Kevin Smith became more famous for just talking than he ever was for making movies like Clerks, Chasing Amy and Zack and Miri Make a Porno. His public speaking Q&A sessions fill large theaters, including Carnegie Hall. Arguably, his tales of debating a giant spider with producer Jon Peters, finding... more

Kevin Smith became more famous for just talking than he ever was for making movies like Clerks, Chasing Amy and Zack and Miri Make a Porno. His public speaking Q&A sessions fill large theaters, including Carnegie Hall. Arguably, his tales of debating a giant spider with producer Jon Peters, finding a camel for Prince and having unprotected sex with an open sore on his penis contain more laughs than any one of his films. In between public talks, Smith has graduated from journaling his random diatribes online to recording them in podcast form.

The Smodcast is Smith’'s audio sessions with friend and producer Scott Mosier. The name is simply the combination of the names Smith and Mosier with the word podcast. They debate such diverse topics as Helen Keller (was she faking it? Did Annie Sullivan have to explain sex to her?), cloning (would your clone be your best friend? If you slept with your clone, would you be gay?), the metaphysical (What if Smith hired Jennifer Connelly to become Scott Mosier while Mosier was still there observing?) and just plain sex talk (lap dances, puberty education literature, etc.) Friends and frequent collaborators Bryon Johnson, Walt Flanagan and Malcolm Ingram also join in from time to time.

"“On some level, it fulfills that childhood aspiration to have a comedy album,"” Smith told Suicide Girls in an exclusive phone interview. "“That’'s what I listened to when I was growing up, people doing bits on comedy albums whether it’'d be sketches or just standup material. Number one, I’'m not a comic so I could never do that sort of thing. But, because of what I do, I’'ve gotten this kind of backdoor into the world of standing on a stage with a mic and making people laugh, this quasi-standup world of mine with this Q&A or by extension, the Smodcast stuff. So it kind of works like that, where you could put it out there and people could listen to it. Granted, we'’re not selling it like they did back in the day with comedy records, but I kind of dig it. I know on some level it fulfills that desire of the 11 or 12-year-old in me to be Bill Cosby for a minute, but a really filthy mouthed version of him.”"

A collection of Smodcasts is coming out in print form as the book Shootin’ the Sh*t with Kevin Smith: The Best of Smodcast. Smith took the interview call from home, with his wife Jennifer Schwalbach out at Yoga and his daughter Harley at a playdate. That left Smith free and clear to discuss the depraved subjects of his Smodcasts and start a few new ones too.

Fred Topel: Did you always conceive of the Smodcast as potential material for a new book?

KS: The weird thing is, the idea for the Smodcast book came directly from the good folks at Titan. [Editor] Adam Newell was just like, “Hey, we had this idea about we'’re going to do an interview book with you, but why don'’t we just transcribe some of the Smodcasts? They'’re really funny.” And I was just like, “I don't know if it would really work in print form, dude.” He had two of them done, transcribed and then sent them to me. Reading it out loud, I was like, “That is actually kind of funny.” And it’'s weird because I know the material so you’'d imagine that wouldn'’t have caught me off guard but a couple things made me chuckle out loud just by reading it.

FT: Did you ever follow up on Helen Keller?

KS: It'’s so weird you say that because two days ago, somebody on the Twitter feed said, “Hey, here'’s a video of Helen Keller.” It was on YouTube and it was Helen Keller essentially displaying, showing the folks that she could indeed speak, putting her fingers to Annie Sullivan’s mouth and throat or something like that. Then she kind of echoed what Annie Sullivan said. It was amazing. I’'d never seen it before and I’'d never seen what either of them had looked like but I saw the cinematic depictions and sh*t. You'’re always seeing the wild feral girl in the beginning, and she just looked like some old timey lady, but not like this feral wild child that could barely speak or barely knew of its own existence. What was great about that episode of Smodcast was how much we learned after that. I know way more about Helen Keller now than I did before we did it, and it became a kind of signature Smodcast mood for me and Mosier where we would just speak at great lengths about something we didn'’t know that much about. And we never spoke with authority, like, “Oh, this is what really happened” but it was like, “I think I remember hearing it like this and this kind of thing happened.” Then the tradition that follows is you go to the website and you read the 100 corrections that people are like, “Dude, Helen Keller wasn'’t born that way. For a year and a half she could hear and see.” Or, “There is video of Helen Keller.” Stuff like that, where you’'re just like, “Well, I guess we were way the f*ck off base.”

FT: Well, you asked if she had sex or wanted sex, and then how Annie Sullivan explained it to her. A biography by Dorothy Hermann says she did like sex.

KS: That is wild. That gives me a great deal of relief but how does that get explained? I mean, how the f*ck did Annie Sullivan explain that.

FT: Don’'t we have to read the biography now to find out?

KS: I don't know. I don't know if I could commit that much time. I’'d rather somebody else read it, distilled it on the internet, I could read that.

FT: When you talk about having Jennifer Connelly remake Scott Mosier, did it occur to you that that’'s similar to the plot of Synechdoche, New York?

KS: No, is it? I don't know, I never saw Synechdoche but now, to even have kind of a similar idea to a genius like Charlie Kaufman would be kinda cool. But no, no. I don't know if Mosier ever saw it but I love the idea of f*ckin’ Jennifer Connelly trying to play Mosier.

FT: Now since you talk about sex a lot, do you mind some dirty questions?

KS: Not at all.

FT: For some reason I’'m worried about offending you.

KS: Oh, never.

FT: On that note...


KS: Get to the dirty stuff, go.

FT: You always say you like your wife to be on top. Can you come that way?

KS: That’'s the only way I come, brotha’. I mean, I could come any way I guess but, and this is so weird, we were talking about this last night. I have been married for 10 years and my wife has never really seen me do anything physical, up to and including my very limited role in our sex life where she does 95% of the work. But, when she saw me go play in the Walter Gretzky Street Hockey Tournament up in Brantford, For a dude of my size I’'m pretty limber. And, I was surprisingly good, for a guy who hadn’'t played goal in 15 years. The wife was just like, it was almost as if I was like, “Oh, you didn'’t know that I could make my c*ck three inches bigger? Like, I’'ve never told you that before? I'’m sorry. I just never wanted to do it until now.” It was just she’'d never seen that side of me. I caught a momentary flash of her being utterly impressed but then she quickly put it down because she’'s like, “I’'m not going to give him this.” Because she thinks I get too much affection everywhere in this world anyway. So I waited for like a minute or two to pass and then I was just like, “Admit that you got just a little bit moist when I blocked that shot.” And she'’s like, “I gotta tell you, it’'s impressive but it’'s befuddling because you won'’t f*ck me. I always have to f*ck you yet I can watch you explode in a display of physical prowess. I don'’t understand why you don'’t bring that to the bedroom.” And I was like, “Because I don’'t have to. What’'s the point? If you do it all, I’'m happy with that. And you like it better doing it also. I'’m happy with that. That’'s a good thing for me.”

FT: Then, isn'’t cuddling underrated? Laying in bed naked playing with boobies is nice too.

KS: It is. I used to be a huge foreplay guy. I married somebody who’'s not. I married somebody who'’s just like, “Why are you wasting my time? Let’'s f*ckin’ bone.” So it'’s kinda hot. She’'s very much the dude in this relationship. I am total femme dude in every way, shape and form with the exception of I don’'t take it. She just controls it on when it comes to that aspect of our lives and I wouldn’'t have it any other way.

FT: Now to get deep. You talk about the ramifications of cloning in the Smodcast and the book. Do you think about the current debates like health care? They’'re worried about death panels. How could they ever handle it if human cloning became a real possibility?

KS: You’'re killing me here, man. You’'re blowing my mind. I mean, we all just sat around goofing about Walt wanting a clone which we all thought was adorable. So uncharacteristic that the dude expressed like, “I’'ve always wanted a clone.” The ramifications of cloning we touch on a little bit only inasmuch as let’'s get the comedy going. I don't think it’'s going to happen, dude. I mean, it ain'’t gonna happen for years. We really have to evolve as a species and a culture before that could ever be considered bringing into practical reality. Like creating whole people just to harvest them or creating whole people, I mean that’'s just more people to feel. This planet has a problem feeding who'’s here now.

FT: Do you think about politics? Do you ever share political views?

KS: Oh, like in practicality, in real life, outside of Smodcast?

FT: Yeah, because you stay away from political stuff in the public forums.

KS: Yeah, just because I'’m not that bright. I could speak knowingly or knowledgably about any number of subjects but politics, not at all. Mosier is our political guy and even he’'s not as immersed in it, but man, he knows way more than I do, that'’s for sure. I always tend to stay away. I'’m not very political. It’'s weird, when I became “successful” inasmuch as I started making money doing what I love, people were like, “You should go Republican, dude, because you’'ve got money now.” I’'m like, “Why? I don’'t understand that.” “Well, they'’ll help you keep that money.” I don't know, the money aspect to this job, I'’ve got a good relationship with it. I’'m never ashamed of it but at the same time, it’'s never been the driving factor so it’s also never been a problem for me. So for me, it’'s always about how cool it is to do it. You look at something like Clerks II. I literally took no salary to make the movie. Nothing whatsoever. I earned nothing off of Clerks II. I just did it because I wanted to do it and I was like, “Thank God somebody’'s giving me the money to do it so I don'’t care. I’'m just happy to do it.” [My next film] A Couple of Dicks, I took a huge price cut to do the movie just because that was the only way the movie was going to get done based on the budget. I was like, “You know what? I always wanted to make a Bruce Willis movie.”

FT: You got to be in Live Free or Die Hard and now direct a Bruce Willis movie. Things really worked out for you since he turned down Jersey Girl.

KS: Yeah, things panned out for me, man. I don't know, you stick around long enough and all your dreams come true I guess.

FT: What can you tell Batman fans about the series you’re writing, Widening Gyre?”

KS: The story, we re-introduced Silver St. Cloud into the matrix. Batman’'s past kinda comes into his present and it’'s good, dude. I like it. I hope people aren'’t getting ready for a f*ckin’ slam bang action-fest run. It’'s really kind of more about what happens when Bruce reaches this point in his life where he'’s seen his kid sidekicks grow up and go onto their own lives and have normal lives and girlfriends, the things that other people have that he’'s always sacrificed, that he’'s always said, “I could never have.” Suddenly, it’'s coinciding with the appearance of this new vigilante who Bruce is just like, “You know, I’'ve always been training kids. Maybe if I f*ckin’ brought an adult under my wing, it might be different and I can take some more time for myself.” So that’'s kind of what it’'s about and I probably turned off everybody that had half an interest in it but I don't know, I dig it. The folks at DC have been so accommodating and wonderful and what not. Everybody, our team on the book is great. This dude Mike Marts is a really wonderful editor that Dan Didio gave us and we got Art Thibert doing the inks on this one. He honors Walt [Flanagan]’'s inks but still kinda brings out a lot of great stuff in it. We got Art Lyon doing colors. Looks really, really f*ckin’ good. It’'s just a really strong book, so happy with it and it’'s something that I’'m going to enjoy. I remember reading the kind of mediocre review and going, like, “I don't know, dude. I’'m sitting here holding my Cacophony hardcover and it'’s just a cool thing. Whether you like the story or not is kind of irrelevant at this point because I'’m holding a hardcover of this comic book I wrote a couple months back and my friend Walt Flanagan, who I’'ve known for over 20 years, drew.” It’'s just way bigger than whether or not somebody thinks I did a good job writing Batman dialogue. This is far bigger than that, dude. This isn'’t about me making a paycheck. This is about a kid getting the keys to the f*ckin’ candy store and being told like, “Hey, go have fun. With your friend!” Like oh, that’'s amazing. Sh*t like that happens to me and I’'m always just like oh, that'’s the best part of the job, man. Don’'t get me wrong, money is f*ckin’ cool and it affords you a lot of cool things but money’'s just never been the driving factor for me.

FT: When will you start work on your Green Hornet comic, based on the script you wrote for a movie back at The Weinstein Company?

KS: Dicks took a lot out of me and rightfully so. I had to devote all my attention to it. For the first month, I was splitting my attention to the movie and the Carnegie Hall thing, the Walter Gretzky Street Hockey Tournament thing back in June, but then once Carnegie Hall was done, then it was all I could focus just on Dicks. Everything else went to the side. So now that I'’m done shooting Dicks and I’'m working on fine cutting it right now, I can kind of go back to the Green Hornet script and break it down because I don’'t want to just give them the script that I wrote for the movie and be like, “Here, figure it out.” I want to see if I can maybe break it down for whoever the artist is going to be, the same way that I write any comic book script. [Dynamite President and Publisher] Nick [Barrucci] wants to make it part of the canon for their Green Hornet tenureship so I said, “Dude, that’'s very flattering. I think my script for Green Hornet was all right, but in some places it was goofy. I don't know if you want that to be part of your continuity.” And he was like, “Well, we can have multiple Hornets as you know. We can have Hornet in the past, you’'re doing the Hornet most people would know from the Van Williams/Bruce Lee era so to speak. Then we'’ll do future Hornet as well. No, I want your story to be in continuity.” So I don't know, I’'m still going to fight him on that I think.

