411 Movies Interview: Andy Dick

Posted by Tony Farinella on 10.31.2007

411's Tony Farinella sits down with Andy Dick for a revealing, honest, and heartfelt interview.

I usually do my best to stay out of my interviews. I'll offer my opinion from time-to-time, but I try to stay out of their way. Truthfully, no one wants to read an interview about me. I'm interviewing someone with a lot to say and a lot to offer, and if I take up too much of the interview by talking about myself, it takes away from them. Well, this time, I couldn't help but get invovled in this interview, and I think it's a good thing. In fact, I'm not sure I would even call this an interview. It's more like a conversation. In my conversation with Andy Dick, we talked about his directorial debut in Danny Roane: First Time Director, which hits DVD on November 6th. It follows a famous actor as he tries to direct his first film. Not only that, he's battling a lot of serious addictions. Andy Dick also stars in the film. We not only discussed the movie, but we also discussed the very real issue of alcoholism. After reading my interview with Andy Dick, you'll find out what motivates me and what drives me.



TONY: What inspired you to write and direct this project in the first place?

Andy Dick: I had this idea years ago, and it took me a couple of years to write the script. It was just a passion project of mine to have it be my first film, because I know the material so well and because the material is me and my life. So, it was just such an easy thing for me to do. It was second nature to me. My life is already out there, and my life is an open book on TV, and in blogs, and on the Internet. To do a movie like this and to let it all hang out, it was very, very easy. It's better for me to do a movie and let me be in control than to have the media just write the crap about me. I don't mind all the crap, but you gotta put some of the good stuff.

TONY: I really enjoyed how your film shows how difficult it is to be an actor and all of the struggles that you must go through. It shows all of the politics and all of the ups and downs. In some ways, was it cinematic therapy to write this film?

Andy Dick: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was definitely cathartic mostly with regards to alcoholism, because that is the demon that I've, over the years, struggled with the most, and it really has affected everything in my life from family to friends to career. I touched on that quite a bit. The movie really is about alcoholism as well as what it's like to work in this industry, and the combination of the two can, well, in my experiences, it can be deadly. I've known people to just die, so that is what I touched on, and to be honest with you, I just scratched the surface. There's a lot more to say on that topic. There's just a lot more. But I didn't want to get too deep. It's my first movie, and I want it to be entertaining and fun, and I don't want people to go away crying. I want them to be touched and moved and intrigued, and I want them to be entertained and intrigued enough so that they'll come back and see my next movie, which hopefully will be another Lionsgate release this time in theaters. And, by the way, I'm very happy that it's going to DVD, because I think it looks better on DVD than it does on the big screen, because I shot it on Panasonic video cameras with my money. And I saw it on a big screen, and it doesn't look as good on a gigantic screen kind of all stretched out. It looks better on a TV. It's sharper and it's just as cool, and it's a more intimate in-your-living-room-and-let's-cuddle-up-and-watch-this-weird-movie-unravel-before-our-eyes, because my character unravels as the movie does. The wheels really come off of my character. You saw the whole movie, right?

TONY: Of course. I watched it last night, and it was funny to watch it, but it was also kind of an interesting experience, because my mother passed away from alcoholism and other issues. So, I think in some ways, it was good to watch the movie and have a sense of humor about it, but at the same time, you're dealing with it. Do you know what I mean?

Andy Dick: Yeah. And, to be honest with you, I'm not laughing. My character isn't laughing at it, and I, Andy Dick, am not laughing. I'm doing something that is signature Andy Dick, where I just put it out there, and whether you laugh at it, get uncomfortable with it, or get angry at it, or whatever, I'm just putting it out there and your reaction really says more about you than it does about me or my work. So, I just kind of tell it like it is for me, and if people are laughing, that could be good. If they're crying, that's good. Whatever experience people are going through, it's just the experience that they're going through, and there's no right or wrong experience. So, if people are laughing and it's cathartic for them and it's healing, then that's great. But, once again, if they're angry or crying, whatever people are going through, it's the right thing for them to go through. And I'm gonna say it again: I just scratched the surface. You know from what you just said how much more deep I could have gotten, and I purposely didn't. Otherwise, it just would have been too hardcore, because I wanted my first movie to be considered a comedy and given that your mom died of alcoholism, and I'm very sorry about that, you know that this movie could have easily been not funny at all. And you also know watching it, and I hope that you got this, it's not funny to me when I'm going to rehab at the end of the movie. That's not funny. It's pathetic and sad. Literally, me, Andy Dick, I've been to rehab nine times. That's pathetic and sad, but, hey, I'm alive. I'm struggling with alcoholism. You just do. I can't wave a magic wand, and if I could, I would. I'd wave a magic wand and say, "You're not an alcoholic anymore. Great! Now I can drink normal or never drink again, and I'm fine." I'm not fine. I'm not fine, and I have to make movies like this. Every movie I come up with, I have this other one, and there's always this element of an addictive personality or there's always substances. I just can't get away from it when I'm writing, because it is so much a part of me, and I've had tons and tons and tons of therapy about it. I'm talking years. There was one time when I had three therapists at one time, because I was going through such a bad time. I very recently, within the last few months, had one of the biggest nervous breakdowns ever, maybe the biggest one. And I don't know where it came from. I'm just constantly struggling with stuff. And sometimes alcohol helps, and sometimes it hurts.



