![]() Have you ever envisioned what these kids might be like when they grow up? Because his character is a lot more imperfect than mine, yet people feel as though they can really relate to him. ![]() I am frankly amazed that his show has kept its audience as long as it has. I wasn't cribbing from Larry David, but I can't help but see the similarities between those two characters. I don't remember when Curb Your Enthusiasm came on, but I only came across it three or four years ago. I wasn't aware of Larry David at the time. Jeff Kinney: I started writing the book in 1998. Had that thought ever crossed your mind when writing this character? When we interviewed the kids earlier in the year, all three of them compared Greg to a young Larry David. You have to make sure the audience is going to root for him. On the screen, it is more of a high wire act. Most of the humor comes from his imperfections. The joke behind Greg is that he is an imperfect character. You can get away with more on the page than you can on the screen. So we were going for the laughs in a big way. As far as the changes between the first and second movie? In general, we were trying to make sure comedy came first in the second movie. Your reaction to the material is quite different. My books tend to be devoid of any emotional context, so it was interesting seeing my same story played out on the screen. My take away from the first movie was that I was surprised that I felt moved by the relationship between Greg and Rowley. Jeff Kinney: I will give a long answer to that. What were your initial thoughts after having seen the first movie in the series, and did you request any changes bouncing from that first movie so quickly into this sequel? But it makes me happy that you got that sense of what I was trying to achieve with this to begin with. I was surprised when my publisher told me they wanted to make it into a kids' series. I thought this book would bring readers back to that time period. I was writing something nostalgic for people like me, who had forgotten what it was like to be a kid. All that time, I thought I was writing a book for an adult. Jeff Kinney: When I wrote my book, I spent eight years putting together the first manuscript. How did you manage to channel that past life so profoundly? Wimpy Kid automatically takes you back to that particular point in your own life. You have captured that middle school spirit with all its honesty and integrity intact. Watching this movie, and reading these books, there is a real sense for this particular time period. There is a sweetness that comes across when real people inhabit the roles of these characters, which can't be achieved even with the best CGI. I didn't really realize when we set out to make a live action movie with human actors for families, how rare that is nowadays. Jeff Kinney: (Laughs) I don't know if it's a trend or a breath of fresh air.
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