Random Roles: Chris Elliott
by Tasha Robinson
December 5th, 2007
The actor: Chris Elliott, son of famed radio comedian Bob Elliott of Bob
And
Ray, and four-time Emmy winner as a writer for Late Night With David
Letterman. Elliott's Letterman appearances gained him an early notoriety
as
a goofy comic, and he went on to star in the TV vehicle Get A Life and the
film vehicle Cabin Boy before dropping back to smaller roles in a wide
variety of comedies, dramas, and animated prime-time shows. He's also
recently written two "novels," as he puts it: 2005's The Shroud Of The
Thwacker and the new Into Hot Air.
Get A Life (1990-1992)-"Chris Peterson"
Chris Elliott: Probably the most fun I've ever had, actually, acting.
Because it was the perfect extension of the stuff that I'd started to do
on
Late Night With David Letterman, and when I look back on all my work, it
was
probably the best possible incarnation of Chris Elliott, of me. Of what I
can do. I look back on that actually as my finest work. [Laughs.]
The A.V. Club: You're credited on the IMDB with writing two episodes; how
much involvement did you actually have with shaping the show?
CE: Well, I sort of created the show with Adam Resnick, and then David
Mirkin came in and ran it, but we didn't do that show in front of an
audience, so there was a lot of playing around on the set, and I was in
the
writers' room breaking stories and stuff every day. So I was pretty
involved.
AVC: How did you communicate "This is what the Chris Elliott character
should be like" to all the other writers, the people who didn't start out
with you like Adam did?
CE: I was lucky on that show, because Late Night had given me a good
foundation, and I already seemed to have writers, at least, who were fans
of
mine. Writers knew of me and knew my style, and Adam's voice is really
strong, and it didn't take long for people to get what we wanted to do. I
think also that the writers that we had on the show were pretty great:
Charlie Kaufman and Bob Odenkirk, among others.
AVC: What's Charlie Kaufman like to work with?
CE: [Laughs.] At the time, he was very quiet, you know? He was-if it was
like Your Show Of Shows, he would have been-I guess Neil Simon was the one
who used to whisper ideas to Mel Brooks? Charlie Kaufman, if he had
anybody
who would listen to him, he was that. He was very shy and quiet, but
always
wrote funny stuff.
Cabin Boy (1994)-"Nathanial Mayweather"
CE: Cabin Boy is a flawed movie, and I look back on it with a certain
amount
of regret in terms of some of the choices that we made, but at the same
time, I'm pretty proud of it, and actually happy that it has somewhat of a
cult following at this point. The character in that movie, I like. It was
basically Freddie Bartholomew from Captains Courageous, and it's sort of
funny to watch that movie now, because I start with this sort of
pseudo-English accent, and then as the notes came down from the studio,
you
can actually see the accent starting to diminish throughout the movie.
[Laughs.] I think I end with hardly an accent at all. But I'm actually
proud
of the movie.
AVC: Was it shot linearly, so the accent diminishes scene by scene, or
does
it vary depending on when a scene was shot?
CE: You know what, I'd actually have to go back and look at it. Somebody
else actually pointed that out to me, and it wasn't shot in order, so it's
hard to sup****t what I just said, except that maybe that process was
already
beginning in rehearsals and so forth, of just toning it down. But there
are
some scenes where it's heavy, and some where it's nonexistent.
AVC: That's another Adam Resnick project. Did you meet on the David
Letterman show?
CE: We did-Adam was an intern. He came a couple years after I had been a
writer-he was made a writer fairly soon after that. And he's just one of
those guys-he grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, I grew up in New York
City-but as soon as we met, we knew we would have been best friends if we
had gone to high school together. We did a lot of stuff on Letterman
together, we did a lot of the characters that I do, like Brando and that
kind of stuff, on Letterman, and then Get A Life. I think Adam is one of
the
most brilliant writers out there, actually.
AVC: You just put out a new novel-all the press releases have "novel" in
quotes.
CE: Uh-huh. I did that.
AVC: What does "novel" in quotes signify to you?
