Jessica Alba gets comic stroke of 'Good Luck Chuck'

0 Comments | Manila Bulletin, Jan 13, 2008

After making many a man swoon on magazine covers and in films such as "The Fantastic Four" and "Into the Blue," Jessica Alba desperately wanted to make the world laugh.

She finally has her chance in her first big-screen comedy, Columbia Pictures' "Good Luck Chuck."

Alba, 26, plays the accident-prone Cam, who falls for Dane Cook's Chuck, a man with a "lucky" curse: Every woman he beds ends up getting engaged to the next man she meets.

Alba feared her good looks might curse her chances of ever landing a decent comedy. "Knocked Up" was among the comedies for which she unsuccessfully auditioned. "I couldn't get a meeting for anything," she says. "And then I was asked to host the (2006) MTV Movie Awards. I thought, 'I'll get to do comedic skits and use it as an audition for people who don't think I'm able to do comedy.' "

It was that strike of good fortune that introduced her to Cook, who was a presenter. He remembers seeing Alba in the "King Kong" and "Mission: Impossible" spoofs when a light bulb went off. "I called my manager from the third row and said, 'I don't want to meet with anyone else -- I want her to be my co-star,' " Cook recalls. "She's hilarious. We were really struggling to find someone who is really funny, but at the same time is attractive and owns her sexuality. That's a very difficult combination to find."

"All the character actresses are forced to fit into a certain ideal," acknowledges Alba. "Maybe it's all the reality shows and makeover shows that make everyone look the same. Sex sells. You have to be crass but (seducible) if you're a woman."

Finding a good female role in the comedy genre dominated by men felt like an impossible task - until Alba read the "Good Luck Chuck" script. She instantly fell in love with the part of Cam , and she lobbied hard for the role. "Not very many comedies are written as well as this one. And in a lot of them, women are just token characters," she says. " Cam gets to do all the physical comedy. And that was a rare opportunity."

Alba calls Cam "more me than any other role that I've played," and she jumped into the part with unbridled enthusiasm, insisting on performing all of her own pratfalls and stunts. "I'm usually a lot more self-conscious and aware that I have to be somebody else," she says. "But with Cam I got to be as goofy as I really am. I'm not afraid to be an idiot. I really just took the bull by the horns and did it. I even got a few bruises to prove my dedication."

The self-confessed klutz already has won over her "Chuck" co-star. "Anything I threw at her, she threw back," Cook says. "She was ready for anything. Comedy is a gift. You either have it or you don't, and she has what Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore have."

Opening soon across the Philippines, "Good Luck Chuck" is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.