| Bobcat Goldthwait Gets Surprisingly Sweet and Lets "Sleeping Dogs Lie" |
| Written by Danny Peary | ||||
| Monday, 23 October 2006 09:45 | ||||
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Bobcat Goldthwait on set
Bryce Johnson and Melinda Page Hamilton in "Sleeping Dogs Lie"
It's true, Bobcat was huge in the 80's, making his screen debut in "Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment"
BG: The reality is that I showed the script around a little, but when someone would ask, “Can the girl just jerk off the dog?” I would think, “This is insane, I’m not going to rewrite it to get backing.” I made it because Sarah de Sa Rego, who was one of the co-producers, said, “This is a good script, we should shoot it.” I said, “We don’t have any money.” Q: Melinda Page Hamilton gives a terrific even tender performance as Amy. She had done mostly regional theater and television before you gave her the part. Did you see her play the sexy nun on “Desperate Housewives?" BG: No, I didn't. Q: I don’t think she did either because she claims not to have a television. BG: I believe that because while we were working together she’d hear stories about me and go, “What is this about your setting a fire on the set of the “Tonight Show?’” She would hear all kinds of things about what I’d done on television and she’d say, “How can that be true? Bob is so quiet and nice.” When Melinda came in and auditioned, that was the first time I felt, “Maybe this will be okay, maybe this will work.” Then I got freaked out because I worried a family member would tell her not to do the movie or that an agent would get to her. Q: Was she queasy about the premise when she auditioned for the film? BG: Not at all. I don’t want to bum out anyone who auditioned, but what happened was that people would come in and for some reason—and maybe it was because I was attached—they’d play it for the wrong kind of laughs. Melinda came in and made it really realistic. I’m so happy she did the movie. If someone didn’t do as well as she did as Amy, I know the movie would never have gotten to Sundance and never would have gotten released. I really credit her a lot for the small amount of success we’ve already had with the movie. Q: You've given a lot of credit to Melinda, the rest of your cast and cinematographer Ian Takahashi for the tone of the film. Are you giving yourself enough credit, because when you started writing the script, didn’t you know that there would be a balance between comic and somewhat serious moments? BG: The challenge when I wrote this was keeping things small by not adding comedic elements that didn’t seem realistic just to get a laugh. It would have been easy to add slapstick and shock elements, but I didn’t do it. That was different for me. Q: She’s a school teacher of young kids. Is that your way of showing that despite being someone who once committed an act society would frown upon, she’s an ideal teacher? BG: No, I wasn’t making any statement. I made her a teacher because I wanted her to be altruistic.
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Here’s an attention grabber: On a whim one dateless night, Amy, a pretty, intelligent, and practical coed, performs fellatio on her pet dog. She never does it again and it is her dark, dark secret until her boyfriend coaxes it out of her and soon he and her family has turned their backs on her. That’s the uniquely outrageous premise of “Sleeping Dogs Lie,” and considering that the original wild man Bobcat Goldthwait is the director, everyone was expecting this indie to be an outlandish, over-the-top, and beyond-offensive comedy.
