Hey folks, Harry here. That salmon scented sailor of the inland seas of Travis County is here again with another of his big shot interview dealies. He's a happy sailor, his ewe is soft and cuddily. However, here he has interviewed the director of NOVOCAINE and he's gonna spell out your alternative to Harry Potter this weekend....
Ahoy there, squirts! 'Tis I, the one and only crusty seaman, Quint, here with another interview for you folks to delve into. I've got a backlog of interviews (these fuckers take forever to transcribe!), and although I have other completed interviews with some more familiar names, I had to get this one out to you folks.
Dave Atkins is a quirky, funny guy. It's no surprise he clicked with Steve Martin and got him involved in a small weird little film called Novocaine that puts a crazy Hitchcock-esque spin on the world of dentistry.
I met Dave at a local film festival after spending a few weeks setting up this interview via a nice lady at Artisan named Jennifer. He ended up being a fan of this site and started getting crazy ideas about the interview. "We should drop acid and do the interview! That'd be in following with Ain't It Cool's flow, right?" I was down. Hey, it worked for Hunter S. Thompson.
Unfortunately, we didn't drop acid. We were, however, both exhausted and got a very minimal amount of sleep before the interview the next morning. Here it is. I'll see you on the other end, mates.
QUINT: I HAVE TO START BY ASKING YOU ABOUT ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTER ACTORS WHO POPPED UP IN NOVOCAINE. HOW'D YOU GET KEITH DAVID IN THE FILM?
DAVID ATKINS: Well, I spotted him in Chicago when we were location scouting and I said to one of the producers around, "Hey, there's that guy! That guy from Platoon!" And the producer, who was a bit confused, said, "Oh, that's David Keith." So, he came around the corner and she said, "David Keith!" And he came over and said, "No... I'm Keith David, but sometimes I go by David Keith. In airports if I need to make two reservations I'll make one under Keith David and one under David Keith so I can have a shot, because I can't put two under my name."
He said he once ran into David Keith and told him that he was using his name and David Keith said, "That's OK, 'cause I'm using yours, too!" They were both doing the same scam, yeah.
QUINT: SO WAS HE COOL TO WORK WITH?
DAVID ATKINS: Yeah. The whole cast was great. They were very fun and very inventive and everybody was working for a fraction... It's an independent film. It was shot in 32 days. It's a fraction of a Hollywood... It's got the cast of a Hollywood film, but I think it's got that edgy, raw feeling on the sides. Just the flavor... It's an independent film!
Everybody had to work for a fraction and run together and stay together as a team and really work together. They were interested in the material 'cause it was unlike anything else. It's really a movie that's not like any other movie, that's for sure. So, Keith was a pleasure to work with. I have no stories of people throwing temper tantrums or anything like that. There was just no time.
QUINT: DID YOU RECOGNIZE THE IRONY IN CASTING STEVE MARTIN IN THIS ROLE AS A DENTIST?
DAVID ATKINS: Yeah, the whole movie is... It's an ironic look at the American dream and what's going on underneath the surface of this seemingly mundane and perfect existence is rot and conspiracy, just like a rotted tooth. Everybody was cast against type for the most part.
I mean, Helena (Bonham Carter) is primarily known for her Merchant Ivory corset films, but now she's a bad girl. And Dern (Laura) is the beautiful fiancé with a heart of gold, but then she's kinda playin' off of that. Steve of course is known for the Steve Martin brand of comedy and now... this is more of a dark, less broad comedy.
The most important thing about this movie is that people don't come expecting The Jerk. If they do... We're dead! (laughs) They'll be confused. Some of them will go with it, but some of them need to have the Steve they're familiar with will be disappointed. That's a really important aspect of it. The way the film has to go out is "This is Steve Martin unlike you've ever seen him before."
It seems ironic at first that Steve would be interested in the material and seek me out 'cause he came to me. It all makes sense once you meet him and get to know him. He's just like the movie. I wouldn't say twisted, but his sense of humor is subversive and you could see it in the Oscars.
QUINT: WELL, THE IRONY LIES NOT ONLY THERE, BUT IN THE FACT THAT STEVE HAS PLAYED A DENTIST BEFORE, A RATHER DIFFERENT ROLE, BUT A DENTIST NONETHELESS IN THE REMAKE OF THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS.
