Strangers with Candy
An Interview with Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello

By Kara Warner
June 23, 2006
Original Article

When Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello and Stephen Colbert met almost twenty years ago performing at Chicago's 'Second City,' it wasn't exactly love at first sight.

"Paul and I did not get along," says Colbert. "He thought I was uptight and I thought he was a Neanderthal. Amy likes to say we 'were both right.' Six conths later he was my best friend.

The rest is history, or so they say. Since that 'rocky' start the trio has achieved a certain sought-after status in the comedic world, as individuals and as a team. They've written two successful television series, a book, and now a full-length feature film. That film is "Strangers with Candy," based on their hit Comedy Central series and it opens June 28th. Recently, two of the talented threesome, Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello, sat down to talk about it (among many other random, funny, unrelated things).

So how did the show become a movie?

Sedaris: Paul, Stephen [Colbert] and I, we were writing a book called "Wigfield" and we wasted a lot of time. We'd stop and just think of funny things Jerri Blank would say. We had a character in the book that was similar to Jerri Blank. So whatever would make us laugh we would write down and put in a file labeled 'Jerri Blank.' By the end of the book there was a lot of stuff in the file and Paul thought we should write a movie. So Paul started writing a movie and some 'shifty' people said they were going to give us money to do this movie and then I guess the money fell through, shifty thing, and I was at home when Worldwide Pants called me, they had gotten hold of the script somehow, I don't know how they got it, but they said, 'We want to do this, in like three weeks,' and we went into production; they gave us three million dollars.

What does it take to make Letterman laugh?

Sedaris: I don't know. What I like about being on Letterman is that I never have anything to promote, you know what I mean? When I get a job, it's usually because someone calls me at home and they ask me, it never involves any money. So when I do a show, I'm not there for any other reason than he invited me. When he says, 'Thanks for dropping by,' I'm literally dropping by. I've done the show with my hair wet before. They'll call, maybe someone dropped out, and I don't ever want that to change. But I'm doing the show Wednesday, and it's the first time I have something to promote. I've been looking for an inflatable briefcase, I've seen one, I'm not making it up, and I want to be able to use it anytime the conversation strays. [This time] I've got a job to do and I want to get people into these seats! I can't waste my time talking about rabbit care. I can't wait to do the show though, because we don't have that kind of relationship. I never know what he's going to ask me, even though we do a pre-interview. I always feel like we're just sitting around talking.

The cast list reads like your rolodex, is there anyone you know who's not in the movie?

Sedaris: [Laughs] Yeah, there are lots of people I know who aren't in the movie. Those I've dated, I don't know about that one. Next question please... Sir Ian Holm, he wasn't in my rolodex but [winks] he is now. He did the movie because his son told him to do the movie. I thought I would be scared to work with Sir Ian Holm but on the first day I met him he had a cobalt blue t-shirt on with three basset hounds on it and I thought, 'Phew.'

What's your friendship like with Sarah Jessica Parker? [Dinello enters the room]

Dinello: I'm sorry, am I interrupting?

Sedaris: I'm sorry... and we dated for eight years. Sarah Jessica and I met on a play we did together called 'Wonder of the World.' We're big fans. She lives around the corner, so whenever I need something like nut bowls, I'll call her. She's so thankful that I'm not calling her for anything other than that. She's like, 'I'm so happy you're calling for this reason, I'm so honored,' And then I'll go over there and she'll have forty nut bowls hanging off her porch for me to pick-up. She's great. She's very small town for such a big star.

Do you serve a lot of nuts?

Sedaris: [Giggles] Yeah. I serve a lot of them

Dinello: It goes with the home decor...

Sedaris: I put googley eyes on my nuts. I have bowls of peanuts in my apartment with eyes, they're adorable.

Paul, what do you do with your nuts?

Dinello: I put googley eyes on them as well, oddly enough.

Sedaris: That's singular, singular

Dinello: It's a big turn-off for some people

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Is Jerri a character you're going to be promoting for future projects?

Sedaris: Well the look, Jerri's face, my brother and I do plays together and I use that look for every one of our plays. She's always the lead character, I just change her background. In the TV show, we created Jerri Blank, but I always use her as the actress.

