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If the meek shall indeed inherit the earth, maybe John Gulager will get first dibs on owning his own piece of Hollywood. The sheepish, socially awkward auteur has made the third season of Bravo's "Project Greenlight" must-see viewing for any starry-eyed dreamer who ever hoped that quirky vision could win out over commerce. The unkempt, rumpled son of one of Hollywood's oddest families (his father is journeyman actor Clu Gulager) could barely form complete sentences when pitching himself to "Greenlight" judges. But fortunately Gulager's stark, strange work did the talking, and (with much prodding from head cheerleaders Matt Damon and Ben Affleck) he was tapped to helm "Feast," a gleefully gory horror flick described as "Evil Dead" meets "Diner" by the film's screenwriters.
Comic tussles with studio heads, casting directors, actors, producers, directors of photography and virtually everyone else associated with the film followed ... that is, until they saw the dailies. By the time the production (and the reality show documenting it) drew to a close, it was clear that the little director who could actually did, and suddenly it felt like the season-long story arc of "Project Greenlight" was Gulager's coronation as king of the film geeks.
MTV News' Ocean MacAdams spoke to the director on the eve of the "Greenlight" finale, which airs Thursday (May 12), and found the same Gulager that viewers have been rooting for all season. Sure, the studio loves his "Feast" and sure, they've handed him even more money for re-shoots. But Gulager is still defending his ignored casting choices, still thinking about ways to make "Feast" even darker, and — perhaps not surprisingly — blaming himself for the less-than-stellar ratings that "Greenlight" drummed up this season. Hey John, it's America's loss ... they've missed out on one of reality TV's only genuine characters, and a Cinderella story that Hollywood could never have cooked up.
MTV: Are you getting used to people recognizing you?
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"I've gotten death threats."
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John Gulager: Right now it feels good. I can see how it would become very bizarre. I mean, I've gotten death threats, I've had people sending me money. But as far as people coming up to me, so far it's been very pleasant because the type of things people are saying, you know, are "We're pulling for you," stuff like that, it's really sweet.
MTV: The show deals with your family life and your personal life. Is it weird that people know details about your personal life?
Gulager: Oh yeah. Because people come up to me and ask, "How's [your girlfriend] Diane doing?" and they ask me about my pop. But I always joke that the reality-TV show took my casting suggestions. They cast my family.
MTV: You're kind of a private person. What motivated you to step into this public experience?
Gulager: Most private people have this yearning to be a rock star. So I'm kind of torn that way. In the end, we're show people, like circus performers, my family and I. In the end, as much as I groan about things, it's kind of in my blood. So when everybody says, "Oh, how can you let them photograph you taking a bath?" ... once we decided to do it, I just said, "Let's do it." You have to open up to the people making the documentary, or else it's going to suck. You have to go ahead and decide you're going to work without a net, or else it's going to be wishy-washy. You don't forget about the cameras being there, though. So, like, if you want to scream at someone, you might hold back. But at the same time, you can't hold back too much, or you'll look disingenuous. It's like acting. When actors hold back, they don't look like they're being truthful. If everybody here was just holding back the whole time, you'd see it. It'd look wimpy.
MTV: Is the show a pretty accurate depiction of the experience?
Gulager: Yeah, [but] it's pretty compressed. They shot about 9,000 hours. They just sit around here all day and wait for something to happen. And everyone's miked, so people think they could go into the bathroom and disconnect their microphones and have private conversations. But I would walk by a bathroom and see the sound person from "Project Greenlight" standing at the door with a boom mic, listening. I was thinking during the show ... "I can't believe you're doing this on TV." ... Things are compressed, so if it looks like something happened the next day, it probably happened the next week. But if it's not completely honest, I would say the gist of it is honest. All the stuff when they chose me as director happened. All the bad stuff happened.
MTV: After watching the show now, do you understand why some people were hesitant to give you the reins?
