Film School Rejects » Kevin Kelly

Craig Ferguson: We Need A New ‘Late Shift’

Kevin Kelly — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:29:38 +0000

I was listening to Craig Ferguson of The Late, Late Show speak last week about being on late night, earning his pilot’s license, and his upcoming autobiography, which he’ll be having different famous people read excerpts from until it gets released on September 22nd. He was genuinely a very engaging guy, not a “douchebag” himself (to use one of his favorite words) and additionally dropped many f-bombs during the conversation. Not that dropping the f-bomb is a sign of coolness, but he wasn’t dropping them to be incendiary or shocking. You get the feeling that he’s the kind of guy who lets them fly when he’s chatting up his buddies on the weekends. Plus, his Scottish accent makes it that much cooler.

But his whole presentation got me to thinking about 1996’s HBO movie The Late Shift. If you haven’t seen that, it’s an extremely good luck at the Leno/Letterman “war’ over “The Tonight Show.” It starred John Michael Higgins as David Letterman, Daniel Roebuck as Jay Leno, and Kathy Bates as the extremely ball-busting, bitchy Helen Kushnick, Leno’s manager. In fact, she won a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for her role. If you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth watching, and is available on both Netflix and Amazon. You can also pick up Bill Carter’s book, which the movie is based on, pretty dirt cheap if you can settle for a used book.

But what about the new late night wars? Fallon vs. O’Brien vs. Ferguson? And with Leno getting his own 10PM show this season, it’s a four way battle for control of the nighttime television set. Surely they’ll be poaching guests from each other, and trying to one-up each other with skits and bits, and we want to see the brutal behind the scenes warfare that goes on. The gritty, underhanded moves, the punches to the gut with brass knuckles, the short-sheeting of the beds, the pissing in the coffee pots … all that jazz. Bring us some dirt, late nighters!

If you want to read the conversation with Craig Ferguson, it’s all below. When you’re done with that, go pick up The Late Shift. You won’t be sorry.

CRAIG FERGUSON: Good morning, everyone.

THE AUDIENCE: Good morning.

CRAIG FERGUSON: First of all, let me say my wife is standing by me through this very difficult time.

(Laughter.)

CRAIG FERGUSON: Buenos Aires is lovely at this time of year. Did you get a pizza?

THE AUDIENCE: Yes. Thank you.

QUESTION: Where did the pizza come from? It was really good.

CRAIG FERGUSON: From Joe Mantegna’s place in the Valley. What is it? Taste of Chicago, it’s called. It’s good, and it has a TV connection. Do you know what I mean? It has — it’s owned by a guy in TV. It’s a restaurant owned by a guy in TV, something I will never do. Why? Because I don’t have that kind of money. I will answer
any of your questions, not necessarily honestly. Yes, sir.

QUESTION: When James Frey was on, before he came on, did you have to guarantee him that you wouldn’t “Oprah” him, and did you really have that kind of rapport where you understood what he had done?

CRAIG FERGUSON: I think the question you are asking me politely is can I read. And, yes, I read his book. And, no, I wouldn’t accept any guest on the show ever with
conditions like that. That’s not acceptable to me, so no. He came on, and I liked him. I liked him, and I talked to him. I wasn’t — I wasn’t that interested in
talking about A Million Little Pieces because I felt it had been done to death. And I had just finished reading the new book, so I wanted to talk about that, which is
scandalous. Have you read it? Oh, you really should read it. It’s really — he’s a very bad boy. Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Speaking of scandalous books, can you tell us about yours?

CRAIG FERGUSON: My book is reasonably priced and available on September the 22nd. It’s an autobiography, and I’m looking forward to reading it.

(Laughter.)

It’s an autobiography by someone in show business. I hear it’s great. I love that — you know, I had to — it’s a little bit different from the James Frey thing in
the sense that a lot of it, I just couldn’t remember, so I made it up. But I admitted that right away. It’s just the story of how I ended up here, which surprises me as
much as anyone.

QUESTION: Would you want to do a 10 o’clock show, or are you looking at that across the aisle and going “Good luck with that”?

QUESTION: I don’t think people are ready for cussing puppets at 10 o’clock.

(Laughter.)

I don’t know. I kind of — I am mystified by many things in life, and that one, I don’t really understand what’s going on there either, but I’m no — I don’t program
television. I’m just the pretty one that reads the prompter. I don’t — I don’t do that. We don’t have a prompter. We do, I guess. Hello.

QUESTION: Still, has the shark gotten a very big head now? Is he sort of, you know –

CRAIG FERGUSON: The shark puppet?

QUESTION: Yeah.

CRAIG FERGUSON: I’m actually thinking about getting rid of puppets altogether. Yeah, see? That reaction right there, that’s what I’m looking for, controversy. “No
puppets? That’s it.” To the presses that don’t exist anymore, tweety tweet.

(Laughter.)

No. I am very undemocratic on the show. Like, when there was a lot of votes for the pig, I had the pig resign from the race just because it made it more interesting for me. But I don’t know. I’m getting bored with puppets. If I can’t think of anything else to do with them, I’ll have to let them go the way of all flesh.

QUESTION: And did you hear from Ahmadinejad about his actual win?

CRAIG FERGUSON: No, he didn’t win, either in my puppet or in Iran. He didn’t win.

QUESTION: When you have one of those metaphysical monologues like the one on why everything sucks –

CRAIG FERGUSON: Yeah.

QUESTION: — is this something that you are just, like, sitting in your house like that day or in the dressing room just ruminating on it?

CRAIG FERGUSON: Dressing room, you say?

QUESTION: Well –

CRAIG FERGUSON: No, I’m not. I get a quarter — a mirror to get my little tie on.

QUESTION: I think — is this something that you are coming up — is this something you are thinking about for days, or it’s just like, now I know why everything sucks,
and you write down some points, and you give the to (inaudible) –

CRAIG FERGUSON: I don’t write it down. I swear I don’t.

QUESTION: I know you don’t write the whole thing down.

CRAIG FERGUSON: Right.

QUESTION: But I thought you wrote down, like, some bullet points.

CRAIG FERGUSON: No. That particular little nugget of fury was just there in the moment. I think what happens, one of the luxuries of doing a television show every
night, it’s almost like you had an outlet of where you could just broadcast your thoughts. Perhaps something on the Internet would be popular in the same way. It’s
really — it’s — you know, that’s why I never would Twitter because I’ve got an hour to fill every fucking night.

(Laughter.)

What the hell else am I going go to say? “Going to say things about things.” So it’s really just me — it’s me doing that. That’s all it is. And so I think there’s a
part of it which is retro in the sense that it’s someone just talking on television — you know, television, which they used to do back in the day, and another part of it
is extremely contemporary. It’s the broadcast of unedited thought, which is, you know — which is causing the newspaper shortage.

QUESTION: Do you have a fear that this isn’t going to work? I mean, do you say “Oh, my God, this is going to be just awful”?

CRAIG FERGUSON: I never thought about it until right now.

(Laughter.)

QUESTION: Is that what fuels you, though, is, like, I’ve got to make sure that it does land, it is funny, it is –

CRAIG FERGUSON: No. I don’t think it matters because I think, if it doesn’t work, that’s interesting. And I think that about the show, that if we do it and it
doesn’t work, it goes in anyway because then I have to — like, I’ll give you an example, and probably this is a horrible example to give. But the other night, I was
talking about Dave’s show, and I got the name of Dave’s show wrong. Now, what I could do — I said — what is it I said? “Late Night with David Letterman” is what I
said, which is apparently not the name of his show, and I got into trouble saying it. Now, what’s more interesting is to watch a sweaty vaudevillian try to get out of a
situation like that rather than cut it and make it pristine. I think that’s — I don’t have the patience for that, and I would prefer as a viewer to watch the mistakes. I am my own blooper reel as it happens.

QUESTION: You said before that no one is more surprised about your success than you are.

CRAIG FERGUSON: Yeah.

QUESTION: What did you think your life was going to unfold like when you were 12, 13 years old?

CRAIG FERGUSON: I — well, at 12 and 13, I thought I would be an astronaut. By 17, I thought I would be dead by the time I was, you know, this age. It’s a constantly
changing thing for me. I don’t — I think for everybody, I don’t think just for me. I think if I could go back — I mean, actually, in the process of writing the book, you
kind of do go back and think about these times and what I thought. I don’t know. I always, kind of, half expected I’d end up doing something in show business because it was tolerant of drunkenness and you could meet girls. But, you know, I’m married, and I’m “teetotals,” but I’m still here because I don’t know where else to go.

QUESTION: Craig, how familiar are you with the history of late night? Have you gone to YouTube and looked at clips of Jack Parr or Steve Allen?

CRAIG FERGUSON: I did that when I started, but I don’t do it anymore. I don’t — I don’t really — I don’t think it — I don’t think it really helped that much for me.

QUESTION: Do you see yourself as part of that tradition? You just made a reference a minute ago to talk, and that’s how it used to be or what they used to do.

CRAIG FERGUSON: Right.

QUESTION: Do you see yourself as a part of that tradition, I guess?

