Yesterday, the New York Times posted a story about a rare 1977 Harrison Ford video interview conducted by a Dallas-Fort Worth news channel reporter just as Star Wars (A New Hope) was making waves across the country during its initial release:
Wearing lapels as wide as the Millennium Falcon itself, Mr. Ford actually seems gracious about the budding fantasy franchise and complimentary to its creator, George Lucas, telling his interviewer that though he doesn’t regard himself as the Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon type, the film works because “it’s finally about people and not finally about science, so the energy of the movie goes towards exploring these human relationships.”
The interview, which apparently had first been posted to the original reporter’s website bobbiewygant.com back in July (and contains scores of other filmed interviews), presents a rare peek at the actor on the brink of super-stardom in 1977. Check out the New York Times story and the video interview below:
The interview is a classic point of stress for most job seekers, and with good cause. Many firms like asking indirect questions that make it hard to judge what information they're really fishing looking for. Of course, interviewers don't want anyone to know the motivation behind their method of questioning, or else potential job candidates could easily game the system. For this reason, most firms ask slightly different questions and have their own method of interviewing. Today, we explore twelve common indirect questions that employers often ask and the motivation behind them.
“How long have you been looking for a new job?”
A big sign that something is amiss with a potential hire in a normal economic climate is how long he or she has been searching for a job. What potential employers really need to determine is whether there is something wrong with the candidate that other potential employers have picked up on already. Of course, asking the candidate such a thing will not yield an honest answer, so instead, employers ask how long the candidate has been looking for a job. They can interpret the candidate’s response and try to gauge how likely it is that other interviewers have picked up on some glaring disqualifier that they have not yet discovered.
“How did you prepare for this interview?”
The more passionate an employee is about a particular organization, the more likely it is that he or she will strive to exceed expectations if they are hired. A good candidate will have read up on the firm, researched the products and services they offer, read a bit about the executives who work there, etc. A bad candidate takes the shotgun at the wall approach. This latter candidate takes walks into any old office building, hoping to get through the interview on personality alone. One way companies separate the two is to ask an indirect question regarding how they prepared for the interview. The candidate who mentions reading up on the organization and demonstrates a working knowledge of the firm’s strengths, services and management team is enthusiastic about working for that company and will likely strive to be the best they can be if selected.
"What are your salary requirements for this position?”
No matter how stellar a candidate might be, budgetary capacity often limits who companies can afford to hire. The firm might only have room for a $60,000 annual salary for the position and anyone requiring more than that is out of luck. Beyond a certain point, more qualifications and experience cannot equal a higher salary. This is why it is important to the company to determine if they can afford to hire new applicants. They might also try to determine if they can the right person for less than is budgeted for that position, because money saved equals a bigger bottom line. Of course, no interviewer will ever tell the candidate “we can afford to pay you up to $60,000, but we’d like to hear you say you’ll do it for less.” Instead, companies will frequently ask the person what their salary requirements are. The number they name will be important when they review the interview results of multiple applicants and make the final hiring decision.
“What kinds of people do you have difficulties working with?”
In today’s expanding global economy, it is almost unavoidable that any new hire will be working in some capacity with people from a wide range of ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds. The last thing companies want to find out is that their new employee is a bigot and treats people differently because of their background. Not only will this cause problems in-house, it can also destroy the firm’s credibility and reputation, depending on how high-up a position he or she is assuming. However, it isn’t politically correct or at all professional to ask someone if they have a problem with specific groups of people, and even if an interviewer did, the candidate would likely deny it. Instead, many firms try an indirect way of asking the same thing, for example: “What kinds of people do you have difficulties working with?” By asking this question, the interviewer is subconsciously communicating that the candidate must have a problem working with some kinds of people. This method can be very effective in subtly revealing inner prejudices the potential hire might possess. In contrast, a good candidate will likely name some neutral group of people, like “dishonest employees,” or “perpetual slackers.”
"When have you been most satisfied in your career?"
Much like individual people, every company has its own “personality,” per se. This means that every new working environment has its own perks and bottlenecks, its own energy, its own level of employee-employee interaction, etc. Certain companies offer their employees more creative leeway while others demand strict adherence to guidelines. Every one of these factors (and many more) will directly effect a new hire’s motivation. Various people thrive under many different circumstances, and the job of the interviewer is to try to select the person whose personality best fits their firm’s unique environment. The problem is that people in interviews like to smile and nod along whenever the interviewer starts talking at length about the perks of their working environment, making it almost impossible to read what the candidate is really thinking. Instead, many companies have taken to asking something like, “When have you been most satisfied in your career?” This question will get the potential hire talking about the elements of their last few positions and will likely highlight aspects of those jobs that they felt happiest working under. From this, firms can determine if the person would fit in well with their atmosphere.
