It’s not an exaggeration to say Logue did everything in his power to get this film made. He wrote the script, financed the pic, directed it, did his own make-up, helped edit the film, and wrote the song Stephen Dorff performs in the movie. I didn't ask, but I'll bet he even helped serve lunch on the set. Everything that needed to get done, Logue did. The finished product is a biting behind the scenes look at a couple of mid-level actors trying to find meaning in their lives.
Logue said he didn’t set out to wear that many hats. “I wasn’t going to direct it, but then when a couple people who were possibly going to direct it couldn’t because they were doing something else, I just felt like, ‘Why not? Let’s just do it and get it done.’”
Logue felt that after a decade of acting in films, he was ready to take on the task of directing his first film. “I had done movies for people who’ve never been on sets before and just wrote the script, and it’s fun – I’m fine with it. But I had worked on 50 movies up to that point, so you know… I mean, it’s just understanding characters.
People would be blown away technically by [what directors do]. I think there are some directors who are technical directors and that’s a different game in terms of just understanding the story and presenting it. I think a lot of people could direct. You know, I would rather have someone who was close to the story, understood the characters, and the sense of humor and the tone, than someone who is really someone who is technically super proficient but bad at the other stuff.”
Donal Logue on Directing Donal Logue: “You know, it’s interesting. I think it was good because I didn’t have an awful lot of time to think about it. I always enjoyed parts you can play when you can just really breathe and talk, like the ‘The Tao of Steve’ a little bit. And we kept it conversational and hopefully intelligent in this movie, which is what I wanted it to be. I really liked the part. It felt easy. It felt natural. We had worked on the script for so long, Kirk [Fox] and I.”
Donal Logue on Getting Feedback From His Cast: Logue said that whenever he needed to get another perspective of the film, his cast would offer input and direction. “It just re-energizes the process. It just makes you either defend why you wrote something a certain way and you have it that way; or you can open yourself to ideas. Jason [Isaacs] came with a lot of ideas and he did a lot with ‘Johnnie Green’ that was a bit different. Because it’s so much just me and Kirk, but Johnnie Green’s character’s the really strong one. Jason Isaacs was the guy who really brought a lot to the table that was his own.”
Donal Logue on Playing Loose with His Script: Logue allowed his cast room to play around with the script and a lot of what they came up with wound up in the film. “Everybody had to have freedom and fun. That was the whole game. I mean, Maeve Quinlan who plays Siobhan Kelly – her dialogue was completely her own improv. All the celebrity interviews basically were just improvs. And Paul Rudd and whatever…. Paul Rudd’s insane – really hilarious. I’ve known him forever and I love him. But he does wilder stuff in this movie than maybe he had done in other movies.”
Logue said that his own scene where performs an inappropriate comedy routine at an awards banquet was tightly scripted, but most of Jason Isaacs’ lines from that scene were things he came up with on his own. “Jason would say ridiculous stuff like, ‘I’m just talking floppsy…’ You know, this kind of fake catch phrases. I just love fake catch phrases that people show this kind of comfortability with and enjoyment of. I love that kind of stuff where you’re like, ‘A little show called…” It’s like when you see something smug in the trades ‘from the people who brought you a little show called Seinfeld.’ I wanted ‘Everybody’s Buddy’ to have that feel when people talked about it like that,” said Logue. “It was some weird stuff. The scenes were really funny but it was just him making stuff up.”
Donal Logue on the Origin of “Tennis, Anyone…?”: “Kirk [Fox] and I became friends on ‘The Patriot.’ Initially the fake movie in the movie was going to be a revolutionary war movie, but we couldn’t get together so we had gone to one of these tennis tournaments. We had a conversation not unlike the conversation we had in the bar where he told me he had played pro-tennis. I was like, ‘Where are you from?’ ‘Oh my God, I used to play.’ And then he taught people tennis and this and that, and he told me about the world of these tournaments. We went to one and it was so ridiculous it had to be codified in film."
PAGE 2: Donal Logue on the Budget, Freedom to Do As He Pleased, and Tom Sizemore