CRAIG FERGUSON: I don’t know. I think it’s probably unseemly and not quite for me to — I don’t have the perspective. I’m sitting — you know, in the very literal sense, I sit here, and you sit there. So you get to see it from there, and I get to see it from here. I don’t know that it’s really for me to decide where I sit in that world. In my opinion, you know, to be honest what I think about my show, I think my show is probably closer to “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” than anything else I’ve seen, and that is an aspiration. That’s a great show. I don’t — I don’t know where we are, but wherever we are, we won’t be that next week. I do know that. That’s why the puppets won’t stay forever. It’s important to keep moving. There was a point, you know, when I had a sound board, and I was always doing the sound board, and people asked about the sound effects, or there was, you know, the cheeky monkey thing. We have to keep moving because I’ll get bored, and if I get bored, then I think we start doing retakes when I make a mistake, and then — and then — then the rote sets in, you know. Then there’s focus groups and then committees about “I don’t know about this joke.” Like, I don’t — I don’t know. And who the hell thought it was about a joke?” This is what I never understood. When people say “Oh, that’s funny.” And I go, “Well, did you ever say it to a room full of people?” Because that’s the way you are ever going to know. And when you say it, it’s done. It’s gone. So
bad jokes, good jokes, staying with it, me being part of the tradition, which was the original question, I don’t know. It’s not for me to say, I guess.

QUESTION: Craig, you’ve become like the guy who talked about how great it is to be an American, and you are about the only one who does that who doesn’t have a
right-wing radio show. How important is that to you? How important was it for you to write the book and (inaudible) –

CRAIG FERGUSON: It’s very important to me. It’s very important to me as an immigrant and as someone, you know, who had to fill in a lot of forms and pass a test to be an American. It was — I am very proud and very — and very pleased to be an American. It’s an easier sell now than it was maybe a year ago to say to people how great it is to be. I noticed it, really, when I was out doing stand-up around the country and saying how proud I was to be an American. And the audiences, when people were in large groups, they would respond very positively to that, but when I was talking to people one-on-one, there was that kind of low-morale period, which I think — see, America to me was — when I was — when I was — we are talking about when I was 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 years old. It was astronauts and NASA and all of that stuff, all of that kind of, you know, very positive image of America.

So whether I wrote the book about becoming an American, I also — I wanted to write that, but that’s a singular thing. There’s always something — there’s something
else attached to becoming an American, too, which is — and I’m sure most of you will have either contact with an older member of your family or a relative or somebody who became an American or certainly some of you. And there is a melancholy attached to it. There is a strangeness attached to leaving your past and making the new country your present, and I wanted to not shy away from that, too. So it’s — but it’s very important to me. It’s a very — it’s the defining — it’s the defining thing of my own weltanschuaang, if you like, that America, for me, is a philosophical and emotional decision and not just — it’s not just jingoistic. I think it’s certainly not just political. It’s not a donkey or an elephant. It’s a flag and an idea. It’s a dream. It’s a belief in fairness of opportunity. It’s very important to me. It’s something which — it’s the only thing, maybe, that I have difficulty playing with in any — in any kind of iconoclastic way on the show because it’s such an — it’s
such an important thing for me that I have trouble making fun of it, which that’s okay. Other people can do that. It’s not my job to do — to make fun of everything. I’ll
just do what I do. But it’s very important to me, to answer your question.

QUESTION: Craig, your pizza –

QUESTION: I wanted to ask you one question.

CRAIG FERGUSON: Let me just — sorry.

QUESTION: I wanted to ask you. I was watching you with — I think it was James Spader — CRAIG FERGUSON: James Spader, yeah.

QUESTION: — which had nothing to do with James Spader, but do you ever, when you are doing these interviews night after night, sort of find yourself losing the
concentration? You are kind of glossing over a little bit because you are doing so many of them, you know?

CRAIG FERGUSON: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, sometimes.

QUESTION: How do you bring yourself back?

CRAIG FERGUSON: How do you bring yourself — I don’t know. Usually, there’s somebody waving, going “We’ve got to go to a commercial,” or something like that. I did drift a bit when Spader was talking, but he went on, to be fair, like, 50 talking minutes.

(Laughter.)

And I was kind of like, man. You don’t want to actually look at your watch, but yeah. I liked him, but it’s just like, it’s probably right here, right now. I’m saying
stuff I think are very important. Half of you have drifted off in the last 10 minutes as well. You know, it comes, and it goes. But, most of the time, I see the job
as the way that I’ve always seen the job, which is, I’m the host. I should be polite and make you feel welcome and then listen to what you have to say, and that’s my
job. You know, I’m the host. That’s it. Sorry. Yeah.

QUESTION: Your pizza delivery came with a joke about newspapers, but do you still read them, and would you like to make a plea on their behalf?

QUESTION: Please.

(Laughter.)

CRAIG FERGUSON: I do enjoy newspapers. They are — yeah, I read newspapers. I tend to — I tell you, the newspaper I find difficult is — the thing about newspapers is that I tried to cancel my subscription to the Sunday New York Times just because it was coming to the house and it’s enormous. And I canceled it three or four times, and it still comes, which, I think, is a sign of how desperate newspapers have gotten. Even if I say “Please, don’t send me it,” they are throwing it. I don’t know. I don’t know how this goes. It’s sad. It’s sad that newspapers are in trouble. I don’t know how much trouble they are in. You maybe know more than I do.
I read them because I need to know stuff. I have them in the office. They are there when I go in, and I look at them. And my eye twitches a bit if I look at a screen
too long, but that might just be me, being an old dude.

QUESTION: You talked a bit about not — over here — about not sort of being aware of your place in this long history of talk shows (inaudible). When it goes wrong, it’s all — Carson was really well known for that. Usually, when you get people from the U.K. and we ask about, you know, their influences, invariably, they are
American.

CRAIG FERGUSON: Right.

QUESTION: What kind of comedy influence, television comedy influences, did you –

CRAIG FERGUSON: For American comedy influences?

QUESTION: Yes. Well, is that true of you as well?

CRAIG FERGUSON: Yes, of course. I mean, you mentioned Johnny Carson who is the — is the Tiger Woods of what I do. He didn’t actually create it, but it’s his, you
know. He’s the defining player. He’s Babe Ruth. Do you know what I mean? That it’s his game. And the comedy influences that I love here in America are — Robin
Williams is someone who I always loved his work, particularly early on or just in his stand-up now, Steve Martin, when he was doing stand-up, Bill Murray, a lot the old “Saturday Night Live” guys. You know, there’s a ton of them. There’s a ton of them. There’s too many. You can just name off names for a half an hour.

QUESTION: Do you also think that there’s a difference in stability?

QUESTION: Would you think that the subject or the style of topicality in American humor has changed in the years that you’ve been doing it?

CRAIG FERGUSON: I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s — I think humor — I understand that it’s your job, but I find it very difficult to define, you know, because it’s
completely fucking subjective. You can’t. You know, it’s like if you say 25 percent of people think this is funny, and 5 percent of people think this is funny. And
then, well, I’m in that 5 percent. I think this is funny. Should I cross over to, you know, be part of a larger group? It’s just, I can’t — I can’t –

QUESTION: What about American audiences, have they gotten more sophisticated compared to European audiences in the form of news and political humor?

CRAIG FERGUSON: My — my — the audience I see at night, the one in the studio, they seem — they seem to know as much of what’s going on as I do, but they may just be laughing so that I don’t look awkward.

(Laughter.)

I often think that, actually.

QUESTION: Is that a change because of Colbert and Jon Stewart and Bill Maher, do you think?

CRAIG FERGUSON: Maybe. Yeah, I guess. You probably know more about this than I do. It’s just that they are all good at what they do. Yes, I think maybe.

QUESTION: Craig, on your right. Do you — you’ve gotten past the point in your career of — at CBS of worrying about renewals from minute to minute and all of that.
You seem established now. No one asks any questions about the future. So that the question that comes now is what sort of ambition do you have long-term? For anyone at 12:30, it becomes the question. Do you want to do this job for five years and then go into doing independent movies? Do you want to replace David
Letterman? Do you want to jump to another network and make lots of money there? Is that sort of where your thoughts are right there?

CRAIG FERGUSON: Let’s talk about money. Say that money thing again. Make lots of money where?

(Laughter.)

QUESTION: The Internet.

CRAIG FERGUSON: The Internet, yeah.

(Laughter.)

Ambitions. I don’t want to be poor. I don’t want to be rich to the extent that all I care about is keeping my job. I don’t care enough about keeping my job right now.
That’s good. That makes me effective at what I do. I don’t — I don’t want to be frightened of getting fired. So, to that end, I suppose my ambitions are that I spend
less than I earn –

(Laughter.)

– because, look, the truth is we are all in a precarious business. You mentioned the newspapers. We cover entertainment in whatever way we do that, and I don’t
want to be frightened. As writers, to be frightened, you will become ineffective. I don’t want to be frightened. So I don’t want to have the ambition of a time slot or a
number of dollars. Frightened. Do I want to make a lot of money? Fuck, yeah. But I want to make it at the expense of — look, I’ve met a lot of rich people who are
douche bags.

(Laughter.)

I don’t want to be that. I don’t want to be that. So – or any more of that than is necessary. So I hope to, I suppose in some way, try and maintain some — if I have any, some type of integrity. I want to be able to look at myself in the mirror. That’s my ambition.

QUESTION: Hey, Craig.

CRAIG FERGUSON: Yes, sir.

QUESTION: When Jimmy started into the 12:30, did you watch him a lot, and did you kind of feel for him?

CRAIG FERGUSON: I was wondering if anybody would ask me that. I watched Jimmy. In his first week, I watched maybe 10 minutes of it, and I remember, during that time, Jimmy Kimmel, who is a very nice man, gave an interview. He said, “We all watch and anybody of the late night guys says that they don’t watch another show is lying.” So I guess I’m lying, but the truth is I don’t watch the other late night shows not because of any other reasons, I have a child and a TiVo. So I –

(Laughter.)