“What is your greatest weakness?”
Perhaps one of the most important tasks of the interviewer is to find a person with a level head on their shoulders. No company wants the narcissistic, fresh-out-of-grad-school candidate who thinks that they’re an infallible compendium of industry knowledge any firm would be lucky to acquire. These kinds of people hurt companies far more often than they help them because they refuse to acknowledge their weaknesses or consider the idea that they might need further training in certain areas. Rather, companies strive to find confident and qualified employees who can be honest with themselves about their shortcomings. These employees are likely to be flexible, honest and are less likely to try and pass blame around the cubicles when they make a mistake. In order to get a grasp on how realistic a candidate is, employers like to ask people about what they feel their biggest weakness is. This question will demonstrate whether or not a candidate can be honest in accepting that which they need to work on. (In contrast, a haughty candidate might spin off the tired response of “My biggest flaw is that I work too much.”)
“Where do you see yourself five years from now?”
A big problem in the corporate world is employees using firms as rungs up the corporate latter. Especially in today’s economy, the last thing a company wants is to allocate salary, benefits and human capital into acquiring a new manager only to have them jump ship to a competitor a year or two later. Sometimes this isn’t even the employees fault. One cannot reasonably expect a person to stunt their own professional life for the sake of a few headaches. Nonetheless, companies will try and gauge the likelihood of that happening by asking an indirect question such as “Where do you see yourself five years from now?” Responses to this question can be good indicators of how stable and loyal the potential employee is likely to be. A response like “I want to lead a large team at a marketing firm somewhere” is indicative of a mercenary attitude to the corporate world. In contrast, someone who says something like “At the moment I plan on growing my roots here in this company and rising from within to be the best marketer I can for XYZ Firm” demonstrates far more loyalty.
“What are some of your hobbies?”
Employers must be careful not to cross the line into asking too specific questions about a person’s personal life. Professionally speaking, your personal life needn’t impact your working life. However, in reality we all know that it does. For this reason, employers often look for indicators of stability and healthy hobbies in a person’s home life. The idea is that a person with a healthy and enjoyable life outside the office is likely to carry some of that positive energy into work with them. Workaholics and, at the other end of the spectrum, party animals, are not likely to be very friendly, emotionally stable people. Without probing too far, some interviewers will ask questions such as “What are some of your hobbies.” Answers to this question can help reveal a little bit about the potential hire’s lifestyle and serve as good indicators of roughly how they will carry themselves day to day.
“What were you hoping we'd ask today, but didn't?”
No interviewer can possibly ask all the right questions to highlight every one of the candidate’s strengths and accomplishments. At the same time, candidates are often somewhat nervous on the other side of the desk and might not freely offer up information pertaining to aspects of their personal or professional life that they are not asked for. Nonetheless, this information may positively or negatively sway the interviewer’s opinion of the candidate and it is thus necessary to prompt the potential hire to speak about it. Therefore, many firms now ask the open-ended question, “What were you hoping we’d ask you today, but didn’t?” This question gives the candidate a chance to touch on anything he feels is important to the interview and the employer a chance to hear the candidate speak on his own behalf.
“What do you think of your old boss?”
No employer wants to be maligned to other companies or to the public. Many ex- employees hold very sour opinions of their former bosses. Justified or not, this is not the kind of thing companies want people spreading around. Especially if it appears that a candidate was fired from their last position, an employer might ask about their opinion of their old boss. Of course, very few candidates will go on a tirade about the injustices they suffered at their old job during the interview, but even subtle hints of distain can be picked up on by the interviewer. This question gives the firm an indicator of how they may be spoke of to other firms this person interviews at in the future, should they need to fire him.
"If you had enough money to retire right now, would you?"
Many companies survive not on great ideas alone, but by the tireless work ethic and dedication of their teams. It is therefore of great importance for a firm to find people who are passionate about their work and who have a drive to get the job done regardless of reward. Of course, money is extremely important in our society, but the last thing a firm wants is a bump on a log who just wants to do the bare minimum and suck up his salary until he can retire. Questions such as, "If you had enough money to retire right now, would you?" reveal a candidate's level of passion about their field. Someone who quickly shouts "Yes of course!" without much thought is seen as being in it primarily for money. These are not the kinds of people most firms want to see in their inner circle.
If you were hiring a person for this job, what would you look for?
Questions about another person can only reveal so much about about them. Something companies really want to know is what the candidate thinks are the qualities of a good employee for that position. The idea is that if the candidate has a misconstrued concept of the roles he or she will be expected to play at that firm, they might not be the right person for the job. It is much easier to hire a person with notions of the job that are congruent with company expectations than to try to change a candidates entire idea of what's important in that position. To determine this, interviewers will often ask the question "If you were hiring a person for this job, what would you look for?" This allows the candidate to give his concept of what a good manager is. His or her answer is a great indicator of how he or she will behave if hired.
