February 11, 2009 6:15 PM

Some 'Dupree' In Owen Wilson's Life

By
Brian Dakss
(CBS)  If Randy Dupree seemed somewhat familiar to Owen Wilson, it wouldn't be surprising.

Wilson says Dupree, the freeloader and unwelcome, horrible houseguest he played in the comedy You, Me and Dupree, reminded him to a degree of his real-life brother and family dog.

Wilson is hot at the moment, coming off the hit "Wedding Crashers."

He plays Randy Dupree, the best man to Matt Dillon's character, Carl Peterson, who marries Molly Peterson, portrayed by Kate Hudson.

He's Dillon's best friend, but winds up as the newlyweds' worst nightmare.

They're getting ready to live happily ever after, but Dupree is the ultimate slacker who can't hold a job and can't hold a place to live, and ends up living with them.

"Although I'm not really like one of these, like, jaded kind of cynical slackers, Dupree is sort of like a free spirit, and he has sort of his philosophy, has this kind of enthusiasm," Wilson told co-anchor Harry Smith on The Early Show Friday. "It's a little bit like when you kind of like get a dog sometimes. You bring the dog home, and it's kind of tearing up everything."

A dog such as a Dalmatian his family once had, named Nutmeg who, he says, his "parents couldn't stand for the first two years of Nutmeg's life. There was a little bit of nutmeg in Dupree.

"(Nutmeg was a) free spirit. Didn't like to be on a leash. Would tear up my mother's laundry when she'd have it hanging in the backyard.

"But we all came to love the dog."

Wilson says, "There was like a time, before Matt Dillon signed on, that I was thinking that maybe I would play Carl, because I definitely identified with that feeling of kind of having somebody, you know, overstay their welcome a little bit, and being a little bit like Luke.

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