"The Baxter" breaks out of the typical romantic comedy mold to focus on that guy left standing at the altar. You know the guy. He's left there with that dazed look on his face as his would-be bride's great love comes and steals away his woman. Showalter's "The Baxter" gives audiences a peek at what happens to that guy after the wedding's called off.
INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL SHOWALTER:
You ended up writing, directing and starring in “The Baxter” however you didn’t originally plan on directing or acting in the film. In the back of your mind, were you considering taking a part in it while you were working on the script?
“I really wrote it out of a writing passion, not out of a performing passion. So as I wrote the film I used that part of me that’s a performer to kind of imagine him, but no differently than I did all the other characters in the movie. I wrote a movie as a screenwriter with the main character that I guess seemed like I could maybe play. I mean, I knew that I wasn’t wrong for the part. But no, I really didn’t. This really wasn’t something that I wrote where it was like, ‘I have to play Elliott.’ If anything, the thing that was I going to have trouble not doing was directing the movie.”
So as you were writing it, you were thinking about making it your directorial debut?
“I would love to direct this movie. I don’t expect that I would have that opportunity.”
What hurdles did you have to overcome to direct “The Baxter?”
“It was one of those funny things where I had tried to sell it in Hollywood the way people sell screenplays. And it didn’t get bought. People liked it. People responded to it and wanted to meet with me, but they didn’t want to buy the script. So it kind of went on a shelf. A producer in New York City had heard that I had written a screenplay and wanted to read it. She took it to IFC Films and IFC Films loved it and wanted to make the movie. Before I knew it, I was directing my own movie that I had written and wasn’t able to sell.”
Once you decided to direct and act in it, did you think maybe you bit off a little too much?
“In retrospect, maybe. But at the time I was just dealing with so much that I didn’t even think about it. I just was very focused on getting the film made. I guess in my mind, you know, I was the director, writer, and main actor in the movie and those were three big jobs that had been filled, that didn’t need to be worried about.”
Did you feel any extra pressure while filming the movie, knowing that a lot was resting on your shoulders?
“I guess so. I didn’t feel like things were getting out of control or anything like that. I didn’t feel like I was in over my head. I think I felt like, ‘Wow, I’m actually pretty good at this.’ I’m capable of focusing on many, many different important things at once - and focusing on them at a fairly high level. I can really be passionate about all the different things I need to be passionate about without being a jerk or coming across as insane or incapable of doing it. I can appear calm and at the same time, I am also on top of it.
You know, I’m proud of this film. It’s my directorial debut and I think that there’s a visual style and there’s consistency there. And all of the different elements that are important to me in filmmaking are there. The movie was made with a very low budget, very fast, so I factor that into it as well.
I’d say that probably the thing that may have suffered the most may have been my own performance because, you know, there was no one telling me what to do. The other actors had only their own performances to think about whereas I was thinking about my performance, everyone else’s performance, as well as a million other things.”
Page 2: Michael Showalter on the Name 'Baxter'