Is Jerri going to be doing anything in the future?

Dinello: She's going to be selling waterbeds.

Sedaris: I don't know. Like Paul said in an interview, she's like a rash. You never know when she's going to reappear. It's nice... like a cold sore. Oops, there she is again. She's fun to play because she attracts misfits and I like misfits.

Who's the funniest Sedaris?

Sedaris: I think we all have a sense of humor except one of us... and I'm not going to mention my sister Gretchen's name. I think Paul, my little brother, is funny in a way no one else is funny. He has this high-pitched, southern accent and he calls me everyday, sometimes three or four times, and it's small-town talk. Like [mimicking a southern accent], 'So and so got her stitches taken out. I gotta visit the hospital and do her floors. I'll be layin' down cherry wood.' He's funny. I'll write down a lot of the things he says and use it. Some of the things Jerri Blank says, 'pole in the hole' is Paul's... 'You got skills to pay the bills,' that was Paul's. He can imitate anybody and he's a real people person. I laugh as hard with Paul as I do my brother David.

Are you competitive?

Sedaris: No. I think because we're all funny in different ways... we make fun of my father. You always need that one person to make fun of, so we have him.

Where did improv come into play, with the movie and the series?

Dinello: We learned to use it as a writing tool. We did a show earlier, a sketch show that I don't think we need to name...

Sedaris: "Exit 57"

Dinello: Thank you.

Where's the DVD?

Dinello: I don't think there are any plans for a DVD.

Sedaris: I don't think they make DVD's long enough for some of those sketches... they were eleven minutes!

Dinello: Yeah, I don't think it would even fit on a DVD. But we used improv then as more of the performance, that's where we came from, and it doesn't work so well for television and film, I think Ð at least the way we were using it. Now we use it as a writing tool. We'll sketch out a scene and figure out what characters are going to be in it, what's the crux of the scene and then we'll improvise a character and record what's funny.

Was it hard getting the cast back?

Dinello: A little bit. We also had to revolve around a lot of different schedules. Like Sarah, who would say, 'I have seven hours Tuesday.'

Sedaris: And the baby.

Dinello: So we had limited time. We're lucky that people are enthusiastic about 'Strangers,' for whatever reason, they seem willing to bend over backwards for it. We exploit that... to the full extent of the law.

Sedaris: A lot of people we had to re-cast because they looked a lot older... so that's why I have a different brother.

Dinello: Yeah, he looked like a 40-year-old Merchant Marine

How long was the shoot?

Dinello: Three weeks, twenty-four days. How many does that add up to?

How did you come up with the title?

Sedaris: Sitting in a room, exhausting ourselves. We thought, would you take candy from this woman? And it goes back to the 'Don't take candy from strangers,' message.

Dinello: We all thought that was a little dangerous. And it went along with the after-school special theme... sort of. An after school special with a lesson that you would be healthy to not pay attention to.

Is it hard being associated with a character that is so unconventionally pretty?

Sedaris: [Laughs] What are you saying? I like to play unattractive people only because they have a harder time in life, it's harder for them. And I like unattractive people who like themselves... when they come at you, with those teeth and that face, it's like, 'Oh God, get away from me!' I like playing people like that. I wore a fatty suit because I wanted a different body shape. It also brought out, she's [Jerri] sort of this sexual person that I wouldn't play in real life. Even if I read a script where I have to kiss somebody or touch somebody, I can't do it. But if I have a fatty suit and an overbite, yes! I can do that.

Where is Florrie Fisher today, the woman who inspired the character?

Sedaris: I don't think she's alive

Dinello: We have people out there with feelers, looking for her. She'd be... let's see, that was forty years ago, who's good at math? I think she'd be in her 80's now and when you do heroin for thirty years, that's not looking so good.

Sedaris: Don't you actually look young if you do heroin?

Dinello: Right. I guess our message is that it's good to do heroin if you want to maintain a youthful appearance. Keith Richards looks so spring fresh...

Sedaris: People would say my skin looked to good to play Jerri and I would say, 'Heroin addicts have good skin I think.' I haven't done heroin or anything.