I don’t watch the other — you know the shows I see? I see “Duck Dodgers” and “MythBusters.” That’s what I fucking watch because I’ve got an eight-year-old son, you know. I watched Jimmy, and I liked him. I thought he was good, but I stand by what I said the last time, that I never thought we were in competition, and I don’t think we are in competition now. The last time I talked to you guys, I said I thought Jimmy’s competition was “Adult Swim,” and I still believe that. I think my competition is sleep –

(Laughter.)

– or the ShamWow commercial or whatever the hell is on cable or the — you know, whatever video game. Actually, I don’t think a lot of my audience play — I don’t know. I don’t know. I just do what I do.

QUESTION: You don’t get caught up in the ratings between you and him?

CRAIG FERGUSON: I look at them, but the truth is I don’t understand them. I glance at them, but the truth is — I don’t know how many of you — I know that David Poltrack — I’ve seen him around. Now, David understands ratings. I know some — Michael, you understand ratings. I don’t really understand them. When they say people age 18-34, and then they go 18-49, I said, “Well, what? So the people in the 18-34, are they in the 18-49? Or is this different people that are not in the 18-34?”

(Laughter.)

Then you go, “Do all ratings stop at 49?”

(Laughter.)

And they do.

(Laughter.)

You go, “I’m 47. So in two years, I’m fucked. Fuck you. No.”

(Laughter.)

So I know that doesn’t apply. So I don’t really understand how it works. I know it’s important because everybody writes about it like it’s — like it’s religion, but all I know is this. The numbers can change dramatically, and people get pay raises. Here’s what I do know. Here’s what I do know, and this is probably the wrong thing to say in a room full of journalists. But it seemed to me — I don’t know if this absolutely accurate, but when Jay was shit-canned from NBC, he was the leader in all numbers, and then they fired him. I don’t want to get fired.

(Laughter.)

So perhaps keeping your head down is what you should do with the numbers. I don’t understand how it works, but it clearly has — it matters. Yet I don’t know why. I think the truth of it is this. I think it makes you sound clever if you talk about them, and I think that’s what a lot of people do. “So, you know, in the 18 to” — and then you sound clever. I understand that. I want to sound clever, too, but I swear to God, I don’t understand it.

QUESTION: With all the publicity over the late night upheaval that’s going on, how do you feel about like facing the fact that you’re just kind of doing what you’re doing, flying under the
radar?

CRAIG FERGUSON: I’m flying under the radar. I mean, I do what I’m doing.

QUESTION: Are you glad you’re not a part of that whole conversation, or do you want to be a part of that conversation?

CRAIG FERGUSON: I think about both. I think I want to be. It’s like I don’t want to go to the party, but I want to be asked. You know what I mean?

(Laughter.)

It’s like that feeling. I kind of — I kind of don’t know. See, what I think we’ve been doing at this show is — I hope what we’ll be doing at the show is deconstructing and deconstructing and deconstructing the format, and the more we deconstruct the format, if we are successful in doing that, the more we separate ourselves for good or ill from the format. The format is tired. The format is tired, and it is old. And look, here’s the reality. I’m another middle-aged white guy telling jokes late at night on TV wearing a suit, and that’s tired, you know. So I want to mess with it. Because that’s who I am, I want to mess with it. I want to poke it with a stick. I want to do it. So I don’t know if I’m — I swear I don’t know if I’m part of it. I kind of would like to be. You know, I kind of like to be, “Hey, what’s going to happen with that?” And then another part of me thinks, well, then I’ll end up like that. Then I’ll be important. Then I’ll be worried about the fucking 18-18 1/2 demographics.

(Laughter.)

I don’t want to be. So it’s a conflict a little bit. I’m conflicted a little bit with it, I guess.

QUESTION: Do you think that joining the elite of the late night crowd –

CRAIG FERGUSON: Yes.

QUESTION: — leads to isolation? Does it remove you from the very humor that you based your whole career on?

CRAIG FERGUSON: I don’t know if five guys is a crowd.

(Laughter.)

QUESTION: When you look at Carson and people like that, they withdrew so far. I mean, he was brilliant.

CRAIG FERGUSON: Yeah.

QUESTION: But at the same time, he lived in a cocoon.

CRAIG FERGUSON: I don’t know. I have no experience, and I’m not qualified to talk about Johnny’s life. I do know this, that being on television every night has made me crazier than I was when I started. I’m certainly crazier than I was four, five years ago without doubt, but I’m okay with it. But I’m definitely — there’s definitely been a shift. I don’t know where it leads to. Does it lead to isolation? Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t know.

QUESTION: Do you have any friends who are –

CRAIG FERGUSON: No.

(Laughter.)

QUESTION: Who are not entertainment people, but that you have a really good time talking to and the conversations are funny, and you think, “Man, I wish I could just put this person on the show because” –

CRAIG FERGUSON: No. See, that’s the reason why they’re my friends not in show business. It’s very important for, for me. It doesn’t have to be for anyone else. Please understand today if nothing else, I’m pushing nothing. I’m pushing no manifesto. I’m here to talk about the show because I make a show which is on television and you’re television critics, but I’m not pushing anything. But for me, I don’t want everything to be about TV. I don’t want everything to be about show business. That’s why I go — by the way, I’d like to announce I got my pilot’s license on Friday of last week.

QUESTION: Mazel tov.

CRAIG FERGUSON: Thank you. And I’ll tell you why I like aviation, because it is the complete opposite of show business. In show business you bullshit, you bullshit, you bullshit, and that’s what you do, and that’s how get ahead. In aviation, you bullshit, you fucking die.

(Laughter.)

You’re gone. So when Andy says to you in show business, “Can you do that?” You go, “You bet I can.” When Andy says to you in aviation “Can you do that?” You better tell the truth because if you can’t, you know, you’re on the local news, and that’s that. So I –

(Laughter.)

I like to keep an area of my life, a lot of my life, involved in more rational areas than show business, and most of my friends, not all of my friends, but most of my friends, exist outside of
show business.

QUESTION: You had Cheryl Hines on a couple of nights ago, and you had her mother there, and it seems like the demographic within the audience is completely changing. Do you find that you do get a wider swath of, like, ages? And are they letting you go much farther as you go along in terms of the jokes and stuff like that?

CRAIG FERGUSON: It seems to come and go — it comes and — it’s a come and a go. I don’t — I don’t — again, I don’t think I’m the best qualified person to talk about the demographics of my show.

QUESTION: But you’re seeing the reactions on the stage.

CRAIG FERGUSON: Yeah. I see the studio audience, but it changes so much. The other night, I went out, and there were like 14 or 15 women in the audience who were all wearing very nice sundresses. So I brought them all down in the front because they all looked lovely, and I thought everyone else should see how lovely they all looked in their sundresses. Then I thought, “Oh, fuck. I’m going to get in terrible trouble for this.” “Sexist bastard showing people in sundresses.”

(Laughter.)

But I don’t — the audience that I see, which is the studio audience, which is actually about the size of the audience in here. I don’t know how many people are in the room. It’s not much bigger than this. This is who I see every night. So it can change wildly if you got a college group in or, you know, an old folks tour or something like that. It’s like some nights, I go out and go “Ugh.”

(Laughter.)

– but that’s the way it is. It’s all right. Yes.

QUESTION: Can you talk about who’s been your favorite guest and who has been your worst.

CRAIG FERGUSON: No, I can’t. I can’t talk about my favorite and worst guests.

(Laughter.)

Because I like to think I’m a bit like a doctor. At a certain point there’s a Hippocratic Oath. But my favorite guest is Betty White, and my least favorite guest is an actor, who I’m not saying his name because fuck him.

(Laughter.)

KATIE BARKER: We have time for one more question.

QUESTION: I’m curious, you say you don’t watch David, but he’s a colleague –

CRAIG FERGUSON: He’s my boss.

QUESTION: He’s your boss.

CRAIG FERGUSON: Yeah.

QUESTION: Do you have sort of a friendly spirit of one-upmanship with him in the same way that, say, Stephen Colbert was always trying to one-up Jon Stewart and vice versa?

CRAIG FERGUSON: What a lovely idea. No, I don’t have that with David. David Letterman is more than my boss. I’m going to give you an exclusive story now.

(Laughter.)

David Letterman, no matter what the numbers have ever been, ever, in the past — how long has David been on CBS, 30? And then there was Bill — how long did he do — there was like 30 years. David Letterman is the king of late night television. All right. Now, I know there are press releases and other people that can prove to you scientifically that that’s not fucking true, but I’m telling you that’s true. So David Letterman — how can you have upmanship? That’s like me saying, you know, I go out in the golf course with Tiger Woods and (gesturing) I’ll show him. That’s David fucking Letterman. You know, it’s a different — it’s a different thing. And I’m very happy to work for him and to work close to him, but if there is — if there is a successor to Johnny, then, of course, it’s David. And so it’s not that really. My relationship with David Letterman is that I sit at his feet, and that’s what it is. I’m kind of his bitch.

(Laughter.)

In the modern parlance, you know. I sit at the feet of the master, or I’m his “bee-atch,” whichever way you want to do it.

(Laughter.)

KATIE BARKER: Thank you, everyone for coming out and getting cozy with us. We have Craig for a couple minutes, and then we’ve got to get him back to the show.

CRAIG FERGUSON: Thanks.

Sex Ed: The Series – The Future of Television Development?