CE: Well, it's because these books, these "novels," are basically parodies
of novels themselves, and they work on a number of levels. They do work as
novels, but they're so goofy, and the idea behind them is not just
"There's
this crazy story," it's that this Chris Elliott persona is actually
writing
these novels. So for fans who follow my work, it's again a sort of natural
extension-it's something I guess back in the '80s, I would have brought on
and joked about on Letterman, you know, without actually writing the book
itself. Coming out with a fake mock-up of it. But these are the real
thing,
so the joke is really, "Yeah, it's a funny story, but it's funny also
because this guy Chris Elliott is the guy writing them." And then on top
of
all that, I think it's funny that people are actually buying them.
AVC: Why name the character after yourself? You're trying to make a
character separate from you that's "Chris Elliott"?
CE: I feel like I've done that already, that it's the same persona, it's
the
same character-it's not the guy you're talking to now, it's the character
that I developed on Letterman. This guy who goes through life with
blinders
on, and has this desire to be famous boiling underneath the surface. And
that's this guy that I've played in almost everything I've ever done, in
characters that weren't named Chris Elliott. But specifically, in these
books, it's fun to reference my past career, and to do that, I have to be
me.
AVC: How does writing a novel written by the Chris Elliott character
compare
to writing something like Cabin Boy as a vehicle for the Chris Elliott
character?
CE: It sounds kind of corny, but it's liberating, because you don't have
anybody telling you "No, you can't be that crazy," or "You've gotta be
more
likeable here," or "You can't do this or that." It's freeing in that
sense,
because you can basically just wake up in the morning and stroll down into
your office and go. Wherever your imagination takes you that day ends up
on
the page. There's very little editing in this process as well, but on the
downside of that, with me, there's a good deal of insanity that ends up on
the page.
There's Something About Mary (1998)-"Dom Woganowski"
CE: A part that I think anybody could have-it was really funny on the page
right away. That was one of those scripts that I read and laughed out loud
at, which I rarely do, so I'm fairly certain that anyone could have
plugged
into the part and just done the lines in the script and gotten laughs. I
added the facial blemishes, after I met with Peter and Bobby Farrelly, as
kind of a running thing, so I guess I feel like I contributed something to
it, but with or without the boil on the eyelid, it still was a character
just funny on the page. I can't take much credit for that.
AVC: As directors, do they encourage a lot of improvisation or feedback
from
the actors?
CE: Yeah, they do. Because they work with people like Bill Murray and Ben
Stiller and guys that can actually do that kind of thing, so they like
that.
They also-they'll take a suggestion, if it's good, from someone who's
behind
the cameras, as well, and they make everybody feel like they're a part of
the whole process when they make a movie. I think that's why they end up
with good products, because they're sort of grabbing from everywhere, and
everybody is contributing.
AVC: What's their directorial collaboration with each other like from an
actor's perspective?
CE: I guess there's times when it's kind of good-cop, bad-cop, where Peter
is the one who delivers the difficult news, and Bobby is more the praiser
who comes to let you know it was great. But in general, there's very
little
of that from either of them. Bobby is quieter than Peter-Peter will drop
his
pants at the drop of a dime if he has to. Bobby's a little more subdued.
But
they work well together, they never argue. At least not in front of the
actors. You feel like you're working with one guy.
Kingpin (1996)-"The gambler"
AVC: You also did Kingpin with the Farrellys. It was only a few years
between those films, but did you notice any difference in their style as
they became more prominent and better-known?
CE: It was almost exactly the same. I just had more to do in Something
About
Mary. They'd sent me Kingpin, I remember, and they had said that they were
thinking of me for the Bill Murray role-they had it out to Bill Murray,
but
they weren't sure if Bill Murray was going to do it. Then they called and
said, "Yeah, Bill Murray's gonna do it." And I said "Oh, that's too bad,"
and then they wrote this other little part for me in the casino, and
called
me up and flew me out just to do that scene. They were really hardcore
fans
of mine, and it was fun to work with them just that night, shooting that
scene, but then a lot more fun to have more to do in Something About Mary.
AVC: Was that a role you were really disappointed to miss out on?
