Scott Prendergast is the writer, director and star of “Kabluey,” which I reviewed last week. I had the exciting opportunity this week to speak to Scott over the phone about his films, his family, and his weird obsession with costumes.
Have you always wanted to make movies?
Yes, I have. I was obsessed with movies as a kid, and I always wanted to make movies. It took me a long time to be able to admit that. I was too nervous to say I wanted to be a filmmaker; people’d say to me what do you want to do and I’d say, “Oh, you know, well… I guess everyone says this but I want to make movies, I’m sure everybody wants to be a director, but….” for some reason I had such low self esteem about the whole thing. And then finally, right before I turned 30, I thought, well, if you want to do it, you have to do it now.
You got involved with improv?
Yeah, I did improvisational comedy in high school, and then in college, and then after college I came out to L.A. and trained at the Groundlings theater. They have a school, and they teach improvisational comedy and they teach sketch comedy, and I did their whole program. Groundlings is a performing company, and before you can get into the main company you have to be on this farm team called the Sunday Company. I was in the Sunday Company for a while and then I decided I wanted to do more experimental improv—and also I hated Los Angeles – so I moved back to New York and I kept doing improv, and that’s when I started making movies too.
“Kabluey” manages to incorporate current events – as well as make a statement about the morale of the country – without really taking a political stance. Was that on purpose?
It was on purpose. In the script, there was a more overt political statement, but we didn’t shoot it – and I think that I just wanted to not have it be a political statement. I think it’s like, when you see a Michael Moore movie. When you see a Michael Moore movie you know what side he’s on, and it’s not really converting anybody, because he’s only talking to his side, and it’s so biased. But I think with this movie it was more like I’m just going to present a story, about some events that we all know took place, and have it be more open to both sides of the country. I don’t think it’s a mystery that I’m against the war or a Democrat, but I think the movie is a little more subtle about it.
Was it difficult? Did you have to edit the political statements?
No, there was really only one moment in the movie that was kind of a political statement. Otherwise, the movie is pretty much exactly as written. But there was a scene when the camera pulled outside of the house, and you saw a campaign sign for Bush Cheney 2004, on the lawn of Lisa Kudrow’s character’s home. So it was saying, basically, her family supports Bush/Cheney even though it’s Bush/Cheney who sent her family off to war. And that’s very much true of my brother’s family. My brother and his wife both supported Bush/Cheney and I would say to them, how can you be voting for this guy when he’s the one sending you off to war? So there was this sign on the lawn, and there was this little girl on a trike who rode by, and she rode right through the sign, like a cheerleader running through a paper scrim, and the sign was very easily destructible, so it was kind of a statement making fun of Bush Cheney.
I said in my review that “Kabluey” perfectly captures a particular feeling of a particular time and place. What would you call that feeling?
I think it’s melancholy. I think that for me the movie summed up a lot of things from my life. One, having a bunch of really horrible temp jobs that were just absolutely purposeless. And then two, I was in Silicon Valley for a while and I saw all these buildings that were empty, just these large empty buildings that were built during the internet boom, and then when the companies went under the buildings were still there but the companies were gone. And my brother was at war, and then there was the Enron scandal… I don’t think I knew this when I was writing it, it’s not like I set out to write that particular tone, I just wrote what was coming in to my head, but I think it’s sort of a melancholy…. It’s funny, the reviews that we got when it came out said “oh it’s a searing indictment of Bush era economics and it captures the current climate perfectly…” it doesn’t really capture the current climate perfectly because it was written in 2003. But the movie has gotten more relevant as the economy got worse and kind of matched what was going on in the movie. But the movie actually is about the economy of the internet bust.
I thought it was interesting how the dot com bust parallels the war in Iraq in the movie. It feels like, in both cases, the fallout of too much optimism. That whole speech Lisa Kudrow has about, “we knew this could happen; we didn’t ever think it actually would.”
I remember when Clinton was President, there was a point when the economy was thriving and doing so well, and there was some point when the stock market reached some all time high, and I remember my friend said to me, no one ever thought this stock market could reach this number – I don’t know what it was – no one ever knew it could go this high, and it’s gone this high! And I remember thinking, all things go in waves. This isn’t going to last. Everything goes in waves, you know? Businesses come and go, political regimes come and go, everything is in flux. It just seemed to odd to me that everyone was like, oh, you know, the economy’s bigger than ever, we’re not at war anymore, everything’s amazing…it just seems like, there was so much optimism, but… things always reverse. There’s always a reversal, always. Even when things are at their worst. Even when you have your worst day, and you’re like, oh my God, that’s it, I’m going to do myself in, and then you know, three days later, something huge turns around. It always reverses, it always reverses.
