Spring Break
'Choke' director talks triple duty
Kip Mooney
Issue date: 9/26/08 Section: ARTS & LIFE
You've probably seen Clark Gregg around. He's Julia Louis-Dreyfus' ex-husband on CBS' "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and Agent Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D. in "Iron Man," but the character actor has more memorably played the jerk in plenty of movies, including "In Good Company," "State and Main" and "In the Land of Women."
But in real life, he's eager for you to check out his labor of love, an adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's "Choke." Here's an excerpt from a recent roundtable interview:
Q: Why "Choke"?
A: I was looking for a sex-addicted colonial theme park movie. So it seemed like a home run. But no, I'd never read anything that sad and yet so funny. I felt like the sadness, the level of the sadness, fueled the level of the funny and in a way they really worked together.
And yet Choke was just about something - sex addiction - representative of someone trying to recover from some form of emotional trauma that's made him really unable to be intimate.
Like, if you could tackle something that heavy and have it be funny, I was in. And also the idea that in a culture where just kind of steeped with sexual imagery from Hannah Montana now on, we get deluged with it, and I think you know, as Victor says, it's just something you consume to just kind of dull the pain, and ironically this particular addiction is actually where you do something that seems very intimate, and yet in his case it's kind of isolated.
Q: How do you think audiences will react to "Choke"?
A: We finally showed the movie at Sundance, and people laughed. I was afraid it was going to be one of the dirty jokes that I personally loved that could clear a room, and you have to apologize later. I was afraid it was going to be the movie equivalent of one of those room clearers.
Even though it's about a sex addict who's not even trying to get better, he's just nailing other sex addicts - a con artist - and he's like conning everybody. But there's still something really compassionate and human in it. It's a love story. I mean, I hope that they'll see it as what I see it as, which is just a really naughty date movie with some moving parts.
Q: So writing, directing, acting - which do you like best?
A: You know, I started out as an actor, and I kind of feel like being an actor is kind of like being an elk. Maybe it's more like being a Marine; I think once you're in the Corps, you feel like you're there for life.
There's a kind of bond to going on stage or going in front of the camera with other people. There's something physical; you're living the story. But I don't think I've ever enjoyed anything more than having the opportunity to pull them all together, being able to tell the story from the director and adaptor's point of view and also having my three or four days to go be a jackass and to get in the mix and kind of go out on the court and play some ball with those guys.
But in real life, he's eager for you to check out his labor of love, an adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's "Choke." Here's an excerpt from a recent roundtable interview:
Q: Why "Choke"?
A: I was looking for a sex-addicted colonial theme park movie. So it seemed like a home run. But no, I'd never read anything that sad and yet so funny. I felt like the sadness, the level of the sadness, fueled the level of the funny and in a way they really worked together.
And yet Choke was just about something - sex addiction - representative of someone trying to recover from some form of emotional trauma that's made him really unable to be intimate.
Like, if you could tackle something that heavy and have it be funny, I was in. And also the idea that in a culture where just kind of steeped with sexual imagery from Hannah Montana now on, we get deluged with it, and I think you know, as Victor says, it's just something you consume to just kind of dull the pain, and ironically this particular addiction is actually where you do something that seems very intimate, and yet in his case it's kind of isolated.
Q: How do you think audiences will react to "Choke"?
A: We finally showed the movie at Sundance, and people laughed. I was afraid it was going to be one of the dirty jokes that I personally loved that could clear a room, and you have to apologize later. I was afraid it was going to be the movie equivalent of one of those room clearers.
Even though it's about a sex addict who's not even trying to get better, he's just nailing other sex addicts - a con artist - and he's like conning everybody. But there's still something really compassionate and human in it. It's a love story. I mean, I hope that they'll see it as what I see it as, which is just a really naughty date movie with some moving parts.
Q: So writing, directing, acting - which do you like best?
A: You know, I started out as an actor, and I kind of feel like being an actor is kind of like being an elk. Maybe it's more like being a Marine; I think once you're in the Corps, you feel like you're there for life.
There's a kind of bond to going on stage or going in front of the camera with other people. There's something physical; you're living the story. But I don't think I've ever enjoyed anything more than having the opportunity to pull them all together, being able to tell the story from the director and adaptor's point of view and also having my three or four days to go be a jackass and to get in the mix and kind of go out on the court and play some ball with those guys.
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