Most everyone has a special place in their heart for the Chevy Chase/Beverly D’Angelo starring movie, National Lampoon’s Vacation. When Ed Helms first heard there would be a new Vacation, he was hesitant to potentially tread on a place that was so beloved in pop culture. As soon as he got the script from John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein, he knew that their tone was simultaneously a tribute while also allowing everyone involved to put their own stamp on it.
“I felt like Goldstein and Daley did 90 percent of the heavy lifting in the script. They created a new world and a new family dynamic that felt absolutely in keeping with the Griswold mythology, but also completely fresh and brand new,” Helms told The Movie Mensch.
“That’s the only reason I agreed to do the movie – because it felt fresh.”
The fact that the screenwriters (who also made their directing debut with Vacation) wrote this Rusty Griswold with Helms specifically in mind added to Helms’ desire to become involved.
“I was in mind for them when they wrote Rusty. They wrote something that felt very organic to me as an actor. Then, really, it was just a matter of shedding that insecurity of ‘I don’t want to mess this up,’ and getting to a place where we were like, ‘This is going to be a blast and cool,’ and having the confidence to dive in and bring whatever I bring to this world,” Helms said.
“If it wasn’t such a fresh script and a clean start for this new Griswold family, I don’t think I would have jumped on board.”
Helms first heard “new” Vacation and, like so many of us, cringed at the idea. “When I first heard of the movie, I didn’t want to do it,” he admitted.
“I assumed, like a lot of people, that this was a remake. It’s really technically a sequel. That just opened it all up for me. Not only did it open it up for me, but it’s funny and surprising to give Rusty his own chance at this. From that point forward, we don’t felt any weight. It was just, ‘Let’s nail this.’”
It is its own comedic beast. Helms is Rusty and he and his wife (Christina Applegate) are looking to break out of their family vacation rut and do something different. With fond memories of his childhood trip to Walleyworld pushing his heartstrings, Helms’ Rusty makes an announcement, “This year, we’re going to Walleyworld.”
It takes some convincing to get his family on board, but he convinces them and into the Albanian Prancer (the car is a fantastic running joke throughout the film) they go and traverse America.
Along the way, they stop and see Rusty’s sister Audrey, who is married and living in Texas to a wildly popular weatherman named Stone Crandall (Chris Hemsworth, recently seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron). The man who is Thor makes a splash in the comedic world and is one of the funniest things about the movie, especially in a certain bedroom scene that centers on a very visible male organ.
“It was real hard to keep a straight face [in that scene] and not just because of the prosthetic, which is super funny. But Chris’ performance in that scene is comedy genius — which, to me, is infuriating,” Helms said and laughed.
“I’ve spent my life trying to cultivate my comedy chops and he’s spent his life cultivating his abs and his dramatic acting chops which are fabulous. For him to waltz onto a comedy set and be funny as hell, I’m sorry, but that’s annoying. But also awesome, because his performance is why that scene is so funny. It’s not the visual. The visual is the trigger, but he sells it. He’s a beautiful human being.”