Were you popular in high school?

Sedaris: I got along with everybody. I was in a lot of clubs... I was a girl scout through my senior year, I was in Junior Achievement. Alright, I ran for Class Council and won.

Dinello: How about Prom Queen?

Sedaris: No, never. None of us really remember that much from high school.

Dinello: They were dark years...

Sedaris: I think that's one thing that's so funny about 'Strangers,' we're so un-hip. We don't know what the kids are like today, we didn't research it. We just did what we thought was funny.

Dinello: We tried to create sort of a parallel universe, so we're not really commenting on real high school kids. It's our perception of what high school is like.

Sedaris: With the teachers, I remember I always wondered what went on in the Teacher's Lounge. In the movie, I had one day off and I asked Paul if I could be an extra in a scene, to I play the bartender in the Teacher's Lounge scene. I had my eyebrows removed... that was fun.

Have you been to your high school reunion?

Sedaris: I've never even been invited. I was popular, did I answer that question? I've never been invited, I don't know why. I was in the phone book until about five years ago.

Where are you from in North Carolina?

Sedaris: The capital, Raleigh [webmistress note: I would just like to say that was originally spelled "Rawley" by the interviewer ]. [Another reporter comments that he used to live there when he worked for the News-Observer] I used to deliver the News-Observer. I had my own newspaper route but I had to quit because one day the bag came up and flipped around my neck and it was icy out and I fell and that was it.

What happened with Warner Independent, not following through with distribution?

Dinello: They bought the movie at Sundance and then I went to LA and sort of worked on it with them and then the claimed at one point there was a clearance problem and they asked us to clear like eight thousand things in the movie, it became impossible so it was a separating of ways.

Is it the same movie from Sundance?

Dinello: The Sundance version was a rough version. The film wasn't really finished and I submitted a rough edit and it got accepted so I sort of put something together to show at Sundance, but it was never really the finished product. I watched it with all of the audiences there and it was clear it was a little too long.

Is there anything that didn't make it into the movie?

Dinello: There's great stuff that didn't make it in.

Sedaris: Will that be on the DVD?

Dinello: No. You'll have to come to my house to see it. You're all invited. But there's great stuff. There's a scene in a locker room with Amy where she's leering at cheerleaders... there's a scene where Matthew and Sarah, they're characters hook-up at the end. There's a scene where Sarah councils a teenager who's suicidal because his relationship broke-up, there's a lot of great stuff.

Sedaris: So will that be on the DVD?

Dinello: Yeah, it will all be on there.

Do you see these characters taking on lives of their own, in spin-offs?

Dinello: We think of it like The Jefferson's. Everyone gets their own show.

Who would be your first choice for a spin-off?

Dinello: I'd like to see Puffybush...

Sedaris: I was just going to say the same thing! Dolores Duffy, who plays Mrs. Puffybush, I would have her... yeah, she's sixteen. She'd be great at a Sweet Sixteen.

Is Stephen a good kisser?

Sedaris: Yeah Paul, is he? Don't ask me,..

Dinello: He's a generous lover. He's a lot more refined than I am. I think I'm a little too eager.

He does special things for you?

Dinello: He does. He always has.

Sedaris: Rrrrimming!

Did the movie give you the freedom to do things you couldn't do with the TV show? Is there more swearing?

Dinello: I think there's probably less swearing...

Sedaris: Yeah, now that we can do stuff, we didn't. But we really didn't go out of our way to shock anybody, even the TV show. We did what we thought was funny.

Dinello: Content-wise, I'd say that that's a whole lot different. I tried to give it a cinematic quality, and we could have set pieces that were more elaborate. When we were shooting the show, we had $18 so we had to write scenes around a classroom and a bathroom, which helped creatively in a way because you were really limited. So I hope that the film feels cinematic...

Was there anything you learned from directing?

Dinello: She's [Sedaris] a prima-donna, I didn't know that. The biggest difference is that there were people lined up to ask me questions about every little detail, 'Should Jeri's shoe be tied with a double-knot or a bow?' I thought people made those decisions on their own but apparently not. So that was different, that every detail or question had to be run through me. But it was sort of a natural progression, because we had so much control on the TV show, to ease into directing the movie.

