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EP 80: Mrs. Doubtfire | It's All Latex and Beans, Dear

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Good Morning!!!!

Today's treat was the #1 movie in the land on Wendy's 10th birthday - Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). Join us as we revisit a desperate liar playing that "long con went wrong" scenario. With fresh eyes, we feel ya Sally Field. 

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Bridget:

Good morning.

Wendy:

Good morning.

Bridget:

I'm Bridget.

Wendy:

And I'm Wendy.

Bridget:

And this is Flickin Beans. Let me tell ya.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Seven Brew, when I was getting coffees, was packed. The lines were long. Oh, my goodness. Tell me about your coffee. Was it from the secret menu?

Wendy:

Hazelnut white, chocolate, vanilla, and it's called a shortbread.

Bridget:

Okay. So this is kind of a fun little poll from. From something that I heard had gone viral, which it's also seems kind of stupid to me. But we did it anyway, which is what was the number one movie on your 10th birthday. So we did your 10th birthday because mine was gross and lame. And I'm not gonna say what it was, but it was the top movie that day. Yeah.

Wendy:

So your movie, Mrs. Doubtfire, which is a great movie.

Bridget:

How many times I had to tell people, no, I can't. I have to watch Mrs. Doubtfire. I mean, I just love the way people look at me when I say that. Like it's homework. Okay. So, yeah, I got on it yesterday. Well, I like that movie.

Wendy:

Me too.

Bridget:

I forgot about it.

Wendy:

Probably because I was that age where you rewatch movies over and over again. This was one of mine as a kid. I watched it so many times.

Bridget:

Oh, you loved it.

Wendy:

Yeah, I loved it.

Bridget:

Did you watch it when you were 10?

Wendy:

Probably.

Bridget:

Okay.

Wendy:

Yeah. Or very close to it, I would guess.

Bridget:

Okay. So the movie starred Robin Williams and Sally Field.

Wendy:

Yes.

Bridget:

Who is a cutie pie. Okay. I think everybody knows the gist of this movie.

Wendy:

Yeah. No spoiler alerts at this point.

Bridget:

Right. You know, he masquerades as a woman in order to spend time with his kids.

Wendy:

Yes.

Bridget:

So I go back to the beginning because of the jobs.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

That they have. And I'm like, God d***. Another, like, quote, cool job. So his job is a voiceover artist, which he could never have masqueraded as Mrs. Doubtfire without being able to do voices.

Wendy:

True.

Bridget:

So I'm just like, isn't that convenient?

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

So he wouldn't have been able to do it at all without his gay brother and his partner.

Wendy:

Right.

Bridget:

Somehow they have also a cool job doing, like, it looked like movie makeup and stuff.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

So they made latex masks. Could you handle having your face covered in goo for as long as it takes to make a plaster cast?

Wendy:

I've done it before.

Bridget:

Really?

Wendy:

But it was like, not. What's the thing that you. You take newspaper and you put glue on it.

Bridget:

Paper mache.

Wendy:

Paper mache. I've done that and had to wait for it to dry on my face. I Guess getting it put on would be annoying because it just takes so long. And I wondered a lot how they shot the movie. Couldn't have been how it actually was with him taking the outfit on and off and on and off all the time.

Bridget:

Oh, my God, no.

Wendy:

So they must have had to engineer that. Like, you shot all the scenes where you're Mrs. Doubtfire, no matter out of order. And then all the scenes where he's himself. And then they just edit it together. But I was just like that mask. How is it going back on so well?

Bridget:

That whole. The whole restaurant scene was ridiculous. Ridiculous. And it didn't help that the character got drunk.

Wendy:

Yeah. I just kept slamming double scotches.

Bridget:

Well, it was so stressful. I understand that.

Wendy:

Yeah. And his boss just kept ordering them. They never ate. No, just scotch.

Bridget:

That was the most stressful part of the whole movie.

Wendy:

Yes.

Bridget:

Can we talk about the overall dynamic of these two parents? I saw Good Cop, Bad Cop. That's not sustainable without a lot of resentment on the Good Cops part. So the son's birthday.

Wendy:

Yeah. His 12th birthday.

Bridget:

He wasn't supposed to have a party because of his grades. Robin Williams threw him a super soft birthday party. Farm animals everywhere, Right?

Wendy:

How do you arrange that so quickly? And get all those kids there, too?

