Hollywood.com got into the heads of the cast and crew—-including writer-director Paul Weitz and stars Hugh Grant, Mandy Moore, Chris Klein, Willem Dafoe and Sam Golzari–behind the new satire American Dreamz, which sends up everything from the U.S. president to the most popular show on television:
On just who inspired that American Idol-style host in the film:
Hugh Grant: Simon Cowell, I have met him at a couple of parties. I don’t know him at all, and this part is not particularly based on him—aside from the fact that I am a judge on a talent show that’s massively popular and I am very cruel. There the resemblance stops. The part really is a creation of Paul Weitz, and partly his warped vision of me.
On Dennis Quaid’s Dubya-esque president:
Paul Weitz: Dennis wasn’t quite sure what he was going to do, and so I actually went to his house and read through the script with him once because he wasn’t sure if he was going to use George W. mannerisms or what he was going to throw in, and he didn’t want it to be like an SNL parody, but at the same time I was delighted that there were clearly these mannerisms that were making their way into his performance. I mean, he’s from Texas and our president works out a lot, and Dennis could be believable doing that.
On exploring the dark side of Mandy Moore:
Mandy Moore: I think it’s the fun and the challenge as an actress to get a meaty part like this and sort of play against type. Sally is pretty far from who I am so I definitely enjoyed it.
Paul Weitz: I think that I told Mandy to try and act as if the idea of being a human being was new to her. That’s an utterly un-actable note.
On fears of the satire offending people in today’s politically charged climate:
Paul Weitz: I think that when you’re making a comedy about really serious issues, you’re kind of in the position of being an idiot savant. It’s like you’re using the vocabulary of broad comedy to talk about what’s most important, and I don’t have a Michael Moore-like desire to offend people or get people angry at me. If anything, that idea just stresses me out. So really, while the film is sending up various things, I was actually thinking of something more integral in terms of a theme for the film. That in America everyone is supposed to have a dream, which is kind of the most positive thing about America. We just kind of manifest that in the character Sam [Golzari] plays, the show tune-loving, bumbling terrorist whose salvation is that he wants to be a star. But at the same time, if everyone has a dream, does that make it impossible to deal with reality? And I’m not sure that that’s really something that’s going to offend anyone of any one particular persuasion, but that’s actually really what I was thinking of in terms of what was underlying the film.
Sam Golzari: For me, if I’m worried about offending anyone–when I first heard about the script I was a little nervous. Like, ‘Oh, a Middle Eastern terrorist. That’s been done.’ But then I saw the script and I saw the character. To me, the person that he is and the character that he represents kind of trumped any kind of worries I had about his political agendas. On the human level I fell in love with the character, and when you see the movie I think that’s what surpasses any kind of agenda that he might have…I talked to someone who saw this film and they said that for like an hour and a half these things that they were worried about and scared of were things that they could laugh at. For someone to be able to do that for an hour and a half was like releasing toxins. So I think that’s something that the movie does really well.
Willem Dafoe: I thought, of course, that political climate and pop culture, they satire themselves. Remember when Robert Altman did a sort of satirical view of the fashion world? Well, this is a world that is satire–it eats itself all the time…I just concentrate on one thing at a time, and even doing this film, I read it and I thought, ‘Wow, no one is making a film like this.’ It doesn’t really present any revelations politically to me, necessarily, but it is using humor to approach things that we sort of know from a different angle, and that helps loosen up the discourse and gives us a fresh perspective in a climate of great constipation.
The Weitz brothers’ film veterans on re-teaming with Paul solo, without his brother Chris:
Chris Klein: When we were making American Pie, working with Paul and Chris, working with two directors, the brothers, was a very seamless experience. They have the exact same clear-cut vision, and when one of them would give a note the other one would come in and expound on that note and it was always the same. It was never something where they were competing, and they made it very easy…It was great to have two voices in my ears going, ‘Yeah, do it this way.’ Two as opposed to one. And now I’m so happy to work with Paul on this movie because of that seamlessness, and his mind and his very focused vision of what he wants it to be.
