anderswolleck

Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris have long been one of the most respected directors in music videos and commercials. But it wasnt until 2006 when Fox Searchlight released their independent film, Little Miss Sunshine, that their names were on everyones lips. Sporting a dream cast that includes Alan Arkin, Steve Carell and Toni Collette, the movie is about Olive a young girl who, by default, gets accepted to a beauty pageant. When her parents realize they dont have enough money to fly her to the pageant, they decide to drive her in their rickety VW bus along with their voluntarily mute son, her suicidal uncle and her grandfather who snorts heroin and is teaching Olive her dance routine. The film has grossed nearly $60 million domestically and is a favorite to get nominated for lots of prestigious awards. I got a chance to talk with directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris about the film which is newly released on DVD.

Buy the DVD of Little Miss Sunshine

Daniel Robert Epstein: With all the attention that Little Miss Sunshine has gotten, you guys must be unbelievably happy and proud.

Valerie Faris: Its all been good.

Jonathan Dayton: Its so far beyond any expectations weve had. You would never allow yourself to hope for these things so its been so fun.

DRE: Besides Fox Searchlights amazing marketing and releasing of the film, what do you think hooked people into it?

VF: I really dont think its one single thing. I think its actually a combination of factors that have worked in our favor. I hope its the movie, but I do feel like we really benefited from the word of mouth campaign. We went out around the country, did Q & As and then showed the movie to people. I think a lot of the word spread that way, through the internet and through people telling their friends, which I think is the best way to learn about a movie.

JD: Its so rare that a movie ends with a hopeful message that feels real. There are plenty of sugar-coated unbelievable happy endings in movies but hopefully ours resonates with some

VF: Some ounce of truth or something.

JD: I know we have a far-fetched ending but I think that its based on real feelings and people responded to that. All I can really speak for is how we loved the material and

VF: The actors.

JD: Certainly the actors we were so fortunate to get are such a great group who did really amazing work.

VF: Its funny. Before we started shooting we had so many problems trying to get this film made and then once we got the money to do it and cast it, it did feel like things fell into place. Toni Collette said This project is charmed and it felt like that. Its weird but it really did.

DRE: I know Fox Searchlight must have had certain expectations, just because they spent so much money buying the film after it showed at Sundance. Did anyone from that company tell you what they wanted out of the film?

JD: I think that the people selling it were saying This could do between 20 and 30 million dollars and that was considered a healthy return.

VF: A bargain.

JD: But to their credit, Fox never really got into a lot of number crunching. They spent real money on it but I dont think its been extravagant. I think they were very smart in where they spent their money.

VF: They never gave us any sense of We want to do it this way and We want to change something youve done. They were incredibly collaborative in terms of how the film was going to be presented and how we were involved. I dont know if they are this way with every movie but with us they were respectful.

JD: We came to them early on and said, We dont want to reveal that they arrive at the pageant, so none of the advertising had any of the pageant in it and that really made a big difference.

VF: And we didnt want any hints to Grandpas fate. They were very protective of the movie so I dont think we could have landed in a better place.

DRE: How has it been attending all of these award shows?

VF: I think we have a bit of cynicism about the whole thing but its obviously very nice. Its fun to see all the other filmmakers but the challenge is just to have fun with it and not get too tense.

JD: Yeah and not take it too seriously. Quite honestly, I feel like the best part about it is that our parents can witness all this [laughs].

VF: The first thing they said was, Do we get to go to the Academy Awards? We go, Well were not even nominated but I dont think they give away a lot of tickets.

DRE: They dont [laughs].

VF: Maybe theyll go in our place. We can buy them tickets.

DRE: I read that the screenwriter of Little Miss Sunshine, Michael Arndt, was at one point let go by Focus Features. Was it you guys who hired him back?

VF: Yeah, there was a rewrite that was done and it was never really

JD: Even Focus realized it wasnt.

VF: Focus recognized it wasnt right. We pretty much always wanted to work with Michael because we loved his writing and we loved his script. We fought to keep it the same. We made changes but we fought for the things that we loved. You read so many scripts that have so many problems and then we read this script and it felt like it was close to perfect. It felt like it was a complete movie. So the absurdity of then having to go in and have it developed when wed read so many other scripts that the studio was ready to make.

JD: That were nowhere near as well conceived and constructed.

VF: It was very frustrating although I think in some ways it was a good experience because it sharpened our

JD: It caused us to stick to our guns.

VF: And it taught us to fight for the things that we loved. Those are good muscles for us to have.

DRE: I read that you guys tweaked the script. Does that mean you sat down and wrote stuff?

VF: No, we would work out scenes with Michael but Michael always wrote.

JD: We dont consider ourselves writers but as directors we do like to be involved in providing the structure.

VF: The shape of the scene.

JD: Preserving a certain tone with the film. It was a great collaboration but its Michaels script and in no way do we want to claim credit for that.

VF: I was just thinking we would love to take credit for it, if we had written it [laughs].

DRE: You guys had been in development for this for so many years. Did anyone who told you not to do this movie or wanted to change the things, ever apologize?

VF: [laughs] No but we dont harbor ill will toward anyone at Universal. They havent apologized but I think theyve admitted that they blew it. But that happens.

JD: Its not the first.

VF: Its not the first time, wont be the last time.

DRE: This must be a great vindication for you guys after such a long process.

JD: Our agent stuck with us for ten years and we made very little for him.

VF: We turned down so many things and then this came along so he is very happy.

JD: I have to run. I have a dentists appointment that I totally forgot about. But Val can sit and finish with you.

DRE: Thank you Jonathan.

So Valerie, just this morning I read on CNN.com that Alan Arkin made up Grandpas backstory of him as a saxophone player who performed in strip joints. I was wondering if that at all jibed with what you all were thinking when you helped craft the character.

