"There's a scene in the movie that for me was the most moving thing to have written this and do it in production, which was when the Sunshine Production was performing these musical numbers. I knew how much these kids took such pride and joy in these performances. How much profound delight that they had, how connected and bonded they were, all being from all walks of life. And it was a beautiful thing to behold and they're singing this song with great levity and delight and it's all fun and yet, of course, at the same time you stop and listen and go, 'Oh my God, what are they singing?' You hear these words, and again that's just a part of the rub, the kind of friction that I work with. On the one hand, that generates, 'Is this funny? Should I laugh? Should I not laugh? If I'm laughing, what am I laughing at? Am I to be moved by this?' The complexity of the response to this for some people is like, 'You've crossed the line.' But what line have I crossed? If these children didn't have disabilities then it would've been okay, but then that implies that it's okay to disenfranchise. I mean, why should someone with disabilities not be able to have delight in singing and dancing and so forth?”
Releasing “Palindromes” Without a MPAA Rating: “It's unrated which is really code for not having much faith in getting an R. I don't have any issues. The MPAA is what it is. I'm not on a crusade. Movies can be released, actually, last year the studios changed their tack and they did actually release a couple of movies which were NC-17, neither of which were financially profitable which is unfortunate. But I suppose they felt that they didn't have anything to lose on the other hand by going NC-17 since it was, in fact, devised for the studios to release movies.
But this movie I have no pressure from Wellspring. It's not a subsidiary of some studio. So I can release the movie as I like and it will play in all, virtually all 50 states. I've shown it in Birmingham. I'm going to Omaha, Atlanta. I'm going to show it all over the place, and so it's a double-edged thing if you get a rating. If you submit for a rating, you have to of course pay money for that. So is it better to have an NC-17 and then theaters have an excuse not to show your film because it's got this NC-17? Or not spend the money and you're unrated, but then theaters have an excuse not to show it because it doesn't have a rating?
Look, I got to make the movie without having to censor it or cut it in any way, which I'd never do. If you're aware of 'Storytelling,' I would never cut anything. I'll just put boxes and beeps if that's what they want. This is the only country in the world where you can see the movie 'Storytelling' with a big red box in it. I take pride in that. It's the only studio movie with a big red box.”