Hugh Grant: They were sinisterly seamless as a pair. My personal theory is that they were in fact Siamese twins joined at the head, and they have been very cunningly separated. The only thing that is slightly different with Paul from Chris is that he gives six good notes and then one really appalling note that is un-actable. I particularly enjoyed watching some of the actors that hadn’t worked with him before getting the seventh note and looking really perplexed and miserable. [Laughs]
On the power of American Idol:
Hugh Grant: I had never seen the show before I did this film and then I watched a bunch of tapes, I enjoy cruelty. I like people being humiliated, I like watching freaks. The freakier the better as far as I am concerned. I think in a way the show doesn’t go far enough. I would quite like to see the losers tortured. [And] especially the winners. No, it’s very fascinating. I think in a way it is very much a return to ancient Rome and watching Christians being fed to the lions. It’s also that gene within some people, probably all of us up here with the possible exception of Paul, however you much you play it down and try to deny it you want to be in the lime light. That’s what all these tragic characters on American Idol obviously have. It’s particularly enjoyable to see that in someone when they don’t have the talent to match it, so I totally understand the appeal.
Mandy Moore: I Tivo it. I’m not going to lie. I watch it.
Chris Klein: I have them all on my Tivo as well.
Paul Weitz: I think that the thing about American Idol is that it’s very strange that it’s getting more and more and more popular. I think that everyone expected that after a couple of years it would kind of peter out like most shows do. So it almost seems like it’s tapping in to some obsessive need to not only feel like we’re making stars by voting, but it focuses in on an aspect of reality television–which I think is that most people think that they are one step away from being a star themselves. So you see these singers and they’re pretty good, but they’re not so great that you can’t kind of fantasize that you could almost sing that way in the shower. This started as Pop Idol in Britain, but it has become an American obsession.
On the notion of aspiring pop stars short-cutting past the dues-paying portion of their career by appearing on American Idol:
Mandy Moore: I would never discredit anyone that is working their way up on a show like American Idol. I’m a fan of the show and I do watch every week, but I think they work so hard overcoming all of these obstacles just to get on the show in the first place. Every week they are judged in front of all of America, and it must be overwhelming, all of the pressure, so I give them complete credit for getting up on stage. I think I would crumble under that kind of pressure. No, I think that they deserve all of the success that they get.
Sam Golzari: I had an ex-girlfriend who was on American Idol. She got to the Top 40 and the thing that I found the most interesting, especially with the people who were kind of freaks, is when you see them audition for Simon it’s actually like their tenth audition. They’ve auditioned for an assistant and then for a casting director and producers, and so these people have gone through these auditions and they think that they’re good because they keep getting through and that’s why they’re always in a state of shock when Simon says, ‘You make me want to vomit,’ or whatever he says. So when she told me that, it made me realize like this film talks about that everything you see is not what it really is. That kind of gave me some insight into that point.
On the prospect of screening American Dreamz for the real president:
Paul Weitz: I’d love to screen it at the White House. I’d just make sure that I knew where the nearest exit was just in case. In terms of if George W. saw himself in Dennis Quaid‘s portrayal, it’s kind of a weird film because there’s a send up of the administration in it and so I imagine that some people from the right will be upset by it, but also some people from the left might actually be upset that this character has a certain amount of heart eventually, and undergoes a certain bit of transformation. So I’m probably managing to offend both sides.
On the possibility of actually hosting a TV reality series:
Hugh Grant: I have always had a secret desire to be on television, actually. I like reality shows, I am a particular fan of one in England I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. That’s sort of how I feel right now. If it wasn’t beneath my dignity I’d be doing lots of them. In fact, I tried to persuade Colin Firth to do a Celebrity Wrestling Match with me for Comic Relief a couple of years ago, but he was afraid. Not physically, but I think he was afraid of becoming aroused. [Laughs]