Kevin Kelly — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:32:22 +0000

Last night I was invited to a screening of a pilot for a television series as part of the Independent Television Festival, and it might just be a peek into the future of television development. Directors and feature films have been going down this road for years, and you’ve seen the results. Festivals like Sundance and SXSW swell with independent films, studios get into bidding wars for the hot movies, directors get plucked from the indie freshwater stream and dunked into the saline-rich waters of the studio ocean, and the wheels of film-industry keep on turning.

But what about television? It’s an expensive landscape to develop in, but Sex Ed: The Series was created solely as a spec pilot, and creators Tamela D’Amico (director/producer) and Ernie Vecchione (writer) shot it in 11 days using Panasonic HD cameras, and put together a fairly impressive cast that includes Joanna Cassidy of Blade Runner and Six Feet Under fame. During the question and answer session, it was very clear that they were looking for a cable network to step in and buy the series, and they were eager to put it through the development process. It was a bit rough around the edges, but you could easily see it turning into a series on Showtime or Starz.

The premise is fairly straightforward: it’s set in a sex education class at a small college somewhere in Anytown, USA, and there’s a multicultural gaggle of students that weighs heavy on the Caucasian side, with a few token students of other ethnicities tossed in to try and balance the mix. In the first class, ballsy Professor Trevase (Cassidy) tells the students “If you don’t like me, get out!” … and everyone leaves except for the main cast. Their first assignment: partner up and sculpt each other’s genitals. Predictably, everyone has a different reaction to this, and things play out accordingly. There’s a nugget of a possible overarching storyline at the end of the episode when Cassidy reveals to dreamy blonde student Dean (Matt Barr) that she has brain cancer, and she swears him to secrecy. Future assignments listed in the press notes include: threesomes, penis envy, breakups, and more.

Is this a harbinger of things to come? Television development isn’t any more expensive than shooting a feature film, and in some cases it might be significantly cheaper. Last night’s pilot wasn’t quite a full hour, and if you’re working on a half-hour sitcom, you could cut that in half. Plus, it has to look attractive for a network. It’s a like a live-action storyboard for a pitch session, making it that much easier to say yes or no. Will it change the fact of television development? That remains to be seen. But given the turbulent ebb and flow of independent movies, it makes sense that creative types might try their hand at putting a series together on spec.

We’ll see if Sex Ed: The Series gets picked up anywhere, and budding writers might want to check out the full script for the pilot, which was posted online.

Exclusive: David Tennant on His Doctor Who Destiny

Kevin Kelly — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:22:36 +0000

When I was a kid growing up in Texas, I used to have to beg my parents to let me stay up late enough on Saturday nights to watch Doctor Who, which came on our PBS station and was like three hours long. In the UK, the show was broadcast in four one-hour segments, but in the US those were all mashed together into one very long episode. When you’re twelve, trying to stay awake through three hours of BBC special effects can be taxing, but I always managed. Then I’d be hauled to church the next morning, bleary-eyed and full of dreams of one day being Tom Baker.

David Tennant apparently had the same dreams I did. We were both born the same year, although the mileage looks a lot better on him, and he grew up watching Tom Baker scarf around as the time-traveling time lord. Unlike me, however, he was able to meet him in person. “I’ll tell you, I was probably about nine years old, and my mother had taken me to a bookshop in Glasgow. Tom Baker was there in the full getup, hat, scarf, coat and everything. God, he must have been boiling hot. Anyhow, my mother bought me some Doctor Who book that had this sort of mini-poster of him in it, and I shook his hand and had him sign it and everything.”

So was it predestined that he’d be playing the Doctor one day? No. That’s ridiculous. But, it’s a pretty cool story. I asked him if he held on to that autograph, “You know, I think it’s probably in a box somewhere. I might have to find that and see if it’s worth anything!” Since he’s leaving Doctor Who this year after doing four “specials,” he might want to hock that thing on eBay if the offers don’t come rolling in. But if a Doctor Who movie is indeed on the horizon, maybe he won’t need to.

Junket Report: Funny People

Kevin Kelly — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:02:42 +0000

Dr. Cole Abauis makes a compelling argument about Funny People over in his review, and when I saw the film a couple of weeks ago, I felt exactly the same way. I mean, this movie is an Apatow film, and it stars Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, a slew of other funny people (including a few moments of Ray Romano that are funny than all of Everybody Loves Raymond) … but it just doesn’t stay with you like Anchorman or 40 Year Old Virgin.

Is it the sign of a more mature film when you’re not quoting lines from the movie, mere minutes after having seen it? I hope not. The only person that really stuck with me from that movie was Aziz Ansari as Randy, who is barely in the movie. In fact, if you want a ton of Randy comedy, check out the elaborate website they made for his character. It’s got a lot more material on it than Ansari has in the film.

But, I digress. I’m not here to tell you review the film all over, I’m here to tell you about the junket. Funny People does deliver on its title, as their are actually funny people in the movie. The junket delivered as well, and we got to sit down and talk with the main players in the movie. So read on after the break for our interviews with the funny people of Funny People. Even Eric Bana. Did you know he used to be a stand-up comedian in Australia? Well, now you do. Read on.

Funny People is in theaters today.

Adam Sandler (George Simmons)

On his character: “This guy that I play is leading a different life than I live, but there are some things that come close to home. God forbid, if I get sick, I’ll have a different experience than this guy did. In my real life, I have a lot of people to talk to.”
On stand-up: “Doing stand-up when you’re 42 years old … there’s a lot more pressure. When I was in my 20s, my goal was to be a movie star … I was pretty crazy, I don’t know why I was like that. When you’re 20 and you go onstage and nobody laughs, you’re like ‘Well, those people just didn’t get it.’ But when you’re in your 40s and nobody laughs, you go, “Oh my god. Why am I here?’ You’re too dumb when you’re in your 20s to realize good and bad.”
On Judd Apatow and comedies: “I’ll tell ya, when I go out to dinner with Apatow, I laugh like I did back in the day. When I watch movies now, I don’t laugh as much as I did when I was 15 and it wasn’t my profession. I tend to go to comedies first, and then break them down and figure out why they’re funny.”
Judd breaks in: “And then we go see Orphan.”
On seeing other comedians: “The best thing around my life right now is that I’ve been around, I mean I’m not like Bob Hope or anything, but I’ve been around long enough to be like if I see someone else kill I don’t get jealous, I go ‘That guy’s good.” But 20 years ago if I saw someone else kill I’d go, ‘Oh god. I’ve got to figure some shit out.’”
On what’s next: “It was a lot of work, this movie. When I finished it, I hugged Apatow, and I was very relieved to have a break. I don’t know how these other actors go movie to movie and lose their minds in their roles and have a real life. I was happy to jump back into my real life with my wife and kids. But if something else comes down the road that Apatow feels is right or I feel is right, I’m sure I’ll jump back in there. I’m doing a movie right now with a bunch of my comedian friends called Grown Ups, but I like having those breaks.”
Judd: “And then I’m going to ask Adam to do My Left Foot 2.”

Judd Apatow (Director/Writer/Producer)

On living with Adam Sandler back in the day: “It’s weird back in the day because you’re friends with people, but then you get mad when they move ahead of you. I remember when I lived with Adam, he got this Visa commercial (Adam breaks in and yells “Mastercard!”), oh Mastercard commercial. It was big and expensive and Adam was funny, and I remember thinking ‘Why wasn’t I the Mastercard guy?”
Adam interrupts and reminds Judd that he stole a Jim Henson audition from him: “That’s right … Jim Henson was doing this reality show where you would drive around the country with your own video cameras and … “
Adam: “Yeah, but at this time you were already saying you didn’t want to be on camera anymore! You were already saying you wanted to be a writer, where I was like, ‘What? What’s a writer?’”
Judd: “But, I didn’t end up getting it ultimately, because Jim Henson says ‘I lacked warmth.’ And when the guy who taught you how read tells you lack warmth … I was devastated! I still haven’t recovered.”
On the fake movies within the movie (Merman, Re-Do, etc): “What’s funny is that most of the movies we did at some point were made by Tom Hanks. These are all kind of second-generation copies of his movies.”
Adam: “By the way, I swear to god, I was showing my mom some of the fake movie stuff on my iPhone, and I showed her the Re-Do scene where my head is on a baby, and I swear she said this. She goes, ‘You were a very cute baby.’” (the room breaks up in laughter)
Judd: “And after we shot all of these fake movies, there was this moment where we go, ‘We could actually make these movies!’”
On optimism in his movies: “There’s always a moment in everyone’s life where they have to decide if they’re going to evolve, and make some sort of change. We’re all in the middle of a midlife crisis. I like to make movies that have a hopeful message, that show some potential for redemption. The point of this movie that it’s really, really hard for this guy, harder than for most people, and you root for him to pull it off.”

