![]() Oftentimes, that’s not pretty, and one can lose one’s dignity. But, there was a necessity to keep some edge to this film and some dirt under its nails because it’s an adult going through something that’s deeply emotional to him. A spelling bee happens to be the environment where this bad decision plays out. It was a great movie, but we were trying to do something different here. But, no one needs to see another spelling bee movie, and no one needs to see About A Boy again. As far as the number of F-words we did not try to hit a certain number and we didn’t try to keep it under a certain number. If it was just arbitrarily mean, then it had to go. If the spitefulness and the petulance is coming out of that, as opposed to just being arbitrarily mean to somebody, then it was fine. ![]() He is lashing out and he’s trying to get back at whoever hurt his feelings. As Andrew and I worked on the script for a long time, we just always tried to make those adjustments, those ads or those cuts, through the lens of, why is this guy here? What’s going on? How is it a drama for him and not a comedy? At the core, this guy has had his feelings hurt. I knew there was that cocktail that we had to play with.ĭid you ever think about not using so many swear words in this?īATEMAN: There were certain drafts of this script that went a little bit too far, at certain points, and there were plenty of points where it didn’t go far enough. Sometimes it’s just a vulnerable look that you can wear on your face, as opposed to one of arrogance or cockiness. So, there’s an obligation, as an actor, to play flaws and vulnerabilities in humanity, inside of a character, whether it’s written in the script or not. You need to like the person that’s doing these things, so you can laugh with them, instead of being repelled by them. From playing little assholes, I was aware that whether you’re a little asshole or a big asshole, you need to be somewhat excused for your assholiness, in order for people to enjoy it, otherwise you’re just hateful and people won’t like you. Was that on your mind, at all?īATEMAN: That’s interesting. I said, “This seems like the kind of scope that I could be responsible to take on, and this is the kind of comedic tone that I think I could navigate well.”Īs a young actor, you excelled at adversarial relationships with adult characters, but in this, you got to flip it and be the adult in that situation. I think you could attract a bunch of people below the line that would be incredible.” And so, I started looking at some scripts – three, in particular – and this was one of them. I think you could attract a group of actors that you would be proud of. I asked people who were brutally honest and very objective, and they said, “I think that the industry would welcome that. I wanted to not be asked, but I wanted to make sure that it was the appropriate time. I didn’t want to get the opportunity as a result of some sort of contractual perk. And the more I learned about all the contributions of all the departments, the more I wanted to have the privilege of that responsibility. It was always just about me appreciating how complicated that position could and should be. JASON BATEMAN: I don’t want to get caught saying the cliché, “I always wanted to direct,” but in any profession, you look at the jobs of the people around you, and some that are above you, and you spend enough time doing what it is you’re doing that you want to challenge yourself to see if you can do a little bit more and maybe even help the process of those that would be doing the job you’re doing now.
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