Rob Schnedier is Back as "Deuce Bigalow"

In Theaters August 12

Deuce Bigelow is back and not much has changed. Rob Schneider transplanted his fish cleaning gigolo to Europe where he tries to clear his old pimp T.J. (Eddie Griffin) of the murder of Europe’s finest man whores. To do this, of course, he has to solicit clients of the man whore killer’s victims to find a connection.

“He’s a guy who’s trying to do the right thing,” Schneider said of his now trademark character. “He’s not the brightest guy. What I liked about him is he’s good with some things and expert at something with fish and cleaning fish tanks was his thing. He knows the right PH balance and stuff and so, yes, in that sense he’s not as good with people. I was kind of not the most comfortable kid with other kids around when I was growing up so you slightly disconnect which kind of works for this guy. But he’s a sweet guy. He wants to do the right thing in the right situation. He’s likeable. So I think you can maybe take things a little bit further than you could if he was a character who is kind of a rascal.”

And for a gigolo, he’s not too obsessed with sex. The inspiration for the character came when Schneider saw a certain other gigolo movie. “When I saw American Gigolo it was ridiculous because it’s super models going out with, meeting and hiring gigolos. It’s just ridiculous. It was insane. It’s a way to sell Armani clothes, the only reason [for] this movie and it doesn’t hold up, really doesn’t. I remember thinking, ‘Who really needs to hire a gigolo? It’s anyone who’s going to be seven and a half feet tall, have enormous feet or have uncontrollable swearing disorder.’ So that was kind of the impetus to write the first one.”

Now his clients have even more special needs, including one victim of Chernobyl who grew a penis on her nose. While a priceless sight gag, such a characteristic took careful choreography and prosthetic effects. “Just getting the damn thing to work, you know. And the penis nose, first of all the poor girl has to wear the penis and she wasn’t very excited about having a penis on her face. She’s really funny and very beautiful. You know, from here up she’s just a stunningly beautiful girl, you know and then, of course, with the penis on her face it makes her less attractive.”

European Gigolo goes further in the man whore industry by revealing some tricks like the Portuguese Breakfast. And then you just hear some ridiculous names for unimaginable acts that don’t really exist. “There are some real things out there but it was much more fun to do the stuff that you don’t really know what it is. It’s just the sillier they are. I thought we made a mistake showing that there some kind of actual stuff. To me it’s more interesting to not know what they are but just imagine.”

Shot on location in Amsterdam, even the workaholic Schneider succumbed to the social temptations of the city. “I’m very professional. This was the only movie ever where one or two nights we did stay up all night and then go to work.”

The nightlife became the selling point for the film, since the low budget kept actor salaries low. “When the American actors came over we would take them out to dinner and then I would taken them on a tour of the red light district. One of the most unique moments of my life, especially on this movie, was taking people on a tour of the red light district and the firs movie happened to be a hit in Thailand. I’m going and literally these three Thai hookers came out of the boot and go ‘Hi, hi.’ They saw the first movie. ‘Hi Deuce.’ That was a completely bizarre moment.”

And Schneider would not deny the drug culture over there. “There’s coffee shops. I’m not a big pot smoker because I get paranoid and hashish is a lot more mild than marijuana. But I like it. There were some guys who did more than dabble. I remember one of the actors was given some mushrooms by one of the other actors and this is a guy who has never done drugs before and he says, ‘How many should I take?’ And the guys goes, ‘Take them all.’ And he locked himself in the hotel room for two days.”

For all the fun, working in Amsterdam taught the American filmmakers a valuable lesson. “The crew was all Dutch. Most of the actors were Dutch. If you wanted to go overtime here, just go overtime. Pay everybody. Over there it’s like no, it’s not about the money. So you have to ask their permission and they vote. They always said yes. But they let you know it’s up to them and it’s like, ‘Hey, we’re working with you on this.’ It was cool because I’m used to working, working, working. I don’t have much of a private life, just working all the day and I don’t mind doing it because it takes so many years to get to this place to where you’re actually making movies. I remember one day on a Saturday I get out of the house, I get up and say, ‘I’m going to go do something today.’ And I see this family, one of the guys who worked on the crew with his family, on a boat in the canal with his family, cheese and wine. They were laughing. That’s why they want to have the time off. They’re in a beautiful city and they want to enjoy themselves. And so let me get a boat.”

Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo opens Friday.