Today marks the 15-year anniversary of Francisco Martin Duran’s attempt to assassinate Bill Clinton. He’s been in prison ever since. He’s never spoken to the press about it until he decided to send us an interview he conducted with himself while in jail. It’s been abbreviated for the sake of not burning your eyes staring at a screen, but all following words and syntax are his own.
Dear VICE: I was the man who was videotaped shooting up the White House back in 1994. It’s on YouTube.
I have never been interviewed. Yet have had countless offers to do so. Mostly, national media outlets and a couple of local area newsrooms. I don’t trust them. As you know, they are in it for the ratings and each has their own agenda. VICE shares with her audience real people out having a blast or doing what is necessary to survive. The bullshit does fly, yet it’s with a message and kickass pictures as a sort of ride-along to give the reader a face with the message. I like that. I’m writing to ask you if you are at all interested in publishing the following interview in VICE.
Thank you very much for your valuable time. Time is all I have. Prison sucks, yet it’s not the end of the world.
In Solidarity always, Francisco M. Duran #19588-016, F.C.I. Mesa Alpha P.O. Box 6000 Florence, Colorado 81226-6000
A one time interview with an unexposed once aspiring Assassin:
On October 29th 1994, a lone gunman by the name of Francisco Martin Duran, was videotaped shooting at the White House as tourist fled for their lives. He was tackeled to the ground and later convicted of 10 criminal counts. One being attempted murder of then president Bill Clinton. Sentenced to 480 month = 40 years in prison. Now it has been 14 years since then and he has never been interviewed by anyone. Except only by the Secret Service agents once a year since his long incarceration. Yet never has he discussed his motives for his violent actions that Sunny Saturday afternoon.
Question: What made You want to shoot up the White House? Answer: Ya, that’s what it did look like from the video. (also on YouTube) Yet, what was really taking place is I was shooting at a guy who looked exactly like Bill Clinton. So much so that you could literally hear the jury gasp when he walked into the courtroom to testify. The jury was visibly excited until they all realized that he wasn’t the president. And yes, I was there to assassinate the president known to all as Slick Willy. The cowardly prevaricater that he is.
Question: What did President Clinton do, for You to want to kill him? Answer: A synthesis of several factors came into play to drive Me to wish him dead and want to do the deed myself. I’m a Luciferian Anarchist. Always have been and invariably desire to shed Light upon the World we all share. Including upon the corrupt and contaminated.
During the Vietnam War, a young Bill Clinton was being indoctrinated to Anti-Freedom concepts while in Russia there attending a communist university. Being reared to command and convey a Leftist Agenda to bring down North America and her charitable values. And while there, Clinton critisized and spoke-out against the United States during a large red rally opposing the war. Then during his administration as Governor of Arkansas, he allowed tons of cocaine to enter the U.S. through the Mina Airport. Cocaine used to cause terrible addiction of America’s minorities and youth. And there is a lot of evidence of Bill murdering several people (56) while govenor. Then there is the fact that when he was elected president—a lot of America’s Military Generals and Admirals resigned because they knew Clinton hated the military, that he was all show and not there to pretect his country. He’s untrustworthy and weak. Realize that no way in hell would those generals serve under such a socialist president.
Question: What was your trip to D.C. like? Answer: My state of mind was in that of macabre darkness: I contained no love for myself or for Life. Death reaked everywhere. My heart pained with loneliness. I knew I alone had to do something to escape from the cadaverous mentality I was slugging through. So I walked away from everything and everyone I knew and went on my last vacation. While living in the Springs, I was also a Swinger. So My primary focus was to experience maximum pleasure; because I was headed towards My final act. Going out in a blaze of dellusional glory. Nothing else mattered, except having a blast before My departure from this maya.
So first down to San Antonio, Texas—My favorite city. You see, I love Hookers, Marijuana and women. I said, “Fuck It!” and partied like some crazed Hedonistic God. Using up all my credit cards. My highway to Hell was paved with hookers, lots of kronic and plenty of hot, dirty and really nasty sex with any girl I could find. Be them fat, ugly, pretty, to even weird, horny and crazy. And anything in-between. I didn’t care or give a shit.
So one night while out walking along the River Walk, I came across this young girl crying near the Alamo, and tapping her leg. A sound emenating like a bottle of pills being jingled. I approached her and asked if she was alright. Her reply was a nasty, “What the fuck was it to me if she was okay!” I just smiled and inquired if she was so depressed and if she was considering committing suicide?
