ROBERT D.
SIEGEL

Robert D. Siegel had a prominent job as editor of one of the nation's most popular editorials, and gave it up for a screenwriting career for one reason: he wanted a new challenge.

The risk has paid off as Siegel's career took off last year with the release of his script THE WRESTLER, which was on the top of several film critics' Top Ten Lists of the year, received two Oscar nominations, and numerous awards for Siegel himself.

With the success of THE WRESTLER comes his directorial debut in his passion script, BIG FAN, about an obsessed New York Giants fan who after an encounter with his favorite player becomes unwillingly involved in his favorite team's future.

To promote BIG FAN, the Crypt sat down exclusively with Siegel to discuss the origins of the script, how it led him to write THE WRESTLER, and the impact of screenwriting in this Crypt exclusive.

COLONEL’S CRYPT: First off I have to congratulate you on the success of THE WRESTLER.

ROBERT SIEGEL: Thank you.

CC: The first thing that struck me when I read the press notes for BIG FAN was that you were inspired mainly by the fans who call into WFAN here in New York (AM 660) as the basis for Paul Aufiero. Using that, how were you able to construct him as a full character?

RS: Believe it or not, characters are the only thing that interest me when writing. I'm not particularly good at plot. This film has something of a plot but characters are my strong point. There are filmmakers that are more about a story and I'm more about the character, those are some of my favorite movies. I didn't have a plan on structuring the character. I just wanted to write him with as much specificity as possible and to make him feel really authentic and the way to do that is to draw out the details in his life. It's not like I did research in the months leading up to the script, I felt that I knew this guy from listening to the sports fans on the radio and even just in obsessive fans in general. It's the same basic thing whether you're obsessive about sports or comic books or the Civil War, there's a limitless fanbase. You look at the internet, there's a fan base for everything.

CC: Being that there are so many teams to choose from in New York, why did you choose the Giants as Paul's top team?

RS: There's a reason. If anything, I was inspired more with the Mets. I grew up going to Shea Stadium. I saw a lot of games at Shea and was intwined with the Mets, plus I just saw this guy as a Mets fan living in Regal Park or Kew Gardens. It wounded up being the Giants and football because story and structure wise, it's very difficult to dramatize the ups and downs of a 162 game season. There are a lot of meaningless games during a baseball season. So I knew when I wanted to do football, it's a 16 game season and the movie started midway into the season. In truth this guy may be a Jets fan. In the social hierarchy or class structure of New York, white collar would be the Yankees, the Giants, and the Rangers. In Queens and Long Island, where I grew up, it was Mets, Jets, and Islanders. There are these groupings but the big reason I chose the Giants was because I wanted him to be an outsider even with his own team in his own fandom. I wanted him to be a blue collar fan of a team with a white collar fan base. He wouldn't be able to get tickets to a Giants game where it would be easier to get them as a Jets fan. Giants fans I think are more like lawyers and executives whereas Jets fans are the electricians and the firemen.

CC: The film has a lot of humor but falls into a disturbing third act which draws on terror but it leads to a memorable finale. Could you talk about why you decided to go that way?

RS: Without giving away any spoilers, I thought the route he went was darker and more fucked up than what you were expecting. Even more than that, I wanted you to think that the movie was going to be disappointing and predictable in going down the "Bickle" path. The arc was planned like that from the get go and it just feels very true, it would be something this guy would do rather than the conventional path of what we normally see in films like this.

CC: I agree because when it comes to sports rivalries, even with co-workers at company parties it gets out of hand.

RS: Trash talking and a lot of times it can start out friendly but will soon take a wrong and violent turn.

CC: Why did you decide to direct BIG FAN?

RS:  I decided that right around the time I finished writing THE WRESTER, which was a lot of work, I just wasn't excited about the prospect of starting from scratch all over again. When I contemplated opening a brand new Final Draft document that was empty, I just didn't have it in me. I felt like I pushed that boulder up the mountain and now it's gonna roll back down for me to push it all up again with a new script. BIG FAN was the first script I ever had made. I suddenly knew what it would take to get a script across the finish line. There's a big difference between finishing a script, meaning writing 120 pages and finishing it, which is when someone takes it, says thank you, and goes to make a film with it. I didn't want to do that again. I was burnt out. I had written a few other scripts and aside from THE WRESTLER over the past three or four years, I've watched them die a slow death at a studio. Every screenwriter has scripts gathering dust at a studio. I wasn't excited about a studio job because most scripts do not get made, they just sit there. BIG FAN was the only script completely in my control. I wrote it on spec, it's not like I had to convince Fox or Focus Features to let me do it. If I was going to be a director, I had harbored ambitions to be a director for years. I thought it was a good move to be a director and this script was the only way in to that world.

