I said, "What would be funny is if you’re naked." He obviously seemed to think that was a good idea. This guy, who has been freed from, literally, his robes—this freedom that this woman has brought out of him, the sexual liberation, this being in his body and being virile. You know what I mean. All the beauty of the transformation of Archie comes crashing down. It’s fantastic to have that final moment of complete freedom. And then, the air goes out of the balloon, if you will. You can imagine—not that we see it—him in his full regalia, to being deflated. And then, of course, he grabs the woman’s picture and covers the deflation with her face.

Curtis expertly guides Cleese through Archie and Wanda’s romantic scenes. Cleese surprises himself by getting teary during the filming of an emotional scene, but then hits his head on a bit of foam, rendering the take unusable.

Palin: It was rather a different John from Python, where he’d always been playing the rather forceful, central, towering figure. He played wistfulness and doubt and wonder and delight very convincingly. I think there must have been something there that he was rather glad to do. Maybe he should have done it earlier.

Cleese: When we got to the romantic scenes, Jamie said, "I’ve done these scenes, and you haven’t. I get to be in charge now."

She said, "We’re hardly going to rehearse." And that frightened the shit out of me, because I’m a compulsive rehearser. It was a bit scary to start with, but it was also very nice to create something in the moment without necessarily calculating it.

Even somebody like myself becomes typecast after a time. Very many people have asked me if I’m like Basil Fawlty in real life. Nobody has ever asked me if I’m like Archie Leach in real life.

Curtis: As I mentioned, I’m an untrained performer. John is this highly educated, intellectual, über-intellectual, too intellectual, very brilliant guy. With the tiniest writing you’ve ever seen in your life. Ask John to write for you. It’s insane how tiny his writing is.

But I guess I don’t think he ever really looked at someone before, like really. I said, "Let’s just be in the moment here. Let’s just look at each other a little bit."

And he definitely enjoyed it. You could see him just melt. And I felt it, and I know it came across on-screen—I’ve seen it. I don’t have to take credit for this; he was fantastic and a great partner.

Early on, Palin notes in his diary that performing alongside Kline was akin to being "the magician’s assistant." But though Kline is thrillingly spontaneous on set, he’s plagued by uncertainty and self-doubt throughout the shoot.

Cleese: Kevin was doing some extraordinary things. But at the end of every take, he’d always stand there, the epitome of indecision, trying to figure out whether he’d got the character right. I don’t think he ever did a take he was really happy with. There was always sort of a querulous, doubtful expression on his face. He would stand there agonizing. And you just got used to it after a time.

Kline: I never understood the character. I kept saying, "Who is this guy?" John actually had a T-shirt printed that said, "Who is this guy?" Because he was such an amalgam of contradictions. He seemed to be a buffoon and idiot, but he’s a good shot and he’s got some physical strength.

But I learned something from it: that, actually, not understanding the character is sort of all right. I realized it was a tribute to John’s writing. Because well-written characters are inconsistent, are contradictory, and trying to reconcile the contradictions is maybe a fool’s errand at the end of the day.