SM: Well, we didn’t know if I was going to wear a moustache. HW: How much attention did you pay to your mustache? It was at night and he came up to me, and he was, you know, a god to me and he said, “I know you’re under a lot of criticism right now, but I know what you’re doing.” I went, “Ah”’ It was kind of breathtaking, really. And so I was coming off the sort of slaughter years of my stand up career which I stopped in 1980. Discovery, enthusiasm, success, slaughter. And I was coming off this sort of hot stand-up career and you know the sort of cycle of criticism. And he said something really profound to me. HW: Did you ever get to meet Peter Sellers? I felt very comfortable and I felt different from the great Peter Sellers. The physical I didn’t have any problem with at all, and then finally when I realized, “Oh, I’m thinking like him,” now. I first worked on the accent and then I worked on the outfit. SM: It would have been harder to imitate Peter Sellers, so actually it had been the easiest thing…I realized that Peter Sellers knew the character inside and out, and I figured, “Hmm, he could probably ad lib all day as that character,” and I thought that is the sign to me when I have it is when you can ad lib all day as the character and eventually that came. HW: How hard was it to make the character your own? As soon as you have an ally that you trust, it makes things much easier. Fiddled with the script that existed “This is kind of funny, this is kind of funny,” just privately, and then I still wasn’t going to do it, and then I ran into Shawn Levy in a parking lot, and he said, “You know this Pink Panther?” and I said, “Yeah, I was actually fiddling with it a bit,” and I told him some of the gags and he said, “Sounds funny,” and I said, “Why? Are you interested in directing?” And he goes, “Yeah,” and then we’re off and running. By the way, I don’t view it as a remake because it’s a totally new script, but you have these reservations and then essentially in this case what happens was the ideas for gags overcame my reservations, and I just fiddled with it–secretly, actually. ![]() Not only for this film, but actually a lot of films. SM: That’s where it all starts with: reservations. HW: Can you talk about any reservations–if any–you had about revisiting a character that’s as well-known and iconic as Clouseau? And who cares anyway? It’s the Pink Panther movie. SM: It’s funny that you’d say that because the studio at first–this is when we were at MGM–they insisted that it be called a “re-imagining.” What does that mean? So it’s not officially a remake, because a remake to me is when you use the same script or the same story. What would you call it then? A “re-imagining?” HW: You mentioned that you don’t consider this movie to be a remake. Steve Martin: What original Pink Panther?
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