INTERVIEW WITH ZAK PENN:
You made yourself come off as a jerky Hollywood-type guy in this. Why did you decide to do that?
You know, I wish I could say that I had a lot of foresight thinking about that. Someone needed to play that part and it kind of evolved. My character became more and more jerkish as we shot, just because it seemed to be producing a good dynamic between me and Werner [Herzog].
In retrospect, I might have changed my name for the movie. Really. I mean, I know it seems crazy but when it started I felt like, “Somebody’s got to play this part. It might as well be me. And since we’re all using our real names, I’ve got to also.” I didn’t really think about the fact… I guess I might have thought that people wouldn’t really believe the movie and so that wouldn’t be such an issue, you know? But we strove for reality and I think people, because it seems kind of real, it does create a disturbing, odd situation for me. In some ways it’s also flattering. If people get so angry at me, I’m proud that at least I was able to evoke that reaction.
I don’t think the performance of the character is tremendously over the top. It’s not like I’m screaming and yelling. It’s not like the most obvious villain in the world but by the end, he pretty much is. It’s been a while since I’ve acted in something where I’ve done such a big part so whatever. (Laughing) It’s a very confusing situation, even for me. I had larger goals and me playing a jerk was like a very small part in that larger plan. I really did not realize how much attention it would get me of the negative sort.
After people are done watching it, they don’t really believe you're like this character on screen, do they?
Well, that’s the thing. Most people don’t but you’d be surprised. When they do test screenings of movies and ask people which actor they thought was the worst and which they thought was the best, almost invariably the guy playing the villain gets the test scores saying he was the worst. They confuse who was the worst on screen with [the acting job]. It does happen.
Some people get very angry at me, and I think actually it’s kind of funny if you read some of the reviews we’ve gotten, particularly in the reviews that [are good]. We’ve gotten a lot of very good reviews and even in some of the good reviews people can’t help but really take me to task as a person. They are very critical of my appearance and like very strange things. It’s kind of an interesting media phenomenon that maybe I’ll make a movie about. Like check out the Village Voice review. The guy really loved the movie but just could not resist tearing me apart in this review in terms of what I look like and how bad my other scripts were, etc. etc. It’s kind of a strange off-shoot.
A lot of reviews have given you kudos for the movie's ability to question the nature of reality and filmmaking. Was that one of the main reasons to do “Incident at Loch Ness?”
Yes, absolutely. I definitely was not trying to write an essay and teach anyone a lesson, but one thing I do find interesting [is] I looked at someone – I know this seems weird, but I think about someone like Andy Kaufman particularly. One of the things I always found fascinating about Andy Kaufman - although to be honest when I was a kid I didn’t understand so I hated him – but as I’ve gotten older I realized a lot of what he was doing was forcing you to confront your own kind of passivity towards media. Saying, “You know what? Pay attention because people just show you this stuff but that doesn’t mean that it’s real.” I think that applies to all forms of media. I think that applies to print journalism. I think it applies to TV, particularly TV news.
The difference between a mediated reality and what reality is was something that interests both me and Werner. This just seemed a pretty fun way to raise questions of it. That was one of my intentions, obviously. Don’t get me wrong. Despite your first question, 90% of the response has been incredibly gratifying to me because people really do seem to get that. They understand that that’s not the easiest thing in the world to comment on without sounding didactic. I’m pretty proud of the movie. It kind of sneaks up on you. It seems like most people agree with that. They don’t feel like they’re being hit over the head.
PAGE 2: Zak Penn on Werner Herzog's Involvement, the Script, and Being in on the Joke