CE: The Bill Murray role? Um, not really, only because I haven't-I don't
really go after roles to any great degree. I was back doing David
Letterman
when they were doing Kingpin, and I was happy doing that. Yeah, it would
have been nice to have that role, but at the same time, I wasn't relying
on
acting to put bread on the table, so it wasn't like I missed out on
anything
great. It was more like "Oh, I won't see the Farrellys, I'll only be
shooting one night, and that's too bad."
Late Night With David Letterman (1982-1985)-"Various characters"
CE: That was really fun, because it was all about making Dave laugh; it
wasn't really about making the audience laugh. It was all about coming out
there and making sure Dave found whatever you were doing funny. There were
plenty of times that I would come out and not necessarily get huge laughs,
but Dave would laugh, and I knew that piece worked. And in the end, I
think
that the audience that was watching Late Night early on, they were seeing
things that hadn't been done on TV before, and it was all new, so whether
or
not it was uproariously funny, I think I at least got points for doing
different stuff.
Lianna (1983)-"Lighting Assistant"
CE: [Laughs.] I don't think I have ever talked about that movie. Wow. That
is random, for sure. I think I was like 17 or 18 when I did that. Maybe a
little older. It came out in '83, but it was shot before that. It was
before
I was at Letterman. I had done summer stock up in New Hamp****re at the
Eastern Slope Playhouse, and that's where John Sayles-he shot Return Of
The
Secaucus 7 up there, and that whole group-David Strathairn and all those
people worked at the same theater that I apprenticed at. I had met Sayles
there, and he just called me and asked me if I wanted to do this little
part
in that movie, and it was-that's my first movie role. I haven't seen it
since it was done, so I can't really comment on it, except for I had a
head
of hair and no beard at the time. [Laughs.]
AVC: What do you remember about being on a movie set for the first time?
CE: Well, it was a low-budget movie, and even then, I knew, "This isn't
really the way it is on regular movie sets." I guess just having grown up
with my dad in the business and being on movies like Cold Turkey, which he
did out in Iowa-it was a huge film, that kind of thing-so I knew it was
kind
of somewhere between a home movie and what would be called nowadays an
independent film. But it was still a little nerve-wracking and a
little-you're finally up to bat, and you have to show that you've got
something. I don't remember there being anything in that role that I could
really bite into, other than the fact that the character looked like me.
AVC: Was it any easier knowing that he had cast you in the role personally
because he liked your work?
CE: Oh yeah. Yeah. I haven't really auditioned much in my career. I've
been
lucky in terms of the feature work; it's mostly been people that have been
fans of mine that have called and said "We have this part, do you want to
do
it?" That kind of thing. And that's sort of still the way it is right
now-I
don't really go after features too much. But doing Lianna was-at that age,
you're trying to get as much on your résumé as possible, so I was really
happy to have a film on my résumé. And I knew all those people, so it was
more like I was being invited into his group of players, but already sort
of
having hung out with them up in New Hamp****re. So it wasn't that awkward a
feeling for me.
Hyperspace (1984)-"Hopper"
CE: Wow. This is really random. Really, really random. The director called
Letterman, had seen me on the show, said he was a huge fan, and asked me
to
be in it, and I said sure. It was down in North Carolina where we shot
that.
Paula Poundstone was in it. It was kind of a parody of Star Wars, long
before Spaceballs. It's another movie that I have not seen, but I remember
at the time thinking that it was funny. It was kind of low-budget, but
Paula
Poundstone had some heat on her at the moment, and I was a fan of hers-I
think she had actually done Letterman before she got that, so I sort of
felt
like, "Oh, this is the next step, then, for me." And then from there I
went
on to Inside Adam Swift. [Laughs.]
Inside Adam Swift (1985)-"Mr. Spooner"
CE: That was another kind of very low-budget movie that was never
released,
with an actor named Raphael Sbarge. It was like a teen movie. A
coming-of-age story.
AVC: It looks like it was released on VHS as My Man Adam.
CE: Was it really? Wow. Wow.
AVC: Can you recall the first film you were really excited about being in,
because you felt it was going to be really terrific?