Bridget:

All the animals were outside, loose, and all the kids were indoors.

Wendy:

Yeah. On a. A steep San Francisco street.

Bridget:

Again, an overview of this lovely, peaceful neighborhood. And again, a beautiful house.

Wendy:

Oh, my gosh. This house in retail value has to be like millions of dollars.

Bridget:

Nobody lives in a s***** house. In movies, it's always over the top. I think in flash Dance, she's got an awesome warehouse apartment. I mean, that's not posh, but it was cool. A lot of room to roller skate. Practice your dance.

Wendy:

Yeah, they're expensive. They call them lofts now. And you can't. They're more expensive than ever.

Bridget:

I want one. That's my dream. A loft apartment. Huge windows, kind of industrial on the ceiling. Show me some silver tubes. I don't know what they do, but I like them.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Also, so she's an interior designer. One of the first scenes where you see her in action at work. They're designing a place. And my favorite quote was, don't be seduced by chintz.

Wendy:

Okay. What are chint?

Bridget:

What are chintz? It's a type of fabric. It's kind of shinyish and it would be something that you would upholster with.

Wendy:

Okay.

Bridget:

But I like that you said, what are chintz?

Wendy:

I don't know.

Bridget:

Don't be Seduced by chimps.

Wendy:

Either.

Bridget:

They're terrible. When Mrs. Doubtfire comes for her interview, he compliments the house and he says it reeks of taste.

Wendy:

He also asks her point blank, oh, did you do all the decorating? Which is something normal people don't ask. You just assume that someone did the own decorating in their house. Well, in a million dollar house, they're rich, I guess.

Bridget:

I mean, do you think Kim Kardashian does her decorating? She's got somebody there.

Wendy:

Oh, no. Yeah, she does.

Bridget:

Yeah. She's like, I want chintz. He was quite abrupt with her. Judgy, but also curious as to why she wanted to divorce him as a kid.

Wendy:

I feel like I would have watched this thinking his character was fun. Mom was just being mean. I kind of remember viewing it that way. And now as an adult, I'm like, oh, my gosh. Yes, divorce this man. He's going behind your back. He's undermined you because you said your kid couldn't have a party. And giving him a party right there. That messed up. And then he invites barnyard animals, which make a huge mess. She has to come in and clean it all up. You get the impression he does this kind of thing a lot. The whole time I'm like, yeah, this is. This would make me so angry. I understand her side a lot more as an adult.

Bridget:

Plus, he had just lost his job.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

So you're gonna go rent all these animals and you don't have a job that.

Wendy:

Well, he quit it. Valid reason. He didn't want to do a cartoon that glorified smoking for kids.

Bridget:

It's such a Robin Williams thing to go off script and ad lib. They played each scene as scripted two or three times, and then he was allowed to improvise. He called it playing. That's part of what makes it funny.

Wendy:

If it wasn't written for him, it was adapted to Robin Williams personality. The. All the voices that. That he does and is well known for. And his energy is just. It seemed like it was very fitting for him. And it was clear that they allowed him to go improvise. And he's so, so good at that. How quick he is.

Bridget:

And maybe Jim Carrey is. Similar energy that just doesn't seem to stop. I would agree. I think it was written for him. Another fun fact is when he was in costume, he went around the town. He went into adult bookstore and bought a d****.

Wendy:

Awesome.

Bridget:

And felt like no one could tell he wasn't a woman.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Except when he was on the Bus and his hairy a** knee was showing and the bus driver says, ooh, I like that Mediterranean look. God, he's so hairy when he is.

Wendy:

Miss Doubtfire and he's like jabbing at her new man. He's like, oh, I prefer them short, furry and funny.

Bridget:

Right, right.

Wendy:

I was like, yeah, that's you. Yeah, exactly. So cute. I do want to talk about the bus driver. Had to have been written by a woman.

Bridget:

Woohoo. Coffee break. Let's talk about our beans.

Wendy:

Hey, bean flickers. Have you followed us yet? We are on Instagram and Facebook at flicking beans Pod. Make sure you like and subscribe and leave us a review or somebody that has very good insight. I think a lot of people get the impression that a danger from other men if you're like, really attractive and that ugly women don't have the experience of like, guys hitting on them unwantedly. Or like, guys think that a woman just because she is not conventionally attractive will want their advances because they don't normally get hit on. Any woman, no matter what you look like, has had this bus driver because first of all, people are attracted to different kinds of things. And secondly, guys are just like pigs, man. You've had this person say these things to you and you're just like, that's what it feels like to be a woman sometimes. So he got the full experience.