She just stared at me. She was not the cutest thing and she carried her image, which was obvious, with a really low self esteem attitude. She said that it was her birthday, just turning 18, and no cared. She had nothing happening in her life that mattered. A fellow traveler in the Void. I asked her if she was going to kill herself, and if she didn’t want her body anylonger, if I could have it for a little while? Afterwards, if she still wanted to—she can go ahead and proceeded to end her life.
“What are You going to do with it?” She asked. Sweety, What ever I please. She just slumped her shoulders and I lead her to my hotel room not too far away. There I undressed her and we got into the shower together. I carefully washed her and told her not to trip. It’s a new adventure taking place in her life. For her to open her consciousness to the freshness of just letting go and being in the moment. At the edge of a new frontier. Yes, unfamiliar; Yet, very intimate and alien. What the Hell! It felt good and refreshing to her to not worry about what others think, believe or what’s coming next.
I dried her off slowly. Taking in her lovely body in all of its beautiful and young glory. A flower unseen for far too long. I layed her on the bed and wrapped my arms around her and we layed there in silence for over an hour. Comforted in my embrace, she asked Me to use her body in any way I desire, just like I said I would.
She faced Me and I passionately kissed her soft lips and worked my way down to her small tits. Taking special care to give each nipple some attention. Then proceeded down to eat her hairy pussy. She freaked out when my long tongue pressed down hard onto her clit. She lost her mind as I licked, sucked and ate her sweet pussy pie. I mist have eaten her cunt for about two hours straight. I Love Eating Pussy! She prepeatedly screamed and pulled at my hair—telling Me how much she loves Me for eating her juicy and virgin cunt. Having orgasm after orgasm, over and over, one after the other. I would every once in a while, letting my tongue slip, blessing her with a good oh fashion rim-job, throughout the tow hours.
Enjoying the shock of such pleasure it gave her racing threw her body. “God loveth a cheerful giver.” I then fucked her good and rode her hard doggy-style. Grabbing her hair and then slapping that sweet ass I pounded away. She was lost in the over whelming lust and pleasure, mixed with that erotic pain. Psychopathic and lascivious eroticism was all that my consciousness desired. The pleasures are momentary, the positions rediculous, and the expense damnable. I was so wrapped up in the flesh, slithering and licking one another like passionate and debased slimmy snakes. I felt alive and condemned all at once. I left Her there alone, lost in her own flesh.
From Texas on to Arkansas: Little Rock was not as exciting, yet I did purchase several prostitutes. Always enjoy their company. I don’t eat hooker pussy—So I had My other favorite thing done—Having My big dick sucked and coming into their mouths. I love watching someone sucking My cock. “Hey, check it out, My dick is in your mouth! Look at You go! Suck it Bitch! Suck it and eat my cum!” That is the craziest shit ever. I fucking love it!
Then into Tennessee, Which was pretty much the same, except for the one fat trailer trash tramp who took me to her dirty trailer, after kicking out her 10 year old daughter out for the day. That crazy bitch rode my cock like it was the last one on the planet. Her titties were huge and that smelly cunt was soaking wet, making those special slooping noises we all love to hear. She was into it hard! I thought the trailer was going to fall apart. Yet I didn’t stop or give a shit. “Ride My dick You dirty slut!” She did and was having a blast!
Now up into Virginia: Women in Virginia are gorgeous and generous with their bodies. So full of live and giving, and more than willing to get busy at the drop of a hat. One night at a club in Charlottesville, A man came in with his wife. She was beautiful. So I went on up to them and asked if she was the famous singer Reba McEntire? She giggled and blushed, loving the compliment so much, I boldly asked her husband if I could dance with her. He said sure.
I whisked her onto the dance floor, where I slow-danced with her and started to kiss and lick her neck, all the while rubbing her fat ass. I would look over at her hubby and he was just watching and enjoying all he was seeing. So I kicked it up a notch and we started kissing and doing a little dirty dancing. My hand going up under her dress and rubbing her wet pussy. After a few more dances, they invited me to their place in the mountains.
There, we proceeded to the bedroom, where the husband sat in a corner of the room as she and I got naked on the bed—ready to give him a show. We started in a 69 position. With her shaved pussy in my mouth and my dick in her’s, we ate each other out really good for a long while. Then the sex was fun and nasty. She was doing all this for him, than for either one of us. She kept looking at him as he sat their jerking off and asking if he liked this or is he enjoying that? A Swing Show where everyone was having their own fun. I loved it! We all had a really great time together. I stayed there for three days with them just having fun.
Then into D.C. All the while, I was just cruising nice and easy, having plenty of time to party and having an overdose of extremely perverted and sadistic sex. So many women and such a crazed and wild adventure. I have to say that until then, I never felt more alive or in control. I was eating pussy across America!