FT:You were one of the Weinsteins’ golden boys back in the Miramax days. Even with the recent success of Inglourious Basterds, why do you think The Weinstein Company has struggled? They used to be the masters of indie films.

KS: Yeah, you'’re absolutely right. They were the masters and they invented the game but the problem is, everybody else learned how to play the game too. Like when Wayne Gretzky broke out in the NHL, nobody had ever seen a player like him before but by the time Wayne Gretzky retired, there were a lot of people who played not specifically like Wayne Gretzky but a lot of people were now playing at his level of proficiency. I think it’'s kind of the same thing here. When Miramax got into the game, they were such f*ckin’ game changers, man. Nobody knew what was happening. It was like watching Billy Smith get scored on by Wayne Gretzky. Maybe not Billy Smith because he’'s actually able to f*ckin’ defend against Wayne Gretzky. But it’'s like watching an NHL goalie circa 1983/84 face off against Wayne Gretzky. They just weren'’t prepared. They were like, “Where the f*ck did this come from?” It was the same thing with the brothers Weinstein and Miramax. When they sprang onto the scene, they took the world by storm. They were just brilliant geniuses at doing what they did. But the thing is, you do that long enough and people observe you, they'’re going to learn how to do it too and other people started doing it. For me, to my reckoning, the moment that Dreamworks put out American Beauty, that’'s when other studios figured out how to make a Miramax movie. Once that happened, they had way more resources, all these studios and whatnot, to make those kind of pictures. So Harvey started competing at that level and that’'s where the Cold Mountains come from and The Aviator. The dude created something that everyone else learned how to do from him and then they just learned to do it so well that he kind of had to learn to play catch up. It doesn'’t mean that they’ll never be great again but you’'ve got to stay sharp, dude.

FT: Finally, to preview A Couple of Dicks, how did you end up directing a movie you didn'’t write?

KS: Dicks kind of sprang at me, which sounds so erotic, it was after San Diego Comic Con, not this year but the year before. Jeff Robinov who heads up the motion picture group over at Warner Brothers was at this Q&A I’'d done with Zack Snyder. It was me, Zack Snyder, Frank Miller and Judd Apatow and I guess I was funny because the dude was like, “Send him in because I want to meet with him.” It was weird because we’'d had some friction in the past and we were just like, “Hey, let'’s put that aside.” He’'s going, “I think you'’re funny and I want you to work here and blah blah blah.” And I was like, “Yeah, man, one day, whatever you got, we'’ll see.” He had sent it to me and he hit me with the e-mail with, “What’'d you ever think of Dicks?” I was like, “Hey, man, I don’'t run that way.” Then he explained what he was talking about and all bad d*ck joke puns aside, I read the script. I was like, “Wow, this is kinda like a cop movie if I would’'ve wrote the cop movie.” He loved Zack and Miri so he was like, “I want you to do what you did to Zack and Miri but with this movie.” I was like, “What, give it a f*ckin’ title that nobody will go see it and we'’ll have to fight for?” Because that’'s where we are right now. [Laughs] Fighting for the Couple of Dicks title. Not fighting but it’s weird. It’'s not a fight yet. CBS, NBC and ABC all said that they would not run a spot before 9 o'’clock p.m. Now, that’'s fine because it’'s an R-rated movie but at the same time, you want to be advertising this R-rated movie during sports.

FT: So you might change the name before this movie comes out?

KS: Look, Warner Brothers is doing everything they can but you can'’t fight City Hall. This all comes down to Janet Jackson'’s boobs still. That’'s where the problem is. I'’m just like what f*ckin’ financial crisis are we in where a network can afford to turn down pricey top dollar advertising just because they're like, “We'’re uncomfortable with the word Dicks, what it may infer to people.” I mean, yes, it'’s a double entendre. Of course it’'s a double entendre. That’'s what’'s funny about it. It’'s not even a discussion, dude. In this world, it’'s just like, “All right, of course we'’ll do something about it because why would we go through all this effort just to have nobody see the movie because we can'’t advertise the movie because of the title?” Simply change the title. Movie doesn’'t change.” If they had gotten me prior to Zack and Miri, I probably would’'ve went down swinging like, “No, it’s all about the integrity of the title.” After having gone through the debacle of the Zack and Miri Make a Porno title, believe me, dude. I’'ve been f*cked once. I don’'t want to get f*cked again. Probably not a week of my life goes by in the last year where I wasn’'t like, “Why didn’t I just call the f*ckin’ thing Dirty Movie? What was I, an idiot?” When Humpday came out, I was like, “These motherf*ckers are brilliant! What a great title. Why did I go with Zack and Miri Make a Porno? I’'m such an idiot.” I mean, I like the movie and stuff. It’'s just the title, man. The title really, really hurt us.

Shootin’ the Sh*t with Kevin Smith: The Best of Smodcast is available September 22.

One of the most reliable Hollywood directors working today is also one of the most modest. New Zealand-born Martin Campbell has been quietly plugging away at the big-budget filmmaking game for decades, churning out a steady stream of high-octane dramas like the mountain climbing thriller Vertical Limit... more

One of the most reliable Hollywood directors working today is also one of the most modest. New Zealand-born Martin Campbell has been quietly plugging away at the big-budget filmmaking game for decades, churning out a steady stream of high-octane dramas like the mountain climbing thriller Vertical Limit and the Angelina Jolie-starring Beyond Borders as well as Sony’s two rebranded Zorro films starring Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. His primary affiliation, however, is with a certain British spy who sports a license to kill. After Timothy Dalton’s underwhelming two-film stint as James Bond in the late 80s, which resulted in a six year hiatus for the character, Campbell was brought in to retool the series with a new actor, Pierce Brosnan, and a new, 90s sensibility; the result was Golden Eye, a box-office smash and critical success.
Ten years later, when the Brosnan series began to peter out, it was no surprise that the Bond producers turned to Campbell once again to helm a total series reboot. Campbell’s second Bond film, Casino Royale, is considered among the best in the forty eight year-old franchise’s history and its runaway success pushed Campbell to the forefront of journeyman directors. After next tinkering with the idea of remaking Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, Campbell solidified two new projects: the mega-budget superhero film The Green Lantern, which is filming now, and an adaptation of the British crime series Edge of Darkness, with Mel Gibson in the role of a Boston detective seeking vengeance for his murdered daughter. Campbell recently called up SuicideGirls to talk about working with Mad Mel and action cinema today.


Ryan Stewart: Looks like you can’t escape the James Bond news cycle. It’s heating up again right now, just as you’re going out to do press for this film.

Martin Campbell: [laughs] I know, I just read something about Sam Mendes doing the next one. People do ask me about it still, during interviews and things like that, but I guess the cycle always goes on with Bond, doesn’t it?

RS: Have the Broccolis done justice to your vision of the series reboot, you think? Everyone considers Casino Royale to be near the top of the Bond canon.

MC: Well, look, I don’t really know what my vision was, I just simply did it the way I felt it should be done. I was very disappointed by Quantum of Solace, but to be honest I’m sure it was a very difficult thing to follow, Casino Royale. That one had an emotional story, and it was also the origin story, so there was a lot to work with. Any subsequent film is, of course, not going to have that, and the new characters that were introduced couldn’t really hope to have a meaningful sort of relationship with Bond after what happened to him in Casino Royale, you know? So, in fairness, they did sort of have their hands tied.

RS: I’m sure you had a lot of options after Casino Royale’s release, since it did so well. What made you choose as your next project a film with an element of controversy, namely the Mel Gibson tirade? Were you hesitant at all about working with him?

MC: No, absolutely not. We did talk about it, obviously. Of course we did, but we just very quickly dismissed it. We were actually crossing our fingers that we would get Mel, simply because he was the best actor for the part. What it says in the film’s press notes is absolutely true, that there was no one else ever considered for the part.

RS: Would you say you’re pretty adept at dealing with actors who have demons?

MC: Well, I like to work very closely with actors both during rehearsal and on the set, and I’ve yet to meet an actor who doesn’t have demons. I mean, really, there’s no doubt about that. I think every actor I’ve ever worked with has demons, and if they didn’t they wouldn’t be actors. But I can say that in Mel’s case there was no sign of it on the set. He was very professional, he was always there right on time, and once we would start with the day’s shooting he never even left the set, which I found extraordinary. He would just wait there in his chair until it was time to get on with it. I could honestly put my hand on my heart and say it was one of the best working experiences I’ve ever had. Also, we did rehearse, we did plenty of rehearsal. William Monahan and I worked together with him on the script, and he was just locked into it from day one. He was right there with us.

RS: There’s an interesting shot at the beginning of the film where the camera fixes on Mel from behind, with his rapidly thinning hair sort of on display for us to notice. I take it he’s not one for vanity about his looks these days?

MC: Absolutely not. Not Mel, let me tell you. In fact, he almost wanted that, you know? He had no reservations at all about wanting to be that man, that character. There really is no vanity in Mel, I can tell you that.

RS: It struck me as being kind of self-deprecating. There’s another scene where Mel is captured by the bad guys and taken to an abandoned factory, where he’s strapped down as if he’s going to be tortured – and then he just gets loose and walks away. Was that an inside joke, because Mel loves being tortured in his movies?

MC: [laughs] No! I don’t think that ever, ever came across our minds. It’s very nice of you to offer that up, but I’d have to say no is the answer to that question!

RS: Mel certainly identifies more as a director than as an actor these days. Was he pretty comfortable with taking off his director’s cap this time around, or was he eager to be involved behind the scenes as well?

MC: No, he actually came up to me once we started shooting, after he had accepted the role, and said “Look, I’m just the actor here, nothing more. I’m not directing, I’m not producing, I’m just the actor.” And that was how he remained throughout the whole shoot.

RS: I know from your work that you’re very much into car chases and big practical effects, and now you’ve worked with Mel Gibson -- any talk of taking the reins on a new Lethal Weapon film?

MC: We never talked about that. I’m sure they would try to get Mel in for another Lethal Weapon film, but I actually doubt that they’ll ever really do another one. I think he’s probably gone past that. I suppose you never know, though, right?

RS: Those are definitely my kind of action films, though – the ones that have lots of car chases and gunfire, as opposed to CGI robots punching each other. Today’s superhero films have very little about them that’s visceral.

MC: Oh, I agree with you, and one of the things in The Green Lantern that we’re doing is that when people get hit -- and Green Lantern gets hit in this – it hurts. In most superhero movies, they never are hurt. What you see in those movies is someone getting blasted a hundred yards into a brick wall and then they turn and shake their head and just go right back into the action. None of them ever seem to suffer because of it. That’s something where, I hope with The Green Lantern we’ll be able to make it slightly more real than it’s possibly been in some of the other superhero movies.

RS: When you first signed onto Edge of Darkness, did you feel it incumbent upon you to go through William Monahan’s script and look for places to ramp up the action beats? I imagine it was more intimate, more small-scale before you got involved.

MC: You know, the film gives the impression of a lot of action, but there really isn’t a lot of action. The way I wanted it to be was that half the time the action happens and the other half the action is denied, so that the action happens at the least expected times. Because that’s how it happens with action in real life, a lot of times – suddenly, something will just happen at a moment when you’re not prepared for it. It just sort of shockingly comes out of nowhere. That was sort of the principle that I applied for this. Audiences today have become conditioned to know when a big action scene is coming, you know? They’ll prepare themselves for it, and they’ve gotten used to movies having a certain rhythm to them, so they’ll know when to expect it and when not to, so I just always like to play against that.

RS: Did you find that doing a more intimate piece like this one was in your comfort zone? No franchise pressure to worry about?

MC: You know, I’m actually very happy doing an intimate drama. I love being able to do one every now and then. I still plan things out really carefully, and I have a very tight set. I always know what the day’s work is, and the actors do, and I’ve thought it all out. So it’s usually a pretty disciplined set, really.

RS: Another thing I noticed is that there’s very little humor in this film, even though that’s sort of your signature of late. The Zorro films and the Bond films are all about mixing up the action with a lot of light, throwaway moments. This movie is grim!