VF: Well, when Alan brought that up we thought that made a lot of sense to us. We definitely always talked about him learning everything he knew about dance from years of strip bar patronage. So that I totally buy and he also talked about George Carlin as the image he had of this guy. We thought that was pretty funny. I think that its great if actors want to come up with their own backstory so they feel like they have links to that character. But we knew that Alan got the character so we didnt spend a whole lot of time thinking about that.

DRE: Have you heard of any strippers doing Olives routine?

VF: I dont know. Id like to see that, though. I dont spend a lot of time in strip bars, but that would be the highest compliment.

DRE: [laughs] I know youve been working with Jonathan for a very long time, have you guys always had similar visions on what you wanted to create?

VF: Yeah, we met in college and we worked together for six years before we were a couple. I feel like what really brought us together was shared vision and interests. It really started out as an interest in people and documentaries and developed into working with musicians for years. We want the same thing from our work. For 20 years weve shared that without even talking about it so much. I think somehow we both are very satisfied in what were doing.

DRE: I didnt know that the two of you were working together before you got together, was there always flirtation between the two of you?

VF: It was funny. When we first started working together we were both dating other people so there was this little bit of messing around or flirting and then both of us realized, Okay, lets not go there right now. Lets put that aside. We worked together for six years and many of the days we worked together were 18 hours long. It was pretty hard to maintain any other relationship. It doesnt work so well in reverse. I think its very hard for couples who come from a romantic relationship to try to then become professional partners. Everybody we talk to says, I dont know how you do it, I could never work with my spouse. I think its because we developed these habits outside of a romantic relationship and developed professional respect for each other. Now that respect has continued and probably helps our personal relationship. Somehow it seems to work, but I dont think weve ever had to think about it as much as we have this year.

DRE: Yeah because to you guys its no big deal but to others its like, Oh my God! [laughs]

VF: Yeah, How do they do it? [laughs]

We have three kids together and I think that our family life and our personal relationship is so established. So if wed only been together two years or something this might have shocked us out of a healthy relationship.

DRE: Did the way you guys worked together change once you got romantically involved?

VF: No, it just allowed us to work longer hours. The drag about it is that I need to review my whole life before I go to bed every night. Therefore Jonathan has suffered more because Ill wake him up at one in the morning and have some thought about work or something and I need to share it with him. So he probably doesnt sleep as well since weve been together. But if anything I think were more single-minded because the boundaries are blurry between our home life, our family life and our work life. We dont have these competing careers and I think that makes it easier.

DRE: I know that all independent films are a difficult journey but was this film logistically difficult because of all the characters you had to give screen time to and from shooting on the road?

VF: We spent the four years that it took to get this movie greenlit, planning it and working on it so I feel like we just had mentally gone through making this movie before we actually had to make it. It felt like there werent a lot of problems that we hadnt already anticipated. We had a great team. We had great producers. We had a great assistant director. We had a great crew. It felt really smooth. We had such incredible actors who came completely prepared. We had 30 days to shoot it and none of us felt rushed. It was very efficient, which is weird because it could be very unwieldy with all those characters. But I also think that having a week of rehearsal is the best thing. If you can rehearse any amount of time it gets everybody working together in a way that sets you up to work fast and work together. Its really essential, especially on low budget films and ensemble films.

DRE: When we spoke in New York for the theatrical release you had said that the films you guys had been offered over the years had been horror films and then after [The Smashing Pumpkins video] Tonight, Tonight you got offered period pieces. What are you getting offered now?

VF: I feel like were getting a little bit of everything, which is surprising. There arent a lot of scripts or films out there like Little Miss Sunshine so people are just sending us anything just because Little Miss Sunshine did well. It seems like when you have a successful movie they say, Well theyll make anything successful. I think it took us a long time to find this script and now were working on some projects that were very involved with from the ground up. I would love it if we found a script that was really ready to shoot but so far we havent. We are pretty particular about what appeals to us and we dont want to just do any movie. We started too late in our career to make a bunch of shitty movies [laughs].

DRE: Theres somewhat a backlash against Little Miss Sunshine now.

VF: Yeah.

DRE: Is that just evidence that not all movies are for everybody?

VF: I hope so. Of course Im going to probably hear more of the positive stuff than the negative stuff but I think its almost healthy to have some dissenters. I was almost worried because all I heard were glowing reports. I was starting to worry, God, we made this film that just has this mass appeal. Then you start to get this feeling of a backlash because all the people that like it say, Well, wait a minute, we thought we were a select group of people. But now if everybody likes it, I dont like it anymore. My parents told me a story about friends of theirs who sent friends to go see it in Florida and these people ended up walking out of the movie saying, Well that family is just too dysfunctional. I like hearing those stories and I think its healthy. It feels good to have a bit of doubt put back in our minds [laughs]. It is never good to feel too all powerful. I like to feel, Well we could have done it better.

DRE: When we spoke back for the theatrical release I asked if Palm Pictures was going to do a collection of your guys music videos and commercials and you said they were having financial issues. Has the success of Little Miss Sunshine helped expedite that at all?

VF: I dont know if theyve worked out. I think they were looking for a new distributor. We havent talked to them since Little Miss Sunshine came out so I dont know whats happening there and Im trying not to take it personally. We would enjoy a collection that because it would be nice to have a packaged record of our work.

DRE: What did your kids think of Little Miss Sunshine?

VF: Our twin 11 year old boys really loved the language and they loved to recite Grandpas lines. They think it gives them license to use all that bad language. We faced that problem a little bit with them like, Its okay for him to say that but you guys cant say that. They liked it but theyve lived with it for five years so their reaction to it was like, Well yeah, Ive seen it already. Theyre my toughest critics though. Theyre not interested in us being celebrated in any way. They try to keep us down.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

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