Freddy Got Fingered seems to parallel your own life to an extent. In the movie you play Gord, a man in his mid-twenties who is forced to move back home with his parents while he pursues his dream job of being a cartoonist. Were you your own inspiration while writing the script?
The movie isn’t based on what happened in my own life per se, but it is based on what a lot of young people today are going through. I think that there are more parents today skeptical of their children’s career choice than ever before because these jobs are newer and unknown to them, like jobs on the internet. I guess you would say that in my own life I wanted to have my own TV show and be a comedian but that my dad wanted me to get a real job. Still, my parents were very supportive in my decision to pursue a career in comedy, while Gord’s parents were not. Sure, I still felt I was being misunderstood by my parents and it was frustrating living in their basement, but I took broadcasting in school so they saw my community access show as an extension of school. However, when I was twenty-six asking my mom for twenty bucks to hang with the boys… there were those moments of conflict.
How did you end up directing this film? Isn’t it a bit much to star, write and direct your first starring feature role?
I was under the impression at the beginning of the film that I wouldn’t be able to direct the film because it was the first film I ever starred in. Even though I had experience directing my own show, I didn’t have the title of the show’s director. I felt I could do it and I wanted to do it, but I was told it would be difficult. After we auditioned three different directors though, I was having a difficult time finding someone who would do what I was visualizing for the film. So, I pitched the studio the idea that I would direct the film and they said, “Sure.” Probably the biggest mistake they ever made.
You always hear stories about how stars are shocked at what they can’t get away with in PG-13 and R rated films. Freddy Got Fingered has a lot of scenes I could think of, the scene involving the baby being born for one, that may have had to have been trimmed down for the MPAA to not give the film an NC-17 rating. Did you have any such problems?
We actually didn’t have any problems with the MPAA. I think the line we walk on is where one side is mean-spirited and the other is just goofy. As long as there is no permanent damage and no one dies its okay. Like on my show, sure I put poo poo on a microphone and interview people with that, but I would never jam the microphone in their eye or anything. Poo one millimeter away from someone’s eye is on the good side of the line, poo in someone’s eye is on the bad side of the line.
I heard that you made Rip Torn do his own stunts during the film. Why is that?
I never had a stunt man on my show. I consider myself to be a physical comedian and expected the same of my actors in the film. It’s our responsibility. There’s always the pressure to have a stunt man do your work, but I feel that you can fall funny or you can fall less funny, so I wanted everyone to do their own falls.
Get inside the very guts of Green to see what makes this sick mind tick and read FINGERING TOM: A TOM GREEN INTERVIEW (part 3) >>>