MC: [laughs] Well, yeah, when your daughter gets cut in half with a shotgun that doesn’t allow for an awful lot of jokes and humor! And remember that I also shot the series, Edge of Darkness, way back in the 80s, so this was definitely something that I was familiar with, and I was very familiar with the main character. I was very much on board with all of that since I’d been through it before, although we did have to change a lot of things, given that twenty-five years has elapsed between the series and the movie. You know, movies are like anything else, all sorts of different things come across your desk. For example, at the moment I’m of course doing The Green Lantern, and I’ve never done a superhero movie before, and I’ve also never been involved with what I would call a heavily digital film, but this time I am because I’ve never done it before.

It’s the same thing as when I did Vertical Limit – I did that film because I’d never climbed a mountain before, and it was just very interesting for me to actually go out and do that. With Edge of Darkness, I obviously had some familiarity from the series, but more importantly I was just interested in the emotional take on the story. It’s about grief and about loss and about corruption. It’s also about a father finding out that his daughter was involved in all sorts of goings on that he had no clue she was involved in. There were a lot of things in it that I thought made it a thinking man’s thriller, as opposed to something more straight down the line.

RS: My take on the film is that it’s about middle-aged cops and criminals not wanting to be manipulated by their respective systems anymore. They’ve involved themselves in complex skullduggery for a long time, and they’ve started to realize that no one wins in the long run.

MC: Well, there’s a scene in the film where Mel’s character opens the door to his best friend and he already knows that his best friend is there to betray him. I don’t know if you remember this scene, but then they go to the kitchen and the guy just admits that he’s sold out. Then Mel says his thing about life and what you’re expected to do in life and what’s expected of a good cop, and that’s what sums up his character. He’s a character whose moral compass points due north and he never deviates from that. My feeling was always that once his daughter died, he somehow knew right then where he would end up at the end of this thing.


Edge of Darkness opens in theaters everywhere Friday 1/29/10.

Moby could be described as a reluctant celebrity. He first found his way into the collective consciousness with the 1992 rave anthem "Go." In the faceless world of techno culture success remained within his comfort zone. For the remainder of the decade he released his increasingly hybrid electronic-based... more

Moby could be described as a reluctant celebrity. He first found his way into the collective consciousness with the 1992 rave anthem "Go." In the faceless world of techno culture success remained within his comfort zone. For the remainder of the decade he released his increasingly hybrid electronic-based music with little fanfare outside of the dance world. His 1999 album Play, barely made a ripple in the ocean of record sales when it first came out.

However, after a series of high profile film, TV and ad licenses, Play was propelled into the mainstream and Moby into the media maelstrom with it. Track 5 from the album, "South Side," a little duet with Gwen Stefani, subsequently gained momentum, becoming an MTV staple for many months. It reached number 14 in the Billboard Hot 100 and number 3 on the Modern Rock singles chart in 2001. Play went on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide.

As film director David Lynch succinctly puts it, "Success is just as dangerous as failure, maybe more." In the years since "South Side" graced the charts, Moby has not exactly been chasing similar commercial success -- far from it -- however many automatically assume he has. After all, money and fame are the goals of every artist right?

Wrong. Back in October of last year, when SuicideGirls last spoke with Moby, he told us he wanted his next album to be "a really emotional, beautiful record." Expanding on the subject, he continued, "I don't know if I will succeed, but my goal is to make something very personal, very melodic, very beautiful. And hopefully interesting at the same time." By these standards, Moby has indeed succeeded, his new album, Wait For Me, being all that and so much more.

But, since contemporary society quantifies success in commercial terms, it's easy for certain areas of the media to talk about Moby and his post-Play music in disparaging terms. It's understandable therefore, that Moby looked upon his looming press day in Los Angeles to promote an "introspective" and "vulnerable" record that's the antithesis of commercial with a high degree of trepidation.

Nicole Powers: I was reading your blog. In a recent entry you say, "Headed to la tomorrow...Now I get to go and talk about myself to benign strangers." Are we the benign strangers?

Moby: Hopefully benign.

NP: It's an interesting choice of phrase. Have you been talking to some non-benign press lately?

M: It's one of those things where although I'm an American artist, I was born in New York, and I grew up in the States, I spend very little time here, and for some reason the States is the county where I'm most loathed.

NP: Well it's hard to be a hero in your own backyard.

M: I'm OK with not being a hero, what's strange though is being hated by so many people I've never met. Friends of mine will actually go online and read stuff. I don't read my own press anymore because a lot of it has been really negative. Not for the past year or so, but there was a period where so much stuff that was written about me was very vitriolic and very hateful, so as a result I just stopped reading it.

I'm not whining or looking for pity I'm just saying it's a little strange...Maybe I'm just too familiar. The people that hate me seem to be specifically a lot of the media in New York. It's just odd because I do find myself being a little bit nonplussed at what I've done to incur such wrath. Just a little bit bewildered. But, it is what it is and I can't be too concerned about it.

NP: I guess also you had that big hit with Gwen Stefani with "South Side" and that put a level of expectation out there that other people put on you that I know you never really felt yourself.

M: I grew up playing in punk rock bands and then DJing at tiny little clubs, and I never expected to have a record contract. I never expected to have any success. I certainly never expected any mainstream success, and so when I had some mainstream success it felt anomalous and confusing and unplanned for. I mean, there are musicians who, their whole life, strive for mainstream success.

NP: And the goal is fame and the music is a means to an end.

M: And it never even crossed my mind that that was possible [for me] 'cause when I was growing up the musicians I liked never sold records and never made money. I just assumed that for me to be a happy musician I would be an underground musician who would never sell records and never make money. So whenever I sold some records and made some money it was just very confusing.

NP: A happy accident?

M: Well, in hindsight I don't know how happy it was. I mean, at times I would have a degree of success, and then there were times when I liked it too much. Like after the success of the album Play.

When Play first came out it was a failure. When it was first released it sold nothing, it didn't get good reviews, it didn't get radio play. Then it slowly became this very big record and I got caught up in it a bit too much. I was drinking too much, and going out all the time, and dating the wrong people and going to red carpet events because I felt like we live in this culture that places such value on fame and wealth that when suddenly you have the opportunity to be famous you're supposed to do it.

Everybody just assumes that if you have the opportunity to be famous you're supposed to be famous 'cause it's going to make you happy. So I kind of went along with it and then at some point looked at what it was doing to me, and fame was in no way making me happy. If anything, it was making me confused and depressed. Most people, and I'm not complaining, again 'cause there are few things more annoying than a quasi-public figure complaining about the perils of public-figuredom...

NP: ...But you're in a position to have a choice about which route you want to go.

M: At some point I was touring and I was drinking and I was taking drugs and I was being degenerate, and I was doing all these stupid clichéd famous person things, and I'd never been less happy. So then I would drink more and make myself even less happy. And I realized as an institution, fame, there's nothing about it that's sustainable. It alienates people -- it alienates good people -- and it attracts the wrong people. Again, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. I almost feel like I'm talking like an anthropologist, and I was the case study.

NP: It's interesting given the context, given where this particular album has come from. In the official album announcement on your website you talk about how you were inspired by David Lynch, his BAFTA lecture and a conversation the two of you had afterwards, where he spoke about how creativity shouldn't be purely judged by its success in the marketplace. Today a painting is judged by the price it fetches at auction and a recording artist is judged by the number of records they sell...

M: ...And living in New York or LA it's unfortunately easy to buy into that a little bit. Because you go out to parties with people who are in the media and when they say something's successful everyone just immediately assumes they're talking about how much money it's generated. So talking to David Lynch a couple of years ago, and hearing him talk about creativity, and how really art and music and literature and movies, they should be judged by how they affect someone emotionally; The subjective reaction of the audience is what makes something successful. So if a musician puts out a record and it sells poorly but is very important emotionally to the few people, that should be considered a successful record. But in the world in which we live that's not how people value things -- that's not how the media values things -- and I think that's regrettable.

NP: And your job as an artist is to create art, it's not necessarily to create something that anyone else likes.

M: I'm sort of a populist, so if I make a record I like the idea of other people responding favorably to [it], it just can't be that many people. It's like when I've had records that have sold millions of copies it's just been a mistake. That's not my lot in life. I'm not supposed to be that artist, and I don't know how it happened. And it's weird because the ramifications are very strange more than anything else. Now I feel I'm in the process of having to sort of force myself very hard to get back to what is actually really important to me, as a person, as a musician, which is making quiet introspective music that I love.

NP: And that's what this album is. I adore this album. It's like taking a warm bath. I was on SuicideGirls Twitter, and I said I was listening to the new Moby album, and someone replied saying, "techno? r u serious?" I responded: "Definitely not techno...very serious, and beautiful, and haunting, and melancholy." To me it's like listening to the seed of a dandelion floating away in the wind.

M: See in my mind, that makes me feel successful. Having one person tell me that I've done something that they like, it's clear, objective success as far as I'm concerned as opposed to random metrics presented to you by an accountant. That relationship between the musician and someone who is willing to listen to the music -- and it's hard for me to talk about it and not sound disingenuous, and not sound like an overly earnest grad student -- but I do think the musician and the listener, the relationship between the two, is sacred. There's a lot of responsibility that comes with it from a musician's perspective. If someone's going to take an hour and sit down and listen to a record I've made I should i]really try and make it worth their while.

I mean my job, it's serving. I try to serve the people who are willing to listen to my records -- specifically with this record. I think I lost the plot there for a little while about 5 years ago. 'Cause again, we live in this world where it seems like a lot of people work under the assumption that the rock star is supposed to be served by his or her audience, and I think it's exactly the opposite you know. The musician has a fairly sacred responsibility to try and create something of merit for anyone who's willing to pay attention to it. I know I say these things, and I think, am I really that earnest? But I guess I am.

NP: So what was the thought process with this record. Obviously Last Night was about you wanting to convey...

M: A fun dance record.

NP: What were you trying to convey with this record?

M: Musically, I like a lot of different types of music. I love speed metal and punk rock and I love quiet classical music, disco and folk music. I like just about everything. But the music that is most near and dear to me, the music that I love the most tends to be more quiet, introspective, personal music, and I realized that I've never made a genuinely quiet introspective record. Suddenly I woke up and said to myself, if that's the music that you love the most why isn't that the music that you're making.

NP: Did you come up with an answer to that question?

M: I think it's because again, there other genres of music that I really like. Like the last album, Last Night, I love dance music, and that was a record that was really fun to make...At the time I was drinking a lot and taking a lot of drugs and going out all the time, and DJing and having fun, so I wanted to make a record that kind of reflected that without a whole lot of self-analysis or introspection. But I do really like quiet, personal introspective music. That's the music that's the most precious to me.

I love a good old Clash record and I love listening to Pantera, I love listening to the Rolling Stones but the music that I adore the most is Nick Drake or Joy Division or Sigur Rós, quieter records and music that really aspire to be beautiful.

I tend to think of it in terms of there's social records and personal records. I love the Clash, it's very social. If you had 20 people over on a Friday night and you're all drinking beer put on a Clash record and it's great. Lying in bed at 9 o' clock on a rainy Sunday morning you want something that is more personal, and, as much as I love social records, it's those personal records that I tend to really cherish.

NP: So what else is in the Sunday morning collection?

M: I listen to a lot of classical music, a lot of quiet electronic music, everything from Nick Drake to Leonard Cohen. I mentioned Sigur Rós, some Radiohead songs, songs where you really feel the artist, whether they are or whether they aren't, but you feel as if the artist is making themselves vulnerable through their work.

Maybe that's it. Maybe there's vulnerable music and un-vulnerable music. It's the same thing with people. I love entertaining, funny people -- that's fun -- but people who are comfortable being emotionally honest and being vulnerable, that's the most attractive quality a person can have.

NP: It's easy for a guy to make and like loud punk rock music, because that's what guys are supposed to do, but for guys to make emotional, beautiful music, it's not considered as manly.

M: But luckily there's precedent for it. But you're right, there's so much music that is cool or fun or stylish or loud, and I like a lot of it, but it's that challenge for a man to make music that is more thoughtful and beautiful and introspective.

NP: And the flip side of that is, as a consumer, there's the music guys can admit to liking and there's the music they quietly listen to at home.

M: We live in a culture where there's so much focus on façade and presentation. Every rapper needs to be cool and tough, every indie rocker needs to be aloof and ironic, every speed metal punk rock guy needs to be tough, and after a while it's exhausting.

NP: I think it's why the Ramones T-shirt has become ubiquitous apparel because it's such a safe item of clothing to wear. It says you're edgy without the need to actually be edgy...

M: ...but you're still fun.

NP: Yeah. It's says all these things. But I often wonder how many people wearing those T-shirts really like the Ramones music, and how many would really rather listen to something completely different. It's that shorthand...

