Interview: Will Speck Talks About the Journey to Bring a Crooning Crocodile to Life
The co-director of Blades of Glory and The Switch embraces true ‘joie de vivre’ with his first ever family-friendly musical.
Ever since they first appeared on the scene with Blades of Glory in 2007, Will Speck and Josh Gordon have consistently provided films which sought to ride a line between snark and sincere sentimentality. Certainly, they’ve been unafraid to explore, ranging from the raunchy Office Christmas Party to the romantic comedy The Switch. Once again, they make their mark on new ground with Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. It is both an earnest family film and a bombastic musical, based on the acclaimed children’s series which has spanned multiple books across several decades.
According to Speck, he and his collaborator Gordon were longtime fans of the series, and were invested in the film adaptation “from the ground up.” They worked with the estate of author Bernard Waber, recruited screenwriter Will Davies to adapt the first two books, and brought the project to Sony’s attention. They were also the ones who courted Canadian pop star Shawn Mendes to lend his voice to the titular character.
“I think from the beginning when we spoke with [Mendes], we knew that it was the right choice,” Speck reflects, “He had a lot of those qualities that Lyle had.”
Not only was Mendes the right choice, but Speck and Gordon were the right choices to helm Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. Anyone who has seen their films will know that they are familiar with formula, able to tweak a film’s tone in one way or another. In the case of this film, according to Speck, their primary goal was to make “something that felt like the book.”
It’s easy to see why Speck was drawn to this story in the first place. He speaks fondly of the books, praising their “sweetness”, “whimsy”, and “fable-like magic”. These qualities served as guiding stars for Speck as he and Gordon helmed the film project, along with a star-studded cast and crew. And it certainly required a heartfelt effort on the part of everyone involved to translate the books’ infectious joy onto the screen. According to Speck, the rehearsals and recordings were a clear indicator that everyone was giving it their all. Even before the actors were in costume, their performances hit the mark perfectly. It was an atmosphere which Speck could hardly have anticipated, even with all the planning he put in. “You’re really going to have to be a miserable person to be in a bad mood on the set,” Speck jokes about the experience.
One of the main elements to this film was, of course, the music itself. Speck singles out celebrated songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the same team who provided the soundtracks for La La Land, Dear Evan Hansen, and The Greatest Showman. Their work, alongside the singers and technicians who were involved, truly convinced Speck that the project was “coming alive.”
Of course, no film production is without its struggles. In their case, Speck reflects that one of the primary obstacles was working around the regulated schedule of their lead child actor Winslow Fegley. “His talent was unsurmountable,” Speck explains, “but when you’re dealing with kid hours, it’s really challenging because you have to do it in a certain amount of time, a certain window.”
It is perhaps unsurprising, for those who have either seen the film or who know a bit about Speck and Gordon’s careers, that they saw something of themselves in Hector P. Valenti. Played by Javier Bardem in what is arguably the most complex and captivating performance, Valenti is “the showman that’s on the make and trying to figure something out and having to learn something truthful about themselves in the process.” For Speck, it is a figure that any artist can relate to on some level, but it is also be “a desperation, and a guiding force, and a characteristic that’s not so favourable.” It certainly explains why Valenti is given such a healthy mix of positivity and pathos to his character. Speck is also quick to credit Bardem with giving the perfect performance to convey this complexity: “I think both of us just love how he pulled that together… He’s the good guy and the bad guy at the same time.”
When it comes to the audiences watching this film, Speck hopes that they will be inspired to embrace unexpected opportunities. Lyle not only inspires change in his human friends, but they also give him the ability to improve himself in turn. For Speck, this is the ultimate message he wishes to impart on the movie-goers of all ages. “As long as your eyes are open and your heart is open,” Speck states, “people can come into your life, whether it’s a six-foot crocodile, or somebody in a classroom with you, or somebody down the hall, whatever it is, and infect change in you, and be a catalyst for something new and different that you didn’t expect.”
