Glover'slatest film is It is Fine. Everything isFine!, a thematic sequel to 2005's surreal What Is It?, which starred many actors with Down syndrome. Thesecond installment in a planned trilogy, Itis Fine was written by and stars Steven C. Stewart, a Utah writer who loosely based thefantastical script on his experiences suffering cerebral palsy, including 10years he spent wrongly confined to a nursing home after his speech impedimentwas mistaken as a sign of mental retardation. Stewart died in 2001, one monthafter shooting wrapped on the film.
In advanceof his 7 p.m. appearance Thursday, April 22 at the Oriental Theatre, Glovertalked to the Shepherd Express viae-mail about his films, his unique business model and the importance ofbreaking taboos.
How much satisfaction do you get from commercial film workthese days? At this point in your career, is it something you do solely to fundyour own ventures?
After Charlie's Angelscame out it did very well financially and was good for my acting career. Istarted getting better roles that also paid better and I could continue usingthat money to finance my films that I am so truly passionate about. I have beenable to divorce myself from the content of the films that I act in and look atacting as a craft that I am helping other filmmakers to accomplish what it isthat they want to do. Usually filmmakers have hired me because there issomething they have felt would be interesting to accomplish with using me intheir film and usually I can try to do something interesting as an actor. Iffor some reason the director is not truly interested in doing something that Ipersonally find interesting with the character then I can console myself thatwith the money I am making to be in their production I can help to fund my ownfilms that I am so truly passionate about. Usually, though, I feel as though Iam able to get something across as an actor that I feel good about. It hasworked out well such as recent happy film work such as in Time Burton's Alice in Wonderland and Hot Tub Time Machine.
How did you come up with the idea for your multi-mediatours?
I definitely have been aware of utilizing the fact that Iam known from work in the corporate media I have done in the last 25 years orso. This is something I rely on for when I go on tour with my films. It lets mego to various places and have the local media cover the fact that I will beperforming either “Crispin Hellion Glover's Big Slide Show I” or “CrispinHellion Glover's all new Big Slide Show.” These are one-hour live dramaticnarration of eight different books (Part I) or six different books (Part II),which are profusely illustrated and projected as I go through them. Then I showthe film, have a Q and A with the audience and after that a book signing. As Ifunded the films I knew that this is how I would recoup my investment, even ifit a slow process.
How has your slide show evolved over the years?
The books are taken from old books from the 1800's thathave been changed in to different books from what they originally were. Theyare heavily illustrated with original drawings and reworked images andphotographs. When I first started publishing the books in 1987, people said Ishould have book readings. But the book are so heavily illustrated and they waythe illustrations are used within the books they help to tell the story so theonly way for the books to make sense was to have visually representations ofthe images. This is why I knew a slide show was necessary. It took a while but in1993 I started performing what I used to call “Crispin Hellion Glover's BigSide Show.”
Why do you choose not to release your films on DVD?
The benefits are that I am in control of the distributionand personally supervise the monetary intake of the films that I am touringwith. I also control piracy in this way because digital copy of this film isstolen material and highly prosecutable. It can be enjoyable to travel andvisit places, meet people, perform the shows and have interaction with theaudiences and discussions about the films afterwards. This also makes me muchmore personally grateful to the individuals who come to my shows, as there isno corporate intermediary. The drawbacks are that a significant amount of timeand energy to promote and travel and perform the shows. Also the amount ofpeople seeing the films is much smaller than if I were to distribute the filmsin a more traditional sense.
How did you discover Steven C. Stewart? What drew you tohis script?
I will start with writing about the first part of thetrilogy What Is It? is not a filmabout Down's Syndrome but my psychological reaction to the corporate restraintsthat have happened in the last 20 to 30 years in film making. Specifically,anything that can possibly make an audience uncomfortable is necessarilyexcised or the film will not be corporately funded or distributed. This isdamaging to the culture because it is the very moment when an audience membersits back in their chair looks up at the screen and thinks to their self, “Isthis right what I am watching? Is this wrong what I am watching? Should I behere? Should the filmmaker have made this? What is it?”and that is the titleof the film. What is it that is taboo in the culture? What does it mean thattaboo has been ubiquitously excised in this culture's media? What does it meanto the culture when it does not properly process taboo in its media? It is abad thing because when questions are not being asked because these kinds ofquestions are when people are having a truly educational experience. For theculture to not be able to ask questions leads towards a non educationalexperience and that is what is happening in this culture. This stupefies thisculture and that is of course a bad thing. So What Is It? is a direct reaction to the contents this culture'smedia. I would like people to think for themselves.