M: Yeah, and by taking such a position, by wearing a certain type T-shirt, by having a certain type of disposition, by making a certain type of art or music it's like they're ways to strategically make yourself immune from criticism. If you make music that is ironic, no one can criticize you because you're being ironic. If you make music that's cool and stylish, same thing, you can't be criticized for it. But, I live in the Lower East Side of Manhattan where there is so much stuff that's like ironic and cool and what have you, it exhausts me after a while.

NP: But the people who make that kind of music are a product of their environment, and it's such a snarky culture that you put the layer of irony in there as a protective barrier.

M: It's all these defences and buffers. Like I was on a train going back from DC to New York, and there was this guy behind me on his cell phone and he was talking like a rapper from 1991. I turned around and it was kind of an obese, white Jewish kid. It was so heartbreaking in a way, because he was just being protective and defensive.

The truth is the only people that are genuinely tough and cool are sociopaths. It's so easy to see in 4-year olds. Like if you go over to a friends house and there's a 4-year old who is being a bully and being tough, you know that they're scared. But with adults we don't see that; if someone's being tough and cool we kind of assume that they are tough and cool. There are no tough and cool people. Everybody's mortal, everybody's scared, everybody's afraid, everybody wants the same thing. They all want love and understanding and respect and compassion, and the only time they don't is when they're so emotionally broken that that part of themselves has been killed off.

So musically, with this record I wanted to try and make something that didn't have a lot of pretense to it. And I never know if I'm going to succeed at what I'm doing but I think if I go into something with intentions that are a little bit healthier it increases the chances that I'll accomplish what I'm trying to do.

NP: Do you have plans to do anything live?

M: I'm touring Europe this summer. I'm doing some very big festival shows, and then also some smaller shows in interesting venues. Like I'm playing in London at the Royal Festival Hall. It's this Meltdown Festival that's curated by Ornette Coleman. Patti Smith is playing, I'm playing, Yoko Ono's playing and it's a really interesting festival. So smaller shows like that and then big festivals. But coming to the States, I'm supposed to tour here, but it's kind of scary and daunting because I don't think anyone here likes [me]. I have his vision of touring America and having no one come to the shows I'm playing, which would be a good abject lesson in humility -- but I don't know if I necessarily need a month and a half of abject lessons in humility.

NP: It's been a while since you've done the full live show.

M: It's been a long time.

NP: When was the last time you did the full live show here?

M: Five years ago. And even then I didn't tour. Most of my touring was overseas, so in the States, maybe I'll play a tour of the States and play to fifty people a night, which would be an interesting juxtaposition; You're in Europe and you're playing to 100,000 people a night and you come home and you're playing to 50 people a night.

NP: I guess going back to the David Lynch scenario, if it leaves an impression on those 50 people.

M: A lot of it is context. There's nothing wrong with playing to 50 people a night as long as it's a venue that comfortably accommodates 50 people. Paying to 50 people in a venue that holds 2,000 people, that is tragic and depressing. I've been there. I mean the first time I played Italy was at a venue that holds 2,000 people and there were 8 people there. That's an empty venue.

NP: How long ago was that?

M: 1995. And so in the States if I'm touring and no one shows up, no one shows up. You make the best with what you have.

NP: Well I have a feeling that more than 50 people will show up.

M: You know, I do hope that you're right, but I don't know. Part of this is living in New York where a lot of people are very mean spirited and very snarky, and so I sometimes forget that there are people in the United States who are not inherently mean-spirited and snarky. I think living in the United States being criticized so much I've developed a little bit of a beaten dog complex.

NP: The level of snarkiness, it's group-think in New York. You can't beat them so it's easier to join the club. So everyone's out-snarking each other and it gets to a point where there's a rage of snarkiness. It makes people afraid to do anything that's outside of the safe realm of hipsterness because of the raging snark.

M: The raging snark -- it like a Roald Dahl book or something.

NP: It's a beast living in the heart of New Yorkers.

M: And it's weird because it's not everybody. There are nice people, but it's that culture of cruelty. I remember when the whole world of Gawker and Gothamist first started and the vitriol and scorn that was heaped on everybody. At first it was heaped on movie stars and musicians, and then editors and authors, and then suddenly everybody hated everybody else. Friends of mine who were assistants to interior decorators were getting torn apart on these gossip sites. I guess the only good thing about that is that it's democratic vitriol, like everybody's hated.

NP: Do we need to send New Yorkers to group therapy?

M: I think maybe you have to appeal to people's self-interest. And the simple question I would like to ask people is, on your deathbed what do you want to remember? You're lying on your deathbed and you're looking back at your life, do you really want to remember going online and writing nasty things about people you've never met? Like that's your life's accomplishment. Or do you want to remember working hard and helping people, and being nice to the people around you and being a good, loving, compassionate, tolerant, understanding person? If I was on my deathbed I'd much rather remember aspiring to be a good, decent, compassionate person than writing nasty things about public figures, but also I'm biased because I just want people to stop writing nasty things about me.


Wait For Me is released June 30. The video to the first single, "Shot in the Back of the Head," which was animated by David Lynch, can be viewed HERE.

You may not be able to afford the fancy cigars that Chi McBride enjoys, but if you sit close enough to him, you can get a nice contact buzz. His Opus X Fuente smelled so good, second hand smoke side effects be damned. That's how Chi McBride roles at the Fox winter party. The Television Critics Association... more

You may not be able to afford the fancy cigars that Chi McBride enjoys, but if you sit close enough to him, you can get a nice contact buzz. His Opus X Fuente smelled so good, second hand smoke side effects be damned. That's how Chi McBride roles at the Fox winter party.

The Television Critics Association press tour is for the stars to discuss their new shows with reporters, but McBride sequestered himself in a cabana at Pasadena's Villa Sorriso restaurant, chilling with his smokes and champagne.

The new show that features McBride's talents is Human Target. Loosely based on the DC comic book, Mark Valley plays Christopher Chance, a private bodyguard who gets himself into new dangerous situations every week. Grudgingly along for the ride, his partner Winston (McBride). Jackie Earle Haley also stars as Guerrero, the third arm of the trio.

Winston may complain about getting stuck on a fiery plane with Chance, but McBride is having a blast. He gets to play action hero, trading blows with terrorists or running scams to fish out the moles. McBride may best be known to fans from the short-lived Pushing Daisies, or his long run on the popular Boston Public.

Suicide Girls: Did you guys establish a group dynamic right away?

Chi Mcbride: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's very exciting. You know what's really great about the show is that we've managed to do something that people always question you about at the pilot, which is okay, yeah, the pilot's pretty good but are you going to be able to keep it up? Yeah, sure. We've got half the budget and half the time. Of course we're going to be doing better episodes. But you know what? Funny enough, we've managed to do it and I actually like "Rewind" even better than the pilot. I think it really sets a tone for the series. We find that now it's so labor intensive but we've got a good crew. I've been surprised but we've been able to pull it off for a budget that we have to stay within, but like [executive producer] McG says, it's not just the action sequences that make the show. We've got a really good relationship. You can see that between these guys and you can see that we're a team so the excitement kind of continues to build between the action setups.

SG: Will we see more of the routines that Chance and Winston have in their background?

CM: Yeah, we've got a few like that. We've got the Uncle Dan, the Aunt Millie. We've got a lot of different ones that we use for losers or for case strategy and what have you. I really have a good time with these guys. All these guys are real pros and we've all got the same attitude about ourselves and about show business. We come to work so we have a good time but we're there to work. We get a lot done because a lot depends on it. People spent a lot of money.

SG: Were you excited to get into the action with some fight scenes?

CM: Yeah, you know what? I've always wanted to do action but I've just never been in a situation where I've had the opportunity to do the action, which is a business where people only let you do what they think you can do. When this came along and the guys wanted to talk about doing it, that's one of the things that I said, that I wanted to be more involved physically, that I wanted Winston to have an attitude that I don't really want to do this, because he was ex-law enforcement. So just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. So that's the attitude that he has and I think that's going to be a good thing for the character.

SG: Obviously there will be a lot of action packed episodes. Will there be some that are more intellectual or humorous without such a big set piece?

CM: Yeah, but we're a very specific show and that's part of our M.O. to have a good set piece and all that. I think that you'll see that more often than not but there are some very cerebral things that'll be going on in terms of especially character development, seeing where these guys came from, what makes them tick, what experiences in their past led them down a road that inexorably led to us finding each other is going to be some of the things that are going to be mined continually.

SG: Is it a tough show to do at this scale?

CM: It's just a pleasure to come to work with people who don't take themselves seriously but take their job seriously and are ready to work and contribute to the story and to the shooting to make the day go faster and make the day go smoother. It's great to work with these guys.

SG: Is Mark Valley the strong, silent type?

CM: He's a good dude, man. Mark is a guy who does 95% of the heavy lifting on the show and he doesn't complain. He's always got something that's swollen or hurt or bruised. He just does his job. He's a good guy, man. He's a real professional. I would like for a lot of young actors to work with a guy like Mark so they can really show you how it's done in this business. Like I say, he leads by example. There's no room for any of us, for anybody to act like a prima donna because our star's not one. We're all not prima donnas to begin with but he's doing all the heavy lifting. You really have to think twice before you complain about long hours or whatever with this guy really putting forth all this effort to get in shape, stay in shape, do all these stunts and the acting, learn the different languages. It's a lot, man. He's got a lot on his plate and I really appreciate him for it.

SG: Who were your action heroes growing up?

CM: Willis. I was already grown up but that's what's missing from the landscape of entertainment. Where's Willis? Where's Schwarzenegger? Where's Stallone? Where's Van Damme? We don't have those guys out there anymore.

SG: Some of them are back.

CM: Yeah, but you know what I mean? The next generation of that. You just don't see that in the movies anymore.

SG: We were supposed to with Vin Diesel.

CM: You know, Diesel was really on his way and then whatever turns his career took were whatever they took but that's what I think is needed and I think that what's great about Willis, and I've done a couple of things with him, he's another guy that's like that. He just does his job and he's got a lot on his plate. He does all the heavy lifting and it's his name above the title and the marquee and he leads by example. Willis is a really good dude too.

SG: The new thing was regular guys who don't look like heroes. Did that work?

CM: I just don't know. I just know that I miss those real popcorn movies, those movies that you really look forward to. You can't tell me that you can find people that weren't really waiting on the edge of their seat for the second Die Hard. We were waiting for that. When Schwarzenegger did Terminator, you were waiting for the follow-up to that. The movies that Stallone did, Cliffhanger and Cobra, those movies like Demolition Man, all those movies. That's what's missing, man, those movies where you were happy to plunk down your how many ever bucks and go and take the ride. That's what we're doing on TV now.

SG: We were waiting for the new Bourne movies.

CM: Yeah, that's about the only thing. I think that Matt Damon is a wildly talented actor who I think is really underrated and I think he's, to be honest, the best actor of his generation. He doesn't get the accolades and credit for it but he's a hell of an actor. That Bourne series is great.

SG: He has an Oscar for writing.

CM: Well yeah, but you don't hear much about how great an actor he is. You look at Syriana, you look at Oceans Eleven and you look at the Bourne series, this guy is very talented and he can really act.

SG: Were you a big comic book fan?

CM: Yeah, I was a big Marvel and DC guy. I liked to read Batman and I was into Spider-Man and I was into Superman and The Hulk. I liked the crossovers every now and then that they would have. I just enjoyed comics. I really was a big Jack Kirby freak because when I wanted to learn how to draw, that's what I used, the comics. Everybody wanted to draw like Jack Kirby. That was a big part of my growing up.

SG: What do you think of the news of a Spidey reboot?

CM: I wonder if Cameron's going to do it because he wanted to do it at first. He wanted to do it a long time ago. He'd kill it. It wouldn't be like that third one, ugh. Ooh.

SG: I actually like Spider-Man 3 if you want to get into it.

CM: You did?

SG: To me it's about what happens when you get successful and you neglect your relationships.

CM: But that whole scene of him walking down the street like Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.

SG: I loved that evil Peter Parker is still just a big dork.

CM: Okay, well maybe if you're looking into it and analyzing it that deeply, then yeah, okay, I'll buy a ticket. I really love Thomas Haden Church though. I really liked the whole Sandman thing. That I dug, and the second one I really liked a lot too. All that Green Goblin stuff, man, flying skate or flying surfboard and all that stuff was pretty awesome.

SG: Did comic book die hards give you shit for reading both Marvel and DC?

CM: No, when I was growing up they were just happy you were buying comics. Comic book store is not exactly, at least when I was growing up, it wasn't the road to financial independence. So I'm sure that the guys in my neighborhoods were just happy to see you come in.

SG: You've been honest about the fate of Pushing Daisies, saying it wasn't as beloved as the press say, or it would still be on the air. How gratifying is it that the fan base is so passionate and looking forward to a comic book.

