Your new movie She's
Allergic to Cats - in a few words, what is it about?
It’s
about dogs. And bananas. And rats. But really it’s a love story.
Is
She's Allergic to
Cats in anyway autobiographical? And/or how much of yourself do
you see in your movie's Michael? Everything
happened in one way or another, but it’s all jumbled and mixed up in
different ways. So everything is true but also not true. The character of
Michael is kind of a combination of me and Mike Pinkney... but from like
2010. A few years prior to She's
Allergic to Cats you've made a film about dog grooming called Cats
- and somehow I think that one has influenced She's
Allergic to Cats. Am I at all right in that assumption, and if so,
could you elaborate? Yeah. Cats was a short version I made a few years before
She's
Allergic to Cats. Basically it was just
a bunch of super slow motion sensual shots of dog grooming with a little
narrative around it.
It got into SXSW but I wasn't able to go because I was shooting the
feature at the same time
as the festival. It got into a bunch of other fests though and people
seemed to really dig it so
it gave me confidence when I saw out to do the full length version. (Other) sources of inspiration when
writing She's
Allergic to Cats? Direct
influences for this movie were (in no particular order) Steve Hanft’s
inspirational first feature
Kill The Moonlight, Ken Russell, David Lynch, Harmony Korine, Ninth
Configuration, American
Werewolf In London, Wendy and Lucy, Air Bud: Golden
Receiver.
Every now and again, She's
Allergic to Cats leans towards the surreal and/or absurd - so how
hard was it not to (literally) lose your plot in the process? I
always wanted to go for the emotional before the surreal or absurd. That
was really important to me. And it kept me on track to not lose the plot
too much. Although some reviews out there may disagree with me on that
one. She's
Allergic to Cats' lead character is talking about remaking the
horror classic Carrie (with cats) a lot - is that at all a
favourite of yours, or have you thrown in that film at random, and in any
case, why Carrie?
I
love Stephen King. That was the first author I became obsessed with. I
read almost every Stephen King book up until Gerald’s Game. And I always
loved Carrie. It wasn’t my favorite book of his but obviously I loved the
De Palma movie. It’s iconic.
There
are all these Easter eggs in She's
Allergic to Cats, references to other
movies. The idea of an all-cat Carrie remake was lifted from this movie
The Ninth Configuration by William Peter Blatty, who wrote The
Exorcist.
He also wrote the book Twinkle Twinkle Killer Kane, which was then made
into The Ninth Configuration. It’s one of the few movies he directed.
In
that movie, there are all these inmates in a psych ward, and each one is
crazier than the next. And then Jason Miller, who played Father Damian in The
Exorcist, is a psych patient that is obsessed with performing Hamlet
with all dogs. It’s a running joke through the movie that’s really
funny, but also really insane at the same time.
I
saw that movie with Mike Pinkney, who’s the star of She's
Allergic to Cats, and we thought it was hilarious. So when we were pitching music
videos, our joke pitch would be “Let’s do an all-cat
remake of Carrie” to get us talking about ideas. So that’s where the
cat Carrie came from. It shows my love for both Stephen King and
William Peter Blatty.
She's
Allergic to Cats features quite a lot of cats, dogs and rats - so
what was it like working with all these animals, and will you ever do it
again? I
will always work with dogs. I mean, dogs are THE best. My dog Martin is
the coolest. He loves wearing costumes and has great comedic timing. I’d
love to work with him on a big project some day. Cats kind of suck to work
with though. They are visually interesting but don’t take direction well
at all. Rats were kind of whatever. They were uninspiring and didn’t
really show that much emotion. Ducklings were also difficult to work with.
They were cute but they were constantly pooping everywhere and smelled
pretty bad. Apparently duckling poop can give you salmonella so we had to
constantly be washing our hands around them. Now everyone is washing their
hands though so I guess we were ahead of the curve on that one. Do talk
about your key cast, and why exactly these people?
As
for cast, Mike Pinkney was always going to be played by Mike Pinkney. It
just made sense. I cast
Sonja Kinski because she is an amazing actress. I also thought the connection to
Cat People was pretty
cool. I love that movie. I wrote the part of Sebastian after a good German
friend of mine (also
named Sebastian). And someone had actually already sent me one of
Flula Borg’s YouTube videos
because he reminded them of Sebastian so much. So when we were casting the
movie it was
a no-brainer. And Honey is played by my actual landlord/street musician
Honey Davis. He really
lights up the screen.
Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of She's
Allergic to Cats?
People
either absolutely love it or absolutely hate it. Even the people who hate
it say that they will
never be able to get certain images out of their mind. So that’s cool.
Any future projects you'd like
to share?
I
have been writing a Christmas horror movie and a Bar Mitzvah horror movie.
So one of those two
things.
What got you into making movies in the first
place, and did you receive any formal education on the subject?
When
I saw the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day I knew exactly what I wanted to
do with my life. I wanted to be Edward Furlong. I grew out my hair. I took
acting classes. I listened to Guns'N'Roses and Public Enemy.
Filmmakers who inspire you? Hmmm… I
dunno maybe lo-fi Douglas Sirk meets super slick George Kuchar? Your
favourite movies?
I
think ET is my all time favorite movie. But then I also really love
Police
Academy 4: Citizens On
Patrol.
So it’s kind of a toss up.
... and of course, films you really
deplore?
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I
really didn’t like Superman V Batman. It made me physically ill. I had
to leave the theater. Justice
League was fine though. Or at least it was so bad that I actually kind of
enjoyed it.
Your/your movie's website, social media,
whatever else?
Websites
are:
shesallergictocats.com
normal.tv
My Instagram is @normaltv
The movie's is: @ShesAllergicToCats
My dog's is: @george_arf_arf_Martin
Thanks for the
interview! Thank
YOU! Was fun and really great questions.
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