TRADING PLACES

As Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy and Jamie Lee Curtis’ status-switch comedy turns 40, director John Landis reflects on the film’s rocky production and controversial legacy…

I got away with stuff mainly because I just did it,’ says filmmaking icon John Landis of Trading Places, his stock-market switch-up that has since become an unlikely Christmas staple despite going against studio casting demands and including scenes that haven’t aged well.

Landis’ comedy - about wealthy banker Louis Winthorpe III swapping social status with street hustler Billy Ray Valentine thanks to a cruel bet made by two commodity broker brothers, Randolph and Mortimer Duke – became the fourth highest-grossing film at the 1983 box office. Four decades on, it’s still largely beloved as a festive favourite but one that’s earned some controversial added interest following initial audience investment.

‘The picture was written by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod for Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor,’ Landis tells Buff. Before the project had time to progress, a drug-addicted Pryor accidentally set himself on fire in 1980, forcing things to a standstill. However, Landis’ interest had been piqued. ‘I got excited because it was so old-fashioned,’ he explains. ‘It very much reminded me of the social comedies, often called “screwball”, of the 1930s. They all dealt with class and were all very funny. Ronald Reagan was president at the time with the whole “greed is good” philosophy. I thought: “If I pull this off, I can make a really old-fashioned, social-screwball comedy and no one will notice.”’

With that, Landis signed on but was quickly under the gun. Paramount Pictures’ boss, Jeffrey Katzenberg, had set a release date before cameras started rolling and even had his eye on a new face to replace Pryor’s Billy Ray Valentine. ‘Jeff said: “Do you know who Eddie Murphy is?” I didn’t,’ laughs Landis, who went on to make three movies with the star. ‘I met Eddie, who I very much liked. He was 19 or 20 and bursting with energy and talent. Then Jeff said: “OK, now go back to Gene Wilder.” I said, “Wait a minute…” Louis Winthorpe III is gentile… [Wilder] just didn’t strike me as white-collar,’ he says. ‘That was a problem because the studio was invested in Wilder.’

Listening to his gut, Landis hired an old pal, much to Katzenberg’s dismay. ‘I went ahead and approached Dan Aykroyd, which really pissed them off,’ he chuckles. ‘John Belushi had died, and Dan had made Doctor Detroit, which tanked. The conventional wisdom - which is almost always wrong - was that without John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd didn’t mean anything.’ Of course, Landis knew his old Blues Brothers star was more than capable: ‘I’ve worked with Danny several times, and people forget what a fine actor he is. I hired him, and the studio got very angry with me. They threatened to lower the budget, and in fact, for my next coup, they did pick $2m out of it. That was for hiring Jamie Lee Curtis.’

Then best known as horror’s biggest ‘scream queen’ following her breakout role as Laurie Strode in 1979’s Halloween, according to Landis Paramount thought Curtis’ presence would ‘lower the tone’ of their movie.

‘I thought Jamie would be great, but the studio got terribly upset,’ recalls the director. ‘They thought she’d make it a B-picture. I thought Jamie was funny, smart and sexy. In fact, the only problem I had with the script was Ophelia’s character because she was the classic “hooker with a heart of gold”,’ says Landis, referencing comments that have since been made about Curtis’ character and her perhaps unnecessarily sexualised persona. ‘Although, one of the things I liked about it was that it respected sex workers,’ he adds. ‘Curtis hadn’t really been in a different genre picture yet. Right after Trading Places, John Cleese wrote A Fish Called Wanda for her. It changed her career.’

Speaking of re-evaluations, one scene in the movie has become particularly hard to stomach. While trying to get revenge on the snooty siblings responsible for their change in fortune, Louis and Billy Ray devise an elaborate plan involving Aykroyd’s character disguising himself as a Jamaican, complete with a crude make-up job. It’s something that makes Trading Places hard to enjoy during 2023 revisits, but Landis argues that the key is entirely in the context.

‘There was no problem filming that sequence,’ says the director, recalling how everyone was on board with the concept. ‘Louis belongs to a class and a sense of values that are isolated, privileged and naive in many ways - which is another word for ignorant. [Highlighting that] was my intention,’ reasons Landis. ‘There was no attempt to make it look real. He looks absurd, and his performance is so over-the-top. It’s very silly. I would still do it today - although I’m not sure the studio would want me to. They’d be afraid.’

Despite this, Trading Places remains a movie that enjoys seasonal repeats. ‘It takes place at Christmas, but I never thought of it as a Christmas movie,’ says a bemused Landis. ‘Strangely enough, for the last 26 years or so, it’s been shown in Italy every Christmas Eve. In Italy, it’s the Christmas movie,’ he smiles. ‘I can’t tell you how many Italians have told me about watching Trading Places with their family. It’s so funny.’

TRADING PLACES IS AVAILABLE ON DVD, BLU-RAY AND DIGITAL.