CM: Well, you know what? We had a very loyal base of fans. We had people that really dug the show so I'm happy for them and I'm happy in a way for me as well because I loved playing Emerson. What was great about Emerson is that it was so well written. Whenever a thought would pop in my head, I could pretty much say whatever I wanted and Bryan [Fuller] and I were so on the same page. Bryan and I and Peter Ocko and I were really on the same page about who the character was. So it made it a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed working with the writers. I especially enjoyed working with Kristin [Chenoweth]. So it's good that it's going to live on in some form.

Human Target premiered Sunday, Jan. 17 on FOX and then airs Wednesday nights this spring, at 9PM on Jan 20 and at 8PM from the 27th on.

HELLO SG! I thought I'd take a minute to introduce myself to all of you. I'm so glad to finally be active! There were a few minor set backs along the way, but it was definitely worth the wait. SPEAKING of "minor set backs"... lets talk about trip number one! Back in mid-December... more

HELLO SG!

I thought I'd take a minute to introduce myself to all of you. I'm so glad to finally be active! There were a few minor set backs along the way, but it was definitely worth the wait.

SPEAKING of "minor set backs"... lets talk about trip number one!
Back in mid-December I shot (or attempted to shoot) my very first set with staff photographer, AlissaBrunelli. I drove up to Columbus with Lainey and Creepy_. When we first got there we finalized and discussed set ideas and I was introduced to Frolic, Havana, and Sunshine who were all really welcoming. Creepy went first while Lainey did my hair and make-up (make sure you check out "Hazzard County" Creepy's debut set in MR Feb. 12th!!). Next it was my turn, but I didnt get very far before we started experiencing technical difficulties! Alissa's camera broke in the middle of my set! We tried to finish out the set, but the photos just weren't turning out. A little disappointing, but I was back up shooting again only a week later! Thats where trip two begins....




Next week Lainey, Creepy, and I all took another road trip up to shoot! We stayed at Alissa's that night and us and some of the other girls that I mentioned meeting from trip one plus King [who was also really friendly to us new girls ] got makeovers from Lainey for her Look Book .. Girls Night! The next morning we got up and went straight to the Milk Bar to shoot. Lainey, of course, did my beautiful make up, then we got down to business! This time went much ore according to plan. Everything went perfectly and I was much more relaxed since I had a little bit of a practice shoot the week before .






The third trip up was a little different. This time we went up to shoot Lainey! We were well prepared this time with plenty of weed and music to listen to on the way there. Alissa ended up renting a beautiful (HAUNTED!!!!) bed and breakfast suite to shoot in. First Alissa shot two sets of the lovely Praesepe which you might have caught live in sg chat! Then Lainey's turn. Did I mention that this place was gorgeous? Part of Lainey's set was shot is the most amazinggg shower (jealous!). So a couple hours, lots of weed, and a glass of wine later... Its me and Lainey alone in a big haunted house (Thanks Alissa, for leaving us for youre Naboodle and your un-haunted bedroom!). The next day we went back to Alissa's and got our sets sorted out (yay! one step closer).





Our mini roadtrips are becoming a weekly occurrence, so there will be plenty more picture-filled blogs to come in the near future, and my boobs.. in the semi-near future (March 21st to be exact)!!!!

So until then, feel free to PM me and get to know me.. and trust, I will be lurking alllllllll of you.

loveeee

HELLO SG! I thought I'd take a minute to introduce myself to all of you. I'm so glad to finally be active! There were a few minor set backs along the way, but it was definitely worth the wait. SPEAKING of "minor set backs"... lets talk about trip number one! Back in mid-December... more

HELLO SG!

I thought I'd take a minute to introduce myself to all of you. I'm so glad to finally be active! There were a few minor set backs along the way, but it was definitely worth the wait.

SPEAKING of "minor set backs"... lets talk about trip number one!
Back in mid-December I shot (or attempted to shoot) my very first set with staff photographer, AlissaBrunelli. I drove up to Columbus with Lainey and Creepy_. When we first got there we finalized and discussed set ideas and I was introduced to Frolic, Havana, and Sunshine who were all really welcoming. Creepy went first while Lainey did my hair and make-up (make sure you check out "Hazzard County" Creepy's debut set in MR Feb. 12th!!). Next it was my turn, but I didnt get very far before we started experiencing technical difficulties! Alissa's camera broke in the middle of my set! We tried to finish out the set, but the photos just weren't turning out. A little disappointing, but I was back up shooting again only a week later! Thats where trip two begins....




Next week Lainey, Creepy, and I all took another road trip up to shoot! We stayed at Alissa's that night and us and some of the other girls that I mentioned meeting from trip one plus King [who was also really friendly to us new girls ] got makeovers from Lainey for her Look Book .. Girls Night! The next morning we got up and went straight to the Milk Bar to shoot. Lainey, of course, did my beautiful make up, then we got down to business! This time went much ore according to plan. Everything went perfectly and I was much more relaxed since I had a little bit of a practice shoot the week before .






The third trip up was a little different. This time we went up to shoot Lainey! We were well prepared this time with plenty of weed and music to listen to on the way there. Alissa ended up renting a beautiful (HAUNTED!!!!) bed and breakfast suite to shoot in. First Alissa shot two sets of the lovely Praesepe which you might have caught live in sg chat! Then Lainey's turn. Did I mention that this place was gorgeous? Part of Lainey's set was shot is the most amazinggg shower (jealous!). So a couple hours, lots of weed, and a glass of wine later... Its me and Lainey alone in a big haunted house (Thanks Alissa, for leaving us for youre Naboodle and your un-haunted bedroom!). The next day we went back to Alissa's and got our sets sorted out (yay! one step closer).





Our mini roadtrips are becoming a weekly occurrence, so there will be plenty more picture-filled blogs to come in the near future, and my boobs.. in the semi-near future (March 21st to be exact)!!!!

So until then, feel free to PM me and get to know me.. and trust, I will be lurking alllllllll of you.

loveeee

Greg Rucka is the author of ten novels including the Atticus Kodiak series and two novels and a long-running comic book series about British spy Tara Chace. He has written hundreds of comic books including long runs on Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Wolverine. He is currently writing Detective Comics,... more

Greg Rucka is the author of ten novels including the Atticus Kodiak series and two novels and a long-running comic book series about British spy Tara Chace. He has written hundreds of comic books including long runs on Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Wolverine. He is currently writing Detective Comics, which does not feature Batman but rather Batwoman, a character Rucka helped create. Next month a new series “Stumptown” about an Oregon-based private eye will debut from Oni Press.

Oni was the publisher who gave Rucka his first break in comics, the 1998 miniseries Whiteout. The comic has been made into the film Whiteout starring Kate Beckinsale and directed by Dominic Sena and is coming out Friday. Beckinsale plays Carrie Stetko, the U.S. Marshall in Antarctica who finds herself in the midst of a criminal conspiracy.

I talked to Rucka recently by phone to talk about the film and his other projects. We’ve spoken numerous times over the years and our conversations always return to comics we love, gender politics, and Rucka’s tendency to end (not to mention begin) his novels with horrible events happening to all his characters.


ALEX DUEBEN: Whiteout comes out Friday. Have you seen the film?

GREG RUCKA: I’ve seen it and I think it is a perfectly reasonable adaptation of the source material. I think that anybody going into it expecting to encounter the graphic novel is somebody who deserves the disappointment they will undoubtedly be feeling. I mean what Lieber [Whiteout's artist] and I did was tell a good, or at least a reasonably good murder mystery given the medium. To make a movie is very different and I think they did a very admirable job of adapting some of the core elements of Whiteout into a screen story.

AD: It was made a while ago. I remember sitting down with you and the director Dominic Sena back in 2007 after the film had been shot.

GR: I have been told a bunch of reasons why they held off on the release. The most compelling one that was given to me was basically Warner Brothers inherited a whole bunch of movies from New Line and they didn’t want to bring out all the murder mystery suspense thrillers at the same time which makes a certain amount of sense.

AD: You’re credited as an Executive Producer on the film, but what was your role in production and pre-production? Or did you have a role?

GR: It was nonexistent, really. I was granted a token executive producer credit. What ended up happening was that I got to go for a set visit and then ended up going a second time. When I went up the second time, I got invited to stay, and I stayed for about three weeks through the end of filming. I did some rewrites, as they were constantly reworking the script, so I was part of the process. But that’s about it. It was never a movie that I wanted to write for the same reason that I personally never wanted to do it as a novel. To me it was always a graphic novel.

AD: Having spent those weeks on set, has that made you interested in doing more work in Hollywood or did you run back home grateful for being a novelist?

GR: I would love to do more in Hollywood. It’s not as if I’ve never worked in film and TV prior. It was the first time I’d ever been on set for any duration. Boy, was that a learning experience. I used to be as opinionated as the next arrogant bastard to come along and after three weeks of Whiteout I left going, I will never again walk out of a movie going how could they make something so bad. I will forever be forced to walk out of a movie going how could they make anything that was good. Everything in the process is against them. It’s kind of staggering.

AD: The book was released about a decade ago and it’s been in development pretty much ever since.

GR: It was optioned fairly quickly after it came out and the option lapsed and then someone else picked up the option and the option lapsed and someone else picked up the option. Lieber and I used to joke, nobody was ever going to make this thing but we were perfectly happy to keep cashing their checks. My agent called and said, Joel Silver wants to make Whiteout. I said, ha ha ha sure. She said no really. I said fine. Let me talk to Steve, I’ll see what he says but I can’t imagine he’d have any problem with it. He said exactly what I said, sure knock yourself out. Why not? So I called my agent back and she called back that night and said Joel’s going to call you at 7:30 tomorrow before he flies to Berlin. And he called at 7:30 in the morning and says Greg we’re going to do Whiteout. I was like, great. He said, we’re making it this year. I said, all right. He said, excellent fantastic I’ll talk to you later. That was it. The next thing I knew they were casting the thing and going into production on it. I’m still a little stunned.

AD: Years of nothing and then a whirlwind of activity.

GR: As I said, we wrote a comic. We didn’t write a comic so that some day someone would want to make a movie out of it. We wrote a comic because that was how we wanted to tell the story we wanted to tell. Steve and I were of a mind that the movie’s the movie and the comic’s the comic. It wasn’t as if I was heavily invested in the thought of one day somebody will come and make a movie of this thing. It’s exceptionally flattering but it’s fundamentally surreal right up to and including when you walk onto a set and see that they’ve decorated it like it’s a Steve Lieber drawing. It does mess with your head a little bit. You’re like, wait a minute, that was a two dimensional black and white image. What’s it doing walking around and talking in color.

AD: In some comics circles having a movie made and a production deal is seen as lending their work respectability or credibility or something like that--

GR: Maybe I’ll get some artistic credibility. (laughs) I think comics still struggle desperately for that. It’s one of the reasons I tend to get a little annoyed when I hear creators talking, well we did it as a comic so we could sell it as a movie. That’s always seemed to me essentially crass. You work with people who have a respect for the medium. My first comic book project was Whiteout and the first collaboration I had in the medium was with Steve Lieber. One of the things I learned from him really early on was that you’ve got to treat the form with respect because nobody else is. I’ve got nothing against somebody coming along and saying, let’s make a movie. That’s great. It really is. If it brings more attention to the work, even better. If it’s a good movie, even better. We wrote a comic. That was the way we wanted to tell the story and that was the story we told. And I’m perfectly content with that.

AD: You and Steve Lieber have both talked about doing a third Whiteout miniseries, Whiteout: Thaw. Are you still planning to do that?

GR: Steve’s drawn the first issue and the first seven pages of the second and the reason he’s only drawn the first seven pages of the second is because that’s all I’ve written. That’s entirely my fault and it comes down to a couple of things. He and I had a discussion about that. I don’t want to write something just for the sake of writing it and I don’t think he wants to draw something simply for the sake of drawing it. There really was a question of balancing the other work commitments with wanting to create a product of quality rather than a product that I was just rushing to get done so it would have synergy with the movie. We’re going to do a third one. It will be the third one that we have always planned on doing, but it will probably be another year before it comes out.

AD: Since we’re talking about comics, that’s a great segue into your new comic Stumptown. What exactly is Stumptown?

GR: Stumptown is my homage to The Rockford Files. I grew up on private eye stories. That was really how I came into writing was writing P.I. stories, or at least trying to. For a really long time I’d wanted to do a series that would feel to me like a modernization of what you got when you watched Garner in The Rockford Files. That it was a show that was less about mystery than it was about the detective and those characters and that character’s life. It’s drawn by Matt Southworth. It’s going to be colored by Lee Loughridge.

AD: And it features a female private eye.

