Why Uncool Is Cool: An Interview with Paul Feig

Popshifter: (laughs)

Paul Feig: So I thought that was cool! So this is a long, sort of roundabout way of saying that was the sort of style I wanted to do for [Freaks].

But when I saw them doing that documentary style on AD, it just looked really fun because it looked like a way to be able to be more spontaneous and I knew they had this amazing cast. It seemed like a fun challenge and a fun new way to do stuff. And the irony is I really, really took to it. In a way, it’s my favorite way to shoot stuff now. Because it does allow you to play around.

David Cross in Arrested Development
From StripedWall.com

The irony is that on AD there is literally no adlibbing on the show; there’s no improv. Because those scripts were so long and they wanted to keep everything in. We had tons of funny adlibs and things were going on all the time. We could never use any of them because we just didn’t have time. Which sort of bummed out the cast occasionally; I mean, guys like David Cross, who are so—

Popshifter: He’s so great at that, yeah.

Paul Feig: Yeah! I mean, he’d come in with these great tags but we could never get them into the shows.

So, that was fun, so that’s why when The Office came up—

Popshifter: And that I think definitely has a similar look.

Paul Feig: It’s all that fake documentary stuff. Obviously everything will become old or overused at some point. . . and I’m attached to direct and executive produce this new show at NBC that we just got a six-episode pickup on—

Popshifter: Oh, that’s great! Now is this the one with Molly Shannon?

Paul Feig: Yeah, Molly Shannon and Selma Blair.

Popshifter: That’s awesome! That sounds really good.

Australia’s Kath and Kim

Paul Feig: Yeah, I’m really excited. Have you seen the original show? Kath and Kim?

Popshifter: No, but when I saw the article in Variety it talked about the original show.

Paul Feig: Yeah, it’s a really funny show. It’s shot in a documentary style also, but it’s more in the line of making you feel like you’re there.

Which once again, I think is great. TV comedy is such an interesting thing. I’m sure that like me, you grew up with sitcoms, the whole multi-camera thing. And when I was an actor that was all I was ever in.

My favorite TV comedies in the history of TV are mostly sitcoms: you know, All in the Family and Taxi and those things. So that format somehow worked, but it doesn’t seem to work anymore. I think it’s because everything falls into patterns and people stop inventing things; you fall back on formulas. I think that’s what happened to sitcoms. You know that “sitcom thing”: it’s very snipe-y and everybody’s fighting.

Popshifter: I actually get really bad anxiety watching sitcoms sometimes because you know that something’s going to happen and no one else knows. In a suspenseful movie that’s good—

Paul Feig: (laughs)

Popshifter: But in a sitcom. . . I’ve actually had to get up and leave the room!

Paul Feig: Yeah, it’s true! It’s like a play—a farce—with slamming doors and whoops! somebody enters right when somebody’s talking—

Popshifter: And somebody applauds or everyone goes, “Whooo!” when they come onscreen—

Paul Feig: Well, that’s the legacy of Married With Children. (laughs)

Popshifter: And Happy Days, too.

Click to read more from Paul Feig on. . .

Directing Freaks and Geeks
Directing Arrested Development
His obsessive knowledge of laugh tracks
More on laugh tracks, plus the “comedy of innocence”
Dealing with Internet jerks
The outsider, plus embarrassing fanboy encounters
“If it’s fun, it’s fun.”
Music of today vs. music of yesterday
The Hollywood version of funny
What’s cool and uncool
Listening to “the notes”
Where television is today
The fallout from Unaccompanied Minors
His new show Kath and Kim and his upcoming book

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