Interview: Bob Goldthwait (Sleeping Dogs Lie)

Sleeping Dogs Lie is the third feature film from writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait. Yes. That Bobcat Goldthwait, the guy who played the wacked-out gang-leader in Police Academy 2, who got fired on Christmas Eve by Bill Murray in Scrooged, who has guest-starred on “Married with Children,” “That 70s Show,” “ER,” and countless others, who was doing stand-up on “David Letterman” at age 20, who has had two HBO comedy specials, who toured as an opening act for Nirvana, and who set a chair on fire on live television while appearing on “Jay Leno”. His resume includes over 100 films and television episodes as an actor and voice talent, and during the past decade he has done extensive work behind the camera for television, directing episodes of the Comedy Central series “Crank Yankers,” “The Man Show,” and “Chappelle’s Show,” and more recently, “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ratings increased considerably when Bobcat took over as the show’s director).

Previously Bobcat directed the brilliant 1992 black comedy Shakes the Clown (AKA ‘The Citizen Kane of Alcoholic Clown Movies,’ as dubbed by the Boston Globe), which can count among it’s cult-followers Martin Scoresese and the rock band REM. His second feature, the award-winning film Windy City Heat (Best Film, 2004 Montreal Comedy Festival), earned Bobcat praise from critics and peers, including Matt Stone of “South Park” fame. And now he offers his third, and in my opinion best, feature-length film, Sleeping Dogs Lie.

As the film begins, Amy (Melinda Page Hamilton – “Desperate Housewives,” “Nip/Tuck”) has all a girl in her twenties could want. She has a college degree and a job as a grade school teacher. She has a handsome boyfriend, John (Bryce Johnson — TV’s “Popular,” “Still Life,” Home of Phobia) who is soon to be her handsome fiancé. She has loving parents, Geoffery Pierson (“24,” David Mamet’s Spartan) and Bonita Friedericy (“The Nine,” next year’s South of Pico) who call her ‘Diamond Girl,’ because, “She is our flawless diamond.” On a weekend trip home with John, Amy succumbs to his pressuring her into telling him her deepest secret, something she’s never told anyone (the audience knows her secret about ten seconds into the movie, so I’m not really ruining it for you) – one time in college, she gave her dog a blowjob.

It would have been near impossible to find a better actor than Melinda Page Hamilton to play Amy – she gives a stand-out performance that will hopefully garner her much deserved critical praise if not some kind of award (the scene where she reveals her secret to John is an amazing combination of tears, laughter, fear and uncertainty).

This is one of those rare comedies aimed at adults, and not because the plot involves a girl performing oral sex on a dog, but because it is a film about relationships and sex made in a mature, intelligent fashion. Goldthwait does not rely on gross out gags or slapstick humor to make the audience laugh, though there are some incredible lines, delivered mostly by the supporting cast (Jack Plotnick and Brian Posehn steal any scene either of them is in, respectively playing Amy’s crackhead bother and his best friend, Bonita Friedericy is phenomenal as Amy’s mother who has her own secret past). Here, the comic timing is as dead on as the dramatic timing, both are equally as important, and each works to strengthen the other. The biggest risk Goldthwait takes may in fact be what he is saying about relationships, honesty, and personal history (the ending of the film I will not ruin for you).

I had a chance to sit down and speak with Bobcat Goldthwait while he was in New York promoting Sleeping Dogs Lie.

Jameson Kowalczyk: Have you always intended to direct films, or has working behind the camera been kind of a natural progression from your work in front of the camera and on stage?
Bobcat Goldthwait: Yeah, I think it was a…. It’s my favorite job, but if I had…. As a young man, if I had gone to film school I probably would have always been trying to get into movies, [laughs] I would have been like Lucy, you know? I would have been trying to get into movies, or probably I would always be wondering, ‘Hey I wonder if I could do stand-up comedy?’ So the fact that I got all that out of my system, you know…. I don’t think people believe that I don’t want to act and stuff, but I don’t, I’m much happier being behind the camera. It’s not because I’m humble, it’s actually because I have a bigger ego [laughs].

