It’s been often said that the sequel is never as good as the original, but this summer, blockbuster sequels and remakes such as Jurassic Park and Happy Gilmore have already broken that stereotype, bringing in record numbers. Now The Naked Gun is making their own splash in the summer of nostalgic remakes. Liza Koshy, one of The Naked Gun’s stars, sat down with The Source to discuss the (re)making of an iconic film.
The Naked Gun is a feverishly self-aware romp that blends pure absurdity, slapstick, and on-trend social commentary with surprisingly sharp aim. Koshy, who has been the comedic center of her own projects before, takes a (semi) serious turn playing the grounded Detective Barnes in the film- a total straight-arrow in a world of chaos. As for holding that line while everyone around her is being completely ridiculous, she describes how she enjoyed the change of pace, saying, “usually I’m the one being completely ridiculous, chaotic, and comedic, so this was a nice little break. I just got to sit back and watch comedy genius unfold before me, so it was nice hiatus from what I usually do.”
She also took the opportunity to “serve some drama” as she showcased other areas of her wheelhouse, joking that she “ripped some pages out of Taken” (a reference to co-star Liam Neeson’s iconic film as well as draw from co-star Pamela Anderson’s performance in The Last Showgirl.
In the film, Neeson takes the reins from the late, great Leslie Nielsen, delivering a hilariously unhinged turn as Frank Drebin Jr. Flanked by refreshing performances from scene-stealing Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser as the perfect sidekick (albeit a bit held back), Koshy’s well-executed comedic foil, and Danny Huston’s serviceable big bad, the supporting cast collectively hold down the fort within Neeson’s outrageous orbit. As for working with Neeson, Koshy described what it was like to work with the (literally) larger-than-life icon. “Anybody that I’ve met that’s 6’4” is pretty disarming because I’m five feet. And if you stand that tall, you’ve gotta hunch over and talk to the world beneath you to interact with the minions and I so deeply appreciate how lovely and thoughtful and graceful Liam was,” Koshy says. ”He would take a knee to talk to me to talk to me at my level. He felt like a fellow peer and collaborator on set, not someone that had a decades long resume of brilliant work, so it was lovely to feel seen as a partner.”
The movie’s stars were not the only people that Koshy raved about, describing director Akiva Schaffer as “insanely, chaotically brilliantly dumb and [someone who] is willing to go there for the bit,” describing his influence as a part of her comedic foundation, jokingly referring to hum as one of her artistic founding fathers.
While Koshy states that there was no bit that didn’t go far enough honestly, the film did a good job of balancing nostalgia with fresh comedy. There are plenty of nods to the original films in this reboot, but far from overkill where remakes or long gestating sequels tend to make that mistake. The almost real-time comedic references, and fresh characters keep the film away from trying to rekindle the past. Instead, the themes are super current anchored by jokes that are anything but dated yet wildly politically incorrect in the best way. The Naked Gun stands on its own and is nothing short of fine-tuned chaos, with a healthy dose of cringe that even gets dangerously risky: Orenthal… just saying—but still shapes up as an undeniable vibe that must be experienced on the big screen.