CC: It was the script for BIG FAN that was responsible for you being hired to write THE WRESTLER?

RS: Yes. He (Darren Aronofsky) met me through BIG FAN. At the time it was called PAUL AUFIERO and it made the rounds. It got me all the work I got. Aronofsky liked it and originally talked about directing it. He wound up not directing it of course but he called me up later and told me that he had this other thing that he thought I might be good for. Tonally, BIG FAN must've been pretty close to what he was envisioning for THE WRESTLER. First off, I was writing about sports. Second, I was writing about this weird underbelly in the sports world. Sports movies tend to be fairly formulaic and this doesn't fit the mold of the typical sports movie and we just thought that this would be a good match.

CC: I have to mention about the writing of THE WRESTLER, which I think is an excellent script.

RS: Thank you.

CC: This was a side of professional wrestling that many people weren't exposed to. Was it daunting to present it in that light particularly with the wrestling industry looking upon it in revealing some of the tricks of the trade?

RS: I was never worried that the wrestlers would be angry or feel like we revealed something we didn't want to reveal. These guys are total open books. They weren't like magicians who keep their secrets well guarded when you talk to them. These guys want you to know and none of them were concerned that we were giving away trade secrets. As far as showing the ugly side of it, they were happy to be portrayed warts and all. They weren't concerned that we would show them in a bad light or that we were showing them as doing things that were family friendly. Their only fear was in showing them in a way that was untrue or inaccurate. I really get the sense out of talking them, I met a few of those guys, and they made it clear that all they cared about was that we didn't give it the Hollywood treatment. They just want it to be realistic and accurate and by extension that would be respectful. I think the only thing that would feel disrespectful to them was to present it inaccurately. When I was writing scenes about guys shooting up, they were totally cool with that. It's part of the sport. Showing these guys barely able to walk, and the shot of a guy with a colostomy bag on their leg, they were happy about that because they felt that someone was listening to them and treating them with respect. I think most of those old wrestlers feel that there's things about the sport they love and there are things about the sport they think sucks. It was very good to them but it was also very bad to them. It chewed them up and spit them out. Aside from The Rock and Hulk Hogan, these guys are all pretty fucked up. They all need hip replacement surgery, they need health insurance, they're broke. Part of it is their own fault but a lot of that is the nature of the fact that they sacrificed their bodies to entertain crowds at Madison Square Garden and Nassau Coliseum. I think they made a deal with the devil and they chose not to think about it. I just sensed that if we were just accurate and truthful, there wouldn't be a problem and there wasn't. Rowdy Roddy Piper saw the movie and loved it.

CC: I think Piper's the most straighforward and honest in telling about the business.

RS: Yes. Greg "The Hammer" Valentine saw it as well. They're all on the DVD talking about the film.

CC: You mentioned this was a character study. I think that personally speaking BIG FAN and THE WRESTLER will bring forth a rising again in cinema on the deep character study films of flawed personalities and that the indies will rise again like they took over in the 1970s. Would you agree with my prediction?

RS: I hope so. It certainly has to go somewhere. I wasn't around in 1969 or 1970 when they were just releasing the cookie cutter films right before EASY RIDER and Martin Scorsese came along. It feels like that time right before EASY RIDER came along, where it was nothing but sequels, adaptations of novels, adaptations of musicals, and it was just in a state of limbo. It is really, really bleak. I think this summer we just hit a wall. We need something with a bit more vitality. We're to the point where we don't have original screenplays. I mean, they're making a LEGO movie, you heard about that right?

CC: Unfortunately.

RS: And VIEWMASTER: THE MOVIE, what's next?

CC: I've been saying a joke that I'm doing a movie on the ETCH A SKETCH.

RS: Sadly, it's not a joke, someone will seriously make that. That's where we are today. It's dismal but writing original stuff is the way to go.

CC: Thank you for your time Robert and best of luck with BIG FAN.

RS: My pleasure.
 

BIG FAN is NOW in limited release in theaters and has expanded theaters in its second week of release.

Look soon for an exclusive conference on BIG FAN with Siegel and star Patton Oswalt

(Special thanks to Caitlin Speed at Falco Ink)