Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.09.2011, Blaðsíða 32

32
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 14 — 2011
Films | Interview
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A veteran Hollywood actor and es-
tablished cult figure, Crispin Hel-
lion Glover is an obsession to some
and an enigma to all. Having built
a career on small roles in big mov-
ies, such as his unforgettable part
as George McFly in ‘Back To The
Future,’ Crispin has used his block-
buster earnings to fund a cavalcade
of independent, subversive projects
that have landed him in the Contro-
versy Hall of Fame (if such a hall
existed). He has made over twenty
books, recorded an album, person-
ally funded, directed and produced
two feature-length films, ‘What Is
It?’ and ‘It Is Fine! EVERYTHING IS
FINE.’ and created the ‘Crispin Hel-
lion Glover’s Big Slide Show Parts
1 & 2’. He will be at Bíó Paradís on
September 17 and 18, doing two
screenings as well as conversing
with the crowd. We got in touch
with the man who once almost (but
not quite) kicked David Letterman
in the head to talk about his work.
IT IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK
Both movies you’ve directed have
included or been created by peo-
ple with apparent disabilities. How
does this figure into your work? Is
there a message you want to get
across?
I am very careful to make it quite clear
that ‘What Is It?’ is not a film about
Down’s Syndrome, but my psychologi-
cal reaction to the corporate restraints
that have happened in the last twenty
to thirty years in film making. Specifi-
cally, anything that can possibly make
an audience uncomfortable is neces-
sarily excised or the film will not be
corporately funded or distributed. This
is damaging to the culture, because it
is the very moment when an audience
member sits back in their chair looks up
at the screen and thinks to themselves
“Is this right what I am watching? Is this
wrong what I am watching? Should I be
here? Should the filmmaker have made
this? What is it?”
What is it that is taboo in the cul-
ture? What does it mean that taboo
has been ubiquitously excised in this
culture’s media? What does it mean to
the culture when it does not properly
process taboo in its media? It is a bad
thing, because culture to not be able to
ask questions leads towards a non-ed-
ucational experience, and that is what
is happening in this culture. This stu-
pefies this culture and that is of course
a bad thing. So ‘What Is It?’ is a direct
reaction to the contents of this culture’s
media. My interest is to make films that
cause questions or thoughts.
Your second movie, ‘It Is Fine! EV-
ERYTHING IS FINE.’ was written by
and stars Steven C. Stewart. Who is
he and how did you come to make
this film?
I put Steve in to the cast of ‘What Is It?’
because of the screenplay he wrote for
‘It Is Fine!’ ‘What Is It?’ was going to be
a short film to promote the concept of
working with a cast mostly of actors
with Down’s Syndrome. When I turned
it from a short film into a feature, I re-
alised there were certain thematic ele-
ments in the film that related to what
Steven’s screenplay dealt with.
Steve had been locked in a nurs-
ing home for about ten years when
his mother died. He was born with a
severe case of cerebral palsy and he
was very difficult to understand. People
that were caring for him in the nurs-
ing home would derisively call him an
“M.R.” short for “Mental Retard.” This
is not a nice thing to say to anyone, but
Steve was of normal intelligence. When
he did get out he wrote his screenplay.
It is written in the genre of a murder
detective thriller, but truths about his
own existence come through much
more clearly than if he had written it as
a standard autobiography.
Steve wrote his screenplay in the
late 1970s, and as soon as I had read
it I knew I had to produce the film.
Steven C. Stewart died within a month
after we finished shooting ‘It Is Fine!
EVERYTHING IS FINE.’ Cerebral palsy
is not degenerative, but Steve was 62
when we shot the film. One of his lungs
had collapsed because he had started
choking on his own saliva and he got
pneumonia.
BUCKING THE SYSTEM
You have a fairly unique way of pre-
senting your work, in that you do
not distribute screeners and only
show your films by touring with
them. Why is this?
The fact that I tour with the film helps
the distribution element. I consider
what I am doing to be following in the
steps of vaudeville performers. I defi-
nitely have been aware of the element
of utilising the fact that I am known
from work in the corporate media I have
done in the last 25 years or so. It lets me
go to various places and have the local
media cover it. Since I funded the films
myself, I knew that this is how I would
recoup my investment even if it a slow
process.
You have largely made it a point in
your career to work outside of the
traditional industry, working out-
side of distribution deals and only
holding select screenings which
you are present at. You’re a pretty
big rule breaker. Is the rejection of
the status quo a driving force for
you artistically?
The point of touring in the way that I
have has not been to break rules but
to recoup. Most art-house filmmakers
do not recoup on their investment and
it has been very important for me to re-
coup. This has been the driving force
and not breaking rules. In the last six
years the most important thing for me
was to have enough people come to
the shows in order for me recoup in the
amounts of money I had put in the two
feature films. This has essentially hap-
pened.
That being said, you have also been
in some pretty huge Hollywood
blockbusters. Do you see yourself
as an outsider or a card-carrying
member of both clubs?
Within the corporately funded and dis-
tributed film world, I see myself as an
actor for hire and am grateful to that
system to have made a living in it for
about thirty years. ‘Charlie’s Angels’
coming out was good for my acting ca-
reer. I started getting better roles that
also paid better and I could continue
using that money to finance my films
that I am so truly passionate about. I
have been able to divorce myself from
the content of the films that I act in
and look at acting as a craft that I am
helping other filmmakers to accomplish
what it is that they want to do.
Both individualised systems of work
and working within organised struc-
tures can have benefits. Corporate en-
tities can have good reasons for exist-
ing. Right now corporatism seems to be
having a lot of negative impact on the
global culture at large, but this could
change.
To find out more about Crispin’s films,
art and touring schedule visit Crispin-
Glover.com.
It Is What It Is And It Is It
Getting to know Crispin Hellion Glover
REBECCA LOUDER
ROBBIE CAPONNETO
“Anything that can possibly make an audience
uncomfortable is necessarily excised or the film will not be
corporately funded or distributed. This is damaging to the
culture”