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| Crispin Glover wonders out loud: 'What Is It?' | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| By Craig Outhier, Get Out | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| May 7, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Ever since the “Back to the Future” star mussed David Letterman’s famously unflappable demeanor with on-air karate kicks in 1987, Glover has lovingly cultivated a reputation as the special-needs stepchild of Tinseltown — an earnest if creatively unpredictable genius-misfit. To be honest, it would be disappointing if the interview didn’t go a little awry. And, so — hooray! — it does. Two weeks before his 10-years-in-the-making directorial debut, “What Is It?” is due to screen in Chandler, I get the filmmaker on the phone to talk about the film, a blazingly bizarre avant-garde odyssey that Glover controversially stocked with actors afflicted with Down syndrome. After describing the production’s various technical headaches — Glover developed his footage using an out-of-date photochemical process, affording it a nifty “2,000 Maniacs” schlock-horror throwback look — the lean, gimlet-eyed actor rehearses the film’s bewildering tag line: “ 'Being the adventures of a young man whose principle interests are snails, salt, a pipe and how to get home. As tormented by a hubristic, racist inner psyche’ ... you ARE recording this, aren’t you?” When I confess that, no, I’m actually transcribing the interview directly into my laptop, Glover becomes agitated, claiming that transcribed misquotes have beleaguered him and the movie. “These are sensitive matters that I’m dealing with,” the filmmaker says, in that instantly recognizable, Valley-dude whine of his. “It’s something I say over and over and over again. ... They misquote me without even realizing it.” Glover speculates that some members of the media have “negative agendas” in respect to his work, and I tell him that I am, in fact, a fan. His work as the idealistic teen slacker Layne in the grungy murder saga “River’s Edge” (1986) is one of my favorite performances, and I always enjoy glimpsing him in character roles: the foppish hit man in “Charlie’s Angels,” for instance. This back-and-forth goes on for about 10 minutes until Glover politely demands that I write my questions in e-mail form. “That way the greatest fidelity will happen,” he says. So I do, and here are the highlights: • Glover knows the capitol of South Dakota. (It’s Pierre.) • With its jarring racist imagery (including blackface and swastikas) and Down syndrome cast, “What Is It?” is a “psychological reaction” to corporate filmmaking. “What does it mean to the culture when it does not properly process taboo in its media?” he asks rhetorically. • Though he demurs when I compare his filmmaking style to the work of Tod Browning (“Freaks”), he does list Werner Herzog, Luis Buñuel, Rainer Fassbinder and Stanley Kubrick as influences. • Though it may have damaged his marketability as an actor, he is “very proud” of his landmark lawsuit against the producers of “Back to the Future 2,” who fitted an actor with Glover-like facial prosthetics to play George McFly when Glover refused to reprise the character. Subsequent Screen Actors Guild bylaws prohibit such unauthorized use of an actor’s image. All in all, the interview falls well short of karate-kick weirdness. But for a mere phone interview, it does nicely. Screening Crispin Glover will screen “What Is It?” — preceded by a slide show and followed by a Q&A and book signing — in an 18-and-over show Friday, May 9 through May 11 at Chandler Cinemas. Each evening begins at 7 p.m. $18. Contact Craig Outhier by email, or phone (480) 898-5683 |
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