By: debbie lynn elias
EXCLUSIVE 1:1 with JAMES GUNN
When it comes to dark comedic horror, James Gunn is SUPERman.
James Gunn has long been on my radar as a true talent in filmmaking. Known as much for fun-filled stories like “Scooby-Doo” as campy horror like “Dawn of the Dead” or as writer/director of a classic like “Slither”, Gunn never ceases to entertain. With a balanced blend of razor-edged dark sarcastic wit and horror, a film by James Gunn has a guaranteed “wow” factor”. Packing a punch this week is his latest film, SUPER. With a SUPER cast of Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon, Michael Rooker and the inimitable Nathan Fillion, SUPER is in essence, the greatest of Gunn, as it explores new territory, tosses in some song and dance animation, and explodes with fun and entertainment thanks to the newest super-heroes on the block, Crimson Bolt and his sidekick Boltie.
I had a chance to sit down for an exclusive 1:1 with James Gunn to talk SUPER, superheroes, his passion for filmmaking and what makes him tick.
What is it that got you involved in filmmaking and particularly, your fascination with the sarcastic horror aspect of it?
JG: I have no idea why I’m so infatuated with the dark side of things. I grew up in very dysfunctional family. My parents are great people but it was a mess of a young life. I think for whatever reason my brain just likes to go to places that it’s not supposed to go. [laughing] I don’t know why. I started making movies when I was 11 or 12 years old. Even back then, my second movie was a zombie movie based on “Night of the Living Dead”, in which I killed my brother Shaun. It was on my front porch with all this blood and intestines coming out of his stomach that we made out of Karo syrup and red food dye and tissue paper. It was a lot of fun. We had so much fun doing that. My third film, I animated Playmobile characters that were shooting each other and all this blood was coming out of them. It was this really gory Playmobile animated movie. I think that was the perfect example. That’s where I started. It’s not so different from SUPER. We make this really sort of playful, happy, pop culture thing with something completely hideous. I’ve always liked the way those two things move together. Doing that thing with the Playmobile thing is exactly the same as having somebody shot in the neck with a big “pow” behind them.
But, I didn’t plan on being a filmmaker when I was younger. I just made movies. I think when I was real young I wanted to be a filmmaker but I kind of got distracted and then I got hired to write a screenplay out of nowhere. I really believe that if people are open to what they can do with their lives, are open to what their gifts are, they can find something really fulfilling to do. I think so many people have an idea about what life is, that they figure out what they want to do and then they follow that dream no matter what. I don’t completely subscribe to that philosophy. That’s not for me. I think that true happiness comes from doing something you’re good at. And I think when I was younger there were other things I’d rather do. But I don’t think they would be as fulfilling as this life is to me now.
Do you feel fulfilled now?
JG: It’s a moment to moment thing. But yeah, today I do. Today I feel quite good and quite happy. And that’s the thing with this movie. [The box office] doesn’t matter to me. It would be good if it does well, and I’ll be sad if it does poorly, but the two things are (1) we made the movie for such a low budget that it will be difficult not to make our money back. And that’s a really good thing. So that’s first. And we haven’t spent money. The movie cost nothing and the marketing cost almost nothing. Luckily we have all these stars in the movie that are going on Letterman and Leno and doing all this press here today. It’s a little bit unexpected. The whole thing is a little unexpected. This was going to be a very very small movie. It stayed that small from the budget. But, man, with this cast becoming involved was a total surprise to me. I was talking the other day with Rainn [Wilson] and we were like, “I remember when I did SLITHER, I was so afraid of how the critics were going to react to it; that the people wouldn’t like it; was it going to make any money.” And I just don’t feel that same anxiety with SUPER that I did with that. It’s going to be okay no matter what it is because I made the movie that I wanted to make. I just came at if from a different direction. I didn’t come at this movie thinking this was gonna be “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” That’s not possible for this movie. And if it did, I’d be freaking out. But it’s unlikely. It’s a cult movie at the end of the day. Itfs an art house, grindhouse film and that’s what it is.
You have a very take no prisoners, sarcastic sense of humor. Does that come from the dysfunctional family?
