BRIAN HERZLINGER'S INTERVIEW
CONTINUED...
interview page 1 | page 2 | e-mail Chris Neumer
CHRIS NEUMER: When you phrase it like that, you have a third interpretation, which is that you have a team of people working to get you a date. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Working to make a dream come true. CHRIS NEUMER: Well, this is the disconnect. BRIAN HERZLINGER: It is the disconnect, but they understood it. CHRIS NEUMER: It sounds funnier when you say trying to get a date. BRIAN HERZLINGER: No it does, you’re right. It’s ridiculous is what it is. The fact remains why did they do it? I didn’t know Cary until this movie. CHRIS NEUMER: It’s the photos you have, right? BRIAN HERZLINGER: Apparently so. It’s the chest hair. Cary had a crush on Tom Cruise growing up. CHRIS NEUMER: Oh, that’s right and then she was the assistant. BRIAN HERZLINGER: So she related to that. Jon and Brett have known me forever and knew how much it meant to me. They also thought it would be really funny to watch me try to do it. We had no expectations for this movie to get to where it is now. None. CHRIS NEUMER: Now did anyone actually say when you landed the thing with Drew, "This thing better be good. I’ve just given you 80 man-hours, you better not make an ass of yourself or try not to drool on her. You got to do this for me." BRIAN HERZLINGER: No, nothing. CHRIS NEUMER: Completely unconditional huh? BRIAN HERZLINGER: Everything that happens in that movie is true and real and there is no ulterior motive. Nothing. For example the premiere sequence … I was petrified for many reasons. The fact that I had been in that situation with Drew before and froze at the first premiere. The idea of using fake passes to get into the premiere and then be in the same situation to try and redeem myself from the first one, also knowing that the whole journey rested on the fact that I needed to ask her out. This is the only time we knew she was going to be somewhere so we had to get me in. CHRIS NEUMER: That’s because you didn’t want to stalk her, which would have made that easier. BRIAN HERZLINGER: You’re absolutely right. You see we’re true Americans. Jon, Brett and Cary were a great support system and said, "Listen, it’s going to be fine. The fake passes will get you in. You’re not going to go to jail and you’re going to get in there and be able to ask her out and everything’s going to be great. And if not, if you wind up getting caught and wind up in jail, it’s great for the movie." It’s not a comfort. CHRIS NEUMER: It’s only going to be a misdemeanor. BRIAN HERZLINGER: It’s not a comfort. There’s a deleted scene, it will be on the DVD. Brett got mad because when I came out Brett and Jon wanted to go in to the after-party and get video footage of it because we didn’t have anything when I was in there; they were looking at the cell phone the whole time. When they tried to go back it, security saw right away the pass was fake and grabbed Brett and threw him up against the wall and he almost went to jail. You know what it is. Them telling me not to worry, it’s good for the movie. Ha. CHRIS NEUMER: Well, it’s good that you didn’t get caught. Usually I steer away from any kind of personal questions, but … BRIAN HERZLINGER: Ask them. CHRIS NEUMER: I had this weird vision in my head. The movie comes out and you are with a new girl and you are meeting her dad for the first time. I’m thinking that the dad is going, "You better spend more than 30 days pursuing my daughter, that’s all I got to say." BRIAN HERZLINGER: Better do something more than making a movie of it. CHRIS NEUMER: It’s like, "Oh, this is your new guy. What’s your claim to fame? You tried to get a date with Drew Barrymore?" BRIAN HERZLINGER: You know it’s funny. Brett and Jon were making fun of me about never being able to get a date with another girl because I’d gone to such unprecedented lengths with Drew that no other girls would even want to try to compete with her. CHRIS NEUMER: What’s different than before. It’s just the other way around. It’s like Apu in The Simpsons when he gives all the gifts to his girlfriend and he has a whole month of romantic things and he gets kidnapped because he is making the other guys look bad. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Right. I have to look at this movie, I have to look at me in the movie split in two. I look at it as a filmmaker when I see scenes like the ex-girlfriend phone call or the test date. CHRIS NEUMER: Oh, we are going to test you on that. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Those scenes as a filmmaker are absolutely crucial to the movie. You need those scenes because people identify with that. That’s absolutely real. They need to see me to get on my side and see where I am. The test date is key to the movie. You need to see me trying and showing my neuroses and this and that. When you split it down and look at the other side … me, I can’t stand watching the ex-girlfriend scene. It breaks my heart every time I see it. When I watch the test date it was the saddest day in my life. CHRIS NEUMER: You mean with the knife thing? BRIAN HERZLINGER: With that kiss and the fact that I don’t know how to cut a steak. It’s embarrassing. It’s not something I need the world to know. They are going to know now, but as a filmmaker you need it. It’s a great laugh when I can’t cut a steak with the bread knife. CHRIS NEUMER: I was feeling for you. BRIAN HERZLINGER: I tell you if you have nothing to do on a Saturday, go on a date, videotape it, take it home, watch it with friends and have them critique it. You can’t beat it. CHRIS NEUMER: I’d probably be egotistical enough to enjoy the experience. BRIAN HERZLINGER: If you do, videotape it, all right? CHRIS NEUMER: Videotape me watching the videotape. BRIAN HERZLINGER: You find that you are muppet-y, more muppet-y than you think. CHRIS NEUMER: You say you hated watching this ex-girlfriend thing. I was laughing my ass off. I thought it was amazing. I was like, "I feel his pain. I know what he is going through." BRIAN HERZLINGER: And that was exactly why it’s in there. CHRIS NEUMER: It’s entertaining as hell precisely because it’s not happening to me. BRIAN HERZLINGER: [laughs] I know! It’s a relief when you see it happening to someone else, but it kills you to watch it because at the end you’re like, "Damn, I’m glad that wasn’t me." It’s like that scene in Swingers when Jon Favreau keeps calling … CHRIS NEUMER: There’s nothing good about that scene. BRIAN HERZLINGER: It just hurts. CHRIS NEUMER: I was at a party recently and there was a guy off in a corner and when I had been talking to him, he was very bubbly, just a nice guy. He was over in the corner saying harshly, "What are you talking about? What do you mean?" What turned him on?" It was a change of pace until somebody told me he was talking to his ex-girlfriend. That explained everything. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Yeah, it does. I just love the fact that I’m finding things out about my former relationship that I didn’t know right then and there. It’s almost like, "Don’t ask any more questions Brian, just shut up. Don’t ask what you did wrong." CHRIS NEUMER: And they are only too happy to tell you. BRIAN HERZLINGER: That’s the thing. And you know everybody is like, "She’s got to be so angry." She knew that I was taping it. You hear me trying to get her to say she was okay with it, otherwise I couldn’t ask her the questions on it. I even said that to her afterward. I was like, "What are you yelling at me?" She was pissed with me for asking her advice on how to get another girl. CHRIS NEUMER: I do that now for fun actually. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Do you really? You know that she has seen the movie and loves the movie except for that scene. CHRIS NEUMER: It doesn’t make her look too good either. BRIAN HERZLINGER: I didn’t want anybody pointing fingers at her. CHRIS NEUMER: It’s sort of like you meeting the new girl’s dad and this is your claim to fame. BRIAN HERZLINGER: You didn’t trust her huh. Did you trust me? CHRIS NEUMER: There’s going to be a revelation moment for that next guy that has long-term relationship with her. "You did what? You’re the voice? Hmmmm..." BRIAN HERZLINGER: [laughs] "You sound familiar." That’s funny. I doubt she will be going on many dates to see the movie. CHRIS NEUMER: There are so many different personal applications you could take on with this. I know you’ve made the point in a number of different things on how it is your life. I think someone asked you about Twenty First Dates and how that was sort of … BRIAN HERZLINGER: Twenty Dates. You mean the Miles Berkowitz one? CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Fifty First Dates is the Drew movie. You know we actually rented Twenty Dates. CHRIS NEUMER: Well, those two were sort of put together, on my part. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Oh, yeah, that movie? We decided on a Friday to make our movie and we started shooting on Monday. On Saturday or Sunday we rented Twenty Dates just to see what it was about. CHRIS NEUMER: Twenty First Dates just sounds better. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Yeah, it does. Actually I want to see Twenty Dates and 18 Days Later. CHRIS NEUMER: 18 First Dates Later. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Exactly. There you go. It’s the perfect combination CHRIS NEUMER: It would make a hell of a zombie date movie. Like, uh, Shawn of the Dead. BRIAN HERZLINGER: I love that movie. We just wanted to make sure that we weren’t doing the same thing that he did. CHRIS NEUMER: Now when you were crafting this was there any talk about what would happen if after thirty days no date with Drew had come off. Were you still going to put the thing together as an American tragedy? BRIAN HERZLINGER: Well, we had alternate endings. We knew we had a story. We just didn’t know what the end of the story was. Whatever the end was we were going to find out what it was together. CHRIS NEUMER: It didn’t work for Mary Reilly, but apparently it worked for you. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Yeah. Oh my God. I finally saw that, I can’t believe what I was missing Bad movie. CHRIS NEUMER: No one else has compared your film to Mary Reilly? BRIAN HERZLINGER: Nope. So far you’ve been doing great. This is wonderful. The alternate ending … see it’s hard to say that because then you will know what the ending is. We were always prepared … CHRIS NEUMER: Is that something you are trying to keep out, whether you get the date or not? BRIAN HERZLINGER: Yeah. I’m trying not to reveal it. CHRIS NEUMER: Oh, you’ve got me asking one of the seven questions. I don’t know if you will be able to get that one. I’ll put it near the end, that you actually go on the date. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Do you have to put it in? CHRIS NEUMER: I’ll try not to. I wrote a review of Revenge of the Sith without using the words Star Wars so I figure I can … BRIAN HERZLINGER: You give yourself these challenges eh? CHRIS NEUMER: That’s what I’m saying. It keeps it interesting. BRIAN HERZLINGER: It does. The reason why we don’t–just so you know–is that we had no idea what was happening from day to day. That was a roller coaster ride and we want the audience to go on it the way we went on it, not knowing how it is going to go, especially at day thirty. CHRIS NEUMER: Especially when you don’t get it. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Because at date thirty people clap, they think it’s over. They think the movie ended and they still clap. CHRIS NEUMER: And then fast-forward, it’s not. I can appreciate this film because I just imagine instead of getting a date, you are trying to get an interview with her and just going through all the publicists. I think she is with PMK if I recall correctly. They are the worst, the worst. BRIAN HERZLINGER: I think she may have left. CHRIS NEUMER: I was trying to do something with Nancy Juvonen a long time ago and when you mentioned Flower Films, it triggered something. I was like, "Oh my God, I know this. I’ve dealt with Nancy and these assistants. I was doing it for Donnie Darko so it was probably about the same time. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Wow. They are re-releasing it. CHRIS NEUMER: No, no. This was the first time they were releasing it. BRIAN HERZLINGER: That was around September 11 wasn’t it? Donnie Darko came out in 1001? CHRIS NEUMER: I was doing this probably about winter 1001 so I figured it was closer to when you were doing it than … BRIAN HERZLINGER: We didn’t shoot this until summer 1003 and it was actually after we finished our movie. CHRIS NEUMER: Oh yeah, we’re in 1005 aren’t we. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Yeah we are, but Donnie Darko was re-released after we finished our movie. CHRIS NEUMER: It was last year I think. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Yeah, I just got the DVD. I got the director’s cut. It came out in February. CHRIS NEUMER: So I appreciated it on that level. Have you contacted Drew to see if she could go out on guest shows to help promote this? BRIAN HERZLINGER: No, not at all. Never. Number one, we don’t want her to reveal the ending so if she was going out promoting our movie … CHRIS NEUMER: Is there sort of a balancing effect on that? If she goes on Letterman and promotes the film and then … BRIAN HERZLINGER: Flower Films has been amazing throughout the whole process. On the journey, a couple of other players, lawyers, managers, agents, publicists whatever, they make it very difficult to do things the way you want to do them. CHRIS NEUMER: I think that is actually part of the publicist’s job to screw it up. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Oh it is. There’s definitely a personality test that’s taken. CHRIS NEUMER: It’s like the people who are just too sociopathic to be put on Survivor get pushed right into the field. The powers-that-be say, "We’ve got another door right over here. Welcome to the PR firm." BRIAN HERZLINGER: Oh yeah, publicity. You’re absolutely right. Except for the publicists in there, they are great. CHRIS NEUMER: You’re taking an SRI? Well, if you stop, we’re going to put you on Tom Cruise’s account. BRIAN HERZLINGER: But you have to take the IQ test or the personality test whatever it is. So to make a long story short, Flower Films understands and gets the journey. Drew’s on that billboard. She’s on that building for a reason. She is unattainable. Do you know what I mean? I’m a guy on the street trying to meet a super star that is out of my league. CHRIS NEUMER: Is this billboard on Ventura Blvd.? BRIAN HERZLINGER: No Sunset. The diner is right here. CHRIS NEUMER: Okay. So I’m heading east. I think HBO has the board now right? BRIAN HERZLINGER: No, it’s Disney. Over here, on the other side, right where you’re sitting on Sunset, that’s the HBO. They are facing each other. It’s the purity of the journey and the quest. CHRIS NEUMER: You do have your talking points with your journey and quest. BRIAN HERZLINGER: Well… It’s so easy for somebody to take what I say and manipulate it into whatever they want and that has happened. In one article Cary was my hairdresser, my hair stylist and Jon and Brett gave me some money to make the movie. That’s how things get twisted. Wow, this was great. This was actually one of the most fun talks I’ve had because you didn’t ask me the same questions. It’s funny, you wind up getting more out of me too. CHRIS NEUMER: See how that works?
(c) Stumped, 1998-2006
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