GR: Write what you know.

AD: I read the first issue and it’s a fabulous character piece with a pretty simple starting point where she’s down on her luck and gets hired to find a missing girl and gets roughed up and finds something is going on but hasn’t figured out what yet.

GR: I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel. I’m just trying to streamline it and put modern rims on it.

AD: What is it about female characters in traditionally male roles that you find so compelling?

GR: Ugh.

AD: This is a question you’ve answered too many times over the years?

GR: It is a question I get so often and it is a question that I find very difficult to answer. I suppose the fundamental is that I like women. I like writing about female characters. I think I probably identify more with women than I do with men. But there are also I think dramatic dividends. You yourself just said she’s hired to find the missing girl and she gets roughed up and these are all tropes of the genre but they’re all tropes that normally happen to a male protagonist. I think once you play with the genders you find yourself with different dramatic opportunities and different dramatic dividends. I think I’m doing it now mostly because I’m pretty good at it. I don’t write exclusively women. It really does come to who’s the character. Is the character male or female. Is the character married or single. Is the character straight or queer. Are they religious? These are all character questions. I don’t know if that’s a good answer.

AD: Do you think the same story and the same beats in a story become novel by changing the gender of the character?

GR: I think so. Gender politics affects everything we do every day. Gender politics feeds directly into sexual politics and we’re all hard-wired for sex whether we want to be or not. It is encoded deep in the DNA. As socialized and civilized creatures, all that is troubling but it’s still something that we effectively deal with every day. I’m not saying it’s overt and I’m not saying it needs to be the thing that drives everybody but it’s present and it does affect how we act. Basically I’m just exploring that on different levels.

AD: And we respond to violence differently when it’s a male protagonist than with a female protagonist.

GR: The idea of strong female characters who can negotiate traditionally testosterone-y violent situations, I find that cool. I liked it in Queen and Country with Chace, I liked it with Carrie in Whiteout, I like it with Dex in Stumptown. Dex doesn’t swagger. She never walks around going I’m the toughest person here, she’s very much a gambler. The Marlowe line about being willing to take what brains the good lord has given him and a willingness to get roughed up on behalf of a client. I’ve always liked that as a private eye mantra.

AD: Your other big project at the moment is Detective Comics which you wrote earlier in the decade way back when Batman was in the book.

GR: Way back when in 2000. Yeah. Now in Detective Comics is Batwoman. And I’m writing Action Comics and Superman’s nowhere to be found. I’m trying not to take it as a referendum on DC’s opinion of me. But yeah Kate Kane is Batwoman and she’s heading up Detective Comics at least for the time being.

AD: For people who might not know, who exactly is Batwoman and why has she taken over DC’s flagship title?

GR: She’s taking over the flagship book because Batman “died.” Meaning that no fan actually believes he’s dead and even the publisher is not trying to convince anybody he’s dead, but characters in the Batman universe believe he is dead. Batwoman is a woman named Kate Kane. She’s in her late twenties. Why she’s there and why she’s doing what she’s doing are questions that we’ve yet to answer. We’ve got our fourth issue coming out this month and that will complete our first story arc and following that we will finally tell the origin story for the character which will explain why a perfectly reasonable young lady decides to dress up as a bat at night and kick people in the teeth. (laughs) And of course the thing that you’re really asking is, she’s gay. And yes she she is.

AD: I wasn’t actually going to bring up her sexuality. I thought it would be a novel experience for you to get asked about the character without going, so, lesbian superhero?

GR: How terribly professional of you. (laughs) But yeah Kate’s queer and she’s designed that way if that makes sense. When the character was proposed one of the things that was proposed was that we were going to introduce a character into the Bat family who’s a superhero and who is a homosexual from the beginning. It’s not going to be a shocking realization or an after school special. It will be simply a matter of character as much as anything else is.

AD: As much as you may hate being asked about it, and the way it’s being asked, I know from our conversations over the years that you really push to have a greater diversity of voices and characters and believe that a fictional universe should bear some resemblance to the real world.

GR: Absolutely. It needs to be representational. Look, I write suspense thrillers but that doesn’t mean that I don’t think of them as anti-art or even sub-art. Hidden deep within my material, to me at least, is an artistic agenda. One of the things I think we are obligated to do as artists is to reflect the world around us. The world around us is not white and straight. It’s much bigger and broader than that. I think that if you want any sense of verisimilitude in your work and for certainly emotional resonance you need that verisimilitude then you’ve got to be representational.

AD: We would be remiss if we didn’t mention your collaborator on the book, the great artist J.H. Williams III.

GR: Who I really feel is breaking new ground in what can be done on a comic book page and how a story can be told. I think he is a phenomenal talent and an honest to god true artist.

AD: I know you’re working on a new novel for next year but I’m not sure if you want to say anything about it.

GR: The new novel is the new Chace novel which should be out around this time next year. It’s called The Last Run. It’s the story of Tara’s last job in the field. She’s been working in the special operations office for several years now and she actually has a line in it, at this point if there’s an intelligence agency in the world that doesn’t know how I am it’s because they’re not bloody trying. There’s some truth to that. This is her saying I’ve got a daughter, she’s turning five I need a desk job. Then a job comes in and the politics conspire because the prize is so big that you’ve got to send her. She goes and of course, things go horribly, horribly wrong. (laughs) As you might expect.

As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make punk rock. OK, it doesn’t at all, but when Alkaline Trio’s front man and guitarist, the beloved and enigmatic Matt Skiba, found himself at a personal and professional crossroads he did what any true rocker worth his salt would do: he went back to... more

As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make punk rock. OK, it doesn’t at all, but when Alkaline Trio’s front man and guitarist, the beloved and enigmatic Matt Skiba, found himself at a personal and professional crossroads he did what any true rocker worth his salt would do: he went back to his roots, which were in this case, the melodic punk that cemented Alkaline Trio into the skull-tattooed hearts of their devotees.
While preparing for his current tour and his new album’s release this February, Skiba took a moment to chat with SuicideGirls about making the record, and the benefits of drinking beer at the movies.
This Addiction, the new record from Alkaline Trio, arrives in stores February 23rd. Check out ThisAddiction.org for all the updates.


Auren Suicide: Hey Matt!
Matt Skiba: Hi, how ya doing, Lauren?
AS: I’m awesome, how are you?
MS: I’m doing well.
AS: What are you doing?
MS: I am watching [the 2009 Lars Von Trier film] Antichrist, drinking a Perrier and anxiously awaiting a phone call.
AS: Good. From me, I hope?
MS: Yes! Your call.
AS: Excellent. Well then I’m glad I’m not taking you away from a better phone call.
MS: No! Of course not!
AS: Are you in California right now?
MS: Yeah, I’m in Los Angeles.
AS: You’ve lived here for what, five years now?
MS: Actually it’s closer to seven. I was up in the [San Francisco] bay area for a few years but I’ve been down in Los Angeles for almost seven years now, I think.
AS: So it’s been good, right?
MS: Not bad! I never thought I’d say I live in L.A., but I really dig it now.
AS: Why? Because it has a bad reputation?
MS: Not only because it gets a bad rap. I’ve stayed here a lot, I’d come down here and record and work. I didn’t know very many people and that’s one thing that’s key to L.A. I’m a bit of a loner anyway, but after awhile you want to go and have some fun and don’t really know where to go or who to go with. But in living down here I’ve made a small handful of really good friends and I’ve had friends move out here from San Francisco and Chicago, so it’s home now. And the weather’s always nice, there are oceans, there are mountains. There’s everything. And a lot of my work is in Los Angeles so that makes it a lot easier.
AS: Are you still surfing?
MS: Yes.
AS: In Malibu?
MS: In Malibu. All over the place. Wherever there are waves I go.
AS: So you live here, but you went back to Chicago to make This Addiction.
MS: Yes.
AS: There’s been a lot of talk about how this record is a return to your musical roots. What was the impetus to go home to Chicago and explore a different sound from your last few records?
MS: It was an organic thing. We funded the recording ourselves. We’ve always had complete creative control, but there are times when, especially with a major label, things have to be OK’d. We never had to fight with anyone over it, but there is still that outside influence. It’s been a long time since we’ve done exactly what we wanted to do without radio in mind and without anything, quote unquote, working. When we were on tour we started to play a lot of the old stuff and some of the old ideas inspired some new ideas. So it just sort of happened. There was never a finite moment where we decided we’re going to make [Alkaline Trio’s first studio album] Goddamnit part two. There was just a time when we slowly started to realize that we were making a punk rock record which I don’t think we had done in a little while. It was really fun. We went back and recorded with the guy that did the first three records. It definitely brought us back to our roots.
AS: Alkaline Trio has been through so many record labels. Now that you have your own imprint on Epitaph—Heart and Skull—what’s it like to actually be your own boss? 
MS: It’s good [laughs]. I mean, we’ve never gotten ourselves into a position that we didn’t want to be in. There have been times, bumps in the road, but nothing major to speak of. We’ve been very fortunate. We did a lot of label-jumping. Right when we started with labels is when the industry took a nosedive and things started changing really fast. And so we just had to go with it and not really worry about it, and just keep growing up. We’ve never really had too much stress related to outside opinions or anything we’ve always been allowed to make our own decisions and we’ve always been supported in those decisions. Whether that is creatively or business-wise. But it is a good feeling to have something that is ours and have it be a partnership with people that we’re so fond of. Being with Epitaph is perfect for us. And having our imprint, we’ll see what happens with that, but it is a new chapter. So it’s not a relief or anything. It’s just something exciting and new. When we were writing we had no label ideas in mind. We just knew that we were going to try and put it out ourselves.
AS: Right, so it’s a fresh start, this record.
MS: It is. We presented Epitaph with the finished product. And that’s what sealed the deal.
AS: I know you’re a big book guy. Is there anything in particular you were reading during this album process that stuck with you?
MS: Usually I’m reading a bunch of different things. There was a book I highly recommend called Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA [by Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara]. There are people who will argue that Dark Mission is a fictional book. But it is a non-fiction book. It was written by two scientists who were with the NASA organization for over 40 years. They exposed some pretty sobering evidence about the mysteries of the universe. For me, I find that pretty exciting. The mysteries of the universe, I don’t think they’ll remain mysteries forever. But I think that there are a lot of things, if people knew, would be terrified. Myself, I find it exhilarating. The New York Times called it, I think, ‘one of the most dangerous books ever written.’ It’s pretty profound.
AS: Really?
MS: Yeah. I was reading Dark Mission and that led to me reading a lot about secret Nazi technology that NASA ended up using. There were Nazi scientists that were pardoned and cleared of their war crimes, brought over here to build rockets for NASA, which was originally a weapons program. I’m going off on a tangent, but there’s nothing about space men or mystery machines in this book. There is just actual proof. I’ll let people find it out for themselves because if I were to just say it they’d be like, ‘no way—that’s not true.’ But it is. So yeah, Dark Mission, that was my main read, from the Feral House publishing company, who also put out the SuicideGirls book!
AS: Yes! So, your inspirational reads were Dark Mission, followed closely by our lovely SuicideGirls pinup book. I agree that the mysteries of the universe will be answered but the scary thing is, those answers just lead to more questions and even harder puzzles to solve. It’s an endless cycle.
MS: When you have mathematical measurements and they’re broken down into laymen’s terms you’re like, ‘wow.’ I was interested in reading this stuff at first because I was skeptical. But I love it. I’ve read the book like three times to try and wrap my head around the concepts. I’m entirely convinced.
AS: I get frustrated when I try to read that stuff.
MS: No way, this stuff is easy. People that have a lot of faith in religion…well, if religion is really making you happy then don’t read this book. I’ll put it that way [laughs].  
AS: Religion makes a lot of people pretty miserable.
MS: Religion has a lot to do with family and upbringing and I respect people with different faiths. My grandmother was Catholic. And she really believed it and I was very close with her and I respect people’s beliefs. I have friends who consider themselves Christians. I think it’s all a universal language all based on the same concepts. It all means the same thing. Science and religion can be synonymous if people are open-minded.
AS: Science is a religion, because science gives you answers.
MS: Yeah. It’s about fact. My religion is the truth. Without the questions and the mysteries that we have life would be boring.
AS: Are you painting these days? 
MS: I haven’t been. I’ve been moving. I just moved into a new house a few weeks ago so I’m waiting to get everything set up. We’ve been really busy with band stuff so I haven’t had the time to paint. But it’s definitely something I love to do when I have the time. And I’ll continue to do more of it.
AS: On your art MySpace page you have a postcard piece up. It looks like it has something to do with Kurt Cobain? It seems like it’s in his writing and its signed ‘Kurdt.’
MS: It’s a replica of a postcard that Kurt wrote to a friend of mine and she kept it. He wrote it to her and it’s exactly what it looked like. The stamp is Buffalo Bill, everything on there is the same. I just projected the actual postcard onto the canvas and traced the handwriting so it’s exactly what the postcard looked like. That’s how he actually spelled his name, with the ‘d.’ You know, whenever Kurt Cobain would sign autographs he would ask people what their name was and he would just write down their name. He was a pretty funny, groovy guy and I have friends who were pretty good friends with. They were all, you know, doing a lot of drugs together, but they spent a lot of good years with him and have a lot of his personal belongings. I thought that postcard was pretty amazing.
AS: Did you ever meet him? Did you ever see Nirvana live?
MS: I never met him, no. I did see Nirvana live though. I liked Nirvana when [their first album, 1989’s] Bleach came out and I was super excited when [1991’s] Nevermind came out, which is a great record. I felt like one of my favorite bands was taking over the world. There were people who were bummed, of course, but for me it’s great when great bands get big. You know? The world needs good music. And Nirvana stayed totally true to themselves. They kept cranking out great music.
AS: I agree! You know, a lot of people are like ‘In Utero, whatever,’ but it’s my favorite, I think it’s a perfect record.
MS: In Utero is my favorite Nirvana record. I love it. Steve Albini, man!
AS: So do the other guys in Alkaline Trio live in Chicago?
MS: [Drummer] Derek [Grant] lives in Chicago again but he was living in Indiana for Awhile. [Bassist and vocalist] Dan [Andriano] lives down in Florida with his wife and daughter.
AS: How do you guys come together to form a cohesive album when you’re not together?
MS: Well we were on tour most of the time we were writing this record so we actually were together the whole time during the writing process. We wrote the record intentionally while we were on the road. I would write a song one night and then the next day at sound check we would run through it. It came together pretty quickly, we were all on the same page. They are fun songs to play and they were fun songs to write. But this was different. In the last couple of years, we did a lot of it digitally. I could send you an MP3 in the next minute.
AS: So you just said that this was a fun album to play and write but a lot of the themes are pretty angst-y and heartbroken.  
MS: Yeah, I was pretty angst-y and heartbroken when I wrote all of those songs. And I think that has a lot to do with the tone of the record because I hadn’t been in that sort of mind frame for a while. I think a lot of people feel angry and heartbroken about whatever it is they might be going through—politics, relationships, friendships, a cat dying—whatever the case may be. And I had some things go on in my life that just brought me back to that very drunk, very angry and sad young man that I was ten years ago. I never went completely off the deep end but I had some dark times and therefore there is some darkness. Not spooky dark, just sad and angry shit.
AS:The title track, This Addiction, points out that love and addiction are the same things. You can be addicted to love or your relationship just like you can be addicted to heroin. What’s worse for you? Taking drugs or getting out of a bad relationship?
MS: Taking drugs you usually feel pretty good! Not to be pro-drug guy or anything but I will say I’m not anti-drug. I don’t do anything and everything, I pick my poison, but I also think that you need to moderate and you also need to handle your shit. I’m a kid 99% of the time, but there are also times, like now, where you gotta man up and have it together. I think even when you’re partying you should have it together. Losing someone, having someone die on you, having someone leave you, is a terrible process. I had a good friend of mine pass away, just as my marriage started to fall apart. Death and divorce are very similar feelings. One almost worse because it’s out of your control. One almost as worse because it is in your control. It depends on the person. You can’t compare grief. But whenever I’m confronted with some opposing force I always try and use it to my advantage. I never let it bring me down too deep.
AS: Well I’m sorry to hear that.
MS: I’m good. I’m good now!
AS: Good! Recently SuicideGirls put up an interview with Dita Von Teese…
MS: Nice, I’m a fan, she’s a sexy lady!
AS: She is a sexy lady! Anyway, in the interview she kind of gave her recipe for getting over a breakup. So do you have one? Since you’re all good now?
MS: I think drinking beer in the movies by yourself a lot is good. I think doing fun, spontaneous things is good. Rather than sitting around feeling sorry for yourself take your new freedom and run with it. Go explore. Have fun. It’s hard to get out of bed sometimes, but you have to understand that there’s going to be a light at the end of the tunnel and rather than walking towards it you should start running towards. Enjoy your life while you have it. So alcohol at the movies, solo, is a good one. That worked good for me. I was there a lot. Beer bottles clanking and stuff. I have a couple of really good friends that were there for me when I was having a rough time. I was on tour and my band mates were always there to yank me out of my bunk and force me to gallivant with them. We were all going through weird things at a certain time and we were all there for each other. You just gotta find yourself again, on your own. I love spending time by myself. I never yell at myself, I never get mad at myself if I’m late. Well, if I miss the previews I might be a little pissed [laughs] but if you can learn to love being solo again, that’s the key. And I think moving on as quickly as you can is good, but definitely not jumping into something else real quick. Have fun and hang out with people but also hang out with yourself. With beer. At the movies.  
AS: Did you make any resolutions for 2010?
MS: No! I’m doing the exact opposite. I’m going to do more of everything. If something’s affecting me negatively I just stop then and there. I don’t wait for the New Year to stop. But 2010 is going to be a good one. It’s going to be a party.
AS: Amen! Good luck on tour and congratulations on the record. Thanks so, so much for talking to SuicideGirls. Have a great day.
MS: Thanks, love!
Alkaline Trio’s seventh studio album, This Addiction comes out February 23rd on Epitaph Records/Heart & Skull. A full U.S. tour with indie rockers Cursive begins on February 16th. Check Alkaline Trio’s official MySpace for dates.