JG: It does. It’s a black humor of the Irish. There’s 6 kids in 7 years. We were never competitive about sports. We were never competitive about academics. But we were very competitive about who could be the funniest at the dinner table. So that was always a part of who we were. And not only about who was the funniest, but who could say the nasty shit. We used to play a game called “Let’s See How Far We Can Push Mom.” The joke was we kept trying to irritate my mother with gross jokes more and more and more, and get her madder and madder at us until she sent somebody to their room. And the person who went to their room would be the person who would lose. And the last person to push her as far as they could without getting sent to their room was the winner. We played that all the time. It’s just the way my brothers and my sister and I are. All my brothers are in the entertainment industry. I’m from Manchester, Missouri; not exactly a hot bed of the entertainment world. That’s what we were like as kids.
There’s times even when I sometimes go, ‘Oh, I shouldn’t have said that. That was too much.’ Like in SUPER, there’s certain things and I go, “Oh, I can’t believe you’re saying that. ‘There’s things that Libby [Ellen Page character] says that I can’t believe that she’s saying. It’s wrong.
And then the way Ellen [Page] delivers it all is so matter of fact. It comes out of this very innocent looking petite waifish girl. You can’t help but love it.
JG: Oh, I know, I know. [laughing] She doesn’t care. Well, not everybody loves it. I got a couple angry e-mails the other day on Twitter about the use of some words that were in the movie. It’s ’cause she said ‘gay’ and ‘gay ass’. Listen. I don’t use that word in that way, but she does. I also think it’s kind of weird that [the characters] also kill people. These are characters that say things that they shouldn’t say aaaaand they kill people. But somehow they’re allowed to kill people. The violence isn’t a problem. But saying that is a problem. I get the point. I really do. I understand why people don’t want that word to be used. But, you need to be free when you’re writing a screenplay and the characters are gonna say what they’re gonna say. And people don’t get it when they say, “Why did you write her saying that?” Well, that’s what she said. I don’t sit there and think of what people are going to say. I just have a theme that I create. Then I sit back and watch two characters interact. That’s really a sort of schizophrenic activity. They’re just doin’ what they’re doin’. I’m just the journalist taking things down. That’s kind of what it’s like. Libby was definitely like that. She ruled my world. I didn’t expect her to even be a big character in the screenplay. She inserted herself. She was the comic book girl. And then all of a sudden she wants to be the sidekick. So, I’m like, ‘okay.’ I’m watching her do her thing. It’s great to write characters like that. I have a handful of characters like that in my life and interacting with them, even before you’re ever dealing with an actor, is a lot of fun.
I love the characters that you create in so many films and it’s for that very reason – it’s not dealing with the public, political correctness. You’re writing movies for movies and entertainment’s sake. Do you find that that’s becoming a problem with a lot of interpretation and feedback that comes now from the public? Do you find that the public can’t distinguish between the fact that “this is a character and not real person”?
JG: Like I said, I actually have gotten less outrage over this movie than I thought was gonna come. People have been more accepting of the movie than I thought. . .My dad sat next to me and watched it and loved it. It seems that there’s something for some people in there that I didn’t think was going to be there. They seem to be able to be okay with some of the violence and stuff. But, other people aren’t. But I would say the majority of people have been okay with it. So, I’ve been a little bit surprised by the lack of judgment on that aspect of the film.
What is it that drives you, or where do you get your inspiration from when you are creating, when you’re writing a project or coming in to direct a project?
JG: I think the place I get my inspiration from is just sticking to it. There are plenty of times when I’m not inspired and I write anyway. The surprising thing is that usually leads to inspiration. I think that I just stick with it. And if I start a screenplay, I usually finish it. I’m very regimented about the way I work. By being regimented like that, it releases me from the necessity to be inspired, because that’s a trap that many writers and creative people fall into which then ends up becoming too much pressure for people. If you need to be inspired when you’re working, then it’s never going to come.
I’ve always felt that if you need to be inspired, then you’re doing something you shouldn’t be doing.
JG: That’s probably true to. But if you work, you usually get inspired. But it comes from sitting down and writing 2 hours of shit and then all of a sudden things start to flow. And it comes from being willing to write a bad screenplay, too. You have to be willing to do bad work and even be willing to make a bad movie, if that’s the way it’s going to turn out. Otherwise everything becomes too precious. I have been too precious many times in my life. I’m trying to stop being that way.
What do you find the most challenging aspect of filmmaking? As a director and as a writer.
