Hollywood Byte #60: Napoleon Dynamite

Mar 30, 2007

Although Jon Heder is best known to legions of fans for his portrayal of the quirky hero Napoleon Dynamite, Blades of Glory should make his name and comedic talent familiar to a wider audience demographic. In the new film from Dreamworks Pictures, Heder plays Jimmy MacElroy, a U.S. men's figure skater who's banned for life and stripped of his gold medal. But thanks to a loophole in the ban, MacElroy teams up with fellow banned athlete Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Farrell) to skate as a pairs team. Heder said working with Farrell was a lot of fun.

"I didn't know what to expect, but I had always heard he was a nice guy," said Heder. "Not that every star out there isn't nice, but sometimes there are egos out there. And Will is very giving and nice. It was a dream-come-true."

When it comes to being funny on ice, just about anyone can do that, unintentionally. But when you're playing a professional figure skater, the laughs are not supposed to be about how badly you skate.

"The most challenging thing was just being on skates," said Heder. "That was the biggest thing. We're making a comedy and we know that a lot of the comedy is going to come from the dialogue and the situation. We'll have outlandish outfits and our hair is going to look amazing. And on the skates, we're supposed to be really good skaters. So the comedy wasn't going to come from us screwing up on the ice."

Heder said he remembers thinking, "I like to dance and I like to get physical in my movies and I knew there would be opportunities to express myself physically in this. However, getting on skates, you don't have firm ground. You're on slippery ground, so I was out of my element in some ways. It didn't totally hold me back because I trained and I got better and I was able to work with what I had."

When he's not making people laugh in movies like School for Scoundrels, Just Like Heaven, Monster House, The Benchwarmers and the upcoming Surf's Up; Heder spends a lot of time playing video games. Although he doesn't consider himself a "video game junkie," he's definitely been a gamer for a long time.

"There are certain games that I really love," said Heder. "When Halo came out, that's all I played. I'm a big Halo guy. I'm a Nintendo loyalist. I love the Wii. They don't have tons of games yet for it, but it's great. I'm a huge Zelda fan. I just beat the Wii game. I've always been a Zelda fan. It's fantasy. It's going to a different world. It's problem-solving and figuring out clues and how to get around the place. My wife enjoys it. It's something we can enjoy together."

Thanks in part to the Wii and Nintendo DS, Heder is going through a video game revolution.

"Growing up, all of my brothers--I have a bunch of brothers--we'd get every Nintendo system and we'd always get the best of the best games because we didn't have a lot of money," said Heder. "We'd always get the Mario games and the Zelda games and Donkey Kong...the really traditional ones. My twin brother was the one who'd play the games and master them. I'd play them, but I'd also spend a lot of time watching my brother play. But I enjoyed playing. I was a master of Tetris, that was my specialty."

During his college years, Heder said there was a decline in his interest in video games. He didn't have as much time or money to play games. He kept it up a little bit, but recently with the Wii and Nintendo DS...especially with the Wii, being able to play all of the old games, he's becoming hooked again.

"The DS is amazing," said Heder. "It's not a Game Boy any more. We're not fiddling around any more. We have interactive touch screens. Mario Kart DS is amazing. It's so addictive. I've never been angrier in my life because I get so mad when I lose at that game. You can play it with other players wirelessly. So now all of my brothers have a DS and we're going out and trying to buy all of the cool multiplayer games. We're going through a little second Nintendo revolution right now."

Heder said that when he has free time on movie sets, he'll pull out his Nintendo DS and play some Tetris, Brain Age or Metroid Pinball. On Wii, Heder is hooked on Wii Sports, especially the Wii Golf game. He also has been active with the Virtual Console.

"I have Super Mario World and Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past," said Heder. "I got Castlevania, which was a mistake. I remember thinking it was totally sweet when I was young, but it didn't hold up. I have Street Fighter, of course, and Contra, which I haven't played yet."

With the number of new opportunities for actors to provide voicework for video games, Heder is open to this new medium.

"It's like a movie," said Heder. "If it's a cool set-up and a cool story. And in the game world, it has to be fun to play. If it's really fun to play, I think it's cool. Sure, why not."

Although Heder has certainly laughed while playing video games with friends and family, there hasn't been a comedy genre in games, like sci-fi, action and horror.

"In comedy, it's about watching someone else do something," said Heder. "It's easy to have action video games because when you watch action movies you think about being that person kicking butt. When you watch Anchorman, you don't necessarily want to be Ron Burgandy. You want to see what he does in the situation. You have to be creative in comedy. Video games are more about following rules and kicking butt."

Like a growing number of young Hollywood stars, Heder has logged a lot of hours kicking butt in video games. And thanks to Wii and Nintendo DS, he won't be stopping any time soon.

The Hollywood Byte makes a weekly visit to the converging world of video games and traditional media.