Fool's Paradise: How The Rock & Justin Bieber Inspired Charlie Day's Film
Charlie Day's upcoming star-studded directorial debut apparently draws inspiration from an eclectic pool of artists. Among them are fellow satirist Hal Ashby, Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin, and ... Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson?
As the actor revealed on "The Always Sunny Podcast," Day was suddenly struck with a realization while he was perusing the trades, telling his co-hosts, "I was reading an article about 'The Rock,' and then I switched over to some other entertainment article about Justin Bieber, and I was thinking, 'What are these names? And how do we just accept them?'" The second article in question seemingly mentioned Bieber's fanbase, colloquially known as "Beliebers," for several years now. "It's a strange-sounding word..." he marveled. "[And] I know that [Bieber] is that man's name, but, like, 'The Rock,' we just started calling a man an inanimate object."
Howerton interjected that the name was given to Johnson during his time as a wrestler. However, that only seems to vindicate Day's incredulity that no one batted an eye when the entertainment industry told audiences to call Dwayne Johnson "The Rock." "We went for the ride, right?" he shrugged. "He walks down the street. Someone will go 'There goes 'The Rock.” And I was like, 'What a strange sort of concept.' So the idea of a name and identity and what that is just seemed like fertile ground for that kind of [story]." The bizarre nature of Johnson's moniker isn't just reflected in certain narrative and tonal elements of "Fool's Paradise," but the protagonist's very name.
Latte Pronto doesn't make much more sense than The Rock
Charlie Day's "Fool's Paradise" character shares something in common with the WWE's favorite son — they're both named after inanimate objects. "I had an idea in writing this... That, like, someone [in the script] asked someone for a latte, 'pronto,' they were just always yelling for a 'latte, pronto.' And then Ken [Jeong], who really drives the story ... overhears Ray Liotta asking someone for a 'latte, pronto' and assumes he's talking to me and assumes my name is Latte Pronto. And then everyone starts calling me Latte Pronto."
As seen in the trailer, Jeong plays a desperate publicist who attaches himself to "Latte Pronto" — also known as "The Fool" — after he silently stumbles his way onto a film set. Though Day and Rob McElhenney feel that Latte Pronto is actually a pretty great stage name, all things considered, Day's statement earlier in the episode confirms that it was chosen to subtly reflect the film's exploration of Hollywood's absurd distortion of personal and public identity.
Latte Pronto will make his feature film debut in "Fool's Paradise," which premieres May 12th in theaters. Appearing alongside Day, Jeong, and Liotta are Kate Beckinsale, Edie Falco, John Malkovich, Jason Sudeikis, Adrien Brody, Jason Bateman, and a whole lot of former "Always Sunny" cast members.