JK: How is directing for television different from directing a film? Which do you prefer?
BG: Well, I hope I can keep making movies, but I’m also willing to go back to work for someone like Kimmel or Dave Chappelle, where you’re just working with nice guys who are funny, and helping them get their stuff done. That’s a great job, that makes me happy. But TV is, I think…. By making a tiny independent movie I could just do it my way, it seems like television is all… everyone is terrified that someone is going to say ‘Who said that was okay?’ and ‘How come we cut that out?’ and ‘Where’s the extra coverage?’ You know what I mean? Television’s about covering your tracks, it’s about not getting fired, and that’s probably why I worked well with comedians because I never was concerned with that, I just wanted them to be happy.

JK: What films or directors have influence you?
BG: I think the biggest one would be Chuck and Buck, I think that movie, just the tone and the fact that it got done, you know what I mean? I’m sure they couldn’t have pitched that, it’s about guys who had gay sex when they were kids and now the other guy’s stalking the other guy [laughs]. So I think that helped. And then there’s other movies too, like Neil LaBute and In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors and those movies, and I ran into Kevin Smith and he was like, ‘Oh that’s such a great idea for a movie, I wish I thought of it.’ And I said, ‘Well don’t worry, I stole the plot from Chasing Amy.’ So I’m sure there’s some Kevin Smith in there also.

JK: Do you prefer comedy with a darker element to it? Sleeping Dogs Lie, or has it been renamed Stay…
BG: No, it was Stay now it’s Sleeping Dogs Lie.

JK: There’s a darkness to the comedy that I liked.
BG: Thank, I think that that’s just the kind of comedy I’m attracted to, the stuff that makes me laugh. There’s a scene in Crimes and Misdemeanors where Woody Allen, his sister goes out on a blind date and gets tied up and a man craps on her. And Woody Allen’s face during that scene, he’s not doing one-liners or anything, but that was a scene, I laughed so hard when I saw that. I think that scene was in the back of my mind when I wrote this movie, like that kind of uncomfortableness. I have a big problem when you’re watching comedy and everybody has a…. everybody’s speaking in punch lines. It takes you out of it, it’s not realistic at all. I also think that people, if you’re interested in seeing an adult comedy, you watch “The Office” or “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” you don’t go to movies. The other thing that’s weird is if you make a movie and it’s a comedy, and it’s an independent, it seems like you’re supposed to end… the end it supposed to be like, ‘Yeah life sucks, so what’s the point.’ I think it’s almost more subversive that this movie ends with an upbeat note, you know what I mean?

JK: Has the ending of the film gotten any criticism? I mean besides the fact that the film is about a chick who blows a dog, there’s this whole underlying theme that honesty is sometimes worse than telling a lie. Has anyone criticized that?
BG: Yeah, well people do get upset, because there are people that believe that you should be honest. And yeah I’m surprised there are actually people that believe you should be honest at all times, and all this kind of virtue and all this crap, and it’s like I don’t believe that. I believe that if you’re being deceptive to present yourself in a better light, or gain something or steal or whatever, then yeah, you should be honest and that’s wrong. But if you’re being deceptive to not hurt other people, then I think that’s okay. I don’t think…. I think we should ask for honesty from elected officials, I don’t think you should ask for honest from anyone you’re marrying [laughs].

JK: How did the idea for this story come around? What was the first part that came into your head?
BG: It was the idea, I was thinking about the kind of stuff you say to each other during pillow talk, and then you break up, and then you’re worried, ‘Oh my god I hope she’s not telling that new guy about me putting a slim jim in my ass,’ or you know whatever it is [laughs]. So that was the germ of it, and then I was thinking what’s…. I wanted it to be about a woman and I also wanted it to be an act she kind of did alone although it does involve a dog, because if I involved another human being, suddenly that character would have to be addressed, what was he or she doing now, and…. I also needed something you couldn’t get past.

JK: Was it hard writing a female character?
BG: Well, if it works for people that’s good. I really didn’t have a problem with that at all, it didn’t bother me at all. I mean it wasn’t any more difficult than any of the other people in the movie. It’s kind of funny though, in this movie the guys are kind of playing the traditional female roles.