Seth Rogen (Ira Wright)

On improv: “There’s always a lot of freedom. We’ve all gotten just a lot better at it, I think we all know a bit more now about what will make it into the movie and isn’t just masturbatory exercises. There was a lot less aimless improvising on this set than we would normally do.”
On his Undeclared episode with Adam Sandler, where he plays a similar role: “It was a little weird. I always think that’s neat that what they canceled as a TV show, they now make as a giant movie. That was the first time I’d met him, and it was really awesome that he’d do that! At the time I was in my late teens, and it was the thrill of a lifetime to have Adam Sandler appear in something you’d written. I’d actually think about that a lot while acting in the scenes, I’d think about how I felt the first time I met Adam. One time when I was like 17 or 18 I went out to dinner with Judd and Jim Carrey and Garry Shandling and then we all went to go see Gladiator together. I don’t think I said one thing the entire night, I just had this goofy smile on my face. I tried to put myself back into that place while making this movie.”
On being competitive: “I can’t even watch sports because I could really not give a shit who wins. That’s how non-competitive I am. I watch people I do that and I’m like ‘Wow, imagine caring. I can’t even imagine what that would be like. It’s great when your friends are doing well.”
On stand-up: “I remember one night Jonah and I both performed at the Improv, and we both did pretty good, and I was like ‘Wow, we’re kind of getting the hang of this!’ Then Louis C.K. goes up and just kills. I mean, he destroyed the audience. Just killed. So we were really just able to see the difference between what we do, and what they do. The guy has been doing stand-up for like 20 years, and he’s incredible.”
On The Green Hornet: “I’ve decided we’re never going the movie, we’re just going to promote it for the next ten years.” (laughs)

Jonah Hill (Leo)

On improv: “We had like a year or so to work with Judd and each other to kind of refine our characters before we started shooting. Before we would work for like a couple of weeks, and then start shooting.”
On writing comedy: “Certain people we’ve met along the way have a joylessness to their comedy writing. For us we laugh and have a good time while we’re doing it, but for some people it’s like solving a math problem. I tried to make Leo seem like that in this movie a few times. Some of the most joyless people I’ve met have been comedians. Like Seth.” (laughter)
On being competitve: “I can’t tell you how much joy it legitimately brings me when one of my friends does well, even if it’s something I would be interested in doing as well. Seth and Schwartzman and I have known each other for a really long time, and they were both successful way before I had any success, and I was super happy for them.”
On learning the business: “When Seth and Evan were making Superbad, they were super-inclusive to every part of the process and allowed me in. They’d be like, ‘Hey, we’re writing. Do you want to come write with us?’ They definitely helped shape what I want to do with my career. And even with Pineapple Express, which I had no involvement in, they’d be like ‘Come and write with us, give us some notes.’”
On doing stand-up in the film: “It made me appreciate what we get to do every day. It just made me realize how much it’s like apples and oranges, being funny doesn’t mean you’re going to be a great comedian, and being a great comedian doesn’t mean you’re going to turn in a great performance in a movie. I respect what they do too much to all of the sudden try to capitalize on it and jump into that world.”

Leslie Mann (Laura)

On doing love scenes with her husband’s old roommate, Adam Sandler: “It was a little bit strange … and Judd tells me he was aroused watching these. Maybe that’s his way of dealing with how uncomfortable he was while filming. What’s funny is that I actually met Adam before I met Judd. I was at some club and he wrote me a note on a napkin in ketchup that said “Hey, nice back” or something like that. His friend brought the note over, and said ‘Why don’t you come over?’ I didn’t go over, and a couple of months later I’d met Judd and we were at a party, and Adam was there. It was awkward between Adam and I that night.” (laughs)

Eric Bana (Clarke)

On working with the Apatow club: “At first it sounding very intimidating and nerve-wracking, but in true professional fashion they made me feel so welcome. I mean, right from the get-go when we started performing, I felt like it was okay to contribute. They made me feel relaxed and I was able to get in there and get my hands dirty.”
On his former stand-up life: I was pretty burned out on comedy by the time I’d walked away from it, even though no one here had really seen it. It was more about opportunity. When I came over here I was offered dramatic roles. I don’t watch comedies and think, ‘Wow, I should get back in there. I could do that.” But working on this, I’ve been thinking about it more. It’s like opening up a closet and trying on some clothes and going ‘Wow, that feels good.’”
On Star Trek: “I was a very lucky man last year, I got to do Star Trek and this movie. That was a really fun year to do both of those movies. The whole Star Trek thing has been nothing but a blast and a great, fun ride. But unfortunately no, Nero won’t be back.”

Aziz Ansari (Randy)

On doing stand-up for the film: “They shot hours of stand-up, there’s going to be so much extra on the DVD. They’d even follow us when we were practicing while we were working on our characters. There’s a ton of footage, although I don’t know what will end up on the DVD. They shot like four shows and this big show at the Orpheum. Some of that will probably be on it.”
On Randy: “Judd just told me to make him cocky and confident, and then later we came up with ‘What if he had a DJ’ and ‘What if he was like really dirty and all of his jokes were about sex?’ Yeah, I don’t think it’s as much a dig at any particular comedian but … I was like, what if Soulja Boy did comedy. That’s why he has a dance, he has a DJ, and all that. People really respond to that high level of energy in comedy, when you run out and you’re like ‘Who’s ready to laugh their dick off?!’ Then I go back and watch my own comedy and I’m all (low voice) ‘So, I was like walking down the street the other day.’ Who cares about that?”
On fame: “Human Giant kind of became my calling card, and that helped me to get parts in like Scrubs and Parks and Recreation and all that. I don’t think I’m famous at all.”

Aubrey Plaza (Daisy)

On auditioning for the movie: “I just decided to try it, and I had my friend shoot me doing some stand-up and we sent it in.”
On joining the Apatow group: “I was really intimidated before I met everyone at the first table read, but after that I felt really comfortable. They welcome me into their family and made me feel totally at ease.”
On Scott Pilgrim: “I just got back from Canada, up there with Edgar Wright and Michael Cera. I play Julie Powers, she’s kind of like an antagonist to Michael Cera’s Scott Pilgrim. She’s like a bitchy record store employee. I don’t get to fight, although there is a lot of fighting in the movie.”

300 + Gladiator + Sam Raimi = Spartacus: Blood and Sand

Kevin Kelly — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:48:46 +0000

Holy crap. If you haven’t seen the blood-tastic trailer for the upcoming Starz original series Spartacus: Blood and Sand, you need to do so. In fact, you can do it right after the break. It’s over the top and filled with sweaty men cutting chunks of flesh out of each other with all sorts of weapons. There’s blood, tons of nudity of both the female and male variety, (Lucy Lawless may even get fully naked, according to her), and lots of testosterone flying around. If you loved 300 and/or Gladiator, this is right up your alley. In fact, it’s so far up your alley that you might be sitting a bit uncomfortably right now.

The series is produced by Sam Raimi, he told us yesterday that he’ll have to vacate that seat for his directing duties on Spider-man 4. But his longtime producing partner Rob Tapert will be handling the reins, which is a bit of a return to the days of Hercules and Xena. If you listen to the Army of Darkness DVD commentary, you’ll hear Sam Raimi sort of half-heartedly apologize for the scene where two topless women are dragged offscreen by two skeleton warriors, and he blames it all on Tapert. Does that mean we can thank him for all of the gratuitous nudity in Spartacus? We hope so. Although it was a bit disturbing to learn that some of the men on set were not “very well endowed,” so they created a fake penis prosthesis for those scenes, and they appropriately called it “the Kirk Douglas.”

Check out the trailer for the series below. Spartacus: Blood and Sand will begin airing on Starz in 2010.

Exclusive: We Grab Drinks With Harry, Ken, and Paul of Mad Men

Kevin Kelly — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:37:07 +0000

Last night we had a chance to catch up with the Mad Men cast at a cocktail party in Los Angeles, and in true Mad Men fashion we drank Scotch on the rocks while bumming Lucky Strikes from nearby smokers. While everyone thronged around Don Draper (Jon Hamm), Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks), and Betty Draper (January Jones), we made a beeline for the triumvirate of Harry (Rich Sommer), Ken (Aaron Staton), and Paul (Michael Gladis). These guys make up the three musketeers of Sterling Cooper, and are often our own eyes and ears into the goings on at ground-level in an advertising agency in the 1960s.

Together they make up the “frat boys” of Mad Men. According to Rich Sommer, “They tried to call us the wolf pack or something like that in some of the marketing materials, but that didn’t really work. Now they’re referring to us as the frat boys or just, ‘the boys.’” Personally, I like to call them the Three Musketeers: Harry is the somewhat shy everyguy who is breaking out of his shell, Ken is the secret writer who isn’t quite sure he wants to be stuck at Sterling Cooper, and Paul is the bohemian badass who looks a lot like Orson Welles. If real work meant you’d get to hang out with guys like this, then people would never leave the office. Read on for the goods from each of them, and stay tuned for season three of Mad Men, starting August 16.

Rich Sommer (Harry Crane):

On Harry last season: “It was pretty hard for me last year. I know that Harry is sort of the good guy in the office, and the hardest for me to stomach was when he didn’t bring Joan on as a member of the TV department. She was so good, but I knew it had to go that way story wise.”
On Harry this season: “My hardest episode is yet to come. It’s pretty remarkable.” Does Harry still have an office mate? “Well, I know Harry didn’t really want him around, and maybe now that he’s head of the TV department, he’s been able to throw his weight around.”
On Twitter: “Literally there are three of us who Twitter, me, Robert Morse (Bert Cooper), and Alison Brie who plays Trudy Campbell. Obviously I don’t say anything about the story, but I totally will Twitter about the show during filming breaks. It’s a lark, it’s fun. My online persona … part of the reason I do it is to be more out there. I don’t put personal info on Twitter.” You can follow him by adding @richsommer.
On the SNL parody of Mad Men: “Loved it. The guy playing me was Bobby Monahan, who was a friend of mine from the Upright Citizen’s Brigade. I’d wanted to go to SNL since I was like seven years old. So I’m there, a friend is hosting, a friend is playing me in a show that I’m on … it was more than I could explain. Other than my wedding night, it was the best night of my life.”
On watching the show on DVD: “Well, I just got the first two seasons on Blu-ray, because I just got a PS3 so now I have a Blu-ray player. The show looks fantastic in HD. I’ll go back and watch old episodes sometimes, but usually it’s because I’ll want to remember what it looked liked or what I did. Often shows will reference other episodes, so I’ll go back and look at those. But my wife and I have been watching it because we’re as big as fans as anyone.”
What he did during the break: “I’m in a miniseries that’s airing right now called The Storm. The first half was last Sunday and the second half is this Sunday. Other than that, I’ll see what happens after this.”
On gaming off-set: “We were lucky enough to go to the Infinity Ward studios and play the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and the multiplayer is just … amazing. I’m ready to get that thing and take it out of the package and put it in my Xbox and start playing. This year we’ve been playing on the Xbox 360 a lot, and we play online when we’re at home. We also play a lot of old-school stuff, a lot of backgammon, and a lot of two-handed card games and all that. I have around 220 board games at home, it’s a bit of an addiction. I don’t collect them to put them on shelves, I collect them to play them.”
At one point a very tipsy Jim Caviezel drops by to congratulate Rich on the show, and to tell him how much he likes it. High praise indeed when Jesus himself stops by to tell you how much he likes your show.