Question: Can You tell us about your time in D.C.? Answer: D.C. Is possibly the most corrupt and debased city in all the world! Gratification of the flesh is what drives D.C. and everyone who goes there to represent their Home Land, World Leaders and those just doing business. I have found My perverted home here. At every corner, someone is doing some sort of transaction. When the Sun falls, a clandestine world emerges. A sometimes weird and sadistic place that an everyday imagination can not comprehend or would find most disgusting.
The blood lust and perversion is what rules the city. Sacrifices are the norm and the feeding of the flesh comes first. I had found paradise. Here was a city without bonderies or inhibitions of any sort. Nothing was left to the imagination and nothing was held sacred—Except the Lust of the Flesh!
As we all know—each city has its own particular odor. A scent that tells everyone that this is where you’re at and stays with you until you die. D.C.’s pungency was that of sex and lust. So much so that there is a zoo in the middle of the city to protect the animals from those leaders visiting there.
I was out one night enjoying a steak dinner, when out of nowhere an old woman in her 50s takes the check away from me and leads me to her apartment down the street. This place was expensive and full of antiques and very posh. There, she had me tie her down upon the bed and was told to use and abuse her to no end, all while fucking her hard and dirty. For me to do all that I please to her as long and it was degrading and painful. This lasted for over three hours. And I absolutely loved it all. She must have orgasm at least 30 times that night. She then gave me $1,500 dollars and told me to never return. I grabbed her by the hair and gave her a long kiss goodbye.
My greatest joy in all this was giving her all what she wanted. I give women what they crave and anything that they desire in the bedroom, where-ever, and it is about their just needs that are of interest to me. “Many flowers have bloomed unseen, wasting their Sweetness away.”
Question: If released from prison tomorrow, what would You do? Answer: I would first stand back consciously and take a walk around the city I’m living in. Then grab a few trash bags, a rake and gloves and head over to do some cleaning in a dirty lot or public place that needed cleaning. I would clean up as many public places as I possibly could. Then rent a tow-truck and go around towing away any abandoned cars.
Question: What was prison like for You? Answer: Years of Self-Reflection. An awakening and honest maturity. Sadly, it’s easy being a slave, than working hard to become a master of your own destiny. Yes, I’m very much so a Lucifarian Anarchist! Dependant on no one or accountable to any form of social contract made up by customs, religion, traditions or authority. A Man Awake! Who has made My own Zine establishing what I think and on being a “Serial Anarchist.” Challenging anyone to try to shock someone who is truly unshockable—With wild personal stories and adventures. I plan on including the most bizarre in my next zine. Who out there has the sickest shit?
And I’ve become Mindful of each and every moment and thought. Always in this moment, because this moment is all we have. It is always right here, right now, always. Smile, appreciate Life and know that you’re not alone in the world.
Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 12:31 pm by FRANCISCO MARTIN DURAN VICE US
Todd Phillips, by his own admission or at least acceptance, is the comedy world's A-list anti-Apatow: where the writer-director of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up bathes his characters in sweetness and sentiment, Phillips wrings his dry, leaving only the odd, awkward and undeniable punch of their punch lines. His latest film, The Hangover, follows a group of guys who awaken from an all-night bachelor party in Vegas to discover that the groom is missing, there's a tiger in the bathroom of their suite, and they are now in possession of a baby. No lessons are learned, no constitutions tested and no hearts wrenched, and that's just the way Phillips – and the audience of his films, from Road Trip to Old School to Starsky and Hutch – prefers it.
Cinematical recently sat down with Phillips, in Vegas, no less, to discuss The Hangover. In addition to talking about his particular and preferred brand of comedy, Phillips talked about a few of the films that inspired him as a young man, and mused about the future of both The Hangover and Old School.
Cinematical: What I liked most about The Hangover is that no one learns any profound life lessons. It seems like filmmakers feel obligated to shoehorn in those kinds of morals.
Phillips: I think comedy directors tend to feel a need to justify the bad behavior, and I just never think that. I like bad behavior, I've always liked bad behavior, I'm a fan of bad behavior, and I don't think you have to justify bad behavior (laughs).
Cinematical: The screenwriters said that the original script did have some of those elements in it, and you were instrumental in shaping the tone. What was important to you?
Phillips: Well, I think the script that they had written, the first draft, was a PG-13 movie or something, and it didn't have the tiger in it, didn't have the baby in it, didn't have Mike Tyson in it. It didn't have the police car in it. I wanted it to be a night of mayhem, and a bachelor party in Vegas cannot be PG-13. For me it was just you take a script sometimes and you just shake it up and you loosen the tie on it and you f*cking mess up its hair and you just f*ck with it, and really that's what we did with the script. I think we just made it crazy and we wanted it to just feel like a night of mayhem, and changed the tone of it a little bit, and be unapologetic and be unironic and be unsentimental, all of the things that I think comedies do nowadays, a lot of them. I love those comedies, but it's just sort of not my thing.