Steven C. Stewart wrote and is the main actor in part twoof the trilogy titled It is fine!EVERYTHING IS FINE. I put Steve in to the cast of What Is It? because he had written this screenplay which I read in1987. When I turned What Is It? froma short film in to a feature I realized there were certain thematic elements inthe film that related to what Steven C. Stewart's screenplay dealt with. Steve had been locked in a nursing home for about 10 years when hismother died. He had been born with a severe case of cerebral palsy and he wasvery difficult to understand. People that were caring for him in the nursinghome would derisively call him an “M.R.” short for “Mental Retard.” This is nota nice thing to say to anyone, but Steve was of normal intelligence. When hedid get out he wrote his screenplay. Although it is written in the genre of amurder detective thriller, truths of his own existence come through much more clearlythan if he had written it as a standard autobiography.
When I was 19 I was acting in a film made at the AFI calledThe Orkly Kid. The character I wasplaying was based on a person the director had made a documentary about when hewas working on a television show in Salt Lake Utah. He was friends with anotherfilmmaker from Salt Lake named Larry Roberts,who had made a documentary on Steven C Stewart when Steve was still not able toget out of the nursing home. When Steve got out of the nursing home, he toldLarry that he wanted to make a movie. Larry was an interesting filmmaker, butwas older and doing other things, and he introduced Steve to another youngerSalt Lake filmmaker that was making unusual movies and said maybe they couldwork on it together. I had also been shown some of David Brother's films byLarry and the director of the Orkly Kid. It was around this time that I hadbeen wanting to make a movie from one of my books and I had very much likedDavid Brother's movies he was making on video. So I met up with David Brothersand we started making a movie of one of my books called The Backward Swing. We started shooting this on video in1987actually this will be the next movie I edit. In any case, while we wereworking on The Backward Swing, Davidshowed me the script for Everything IsFine! and as soon as I read it I knew it was a movie I had to produce.
Steven C. Stewart's own true story was fascinating. andthen the beautiful story and the naïve, including his fascination of women withlong hair, and the graphic violence and sexuality and the revealing truth ofhis psyche from the screenplay were all combined. There was a specific marriageproposal scene that was the scene I remember reading that made me say, “I haveto produce this film.”
Steven C. Stewart died within a month after we finishedshooting the film. Cerebral palsy is not generative but Steve was 62 when weshot the film. One of Steve's lungs had collapsed because he had startedchoking on his own saliva and he got pneumonia. I specifically started fundingmy own films with the money I make from the films I acted in when Steven C.Stewart's lung collapsed in the year 2000; this was around the same time thatthe first Charlie's Angels film wascoming to me. I realized with the money I made from that film I could putstraight in to the Steven C. Stewart film. That is exactly what happened. Ifinished acting in Charlie's Angelsand then went to Salt Lake Citywhere Steven C. Stewart lived. I met with Steve and David Brothers with whom Ico-directed the film. I went back to LA and acted in a lower budget film forabout five weeks and David Brothers started building the sets. Then I wentstraight back to Salt Lake and we completedshooting the film within about six months in three separate smallerproductions. Then Steve died within a month after we finished shooting. I amrelieved to have gotten this film finally completed because ever since I readthe screenplay in 1987 I knew I had to produce the film and also produce itcorrectly. I would not have felt right about myself if I had not gotten Steve'sfilm made, I would have felt that I had done something wrong and that I hadactually done a bad thing if I had not gotten it made. So I am greatly relievedto have completed it especially since I am very pleased with how well the filmhas turned out. I feel It is fine!EVERYTHING IS FINE! will probably be the best film I will have anything todo with in my entire career.
Was it difficult completely the film after Stewart passedaway? How did you make sure his vision remained in tact?
We completed all filming before Steve died. He actuallymade certain with me that we had enough footage to finish the film. DavidBrothers and I both were intent on bringing forth what Steve had written.Because Steve wrote it as a fantasy, David and I wanted to make certain that wesupported it in the most opulent way and to look closest to a corporatelyfunded and distributed film, but to maintain the emotionally cathartic elementsthat were apparent in Steve's original script.
What has the audience response been like to these films?Does the intense nature of the films ever make the Q&A sessions afterwarduncomfortable?
What Is It? was premieredat Sundance in 2005 and won best narrative film at the 2005 Ann Arbor film festival and it won the 2005Sitges International Film Festival Midnight Extreme Award. It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE! was premiered at Sundance in 2007and won a special mention the 2007 Sitges International Film Festival for NewVisions Award. The films deal with taboo subject matter and there can be strongdebate and discussion about the subject matter, which was expected, I havehappily welcomed and been somewhat surprised by the amount of positive pressand reviews both the films have received in the corporate media entities thathave written about and reviewed the films.
Spontaneous discussions and even arguments sometimes eruptamongst audience members with each other during the Q and A session. I considerthis to be positive as it means people are having strong thoughtful reactionsto the film. For the most part people come up to me with extremely positivethoughts about both the films.%u2028
What is the biggest misconception about Crispin HellionGlover?
The biggest misconception is probably that people maybelieve I am psychotic as opposed to an organized businessperson.
