Note: This story contains spoilers from “Only Murders in the Building.”
Steve Martin and Martin Short have proven time and time again that they’re the masters of physical comedy — and they’re showing no signs of slowing down in “Only Murders in the Building” at the ages of 80 and 75, respectively.
In Season 4 of the Hulu series, Short showed off his physical comedy chops when he slid down a bannister dressed like John McEnroe as part of Oliver Putnam’s test to prove his physical fitness. Meanwhile, Martin flexed his own physical comedy skills in the Season 5 premiere — which saw Charles Haden-Savage straddling and climbing around beloved Arconia doorman Lester’s (Teddy Coluca) coffin to ensure he had all of his fingers still attached.
When asked about their preparation for the show’s scenes involving physical comedy, Short told TheWrap: “You can’t really know exactly what you’re going to do until you’re on the set.” But Martin was quick to have a different perspective.
“I totally disagree. The physical comedy depends on how dangerous it is. If it’s dangerous, you have to be very, very careful about hurting yourself or hurting someone else,” Martin said. “But in the case of this year, I’d say it was more spontaneous on the coffin. You try things, you use some things and you don’t use other things.”
Of course, that begged the question from Short: “Which season was were the stunts really dangerous?” to which Martin replied, “The season when I had to slide down a pole.”
“That’s true, didn’t you tie it off?,” Short quipped, to which Martin responded: “Well, it’s called the magic of show business.”
As opposed to Meryl Streep and Melissa McCarthy, who decided to take over choreographing their fight in Season 4, Martin and Short’s first instinct is to bring in a stunt person, executive producer John Hoffman told TheWrap.
“Then you slowly see some of that get whittled away by them. They’re like, ‘Well, maybe I should do that. Well, no [the stunt double isn’t] going to have the timing. Let me try that.’ So it finds its way back to a balance,” Hoffman explained. “But it’s incredible to me what I see [Steve and Marty] get up to. These are comedic maestros that are doing stuff both emotionally acting-wise and physically as comedians in the most elegant ways. I genuinely think they’re doing the best work of their careers and post-75 for both of them. It’s unbelievable.”
He confirmed that Martin in particular takes preparation for his physical comedy in the show very seriously.
“Steve and I will go on for months before he’s ready to shoot with ideas about the way it might be written, this little adjustment here and there. Then when we get to set and see the set, we always have a special rehearsal with him to say, ‘Here’s what we’ve got and what we’re looking at. What can we make?’ And he’s always coming up with these brilliant ideas,” Hoffman continued. “Marty does the same, but Steve is like a scientist on what things are cleanest. It’s just great to watch.”
When asked about the Season 5 premiere scene on the official “Only Murders in the Building” podcast, Coluca confirmed it was actually him in the casket.
“When we got the first two scripts, I was going to shoot a commercial. On the day of the table read, I had to leave for North Carolina,” Coluca recalled. “And I’m reading episode one in bed. I’m looking. I’m looking. And I said, ‘they put me in a casket.’ And my wife started crying immediately.”
He noted that he and his wife first met during a bereavement group after both being widowed when they were young.
“I said to John, ‘I don’t think I could do it’,’” Coluca continued. “He said, ‘Well, Steve has a bit he wants to do and I really think it’s going to be funny.’ I said, ‘All right, I’m going to talk to my wife’ but then John called my wife. And he’s the most soothing person in the world.”
Coluca and his wife have since seen the premiere and had nothing but praise for the scene’s execution.
“The way they handled it was great,” he said. “It might be the funniest scene I’ve ever done in my career and I’m dead.”
“Only Murders in the Building” releases new episodes Tuesdays on Hulu.
