In addition to the Plummer kids, Diesel’s Shane Wolfe finds himself becoming wrapped up in the lives of the rest of the extended Plummer family.
Joining the cast as the two Plummer matriarchs—mommy and nanny—are two talented and accomplished comediennes: Faith Ford as Julie Plummer, who is summoned away from her kids on a vital mission of her own, and Carol Kane as the family’s opinionated Romanian nanny, Helga.
Ford, the star of ABC’s “Hope and Faith” and the recipient of five Emmy ® and two Golden Globe ® nominations for her long-lived role as Corky on “Murphy Brown,” couldn’t resist the screenplay for THE PACIFIER and the crazy situations that arise when a Navy S.E.A.L. takes over her character’s suburban home.
“The opportunity to do an action scene with Vin Diesel was one I just couldn’t pass up,” she explains. “I loved the story because it’s action with a sense of humor, sort of like the ‘Pink Panther’movies, and I think that and the fact that it has a lot of heart, too, makes this such a charming film.”
Adam Shankman has long been a fan of Ford’s and thought she was just right for the role of a modern American mom doing the best she can under trying circumstances.
“I was looking for a blond, blue-eyed beauty who could be a strong and quirky mom and who could also take this everyday mom and turn her into a very real person. Faith was a fantastic addition to the cast. She’s beautiful and she’s just got funny in her soul,” he says.
Adds Vin Diesel: “Faith had a great way of being skeptical of my character and, at the same time, having this very trusting maternal instinct about Shane that I thought was cool, because ultimately she’s the one who gives Shane this incredible responsibility of watching her kids.”
Ford’s alter ego is the family’s Eastern European nanny, Helga, played with characteristic comic glee by Academy Award ®nominee and two-time Emmy®Award winner Carol Kane. Like the rest of the cast, Kane was attracted by the story’s interweaving of suspense and sweetness.
“I thought the script was clever, funny, exciting and even a bit profound in its concept of what makes a family a family, and about really listening to one another,” she says. “The other two most attractive things about this movie were the chance to work with Adam Shankman, whom I adore, and best of all, the chance to kick some serious Vin Diesel butt!”
Helga also gave Kane an opportunity to utilize her exceptional talent for foreign accents and penchant for bringing to life eccentric characters.
“I always like to transform into different people,” explains Kane, “and it was great to be able to create Helga’s accent and her whole look with the black hair and 4-inch gray roots. I saw Helga as being like all Three Stooges rolled into one. It’s a very physical role. I get spit up on by the baby, I get Cheerios thrown in my face, I fall down the stairs, I get to bite Vin Diesel. All in all, it was really, really fun.”
Despite being called upon to pummel the world’s hottest action star in one of the film’s most comedic sequences, Kane developed a strong respect for Diesel. “Shane Wolfe is such a lovely comedy role for him, and the wonderful part of it was that he truly fell in love with the babies in the movie. His whole face would break open with joy when he was working with the kids, and he would make them laugh so hard. It was great to see,” she says.
Also joining the cast in two equally comic roles as school principal Claire Fletcher and Vice Principal Murney are Lauren Graham, the Golden Globe ®nominated star of “Gilmore Girls” recently seen on screen opposite Billy Bob Thornton in “Bad Santa,” and Brad Garrett, well known to television audiences as a two-time Emmy ® winner and three-time Emmy ® nominee and for his role as Ray Romano’s older brother on the series “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
For Shankman, Graham was the perfect love interest for Diesel, the only woman a guy like Shane Wolfe could ever imagine actually settling down with to have his own family.
“I knew that anybody who could get romantic with Billy Bob Thornton in ‘Bad Santa’could stand up to Vin Diesel,” the director laughs. “And she did. Lauren handled the role with true grace and humor.” Graham found THE PACIFIER an entirely new experience.
“I’ve never worked with kids or animals before, let alone all of them together in the same scene,” she admits. “That was an interesting experience—being chased around by toddlers and ducks! It was also a lot of fun getting to know Vin Diesel. My character was also in the military, so deep down she relates to Shane Wolfe and she finds herself kind of falling for this bald, muscle-bound guy in spite of herself.”
Brad Garrett was also excited by his role as Vice Principal Murney but lived in terror of the day he would have to don a wrestling singlet and foolishly challenge Shane Wolfe to an afterschool match. “Let me tell you something,” says Garrett.
“When they told me I had to wrestle Vin Diesel, it almost killed me. I’ll be honest. I don’t think I could beat up Vin Scully, never mind Vin Diesel. I would run from a Quaker. So it was a little intimidating.”
Garrett persevered, however, and, like his co-stars, ultimately found Diesel to be a lot kinder and gentler than expected. “He’s actually a very sweet man,” he says, “and we all had a lot of fun together.”
Sums up producer Jonathan Glickman, “One of the great things Adam Shankman did with this film was to populate it with a lot of great supporting actors, so none of the roles seem marginal at all, no matter how small. Everyone brings something unique and fun to the adventure.”
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