Regression to the mean.
Yeah. It always comes back. Like a pendulum. It swings too far one way, and it has to come back the other way. And that happens in the movie, too. It’s not meant to be all disastrous. In the end, the father comes home and he’s ok, and the mother will keep the secret, and Salman will keep the secret, and the kids made it, and the wife made it, and you know, the family’s ok. And Salman’s going off more of an adult, he’s matured a lot, and he’s going off to make his own family.
It struck me watching your short films, especially in “the Delicious” that costumes often play an important part in your writing.
I wish I could explain that better. I’ve always been a big fan of costumes. I love Halloween, I LOVE dressing up on Halloween. I just like the idea of people being able to put on a costume and be somebody else. Like the whole superhero thing. You’re a regular person, but then you put on this funny outfit and you’re somebody else. I love the sense in “The Delicious” of the guy loving this costume so much – not really loving it, but it kind of taking over his life, it ruins his life, in a way.
Have you ever considered making a more, um, “straightforward” costumed hero movie?
Definitely. Unfortunately I think the market is glutted with costume hero movies right now. But movies like “Watchmen” — I’m dying to see “Watchmen. I’m pretty much in love with the idea of people being able to turn themselves into superheroes.
I read somewhere that you ‘d been fired from every job you’d ever had. Any good stories?
Well, I’ve been fired from every “survival” job I’ve ever had… every entertainment job I’ve ever had has worked out fine. But any time I’ve had a job where I just needed money… I was fired from every single one of those jobs. And rightfully so. Because I’m a horrible employee and I hate taking orders and I hate being told what to do. I had a job where I was working in an office in Chicago, and they said, “here’s a giant box full of loose business cards. And here’s a thousand page printout, and you need to check these cards against the printout…and there not in any sort of order.” It was just the most absurd job ever.
You feel like you’re in a Beckett play. I’ve had jobs like that.
Well, I totally did the job, and then at the end of the week, after I’d finally figured out a system and done it, this woman was like, “Oh, I forgot to tell you, you also have to do this,” which would’ve meant I had to do the entire job all over again, and I said to her, “Are you an idiot? You forgot to tell me that?” And then she fired me.
Kabluey’s about your brother and his family, and I hear your next movie is about your mother. Any other family members you want to make movies about?
I think I’m done with my family. Well, there’s one more movie I’d like to make, but it’d be about me. About something that happened to me when I was a teenager. I kind of had a bad experience when I was 17, and I want to make a movie about me from the ages of 17 to 22.
I’m envisioning this “Scott’s family” box set coming out someday.
(Laughs) The funny thing about that is that every time I go home now, I’ll be talking to my family, and they’ll be like, “Oh my God, did you hear about….” and then they stop talking and they’re like “never mind, I don’t want to tell you anything.” They’re all afraid to talk to me now – they’re always prefacing everything they say with “now I don’t want this to end up in a movie.”
The theme of your website is “A State of Emergency.” What’s that about?
That’s because I thought it’d be funny to have a company where people had to answer the phone by saying the word “emergency.” But also I’m kind of a Type A, aggressive person, and I tend to do a lot of things like it is an emergency, even if it’s not, so a lot of people make fun of me for that.
Last song you added to your iPod?
I just bought the song that has the lyrics “I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier” by the Killers.. I don’t know the name of the song.
From “Southland Tales.”
That’s where I first heard it. I also heard it on the radio yesterday, so I went and bought it. It’s a great song. I also bought a song by Vampire Weekend, but I don’t know the name of that song either.
Last good movie you saw?
This is going to sound totally film school dorky, but I just rented the “Thief of Bagdad,” the Douglas Fairbanks one from like, 1927. And it was fantastic. It’s a silent movie, the production values are out of control, and it’s over two hours long. It’s a spectacle. It’s amazing.
I was watching “Gone With the Wind” when you called, so I’m right there with you.
I love “Gone With the Wind.” I love those huge, epic movies. They don’t make movies like that anymore.
Thanks for the interview. I had fun.
Sure. And thanks for the review.
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You can watch all of Scott’s short films at his website – www.astateof.com. I especially recommend “The Delicious” and “Anna is Being Stalked.” You can also download a super secret bootleg commentary for “Kabluey.” You can read my review of “Klabuey” here.
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