"We didn't use air conditioning. We saved a lot of energy by just allowing the actors to boil on set. I'm not entirely lying," says "Arthur" director Jason Winer ("Modern Family"). "We shot the interior of Arthur's apartment inside a warehouse in Yonkers during one of the hottest summers on record. And the producers, whose job it is it problem solve, may not have considered that tin roof. But we definitely were conscious of that throughout and did our best but at the same time, a production descending on New York City in the midst of one of the hottest summers on record is something that dances on the edge of chaos at all times so it's hard for me to say what particular steps we took with that."

 

An unusual kind of reusing/recycling was in play, reveals Russell Brand, who plays the titular alcoholic billionaire in the new version of the 1981 comedy that starred Dudley Moore. In one scene, "I recycled George Clooney's Batman suit. It has George's nipples. It had the pheromones of George Clooney." Brand also had to be almost naked in public, wearing nothing but his underwear in another scene. "I felt very shy and embarrassed about it as a matter of fact, but they were such lovely underpants that I was kind of grateful. They were custom made."

 

A fan of the original film, Brand was eager to do a fresh take and work again with Helen Mirren, a co-star in "The Tempest," who plays his nanny Hobson (changed from the butler John Gielgud played opposite Moore). "Dudley Moore is a great hero of mine and to be able to recreate that film with a talented ensemble of people was an incredible gift," says the actor, also currently the voice of E.B., heir to the Easter Bunny legacy, in "Hop."

 

He related to several aspects of the story and character. "Arthur has everything. He has all the money in the world, yet he is lonely, he is unhappy,” begins Brand, a recovering alcoholic. "I grew up poor. I didn't have any money. Now I have some money. But the greatest poverty one can have is to be poor in one's heart, and through falling in love he is truly happy. He discovers purpose. All of us know that money is transient. Its pleasures are illusory. The happiest moments in our life are not: 'Oh, I got a new hat or a wonderful silvery object,' but when you connect with another human being," says Brand, who married singer Katy Perry last year. "My life has been changed by falling in love," he declares. "I think love has an incredibly transformative quality.”

 

"Arthur" is in theaters April 8, and Mirren hosts "Saturday Night Live" April 9.

 

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