JK: Where do you come up with these characters? I thought her brother was hysterical, his performance was my favorite in the movie.
BG: Thanks, I really love Jack in the movie, and as a guy, he’s a great guy. But I based all of them on people I know. I just know…. I mean I don’t know anyone that blew a dog, but I just kind of thought of different people. There’s a couple characters that are based on a couple people, and I would think ‘What would this person do in this situation?’ and that’s really how I wrote it. And yeah, I don’t know, someone will read this and realize they’re in the movie and be pissed, [laughs] but….

JK: Who was the first person to read the screenplay after you had written it?
BG: Well, I showed it to a manager, who said that… he said, ‘Well this is a well-written script, but I’m not sending it out because I’m afraid of what people are going to think of your mental health. So I left that company and, well we financed the movie ourselves so it was not like anybody was going to give us money. I actually did get the note once, ‘Could she just jerk off the dog?’

JK: What was the film’s budget?
BG: Well, to get us to Sundance… we spent a lot less than a mid-life crisis sports car. That would be the best way to describe it. I mean it wasn’t even a hundred grand. It was a really, really small budget movie. The fact that it is getting released is totally beyond my expectations. It really is. I really thought it was going to be a DVD, if I got lucky I’d get a deal and be able to sell the DVD. So the theatrical run and all the festivals we’ve been to, it’s just been really cool, it’s been really fun. To me it’s probably been the coolest thing to happen to me in show business, as far as work goes.

JK: Did anyone walk out of the first screening?
BG: Yeah, the first screening was at Sundance, and that was the first time I saw it with more than four people. And I’m sitting there, and this woman, right away she’s getting up and she’s like ‘C’mon, c’mon, c’mon.’ And her friend, they’re about three rows behind me, and her friend finally convinces her to stay. And then about an hour into the movie she’s crying, and my daughter who’s 19 goes, ‘Dad, dad, look at your friend.’ And I look and the woman’s crying, and my daughter goes, ‘Yeah you cry bitch, you cry.’ [laughing]

JK: What’s your favorite scene in the film?
BG: [thinks for a moment] I think the scene in the car, where they… the car that’s parked in the garage, I think that’s my favorite scene. But there’s so many things that I really like, that are just really tiny moments that… I really love when Brian Posehn, because he actually ad-libbed ‘I kissed a dead body once.’

JK: That was hysterical.
BG: I loved that. And Jack Plotnick up in the bedroom. And even just beats with the dad, because Geoff… when Geoff goes, ‘My mind sometimes plays tricks on me.’ For some reason, I don’t know… Geoff is the only actor in the movie that when I wrote it I specifically had him in mind to play the part.

JK: What’s the harshest criticism you’ve received in your career?
BG: Well, here’s the thing. I remember once when, my first HBO special, People magazine, the review started with, ‘I hate Bobcat Goldthwait.’ That was the first line of the review. But that’s not the harshest, the harshest was when my second HBO special came out and I bought People magazine and I was like, ‘Oh here it comes,’ and I open it up and they didn’t even review it. And that felt way worse than having someone say they hate me.

JK: What are you working on at the moment? Are you writing another screenplay?
BG: Yeah, I mean like everybody, I’m trying to write a couple things and hopefully see if I can get it going and hopefully do it without so much petty larceny.

JK: What’s your favorite joke?
BG: My favorite joke is a guy goes into a shrink and says, ‘I’m going to commit suicide because my life is a black void and nothing brings me joy and I don’t see any joy in this world.’ And the shrink says, ‘Look, before you commit suicide, go down to the circus, the circus is in town, and there’s a clown there named Bobo. And you go see Bobo the Clown and then you come back here and you tell me there’s no joy in this world.’ And the guy goes, ‘I am Bobo the Clown.’ [laughs] I think that’s my favorite joke.

Samuel Goldwyn Films/Roadside Attractions release Sleeping Dogs Lie exclusively on Friday the 20th in New York and Los Angeles with a wider release to occur in the weeks to come.