By Christina Radish
For the new film Say Uncle, Peter Paige takes on the roles of writer, director, producer and star, in bringing his pet project to the screen. Having started the script eight years ago, he says that the five seasons he spent as part of the ensemble of the hit Showtime television series Queer as Folk helped him to realize that he had a facility for understanding what was going on behind the camera.
“I pulled the script out and read it, and thought, ‘You know, this is not bad,’” Paige tells MediaBlvd. Magazine. “I retooled it a little bit and said, ‘Let’s see if we can make this happen.’ I had originally written it for me, as an actor, not as a director. Then, when I decided I was going to direct it, I thought, ‘Well, maybe I won’t act in it.’ But, (1) I was the only actor I could afford, and (2) I had written it for myself, so I knew I understood it and I knew that, if ever I was going to dare to wear all these hats, then I might as well just bite the bullet and do it for Say Uncle.”
Although Paige feels like the finished product is very much the movie he originally wanted to make, he says that it did go through a number of drafts and changes. “My best friends are some of the most successful writers in Hollywood, so I would take it to those people and have conversations with them, getting their feedback and notes. It certainly got shaped a lot, but the arc is still very much the arc I intended when I started.”
{quote_top}Say Uncle tells the story of Paul Johnson (Paige), who returns from his telemarketing job one day to some very distressing news -- his closest friends, The Farbers, are moving to Japan with Paul’s 2-year-old godson Morgan. Sliding into a deep depression after they’re gone, Paul wanders the streets, hanging out outside of playgrounds, staring at the children. When Paul’s friend Russell (Anthony Clark) innocently convinces him to venture inside and play with some kids, one child’s mother, Maggie (Kathy Najimy), figures out that Paul is there alone, and quickly decides that he is a threat to society and must be brought to justice.
Paige says that he sees the film as a metaphor for the culture of hysteria that we all live in, nowadays. “It’s reached a really dangerous, really critical point. We are all told, every day, on the local and national news, and on Oprah, to be more and more afraid of each other, afraid of the mailman, afraid of foreigners, afraid of chicken and afraid of fish. You’ve got to eat fish for your heart, but you can’t eat fish because of the mercury. And, the West Nile virus is coming, Mad Cow disease is coming and the Avian flu is coming. I can’t fuckin’ be afraid anymore, so I wanted to say something about that. It’s very much about the culture that we live in and how dangerous that is. I’m afraid that we’re all going to end up isolated and alone, with nothing of substance.”
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Peter Paige & "Say Uncle" co-star Benjamin Scherr |
Once the film was complete, getting a distribution deal was a little bit tricky, admits Paige. “Ten years ago, when you made an indie, as long as it was decent, you’d find a home for it. That’s just not true anymore. We started Say Uncle on the festival circuit. Fortunately, we sold out of our first festival, but it took us five months to negotiate the contract. I knew if I played a gay character that the niche distributors would, at least, take a look at it. I think if I had made a serious movie about how we all have to look at each other differently, that would have been easier to sell. The people who hate the movie, part of the reason they hate the movie is that they think the movie is inappropriate. I think it’s much more effective the way it is, but people like their appropriate things treated appropriately.”
“There was a temptation to make it funnier. There was a lot of pressure to make it not funny at all. For me, life lives at the nexus of humor, pathos and discomfort, and that’s what I wanted the film to be. It’s heartbreaking, it’s funny, it’s uncomfortable and a little scary, but that’s the world we live in.”
{quote_middle}Knowing that it would lead to audiences either loving or hating the film, Paige says that he never shied away from the controversy that is apparent. “I wanted to make a movie that people left, talking about. The reviews of the film have either been glowing, four and five star reviews, or absolutely zero or one stars. We have not gotten a three star review at all. We’re either the best thing that’s ever come along, or the turkey of the festival. I would much rather have that than a lot of three star reviews with people saying, ‘That’s fine. I liked it. It was okay.’ I would much rather have people all wound up about it, one way or the other.”
It’s always been said not to work with children or animals in film, if you want to make things easier for yourself. Taking that into consideration, Paige still went ahead and cast nine children in Say Uncle.
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(left to right) "Say Uncle" stars Lisa Edelstein, Benjamin Scherr, Peter Paige, Kathy Najimy & Melanie Lynskey |
“One of the things I did not allow myself to think about was how much of this movie relied on my chemistry with those kids. I just didn’t think about it until editing. In editing, I was like, ‘Thank God, I know how to play with kids.’ And, there was originally a dog in the movie, too, but I took him out. When we cast the kids, we had a great local casting director in Portland, and she had met all the kids and played with them and made sure they were comfortable, and not crazy or afraid of strangers. What was important to me was that there was a vibrance, and enthusiasm and a joy in these kids and in those scenes. It turns out that 95% of the dialogue in the movie was actually what I wrote, but because I wasn’t attached to controlling it, the kids were very willing. I was really lucky.”
{quote_bottom}Even with all of the time that Say Uncle took to make, Paige says he is willing to do it again, for the right project. In the meantime, Paige is currently developing two films -- a small chamber piece set in the desert, and a big, sweeping, period love story -- as well as a pilot, which he might take a recurring role in.
“Most of the projects I have in development are either as a director, or as a writer-director. The hat I’m not super fond of wearing, and I would love to find somebody who wanted to wear it for me, is as a producer. I’m co-producer on this film, and my producing partner is terrific, but he’s got his own production company and has a bunch of other projects. If I never had to ask another person for money again, that would be the best day of my life. I was the kid who didn’t like to ask his dad for his allowance, so going, ‘You got a million bucks? I want to make a movie,’ just isn’t my favorite thing.”
