![]() ![]() We had a great casting director, Allison Jones, helping us. Seth Green as Christopher Guest, Rick Glassman as Harold Ramis, and Jackie Tohn as Gilda Radner really stand out. You are no stranger to working with ensembles but Gesture takes things to a whole new level with how frighteningly similar some of the actors resemble the characters they’re portraying. So if there’s any feeling of that, then we’ve succeeded. I also tried to make it feel like the magazine came to life in some way. We really wanted to challenge ourselves to not just say, “Oh here’s this little incident that happened with the Lampoon guys and here’s a scene about it.” I wanted it to feel like a movie of today, not a movie that’s from the ‘70s or ‘80s. ![]() Doing things like Childrens Hospital was an amazing testing ground for trying different techniques in a relatively low-stakes way. But yes, also building off things that I’ve done previously and taking those in new directions. A lot of those choices just came from the gut – trying to come up with ways that felt organic to the story and not too gimmicky, but at the same time lent a certain fun and flair in trying to come up with touches that actually serve the story. You almost crystallized for me why I did it: the story of National Lampoon naturally provides the space to take some creative risks. Can you talk about your approach for how you wanted to tell this story? But there’s also an undercurrent of sincere drama that packs an emotional punch, which felt like a new direction for you. There’s the unconventional rhythms of Childrens Hospital as well as the more traditional comedy beats of Role Models. Stylistically, Gesture has the Wain fingerprint all over it. It was just a very cool, nearly 10 years in-the-making process. Plus being able to work with this cast we assembled and this team of producers and writers. It was an amazingly appealing area to dive into. Then, of course, having the opportunity to tell the story of the creative community that gave birth to the creative community that I’m a part of. Not only was it an opportunity to do so many things that I love to do, but also to step forward and do things I never had a chance to do, particularly telling a story about real people that actually existed and chronicling their lives. This film felt like a real collection of so many things that I’m already very interested in. Is that what attracted you to this project? National Lampoon’ s punk spirit and aggressive originality paved the way for Wain and his comedic coterie, and Gesture feels like a love letter to his forefathers.īefore its premiere at Sundance this week, I hopped on the phone with Wain to discuss A Futile and Stupid Gesture, how National Lampoon influenced The State, and how he’s remained true to his niche comedic sensibilities after nearly three decades in the industry.Ī Futile and Stupid Gesture is both your first biopic and proper period piece. Gesture follows Kenney (played by a beautifully wigged Will Forte) as he took his brand of silly yet searing satire from his Harvard dorm to the gates of Hollywood, flicking off conservative culture, reinvigorating a staid comedic landscape, and introducing the world to a singular crop of comedic performers (John Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner) along the way. So it’s fitting that Wain is at the helm of A Futile and Stupid Gesture, the new Netflix original movie chronicling the wild rise, fall, and enduring legacy of National Lampoon and its founder Doug Kenney. Wain and his college buddies were unapologetic and uncompromising in their vision, and they’d go on to influence a generation of label-defying comedic voices. It challenged the status quo of what sketch comedy could be. The State, which included Michael Showalter, Ken Marino, Thomas Lennon, and Kerri Kenney, had no business being on mainstream television - their brand of alt-comedy absurdity was dark, subversive, and antagonistically surreal - but thank the comedy gods that it was, even if their show lasted only for a brief 26 episodes. Before solidifying himself as a household name as the writer-director behind cult classics ( Wet Hot American Summer, The Ten) and commercial hits ( Role Models) alike, Wain and his pioneering sketch comedy troupe The State staged a comedic coup at MTV back in the early ‘90s when they were still just fresh-faced 20-year-olds shooting DIY sketches around NYU. Photo: Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Netflixĭavid Wain is no stranger to disrupting an unsuspecting comedy mainstream.
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