The Cast of 'Joe Dirt' Talks About Lessons Learned On The Set
"From the beginning we wanted 'Joe Dirt' to have a PG-13 rating," Gordon said. "With the exception of the R-rated 'Deuce Bigalow:Male Gigolo' and 'There's Something About Mary,' PG-13 films have bigger box-office grosses because they attract families. So when we originally got an R-rating, we knew cuts had to be made."
What surprised both Gordon and her cast of talented actors (ranging from Christopher Walken and Dennis Miller to Brittany Daniel and Kid Rock) was the fact that it wasn't the gags that needed to be cut out, but the language.
"We couldn't say assmuncher, butt sniffer or even poontang," Spade recalls.
"The scene where Joe is screaming 'you're my sister' while we are having sex wasn't even asked to be cut," actress Jamie Pressly, who plays the woman Dirt believes is his long-lost sister, said. "I guess incest is best in this case."
Gordon agrees about the unusual editing choices of the MPAA, saying that "The one scene we thought would never make it into a PG-13 film the MPAA didn't say boo about."
That scene, which to keep the element of surprise for viewers I will just say involved a dog and a cold night outdoors, was actually based on a true story.
"My biggest fear was that this scene, amongst others, would seem more like a sketch than a scene in a film," Spade said. "When we watched it after it was filmed it ended up dragging on for far too long and just wasn't funny anymore, so we cut the scene down a lot."
Spade and the crew of 'Joe Dirt' also realized that the sound the dog makes during the scene could be the difference between the audience laughing or the dog appearing to be in pain. Since-- as Spade pointed out-- a dog in pain is not funny, a great deal of time was spent working on the sound effects as well.
"The scene with the dog took forever to film because the whole cast was laughing so hard while we were trying to tape it," Gordon said. "Luckily we finally got it and now its the first scene in the film that really gets the audience laughing hysterically. It's like the zipper scene in 'There's Something About Mary.'"
"I love going to work and having fun, and the fun was non-stop," Brittany Daniel, who plays Joe Dirt's love interest, said. "My face hurt when leaving the set from laughing so hard--especially during
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