DAVID ATKINS: Yeah, I hadn't seen that quite frankly. When Steve was cast I decided not to see it 'cause I didn't want anything sneakin' in. I didn't want to have him suddenly burst out singing. Somebody asked me if anybody tried to sneak in any huge plants into the set. I was like, "What does that refer to? I don't get it."
Today I heard from somebody who said, "Were you aware that in Trains, Planes and Automobiles Kevin Bacon does a cameo there?" I didn't know that. What's going on in the movie is... there's the story and then there's as many riffs and pieces of subversiveness as I could get in there. You got the planes: the foreground, midground and background. Usually you put the thing in the mid, so you need something happening in the fore and something funny happening in the background. I always tried to do something there. Keep the story going, but keep the subversive comedy going in the background.
The whole idea behind the movie is you start with a noir kinda framework, then you riff off of that. In noir films, a guy gets arrested... he's in custody, so it's a big break! Well, it's not quite a noir... It's in a noir film, but even more so in contemporary films, like Sly Stallone type things. They take down 5 cops and they run out with machine guns. I wanted to go in exactly the other direction. Everything about the movie, from the casting to the story itself to the twists and turns, is all about trying create an expectation and then take it in the other direction.
QUINT: ONE THING I'D KINDA LIKE TO TOUCH UPON WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE PARTS OF THE MOVIE... IT EVEN MADE THE POSTER... BUT WHERE'D YOU GET THAT SCARY, SCARY BUNNY RABBIT?
DAVID ATKINS: Yeah, yeah. There again it's like bunnies are cute and cuddly and you just want to kiss them all day (laughs)... Did my laughter just echo like that or was that me just having an auditory hallucination? I coulda sworn I laughed and it just bounced off the tin roof there...
The Bunny Rack... We called it the Bunny Rack because I used a lot of rack focuses. I love that. We rack to the bunny and reveal... It's nice because I introduce the bunny in the exterior of the dentist office, but a real live bunny. And Laura Dern's character is related to stuffed animals. I just tried to make the movie with a lot of great elements like that. That's why the movie rocks. It's got lots of things you don't see in other movies. That's what makes it stand by itself. I don't know, it's hard for me to really exactly talk about it...
QUINT: WITHOUT GIVING TOO MUCH AWAY?
DAVID ATKINS: Yeah. Also in kinda general terms, it's kinda tough to discuss the terms.
QUINT: THEN LOTS TALK ABOUT DANNY ELFMAN A BIT, THEN. HOW'D YOU GET HIM TO SCORE YOUR TITLE SEQUENCE?
DAVID ATKINS: Danny alternates between doing big, fat heavy-duty money projects for a lot of dough and then... Basically he's a very interesting, cool guy. He's also subversive. He's drawn to the dark side of things, the twisted side and he was turned on by the film, wanted to be involved. The problem is he's a big money ticket. The indie projects are few and far between for Danny 'cause he has a high overhead and he makes a lot of money and it's nice to make a lot of money, but he was attracted to the movie.
Ultimately what happens in the soundtrack is all the themes are introduced in the title sequence. Steve Bartek took Danny's themes and broke them down piece by piece. If you listen to the title sequence music, it's all different pieces of feelings put together in one piece. Well, Steve Bartek came along and took each piece and gave it a character.
So, Helena's music is one thing. The hard, heavy stuff, the violent feeling for Scott Caan comes from the violent part. There's a more sortuva superficial, sort of a jingle type feel which is Laura Dern's music. So everything is introduced there in the beginning and it unifies the movie. The movie is a challenge in a way because it's not just a comedy or it's not just a thriller. It's a darker comedic crime story, so you got two tones.
I wanted Beck originally. I thought Beck would be good because that sorta pulsating sound of air going in and out... the wah-wah-wah that Beck and other electronica musicians do... to me, that's the sound of nitrous oxide when I have the mask on. You know, you're flying and the sound of blood pulsing in and out of your ear gives you that wah-wah-wah. But when I put it up to the movie, that electronica didn't work, so I knew I wanted to make a score, but it had to be a score that could contain both tones, a comedic and a darker feel. Elfman is the guy that does that best. But I must say, Steve Bartek did awesome work in elaborating.
