Josh Duhamel was filming a scene in the new action rom-com ‘Shotgun Wedding’ in which his fiancée, played by Jennifer Lopez, throws a grenade into the air. She hits it like a bad-guy baseball that explodes and sets off a rainbow-colored fireworks display.
“I was like, holy (expletive) this movie is crazy,” Duhamel said.
The movie, directed by Jason Moore, starts off like a normal rom-com. Darcy de Lopez and Tom de Duhamel are having a big wedding on an island. There are funny and awkward family dynamics and also a charismatic ex-boyfriend. And Darcy and Tom find themselves fighting and about to call off the wedding moments before they walk down the aisle. Then a band of pirates armed with guns arrive and take the wedding party hostage.
Lopez, who produced and stars in, came to Mark Hammer’s script through his producing partner Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, they have been making movies together since ‘Maid in Manhattan.’
“She’s kind of a career architect,” Lopez said. “We really think about not only what we want to do, but also what the audience would enjoy or what the world needs at different times. I even do that as an artist with my albums and the things that I want to convey to the world as a message.”
Streaming on Prime Video (Lionsgate Play in India) on Friday, ‘Shotgun Wedding’ wasn’t just a fun mix of genres in one stylish package. Jennifer Lopez liked the idea that her character was getting married for the first time at an “older age” and that Tom was the “boyfriendzilla”, obsessed with the details and logistics of party planning.
It took, he said, “different things that people don’t consider conventional and normal and make that regular and acceptable.”
The movie wasn’t exactly a hard sell for anyone involved. From Cheech Marin, who plays Darcy’s billionaire father, to Jennifer Coolidge, as Tom’s very normal Midwestern mom, basically everyone heard “Jennifer Lopez” and “Dominican Republic Shooting” and signed up.
“It was a fun script,” Coolidge said. “We had a table read early on and I remember it being such a good table read. I remember thinking, ‘My God, this is going to be so much fun.’”
There was a problem before they got to the island. Armie Hammer was originally slated to play Tom, but walked away from the project after allegations of misconduct surfaced, which he has denied. They had been preparing for two weeks and it was necessary to reformulate a fundamental role. Moore, a Broadway veteran, didn’t panic.
“There’s always a point where the backup has to continue,” Moore said. “Always works. … There were a couple of days of ‘Oh boy,’ and it just spewed out something even more wonderful.”
Duhamel had been on Moore’s shortlist and had been friends with Lopez for years.
“He’s an incredibly handsome 1940s movie star who isn’t afraid to look vulnerable and goofy,” Moore said. Duhamel and López spoke on Zoom and decided that it was an opportunity.
“You really need a certain type of chemistry,” Lopez said. “This wasn’t just rom-com chemistry. It’s more, you know, trusting each other and doing stocks and doing stunts and also general comedy. It was too much.
“It was much better than I imagined,” López added. “We were kind of on the same wavelength.”
“They’re so fun to watch,” Coolidge said. “You know, you want to see everything…you want to see them come together. You’re attracted to both people and then you see them, you know, they’re attracted to each other.”
But of course, the pirates get in the way of some of that, also promptly forcing wedding guests to stand in a pool hostage while they try to find the struggling bride and groom. He spent a long time partially submerged in the water with a dozen other people.
“I’m probably not supposed to say it, but we didn’t change the water the whole time we were shooting,” Coolidge said.
D’Arcy Carden, who plays Marin’s much younger new-agey girlfriend, said those 20 days were a bit humiliating.
Marin and Steve Coulter, who played Coolidge’s husband, even sometimes took naps next to each other in their soaking wet suits, which Carden says he has photographic evidence of.
But aside from the two-week soaked shoes, Carden said it was “a dream situation you could be in.”
Many of the cast even lived in a giant house and hung out together most nights, which made for a family atmosphere on set.
“It was like this weird kind of movie bedroom,” Duhamel said. “But with a spa, a jacuzzi, a pool and a beach.”
Lenny Kravitz, as Darcy’s ex-boyfriend, even flies over (in a helicopter) to disrupt things.
“It’s kind of a ridiculous, amplified version of, you know, a small part of who people think I am,” said Kravitz, a longtime friend of Lopez.
Moore wanted to make sure the film looked “big, James Bond and luxurious. Sometimes action rom-coms can seem a little small,” he said.
And everyone was impressed by Lopez, who doesn’t act like a “movie star” on set. During a day of shooting scenes on a small boat on the open sea, Lopez went into producer mode and decided they didn’t need an extra boat to have her makeup artist with them. She could do her own makeup. And she did it, Moore said.
“She is a mogul, producer and storyteller, actress, singer and a brilliant physical comedian,” Moore said. “She has discipline and artistic finesse, which is a wonderful combination. She can really do everything.”