CE: [Laughs.] I guess it was Something About Mary. Just because it was so
funny on the page. Even while you were shooting that movie, you knew that
every scene you were in was funny. I shouldn't say that-I guess Groundhog
Day came before that. I probably felt the same about that movie. At least
while I was shooting it, I was thinking, "Oh yeah, this is gonna be a big,
funny movie." It wasn't like Something About Mary, which made me laugh
hysterically on the page-at least, not my character. Imagining Bill Murray
doing his stuff made me laugh, but when we were shooting, I knew, "Okay,
yeah, this is gonna be a good, funny movie."
AVC: You said you don't audition much-can you think of a role you went out
and auditioned for, something you really wanted?
CE: I went out and auditioned for The Abyss.
The Abyss (1989)-"Bendix"
CE: I did end up in The Abyss, but I didn't get the part I auditioned for.
That was during the 1988 writers' strike, maybe? Maybe there was another
one
after that, I can't remember. But it was during a writers' strike that I
went out and read for the role Todd Graff got, the guy with the little
white
rat that he carries around on his shoulder. James Cameron liked me and we
talked a lot, and then I heard I didn't get the part, and a few weeks
later,
I got invited down to North Carolina, and he was literally writing my role
on legal paper while I was on the set. Handing it to me and saying, "Okay,
you're gonna say this, that, and that thing." And I had a great time doing
that movie, actually. He was really great to me.
AVC: That's twice that you didn't get a part and a director wrote a role
especially for you, to make sure you ended up in his movie. Does that kind
of thing happen to you often?
CE: I guess so. I think part of it, back in the early '80s, was because of
Dave more than anything else, because of Late Night. There were a lot of
casting people looking for who was hip out there, and what was the next
hippest thing, and Late Night definitely was, and having an element of
that
in a movie, I think, added to whoever's movie. I know I got cast in
Manhunter, Michael Mann's movie, because. There's no real reason for me to
be in that movie other than the fact that it was, like, the height of my
appearances on Letterman. I think I'd done a Cinemax comedy experiment, an
article on me in People magazine, that kind of thing.
Manhunter (1986)-"Zeller"
CE: That was more difficult for me, in a way, just because I felt totally
out of place there. I was cast through a casting agent who'd seen some
article on me, and had told Michael Mann, "Oh yeah, it would be cool to
have
him in this movie," I guess. So I knew right from the start, "Oh, I really
shouldn't be in this." The Abyss, I could put a little bit of my attitude
from Letterman into the character. In Manhunter, I was supposed to be an
FBI
forensic investigator. And I don't know, I was 23 or 24 at the time, with
a
giant beard and long, stringy blonde hair-I just didn't look the part. I
remember when the movie premièred, I appear in the scene where everybody's
putting together the final information that leads to this killer, and the
camera panned the table and cut to me, and there was this big blast of
laughter from the audience that broke the whole tension of that scene. I
can
only imagine that Michael Mann was not happy about that.
Dilbert (1999-2000)-"Dogbert"
CE: It was an unhappy experience only in my performance-I wasn't happy
with
my performance in it. I'm not crazy about my voice on its own, doing
anything. I've done a number of King Of The Hills because I'm friends with
Paul Lieberstein, who runs the show, but I'd done a pilot with Larry
Charles
before Dilbert, and then he called and asked if I'd do Dogbert. I said
sure,
but I don't like the sound of my voice, and I'm not entirely sure why. I
haven't figured that out yet, because I come from a radio family-in
essence,
my dad made his career in radio, and he has a great voice, but. My theory
is
that I'm not comfortable isolating one part of whatever it is I do. And my
voice, without me moving around and mugging and adding whatever I add to
it,
I get uncomfortable. I thought it was a fairly lackluster performance.
AVC: Really? I loved your Dogbert.
CE: You know, this is all my perception. A lot of what I am telling you
goes
against what people tell me on the street, when they come up to me and
tell
me, "You were great in this, that, or the other thing." Some times I just
walk away baffled about my own feelings. I've come to realize I have my
own
take on what it is I do. But a lot of people have come up to me and told
me
that they liked my Dogbert character.
AVC: Are there other aspects of yourself or your career where you feel
like
your perception differs from the general public perception?
