Hey Folks, Harry here... Right now the exact sort of intelligent funny as hell entertainment that most of you have been griping about not getting from Hollywood... Well it's in theaters, unfortunately, not theaters everywhere, but it is expanding this week into many many many more markets. It doesn't have the advertising push of say... PLANET OF THE APES.... and it doesn't have a gazillion dollar budget, but it is dead on fantastic and you won't felt like you've seen the story before. When we find films like MADE and HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, we like to give them special treatment... Make sure they get equal time in front of your eyes, because... well, they're better than the other films out there in a theater near you, and you might not be convinced to give them a chance. CHECK THEM OUT!!! Here's another in Quint's fantastic series of interviews that he's done for AICN, this one... this one's pretty damn fine... Oh, and just a bit of cool trivia for you folks, but Jon Favreau has recently finished his guest spot on the pilot of the AICN... oh wait, I'm not supposed to talk about that. Eeeek.
Ahoy there, squirts. 'Tis I, everybody's favorite trusty neighborhood seaman, Quint, here to let you fine folks get a peek into the mind of one of the coolest filmmakers around these days, Mr. Jon Favreau. Most everybody knows him from Swingers, which he starred in alongside Vince Vaughn and also wrote, but you might also recognize him from such films as Very Bad Things, The Replacements and Rudy.
I met Jon at the MADE screening that Harry set up here in Austin and he was really cool to me and all of his other fans. Down to earth and just happy to be doing what he's doing. The movie itself? Well, it kicks a lot of ass. Really funny, really entertaining and even touching. How about that, huh? Any fan of Swingers will like MADE.
But you didn't come here to read me talk about MADE, you came here
to read Jon Favreau talk about MADE. So, without any further adieu, here's
the man himself. Enjoy and I'll see you on the other end, squirts!
QUINT: WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO GET INTO THE BUSINESS? WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO ENTERTAIN FOR A LIVING?
JON FAVREAU: Oh. I always liked doing plays and stuff, but I didn't start acting professionally or try to act professionally 'til I was 22 when I moved to Chicago. I had seen people doin' improv, like Chris Farley and Mike Myers and stuff, they were all doin' improv in Chicago. I was passing through town, I was going cross country... I was going cross country on a motorcycle back in '88, I guess it was. I stopped there and when I was visiting, my friend was doing improv, and when I visited him in Chicago I saw all these people doin' it. The bug really bit me at that point. I wanted to give it a shot.
Q: AWESOME. YOU JOINED A COMEDY TROUPE IN CHICAGO AT THAT POINT, RIGHT?
JF: Yeah. Improvalympics was the name of this thing under a guy named Del Close, who passed away recently. He was a big guru to all the Chicago people I looked up to, like Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi and that whole crowd... Bill Murray.
Q: AND YOU LEARNED UNDER THIS GUY?
JF: Yeah and I ended up teaching under him actually.
Q: THAT'S REALLY COOL. WAS THE DRAW IN THE COMEDY ITSELF, OR THAT YOU GOT TO PERFORM FOR PEOPLE?
JF: I liked performing, but I like making people laugh the most.
Q: WHAT DID YOU LIKE THE MOST, THE WRITING OR THE PERFORMING?
JF: I started off sorta more as a performer. Then you learn how to write in order to give yourself material to do for sketch comedy stuff, so initially the writing definitely came second.
Q: FIRST FILM GIG YOU GOT WAS RUDY, RIGHT?
JF: Yeeeeaaaahhhh. That was the first real gig. I had gotten smaller stuff, like rrrreeeeaaallly small stuff. I had gotten, like, one scene in a movie called Folks!, which was just God awful. It was a movie with Tom Selleck and they they needed somebody who could come in and improvise just a little walk on part because they needed to get Tom Selleck's luggage across the set when he was leaving his house. His hand had gotten broken in the scene and the guy who played the doorman had already left Chicago. He was on Cybil... I think... the one where he was, like, painting the ceiling and painting the... whatever it was... some dude.
So, Tom Selleck couldn't carry the bags, so they hired me the day before. I came on and they said, "There's no lines written, you gotta just make some stuff up." I actually got a couple of little laughs. For me, it was the biggest gig in the world, though. My dad carried that video tape around for a long time, showing people that clip all cued up. Very proud of me.
But Rudy was really my first big break where I got to play a major supporting role in a film.
Q: WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO BEING "IN THE SHIT," ON A BIG BUDGET MOVIE SET, IN THE SPOTLIGHT FOR THE FIRST TIME ON RUDY?
