Bobcat Goldthwait on Set of Sleeping Dogs Lie
Interview: Bobcat Goldthwait Talks Sleeping Dogs Lie
“Even though I wasn’t really in the public eye, I was still making okay bread doing stand-up,” Goldthwait explained. “I kind of rolled the dice and saw if I could do this just as my income. Jimmy Kimmel’s always been really cool to me. I used to direct for him on The Man Show and then on Crank Yankers. I did a movie called Windy City Heat that he produced. Then I directed his show for a year and a half. I really like directing, it’s what I’m happiest doing. But if I hadn’t been an actor that did stand-up I’d be a director that wished he could act and do stand-up.”
Sleeping Dogs Lie is a dramatic comedy about a woman who reveals a sexual secret to her fiancé. It’s so controversial that when it spreads to her family, she loses all of her close relationships. Shot quickly with no perks, it is a change of pace from the polished, studio look of Shakes the Clown or the documentary style of Windy City Heat.
“That’s really true. Shakes the Clown, that’s my Lawrence of Arabia (laughing). It was shot on film and stuff. And even Windy City Heat, we shot some of that on film. But this was done such guerilla-style. It was done in 16 days with our own money. Half the crew is from Craigslist. All these stories are true, you know? Mostly when I was making this movie I was just mostly concerned with getting the performances shot. I knew we only had 16 days but I kind of knew if we got to the end of it and we shot everything, I thought we at least had a shot at it making sense. It is guerilla. It wasn’t like a decision artistically. It was just we worked with what we had.”
Real drama follows Amy (Melinda Page Hamilton)’s secret, but Goldthwait still calls it a comedy. “I believe it’s a comedy. I guess so but in the classic Greek tragedy, I guess it’s a tragedy but it’s a comedy.”
Jokes at the expense of Amy’s sex act are actually few and far between, at Goldthwait’s discretion. “I did not put them in. I never wanted to make fun of her. I think people who haven’t seen the movie think that’s the joke, that she’s the joke. But I’ve always had nothing but respect for her. She’s not the punchline and she never was. And all the characters, I don’t have any contempt for any of the characters, her especially. She’s our hero.”
You probably won’t recognize the stars of Goldthwait’s latest film, unless you study the episode casts of procedural dramas. “Here’s the thing. It’s like no one was going to give me money to make this movie. But the cool thing about working with people that people aren’t familiar with is that as soon as you start watching the movie you’re not going, ‘Oh, that’s Sandra Bullock.’ You have no preconceived notions of Melinda and stuff, so that’s a cool thing. The other thing is is that everybody that was there, because we were so low-budget, was there because they really wanted to be there. That’s kind of cool. That was why everyone was involved because they actually believed in it. That’s the cool thing you get with a tiny movie.”
Originally titled Stay, Marc Forster’s forgotten supernatural thriller forced the title change. “I thought like the break-up and people just wanting everything to be status quo.” Many far less subtle alternatives were suggested before the current one. “Oh yeah, like Come just a million. I like Sleeping Dogs Lie.”
Sleeping Dogs Lie is out in theatres now.
For the trailer, poster and more movie info, go to the Sleeping Dogs Lie Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
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