GOING THE EXTRA YARD

Just as off-the-wall and sarcastic as the characters they play, Matthew Perry and Bruce Willis are teaming up again for a big screen sequel to their hit movie, 2000's "The Whole Nine Yards," which is set to open April 9.\nCo-stars of "The Whole Ten Yards," Perry and Willis, spilled what it was like getting back into character and their expectations of the sequel, as well as how the chemistry between them transfers to the big screen. \nEditor's note: This interview took place as a conference call in which several writers participated, including Weekend reporter Stacie Vasko.\nQ: How did you feel when you were approached to make a sequel to "The Whole Nine Yards?"\nBW: (Bruce Willis) I was excited, I wanted to do it again. I wanted to work with Matthew again and Natasha (Henstridge).\nMP: (Matthew Perry) I was ambivalent ... no, I was thrilled to come back.\nQ: Why did it take four years to release the sequel?\nBW: The idea was always there. We fooled around with it and wanted to work again. It took a little time, but we did it and it was a ball.\nMP: Yeah, we talked about doing a sequel while shooting the first one. If you're having a lot of fun shooting a movie, you just wanna keep going and shoot another one. \nQ: What were the easiest and hardest parts about getting back into the roles of Oz and Jimmy?\nBW: Well, the easy part was working with the same, funny crew of people again who had a big, fun time on "The Whole Nine Yards." We were lucky enough to come up with idea of having Kevin Pollak be the father of the character that we killed in "The Whole Nine Yards."\nMP: And the hardest part probably would be that people really liked the first movie, so we had a job to make a movie that people would like as much, and I think we pulled it off.\nQ: How have your characters changed since the first movie?\nMP: Well, I've gotten a lot better looking. My character is a lot more attractive, wouldn't you say, Bruce?\nBW: Very handsome ... No, I think the characters love each other in a weird way and fear each other in a weird way. It's a weird movie. Go see it, you'll understand.\nQ: How difficult is it to go back and forth from dramatic to comedic roles?\nBW: It's not hard, it's fun to get suited up each time with a different group of acting muscles and try new things. It's challenging, that's why I keep doing it. I want to be able to do my best to make people laugh and, at the same time, try to be interesting in a dramatic sense.\nQ: You guys have a new director and a new writer on the set. What was it like to work with new people?\nBW: I think it's always a great creative process. We tried to assemble the best team we could -- to be funny, to make it watchable, make it interesting and wacky. And I think we had a really great crew.\nQ: If each of you had $100 million to make one movie, what would it be like?\nMP: Bruce, you have $100 million, don't you?\nBW: I bought the car, so it kind of knocked a little bit off the top.\nMP: Well, I know that the movie that we would do would involve the fun that we had while shooting this one. Bruce and I just got lucky, we have good chemistry between us, and I say that and I'm as straight as they come.\nBW: We do have fun and we know each other's timing -- you know, fooling around with that for two films now.\nMP: We would definitely like to work together in the future ... we have a blast together! \nQ: Are you guys the same people you were when you met on the set?\nBW: I think we're better friends. We know each other better and we learned so much about each other's comic timing on the first film. It was fun to reload that and try and beat the first film -- try and be funnier, make it more interesting and to make the film stand on its own as an individual film if you hadn't seen the first one, it being a sequel and all.\nQ: How would you describe "The Whole Ten Yards" from your experience of working on it?\nMP: Just that it's funny. We set out to do at least as good as "The Whole Nine Yards," and I think we accomplished that. That all started as an atmosphere at work, just coming in and cracking each other up.\nBW: Mayhem and comedy. Champagne and bologna.\nQ: You two have great chemistry. Where does that come from?\nMP: It's the cool thing about these movies. I had a great experience the last 10 years on "Friends" with a great ensemble cast and we kind of had that on these movies, too. It takes funny people and people who really derive pleasure out of making people laugh and that's what we have in this movie.\nQ: You were on an episode of "Friends" together. Did that have any effect on your relationship?\nMP: Well, the only difference is that I've done 274 shows and Bruce has done three, and he's won an Emmy and I haven't. Bruce and I got along really well in the first movie ... and hopefully we'll keep popping up in each other's movies.\nBW: All we wanna do is make each other laugh, and if I can make Matthew laugh, I think we got a leg up, so to speak.\nQ: Do either of you have plans to do more TV in the future?\nMP: I think both of us are focusing on movies right now.\nBW: I'm planning on doing a little TV and a couple of projects. I'd like to go on as a guest character on a show that I'm actually producing called, "Touching Evil." It's Fridays on the USA Network. My company is working on a project of James Ellroy novels and I'll be doing a series out of that on HBO.\nMP: And I'm focusing mostly on Hawaiian Punch commercials.