Cinematical: Having made several films with this tone, do you think at all about what your oeuvre or just directorial sensibility is?
Phillips: Well I certainly think that you can look at the movies and see that I certainly explore male relationships. That's something I'm always fascinated with, the awkwardness of a heterosexual male relationship and why are we so awkward with each other and why can't we just be like – like girls have such an elegance to the way they are with their friends, I always think. So that's inherently funny to me, but again, I think as far as a style, there's a little bit of darkness to the movies that I do, I think, certainly to The Hangover. There's a little bit of, basically like I said, just not ironic, not trying to be cleverer than you and show you how clever I am, but more just what it is. It's hard to explain (laughs). I love Judd Apatow movies, I love them, and I just read a piece that they showed me, and it said, the most un-Apatow or anti-Apatow or something to that effect, and I know what he means. What he means is that non-sentimental version of that.
Cinematical: I think you also do a good job humanizing the humor – meaning as outlandish as the set pieces are, they all seem at least vaguely realistic, and moreover, that these guys laugh at one another as buddies would. For whatever reason, many comedic filmmakers expect that since the audience will laugh, the characters don't need to.
Phillips: I know, I know! That's a good point, actually. I mean, I've never consciously even done that, but you're right – that's a really good point. I don't know what the question is, but...
Cinematical: I was just going to ask if there was a deliberate effort to do that.
Phillips: The deliberate effort is always play it against reality, or make it feel as real as possible. So I do think that sometimes a guy will laugh or do something like that and that will end up being the take in the movie because it feels like what would happen, like why are we all laughing and no one else is? So you're right, but for me it's always been about reality, and I never thought of it consciously that way but that's cool.
Cinematical: Did you have a summer movie experience that was formative or seminal to you?
Phillips: Always. I think it was the middle of summer when I snuck into, Jesus, I think we bought tickets to Ice Pirates and snuck into Star 80, which really shaped me. When I was younger I was obsessed with Star 80, and it's just a great movie – I think I saw it three times in the theater. You're going to go look it up on the internet and maybe it wasn't the summer, but I just remember that being a movie [I was obsessed with]. [Editor's Note: Star 80 was released Nov. 10, 1983.] I'm trying to think of the big movies that affected me as a kid...
Cinematical: Were there any benchmark comedies you can remember?
Phillips: Star 80. The Jerk was probably the biggest benchmark comedy for me, The Jerk and The Blues Brothers and Stripes, those were comedies that really [inspired me]. But again, Star 80 (laughs).
Cinematical: Is it meaningful to have your film released in the middle of summer? People have been discussing The Hangover as counterprogramming to the summer blockbusters.
Phillips: Yeah, it shows a certain level of confidence by the studio – or ignorance (laughs).
Cinematical: I have loved Zach Galifianakis for a long time, but do you make a deliberate effort to "discover" guys like him as you have in this film? Or is it just kind of catching lightning in a bottle?
Phillips: I keep an eye on guys like Zach and I've been paying attention to Zach for ten years, I think. I mean, if you live in L.A. and you like comedy, he's the king, he's the sh*t. I've always been thinking, God, I want to make a movie with this guy, I want to find the right thing and I want to use him correctly in a movie, because what he does on stage is hard to translate. He's so funny, and I just hope this movie kind of brings him out. But the conscious thing, I definitely like sort of discovering or helping discovering certain guys, but it's not a conscious thing except that I really wanted this movie to feel as real as possible and I really feel like we've been seeing the same ten faces in a lot of movies, not just comedies but movies, and I just thought let's shake it up.
Cinematical: How tough or easy is it to mold that comedic style into something, if not conventional, then more digestible?
Phillips: I think Zach and I stumbled on this character of Alan. We talked about it a lot, talked about certain characteristics of Alan that would really speak to Zach's talents and speak to what Zach does well. So I think we really figured him out together, and then I think Zach took it and ran with it and just killed beyond my expectations. So in a weird way, it does capture Zach, even though he's clearly playing a character. And I think with Zach, I don't think anyone has it expect maybe Will Ferrell doing comedies right now, is the sweetest, most innocent eyes and face, so he can get away with so much. So much of the comedians we all love, Jack Black, Ben Stiller, there's a darkness to them, which is what we love about them, but you look at Will's eyes and there is no darkness in Will, and there is no darkness in Zach. It's just sweetness, so they get to get away with sh*t that no one else can get away with.
Cinematical: When you're thinking about these movies, do you think about the sort of multidimensionality of what people could come away with after watching them? It often seems like an ignoble goal "just" to make people laugh, but that seems much harder than trying to convey a theme or explore some lesson or idea?
