Overboard Returns After 30 Years: Classic romantic comedy is remade with gender reversal

World
Europe

02:31

It's been over 30 years since Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn's "Overboard". Although it received mixed reviews at the time, it's now considered a classic. Now, the original story - about a man who seeks revenge on a woman who wronged him by taking advantage of her amnesia - is being REMADE but with the roles reversed.

The new "Overboard" sees Anna Faris play a cleaner who is badly treated by a playboy millionaire played by Eugenio Derbez. When she sees a news report showing the man in hospital is suffering from amnesia, she decides to exact her revenge by pretending to be his wife. At the premiere in Los Angeles on Monday, Derbez told the press about his feeling about the role.

EUGENIO DERBEZ, ACTOR & PRODUCER "When we were flipping the roles and switching genders, that nowadays it would feel weird to have a guy kidnapping a woman to make her work so that was one reason. The other was we wanted to break stereotypes, and the other one is that way we avoid a direct comparison between Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell."

His co-star Mel Rodriguez also supported the gender reversal, as opposed to the previous movie.

MEL RODRIGUEZ, ACTOR "It would be really weird to do it the other way now. It would be kind of rape-y at this point or kidnap-y and yeah, I don't think it would work the other way. There would be arrest warrants and cops involved and so on and so forth."

The film also hopes to stand out from the original by having a large Hispanic cast and a screenplay with 30 percent of the dialogue in Spanish. Anna Faris said that the abundance of Spanish stars and language on set didn't rub off on her.

ANNA FARIS, ACTRESS "The fact that 30 percent of the film is in Spanish and we're working with these incredible Spanish-speaking movie stars, it's just amazing to me. I'm very very proud of that part."

(Reporter: How is your Spanish?)

"Terrible."

(Reporter: So how did you cope on set then?)

"Oh I was just... It was probably one of the few times in my life that I thought I should probably not talk, like I should probably just be quiet."

"Overboard" goes on release in the United States on Friday.