CitySearch Movies

by Sandra Ramani

In the new film, "Clay Pigeons," Janeane Garofalo plays a cool, smart, pot-smoking FBI agent hot on the trail of a serial killer, and she's just a joy to watch. Out of the "relationship movie" and pure comedy arenas, she proves herself a strong, deft actress with impeccable timing and a natural ease. And as CitySearch recently found out, she has exactly the same qualities in real life. Reporter Sandra Ramani and a group of other journalists asked the following questions.

Janeane Garofalo: Oh, I don't know if it worked out ok. I just know I felt I had to be in the movie, you know? There was some discussion back and forth, is [the character] a guy or is it a girl? I had read the script and knew I wanted to work with Vince and Joaquin, and [director] David Dobkin, because I liked them, so I thought "it has to be a woman, and it has to be me." And it just made me angry that all these girls were getting killed [in the film], it just makes me mad, and I improved the line in the film when Joaquin says, "I guess he has a dim view of women," and I say, "Well, who doesn't around here?" Because it just seemed like no one seemed very upset about these women getting killed. Well, I just thought if there was a guy in this FBI part, it would make me mad.

Q: We were talking with the director about how your performance is so great and understated in this...

JG: I thought I was horrible in it. But I have to say that. Can you imagine if you said, "I thought I was really good! I really liked my work in this!"? But I actually don't like my acting as a rule. The only thing I can say positively for myself as an actor is that I'm not uncomfortable in front of the camera, and I know when to deadpan something or when a joke is bad and to throw it away. I never hit a bad joke over the head. And when I'm laughing at something on camera, it's real. There are some actors that are so fake when they're having fun on camera that it drives me crazy. Like that "Selena" movie. Jennifer Lopez's laughter is so fake, and granted, she had to do 18 takes and everything, but my take on that then is don't do it. You know what I mean? If you can't bring the joy...just don't do it. So that's the only thing I'll say in my favor: I won't laugh unless I'm laughing.

Q: Do you like the idea of doing more dramatic roles?

JG: Oh yeah, and I've done them, they just haven't been released yet. I did "The Minus Man," which is a drama, and "The Bumblebee Flies Anyway," which is a drama, and right now I'm shooting "Abbie Hoffman"-- I play Anita Hoffman--which is a drama. So I am definitely more interested in doing that. But I also do tend to gravitate towards comedy more. I just find them more enjoyable for me and what I do, because I'm not that interested in movies that "get into it" with nudity and violence and stuff, and those tend to be dramatic. Comedies tend not to have nudity or violence.

Q: Do you have any aspirations to write a film?

JG: I'm not interested in writing a script and making a film, and I've come to the conclusion that I wish more people felt that way. There's so many bad, boring scripts and films. And there are a lot of good ones--I was just at the Toronto Film Festival and there is a lot of good work out there that will never be seen. But I get handed a lot of scripts at parties and I'll give them a good college try. But I'll be reading them and I'm just like "goddammit!" I'll get so mad! It's like, "Why do you think this story needs to be told?" All these students with these aspirations, who are just as hacky as Bruckheimer, they just happen to still be in school. And they've got this eye of the tiger to get this movie made, and it's made me want to not make a movie. I just don't want to be part of that, these people that put every waking moment and their blood, sweat, and tears to get the most mediocre vision made. It just drives me nuts. And there are a lot of good women writers out there, but unfortunately the ones I get are the more vanilla ones--it's like "here's a woman writer, you'll like this." And it's just...one more relationship movie and I'm going to shoot myself. "Women talking...about stuff." Shut the fuck up! You know? One more bad vibrator joke, shit like that, I can't stand it. In my opinion, script-wise, there's nothing worse than a "dreamer," or a "true believer" that writes a script. Except a dreamer who's had their heart broken. Those scripts are the worst. And then sometimes you'll see a movie that blows your mind, and that also makes me not want to make a movie because it's so good, that I don't even want to throw my hat in the ring.

Q: Your collaborations with Ben Stiller are always so great. How did you two first meet?

JG: Kanter's Deli in Los Angeles, at about 3 o'clock in the morning. And we just kept staring at each other. And I knew I knew him, and he felt like he knew me. Plus I thought he was cute. Then I went up to him and said "Hey, do I know you?" And it turned out I did know him because I had seen him on this MTV show he had, and he had seen me do stand-up. So we said we should get together. And then we did. We just wrote a book together too, which should be coming out soon. It's a fake self-help book called "Feel This Book," after Abby Hoffman's "Steal This Book." At least I hope that's what it will be called.

Q: I read where you said, "There's nothing worse than being directed." Since you had such a good experience with the director on this film, was that statement more about sometimes not being happy with the finished product?

JG: Being directed is just irritating to me, to my personality. And I don't mind it--obviously it has to be done, I realize that. But this is what I hate, when the director will come over after a take with the script and do this (she does a slow, pensive, slightly hesitant nod). I hate that! Because what they're trying to communicate is "Whatever you're doing--no!", but they don't even know what to say. I hate that, when they come with the script and that perplexed look, like "How do we make this better?" That drives me up the wall, because I feel fine. If I did it that way, I did it for a reason. I just feel like screaming "I know what the lines are!" I just chose not to do them, or to do them a certain way. That's what I don't like about being directed, because what is essentially being said is "I don't like what you just did." And because I get embarrassed very easily, I get embarrassed. And then my performance gets inhibited, because I felt that I tried something and the director didn't like it. So I don't like the concept of being directed, but I do logically and intellectually realize that you must be directed, that there is no film without the director. And I've been wrong so many times. When I watch a performance I sometimes see "oh, he was right, I shouldn't have held back there." I can't always see what's going on when I'm in it.

Q: Do you have a position on "Ally McBeal"?

JG: I don't like Ally McBeal--not the person, I like Calista Flockhart fine. But I don't buy that empowering women nonsense with that. Until her skirts get longer, I don't buy that. And until she and Courtney Thorne-Smith's character stop dabbling in vaguely...sexual behavior with each other...I mean, that doesn't empower me. It doesn't make me feel better to see an anorexic in a short skirt, you know what I mean? That's obviously written by a man, that show. And the babyfever and the wishing her breasts were bigger--is she supposed to be speaking to me? I don't know. Yes, I enjoy the fact that a woman is in the lead of a show, driving a show--that's wonderful. And it is a smarter than average show, for sure. But I don't believe it is a feminist show. Whatever a feminist show is...I guess "Roseanne" would have been. "Prime Suspect," "Absolutely Fabulous," those shows speak more to me, and I can get into them more.

Q: You were speaking earlier about being embarrassed. Do you feel you have come some ways since your first times on screen? Do you feel that you are evolving?