Patton Oswalt’s starring role in Big Fan is a huge departure from what his fans will expect. It’s not a comedic role, but rather a dark turn as a fan so deeply obsessed with his beloved New York Giants that he exists solely to serve the team. Even when presented with the opportunity to change his life forever, he holds on to his bottom-rung job as a toll-booth attendant and continues down the same path he’s on at the start of the film.
We caught up with Oswalt at Sundance and he spoke about Dungeons & Dragons, how he’s over the fad of improvising, and why Crank is equal to Rachel Getting Married.
So, when we first got our Sundance catalogue and we were looking through I remember saying, “Oh, my god, Rob Siegel, the guy from ‘The Onion.’ Oh, my god, Patton Oswalt, one of our favorite comedians. This is going to be a laugh riot.” And we were…off-track a little bit.
[laughter] He made a serious drama, man.
He did. Was that why you wanted to do this? Are you hoping to kind of diversify?
Always, yeah. You never just want to do the same forever. And also, I don’t have any prejudice against - I don’t believe in genres - comedy, action, horror. I just like things that are good. And I just read so much and I see so many movies that I can see the value in something - a movie like Crank is just as important as a movie like Rachel Getting Married. Do you know what I mean?
So, I love stuff like that. And reading this script was like, oh, and this is another type of film that I love, which is that great, early ’70s - I call it like the non-judgmental character study. It’s like here’s this world, we’re not going to wink at it ironically, we’re not going to look at it from some hipster’s distance. And the actors aren’t going to give an eye to the audience, with that whole, “I’m playing this loser.” You know?
Because, a lot of my favorite actors, like Seymour Cassel and Warren Oates, they just embrace their characters. And Ned Beatty especially, just absolutely no judgment. And I think that kind of acting has kind of gone away in a lot of ways.
I was like, I’ve been running my fat mouth for so long about, “Why doesn’t Hollywood make movies like…” And this guy wasn’t even going through Hollywood. He was like, “I’m just going to do it myself.” I’m like, OK, it’s been dropped in my lap, I’ve got to do it. And the fact that he wanted me gave me the confidence.
So he came to you.
He came to me.
You got this before the blow-up with The Wrestler happened and everything. Had you heard of Rob before?
Well, yeah, all his years at “The Onion.” Most of my favorite stuff from the “The Onion, ” that I read was his. I knew of him, this was the first screenplay of his that I’d read.
It probably wasn’t what you expected when you first read it, I’m sure.
Not at all.
Did you know it was dark before you got it?
I was told that it - when I first got it was called Paul Aufiero, so it was like not exactly a wacky comedy title like Feelin’ Kind of Farty. I knew it had that - just from a title like that. And the way it was written and described, I was like, “This is really cool.”
How long did it take you to wrap your head around Paul as a character? Or did you get him pretty quickly?
I just made a leap very, very quickly. And it wasn’t that I’m such an amazing actor, it was just that I’m going to go in this and shut off all of my defense mechanisms, and for once I’m not going to over-think this shit. Just go in and just do it.
And if I hadn’t done Ratatouille, I wouldn’t have had the courage to do that. Because Ratatouille, in my head I’m like, “I’ve got to think of a voice or a character.” And Brad Bird was like, “You just talk normally. That’s what we want.” And it was really unnerving for me. Like, I’m the lead in a fucking Pixar movie and I’m just talking. Because he saw that.
And that gave me the confidence to go, now that I’m on camera, I will do that again. Although there are things about this guy that are totally unlike me. The fact that there’s no irony to him. There’s no winking or even self-awareness. And I think that I’m crippled by self-awareness, so I had to get away - I had to give up all that stuff. Which are like defense mechanisms for me.
Yeah. I think the only like sort of “Patton Oswalt comedy moment” that we could identify was when you were talking to your mom in the car.
Right.
And then the rest of it was so much darker.
Except he’s not - what’s interesting about the way that scene is written, if you notice - he’s not doing it as a way to go, “I’m on top of the world, ” or, “I’m one-up on you, and I see something.” All he’s doing is so he can defend his own stagnation. In other words, she’s like - because what she’s saying makes total sense. “Well, look at this example.” I’ve won the argument, but what I’ve won is complete stagnation.
That’s what he’s fighting for, which is a very weird thing for a character to dig his heels in on. Does that make sense?
A friend of mine, Devin from CHUD called it the Taxi Driver of sports comedies. And I’m like, “It’s not really a sports comedy. But, I see what you’re saying.” The Taxi Driver part might be appropriate, I thought, but not of sports comedies.
