| Strangers with Candy director Paul Dinello
By Daniel Robert Epstein
June 27, 2006
Original Article
Jerri Blank is a boozer, a user, and a loser. But all true Strangers with Candy fans wonder how Jerri ended up coming back to Flatpoint and entering high school again. All those answers are revealed in the new Strangers with Candy prequel movie. Nearly the entire original cast is back including Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Greg Hollimon [Principal Onyx Blackman] and Paul Dinello as the art teacher Geoffrey Jellineck, based on his high school art teacher. Dinello has also taken over the directing reins of the feature film.
Dinello first met Colbert and Sedaris when he joined the Chicago-based Second City theatre nearly 20 years ago. Since then he’s collaborated with them on Strangers with Candy, Wigfield and has even consulted on The Colbert Report. Also Comedy Central has just released all 30 episodes of the Strangers with Candy on a special edition DVD set with all new bonus materials.
Check out the official website for Strangers with Candy
Daniel Robert Epstein: Why did you decide to direct the Strangers with Candy feature?
Paul Dinello: I had directed before and part of me wanted to direct the film, but then I was worried. I had a more significant role acting wise at one point and I didn’t want to bite off more than I could chew. But there was part of me that always wanted to direct, but I guess it came about because we couldn’t get the director we wanted. Then I was looking for directors. A lot of possible candidates had maybe one film under their belt or they had directed television. Then Steve [Colbert] and Amy [Sedaris] were like “Why don’t you just direct it?”
DRE: The movie is very similar to the TV show but I found the pacing and the tone different. Was that done on purpose?
PD: Yeah, I was trying to find some middle ground, but I definitely wanted it to feel different than the show because otherwise I didn’t see the point. I think people will have the criticism that it’s still too much like the show, but I wanted to be true to the fans and be true to the show because I liked it but still make it feel like it was its own thing.
DRE: How hard is it to deliver those convoluted selfish lines like “I wasn’t holding you away from me, I was pushing myself towards me” because you guys all do them with such sincerity.
PD: We’re used to that because it seems like we almost speak that way now to each other. But I remember in the TV show I wrote a line for Sara Blank, who’s played by Deborah Rush. There was a scene where Jerri’s in trouble or she’s sick or dying at school. Sara says, “Hi. I got here as soon as I felt like it.” She was completely lost with delivering that line. I said there’s a trick that I tell everyone who works on the show though some people pick it up right away. I say, “Deliver it like, I got here as soon as I could. In your mind say that, but just say, I got here as soon as I felt like it.”
DRE: So it really is a process you have to go through to deliver those lines.
PD: Right. I think ideally they work when it’s said with sincerity because we try not to do anything with a wink. I don’t think we’re great actors or anything, but we all try to perform the best that we can.
DRE: I was really worried that Maria Thayer [Tammi Littlenut] wasn’t going to be in the movie because I’d heard at one point she wasn’t.
PD: There was a time when she wasn’t in the film and that was almost a bad decision by me. Part of the appeal on the show was that we hired really young actors. The younger they are, the more out of place Jerri seems. So we couldn’t just have everybody come back. Everyone’s six years older and I didn’t want to hire 30 year olds to play high school students because then it doesn’t make Amy seem that lecherous and creepy. I hadn’t seen Maria in a few years and then she came in and we talked and I went, “My God. You’re still as pure and innocent as you ever were.” I just love her.
DRE: How much did the actual plot of the movie change in the editing room?
PD: Some stuff is completely different. I found a lot of it in the editing room. For instance, one big scene change was that I had shot a ten minute prison sequence. Then I ended up turning it into a montage because it was the first thing we shot and Amy didn’t really have the character down. She had just gotten stitches in her mouth, I was still finding my legs and it didn’t turn out that great.
DRE: Harry Shearer directed a movie a few years ago called Teddy Bear’s Picnic. It’s got a lot of the racist humor. I asked him about that and he said, “It’s not racist humor. It’s humor about racism.” You guys do it in even more subtle ways because Jerri is just a racist.
PD: She is a racist. We like the most idiotic things to come out of the most idiotic people. Even subconsciously you would go, “Well, I don’t want to be like that person” because they’re all such selfish, hypocritical, awful people even though I love them all. But there’s nothing wrong because it’s just part of her character. It’s not satire, she’s a racist.
DRE: Do you guys consider it humor about racism when Jerri’s saying and doing these awful things?
PD: We find it funny but not funny because we think Mexicans are lazy or Jews or stingy, even though I hear they are. Sometimes it’s purely funny and shocking because you just don’t hear people say that in mainstream society. But also it just indicts her character and that’s amusing.
DRE: What’s Mrs. Jellineck doing now?
PD: She stopped talking to me in the middle of the school year. I bet she died and I feel partly responsible.
DRE: How’d you come up with Geoffrey’s hair?
PD: He seems like the type of guy who would care a lot about his hair. It seemed like he’d want to grow it long and he’d want to relate to the kids even though kids shave their heads now. It’s his perception of what would make him look young. He liked the idea of having this full mane of hair that enters a room before he does.
DRE: The Strangers with Candy TV series ended with the school blowing up. But is there more to do with these characters?
PD: It’s hard to say. We thought after the series we wouldn’t do a movie, but then after a few years we’re like, “Yeah, let’s knock out a movie.” Jerri has an odd way of sneaking up on you. You think, “My God. I’ve had enough of Jerri Blank,” but then you miss her. She’s so vile but she inspires like “I wonder what she’d be like at a nunnery.”
DRE: How much did your improv training come into play for this movie?
PD: There are two elements about improv that are really great. One is almost like a life lesson because it really is about supporting the other players or supporting whoever you’re involved with. That’s been invaluable and Amy and Stephen are imbued with that concept. That makes it a really great working environment. We don’t say “No that’s stupid” if someone’s got an idea and I have worked with people like that. But it’s trying to heighten and support that idea. As players, we try to consciously make the other person look good. That’s one of the major tenets of improv. The other thing it teaches you, is that over time you get to a place where you’re not thinking about it. I think anybody can learn improv. That’s where the magic comes. The work is letting go of being self-conscious about what you’re saying and just being in the moment.
DRE: The first time I saw you and Stephen Colbert was actually on the Janeane Garofalo special years ago when you guys…
DRE: That was really funny. It looked like something went wrong, like the dog caught fire too fast.
PD: But we did get to light a dog on fire.
DRE: Most of your scenes in Strangers with Candy are with Stephen. Is the way the two of you connect different than the way you connect with Amy?
PD: Stephen and I do have some sort of odd bond, but it hasn’t been consummated yet. I’m still hoping. A lot of it is trust and a lot of it’s timing, but we’ve been performing together for 18 years so we fill each other’s gaps nicely. I know what his weaknesses are and he knows mine, which I have a lot of. I think I’m drawn to him because he fills all the things that I’m inadequate as a performer.
DRE: I know you work on The Colbert Report. Are you political minded like the way Stephen must be?
PD: He’s not particularly politically minded. We’re both liberal and we both have our pretty specific opinions, but the bottom line for that show is to make people laugh. It just happens to be through a political format, but I don’t think he thinks of himself as a political comedian or a satirist really. We’re just both clowns. Even with that speech he did at White House Correspondents Dinner had a lot of weight put on it but ultimately he just wanted people to laugh.
DRE: Are you working on anything?
PD: I’m writing a feature about two young hot shot exorcists.
DRE: Is this something that you want to be in?
PD: I don’t think I’ll be in it. I don’t think I could pull off a hot shot young exorcist anymore. I don’t have the legs for it.
|