Phillips: Here's the thing: I like going to work every day and trying to crack each other up and make funny movies. I can't believe I get paid to show up and work on a script and work with guys like Zach where every day we just try each other laugh. Are there themes in this that I think apply to the world? Is the world right now in a "hangover" for whatever reason? That's not why we set out to make the movie, and I know you don't mean that. But really, it's to make a balls-out funny movie; all a director is is a point of view, and all a director really has is the tone, and is a purveyor of tone and all of those things. To keep pushing these movies tonally and keep f*cking with tone, and I think The Hangover is different that Old School and ultimately why I think it's a better film than Old School is it has a more complicated tone in a weird way. There's a darkness under The Hangover because ultimately there's a missing person and it's not really that funny. There's a sort of darkness under it that I love, and still people are laughing as hard if not harder than they did in Old School. So my thing as a filmmaker that I like to play with is tone, and that's sort of why it's different. It's not, and maybe it's nuanced and maybe it's my own thing, but it's what I find to be the challenge.
Cinematical: Speaking of Old School, has a sequel gotten back on track?
Phillips: No, it's not on track right now. Dreamworks had a thing and they sold it to Paramount, but all of that business stuff aside, right now we're not making Old School 2. We have no plans to make Old School 2 right now.
Cinematical: During the roundtables you said you didn't want to talk too much about The Hangover 2, but the screenwriters suggested that blueprinting the first film and doing a second would probably be a mistake. At the risk of asking something you don't want to answer, would you want to take a sequel in a very different direction if you had the chance?
Phillips: I think what we have with this movie is great characters, and I want to see these characters do anything. So that's really kind of how we're thinking about that. And again, because I can see the people writing, "they're a little presumptuous!" We're not doing anything with Hangover 2 yet.
Though many of his famous peers like to say they’ll soon make smaller, more intimate movies, only Francis Ford Coppola actually seems to be doing it. The director’s latest, Tetro, is a moody family drama about young Bennie (newcomer Alden Ehrenreich) reconnecting with the titular brother (Vincent Gallo) who fled the family years before to escape from their overbearing father. When Bennie unearths one of Tetro’s discarded stories and secretly adapts it into an acclaimed play, the already-riven family dynamics become even more fraught.
Movieline talked with Coppola about his own familial rivalries, the criticism his films have received (including the famous franchise he regrets serializing), and the splashy action film he’s unexpectedly looking forward to this year.
The family in Tetro is consumed with success — the success of their father looms large over the sons, and when Bennie starts to taste critical adulation, he changes completely. How have you personally seen people affected by artistic success, for better and for worse? Well, I’ve always been interested in just that: the idea that if you make a film or painting or symphony, it’s really something that’s separate from you. You could be a nice person or you could be an awful person, it has no bearing on what you create, but somehow the way we live, our whole value is in this work. I mean, you go to a party and you want to meet a girl, she says, “What do you do?” Our value and our status comes from something that’s so apart from us. I always think of Picasso, who was this wonderful painter but he was mean to his kids and he was mean to his wives. I maybe wouldn’t have liked him had I gotten the chance to meet him. The dilemma of that really struck me in what I saw firsthand in my family.
In what ways? Now, of course — really, since me — the Coppola family is thought of having all these people who are either famous or successful. It’s so odd, because then there are some cousins and things who are not yet successful. Nicolas Cage is buying all these yachts and jet planes and doing all this crazy stuff, but his brother, maybe, is struggling. You begin to see that as a question, and I think I wanted to digest it a little bit in this film.
Your own father, though, is very different than the domineering dad in Tetro. The father in Tetro is a world-famous conductor, so famous that people would know his name and ask him for an autograph. In my family, that’s more like me in a way, because my father struggled. He was a man who wasn’t getting the attention. He wanted to be another George Gershwin, he wanted that. Of course, when he was older he was working on The Godfather and stuff, so he did get a little taste of it. People think, “Oh, your father was a very successful man,” but my father was a frustrated man.
When I was a kid, my father was not even the conductor — he was the assistant conductor of musicals that would go on the road. He would be playing in the pit on the flute, and I would be sitting there watching the show, and then at the end of the show, the conductor would take his bow and leave and my father would get up and conduct the exit music. And of course, he was so serious about it! He would conduct it in such a real way, and the musicians were tired — this was just the music to go out of the theater during! They’d say, “Who does he think he is, Toscanini?” And I, as a kid, was heartbroken because the ushers were just folding up the seats [while he conducted], but he saw that as his chance.
Did it change him once he finally attained that success through scoring your films? Well, yeah. A little bit. My father yearned for that type of recognition, and I guess he got it as an old man, when he was about sixty. But he was always a little egotistical. Swimming your way through our family with all these types and talented people, all the friction that caused, was very interesting for me…Have you ever had a friend or someone you like who got a break, and there was a bad [critical] reaction to it, and secretly you were satisfied?
