AVC: One of your big movie breaks was Private Parts. Were you a Howard Stern fan before you did the film?
PG: I appreciated him. I wouldn't call myself a big fan. I didn't listen to him regularly or anything, but I would listen occasionally, and I liked him. I thought he was fine, yeah.
AVC: In that film, were you playing a specific person, or was it more of a composite of different people in his life?
PG: It was a real guy. It was based on a real guy, which I didn't know until afterward. Somebody complimented me on really seeming like the guy, and I said "What guy?" I felt kind of bad about it after that. I felt like I was probably not going to make that guy's life any easier.
AVC: Why do you think they didn't tell you about him up front?
PG: I think they just assumed that I knew. That was one of the best-written parts I've ever played in a movie. Everything was pretty much right there on the page. It was a really well-written character, so I just kind of went off of whatever he was getting at in the script. There was nobody I was consciously drawing on. There were guys like that who I've known in my life, but I wasn't actually thinking of anyone specific.
AVC: Did you get recognized a lot by Howard Stern fans after the film came out?
PG: Sure. I still do. They're friendly people. They scream and pick at me and stuff like that. Nobody ever attacked me violently or anything. It's surprising the spread of people who recognize me from that movie. I don't know if they're Howard Stern fans necessarily, but it's all kinds of people. It definitely seems to have a following.
AVC: You've said that you just kind of take whatever roles you can get. Has that changed after American Splendor, Sideways, and Cinderella Man?
PG: I have a little more choice between roles now, but I find it hard to shake, a little bit, that feeling of, "I should just take whatever the hell I can get."
AVC: In the back of your mind, is there ever a little voice saying, "This could all disappear tomorrow"?
PG: Yeah. That's what I did to make money for a long time. I don't feel like I've ever done anything—even Big Momma's House—that I didn't really have some desire to do. Still, I was pretty willing to do whatever a lot of the time.
AVC: You've played a lot of real people. Could you talk about what it was like playing Bob Zmuda in Man On The Moon with Zmuda looking over your shoulder?
PG: That was tricky. That was the only time when the person was actively trying to have a hand in my performance. The whole movie was tricky, because Andy Kaufman's family wanted to sort of have a hand in it. That made it hard for me, at least, because you kind of felt like you were skating on thin ice much of the time. You didn't want to end up offending anyone. Zmuda's a great guy. He's a very enthusiastic guy. But there were times when it was a pain in the ass, because he was trying to get me to do whatever—to throw in certain things, dialogue or a new bit in there, whole-cloth. It's hard for someone to watch themselves getting played and not want to add details that they know oughta be in there, or should be in there, or that they think would enhance it. There's a reason it's not in there, and sometimes too, it's just hard. I can't remember specifically—mostly he wanted me to add things that would bring something out, but a lot of times it just wouldn't work. But he was fine about it. I'd have a little squabble with him, and he'd lay off for a couple of days, and then he'd be right back at it. But he's such a charming guy that it was fine.
AVC: Does it make you more self-conscious playing someone who actually exists?
PG: Oh, sure. If they're there it does. If they're absolutely around, it certainly can. If they're not there, it's fine. A lot of the people I've played—and Bob was one of these people—I'm not playing Johnny Cash, somebody who everyone knows. So I do have a certain freedom and leeway to do what I want to do.
AVC: Except for American Splendor, perhaps because you're appearing alongside the man you're playing.
PG: For whatever reason, [Harvey Pekar] had an uncanny ability to separate himself from it. He just kind of looked upon it as, "You guys know what to do. This is your job. I don't know how to make a movie. I don't know how to act. I don't know how to write a script." He was very mature in that way.
AVC: And he had experience seeing himself portrayed in art already.
PG: Exactly. He was already used to people drawing him a certain way. He'd already created a persona of himself that got kicked around anyway. He just seemed to have no anxiety about it at all, which was fine, really. It was great having him around.
AVC: You've been in a lot of movies where you've played really sad, haunted characters. For instance, The Hawk Is Dying—
PG: I like that movie a lot. If anyone tells me they've seen it, I'm curious as to what they thought about it. People seemed to have a hard time with it at Sundance, so I was curious as to why. It's not that strange of a movie. It didn't feel like it was.
AVC: It isn't a terribly commercial film.
PG: I suppose that's true.
AVC: When you're doing a film like that, where your character is so haunted and miserable, does it get under your skin, or can you just shed it the moment the director yells "Cut"?
PG: I feel like I'm able to turn it off pretty well. It's not my misery. It's not my life. I feel like I'm a lot better at doing that. I think at one time it affected me more. Maybe I was a better actor then. I don't know. I think I might have been. I think I am better at turning it on and off now. Sometimes you can get off on it, the misery. It can be weirdly exhilarating sometimes.
AVC: In the movie, it seems like the character gets increasingly distraught until he achieves this weird sort of transcendence.
PG: It does. You're right. That's part of the point of it, that the guy actually ends up weirdly happy at the end.
« Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next »
- Comments