Everything I read has the three of you sort of equal partners. As the director you become 'The Boss'. Was that hard?

Dinello: Amy doesn't need a boss, you know what I mean? She needs an animal trainer, a wrangler. I just sort of kept her corralled, pointed in the right direction. The same with Stephen, he's such a great performer. And he was busy with the Daily Show, so it just seemed like a natural role, which I've had before, keeping my eye on the big picture. And Amy's so busy, she's in practically every frame, so she doesn't really have time to worry about what was written on a locker.

Sedaris: Although I do. I'd say, 'Stop the scene. Who did this?' I obsess about details. I had craft meetings during the movie. I hired my friends to come in and do all the posters and the little things that are important to me that maybe no one else would think about.

Dinello: It's easier to direct when you know you've got people watching your back, like Amy and Stephen. It would be harder if it were a bunch of strangers.

Sedaris: He was always dressed in character and directing, you know, in his gay gay gay clothes and trying to direct, sometimes it was impossible to take him seriously. But when it was time for Paul to do his scene, he'd need us to help him, so Stephen and I would direct Paul, which was a blast.

How do you feel about Stephen's success and his show?

Sedaris: I get to do his show on the 10th and I'm looking forward to it. It's his territory and I don't have anything to do with it, so it will be great. I'm so happy for Stephen and for Paul because working on the show, I'd always get the attention because I was Jerri Blank, and it was so hard because they were the ones who did most of the writing and what we refer to as, 'chopping the wood,' and that didn't make me feel very good because it was all of us. I'm glad that Stephen and Paul are doing so well.

Dinello: I'm not surprised by his success at all because he's brilliant and he's hilarious and he's a hard worker, it's so deserved. It's no surprise at all. I was shocked that ten years ago people didn't notice how good he was.

People say that being interviewed on Stephen's show [The Colbert Report] is kind of a weird thing, because you're talking to a character...

Sedaris: I know, it's going to be interesting, but we'll come up with a bit for it. The three of us will write something for it I'm sure, we'd better.

Can you see yourself on regular network TV?

Sedaris: I want to do a hospitality show, that's what I'd like to do next. I'm working on this book right now, that Paul helped me write, but I want to do a tv show so we'll see.

Are you going to do Martha Stewart?

Sedaris: I've never seen her show; I don't know anything about her. Someone said she bought one of my cupcakes a couple weeks ago, in a cupcake contest and she like mine the best and wanted me on her show, but because I want to do a show like that, I don't want to be influenced. I want it to be on a channel that nobody watches. I want it to be discovered. The good thing about Comedy Central is that they never really got behind the show but we were fine with that because we didn't want to be in your face. I like an audience that discovers things. It just seems more supportive than getting cancelled because you don't have certain ratings.

Dinello: There's something exciting about it too.

Sedaris: Yes and I'll have my cupcakes and my cheese balls and I'm introducing a new item in the fall, a compound butter. A wine butter for steaks. I asked my brother David to come up with a name, so he's hyperventilating over there in France, so excited that he has a little project, to come up with a name for my butter.

Can you talk about your relationship with Sarah Jessica Parker and if you'd like to see them have another baby?

Sedaris: I'd like to see them broken-up... the baby is hideous looking. I'd like to see them try to have another baby [wink wink]. But yeah, they're really fantastic parents. The baby didn't come to the set at all, they gave it up for adoption... No, James is really funny. He's only two and he can already recognize different cars and their manufacturers. He's really a brain and he's singing 1920's tunes, he's going to be that kind of kid.

Did you have some of the same people back from the show?

Dinello: Yes. A lot of the crew were back from the show. A lot of the extras.

Sedaris: The Fagan family, they were extras on the TV show every week so we asked them to be in the movie. They were the first people I invited to the premiere. But now they have my email address, big mistake.

Were there other people you wanted, once you got some of the big names?

Sedaris: Once you get a celebrity you're hooked, you've got fever. And then you're like, 'Who else can we get?' I wanted Willie Nelson to play my father, I wanted people to like me so I thought, Willie Nelson!

