LOS ANGELES, Jan. 31, 2000 — Wirey Spindell, while one of the most uniquely named characters to hit the big screen, is neither superhero nor Casanova. He’s an Everyman with intimacy issues and a drug-and-alcohol-riddled past.
To watch his life is to watch that of Eric Schaeffer, who wrote, directed and starred in the film. A former taxi driver, Schaeffer created the screenplay from a book he wrote 10 years ago, with the much longer title “A Legend in His Own Mind, by Wirey Spindell.”
“Nobody wanted to publish [the book], much to the happiness of my detractors and much to the chagrin of my fans,” the 38-year-old Schaeffer says. “I get equal letters of people who want to know please, where they can get the book, and other people saying the only good thing they can say about ‘Wirey’ is it restores their faith in American publishing, [since] it wasn’t published.”
The story of a flawed man who soul-searches his commitment fears before his impending wedding to his loyal fiancée (Callie Thorne), “Wirey Spindell” continues on a vein Schaeffer previously explored in films such as “If Lucy Fell” with Sarah Jessica Parker, “Fall” and “My Life’s in Turnaround,” all of which he directed and starred in.
“All four films progressively [explore the romantically challenged], crystallizing thematically with ‘Wirey Spindell,'” Schaeffer says. “It’s primarily concerned with that issue: how to do relationships.”
And this transcends to Schaeffer’s relationships as well. “Any writer that says what he writes are not extensions of him is lying,” he says. ” ‘Write what you know’ is sort of what you’re taught, and I always said I don’t have much of an imagination. … There are certainly extensions of me; some are alter egos, some are my perceptions, some are just fantasies or fictional accounts of things that I see, or hybrids of all of them.”
But Wirey, who discovers drugs, alcohol and sex at a young age and lives a life of self-destruction through college until he hits rock bottom, was more autobiographical than usual. So even though Schaeffer would like to cast Sean Penn, John Cusack or Bill Murray in one of his films someday, portraying Wirey Spindell himself — as he has in his other films — was a natural progression for the writer.
“I enjoy acting,” says Schaeffer, who, like Wirey, majored in drama/dance at Bard College. “I can’t act in other things … I’m not good at making characters … [but] doing stuff that’s close to me, that I can relate to, I like doing. It was a natural progression. I don’t know that anyone can play me as well as I can.”
Winstar Cinemas’ “Wirey Spindell” opens Jan. 21 in New York and Feb. 4 in Los Angeles.