"I didn't quite know what to expect from this interview," confesses Jason Reitman. The multi-award winning 32-year old writer and director may be secure in his ability to produce great movies, but he admits to being "scared" at the prospect of being interrogated by SuicideGirls. more

"I didn't quite know what to expect from this interview," confesses Jason Reitman. The multi-award winning 32-year old writer and director may be secure in his ability to produce great movies, but he admits to being "scared" at the prospect of being interrogated by SuicideGirls.

It's taken us over a month to tie Jason down, during which time we've been communicating directly by Twitter and via his film and personal publicists. He's very much in demand right now. His first two movies, Thank You For Smoking, a satire set in the tobacco industry, and Juno, a dark comedy about teen pregnancy written by longtime friend of SG Diablo Cody, left indelible marks on the moviemaking landscape. Both films were unabashedly quirky yet each achieved mainstream critical and commercial acclaim -- and more importantly sparked a dialog about their respective subjects that reached far beyond the confines of the entertainment world. It's perhaps this capacity to make us think and to spark meaningful discussion that is Jason's greatest gift.

Though Jason grew up very much within the Hollywood machine (Jason's dad Ivan Reitman produced and/or directed an impressively long list of titles which includes the beloved Animal House, Ghostbusters and Beethoven franchises), creatively he's always preferred to walk the less traveled path. Intelligent and idiosyncratic, his latest comedy, Up In The Air, is no exception. Starring George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, a corporate downsizer who chooses air-miles over attachment and celebrates his solitary existence, the film (which features real-world characters cast from the ranks of the recently downsized) ultimately takes flight on a path that our Hollywood-trained brains may instinctively resist. However, with a nod to Jason's libertarian leanings, the choice is right for Ryan Bingham, and that's what counts.

Though Up In The Air has just gone on wide release today, it's already been nominated for six Golden Globes, more than any other film in the class of 2009. Consequently Jason's press commitments have just got a whole lot crazier. To compound the pressure on his already over-filled schedule, he's just returned from a trip to his Canadian homeland, where he and his dad (who co-produced Up In The Air) were honored with turns carrying the Winter Olympic flame.

We finally caught up with Jason mid-afternoon on Monday as he was heading over to a satellite studio for a live remote appearance on the Faux News show Happy Hour. Once on the phone Jason was beyond generous with his time, and over the course of two phone calls, one before and one after his TV appearance, we talked about the new movie, his affinity with its leading character, and a few other topics that only SG would dare to bring up.

Nicole Powers: Where are you calling in from?

Jason Reitman: I am in Los Angeles, calling from my car. I'm sorry that I'm calling in from my car.

NP: That is quite alright. I'm happy to be taking with you. I know that you've been a bit of a busy boy. I've been following your Twitter account, all the places you've been flying to and from. You also tweeted about SuicideGirls covering the movie, and you wrote about how you always wondered what happened behind our door.

JR: Yeah. My trailer company is across the hall from that door with the skull and crossbones on it, if indeed that is your guys' office.

NP: It was. We've actually just moved, but up until November it was our office.

JR: Fair enough. It always kind of was a curiosity.

NP: I'm just wondering what was going on in your imagination behind that door. What was the movie in your mind like?

JR: That's interesting. Let me think about that for a second. That's an excellent question. Well obviously there's a lot of tattoo and piercing appreciation happening, and I imagine heavy satirical dialog being passed back and forth, and probably things that I don't even want to say out loud.

NP: In one of your tweets on the subject you somehow thought we'd be chastising you for being "a VERY bad director."

JR: Yes, yes. Well I can't help but in my mind create linkage between -- I'm like blushing -- between the whole SuicideGirls' culture and perhaps the S&M crowd.

NP: And somehow, in the movie that's going on in your mind, Jason Reitman is in the naughty boy punishment room?

JR: Yes exactly. Well, I'm under the impression there is a naughty boy room. It's a large closet sized room within the SuicideGirls headquarters and that's where these girls take very conservative boys and chastise them. I would imagine my fear going into a meeting within the SuicideGirls headquarters would be similar to the fear I had meeting Diablo Cody for the first time.

NP: So there's no need to ask if you've been naughty or nice this Christmas, you're just expecting a lump of coal in your stocking?

JR: No. I'm nice. But I guess that would go along with the mythology for me, that no matter what I would say I would be perceived as naughty by the Suicide Girl...

[Break so Jason can go live on Faux News' Happy Hour.]

JR: Sorry about that.

NP: That's quite alright. How was Happy Hour for you?

JR: Really strange. Did you actually watch that?

NP: I just saw a brief clip of it then had to run back upstairs because the TV's in another room.

JR: It's strange to do those live interviews where you're talking directly to a camera. You don't see who you're talking to and it's hard to build a rhythm because you're working with a little earpiece in your ear. And then you get asked a question about healthcare reform and it's like there's no good way to answer this question. I'm not going to weigh in on healthcare.

NP: Especially on a show called Happy Hour that's based in a bar.

JR: Right. Exactly. I mean look, I applaud them for trying to take politics down to a low-key kind of conversation. We have too little of that. We have too much arguing and too little conversation, so that's kind of cool, but, you know, there's something dark and insidious about all the cable news networks.

[Returning to our previous topic of conversation.]

I though about it a little more. I'm trying to imagine what's going on behind the doors of the SuicideGirls. And yeah, I think it's girls dressed like an American Apparel ad billboard gone wrong, intermittently having political conversations and making out with each other.

NP: Which is exactly how it is.

JR: See!!! Fuck!!!

NP: When I worked in that old office I'd be sat in a corner with my head down transcribing an interview. And because my office was the only room with a white wall, they'd do a lot of photography in my office. I'd be completely involved in my own little world transcribing a heavy political interview with someone like Greg Palast, and then I'd look up and there'd be a naked girl standing on a box.

JR: [laughs]

NP: I don't know if you've seen that Flip Strip iPhone app where the girls are clothed and then you flip your iPhone upside down and their clothes fall off, well that was shot in my office.

JR: I'm going to make a very revealing admission here. I have both SuicideGirls' applications on my iPhone, although I've never played the second one, that one called Seduce [A SuicideGirl]. Because it's actually like a racy game and I find the only time I play my iPhone apps is on a plane and it doesn't seem like I can play that game on a plane...I think I would probably get in trouble, a marshal might actually tap me on the shoulder.

I remember David Cross used to do a whole bit about why do they sell pornographic magazine at the airport. Like is someone really buying Club Magazine, then bringing it on a plane and then leafing through it casually mid-flight?

NP: I think they could be going to the toilet mid-flight.

JR: Ooooh! Do you think that happens on planes?

NP: I'm sure it does. I had friends who worked as air hostesses and they would talk about that stuff all the time. They would just roll their eyes at the people who attempted to join the Mile High Club and would forget to do things like lock the bathroom door when they went in. And they'd laugh at how people would surreptitiously sneak up the isle one by one -- because obviously two people can't just troop into a toilet together, one person has to go in and then the other person has to sneak in. So they would watch these people and it would just be like comedy to them.

JR: You can't really sneak in. I think at this point if you wanna join the Mile High Club -- which I'm not a member of -- you probably just have to be ready for the admission that everyone's going to know exactly what you're doing.