QUINT: DID YOU STUDY ANY OTHER FILMS OR FILMMAKERS BEFORE JUMPING INTO NOVOCAINE, YOUR FIRST FEATURE?
DAVID ATKINS: I was always looking at Hitchcock, ever since I was a little kid. He had a subversive way of telling a story, too. I couldn't help but to have Hitchcock... I mean, North By Northwest is one of my favorite movies. It just stuck in my head. Similar to North By Northwest, Novocaine's a story about an ordinary man who suddenly is thrown into a spiraling maelstrom that's quickly out of his control and he has to rise above his seemingly mundane world, the limitations of his life and become activated, rise above himself and become a super version of himself, which is great.
When he's on the run, when everything's after him and he has to get away and figure out what's going on... He doesn't do it real smooth like Bruce Willis in Die Hard, he does it like a dentist. He falls and when he falls he hurts himself. He stumbles and he makes mistakes. It's not smooth and easy for Steve's character. It's life threatening...
Also, there's film noir. Of course Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice and Jacques Tati. He's a French absurdist filmmaker... well, I wouldn't say absurdist. He's a beautiful French filmmaker. He's dead now. The French film (glimpsed in Novocaine) in a way relates to him, but also the type of humor it is. The humor has a slightly absurdist edge at times, which is kinda Steve Martin, but it came from Jacques Tati. I encourage everybody to see Playtime by Tati. It's a total gas. It's a little known film. It's a masterpiece.
QUINT: I MIGHT BE BLANKING ON THE SCENE, BUT I CAN'T THINK OF ONE BIT IN THE FILM WHERE STEVE MARTIN FALLS INTO HIS ROUTINE, WHERE HE DOES, LIKE, BOWFINGER COMEDY.
DAVID ATKINS: Well, it's not that kind of comedy, but Steve's certainly funny in the movie. For instance, when he discovers the red panties in his office and he's got to get them very quickly, but his finger is stuck in his patient's mouth and he can't move, so he has to, with his other hand, use a tape measure... That's not typical. He doesn't usually do comedy with panties... off the woman he had sex with in his dental chair the night before. That's not a typical Steve Martin move, but it's a lot more like Steve Martin in real life.
A lot of the humor in this movie, Steve is reacting to the tightening noose and the events happening beyond his control. Sometimes when shit is going down and it's all around you, your head starts spinning and you don't know which way to go first. You stumble in one direction and then you go in another... You know, your eyes are wide and you're trying to figure out what the hell to do. To me, it's funny to see somebody in that circumstance, like in Sgt. Bilko or something... Let's say Planes, Trains and Automobiles... Steve's going to be a lot more proactive comedically.
QUINT: ALTHOUGH I HAVE VOWED NEVER TO CALL THIS MAN BY HIS REAL NAME BECAUSE I ALWAYS FUCK IT UP, BEING A CHILD OF THE '80S, I CALL HIM CASEY JONES. I HAVE TO BRING HIM UP, THOUGH BECAUSE HE'S A TERRIFIC ACTOR AND IS GREAT IN YOUR FILM... ELIAS KOTEAS (E-LIE-US COAT-E-US)...
DAVID ATKINS: It's Elias (EL-E-US) Koteas (CO-TEA-US)... It's all about the accent. I never saw Mutant... Turtles. Never saw it. I guess I'm a child of the '70s. How old are you?
QUINT: 20.
DAVID ATKINS: You are?!? Man! Um... I'm 39... so you could be my son, really when you look at it.
QUINT: WHERE WERE YOU IN 1980?
DAVID ATKINS: Was that when you were born?
QUINT: NO, '81.
DAVID ATKINS: Really? I was in college man... You could have been my son. (laughs) You still could be... I did come into Austin... Naw, you know who your dad is.
Yeah, I didn't see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... It was a little past my time. I was into going to the Iggy Pop shows and takin' ludes and drinkin' booze at 'em and driving around. (laughs) Those were the old days. We didn't know you weren't supposed to do that.
Yeah, Elias is a really beautiful, strange exotic creature. He's the kinda guy whose emotions are always right on the surface. So, whatever's going on in the room, he's going to reflect that in his performance. A lot of times, because we only had 32 days, such a short schedule, it wasn't what you call "cushy" the situation on the set. It wasn't... Oh, people mosey on up from their coffee break, the director's playing chess with the star. No. There was a lot of tension on the set.
