CANCUN - Oh, to be a fly on a wall, or in this case, a film set where a group of friends who happen to be comedians decide to get together to make a movie.

The result of that endeavor was Grown Ups, a buddy slapstick comedy starring Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, Kevin James, Rob Schneider and Salma Hayek. Being heavily panned by the critics made no dent in the popularity of these Hollywood funnymen — the film was a box office success with a worldwide gross of US$271,430,189 (S$342,056,324) back in 2010. Which means it’s the inevitable sequel time.

Directed by returning director Dennis Dugan, the entire gang, barring Schneider, is reunited. The antics are more or less the same, but we get the addition of a younger and leaner cast member in the shape of Twilight’s Taylor Lautner.

Q: Taylor, as the newbie, what was your experience of being with the comedians like?

Taylor Lautner: Oh boy.

Adam Sandler: You loved it, right?

Taylor: I did love it. I was very intimidated. This is a funny table. But, I mean, it’s why I wanted to do it. I mean, these guys and Salma, they’re the best at what they do and it was a huge learning experience for me. It’s an absolute blast. The set is unlike anything else I’ve ever been on. We don’t laugh this much on the Twilight sets.

David Spade: We all learned how to be a little bit better-looking. It all worked out. Don’t be shy.

Q: Taylor obviously is somebody that is known for being sexy. A lot of ladies fancy him. You guys are slightly older...

Adam: I don’t like where this is heading.

Q: We’re just wondering, did you guys sit him down at any point and give him any like tips on how to deal with ladies, because you’re a little bit more experienced?

Adam: Absolutely not.

Kevin James: That’s where I come in. (laughter all round) I think when people see me, they know that I know the way to a woman’s heart and I bring the funk. So I gave him a couple of tips and he knew most of it.

Adam: Yeah. No, the Taylor man, besides being a handsome boy, I’d have to say amazing personality – just a well-mannered, nice kid. We all loved him and, you know, just like anybody, we were a little intimidated to meet old Taylor, too, because of the sound he brings with him. Wherever he shows up there’s a giant crowd of high-pitched screaming and happiness.

David: We thought they were protesters for the first two days. And then the best is when you leave the set and they’re all screaming and you roll down the window and they all go, “Ahhh...ohhh” and ask, “Is he coming soon?” “I mean, he’s not even in today. Get lost.”

Q: And Salma, what is it like being the rose among these comedy team of thorns?

Salma: Oh, it’s so good that it’s my third year in a row and I’m getting nervous because I think we’ve run out of movies to do and I’m going to miss them terribly. It’s really a family and, of course, this (pointing to Taylor) is the youngest member of the family. This is the baby of the family. But it really does feel like a family and you know, because when you’re Mexican ... we like the sensation of family and we’re very comfortable with each other and I love, love these guys. They’re great to work with, but they’re also my friends. And like I haven’t seen them in a while and we just did a (television talk) show and, of course, we were sitting in a couch and then Kevin just threw himself on top of us and I felt at home. Oh, yes, it’s like your brothers, you know? They’re crazy. They do things you wouldn’t let anyone else in the world do to you, you know? Like a human bomb in the middle of a talk show. But it’s great to feel comfortable with a team of people and laugh with them.

Kevin: Comfortable, but, unfortunately, Salma needs knee surgery now from me doing that. So that didn’t work out too good.

Q: You guys obviously have great chemistry you have with each other, so what happened with Rob Schneider for this one? Tell us at least he’s going to be at the end, shouting, “You can do it.”

Adam: He will be in a theatre screaming that out. But, no, Robbie and his beautiful wife were having a baby at the time – was deep into her pregnancy – and Rob felt it would be best to be with his family at the time.

Kevin: Good move.

Adam: It was a smart move on his – the baby likes him now. But, yeah, no, we love Schneider and we missed him. We missed him. We got about thirty other comedians in the movie to replace him, so that’s what it took.

Q: Taylor, when you said that this was a great learning experience, what did you learn from them? And, guys, what did you learn from Taylor?

Taylor: It’s much more of a relaxed vibe on this set. I mean, I think just the set experience as a whole was a learning experience. And, you know, they don’t take things too seriously. They laugh, they play around, the cameras are constantly rolling, catching little things that we never would have caught on other sets. And, you know, the improv involved. I’ve never improv’d as much as this. And I got to be honest, I learned a lot from them as people; not just as actors, but, I mean, these really are fantastic people who have had great success in their careers, who are still so down-to-earth and so humble and it’s just – that’s a fantastic thing for me to see and for me to learn from..