I keep calling it Fattsy Driver. It drives Rob crazy.
Does Paul change during this film or does he not? I was like, I couldn’t tell if the Paul that we know at the beginning of the movie would be at the place that he is at the very end. But Rob was like, “No, he totally would be.” And half the guys I was talking to after the screening were like, “Probably, but we don’t know.”
Not to bring up comparisons to Taxi Driver, but if you notice when you watch that movie, the first shot is through a rearview mirror of Times Square rolling by. And the very last shot is when Bickle is looking in the rearview mirror and he sees the lights coming up and he doesn’t want to look at himself.
And basically what they’re saying is this is on a loop, that at the beginning of the movie he is completely closed-off and non-verbal. He tries to break out of it, and the only way he can express himself is through this explosion of violence. Now it’s all calmed down and he’s going to be cruising out there again until it explodes again. And it’s just going to never stop.
And I just think with Paul, at the very end he’s back on a telephone. Now like his one friend he’s talking to on a phone, so he’s even more in his shell and he’s just digging his delusion in even deeper. Because now, in his mind, he has magical powers. He’s become this force that the Giants need, so you’re just going to see this guy go deeper and deeper into his shell, and there’ll probably be another thing of violence, but on a weird, like, public nuisance level. And they can only go, “The most we can give this guy is 15 months and he’s going to get out again. And it’s never going to end.
When you guys came together and started rehearsing and you started working with Kevin Corrigan - you guys had a great rapport in the film, I thought.
[laughs] In real life we have a great rapport. That guy fucking cracks me up. He’s so funny. He does this thing where - and I’ve never seen, especially someone like me who’s like, “I’ve got to think of something to say.” What he’ll do is he’ll very actively, and you’ll see his character will think of something to say and then decide, “I’m not going to say it.” And then just kind of go back down, and that fucking kills me.
And then just the weird non sequitors. That little thing about brown bottles and green bottles. He just thought that up when we were talking. And you get the feeling that he kind of maybe thinks that way. He’s such a, like, he’s tuned into a better frequency than a lot of us, than me. So it’s just cool to be around him. He’s this great calming presence.
Yeah, he was - did you see Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist?
I haven’t seen it yet. I have such a stack of movies that I’ve got to see.
He’s great in that. He has this whole scene where he doesn’t speak. They put him in, he has a cameo, no words. He’s very funny.
Yeah. He’s always - I think in another 10 years they’ll refine the Stanton-Walsh rule - which is the Harry Dean Stanton/M. Emmet Walsh rule - and he’ll be part of that rule. It’s like, if he’s in it, his scenes will be good. Even if the movie stinks, Kevin Corrigan will be doing something. “Oh, good, that guy.”
Yeah. It’s already kind of like that.
“Oh, thank god.” Yeah, yeah. He’s just reliable.
Did you and Rob collaborate much on the story, or did the script stay pretty much as-is when you guys filmed it?
I think I’m an okay improviser, but I’m very much against this fad of improvisation lately. Because there certain people - like Vince Vaughn is brilliant at it. And people see him do it and he makes it look so fucking easy that people go, “I’m doing that too.”
And by the way, sometimes improvisation is needed. There were some moments that I improvised in the movie. But sit down and read the mother-fucking script. What if it’s great? And this script was great. And I was like, if I read this mostly as is, I’ll look like a genius, rather than, “I’ve got to put my big peanut-butter fingerprints on this and make this Patton Oswalt.” I might **** it up if I do that. It was like with Ratatouille, it is a Brad Bird script, ****, what am I going add to it?
“Yeah Brad, what do you wrote there is kind of C minus.” I am going to say this thing with my stupid fart jokes. There are moments when you just pick your moments to improvise, but don’t just do it as a given. That drives me crazy. And then maybe I just did that because I write so much and I think I am at a point now in my life when I know good writing when I read it, because I read so much.
Yeah.
But man, people just assume all writing is dashed off and that the screenwriting, they think there is an implied “please help” you know. And interestingly, screenwriters bust their asses to get themselves where they want them…
Sure.
Well at least assume that or here is something… go ask the writer. I was reading this scene and there is something that I think is missing and I was wondering, would it **** the movie if I added this? Usually, they are happy to work with you, but you know, you have just come now, just cut this off.
Did you see The Wrestler?
Yes, I saw that way back in September in Toronto and I was like oh yeah.
But, you guys were done with Big Fan by then?
