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Mr. Cranky Interviews
David O'Russell
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(Warning: This profile may contain
objective information.)
The surprise success of the prize-winning independent feature "Spanking
the Monkey" enabled writer-director David O. Russell to assemble an
enviable cast for his first major motion picture, "Flirting with
Disaster."
"Spanking the Monkey," made on a budget of $80,000 raised mostly from arts
grants, earned Russell awards for Best Screenplay by a New Writer and Best
Picture by a New Director at 1995's Independent Spirit Awards, an
unprecedented number of honors for a new film. The previous year,
"Spanking" won the Audience Award for Best Picture at the Sundance Film
Festival and appeared on numerous critics' year-end top ten lists.
Born in New York City, Russell attended Amherst College where he majored
in English and Political Science. At Amherst, he took a course in fiction
writing from novelist Mary Gordon, who encouraged him to pursue his own
writing talents. After graduation in 1981, however, he followed his
political interest which led him to become a union organizer in a mill
town in Maine and to teach literacy in Boston.
While working with labor groups in Boston, Russell discovered the power of
documentary filmmaking in a video he made examining the lives of immigrant
workers. This experience led him to an internship with the Smithsonian
World documentary series in Washington D.C..
Increasingly, film became Russell's focus and he returned to New York to
write and direct a short, "Bingo Inferno," which was accepted into the
1987 Sundance Film Festival. With that credit, he applied to the New York
Council for the Arts to finance a short comedy feature entitled "Hairway
to the Stars." The movie won the Lucille Ball Comedy First Award. Going
the same route with financing, he put together the funds, including a grant
from the N.E.A., to make "Spanking the Monkey" in 1993.
Russell and his wife, writer/producer Janet Grillo, live in New York with
their two-year-old son Matthew.
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Mr. Cranky:
If you were offered the opportunity to live your life as another film person (actor, director, etc.) who would it be and why?
- David O'Russell:
My whole life? The only sure thing about Hollywood is that people have good parts of their lives, and everyone is crazy. But if I had to say one man/one life, I'd maybe say John Huston, because he seemed to have a good time for a long time, in his own sick way. Nah, change that to Gene Kelly. He seemed like a really good guy to me, and he did "Singin in the Rain," which my son loves.
What is the most bizarre experience you've had making a movie?
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I was sitting in a white Taurus production car on the set of "Flirting with Disaster," and I was making script notes. Listening to "Ween." Patricia Arquette got in, started the car and commenced driving in circles around the set, shouting "Hi, Linda," each time she passed the same P.A. who was watching in puzzlement. She did this maybe twenty times, then parked and got out.
What do you wish you could change about yourself and why?
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Self-doubt. Because it's so boring. Although sometimes (a lot of times, actually) it improves my work, painful as this can be.
If you could work with any person in the film industry, past or present, actor, director or writer, who would it be and why?
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Barbara Stanwyck or Jimmy Stewart. Stanwyck because she was so tough and sexy and smart and seemed both evil and good. Stewart because he couples intelligence and a morality that usually was ambiguous as he struggled.
You've been hired to remake "Casablanca." Who do you cast in the leads and why?
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I don't. I quit.
Describe something in your career that you regret.
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Dad too grouchy and mean in "Spanking." Events too one-sided against hero of "Spanking."
What one person have you enjoyed working with the most?
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I can't answer that and still have all my actors do publicity for "Flirting."
Of all the movies you have seen, which one made you the crankiest?
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I've seen a lot of incredibly annoying movies, but I've blacked most from memory, and some are politically, well, (I'll) just keep my mouth shut for now. How about -- "Cinema Paradiso," "Strictly Ballroom," "Life Is Sweet," "Nine Months," "Kiss Me, Stupid."
What question do reporters and interviewers ask you that, when you come right down to it, is just really none of their goddamned business?
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What's your family like? Did you feud with your mother?
Suddenly the film industry vanishes. What are you doing to make ends meet and do you enjoy it?
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Writing novels and essays, or jumping out a window.
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