An Interview with filmmakers Michael Showalter and David Wain
We Hot American Summer gears up for its 25th Anniversary re-release. What a time to (still) be alive.
Credit: Amy Rice/USA Films. All Rights Reserved.
Originally included in the 2001 press notes for Wet Hot American Summer, this mock Q&A with Michael Showalter and David Wain feels less like promotional material and more like an extension of the movie itself: deadpan, ridiculous, proudly juvenile, and weirdly precise about the kind of summer-camp nostalgia it’s taking apart. Here, the pair talk 1981, The State, ensemble comedy, first love, bad food, and Kenny Loggins — while mostly making fun of the idea that anyone should be explaining the movie at all.
Q: What's WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER about?
Michael Showalter: Typical teenage summer camp stuff. First love, friendship, Kenny
Loggins.
David Wain: Macrame, tight shorts, tongue-kissing.
MS: Angst, bad food, fuckin' the fridge. I think that covers it.
Q: Why is your movie set in 1981?
MS: It was going to be 1881, but they didn't have summer camps in 1881.
DW: We figured that by setting a teen movie twenty years ago it would significantly, if not entirely, reduce the commercial value of our movie in the marketplace.
MS: It's all about alienating our target audience.
Q: You guys are best known for being a part of MTV's cult sketch-comedy group The State. How did that experience play into making this movie?
MS: It is an extension of that subversive, absurd, and silly sensibility that we all developed together during the eight years we were a group. In addition, several State members appear in the film.
DW: But, unlike The State, this is a full-length feature. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and not as a basic cable TV show that was the Sunday night lead-in to "Beavis and Butt-head."
Credit: Amy Rice/USA Films. All Rights Reserved.
Q: In what way is WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER subversive, absurd, and silly?"
DW: It takes the kind of risks only an independent film is allowed to, within the conventions of the classic teen comedy genre.
MS: In a normal Hollywood movie, a guy would get hit in the face with a pie. In our movie, that same guy would still get hit in the face with a pie, but he'd have a vagina.
DW: If not two.
Q: How was the experience of working with a big ensemble cast?
DW: It was such a trip to work with this group of actors who have established themselves in so many different comic avenues.
MS: To be honest, Janeane Garofalo's performance was awful. Thankfully, Glenn [Close] did a bang-up job replacing her dialogue.
DW: This is off the record, but David Hyde Pierce is a shameless name-dropper.
MS: "Kelsey Grammer this...Peri Gilpin that..."
DW: Blah, blah, blah. Get over yourself.
MS: Molly Shannon wasn't used to learning her lines, so she brought the cue card guy with her from "Saturday Night Live."
DW: He was nice. He gave everybody weed
MS: Christopher Meloni's comedic work on "Oz" made him a no-brainer.
DW: Paul Rudd begged for the part of Andy like a little schoolgirl.
MS: The State guys - Michael lan Black, Ken Marino, and Joe Lo Truglio - our oldest friends who we've worked together with for years, and who we trust and love like brothers, were all put through a rigorous audition process.
DW: We gave them parts on the condition that they would also drive the grip trucks.
Q: Why a summer camp movie?
DW: Summer camp for us was an epic coming-of-age experience.
Credit: Amy Rice/USA Films. All Rights Reserved.
MS: It was a group of wonderful characters each with their own larger-than-life story, who, at the same time, shared together in one communal adventure.
DW: Or, to put it another way, fuck you.
Q: How do you guys work together?
MS: We play good cop/bad cop.
DW: So if we're interrogating a perp, I'll butter him up and Showalter intimidates the guy into a confession.
Q: I'm serious...
DW: If we ever disagree on anything, we put it to a vote.
MS: If it's a tie we do a re-vote, but that rarely happens.
Q: What is your next project?
DW: I think that's a good question, but I can't think of an answer.
MS: David, the Interviewer asked you a question - you have to answer it.
DW: But there is no Interviewer. We made up these questions ourselves.
Q: Be that as it may, is there anything you'd like people to know about your movie before they see it?
DW: Jaye Davidson has a dick.