Bridget:

So you're saying Mrs. Doubtfire was ugly and unattractive? Come on.

Wendy:

I'm saying she was short, very unfunny. That's what I'm saying.

Bridget:

The whole family really warmed to Mrs. Doubtfire. And that tells me that they connect with that energy in a way that was natural because they all love him. They didn't understand quite why they liked him so much.

Wendy:

Yeah, or her. Sally Field says during the interview, I feel like I've known you my whole life. I've had those connections with people before. We just like Vibe and it's like, I've already known you for so long.

Bridget:

Multiverse.

Wendy:

Yeah. Probably just in another dimension. It's not a weird feeling to have. It's usually a good one. You're on the same wavelength as that person. But it makes sense why they were so willing to accept Mrs. Doubtfire so wholly into their life that quickly enough.

Bridget:

Would you have hired Mrs. Doubtfire?

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Okay. I'm not sure. But he tricked her into hiring him because he kept calling true and pretending to be horrible candidates for the job. Yeah, that was clever. A newspaper ad.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Hi.

Wendy:

Well, it was still much after Madonna movies.

Bridget:

Desperately Seeking Susan. Yeah. Where she writes her phone number down.

Wendy:

They were talking to each other. And the ads, you have to go.

Bridget:

Down to the newspaper office. You gotta write it out longhand.

Wendy:

Have you ever placed an ad trying to sell a car or something in the paper?

Bridget:

That's how you found jobs, too. Indeed. There was no indeed.

Wendy:

Indubitably.

Bridget:

Oh. All the makeup tests when he's trying out his look. I love the Barbra Streisand one.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

For one. Jim Carrey pulled from Robin.

Wendy:

Yes.

Bridget:

Let's be real.

Wendy:

For sure.

Bridget:

One came before the other. Robin Williams. Williams actually did Mrs. Doubtfire previously with Andy Kaufman.

Wendy:

Okay. Yeah.

Bridget:

And he played Andy Kaufman's grandmother as.

Wendy:

Perfect full circle Jim Carrey. He basically just stayed in Andy's character the whole time.

Bridget:

Both Mrs. Doubtfire and Steve Martin and Roxanne.

Wendy:

Oh, yeah.

Bridget:

Left their prosthetics on and went around the town. His real life wife was not having it. She didn't like it. He was a completely different person when he was in the full get up, which he said was a lot of latex and beans.

Wendy:

Like the bodysuit. Yeah.

Bridget:

What kind of beans, I wonder? Definitely not canned.

Wendy:

No. Because Mrs. Doubtfire only use nutritious food for the kids. It's one of her rules. This is why Sally Field's character falls in love with Mrs. Doubtfire is when she comes home from a long day and there's food on the table and everything's clean and her kids are doing their homework. Oh, my gosh. Breath of fresh air.

Bridget:

He became a better father as a woman.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

And that was something. Was it a social worker that came. Came to see Daniel. But Mrs. Doubtfire, he had all the thing on and then he had to put all this meringue or icing on his face so it's dripping off. And that was an accident.

Wendy:

Okay.

Bridget:

It was hot and so it was dripping. So all that was ad lib where it was falling into the tea and stuff. And even when his teeth fall into the glass. That was ad libbed.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

He just thought it would be funny. So he did it.

Wendy:

Which it was. The scene with the mask falling into the tea is iconic. Like that's a scene you remember. I had forgotten, though, that the social worker, then she picks up the tea and she takes the mask and puts it on her face a little bit. Then she tastes it. Oh, okay. She's like taking skin care advice from Mrs. Doutmeyer.

Bridget:

I'm going to try that later. Meringue or whatever. Eggs are way expensive now, so maybe not.

Wendy:

Have you seen all the Alternative Easter dyeing. Things that are coming out now because people don't want to waste the eggs. Tell me, my favorite one is the marshmallow. Seems cleaner, too. You take the marshmallow and dip it. You paint marshmallows instead of eggs?

Bridget:

And then do you hide them? And then the kids f****** eat them off the ground. Well, marshmallow, you know, it's the inside that matters. Mara Wilson is the little Was Matilda.

Wendy:

She was, yes.

Bridget:

Which is another real cute movie.