JF: It was great! I loved it. It was probably my best experience, my favorite experience on a film. It was so great, such a great all around experience. David Anspaugh is probably the best director I've ever worked with still. He gave me a break, he took a shot. Givin' an unknown guy without any experience a chance to play, like, a starring role in the film. I met Vince (Vaughn) on that movie. It turned out to be a really cool, really magical film that's starting to hang in there as a favorite. It's becoming a classic, a great first experience.
Q: I SAW IT IN HIGH SCHOOL, THEY PLAYED IT FOR THE CLASS.
JF: Were you a football player or somethin'?
Q: NO, NO. IT WAS ENGLISH CLASS. IT WAS A MOVIE THE TEACHER LOVED AND WE HAD SOME FREE TIME.
JF: Yeah? Oh, good. I think it's really nice. It's really nice to have a positive message. I think that's something that I really try to do in everything I've written. I understood how important it is and how much you can influence lives with a film. Although I don't blame movies for things like Columbine or I don't blame video games for that. I don't think it's that easy, but I do think you are putting something out there into the universe and it's going to affect people and I think that if you can do good with it, if you can make some sort of positive effect happen, I think it's good karma for the filmmakers. It's really good to have a positive, hopeful message at the end of a film. MADE has that, SWINGERS has that.
Q: YOU SAID YOU MET VINCE ON RUDY. DID YOU GUYS HIT IT OFF IMMEDIATELY?
JF: Actually, I was always a little weary of him. He always wanted to go out to the bars and go drinkin'. He loved to go out and have a good time. We just made each other laughed a lot. I was more focused on doing my job in the movie. He had less to do in the film, so he was just more passing the time. When I moved to LA after Rudy, we ended up hanging out a lot. He was the only person I knew out here.
Q: WHEN YOU WRITE THE TWO OF YOU IN YOUR FILMS... IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU'RE PULLING FROM THAT REAL LIFE STUFF RIGHT THERE.
JF: Yes, yeah. Certainly Swingers was based on that experience.
Q: SWINGERS WAS YOUR FIRST SCREENPLAY THAT WAS PRODUCED, RIGHT?
JF: Yeah.
Q: HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT?
JF: Well, first I just wrote the script, sort of as an experiment, and then I showed it to some of my friends. I showed it to Ron Livingston (SEAMAN SIDENOTE: Ron's an awesome character actor who had a bit part in Swingers... you might know him from his lead role in Office Space) first. He loved it. Then I showed it to my other friends, like Vince, then eventually showed it to my agent.
My agent sent it out and people were actually interested in buying the script and making it, but they wanted to change a lot of stuff. So, I pulled together a staged reading with all the actors so that they could see that the material could work without changing a lot of the things that I thought were on the page that were good, that I knew would be funny in the movie, like Trent's dialogue... There were just a lot of things that come off a little rougher on the page than they did in the film. And I wanted to give my friends a good shot at being in the movie if they bought it and made it.
But after that reading, that first reading we did went so well that my agent encouraged me to not sell the script, to try to set it up myself. So, for the next two years we were doing, like, table reads for producers and for financiers, investors. We just got better and better at the script, but no money was coming through.
Then eventually Doug Liman, who ended up directing it, was a friend of mine through one of our producers. He had some money available to him, so he sorta came up with the idea of shooting it on the cheap as we did. So, for $200,000-$250,000, we ended up shooting the movie sort of film school style.
Q: I RECENTLY INTERVIEWED LUIS GUZMAN AND...
JF: Yeah, I just worked with him.
Q: REALLY? ON WHAT?
JF: We just did these IFC little... I don't know what you call 'em... They're like a little series of little shorts, promotional clips for IFC. Like, they had the one with this little girl director. Well, this one was about the independent film stuntman. He crashes the set where me and Luis are doing a... I'm directing him in this sorta Mob movie. He shows up and tries to be in the movie. That was our little skit.
Q: AWESOME. IN OUR INTERVIEW, I BROUGHT UP...
JF: I read your interview.
Q: WAIT A MINUTE... YOU WEREN'T THE GUY IN TALKBACK THAT CALLED ME A PUTZ, WERE YOU?
JF: No. I don't talkback.
