One thing I love about you is that you look like a “normal” person instead of a model. Why do you think Hollywood is so obsessed with casting beautiful people? Azzaazza. I think this is where the sunlight is. It is very rude and unforgiving. So you have to have an unforgivable level of beauty to exist. Whereas England has that wonderful darkness that lights up the cracks and rocks on people’s faces. So you end up valuing acting more than looks.
Reviews say I Love My Dad is a “thrill comedy.” I find movies like this difficult to watch unless I’m eating rich beef sausages. Do you have any nutritional crutches that get you through a movie? suchaphool Really strong tea and firm sourdough pretzels. I can crush them and mute the dialogue.
How do you find a balance between joy and outrage, especially given our slow-moving apocalypse? zagnutt I try to take each one as it comes. There’s nothing wrong with a little genuine outrage now and then, as long as it hasn’t driven the joy out of you forever.
Patton Oswalt in Big Fan. Photo: Everett Collection/Alamy
If you could cross one film off your filmography, which would you choose? SalfordianBlue I don’t judge movies the way the viewer judges them. They were all really fun experiences, even if some of the movies didn’t turn out great. I wouldn’t want to lose any of those memories. So I won’t knock any of them. Save all!
How do you win over a challenging audience when performing stand-up? VerulamiumParkRangerIf you’re excited to be there and you get them excited, you wrap them up in your excitement. I always enjoy being in front of an audience. I’m never like, “Oh my God, these fucking people.” I want to have a good time and if I’m not having a good time, nobody is.
You said in 2007 that you believed the good people outnumbered the bad in this world and always would—the bad just got more attention. After seeing Trump, the pandemic, January 6th, the invasion of Ukraine, the killing of innocent women by the Iranian government… I wonder if you still believe this? TooMuchRainHere it is though. If there were more bad people than good people, then any one of these single incidents could metastasize and take over the entire planet and end us. And the fact that they all happened at the same time and we’re still here means that good people have emerged from each of these disasters. Good people made sacrifices. So the fact that we had a confluence of terrible events on top of each other and we’re still here, I think, if nothing else, proves my point even more.
The final tipping point is complacency and the acceptance of loneliness as something that cannot be overcome. Not some external disaster, be it social or environmental. There are far worse environmental and cultural threats, both existential and real, that we have overcome. So as long as those two things are there, I think we can pull through. The human race is always capable of surprising itself.
I’m pretty sure some baristas have slapped your name on coffee mugs. Any spectacular failures in this area? gil78 Yes, there was one; God, I can’t even remember. It was like a Pavilion. It was kind of beautiful, it was so off base. I like. But I couldn’t care less. I want to get out of there. I want my caffeine. I get a large English breakfast tea, two bags, with a little honey. They have Tazo there, but I love PG Tips.
With Charlize Theron in Young Adult. Photo: Cinematic Collection/Alamy
In your book, Silver Screen Fiend, you write about one of your favorite films, Akira Kurosawa’s Ikuru. Have you seen the recent remake, Living, with Bill Nye? If so, what do you think? AquilaSonofM Not yet. I want to see it at the cinema. I know this movie will destroy me. I’ve seen the original probably half a dozen times. That last image of him just in the snow on the swing… I’m going to suffocate now. So I know I just have to tighten up. I’ll have to make time to see it and have time afterwards when I’m not doing anything and I can absorb it.
Bill Nighy is in that great tradition of British actors who do so much while showing so little. With real emotion, you rarely actually let it fly. You have to sit on top of it and try to hold it together. And it’s holding it together—there’s something so human and beautiful about that. Although he has played many cold, reptilian, evil characters, there is so much humanity in his eyes and face.
Is it wrong to think that Americans today don’t suppress their emotions the way people in Britain or Japan did in 1953? [when the films are set] You just named two cultures that went through war, humiliation, and recovery. And I don’t think America has had that yet. So it’s almost like we’re trying to avoid that humility by being the biggest and the loudest. But you must remember that before England’s humiliation they were the biggest, loudest and proudest, as were Japan and Germany. And Japanese acting is very open and emotional. There are a lot of really raw emotions. So I think it has to do more with what the national consciousness has gone through.
But I think the fall and humility have made both cultures richer. In America we have not yet come to the idea that the White House is a wonderful symbol, and that it was built by slaves; we are not comfortable with contradictions. I think London and Japan and many cultures are very open about their contradictions. Germany teaches its children about the Holocaust. We try not to teach our children slavery. It really tells you where we are on the uncertainty scale.
A country is healthy when it can own its things. I don’t think America is there yet. We got close in the late ’70s and then we got scared and turned to Ronald Reagan and this cult of what I think Clive James called “psychotic optimism.”
With James Morosini in I Love My Dad. Photo: Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
Are you one of the contenders for the unofficial USA Geek Award? MarcoPoloMint I think I’ll be in the nerd laureate court. I don’t know if I’d be a geek laureate. I would be one of the courtiers.
If you could choose, would you be the next James Bond or the next Doctor Who? Gelion Definitely Doctor Who. You need to exercise less. You wear heavier clothes and don’t have to worry about taking your shirt off.
Did the death of your wife change your stand-up themes? How has humor helped you and your daughter heal? padapooEverything changes your standup topics. But I definitely had to touch on it in the special I did, Annihilation. I’ve tried to do some sets where I never addressed that and it came out even creepier, like, “What, what’s going on? Doesn’t he know what happened? But I think everything changes your art. The good, the bad, the terrifying and the sublime. Lately what’s changed is getting older and knowing I’m not the new thing anymore. My daughter is now a teenager. I am the star in this amazing life that is about to happen.
I Love My Dad is available for digital download on January 23rd.
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