Aaron Staton (Ken Cosgrove):

On playing games on-set: “Like every day last year, but not so much this year, we were playing a lot of video games on set: a lot of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and World at War … a lot of Guitar Hero.”
On the scripts: “I’ll tell you this … last Thursday we had a readthrough for the ninth episode. The readthrough was at 8:30pm, and we got the scripts at 3. Usually it’s a day or two in advance, but that was a bit tight.”
On his character. Did he know Ken would be a writer when he read for the part? “No! And Matt Weiner didn’t know either. No one knew. We were all guest stars with the possibility of recurring. I remember we were all playing pool, Michael, Rich and myself, and Michael said ‘I hope to do four episodes.’ And then the show gets picked up and Matt Weiner calls us all a couple of days later and says, ‘I want you to be a part of this show.’ That was really great.”
On Matt Weiner: “Matt doesn’t write anything down, he dictates everything, so he has all of our character’s voices in his head. At the readthroughs, that’s the first time he hears the actors saying the lines, and then usually he’ll speak with you afterwards about what’s going on with your character. Sometimes Matt will come down to the set and say ‘That’s not really what I’m thinking’ and steer you in another direction, or he’ll say ‘That’s not what I had in mind, but what you did was great.’ It’s an ongoing process.”
On if the 1960s wardrobe is transformative: “Absolutely! There’s a lot of work that’s done for us before we get there, so to have all of that done for us and to have our hair put in place and everything, that just allows us to focus on our lines and our characters.”
What else he’s working on: “With the strike and all, work has really slowed down. I hope with the next hiatus from the show, things will be a bit better. My wife and I were able to travel a bit and see a lot of family, and we also bought a house!”

Michael Gladis (Paul Kinsey):

What he did during the break: “Mad Men is my only focus right now. I did a short film in Paris called Wink of the Eye.”
Will we be seeing more of Paul this season? “I certainly hope so. The actors usually find out about three days before what’s going to happen with their characters. I haven’t been fired yet, so I’m hoping that’s a good sign.”
Maybe we’ll find out more about his past with Joan? “I’d love to have some flashbacks or something like that. I certainly wouldn’t complain about that.”
What attracted him to the show? “The writing. Definitely the writing. Without the writing it’s just a painted egg. That’s really it.”
On this season: “I can’t say much about what we’ve filmed, but we’re about to get into the episodes where the shit really goes down. It’s what happens every year, episodes 11 and 12 are just intense.”
Does he watch the show on DVD? “You know, once and a while I do. Not often. Because we all watch it together when they air, because that’s the first time we get to see it. But I rarely go back and watch them after that.”
With all of the smoking on the show, are you a smoker in real life? “I was a pack a day Marboro Reds smoker for 16 years, and I quit five and a half months ago. So, before we started filming.
On his plans for the break after the hiatus: “Well, the Mad Men cast will be descending on New York in October, since both Christina Hendricks and Elisabeth Moss are getting married. So we’ll be doing that, and then hopefully I’ll be working!”
On the SNL Mad Men spoof: “It’s funny, I just spoke with Bill Hader recently, and he said ‘Oh! If we’d known you were going to be there, we would have totally put you in! Next time you’re there, we’ll put you in!’ I’d be more than happy to be on SNL.”
On his uncanny resemblance to the young (and very not-fat) Orson Welles: “It’s strange, I’ve always looked like him. Even when I was a kid. I was actually cast to play young Orson in a project, but that didn’t end up happening.”
What do you guys do when you’re not on set? “We play a lot of video games. Rich Sommer and Aaron Staton got all of us playing video games because they got friendly with the folks at Microsoft and they gave me a free console. So now I mostly play a lot of Modern Warfare. In fact, that’s about all we play right now. I’m actually in this Xbox group that’s all Hollywood people, and we all play together.”
On the new Prestige Edition of Modern Warfare 2, that comes with night vision goggles: “Which I have to get. I just want night vision goggles.”

Mad Men returns to AMC on Sunday, August 16 at 10/9c.

SDCC Exclusive: Film School Rejects Captures The Mystery Team

Kevin Kelly — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:31:10 +0000

One thing you can’t accuse Film School Rejects of is sitting on their laurels and being quiet when it comes to singing the praises of Derrick Comedy and Mystery Team. Seriously, this movie deserves both your eyeballs and your dollar bills. Possibly your ears as well, but if you can read lips then you’ll still enjoy. it. We caught the flick at Sundance, and haven’t been able to shut up about it. Part of the reason for that you’ll be able to see in this video interview straight from Comic-Con: these guys are damned funny.

We sat down with Donald Glover, D.C. Pierson, Dominic Dierkes, Dan Eckman, and the lovely (hey, those guys are lovely too) Meggie McFadden to talk about the film, Comic-Con, and what’s next. If you head beyond the break and watch the full (and hilarious) video, you’ll see why Derrick Comedy should be on your radar as a group to watch in the next few years. They feel like they’re teetering on the cusp, and will hopefully land in America’s lap soon.

And by soon we mean this Fall, as the movie rolls out in a tiered released and will be coming to a city near you. If it doesn’t, start saving your gas money now, and get your butt to a theater that’s showing it. You can thank us later.

For more from San Diego, keep it locked on our Comic-Con 2009 Homepage.

SXSW + OAM: Metropolis Buzzes With Golden Hornet

Kevin Kelly — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:27:38 +0000

Every week, Film School Rejects presents a movie that was made before you were born and tells you why you should like it. This week, Old Ass Movies teams up (unofficially) with SXSW to present:

Metropolis (1927)

If you’ve never seen Fritz Lang’s classic silent film Metropolis, then the only image you’ve probably taken away from it is the feminine sight of the Machine Man (or Woman, if you will) who inspired the look of everyone’s other favorite feminine robot, C3P0. Although if that’s the only thing that’s burned into your brain, it’s a real shame. She’s only an extremely tiny part of this epic film.

Leave it to Austin and SXSW to plan a screening of Metropolis, complete with a live band providing an all-new score for the film. They topped it off by having it at the Alamo Drafthouse, which we haven’t sung the praises about nearly enough. Classic scifi movie, live band, and beer? Check, check, and check. This was one of the niftier pieces of programming at SXSW, and it fuses the whole idea of music and film together nicely.

The Golden Hornet Project worked up an original (and fantastic) score for the movie, and played it on the stage just in front of the theater at the Alamo Ritz. Playing new scores for Metropolis is nothing new, but after recently hearing the Moroder version that was filled with pop songs and artists from 1984, it’s a nice return to basics, even though the Golden Hornet version features an electric guitar.

The ultra-curious can still pick up the Moroder version on of the soundtrack on CD, or the entire movie on DVD, but it would be fantastic if The Golden Hornet would release their version as well, either on a CD or via a download service. It struck all the right notes, used sound effects where necessary, and even had a frenetic xylophone plonking along in perfect syncopation with the film. With all respect, I was doubtful I’d love their composition going in, but they really did knock it out of the park.

The only thing holding this back from being a perfect experience was that the movie is still the much shorter version without the lost footage that was recently discovered in a complete (but damaged) negative of the film. Much of Metropolis was considered lost for decades, but this new version will be complete after the restoration is finished, and should be available in standard and Blu-ray versions as well. For this screening, they used the Kino standard definition DVD version, which is largely considered to be one of the most complete (and coherent) cuts of the film. It’s a terrific looking version of the movie, but features a lot of intertitles, which explain the action that occurred on the missing pieces of the film.

If you haven’t seen the movie at all, you might as well wait until the complete cut comes out, or if you’re dying to see it you can rent the Kino version, which is thankfully also on Netflix. It’s a gorgeous, bleak, and stunning vision of the future through the eyes of German neo-realism and Fritz Lang. Pitting the social struggle of the city of thinkers and planners who live in luxury above the city against the city of workers far below the surface who toil to keep the rich living in splendor. The lone voice of reason, a worker named Maria with a message of mediation, becomes an extremely instrument of perversion when a robot is crafted in her image and used to sow dissent amongst the working class. And believe me, there’s nothing more sexy and sinister looking than the robotic version of Maria (Brigitte Helm) with her one-eyed evil stare smirking at everyone.

The movie has inspired everything from Blade Runner to The Matrix to Brazil, and really needs to be seen by fans of scifi and cinematic history. If you’re interested in hearing the Golden Hornet’s score, I’d encourage you to email them and ask for it nicely. If I’d known it would have been so good, I would have recorded a bootleg of it. Of course, with the new version coming out, maybe they’ll do a completely new take on the score for us. In the meantime, go treat yourself to a double-feature of the 1927 version of Metropolis, along with Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis from 2001, which was inspired by the poster from the original film. You’ll thank us later.

