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Wednesday, Dec 3, 2008
It sounds as if you were always aiming for the wholesome happy ending that some folks have grumbled about.
At the risk of being a moralist, we always knew superficially what the movie was about, but I need to work from meaning. Even the broadest stuff is grounded in meaning for me. It has to make some sense morally, philosophically, psychologically and spiritually. So when I was trying to think what is the raison d'être for this particular project I'll spend two years on -- what's going to keep it from being some jerk-off exercise to make a few bucks for everybody -- I started to consider all these questions.
A lot was being written then about Columbine, and the pressure on teenagers, and this tremendous alienation they all felt. Everyone feels like a loser, everyone feels ugly, no one feels good enough, and that's why kids torture each other. I thought about it in terms of our consumer culture and images that come from advertising. There's this constant feeling that comes along with it of never being good enough -- my hair isn't good enough, I don't have good abs, I'm driving the wrong car, I don't have enough money.
In this movie it kind of devolves down to: What do chicks go for? [Laughter] I guess that's the simple Freudian nub of it. What will win me love and affection? So the project suddenly made sense to me: Take this guy who's a complete geek and have him explore all the things we're told will make us worthy in this society, and have him find out that's not where self-esteem comes from. Then I wanted to pose the devil, and the angel who shows up near the end, as Brendan's spirit guides. I wanted to remind people that the devil, too, is an angel. By pulling in opposite directions these two help our hero find the path.
You start out with these serious thoughts, but then you erect this no-holds-barred comedy on top of it -- unlike other ambitious comedy makers, who put their humor in deep freeze whenever they start to get serious.
I believe you can always make jokes; I've worked with extremely funny people. You can sit around in a room eight hours with these people and something funny will be said or will happen every 30 seconds like clockwork. And they can be funny with anything. Christopher Guest can do 10 minutes on a fork! Just anything. It's not that laughs are easy to come by. And they're not the hard part -- it's deciding what idea you're serving. Once you have the idea, then the fun starts. Then I sit around with [writers] Larry Gelbart and Peter Tolan and we start wondering, "If you stop 100 people on the street, what would their top seven wishes be?"
When you did your group search for Brendan's seven wishes -- how did they intersect with what you wanted?
With what I wanted? I'm as much a product of our culture as the audience. People love asking, "How do you know what's going to be funny for the audience?" and I insist you can't predict that. You have to hope that what's funny for you also jibes with the audience's taste. I just went from the things I always wanted to be.
One wish did get cut and replaced. I always thought that if I had seven wishes I would really want to explore my dark side -- get out there. We shot a wish with Brendan almost as a "Sid & Nancy" parody, with Brendan as the most disgusting British rock star you've ever seen. It's going to be on the DVD. When we tested it, people were appalled. It wasn't just that they said, "Oh, it's not funny." It's like they were offended.
Do you find previews useful for the final cutting of a movie?
They are market-research previews, but from my point of view it's not the market I'm interested in. I'm interested in real people -- where they're laughing, when, how long and how loud. Where do they seem bored? Where are they coughing? Where are they getting up to go to the bathroom? Knowing that helps the general tuning of the film. And secondarily, there are the four quadrants: Which quadrants respond best to the film? Young males, young females, older males, older females? So while the studio is targeting the right quadrants for its advertising, we're tuning up the film.
Given your concept of the movie, the casting is crucial. And I think Hurley is great. She has this italicized quality.
Italicized quality -- I like that. I relate her part to De Niro's part in "Analyze This": Both parts read really well. You knew that every actress who fancied herself slightly wicked or sexy would want to do it. And that was the case. We got tremendous response from the agents when we put it out there. You start with preliminary casting lists of the performers who could play the major roles. Elizabeth was definitely on everyone's list. But probably the one film I had seen that gave her substantial screen time was the first "Austin Powers" movie. In a way we were taking a chance. But she was the second person we met, and she was great in the meeting. She is so charming and witty and comfortable with her sexuality -- and so grounded and professional, having been a producer. She understood the part and was eager to do it. She also is sophisticated, worldly. The British accent certainly helps: It seems to most Americans to reek of sophistication and wickedness. [Laughter] And Elizabeth has the public reputation to go with it! She's a naughty girl in people's minds. I don't know that she is really. But that's the image she cultivates and it certainly works for the movie.
It must have been a kick to do her wardrobe -- Hurley brings down the house when she shows up in a tight, short tartan skirt in the schoolroom. She's more like a fantasy schoolgirl than a schoolmarm.
It was like creating our own Frederick's of Hollywood catalog! And Elizabeth embraced that totally -- being a naughty nurse and a cheerleader and, in the scene that will be on the DVD, a naughty French maid. She got to camp it up in a way. And when it came to the high-fashion clothing she wears in the movie, she worked with Deena Arpel, our designer, and made calls to friends at Versace and so on, and stuff kept pouring in.
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