Q: THAT SPEAKS VERY POSITIVELY ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER! ANYWAY, IN
THE INTERVIEW I BROUGHT UP THE LOVELY MISS HEATHER GRAHAM AND THE FACT THAT
HE GOT TO DO A SCENE WITH HER IN THE NUDE. BUT I THINK YOU REALLY ONE UPPED
HIM WITH YOUR STEAMY DANCE WITH HER AT THE END OF SWINGERS.
JF: Well, we actually shot a scene where I made out with her that never made it into the movie. We were reshooting, doing some additional stuff after we sorta cut the movie together and that was an idea that people involved with the film had. That it wasn't satisfying enough that I just met her. So, we shot it and ended up not using it. It took away...
Q: WELL, YOU SHOT IT... THAT'S THE IMPORTANT THING.
JF: Yeah, we shot it. Yeah, that was a fun day for me.
Q: OK. HERE WE ARE, 5 YEARS POST SWINGERS. AT THIS POINT, DO YOU FEEL THE URGE TO TAKE A SHOTGUN TO THE NEXT PERSON WHO TELLS YOU, "YOU'RE SO MONEY AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW IT"?
JF: Naw, it's cool. I like it, but we went out of our way to not have any catch phrases in this film. Know what I mean? It was great for what it was, but... You know, everybody says that Clint Eastwood will, until the day he dies, hear "Go ahead, make my day." That's just the way people tell you they like your work. They think they're being very clever. They don't realize that every other person in the world does it to you.
Q: I WAS READING YOUR WEBPAGE (www.gettingitmade.com) LAST NIGHT AND GOING THROUGH ALL THE POSTS... EVERY PAGE SEEMED TO HAVE AT LEAST 3 PEOPLE SAYING THAT TO YOU.
JF: Yeah. Well, it's funny because I think at this point they know it, so they go, "I know everybody says this, but I'm going to say it anyway." That's cool. I don't like it when people think they're being so clever like they're the only ones that have figured it out.
I had somebody yell at me, out of a car window, two days ago, "Can you blow me where the Pampers is?" That's something from PCU, which is a little more obscure. It's really funny when they pull out some obscure lines from some obscure movie.
Q: AT THE SCREENING HERE IN AUSTIN, VINCE WAS GETTING IT LEFT AND RIGHT. IT WAS ONE OF THE FUNNIEST THINGS... I DIDN'T EVEN REALLY TALK TO VINCE, BUT JUST HANGING OUT AND HEARING FROM ACROSS THE ROOM SOME DRUNK UT STUDENT BLURT OUT, "Heyyyyy, man.... Yer soooooo moooneeeey."
JF: Yeah, he gets it bad. And when we go to Vegas forget it.
Q: YOU ACTED A LOT AFTER SWINGERS. YOU GOT SOME PRETTY BIG GIGS, LIKE DEEP IMPACT AND THE REPLACEMENTS...
JF: I had big gigs with little parts, you know? Those were always rough, though. They always made me want to act in or write another Indie. I wrote MADE when I was in Baltimore doing The Replacements. I was in Hell. Trapped in Baltimore with nothing to do for 3 months. I got to meet Faizon Love, who I wrote a part for... she inspired me to write this movie. And I got to shoot the Sopranos while I was working out there.
Deep Impact, that was the shortest shoot. It was in LA, so it wasn't like I was stuck out of town. It was cool to learn how to do the wirework and jump around in the astronaut suit. That's the fun part of acting, you get to live out these fantasies.
Q: AFTER SWINGERS DID YOU DECIDE YOU WANTED TO ACT MORE AND WRITE LESS, OR WAS THAT JUST HOW THINGS CAME ABOUT?
JF: I was an actor before Swingers. It really didn't help me as an actor. I mean, it got me, like, Very Bad Things. I'm always getting offers on these small movies. But on the big ones, even when the director likes me and they want me to lead, it's very difficult to get approved by the studio. It's not what they want. I'm not on that list, but as a writer I am and even as a director I am.
It's weird how my career sorta grew out of Swingers as a filmmaker and a writer more than as an actor, which was my goal at the time. Although now, I'm very picky about what I do. It has to be something that I think will be fun and something that's gonna be, you know, cool. It doesn't always turn out that way.
On Replacements, that was a cool, really fun part to play, but overall the movie came out not exactly like I would have wanted it to. Now I'm focusing more on actually making the movies, as opposed to being in them and leaving it up to chance how it comes out.
Q: WELL, AT LEAST IN REPLACEMENTS YOU GOT TO HAVE THAT AWESOME SCENE WITH GENE HACKMAN, THE SHOUTING...