Wendy:

And she has a lot of good one liners. She repeats what Daniel says at dinner because she's coming to get him. And she honks. I agree, that's rude. Just come in and get your kids. But anyway. And he goes, you're my g****** kids, too. Then she repeats it when Mom's there.

Bridget:

We're his g****** kids, too. Oh. Gotta love a little kid throwing out a swear.

Wendy:

Me too.

Bridget:

A friend of mine had a little girl, she was putting a hat on her, and this little goes, hat. Which really isn't a swear.

Wendy:

No, I kind of like that. Yeah, that was perfect.

Bridget:

When they're at the pool and he throws that lime and beans Pierce Brosnan in the head, he was, like, pretending someone else did it. He says, it's a run by Fruiting. That was ad lib.

Wendy:

Oh, had to have been. Yes.

Bridget:

Okay.

Wendy:

The bartender turns back and he's like, what are you looking at? In his man voice.

Bridget:

Yeah, that's creepy. Yeah, when he talks in the man voice. Then it was weird, but now it's normal. You know, we didn't really see a lot of trans people back then. And now, you know, people are freer to be themselves. They're not wearing prosthetic masks or bodysuits.

Wendy:

No, this isn't. Yeah. Mrs. Doubtfire is not trans. She's drag.

Bridget:

Or just in a costume.

Wendy:

She's playing a character. It's not the same. A few things that people might consider transphobic today. Like, the son walks in on Mrs. Doubtfire and she's peeing standing up.

Bridget:

Yeah.

Wendy:

And he's like. And he just freaks out. And he's like, gotta call the cops. That's a weird reaction. What are the cops gonna do?

Bridget:

Our nanny has a d***.

Wendy:

I get the surprise.

Bridget:

Right?

Wendy:

But going to the cops was a funny reaction. I guess when you're a kid, you're like, cops, fix just got.

Bridget:

Jesus. That's true, though.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Yeah. That's all. You know, I love that the kids find out well before the mom. I hate Pierce Bronin's character. He really moved in fast. Mrs. Doubtfire spared no comments. Basically, like, you're a. Yeah.

Wendy:

She tries to get her to wear the funeral dress to the date. Yes.

Bridget:

How about this frock for real? They probably hadn't had a date night in forever. Yeah, they kind of lost that with the resentment of the good cop, bad cop. You can't do that and make yourself the favorite. You both have to be good cop, bad cop. And on the same page.

Wendy:

Because it's not only gonna build resentment between you as a couple, but also it confuses your kids.

Bridget:

Mrs. Doubtfire says the word dear, guess how many times.

Wendy:

178.

Bridget:

God, you're close.

Wendy:

Really.

Bridget:

101. But I like that you overestimated, because it really is a lot. It was the number one on your birthday, but for the whole year, it was the second grossing film of 93. The first one was Jurassic Park.

Wendy:

Ah.

Bridget:

Look at how different those two movies are.

Wendy:

Those are both great.

Bridget:

Yeah.

Wendy:

I love Jurassic Park. That. That was a movie that kind of change movies.

Bridget:

Their final solution is nice because it's what he suggested in the beginning. It's essentially the same thing. He picks up the kids after school, but he takes them to his apartment, feeds them, and Mom's off work and takes them back. It's beautiful. He adored the kids and wanted to spend time with them.

Wendy:

She says the biggest thing was I didn't like who I was when I was with Daniel. Like, I want to be fun, too, but somebody has to be the adult. They did jab at him a lot. You feel bad for him because he really does want to spend time with his kids. He doesn't have a job and doesn't have a part. Yeah, he just got divorced. Of course he's got to get on his feet. He's lived in this house, you know, for however long they were married.

Bridget:

That reeks of taste.

Wendy:

That reeks of taste.

Bridget:

Yeah. He's just a little discombobulated.

Wendy:

Right. They do make the first ruling. Temporary. But it does seem harsh that he only gets to see them one day a week.

Bridget:

The arrangement that they came up with keeps them both in. The kids lives for about equal. She works a lot, so she wouldn't even see them until after supper, and then it's time for bed. They literally have equal. And that almost never happens. Well, anything else about this movie?

Wendy:

I don't think so.

Bridget:

Okay. Did we do it?

Wendy:

I think we did it. We flicked some beads. Okay. Love you. Bye.

Bridget:

Bye.

Wendy:

It.

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Bridget

Co-host
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Wendy

Co-host