CE: Yeah. I think overall, completely. Part of that is my own
invention-the
persona we are talking about is a guy that's fairly self-centered and is
pretty much out to win the world, and who cares, mostly, just about
himself.
Yeah. I don't think that's me. People are always surprised that I'm not
bouncing off the walls and that I'm not goofy, and crazy, and that sort of
thing. But I think it's clear that I have created this other person, this
alter ego. That's not unusual. It's certainly what Laurel and Hardy did,
what the Marx brothers did, what Pee-wee Herman did. Even though I don't
wear a goofy costume or have a goofy name, I'm still a completely
different
character.
New York Stories (1989)-"Robber"
CE: Okay, here's the New York Stories story. I got offered that part from
Fred Roos, to play a robber in the Coppola one of the three little short
films. And I was joking with Adam Resnick the day before the shoot, about
me
shooting this. And we were joking that Coppola wasn't going to know who I
was, that he was going to call me "the guy with the beard." So I show up
to
shoot, and we don't shoot because there is something wrong with the
camera.
I don't know what the problem is, but I am there for, like, seven hours.
And
we haven't yet shot my scene. And it's late at night, and it gets into the
early hours of the morning. I'm exhausted-I've worked all day at
Letterman.
So they yell "Action," and we shoot this wide scene. And Coppola says
"Okay,
that was great. Now, the guy with the beard, you come in a little earlier
next time." And, I've go to say, I was just so mad at that point, at 4 in
the morning, to not have the guy even know who I was, that I tried the
next
day to get out of the film, and tried to leave. But they had already got
me
on film so it was too late. I had to stay and go back and shoot the next
night. That was my Coppola experience.
AVC: Who have been your favorite people to work with? Not just in terms of
"he's a cool guy and I want to be in his films," but in terms of people
who
work best with you as directors?
CE: Adam Resnick, without a doubt, both as a writer and as a director, and
as a friend to goof around with. You get a lot of inspiration out of
goofing
around, and a lot of ideas come out that way. So I would say it would be
him
before anyone else. And then looking back in terms of the movies, again,
I've been a bit lucky, because most people have let me do what I want to
do.
When I was on the set, Keenen Wayans was great with me. He let me create a
whole character for one of those Scary Movies, which isn't really what you
do in those movies. You basically execute sight gags one after another.
But
he let me go off and play and improvise quite a bit, and do whatever I
wanted. So I kind of think, with all of the movies, he would be up there,
and so were the Farrellys.
Snow Day (2000)-"Roger"
CE: Kind of a favor-slash-business choice, financially. I knew someone at
Nickelodeon who called me and said there was this role, and asked if I
would
be interested in doing it, so I did it. At the time, my kids were of the
age
that they were watching Nickelodeon, and would enjoy that kind of movie,
and
I thought "Well, I haven't really done a kids' movie yet." I guess I
justified it that way.
AVC: Your next project is Thomas Kinkade's Home For Christmas. Can you say
anything about that?
CE: It's about Thomas Kinkade, Painter Of Light, about his early days and
how he learned to paint light. I play a guy in the small town that he grew
up in, the head of the tourist department, who pays him to paint a mural
on
a wall in the town, to inspire the town. It's a little bit like a kids'
movie, a little similar to Snow Day. I haven't seen it. But it's kind of a
comedy-drama-type thing. It's totally G-rated. Peter O'Toole is in it, and
Marcia Gay Harden. I'm not sure if it's coming out this holiday season or
next holiday season. I think it's coming out next year.
AVC: What else do you have coming up?
CE: Picketing.
AVC: Are you actually out on the line?
CE: I was today, yeah.
AVC: What was that like?
CE: It's kind of fun. It's nice to see some writers I haven't seen for a
while, and to hang with the Late Show writers, who I really like a lot. It
was fun, in that it was raining and cold. It felt good. But I was about to
start to do more things back on Letterman again, and it was starting to
turn
into more or less a regular thing, with me coming back and doing stuff
with
Gerry Mulligan, and doing some running characters. Dave was having fun
with
me coming back. When the strike is over, I'll probably go back and do some
more of that.
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