JF: Yeah. That was doin' a little improv with him.
Q: WHICH DO YOU ENJOY MORE: ACTING, WRITING OR DIRECTING?
JF: Acting's actually the most fun. I do like acting the best, but I don't like... The actual act of acting and seeing your stuff onscreen is the most fun, for sure, but it's the one that you have the least amount of control over. It's the most frustrating in a way because you're not always happy with what they put together.
Writing is the toughest, but you have the most control over what you do. Directing's kinda exciting, but directing you're always feeling like, "Man, I wish I was on to the next step." You're not really enjoying the process... at least for me it's very stressful.
When you're writing the script, you're like, "Man, I just wish we had our greenlight." When you have the greenlight, you're like, "Man, I wish I was in production already." Then when you're shooting, you're like, "Man, I just wish we had this movie in the can." When you're editing, it's like, "Man, I just wish I could get this done!" You know? You're always postponing it. You're never really enjoying it because you're always focused on the next task.
Q: WHICH DO YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER AT?
JF: I'm best at acting... I think. You know, I mean skill wise. Acting so much is about how you look and if you're right for the part, but I like when I'm doing some funny stuff that's at the right tone and the right level for me, that's when I think I'm at my best.
In writing, I'm still learning how to do it. I think I've got my moments, but I think compared to other writers out there, I'm not necessarily... I wouldn't stack myself up against the best people and all that stuff. In writing, I think I'm good, but I think I still have a lot to learn. Whereas with acting, I'm not really intimidated by anybody or anything. I feel like I've been at it long enough, so I feel like I'm a pro. Of course, directing and writing I still feel pretty new at.
Q: YOU SAID YOU STARTED WRITING MADE WHEN YOU WERE STUCK ON REPLACEMENTS? WHAT GOT YOU GOIN' ON THAT BESIDES BOREDOM?
JF: A lot of it was Vince bein' like, "Man, you just have to write somethin' that we can get MADE, instead of trying to get this western about the Hasidic Jewish gunfighter off the ground." Then we tried to do something were we developed a project for Guam Goes to the Moon for Paramount. That's always a fiasco. You know, too many cooks, too many people's opinions.
So, the idea was just write something we could shoot cheap... let's get it out there, let's see who wants to make it. Let's just shoot this thing and get it done and that's what we did.
Q: DID YOU KNOW WHEN YOU WERE STARTING THAT YOU WERE GOING TO DIRECT?
JF: Yeah. On Swingers, even though I had a lot of input and I was a real filmmaker on that movie, it was a real partnership between Doug and myself, but it still wasn't like being the director, like I wanted to. I still felt like I wanted to do that. That was the goal: Direct Something. Now, since I've done MADE, I felt like I've proven myself in that way and now I don't feel those pressures anymore.
Q: HOW ABOUT YOU GIVE US A LITTLE RUNDOWN OF THE MOVIE?
JF: What it's about? Depends how you look at it. It could either be a really funny mob comedy about two nerdowells who can't make it in the boxing world and experiment in an entry level position in organized crime or it could be characterized by some as a homoerotic exploration of male bonding. (laughs)
Q: (LAUGHS) WOW.
JF: Depending on who you talk to. For me, I just wanted to write a funny mob movie. Everything else just sorta comes out and you don't even realize it.
Q: YOU CAST ONE OF MY FAVORITE COMEDIC ACTORS IN YOUR MOVIE, PETER FALK.
JF: Is he fantastic or what?
Q: HE'S GREAT. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A FILM HE DID CALLED MURDER BY DEATH?
JF: Yeah, of course.
Q: I JUST BOUGHT A PRINT OF THAT IN 35MM.
JF: You bought a print of it? Wow! That was one of my favorite movies growin' up. He's so good in it. I laughed at it even before... I was too young to really know what they were making fun of, but I love Peter Sellers... And it had some really classic comedy stuff, like the Blind Butler and the Deaf Maid. You know, a lot of shit like that.
Q: AND "COW ON WALL."
JF: "You forgot the articles!"
Q: "USE YOUR GODDAMN PRONOUNS!"
JF: It was really funny. You know what's so great about that movie, too? Everybody played that movie so straight and so serious and the production value is so good. You really felt the tension of that movie. It was really cool. I like that film.