Gulager: Oh yeah. [He laughs.] ... When I finally saw the first episode, it was interesting to see all the people fighting. In real life, after I won the contest, lots of people came up to me and told me, "Well, I gotta be honest, I didn't vote for you." I guess people are going to have to wait until they see the film. There's a part of me that feels guilty for taking credit for something not everyone has seen yet. But on the other hand, it also bothers me that I take so much heat for something people haven't seen.
MTV: What kind of film would you have made if you had an additional $10 million?
Gulager: Well, the money wouldn't have mattered, because for me it would have been more about me getting my way more. Yeah, I lost some of the battles early on, and I regret that. But that said, you pick up and go with what you have to work with. I guess mostly it was about tone and that type of thing. That said, certain things will just have to wait until the next film, as far as darker things involved in the picture — the mood and subject matter and things like that. Yeah, it's very much like an '80s film, like "Re-Animator" or "Return of the Living Dead." My dad was in "Return" and I saw "Re-Animator" in the '80s and was blown away by the balls they had. To put in a scene with a head having oral sex with a girl strapped on the table ... it was pretty good.
MTV: The battle over casting ... there was a sense that you thought people went behind your back. Do you think casting director Michelle Gertz had some good ideas about casting and your family?
Gulager: In the end, you get your cast and you have to love them, because that's your movie. On the other hand, I have a different point of view, because I'm the director. And I know that I'm the contest winner and blah, blah, blah, all of that, but if I see someone standing on a corner and they look interesting to me, I should be able to cast them in my film. I guess the people who I work with would disagree with me, and I guess that's something we'll disagree on forever. I don't regret trying to get my family in the film. I knew people were going to think that I was foolish. But you gotta stake out your territory, because you can't say, "Gee, I wish I would've done this." Everybody always says "pick your battles," but what they're really saying is "Give up on this one and worry about something else, because I don't agree with you."
MTV: So would you have really flown to New York to make your case to Miramax co-founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein?
Gulager: Yeah, but I should've just done it. See, I shouldn't have talked to anyone about it. And I gotta say, I think people flew off the handle a bit over that one. Basically, I should've just hopped on a plane and gone and done it, because once I talked about it, the moment was gone. So I learned a lesson: Talk is cheap. If you have an idea of something you want to do, you should just do it or shut up.
MTV: What's changed for you since the beginning of this process?
Gulager: Instead of making little things at home for my friends and myself and little film festivals, I have an opportunity now to make more films, larger films. I think the TV show turned out to be a bit of ... a call to compatriots, other filmmakers, actors. Certainly after people watch this show, they'll realize that there's no surprises with me. I think there's other producers and actors and companies out there that think like I do, that films can be art and still make money, and if I'm not finding them, then maybe they might find me. And maybe a whole new world of making a living doing what I want to do is a possibility now. I've been getting scripts now, but I haven't really found anything that I want to do. I have this idea of going up to Portland [Oregon] and make this movie about lap dancers because I know some people who live up there in Portland. They used to have these glass booths up there, where the girls would get inside the glass booths and put on sex shows, but I'm not sure if they have that anymore.
MTV: Were Ben Affleck and Matt Damon really as involved in "Project Greenlight" as it seems?
Gulager: They kind of laid out the production ... but everyone's been very supportive and nice and given me their cell phone numbers, so when I need help, I can call them. Chances are, as this film gets closer to getting completed, I'm going to need a little help. So Matt said, "Look, we're your 800-pound gorillas," which was pretty nice. And they cared about the film. And on top of that, they're really nice guys.
MTV: On message boards, the phrase that comes up a lot is "the hero of film geeks everywhere." Do you accept that mantle?
Gulager: Yeah, I'm a film geek. Always have been, always will be. And a lot of my idols — Scorsese, Coppola, Lucas — they're all film geeks.
MTV: Well, hopefully your film will inspire some young filmmakers out there.
Gulager: Yeah, to go chop some heads off. Because if you read "Dracula," the way they would kill the vampires, they would chop their heads off, scoop out their brains and fill their heads with garlic. You don't really see that in the movies, and I think, "How could people miss that? That's the best part!"
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Photo: Miramax Films/Bravo
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