Let The Right One In Is The Film Twilight Wishes It Could Be

Kevin Kelly — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:39:58 +0000

The final trailer for the upcoming teen vampire flick Twilight hit the web last night, and I have to say that I’m less than excited. Not only am I suffering from Twilight overload, but the sounds of the screaming masses from Comic-Con are still ringing in my ears. We were shown a few teaser scenes in San Diego that had about as much emotional resonance as an episode of The Price is Right, and the front few rows of the audience shrieked like the Beatles had come back to life and taken the stage.

My main problem with Twilight was that I liked the premise well enough, back when it was called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The whole Buffy / Angel thing, a romance between a human and a vampire, was beaten to death back when that show covered it. Not that a human falling for a vamp is anything new, since it even happens in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It’s just that we don’t really need to see it again with sulky teens.

What really makes this film look pale by comparison (that’s a vampire joke, yuk yuk) is the Swedish film I saw in Austin called Let The Right One In. You might have heard of this movie by now. It’s about a 12 year old boy, bouncing between a divorced mother and father, bullied at school, and a bit of a loner. He finally finds a playmate one day, a young girl his age, and they become fast friends. Of course, she turns out to be a vampire.

However, what really makes this film work is how touching it is. This isn’t a CGI-laden, special effects fest of a film that smacks you in the face with tons of gore, hyperspeed bloodsuckers, and emo teens. It’s a real, human (sort of) story that feels so real and believable, despite the fact that the girl happens to be a vampire. If you watch this movie and aren’t moved by Kåre Hedebrant’s performance, then you just have no feelings left inside and you might already be a part of the undead masses.

This film nails the relationship between vampire and human, and it’s made all the more emotional by the fact that the kids are so young. Oskar (Kåre) is so vulnerable and real that you just want to stop the movie, find the kid, pat him on the back and tell him that everything will be okay. And this is even before he meets Eli (Lina Leandersson), the girl who has a very dark secret. There’s even a creepy turn at the end of the film that makes this so sinister and disturbing that you’ll be talking about it for weeks.

So my advice to you, dear theater-goer, is forget about Twilight. Let The Right One In gets it right and is ten times the movie Twilight could ever hope to be. Unless you think white-powdered wannabe teen heartthrobs is the way to go, then save your dough and wait until next year when Let The Right One In comes out either at a theater near you, or dunk it into your Netflix queue. Just do it before the hollywood remake comes out, which is being helmed my Cloverfield’s Matt Reeves. How I wish that was just a joke. Now someone fetch me the garlic and holy water so I can fight off the ravenous Twilight fans who will come for my blood.

Want To See A Better Film With Pacino and De Niro? Rent Heat

Kevin Kelly — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:16:56 +0000

Long before Pacino and De Niro were plastered on bus stops and framed in movie marquee posters (in what is probably one of the worst movie posters in recent history), they starred together in Michael Mann’s incredible Los Angeles cop vs. criminal movies, Heat. If you’ve never seen this film, you owe it to yourself, your parents, and the American people to go out and rent it this weekend. Especially since Righteous Kill is getting panned.

This underrated 1995 film stars Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Ashley Judd, Natalie Portman, Tom Sizemore, and everyone’s favorite machete-wielding Latino hero, Danny Trejo. It’s actually a remake of L.A. Takedown, a television movie Mann directed and wrote in 1989. Mann had spent ten years trying to get Heat made, and when he couldn’t get it going at a studio he scaled it down and created the tv version.

While not a failure by any means (it grossed over $185 million worldwide), people still have blank stares when I talk about Heat. “What’s that?” they’ll say. This was the first pairing of De Niro and Pacino on screen, and people don’t know about it?! For shame. Heck, the game had such a cult following that in 2006 they announced a video game version of the film would be coming to next-gen consoles. Thankfully (I think it would have been a travesty) that never happened. If you’re itching to play a video game version of Heat, play the bank heist level in GTA IV. It’ll satiate your desire to fight your way out of a bank while fending off heavily armed cops on metropolitan streets.

Although De Niro and Pacino had shared film credits before, having both starred in The Godfather, Part II, they only share two brief scenes together in Heat. However, those two scenes are electric. The plot of the film revolved around De Niro and his crew who “take down scores,” meaning they rob banks and other high-priority targets. Pacino and his own group of cops try to track down these crews and take them into custody by any means necessary. Of course, you know they’re gonna clash.

The film is a beautifully shot love letter to Los Angeles, as it didn’t use any sets, just locations around L.A. There’s a very moving film score here as well, culminating in the Moby song “God Moving Over The Face Of The Water.” If you can manage to maintain a dry eye during that final scene, then you’re a tougher guy than I am. Plus, you have some great comedic lines from a manic Pacino, like the scene where he tells Hank Azaria that Ashley Judd’s character “That’s because she has a GREAT ASS! And you’ve got your head all the way up it!” Excellent stuff.

Go give Heat a rental this weekend, and I promise you won’t be sorry. It has one of the best bank robbery / shootout scenes ever put on film, and it’ll wash the thoughts of Righteous Kill right out of your head.

‘Hell Ride’ Junket Shakes The Earth… Literally

Kevin Kelly — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:38:10 +0000

It’s been a fairly long while since I’ve felt an earthquake in Los Angeles. Maybe even several years, because I can’t remember exactly when the last one happened. However, last week during the press junket for Hell Ride, we had a 5.6, and being on the 14th foor of the Four Seasons Hotel, I definitely felt it. It was my own personal Hell Ride. Vinnie Jones looked out the window at a guy on a cherry picker across the street and said “Oi! Can you imagine how big that guy’s asshole is right now?! I bet he just took a shite in his pants!” Yes, this definitely wasn’t your normal press junket.

We got to talk with writer/director Larry Bishop, Michael Madsen, and Vinnie Jones from the film, and these folks just tended to be a lot more chatty than your normal junket fare. Even those this is a tough as nails biker flick, with revenge on the line, everyone was extremely laid back and fun. And this was before the quake hit.

Michael Madsen rambled on in that perfectly raspy badass voice he has about his character, The Gent, and how it was his decision to have him wear a tuxedo in the movie. He also talked about first receiving the script from Larry and that “it looked like a phone book.” Larry hadn’t written a script before and went a bit overboard on this one. But, the part was written for Michael, and he liked it immediately.

Madsen also talked about Quentin Tarantino a bit, who was originally going to play the part of Comanche in the movie, but then decided he wasn’t going to act anymore. According to Madsen, “Bud was the moral conscience of Kill Bill,” and noted that Hell Ride might also have a Vol. 2. He said that he loved the bike riding in this movie, and that the two days of filming pickup shots of them riding the bikes around were “Two of the happiest days of my film career…for a long time I did a lot of B movies, and I did a lot of stupid crap because I was trying to pay my mortgage. Not anymore.”

Larry Bishop strode in looking tanned and wearing biker boots, just like his Pistolero character from the movie, and talked about randomly meeting Quentin Tarantino at a party. It turns out, Quentin was his biggest fan and invited him up to his house to watch a mint print of The Savage Seven. During the movie, Quentin leaned over and whispered in his ear, “It is your destiny to write, direct, and star in another motorcycle movie.” Bishop followed that up by telling us, “Look, I did a lot of acid in the 70s, and this is what they said would happen, that it would mess with your mind.” But, he didn’t hallucinate this, and thanks to QT and The Weinsteins, it actually ended up happening.

The highlight of the day had to be Vinnie Jones. I mean, it’s Vinnie Jones! From Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels! From Hell Ride where he plays, according to him, the ‘immortal’ Billy Wings. He’s exactly the same in person as he is on the screen, and he was a riot. He did everything from impersonate Michael Madsen, which you can hear below…

JonesMadsen

… to ripping on the Suicide Girls, which you can also hear right here.

VinnieSuicide

According to Vinnie Jones, “if you look up ‘cool’ in the dictionary, there should be a picture of Hell Ride right there.” Vinnie spoke at length about working with Michael Madsen on the film, and he was presenting him with a custom made calfskin jacket when we arrived. They’d just finished working together on a movie called Strength and Honour, and Madsen had recommended him for this role. Luckily Larry Bishop listened, because Vinnie Jones is quite the badass in this flick.

For Jones (and several others) the real draw of the movie was getting to work with Quentin Tarantino, who edited Larry’s cut of the film. According to Vinnie, “You should have seen the first cut of the film! It looked like a Larry Bishop porno! He was in every shot!” He also said he’s staying loyal to his fans by continuing to play roles like this, although he has been branching out. Just last year he played a dramatic role opposite Derek Jacobi, and he’d like to play a romantic lead. Although he loathes actors who get famous and then suddenly say something like, “‘I’m a painter now… I paint stuff.’ People didn’t know what about. You’re a fucking movie star mate, now stop being a prick and get out and make movies! ‘I’m into religion now, and I do yoga…’ That’s great. Now get out there and make us a movie.”

He doesn’t know if Juggernaut will be returning in any future X-Men flicks, although he is contracted for them if they decide to use him. We asked him about Guy Ritchie’s Rocknrolla, and why he wasn’t in it. He said he’d met with Guy but that, “There wasn’t a part in that for me.” You can catch him in Hell Ride, and he’ll also be in Clive Barker’s Midnight Meat Train which just came out, as well as Year One, which is a Harold Ramis comedy. We can’t wait.

Hell Ride opens this weekend in limited release.