Q: I LITERALLY BOUGHT MY PRINT DAYS BEFORE I SAW MADE AND HAD NO IDEA FALK WAS IN IT. WHEN I SAW HIM UP ON THAT SCREEN, I WAS LIKE, "ALL RIGHT. HERE'S SOMEBODY ELSE WHO'S IN THE KNOW, WHO KNOWS HOW FUCKING COOL THIS GUY IS."
JF: Yeah, he's great. What's great about him, too, is he's so perfect for this part because you don't know whether he's this benevolent funny character, like a Columbo type or even his much broader stuff, but then you totally buy him when he gets a little dangerous and you don't know where he's going. Know what I mean?
Plus, he's one of the founding fathers of independent film. He worked with (John) Cassavetes and stuff. He's a great guy. He's my discovery. It's one thing to have Puffy in your movie and have it be his first movie... he's actually moving on. He's doing Monster's Ball with Billy Bob (Thornton) now. He's really making good decisions. I'm proud of him.
But Peter Falk, there are people under a certain age that don't even know who the hell he is. It's so great to introduce some young kids to this guy.
Q: YEAH. HOPEFULLY THEY'LL SEE HIM IN THE MOVIE AND WANT TO SEE SOME OF THE OTHER STUFF HE'S DONE.
JF: Yeah, no doubt.
Q: OK. YOU WERE WRITING, DIRECTING AND STARRING IN THIS FILM. WHEN YOU CAST FAMKE JANSSEN AS YOUR STRIPPER GIRLFRIEND... COME ON NOW. YOU KNEW WHAT YOU WERE DOING...
JF: You know, I actually wrote it for her. When we were working on Love & Sex, I was like, "Well, what part would you love to play?" She says, "Some low-end character. Someone low class." That was a part she hasn't gotten to play yet. She was real good in Monument Ave., so I wrote this for her. Me and her just get along real well. We're real close friends and we wanted to work together after "Love & Sex."
You know, she does really well. They're always offering her films
like Men In Black 2 and X-Men and stuff. All the stuff that I'd kill to be
in, they're throwing her roles in it and all she wants to do are the types
of movies I'm always being offered, like the funny romantic comedies, cool
independent films. It was really funny to work with her. She couldn't be
cooler. But it's not like I was writin' love scenes for us. It was just a
part for me. Not a lot of fun for my character in this movie.
Q: OK, YOU'VE READ MY STUFF BEFORE. THE TIME HAS COME, FAVREAU! MY TRADEMARK IS UPON YOU! WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE DIRTY JOKE?
JF: I have to think about this... it's in a whole different part of my head.
These two 90 year old farmers are sitting around and they've had sex with everything on the farm and there's nothing, nothing to do. They're sitting in a shack together and they're like, "We've screwed everything on this farm. Everything. The sheep, the chickens, the cows, everything." Then one guy says, "Well, how about if I screw you?"
And the other guy says, "I don't know, man. That doesn't sound good to me." He goes, "Let's just try it. Tell ya' what. If you don't like it, just make an animal noise and I'll stop. If you like it, sing me a song and I'll know I can continue."
He says, "I don't know about this." The other guy goes, "Let's just give it a shot. We've known each other for so long..." So, the one guy bends over and the other guy proceeds to sodomize him. The guy gettin' it goes, "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOnriver!"
You ruined my career. I did the whole interview and I was all good, all the way through, then I hung myself with the last joke. You know who told me that joke, actually? Rhys Ifans. Do you know who that is?
Q: OF COURSE! (SEAMAN SIDENOTE: Rhys Ifans was the hilarious roommate to Hugh Grant in NOTTING HILL)
JF: He told me that on The Replacements. Give him a little shout out. He could tell a joke. He was so funny. So, yes. Give him propers.
Q: BEFORE YOU GO, IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO TALK ABOUT?
JF: Um... Yeah. Plug the website. (GettingItMade.Com) I'm on there, answering posts every day. And on the Independent Film Channel, there's a show called Dinner For Five. It's got me and, like, four people from the indie world just having dinner. We shot it documentary style. It's like a half an hour, it's uncensored. No commercials.
[HARRY NOTE: The other guests on Dinner For Five are Joey Lauren Adams, Peter Berg, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Kevin James! Check out his site above for more details, it looks like a winner!]
There you have it, squirts. A nice little round of scar sharin' if I don't say so myself. I have a few more to share with you folks and a few on the way, including a chat with one of the godfathers of film and television music scoring and one with a master of the macabre. 'Til that day, squirts, this is Quint pushing off, cuddling in with the little woman and bidding you all a fine farewell and adieu.
-Quint
