Crane's nightmare sequence on the set of "Hogan's Heroes" marks a dramatic turning point. Hallucinatory scenes are one of your hallmarks.

Actually, that was in the original script. It was the stroke of genius in Michael Gerbosi's script. The idea that you have a shallow character, so if he's going to have a personal crisis, you can't make it too agonizing. I guess it has to be like a fantasy sequence on the show.

Your films are full of ghosts, although mostly metaphorical. In "Auto Focus," you actually have the dead man talking.

Yeah, I decided to have him narrate the movie. It allows you to move through time and capitalize things. It's also kind of nice to hear his chipper voice trying to explain who he is. At the end, there's a curiosity as to what happened after his death. So you can either do a crawl or he can come back on and explain it himself. Some people said to me, "You need to rewrite that ending to give it a little more perspective." And I said, "Why?" I mean the guy was clueless his whole life, and just because he's dead doesn't mean he gets it. He still doesn't get it.

Don't you think that level of ironic detachment can distance the audience?

No, I think it's kind of cool. I mean, he's a fascinating guy. Slip into his loafers, swing in his shorts, and kind of walk down the road with him. I think the idea of likeability is often overvalued in terms of movie characters. I think what's really important is that a character be fascinating and compulsively watchable.

At the same time, Crane is strangely likeable throughout.

That's the beauty of casting Greg.

You mentioned this is a heterosexual version of "Prick Up Your Ears." But do you think it's possible to have same-sex characters so tangled up with each other without a homoerotic subtext?

No, no. There's a quote by Susanna Moore, who wrote a book called "In the Cut" and "Sleeping Beauties." Quite a good novelist. She's a friend of mine, and after she saw the film she said to me, "You know, whenever there's more than one penis in the room, any sexual act is a homosexual act." It's kind of a feminist reading, but I think it's sort of true.

It reminded me of "The Annabel Chong Story," about the so-called world's biggest gang-bang. I read an interview in which Chong talked about how the majority of the men who turned up just came to watch the other men and get off on it.

Yeah, I know, I know. And so when you have a situation when these two guys are doing this off and on for 10 or 12 years, there's something going on. So Greg said to me, "I don't think Bob was homosexual." And I said, "I don't think he was, either. I think he would have been very offended." On the other hand. they're filming each other, looking at each other. Close-ups of Bob's dick. And Carpenter filming it. And I say, "You know it's not homosexual, Greg, but you tell me, what is it?" [Laughs.]

I don't think that people are either/or anyway. I think that everybody situates themselves on a spectrum of sexuality at different points in their lives. There are heterosexual ramifications of homosexual actions, and vice versa. Life is full of that, people doing heterosexual things for homosexual reasons. So I think it's kind of a simplistic notion that it's possible to be either/or.

The final break-up conversation, when Carpenter's grabbing his crotch and crying, I guess that was making the subtext more explicit.

Well, it wasn't really meant that way. It meant, you know, great pain. It's like pinching yourself. When you're in really emotional pain and you just pinch yourself? That's what he's doing. He's just pinching himself to suppress his agony.

I thought that it was because his identity and sexuality are so wrapped up in Crane.

I think so. But I had one person, only one, who told me he thought that John was getting off on it, and I'm like, what do you mean getting off? The guy is suffering, he's writhing like a little bug on the end of a skewer! It's the most painful conversation anybody ever has in their life, when somebody tells you goodbye over the phone.

Do you think Carpenter killed Crane?

Well, if I were on the jury I would probably have had to acquit him, because the evidence got so screwed up. But it's the best fit, especially in terms of drama.

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