JG: As a director, it’s definitely just the physically rigorous part of it, and the fact that you need to give up your life when you’re directing a film. I love life. I hanging out with my brothers and my friends and my sister and my girlfriend. And I like travelling around and going and doing weird things, interacting with fans on Facebook. I like doing all those things. It’s fun to me. So, when I have to be shooting a movie, and I do not sleep well anyway, so when I’m waking up at all these different hours, only sleeping a couple hours a night and working these long days, and I’;m a perfectionist, so everything is 100% planned out, every single shot, there’s nothing that we shoot that I don’t ….It’s really simply the physically rigorous aspect of it. On this movie we had to move so fast that it was not fun. SLITHER was a little bit more fun because on Saturday nights I could go out and hang out with Elizabeth [Banks] and Nathan [Fillion] and [Michael] Rooker and we’d have a good time. I had a little bit of down time. We had $15 million to make the movie, so it was a little bit different. This movie, there really wasn’t any of that. It was working all the time. The times when I wasn’t working, I’d have to just zone out completely to just try to regenerate a little bit. It was a sprint. It was a short distance run to make the movie.
Do you storyboard at all?
JG: Everything is storyboarded, shot listed and then walked through and memorized with the DP and the AD so we know exactly what we’re doing everyday. That seems to work really well in terms of making the movie that I want to make.
You shot SUPER digitally with the Red camera. What did you shoot SLITHER in?
JG: 35mm
As a director, what do you find to be the benefit of each one of those formats and do you have a preference?
JG: I think it depends on the movie. For SLITHER, at the time, [35mm] was the correct choice because digital wasn’t where it was supposed to be . For this movie, we needed to do digital. Faster and somewhat cheaper. It ends up being a little bit cheaper. The cameras are cheaper. With film, it’s cheaper. But there are certain things that cost more. But overall, I really like [HD digital].
When you are color timing the film – when you color time from film to digital and then you put it back to film…when I watch SLITHER in the digital version, the HD version like on Cinemax, it looks exactly how I did it. When I watched the film print of SLITHER, it does not look the colors that I chose. It looks decent but it is not what I want it to be. When shooting on digital and color to the color timing and going to film, they’ve got it more worked out so that that color looks exactly like when I did. And it looks exactly like what’s on the HD, so much that it’s difficult for me to tell when it’s a film print and when it’s HD. So, I like that a lot more. I really am controlling about my colors and what the colors look like and all of that. I feel good about that. But the Red One, which is what we shot on [with SUPER], the Red Two is a better camera from what I understand but I haven’t worked with it yet, but the Red One had a lot of difficulties. We got lucky because our Red camera was not a glitchy camera, meaning we only ever lost one shot and we didn’t have breakdowns ever or anything like that. Even a Red camera that we shot with in LA had glitches but not Louisiana. But there were big problems with the color with the Red. Everything comes out this kind of yellowish color and you use a special make-up on people that’s for Red cameras. You shouldn’t have to have a special make-up for a specific cameras. But I hear the new Red doesn’t have those issues.
You know that everything’s going to be digital. Film’s done. It’s not even a conversation to have anymore because film is not going to be around for very much longer.
I have to ask about the animated sequence. It is so amazing and so much fun. How fun was that and who did the animation?
JG: Yeah! The company that did the animation was a company called Puny Animation. My friend Julia Vickerman works for them and they do the tv show “Yo Gabba Gabba”, a kid’s show. I had another company who I had do the opening animation and it looked terrible and I was very upset. I had a vision in my head of exactly what I wanted it to look like. And I went to Julia and said, ‘Could you do this for…?’, it was like nothing. And she took it to her boss, Chad, and Chad said yeah, that could do it. He was a fan. So they did the opening animation and knocked my socks off. I was sooo, sooo, sooo happy when I saw the first cut of that. It was exactly what I wanted. It’s just one of the many blessings I have in this movie.
If there is anything that you could do or be as a super-hero, what and who would it be?
JG: I’d be Superman because he’s indestructable. Who wouldn’t want to be Superman? I’d be happy with any super power. I wouldn’t care what I would have. I’d have a Green Lantern ring. That would be pretty awesome. Spiderman would be cool. I’d like to be Spiderman. My pervy side would like to be invisible. That would be pretty cool to be able to turn invisible. Stretching wouldn’t be that great. I don’t think that would be too cool. But, yeah, I would be Superman because he can beat up all the rest of them.
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