You know it's funny, the scene in the movie where George and [his love/lust interest] Vera talk about that was a completely improvised scene. I realized that I needed to get them from this flirty conversation about their mileage cards up to the bedroom, and there just didn't seem to be enough connective tissue. They just didn't seem to have reached that flirtatious point in the conversation where they could just go up to the room. On the day of I said, "Hey, do you think we could do a little improv about how you need to join the Mile High Club?" We had a quick conversation about it, we set up two cameras looking at each of them so we could inter-cut the same shot, and they just went for it. It was just kind of amazing.

NP: From what I understand, the key is to do it in the toilets at the back of the plane because then at least people's heads are facing forward. Then you have to wait for the hostesses to be doing trolley service so there's none at the back of the plane watching the bathroom doors.

JR: Yeah, but the big question then is how do you leave to room? I guess once you're done you don't care. What are they going to do? Kick you off the plane at that point? So the point is, as long as you can get into the bathroom then you're fine.

NP: Yeah.

JR: And if you're really wealthy they now have these rooms, like Singapore Airlines and Emirates Airlines, they have actual rooms that you can have in first class. But then I guess there's no joy to that right? If you just buy your way in.

NP: Exactly. There's absolutely no sport to it.

It's funny, I was at the JPL open house [with my pal Heathervescent], and they were talking about Virgin Galactic's commercial flights into space. Some JPL scientist was saying he couldn't understand why folks would want to pay a fortune for the flights since they'll only allow time for about 15 minutes of weightlessness. He said it'd take 5 minutes to get up there and out of your harness, during which time approximately half of the tourists would get space sick, and that you'd only have about five minutes in zero gravity before you'd have to get back in your harness for re-entry. I explained to him that it was all about people wanting to join the 60-Mile High Club and have sex in space. The Mile High Club is not exclusive enough, it's all about the 60-Mile High Club.

JR: But what if you have performance anxiety and you only have five minutes?

NP: It'd be an expensive place to get performance anxiety.

JR: [laughs] You'd definitely want to pop a blue pill. You can't have any accidents up there.

NP: So Jason's tip for gravity-free flight is to remember to pack the blue pill?

JR: Pop a blue pill and pack the lube.

NP: [laughs] So I also noticed in an image you posted via Twitter that you conveniently condensed all the questions from your LA Up In The Air junket into an easy to use pie chart. I'm all about visual aids, and, since you've gone to the trouble of creating it, it'd be churlish of me not to make use of it. I therefore thought we should rattle through the top ten seemingly obligatory question topics with quick-fire word association-style responses so we can then move on to fresher ground. Does that work for you?

JR: That's fine. I mean it's actually a pie chart from all of my interviews, not just the LA junket. I've been doing interviews for about three months on this film, and it's a culmination of everything. So it's not only what the press of Los Angeles are interested in, but the press of the world.

NP: So the first one would be Clooney.

JR: Charm machine.

NP: Economy.

JR: Heartbreaking.

NP: Real people.

JR: This makes no sense, but what popped into my head was, "even better than the real thing."

NP: Project.

JR: What brought me to this project? Self-examination.

NP: Interesting, that goes into a question I have down the line. But back to the list, "Book."

JR: What attracted me to the book? Sitting right in front of me.

NP: Dad

JR: My hero.

NP: Anna / Vera.

JR: Two sides of the same coin.

NP: What's next?

JR: Labor Day.

NP: Miles.

JR: Embarrassing obsession.

NP: Technology.

JR: Love it / hate it.

NP: Going back to this idea of self examination, this film is very much in the same vein as Thank You For Smoking. Both films explore the dichotomy of how their respective super smart central characters justify their morally questionable career choices -- to themselves, their family, and the audience. They use their intellect and humor as a weapon against that which fundamentally is indefensible. I guess my first question is what draws you to these characters?

JR: Well I guess I don't find what they do fundamentally indefensible. I don't view these issues with levels of morality, I kind of feel they're just choices. I'm interested in the less favorably viewed choice. I like to take characters who have an open-minded point of view on an otherwise polarizing issue. And so issues like cigarettes, and teen pregnancy and abortion, and, not only corporate termination, but, even more so, the idea of living alone, are ideas where people have dead-set points of views. That really interests me, why people often think that they should tell other people what to think and how to act. I'm attracted to characters who kind of fight the party line.

NP: In interviews you've said that you see a lot of yourself in George Clooney's character. On the surface you've spoken about how it's because you fly a lot, but I guess underneath that there is something deeper than that going on....George's character, and the character in Thank You For Not Smoking, they do have morally questionable careers. Is there a part of you that sees being a Hollywood director as something less than noble?

JR: No. I think you're on the right track but the wrong road. At the end of the day I actually don't see anything wrong with what those guys do for a living. For me it's more a question of how do you simultaneously have those values and be that open-minded, but also be a parent or a member of a community. For Thank You For Smoking the big question for me was how do you be a libertarian -- I consider myself a libertarian -- and a father at the same time. It's hard to have a heart and be a libertarian, and yet that's exactly how I consider myself. I consider myself to be tentative and have a big heart but also to have fairly cold libertarian views, so they just kind of clash.

Juno for me dealt with the idea [of] when do you decide to grow up? So hidden within this film that seems to be about teen pregnancy and adoption for me is a movie about the moment that you decide to grow up. And me, as the guy who directed it, I think I was 29 or 30 when I directed it and I had just become a father, that was kind of a big deal.

With this new one, hidden within a film that seems to be about corporate termination and the economy is a movie about the decision whether to be alone or not. Being alone is kind of a controversial idea in this society, and it's certainly something I deal with all the time. Even though I'm certainly a rooted person by Hollywood standards -- I'm a father, I'm a husband earlier than most in this industry, I have kind of a close-knit family -- I still daydream about waking up in a city where I know nobody and have nothing, and I consider that to be a fairly dark side of me.

I supposed that's the beauty of making films. I get to explore different lives and that's one of the reasons I do it for a living. Every two years I get to make a new movie and I get to put on a new set of clothes. I get to see what it would be like to be a libertarian lobbyist living in DC. I get to see what it would be like to be not only Juno, but one of the Lorings in Juno. In this movie I get to see what it would be like if I actually never settled down. If I just lived by my daily itinerary what would happen. And in that I get to almost apologize for the darkest parts of my psyche.

It's funny, I watched Nine the musical last night and there's a great scene in which Daniel Day-Lewis [who plays Guido Contini, a character which is based on the Italian playboy / director Federico Fellini] and Marion Cotillard [who plays Guido's wife, Luisa Contini] have a great conversation about this exact thing; That as a director you strangely get to apologize for the darker parts of your brain through your movies, and I think I do that.

NP: Also, and this is what Nine explores too, the world excuses you because you're an artist. The world excuses you for your darker behavior and peccadilloes because it's acceptable as an artist.

JR: Right. And for me it's not, you know, for being a roving philanderer or alcoholic. For me it's more for the deep recesses of my mind, and the sheer amount of being absent that happens because of my passion for filmmaking.

NP: You talk about Juno being about the point the character decides to grow up, but the crux of this movie is that moment when you finally think Clooney's character is going to choose the emotionally mature option. He has a choice of growing up and becoming an emotional adult or continuing on his previous course. Is there a part of that which applies to you in that Hollywood allows you to be a permanent child?

JR: Yeah, certainly. That kind of permeates the industry. Although strangely, even though my films seem to across the board examine this behavior, I am kind of a notable exception to the rule. I was born an old man, and that's something that everyone seems to know about me. That would be the wonderful juxtaposition between Diablo and I, that she will die a young soul and I was born an old man.

NP: You talk about the film being a reflection of the guilt that you feel being absent from your family because of your filmmaking...For me, one of pleasures I feel being up in the air is that it's the one time you can have your phone switched off guilt-free and for the most part you're disconnected from the internet. It's the one place you can switch off and disconnect from the world. I can imagine you have such a high-pressure career, and the pressure of being a family man too, so airports and airplanes must be somewhat of a sanctuary for you.

JR: Yeah, it's funny, that's originally the reason I started going to movie theaters. I started going to the movies because that was one of the few places I could disconnect from the world. At a certain point, because of cell phones, they stopped being that way, but airplanes continue to be that way. It is the one place in the world where you can break free of everything and live un-tethered, where no one can reach you, and you can kind of be whomever you want. You sit next to a stranger and you have the kind of conversation that you would never have with someone you knew well. You learn about professions and ways of life that you otherwise would never hear about, and you sometimes open up and say things that you wouldn't say to someone you know well.

NP: I'm not looking forward to the time when all economy seats have web access as standard. That's just going to make an airplane an extension of the office, and that's going to change flying.

JR: That's happened. It's done. I mean, this is the last year of flying without internet that's pervasive. You know, half the flights at this point have it, within a year all of them will. And you're right, it will be a sad moment because it is the last place where you talk to strangers. And there's something exciting about talking to strangers. I love being surrounded by strangers. I love going to Coachella alone and walking amongst strangers. I like sitting on planes and starting conversations with people I know nothing about, knowing that there's sort of a strange time limit on our relationship, and that's going to go away. It's almost done.

NP: When I interviewed Diablo Cody, she spoke about how at some point she'd like to see "an extreme directors cut" of Jennifer's Body [a film which Reitman co-produced but didn't direct]. She said the movie was originally "longer, looser, weirder, more ambiguous." Are there any scenes in Up In The Air you regret losing that you had to cut for whatever reason?

JR: On Up In The Air I had final cut, and even on the previous two films I basically had final cut. I'm a big believer in tight movies. I don't like any extra fat on them. I don't like anything that breaks up the rhythm or the tone. I think the best directors cut of all time is the Cohen brother's Blood Simple where they actually made the movie shorter.

The Up In The Air DVD will have all the extra scenes and it has the directors commentary on why I deleted those scenes. I think perhaps there is one moment, and it's four lines of dialog that I really questioned whether or not I should take out, and that's the only one. It was a little personal character moment. But no, I don't think you'll see two and a half hour director's cuts of my movies. That's just not how I think as a director.

NP: Out of interest, what were the four lines?

JR: It was George Clooney talking to his sister Kara, played by Amy Morton. They had just gone to the rehearsal dinner of their younger sister, played by Melanie Lynskey, and they're about to go to sleep. They're just about to walk into their hotel rooms when George says to Amy, "Can you believe she's getting married, she's just a kid." And Amy goes, "Actually she's 37-years old. She's just squeaking by." And that was it. I loved that line. I thought it was unusual and ballsy, and the kind of thing you don't see in other movies. It spoke to the pressure on women in their late thirties, the kind of identity crisis that women go through. It was the kind of line that enough people asked me [about] when they read the script that it was just dangerous enough to be great. The only reason I lost it was that we were just in that wedding sequence a little too long, that was about it.

NP: If looking back on this movie that's the only area that you have ambiguous thoughts about, you must be pretty damn pleased with this movie.

JR: [laughs] Well you know I make very quick decisions and I don't really re-think them much. I make a decision and I move on. I think that's part of what makes me a good director. I don't over think things, at least on films. I may over think in real life, but on my films I make quick decisions and I move on, and I don't regret them.

NP: You're Canadian. Are you still a green carder or have you done the U.S. citizenship thing?

JR: I'm a green card. I will give up the right to vote as long as I don't have to do jury duty.

NP: Is that due to your libertarian leanings or about the inconvenience factor?

JR: Pure inconvenience. I work every day of the year and the idea of not being able to work for a week is just terrifying to me. And honestly, I think as a voter I would just get frustrated.

NP: I hear you. One final question, you carried the torch in the pre-Olympics ceremony, and indeed it was your director father that passed the torch on to you, which has all sorts of metaphorical connotations. If that was a scene in a movie my eyes would be rolling with the clumsiness of the heavy symbolism.

JR: Yeah, and I'm asked so much about it and there really is nothing I can say more than it is what it is. My father's passed the torch to me in life and he's passed the torch now literally and there's no metaphor, there's nothing I can add that will bring any more relevance to that.

NP: Did it spark any internal thoughts, or any kind of discussion between you and your dad?

JR: No. It didn't create any conversation about torch-passing. All it really created was a conversation about how fortunate we are to be sharing this moment together. So often fathers and sons just don't even get along, whereas he's my hero. That we get to share this moment in our work life together, and after decades of having exhaustive conversations about filmmaking to actually make a movie together, for it to be successful and then in that same year for us to carry the torch for our country and feel that Canadian simultaneously, it was a moment that left us both in tears. There's no words to describe how prideful I think we both felt.

NP: Well congratulations to both of you.

JR: Hey, thank you very much. Have a very happy and healthy 2010, and let the rest of the folks at SuicideGirls know that I continue to be a big fan.


Up In The Air opens on wide release in theaters today.