Who did you want that you didn't get?

Sedaris: I wanted... who's that actor with the scar; I always forget his name, Danny?

Dinello: Not Ortega... Treho. Danny Treho.

Sedaris: Yeah. I love his look and I wanted him to be someone from my past... a love interest.

Dinello: We were just saying this, we were so fortunate to get who we got, I couldn't think of better people. Some of the roles were written with actors in mind, like for Philip [Seymour Hoffman] and Sarah [Jessica Parker] and Matthew [Broderick]. We got Alison Janney and Ian Holm, we were just so lucky.

Sedaris: And Chris Pratt. He's amazing, really funny.

Dinello: And there were other people who wanted to be in the movie but we just didn't have the parts and we didn't want people riding through on a bike. Ileana Douglas wanted to be a part of it, and we love her work, but we just didn't have a part for her.

What made you decide to go with Dan Hedaya instead of the guy who played the father in the show?

Dinello: Roberto Gary? He was perfect for what he did on the tv show, which was a gape-mouthed stare, but we needed someone who had some acting chops.

How did it come up to involve Philip and some of the other big names?

Dinello: We're all friends and when we were thinking about doing the movie and talking about it, people just said, 'I'll do something in it.' It was that kind of thing. Even from the beginning stages we knew that Philip, Matthew, Sarah and our friend Justin Theroux would do something in it.

Sedaris: Justin played the Driver's Ed teacher and I just said to him, 'Just pretend like you've got a really big dick and you don't know what to do with it.'

Dinello: Oh another thing we cut that's really funny, I don't know if you guys took Driver's Ed in school with the simulator machines, but we built one around a chasse and that's his car; he drives it through a scene.

You mentioned you were working on a book, what is it?

Sedaris: It's called, "I like you: Hospitality Under the Influence" I cook and entertain a lot so I wanted to do a cookbook, so I put all my jackpot recipes in it and I like to craft, so there's a craft section. It's just entertaining, my style. Then there's this big introduction, based on the old Betty Crocker books, which is where the title comes in, 'Under the Influence.' Basically it's how to put together, how to shop, how to read labels, little tips I learned shopping every Friday night with my dad. I wanted it to be very serious and I took it very seriously and then Paul came over and was making fun of the fact that I was trying to take something so seriously, so now it's an entertaining book on entertaining. There's humor in it, but it's only because he's making fun of me. But things that are challenges, like when someone dies. How hard it is to entertain for people that are grieving.

Dinello: They're so weepy.

Sedaris: They're so weepy... or to make a hot lunch in the middle of the day, or children's parties or when you're entertaining people who are under the influence of drugs, what a pain in the ass that is, alcoholics, the way they cook. So you know, I took it seriously, it is a practical book. I have some CD's of it in my pocket-book if anybody wants one.

Would you ever want to try to write something in your brother David's 'style?' He's more about personal reflection and you do a lot of fiction... is that something that interests you?

Sedaris: I'm not a writer. I can write on my feet, which I think is lazy writing and like Paul said, we can use that as a tool, but I'm not as disciplined as David is. I'm also more outgoing, I like being around people. I could go on a camping trip, whereas David would be horrified. He likes to work by himself. But we have our plays. That's the one thing where our minds work together.

Did you do a lot of entertaining on the set?

Sedaris: No. I tried to get the director to order my cupcakes, but that never happened.

Dinello: If you've had one of her cupcakes, you'd know why.

Sedaris: I don't do as much entertaining as I used to. It's usually last-minute entertaining.

Does Jerri ever surface in your day-to-day life?

Sedaris: Yeah, she pops out... when I want to say something dirty.

Dinello: Which is every-other sentence.

Sedaris: She's a character I've done for twenty years. Whenever David and I do a play, she's always the lead. I treat her like the lead actress and she thinks she's versatile but she's not. That face? That's not versatile, no matter how you dress that character up.

How did you come up with that face?

Sedaris: I fell into it. Once I had the voice, I just fell into it I have really good facial muscles. I'm good at making faces.