Elias's edgy quality underneath his skin is reflecting what's going on just outside the camera range. Not to say that the shoot was unpleasant. It was just "We gotta move, we gotta move" to get in the kinda shots I wanted to do. I didn't want to shoot master, over, over, close-up, close-up and be out. I wanted to do something different.
For instance, for the opening scene I wanted to create a kinduva dance between the camera and the actors. It was very elaborate with 10 people just off camera moving walls and equipment in. It's supposed to be a bit of a dance because it's just another ordinary day in the dentist's office, the routine is there and everything. All in one shot.
Then, later on in the office, after things start spinning out of control, we have the same kind of oner that's moving in and out of every single room in the office, but now everything's sorta missing. I told everybody, I want it to be like the dolly grip was loaded last night and really hung over and everything's just missing.
So, the coffee's spilling and the toupee is crooked and the glove gets stuck and the patient's complaining and the impression mold has set too quickly and now is stuck in the patient's mouth. That shot played off the first shot. There were a lot of shots. There was a lot of planning. Therefor, there was a lot of tension.
QUINT: WHICH DO YOU PREFER, THE WRITING, THE DIRECTING OR THE EDITING?
DAVID ATKINS: I've heard it said that a film is written 3 times. First the script, then while shooting, then in the editing room. I've been working a lot of years as a writer by myself in a room and it gets isolating and lonely. I'm basically a social guy. Being on set, working with people and all of us working toward a common goal and getting the opportunity to work with amazing actors, see what they can do, put them through their paces... There's nothing a great actor likes to do more than be put through his or her paces and play. They want to play.
That's why the performances, I think, are so strong in the film because I told the people beforehand, "I want to see you fly as an actor. I want to help you to fly and not be leaden and tied to the ground by gravity." You have to give them a little room and help them. It's fantastic. It's like working with the finest instruments if you're a surgeon or something. That was a real turn-on to me.
The editing was a lot of hard work to hone things and it was a slippery pick of a movie to cut because I had two distinct tones that needed to be unified into a single hybrid tone and become a darkly comedic crime story. There's the comedic and there's the crime, unless you want a sort of spoofy kind of deal you gotta really work on it and hone it and try things and remove scenes.
What I ultimately did was remove some broader comedic scenes that I thought took away from the forward momentum of the film. You're walking a tightrope there, between the two tones, and if you've got too much comedy, it's gonna weigh to one side.
I certainly enjoyed seeing it all come together finally. That was very fulfilling to me, don't get me wrong. I'd say, for me, the least enjoyable part is the writing, the most enjoyable part is the shooting and the editing part is in between.
QUINT: WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU GOT GOING NOW? I THINK YOU MENTIONED A SCRIPT YOU'RE WORKING ON YESTERDAY...
DAVID ATKINS: Jimmy Crack Corn, you mean? Jimmy Crack Corn and I Don't Care. It's something I'm writing right now... It's about a detective... I better not say because you put it out on the net and it's easily getable. I'm definitely still working with the underbelly of the American Dream and the new one relates to food and crime.
QUINT: ARE YOU LOOKING TO RETEAM WITH ANY OF THE NOVOCAINE CAST?
DAVID ATKINS: I love them all. You know, it's all about... Truthfully, as you'll see when you start making movies, which I'm sure you'll do, you have a great guy like, say, Steve, who I'm dyin' to work with again... Or Laura or Helena or Kevin (Bacon), really. I'm dying to work with all of them again, but it's important to fit them to the role and if the role isn't right for any of them, then you're not doing yourself a service. Steve and I have definitely talked about doing something together again. I hope so.
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There you have it, squirts. Novocaine comes out this weekend, starting on Nov. 16th! I highly recommend seeing this flick. It's a lot of fun. Hope you enjoyed it, mates. I gots lots more where that one came from, including a sweet visit to a psycho set, a chat with one of the godfathers of '80s horror, not to mention the hordes of other coolness I've got forming in the deepest, darkest, dankiest corner of the Orca right now. 'Til that day, squirts, this is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
