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David Schwimmer saw his new comedy, "Run Fat Boy Run," become a hit with British audiences. (Peter wynn thompson for the boston globe) |
Indirect routes
Everybody's 'Friend' moves over to calling the shots on his first feature film
LOS ANGELES - Josephine Baker went off to Paris. David Hasselhoff hit Germany. And David Schwimmer, in a bid to shake off his alter-ego "Ross" once and for all, flew across the Atlantic to take on directing.
Neither attempting to re-create the sitcom that made him famous nor languishing in big-budget box office disappointments like some of his other "Friends," Schwimmer has recently cast himself behind the scenes. He's hoping "Run Fat Boy Run," the British comedy in which he makes his feature-film directorial debut, will demonstrate the same kind of appeal when it opens in the US Friday as it did last fall in England, where it made a killing at the box office.
"There's not much of a difference in the British and American comic sensibilities - what we find funny is exactly the same," Schwimmer said recently over breakfast at a Beverly Hills hotel, "[though the] English are not really comfortable with displays of emotion." He added, "We Americans are a little more sentimental, a little more melodramatic and unafraid of showing raw emotion. But . . . Simon [Pegg, the star of 'Run Fat Boy Run'] liked to say that, as a Brit, if you . . . catch yourself being emotional, you have to undercut it with humor. As an American, I was pushing the emotion in this script."
"Run Fat Boy Run" is a romantic comedy in the slacker-manchild-with-a-heart-of-gold vein. Pegg, of British megahits "Hot Fuzz" and "Shaun of the Dead," stars as Dennis, a 30-something with the worst case of low self-esteem since Charlie Brown, who abandons his pregnant fiancee (Thandie Newton) at the altar, sprinting away from the church at cartoon speed.
Years later, we find Dennis running in a different direction: toward Newton and their young son via a marathon he attempts in order to prove his renewed devotion to them. He offers himself up as competition for the American megalomaniac (Hank Azaria) she now plans to marry. While the film is chockablock with slapstick moments, Schwimmer has grounded it in deep emotional conflict - the longing of a man for something he wishes he'd never given up.
While protagonists are often funhouse reflections of their directors, in person, Schwimmer seems to share nothing with the underachiever Pegg plays. You get the sense that nothing is casual for Schwimmer; every endeavor and argument involves deliberateness and planning. Engaged in conversation about Hollywood, literature, public radio, and steel-cut oatmeal, he listened deeply and allowed himself to think out loud - demonstrating a surprising transparency and lack of veneer for someone whose presence still solicits a restaurant full of patrons mouthing "Ross!"
Newton describes Schwimmer as "very deliberate, serious, earnest - he bleeds with intellect."
"We could really get down to talking about what matters in the movie - the heart of things. How it was important to make it believable, that she could trust him again," she said on the phone from her home in London.
Even though most of us do know Schwimmer as Ross Geller, the goofy comedian from "Friends," he is also a classically trained actor, with his own theater company in Chicago and experience starring in such intense dramas as HBO's "Band of Brothers" and the indie film "Duane Hopwood," which was well-received by critics. That's not to say that he didn't bring his experience acting in and directing television comedies such as "Friends" and "Joey" to "Run Fat Boy Run." This is clear in Schwimmer's keen ability for staging physical comedy, whether it's a sight gag involving Pegg and a very diminutive pair of shorts, or a fight between Newton's two suitors.
"When I was a kid, I watched everything," Schwimmer said. "I was probably influenced as much by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, as I was by Dick Van Dyke, Jerry Lewis, Jack Lemmon. Jack Lemmon, to me, is one of the all-time great comic actors just because he's such a truthful actor. Everything was so grounded, coming out of emotion and character and truth, and revealing a ridiculously, incredibly talented technical, physical comedian."
In casting "Run Fat Boy Run," Schwimmer looked for actors with a strong sense of physical comedy. "It's something you can't really teach an actor. . . . [An actor either] really understands his or her body and also has comic timing, or they don't."
Pegg came into the picture when the film moved from New York to London. In addition to his starring role, he rewrote the script (by Michael Ian Black, of sketch comedies "The State" and "Stella"). Schwimmer knew Pegg from "Band of Brothers" and a British comedy they starred in together, "Big Nothing." "We had such a good time working on 'Big Nothing' together that we developed a shorthand," Schwimmer said. "We both have a similar . . . attitude when it comes to, like, the vibe on set - the crew, the atmosphere; it's just [that] there's no ego involved.
"I don't believe American audiences aren't as sophisticated as British audiences," he said. "I believe that films are dumbing down in general. They play to the lowest common denominator, rather than giving the audience enough credit for their intelligence. I can't believe, especially in the last couple of years, the big, successful comedies are so . . . base, in terms of their humor and their language. . . . Instead of actually coming up with really strong, character-driven comedy, and intelligent joke writing - like, smart joke writing - it's all about . . . really, it's back to Greek comedy. It's scatological humor."
Despite having developed a number of promising television projects since the conclusion of "Friends," Schwimmer hasn't seen any of them make it to the air. Most frustrating was a recent collaboration with "ER" and "West Wing" executive producer John Wells that came this close. "It was a tough time for comedy TV even before the strike, he said. "There's so much more product out there . . . in terms of online, and DVD rental, and going to the movies. . . . Television in general is hurting, in terms of just getting viewers . . . and that, combined with reality television, which has really changed the entire climate, I think there's less confidence from networks in the written word."
Schwimmer and Wells co-executive produced a series concept for ABC based on a story Schwimmer read in The
You get the sense that Schwimmer sees a fundamental sense of injustice at work in Hollywood: reality-show producers, not auteurs, are getting development deals; hopeless slackers, not complex men with real-life concerns, are now the heroes of blockbusters and no longer the supporting players. "See, I don't really get that. The slacker-hero. I can't watch [one of these movies] without thinking to myself, 'Why is she with this guy?' " Schwimmer described what seems to be the decade's archetype: "an unemployed, pot-smoking, overweight, lazy dude," and said, "I just don't get it. I don't get why that idea is celebrated. Maybe it's because it taps into a male fantasy, that 'Oh we never have to work! We can sit around when we're 35, 40 years old, smoke pot with our buddies, and try to [sleep with] girls.' "
Perhaps that's why the slacker in his movie is running toward something, instead of away from it, a heroic act that may aim to make a difference in more than just the end of Dennis's story: the tide in Hollywood.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
