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 ong before Harold and Kumar headed for White Castle, and even before Cheech and Chong went Up in Smoke, marijuana made its big screen debut in a 1936 agit-prop film financed by a local church group. In the black-and-white classic, Tell Your Children, a visiting government official comes into town to warn parents about the evils of the demon weed, citing the example of a pair of golden teens driven to wrack and ruin by a single puff.A few years later, a savvy film distributor tweaked a few scenes to make it sexier, and hit the exploitation circuit under the title Reefer Madness. More recently, a pair of musical comedy writers, Dan Studney and Kevin Murphy, realized how ripe the topic was for parody, and adapted Reefer for the stage. A hit in Los Angeles, it transferred to Off-Broadway, where it had the unlucky fate to open in October 2001. Thank goodness Showtime has made it available to the masses, adding some new cast members, among them Alan Cumming and Ana Gasteyer. Sharpened in its small-screen transition, the film features show-stopping numbers, including one with a disapproving Jesus ("I'm the face on the shroud of Turin/ Do I need to test your urine?") and an animated sequence in which sweet Jimmy Harper has his way with a pot brownie. For cynics who don't get off on musical joviality, there's a subtle message about placing too much faith in authority. Hooksexup spoke with director Andy Fickman and star Christian Campbell about the movie that sang and danced its way onto the cover of High Times. — Lily Oei Andy, how did you get involved in the project? As a movie, it was something I had seen growing up as a kid. It was a great spoof, a Rocky Horror-type midnight movie. I saw it one night in college, the image of the crazy guy smoking and playing the piano always appealed to my sense of humor. When Kevin and Dan, the writers, wrote the script, they handed it to me with a demo CD of them singing and asked me if I was familiar with Reefer Madness and I started to laugh immediately. I've been hooked it on ever since. Christian, how familiar were you with original movie? I was not familiar with it at all. I auditioned for Andy, Dan and Kevin. We all sat together and watched the film — if you want to call it that — just before we started rehearsal. It was important to understand the tone. Basically, satire is over in ten minutes unless you have a good script. You can't just satirize, wink-wink, nudge, aren't we so funny. You've got to take it to the next level. What was it like transferring the musical to film? Andy: I come from a very visual place. When doing the play, there were a lot of times where we'd be setting the scene, and I'd turn to the actors and say, "When we do the feature version, Jesus really will come from the ceiling, even if he currently has to move a shower curtain to step onto the stage." On stage, I had twelve actors. Every character, except Jim and Mary, played multiple roles. If you were playing Mae, you were also playing a dancer at the five and dime, and one of the angry parents. God love the actors for being able to run backstage and immediately change costumes. In making the film, we had the advantage of knowing things like, "That joke always killed on stage, and we don't want to lose it." Did adapting the show for film allow for more creative or financial freedom? Andy: We made changes. The biggest thing is that with plays, you have intermission. You end with a big something coming in next act, and people leave for Twizzlers. And when they come back you have to remind them what happened in act one. We massaged out the stuff that was in the middle, made changes to some songs, adding and cutting some that worked better on stage. In the film, you use black-and-white and color. Not to mention some sassy animation. Andy: Ha. I love sassy animation. In the play, the lecturer had a podium and directly addressed the audience, which was more or less the parents. Here, having a black-and-white feel for the classroom was very Wizard of Oz. Kansas is drab; Oz bursts into Technicolor. In our world, to me, the movie is black-and-white metaphorically too. There's no grey area. If you smoke dope, you'll go crazy, kill, rape, everything. How did you decide who from the stage cast to keep for the film? Andy: Christian is the only Jimmy I know. We have a very strong shorthand with each other. Robert Torti is the only Jesus I know. John Kassir as Ralph — his crazy cackle was very important. Kristin Bell just by chance took over as Mary in New York. Then she was becoming known for Veronica Mars, and just did a Mamet movie, so her stock was on the rise. So even if I had not cast Kristen, she might have been someone the casting director would bring in. Neve [Campbell] was always part of the family but we never had a role for her. We switched the role of Miss Poppy from man to woman for her. I notice Paula Abdul is not credited with choreography. Andy: We love Paula. American Idol has taken over her life. She was with us for a good portion, the time we had was interesting and sometimes challenging. Paula is so great with dancers, and Christian is no dancer. Christian, the story is such high camp, so did you have to tone down any acting on screen? It was always meant to be played up. I asked that of Andy in the beginning, "Okay, we're moving onto film here does that mean we draw back and sort of invite the audience in instead of projecting out?" And Andy said, "Let's take a look, but I'm thinking . . .no." You can do all the overacting in the world, but if you believe in every moment, whatever the moment: whether you're crying because of an affair, or smoking marijuana, you can go as over the top as you want. Andy, your thoughts? The camera doesn't lie. We spent a lot of time creating the character for the theater — facial contorting, how to jack up the energy. For the film, Christian's right. I don't think we were looking for places to tone down. In a play, you see it grow for two hours so you know where you're going. For the film, it was more up to me. I'd say, "We're at level seven of reefer crazy." Same with make-up too — we'd adjust with the dark circles around their eyes, and sometimes the actors would come out looking like raccoons. How did Showtime get involved? Andy: [Showtime president] Bob Greenblat came to the reading. It was his second day on job, and five days later we were in his office. I can't emphasize enough; they really were a dream place to work. And you don't have to worry about ratings with pay cable. Andy: I don't know at what point you can't get a hard R. Cable has enabled you to do so much. Angels in America wouldn't have been on ABC, or played in a movie theater. This couldn't be on ABC, or the "Wonderful World of Disney." Well, there is animation in it. Like Finding Nemo, you have some singing fish. Andy: In the animation, Jimmy's screwing a pot brownie! Christian, as a Canadian, how was filming for you? I know they have a different attitude toward pot there. We filmed it in Vancouver. That had to do with the fiscal side. Showtime had The L Word there, so we cannibalized their sets. And yes, Vancouver is the pot capital of North America; they don't call it "Vansterdam" for nothing. The pot is fantastic. I'm not promoting it, but if you're going to, try the B.C. bud. Andy, how was Vancouver for you? It was an accident that we wound up there, but it fed into the reefer madness. It's a great place to film, except when you go over the U.S. border and have to explain what movie you were up there for. And then a few minutes later, you find yourself escorted to security. I know that two of your stars made the cover of High Times this month. You know of all the awards we won, when we won Stoney Theater Award that was the one that made us most proud. Do you have any expectation that the film will take on its own Rocky Horror-like midnight success? Andy: In L.A., we got used to having fans who dressed up as zombies. They'd come every night and bring joints and props. They were doing things that were funny, but they were also stepping on the jokes! I actually had to meet with the head fans — I'm that much of a control freak — to tell them it was okay to throw roses, but to just wait two seconds so they could get the joke out. Leave it to me to start directing the fans. Despite the genuine hilarity of film, what about the message? Christian: That final scene, the, lyrics give me a chill: "When dangers near exploit their fear. The end will justify the means." I think it means so much today. And it goes on, "Once the reefer's destroyed/ Start on Darwin and Freud." That applied in 1936, but still applies today. Andy: This could have been "censorship madness," or "racism madness." Alan Cummings' character engages in fear-mongering. Whoever is in power tends to do that — scare people into doing what they want them to do. If someone gets that message, I'm happy. If they're just enjoying the movie, I'm happy, too. n° Reefer Madness airs on Showtime April 16.
©2005 Lily Oei and hooksexup.com. |
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