Owen Wilson decided to go the "doughy direction" with his Zoolander 2 character as he couldn't stop eating Italian food during the shoot.
The 46-year-old star is reprising his role as male supermodel Hansel in the upcoming movie, which is a sequel to the 2001 original. Owen and his co-star Ben Stiller shot in Italy, which was tricky for Owen because he couldn't stop tucking into plates of pasta.
"It was a little bit of a challenge because Italian food, it's not exactly gluten free. I did struggle with that early on and Ben was giving me notes about, you know, you're playing a supermodel. But then I decided that maybe I could play this guy as kind of doughy, like a doughy supermodel," Owen told US talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. "They don't always have to be ripped, right? So I went that direction. And I think when you see the movie, I think you'll like that choice. It's more human, it's more inclusive."
Owen is father to sons Ford, four, and 17-month-old Finn, who both came to visit him on set. The star wanted the boys to have fun so tried to organise outings, although his efforts with Ford didn't go well. He arranged for him to see the Vatican with his mother, with Ford telling his dad "none of it" had been his favourite afterwards.
This made the star consider his own childhood, which didn't involve visiting film sets. He went to camp once in the summer but didn't get on with it, so began focusing on making money instead.
"My dad was big on us having summer jobs and I had quite a few. I was a pool cleaner one summer in Dallas. That I expected to be sort of... you know, you can't help that think, when you're a teenager, as a pool cleaner, that you're gonna maybe... stumble into something, kind of. Like in those movies!" he laughed.
"The closest I came was startling some poor lady who was sunbathing topless. It was pretty good.
I don't know if my boss thought I was that great, I was let go half way through summer. I had an unorthodox style of cleaning pools where I would get in the pool and I think it was kind of upsetting to some of the pool owners to look out and see their pool man in the pool."
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