Yes, we were done. Aronofsky, I think he is an really distinctive and talented filmmaker, but he is just like everyone, he just invents visual tricks in every scene. And for Rob who writes such a sound script, Darren is like, I am going to film this as a list, that is a real testament to his writing.
How familiar were you with the world of the radio call-in shows?
OK. I don’t know anything about sports or call-in shows, but you can really sense Rob’s affection for these kind of disembodied misfits that just kind of out in the night ether and that just came through. No judgment, no snarkiness to it and I just read it as it was.
And those monologues were great, the weird halting. The only thing I added to the monologues and it was only a couple of times I added even more. Rob is such a good writer, the scene where I am it says articulate and this can come through. And in a couple of the evens I just added a little bit of inarticulateness and made them less poetic. Do you know what I mean?
When I said, “this thing is a thing”, I think that was - it was just because he actually made too good a point. And I was like this guy would be too fucking dumb, he would never… you know what I mean.
So what are you doing next? I haven’t seen the new shows at the new Largo yet.
Yeah, I am doing a show on the 31st there, at the end of February in DC and then record a new album and a new special. And then, I am writing a book for Simon & Schuster and I am in a bunch of movies coming out and a bunch of TV shows, so I will be popping up from time to time. And most of all I am having a baby in April.
Wow, congratulations.
Looks like that’s kind of the thing that is rocking my world right now.
You have sort of like embraced this whole nerd culture or the nerd culture embraces you, like Dungeons and Dragons, gaming, those kind of people, because you talk about that stuff in your comedy, is that just who you are or is that something you like to connect and identify with easily?
It is always… I don’t believe in guilty pleasures; if it gives you pleasure, then it gives you pleasure. So I never try to like look at anything in an ironic self-deprecating way. If that is what you like, then where do you get the energy to try to quantify it?
There was a rumor that you had an ongoing D&D game that you played regularly at…
We do and I have had to drop out of it for a bit just because of prepping the album and writing the book. It was like it would be unfair of me to keep - I am going to have to keep the links to games because of all the travel I have to do. So I had my character wander off, but they are still playing and hopefully in the spring I will get back and do it.
That’s awesome. So what other performers or comedians do you take time to go see, are there people that you really like?
As often as I can, yeah. Right now, the ones that are coming up are Nick Kroll, Kyle Kinane, Michelle Biloon, Ian Edwards and who else is amazing? Oh, Anthony Jeselnik are like — I think they are going to be the ones that do the biggest shake up in the next few years. That will be the next wave that comes up and really kind of lays to waste everything.
Kyle is amazing and the fact that he is that fucking young and he is so in-tune with, I am just going to talk about myself and really in-tune with exactly what is absurd about, how he mishandles his own life rather than just trying to do kind of nonsequator postmodern ironic shit that he is already that in-tune at that young an age, that’s extraordinary to me.
Yeah.
I mean I didn’t get that way until I was in my 30s. I didn’t have the confidence to do that. And he has a wonderful combination of confidence and just ignorance too of, I am just going to say whatever the **** I am doing. It is amazing. And then Nick Kroll is just an amazing standup and a character guide. He can just do amazing characters. Michelle Biloon is just this charming solid comedian from Austin, Texas. Ian Edwards is also just a fantastic writer. I do these showcases in LA and Frank Smiley comes to that show, and like all the new comedians who show of 20 people, just bring them on and Ian is the first guy that got booked off of my show, because he was just so goddamn funny.
And then who else did I name? And Anthony Jeselnik, holy mother of god, he is such a good joke writer. He is the opposite of Kyle Kinane. He is completely impersonal, but his jokes are so fucking well written, it just blows me away.
So, is this kind of where you wanted to be or you are happy to be at this level for a while?
Sure, yeah this is great. Because now I can also do another thing I always wanted to do, which is help other young filmmakers out, like showcase their stuff. There is this movie that I have been championing called The Snake, these two guys made for, it looks like, five grand up in San Francisco in a hand-held video camera. It is so fucking funny that I just got him signed with CAA and they signed with Principado Entertainment and there will be a big release of the film later.
Is it feature length?
Yeah, feature length film. And the star of this thing Adam Goldstein, mark my words, is going to be a huge comedic actor, like everyone that watched it is like, wow the **** - because he is going to get. The Herald and Kumar guys, I showed it to them and they are like we are hiring him. He is hired, he is perfect, I mean he is so fucking funny. And so he is going to be like the new Danny McBride, because if you look at him, you would go, oh my fucking god, this is the funniest guy, so… look for that one soon.
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