Have you? Well, one sees that emotion and is on the lookout for it. Sure, everybody does. There’s a famous quote: “It’s not enough that I succeed—my best friend must also fail.” Humans are funny. You know, I had a very talented older brother, and I sort of modeled myself on him. It’s not that he was competitive — he was just older, so he was better at everything than I was. And I always thought, “Oh, someday we could be Julian and Aldous Huxley!” In history, there are any number of brothers or sisters who were both acclaimed poets or stuff like that, and I always thought that would be really great.
I think the young brother in Tetro, he wants his brother to be successful. What he’s really doing when he gets in and works on the play is he’s trying to make his brother be the successful older brother so he can copy him. I don’t know how I personally feel about those themes, although I know more than I did before I made the movie, which is why I made this movie. It’s tricky. I have some very successful kids and nephews and in my family they all love each other, so it’s easy to hate each other. [laughs]
Tetro was once treated very well by the notorious theater critic Alone (Carmen Maura), but he says that she eventually turned on him. Does that have any personal relevance to your own relationship with film critics, especially after your last film, Youth Without Youth, was panned? You know, I’m a very interesting figure, because arguably, I got more famous as I got older. I became more like an icon — partly, because people need to have some old guys as icons. We don’t have Ernest Hemingway around anymore, so whoever’s old more or less could qualify! So I realize that on one hand, I’m considered this great old director, and on the other hand, it’s like, “What’s he done lately? He’s washed up, I don’t even care what movies he makes anymore.” But in truth, my films were not successful in their time. I mean, The Godfather was, but…
People forget that as the years go by. People say a lot of the time, “You could never compete with those successes…Apocalypse Now, and this and that.” And I say, “Those movies weren’t successes! They were failures, read the reviews!” So I’m used to films being slammed and then, twenty years later, turning out differently. It’s all vague, nothing is definite. Criticism is often wrong, as we know through history. Carmen, which is now the most popular opera in the repertoire, was a tremendous flop [when it premiered]. Why did they hate it?
Still, do you take any of that criticism to heart? What I look for with critics is more that they’re going to write about something I did and I’m gonna read it and not make those mistakes again, I’m gonna learn something from it. Often, though, they don’t do that: they say, “It’s a muddled mess.” “It’s pretentious.” I can’t learn a lot from someone saying “It’s pretentious.”
I wanted to ask you about some of the projects in development you’re often associated with — in particular, the sci-fi project Megalopolis, which you’ve long tried to mount. Is that something you’d like to come back to soon? Eh, you know. I feel pleased to have written something, and then I’m done with it and I want to go on and write something else. Someday, I’ll read what I had on Megalopolis and maybe I’ll think different of it, but it’s also a movie that costs a lot of money to make and there’s not a patron out there. You see what the studios are making right now.
Maybe you should have turned it into a comic book first. Yeah, I know. If it were…Well, the movies that are coming out now on a Friday night, they’re basically copying what was set up by Star Wars and Jaws, you know? Except now, they have digital effects. They’re just this nonstop roller coaster ride. I went to see Night at the Museum 2 the other night…
Really? Yes, with my wife. [pause] It was enjoyable. There were a couple of laughs. But basically, now every movie is the same thing. Transformers, and all that…it’s nonstop action, but it’s not even action you never saw before. Even with digital effects, everyone knows that they’re digital so they’re not impressed.
There were also reports a few years ago that you were involved in a potential fourth Godfather film. Care to clarify? I don’t think Godfather ever should have had more than one movie, actually. It was not a serial, it was a drama. The first movie wrapped up everything. To make more than one Godfather was just greed. Basically, making a movie costs so much money that they want it to be like Coca-Cola: you just make the same thing over and over again to make money, which is what they’re doing now. But Godfather was not really a serial, you know? I mean, how would you spin off Hamlet?
More ghosts! Ghosts are good. [laughs] You know what I’m saying. Some things lend themselves to being serialized, but there’s also a law of diminishing returns. I mean, even as demonstrated with Godfather, once it shows you its stuff and has all these things you’ve never seen before, then each time you make it again, it’s gotta be less interesting. Although!
What? I saw the coming attractions for Sherlock Holmes, and at first I thought, “What the hell is that? Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr.?” And then I watched it, and I thought it was really interesting. Have you seen the attraction for it?
I have, yeah. Of all the coming attractions I saw…a lot of those movies have already been made, like [Public Enemies] with Johnny Depp, that was already a pretty good Dillinger movie with Warren Oates. But I was intrigued by Sherlock Holmes, it seemed to put a new perspective on it that seemed like it could be fun. Robert Downey Jr…he’s really a talented guy. ♦
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All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings. His work is amazing.
Phillips:
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