As Company Retreat‘s cast of improvisors were preparing for the arrival of the unsuspecting Anthony Norman for his temporary stint at the fictional hot sauce maker Rockin’ Grandma’s, Alex Bonifer had an idea.
The Groundlings main company performer and teacher was getting ready to be the Patois-speaking failson Dougie Jr. when he thought of a character detail that could help specify the relationship between him and his father, Doug Sr., played by Jerry Hauck — and possibly draw some surprised reactions from Norman.
“Everyone in the cast had one-on-one sit downs with Jake Szymanski, our director, as we were getting going, just to talk about our characters,” Bonifer told Gold Derby. “In that meeting, I told him, ‘I think it would be really funny — if Jerry Hauk is game — if we had a relationship where we kissed each other on the mouth. There’s nothing incestuous about it. It’s not weird. I mean, it is weird, but there’s nothing sexual about it. It’s like how you kiss a newborn baby.”
Bonifer was inspired by the series’ original iteration, Jury Duty, in which its subject, Ronald Gladden, would have minute reactions to the ridiculousness happening around him that were ultimately caught by the production’s hidden cameras. “I loved them,” Bonifer said. “I thought they were so salacious, how small it was. I just thought it would be really funny and elicit that ‘Oh, that’s weird’ response.”
Szymanski liked the idea, so an intimacy coordinator was brought in and Hauk signed off on the smooches.
Getting the kisses incorporated into the show was a win for Bonifer, but it wasn’t until filming began that he discovered an unintended consequence of the pitch. There would be moments when cameras weren’t rolling where, in order to maintain the realism of the relationship, Bonifer and Hauk would have to lock lips. “What was also funny was that we couldn’t just kiss when the cameras were around,” Bonifer said. “I had to kiss him every morning and every night to say ‘Good night.’ We had to do it at off hours. I started calling them ‘shadow kisses.'”
During filming, the bit became something like a game for Bonifer, who try to find a reason for a kiss any chance he could. In total, production counted 100 kisses between Dougie Jr. and Doug Sr.
And, according to Bonifer, 30 to 40 shadow kisses.
