest of three children. "I picked out this flowered journal and Andy was like, ‘No, you’re getting a man’s journal.’ So, he just told me to write things down in a guy’s voice, as an exercise. We just started watching guys walk, and looked at how they compared to girls."
Adds Fickman: "We talked about the fact that women are complex, and a slot machine is more complex than guys. We talked about the fact that women will talk about emotions and explore feelings, but guys don’t necessarily turn to each other and say, ‘So, listen, I’m feeling a little uncomfortable about the whole thing.’ The other guy would be like, ‘Dude, shut it.’"
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Dreamworks
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Amanda Bynes as Sebastian
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Initially, Fickman was unsure about how to best make the perky Bynes come across realistically as a guy. "It had to be cute, but still work, so that the guys watching in the audience aren’t taken out of it,” he says. “When we tried different hairstyles, if her hair was just a little too long, she just looked like a cute girl with a Dorothy Hamill hair cut. And, if it was too short, we were in Boys Don’t Cry territory."
With the look and voice of Bynes’ male alter ego Sebastian set, Fickman looked to his male crew members to help make sure her dialogue delivery didn’t sound too girly. "She would deliver a line and we’d all be laughing, because it was just short of her having a unicorn and a Strawberry Shortcake doll,” he remembers with a laugh. “I’d say, ‘Guys don’t say that,’ and she’d be like, ‘Really, they don’t?’
“All the guys working with her had the Fickman seal of approval to remind her, if she’d start saying something too girly,” he continues. “And, right before we’d start filming, Amanda and I would spend time rehearsing. Sometimes, I’d close the set and ask everyone to leave, and we’d talk about the scene. You never want to embarrass an actor.”
Fickman’s next venture is Disney family comedy for Disney called Daddy’s Girl, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. "It’s a big family comedy set in the world of football,” he explains. “The Rock was really funny in Be Cool. There’s something about him that is so charming. He’s such a likable guy that it’s hard not to like him.”
“When these tough guys start doing comedy, you find a whole different audience,” he continues. “In the movie, he’s an NFL quarterback who discovers that he has a 6-year-old daughter, and so it becomes like Mr. Mom or Three Men and a Baby. It’s all about how the toughest of people can be brought to their knees by a 6-year-old girl."
Bynes meanwhile gets to be girly again in her next film, Lovewrecked, playing a teenager who is marooned on a beach with her rock and roll idol (Chris Carmack). "I get stuck on this island with this rock star that I’m obsessed with, and he ends up breaking his leg,” she says. “There’s a hurricane that wrecks us onto this island. I have to find food and water and, when I go through the jungle, I find out that we’re actually just on the other side of the resort that we came from. When I come back, he hugs me and says, ‘I’m so excited that I’m here with you,’ so I don’t tell him."
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