Dennis Dugan: I learned some stuff. I liked when Taylor came on and he’s coming off a lot of big movies and a great career and a young guy that could be cocky – could be a lot of different things – and we all didn’t really know because we don’t know him. And we thought he’d be a great addition to the movie. It’s sort of a perfect fit and he – on time every day, great attitude, knows his lines back and forth, not a peep out of him, nice, fun, easy to deal with, rolled with the punches. Added a lot of stuff to his character to make it more physical. Kind of found a good running thing and it just made it really sort of blow up…

Kevin: Yeah. Just willing to do anything, too. He did it in – what was annoying, we found very quickly, was that he was very good at it. When you think you’re good at just comedy, at least you have that. Then this good-looking guy comes in and goes, “Wow, he’s pretty good at comedy, too. Look at that. Man, he’s really good. I didn’t know he was that good. Why is he so good?”

Salma: And also, he kept me on my toes because when you are surrounded with like good , you could get a little lazy, you know, in some scenes when you wear the heels like this and you’ve been working all day. And I remember like one time we had a big scene and there was a fight and he’s been working all day and now it’s time to do the fight and he’s like, “No, no, no, I do my own stunts.” “Oh, yeah, but you need to do flips.” “Oh, no, no, no problem. I’ll do the flips.” And we’re looking at each other and there he goes, you know, fighting and doing the flips on his own and you want to sit down because the heels are bothering you and it’s like, “Can I wear my Uggs for this? Where is the…” And he’s like, “No, give me those heels. I’m going to go fight, too, you know?” Because he keeps you on your toes. He’s very passionate about what he does.

Kevin: And the bad part about the flips is he makes it look so easy you think you can do them yourself and I – let me assure you, you cannot. I got about half way and fell straight on my nipples and it was just hours and hours… I think I knocked myself out cold. It was by myself in my room. I go, that doesn’t look that hard. I can actually do that. It’s very difficult and he makes it look smooth, so…

Adam: Plus, Taylor is a youngster ...and I’m just saying, he handles it nice. He doesn’t abuse it. Ladies, you really got to be a good person to get in there. Whereas, in our day, you had to be just willing.

David: I go up to any girl, I say, “Did you see my comedy show?” They go, “Uh, no.” And I go, “Have you seen a comedy show yet? That’s good enough. Let’s go.”

Q: Adam, this is your first-ever sequel. Why now?

Adam: I just love the idea of real-life comedy. You know, we stretch what goes on in real life, but I just like being with friends. It’s where I do laugh in real life the most and I just – GROWN UPS was about family and friendship and that’s what I like talking about a lot. And so it just connected with me and it was – we talked about it on the first one three years ago. It was one of the best summers of our life and it was just nice to get to do it again.

Q: It’s pretty mind-blowing watching comedians improvising on the set. Dennis, do you have any special technique to keep them on a leash? How far they can go really?

Dennis: My technique is, I say, “Action,” I put on a flak jacket, I wait an hour and I say, “Cut.”

Kevin: No, that’s not true. I’m going to speak for him, for what he does. It can be a difficult job, keeping everybody in line when you have so many comedians and people with their own way. But there’s nobody that holds the ship together like Dennis because he knows exactly when to push you and make you do your own thing and be as funny as you can, and then also keep true to the script because it’s got to connect to the next scene. He’s got the big picture of everything. So I have to say, Dennis Dugan does an incredible job with that, yeah.

Adam: Yup. Good man.

Q: Obviously, your characters in the film - guys who are suffering a bit of Peter Pan Syndrome, trying to stay young. We’re wondering if the movie business actually allows you to indulge that Peter Pan…

Adam: Well, who wants to get old? It’s not really a Peter Pan thing. I think it’s any guy. Does a guy go, “You know, I want to be just like...”

Kevin: “...as old as mom”! I want to shoot On Golden Pond 2 and then 3, just continue. Then I want to do Cocoon after that.

Adam: I think it’s just about, you know, day to day, you don’t want to just give in. You want to keep going. You want to do as much as you can do. You want to have fun. You enjoyed life when you were young. You know, it’s not easy to just go, okay, that’s over. I just want to sit back and watch someone else have fun and I’ll just sit in my chair and do nothing. I think it’s just about hanging out and having fun and any age does it. My mom, down in Florida, she runs around with her friends and they’re all in their ’70s and they don’t stop goofing off and trying to make each other happy and telling jokes and stories. It’s not really about never wanting to stop growing up. I think it’s just more about just enjoying life.