Photo Gallery: FSR Visits Lucasfilm and LucasArts

Kevin Kelly — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:38:09 +0000

Sunday morning I got a call asking if I could be in San Francisco for a screening of Star Wars:The Clone Wars by 6:45pm that evening. After a mild heart attack, I scrambled around, found a last-minute flight and made it there with about 10 minutes to spare. I saw the movie (look for a review next week) crashed that night. The next day I thought I was dreaming when they drove us out to Lucas’ Big Rock Ranch in Marin County, and we got to sit down with the man himself. That’s in a forthcoming junket report, but in the meantime you can feast your eyes on a massive gallery below, chock full of images from the ranch and the tour of Lucasfilm and LucasArts.

Space Chimps Takes On The Dark Knight

Kevin Kelly — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 07:44:48 +0000

You know you’re really in trouble when your studio dumps your movie on the same weekend that The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia are opening. Even if it’s an animated movie aimed at kids too young to get into either of those movies, they’re going to have a hard time getting to the theater when mom and dad are wanting to see one of those blockbusters.

Still, that didn’t stop Andy Samberg, Cheryl Hines, and director Kirk De Micco were on hand last Saturday to talk about the simian space comedy that’s aimed squarely at young audiences. Both Cheryl and Andy recorded their lines separately last February, but they clearly enjoyed being in the same room together. They cracked jokes more often than they talked about the movie, which made us wince in sympathy a bit for Kirk.

Space Chimps isn’t a bad movie by any means, but it definitely doesn’t have a Wall-E or Kung-Fu Panda sized marketing bulldozer behind it, and as a result it feels like it’ll get plowed under in the middle of the biggest weekend of the summer movie season. The jokes are funny, including the ones that only adults will get, the animation top-notch, and it’s got a lot of over the top action in it… so where’s the movie marketing muscle?

Fox had spent a pretty penny setting up a fun party for the premiere of the film, which was happening the same afternoon. You’ve never seen so many Space Chimp branded Dole bananas in your life. Seriously, there were frozen bananas, chocolate-dipped bananas, banana splits, banana chips, and plain bananas. Thank god they didn’t decide to stock monkey chow. That stuff probably tastes gross. They also had plenty of Space Camp-esque play areas and events set up for kids of all ages to play on. Probably one of the more fun premieres I’ve been to. That I can remember, anyhow.

The highlight of the day was Andy Samberg’s response to the question “Do you think you have a chance against The Dark Knight?” Listen to what he had to say below:

Andy Samberg warns The Dark Knight

Space Chimps swings into theaters this weekend, and if you have young kids in your household, you’ll enjoy it next to them. But, I wouldn’t go out of my way to catch this one in the theaters. If you’re pulling baby-sitting duty this weekend, this is your 90 minute saving grace.

Finally Coming To a Theater Near You: Kabluey

Kevin Kelly — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:08:51 +0000

Last year at the Los Angeles Film Festival I did what I normally do when I attend a film festival: thumb through the program and search valiantly for a movie that’ll knock me out of my socks. Although living in Southern California, I usually wear flip flops. That sort of defeats the purpose, but you catch my meaning. This can be a hit or miss system, and more often than not you’ll find yourself sitting in a theater, struggling to stay awake, bored by what’s onscreen.

However, I hit the motherlode when I saw Kabluey last year. I wrote an extensive review and sat down with the writer/director/star Scott Prendergast. You can read all about that over on Cinematical, which will save me the trouble of trying to sum it all over again. Although if you’re pressed for time, I’ll do that here: great movie.

I was worried that Kabluey would drop into that abyss of movies that do well at festivals, and then drop off the map altogether. It’s not always a success story for a movie that becomes a darling of critics and audiences, but it was a year later and I hadn’t read about the film being released, which was sad. When you see a movie that really touches you, you want to share that with other people. I was worried no one would be able to have the same Kabluey experience that I did.

But, I missed the announcement in May that the film had indeed been picked up, and had a release date. In fact, I may have ended up missing it altogether if I hadn’t run into Prendergast again at this year’s LAFF. He told me the film will be releasing theatrically in several cities, and will then be out on DVD later this year, so you won’t have an excuse for not seeing it anymore. Everyone from the New York Times to the LA Times to yours truly has loved this movie, and I sure hope you’ll give it a whirl.

You can see Kabluey currently in New York City and Los Angeles, and at the end of July it will be coming to Austin. August sees the film coming to San Francisco and Portland. If you live in one of these cities, check your local listings and check it out on the big screen, which is more than worth it. If you don’t live nearby, get in your car and drive, sucka! if you absolutely can’t make it, the DVD comes out in September. There will be a pop quiz later, so be sure to study. Check out the trailer below.

Here’s the shorthand synopsis: Inept Salman (Scott Prendergast) comes to help his sister-in-law (Lisa Kudrow) tend to her homicidal toddlers while Salman’s brother is off fighting in Iraq. Salman must take a humiliating job as a giant blue corporate mascot to help make ends meet and hold the family together.

The Love Guru: Myers, Timberlake, and Troyer… Yes, That’s Weird

Kevin Kelly — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:25:52 +0000

Okay, I have to start this off by saying: The Love Guru is actually a pretty funny movie. Yes, when I saw the trailer I groaned and thought “Wow, Mike Myers has made Austin Powers 4, without Austin Powers.” However, at the press screening I was laughing out loud, which I don’t do that often in movies (M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening aside). So my mini-review is: it’s good for a laugh. In fact, a Love Guru/Get Smart double-header weekend isn’t really a bad thing. Everyone keeps hyping up “It’s Carell vs. Myers!” in the press, and “Why did they schedule these for the same weekend?!” I say, isn’t there room for both? Get Smart will probably win the weekend, but don’t make that reason force you to skip The Love Guru.

Okay, I’m off my soapbox and returning to the task at hand, which is a junket report for said film. Honestly, if you’d told me a few months ago that I’d be sitting in a room interview Mike Myers, Justin Timberlake, and Verne Troyer, then I would have had you checked for drug usage. Then if you told me they’d all been in a film together, I would have slapped you. Well, all that stuff actually happened, except without the drugs and the slapping. However, you had the bonus of Jessica Alba in some sexy Bollywood dancing scenes as well.

Honestly, the most surprising thing Mike Myers told us was how he went on his own miniature spiritual journey after his father died. He read some self-help books (quite a few actually, and from the heavy hitters like Eckhart Tolle, Gary Zukav and… Kurt Vonnegut) and combined with the fact that he used to watch late-night Bollywood movies hosted by “Rakesh” in Toronto, and you get Guru Pitka, Myers’ character in the movie. Even more interesting was his process for developing characters, which involves him performing them in comedy clubs unannounced in order to perfect them. Which is why Austin Powers appeared in Los Angeles at The Viper Room, long before a movie ever came together.

So, Myers has been performing as Guru Pitka for the past three years, including to bewildered patrons of a nearby yoga studio, where they’d put up flyers advertising a new guru. Perhaps the unfortunate side effect of this is that Guru Pitka is unmistakably Mike Myers, and he’s also part Austin Powers. That’s going to cloud some people’s mind and make them think “Oh, I’ve seen that” before they even try this movie out, which we hope many people don’t do. Especially because of how serious and earnest Mike was when we talked to him. We expected jokes and impressions, but instead he talked in-depth about self-help, self-healing, how he creates his characters, and why he wanted to perform this character. Not that we’re trying to make you feel sorry for Mike Myers *sniffle*.

Justin Timberlake, on the other hand, yes… feel sorry for him. We asked him to think of something he’s bad at, since all of the other actors were saying how great he is at everything, and he couldn’t. So, feel bad for him because of that. Plus, he manages to pull off playing a French Canadian hockey player with a huge schlong, so he might literally be bad at nothing except thinking of the answer to that question. He said he’s definitely putting a lot of thought into being an actor, and he wants to be taken seriously. To that end, he puts careful consideration into the roles he chooses, and Mike Myers had a big role in making him choose this one.

An interesting fact that Justin told us was that he got a phone call when he was 14, saying a record label wanted to sign him, and he obviously went down that road. However, his family plan two weeks before that was to drive out to Los Angeles to try landing a role during television pilot season, when casting directors go nuts. What a different life he might have had if that had (or hadn’t) worked out. Instead, we now have the dancing, singing, acting prettyboy who isn’t bad at anything except… Connect Four. He finally broke down and confessed to us. I guess everyone has a kryptonite.

Verne Troyer told us how many people were surprised when they found out he could speak after seeing screenings of this, since he actually has a lot of speaking lines as opposed to the silent Mini-Me. Not to spoil anything, but make sure you stay at least for the beginning of the credits in this movie, because Verne has a great zinger in there. He talked a lot about his early stunt work in movies (he doubled as the baby in Baby’s Day Out), and about working on the set of the miniature office they created for his Coach character in this movie.

He’s also developed an enormous sense of trust with Mike, one that allows him to continually make fun of his size. Verne did say that if someone talked about him like Mike does in the movies, he wouldn’t be too happy about it. But, he does want people to view his roles as just acting, nothing more. He puts a lot of himself into his roles, and you can see him next in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus where he’ll be dressed up like a Devil, a scholar, and a bug. I can’t wait to see what Terry Gilliam does with him, and it revives my hope for a Time Bandits 2.

Granted, we didn’t learn anything earth shattering (except for me when I learned that Conrad won’t be back in this season of Weeds. Devastating.), but it was a lot of fun to talk to everyone right after we’d seen the movie, and as always it reminds us that movie making really is a job, and not just people goofing off on camera. Plus, Verne Troyer really is that small, it’s not an optical illusion.

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