TONY: I just really enjoyed the film's honesty and how you weren't afraid to put yourself out there and say, "I'm Andy Dick, and here I am. Love me or hate me, but here I am." You were really fearless and not afraid to show all of your different layers.

Andy Dick: Thank you. I appreciate you saying that. Are you from Chicago?

TONY: How did you know?

Andy Dick: I grew up in Joilet, and I can hear your accent.

TONY: I'm from Oak Lawn. Do you know where that is?

Andy Dick: Yeah, of course! I knew a girl from Lake Forest. Isn't that near there?

TONY: Yeah. We have Chicago Ridge, Oak Lawn, and Palos, and we're all kind of connected in some way.

Andy Dick: Yeah, isn't it like a ritzier ... because I was also on the Speech Team, and I remember, I think we would compete against your High School, and I can't remember if that was the one that was always winning. There was always Lake Forest or Oak Lawn. There were these high schools that just always would win, and we wouldn't. You know who was on our speech team?

TONY: Who's that?

Andy Dick: Anthony Rapp, who's in my movie, and John Barrowman, who has been a Broadway star for years mostly in London's West End. Is that what they call it?

TONY: I think so.

Andy Dick: Joilet High School, we were all in there at the same time, created three major stars. And Anthony Rapp and I, to this day, are still best of friends. Although, he lives in New York, and I don't really hang out or see him that much, but he's just great, man. He's just great.

TONY: Since you're from Chicago, I have to ask you a sports question. Do you have a favorite Chicago sports team?

Andy Dick: Oh, please, I hate to disappoint you, but I'm just not a sports fan. You know, I did go to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field, right? Is that where it was?

TONY: Yeah.

Andy Dick: I went there. I went there a couple times, because friends would go. And I would go to drink the beer. I wasn't even watching. But I played baseball when I was young. I was on a little league team.

TONY: If someone is reading our interview right now and dealing with alcoholism, do you have any advice for them? What's the best way to tackle the problem?

Andy Dick: Well, if somebody wants to get better, just got to AA. The thing is, it's free. And I haven't sworn in this interview once, but I'm gonna swear, and I'm gonna say, go to one fucking AA meeting, and you will hear yourself in other people to the point where you'll cry, you know? You'll cry, and then you'll realize you're not alone, and that alone sometimes can save somebody's life. You know who took me to my first AA meeting?

TONY: No. Who took you?

Andy Dick: Chris Farley. He was my sponsor. So, when Chris Farley is your sponsor, you know you have a fucking problem, because that guy didn't even make it. His demons ate him alive ... well, you know, they ate him dead. So, I remember going and hearing people and going, "God, that's me. That's me! That 63-year-old woman, that's me. That 15-year-old kid, that's me. That Lesbian Jew, that's me." It doesn't matter who they were, their stories were all the same. I really beg people to go to one, and to be honest with you, sometimes you need to go to three or four, because maybe you're gonna hit one, and people aren't being as honest or something. But that is where I found salvation and truly was saved. I continue to struggle, like I said earlier. It just doesn't go away. It doesn't go away. You caught me at a good phase in my life right now: Not drinking. I haven't drank for a while. You can hear it in my voice. You can always tell if I'm drinking or not drinking, because it's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It's two different people. And I have to live with both of them, and so does my family and friends and the people that work with me. It just sucks for all of us. Therapy costs money, and honestly, I've done everything. I've done everything you can think of, from nutrition to mediation to yoga to all kinds of things. AA is just the most comprehensive way to get to the bottom of what the fuck is going on and it's the simplest program out there that actually, if you apply it, truly works.

TONY: You mentioned how it's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I remember I would come home from school, and I didn't know what to expect from my mom. It would seem like everything was going fine, and then things would change instantly.

Andy Dick: Horrible. Horrible. Horrible for you. Even though your mom is not alive anymore, you might want to go to an Al-Anon meeting. I don't know if you ever have.

TONY: What's an Al-Anon meeting?

Andy Dick: Al-Anon are meetings for people who love alcoholics. People who have an alcoholic in their life or love an alcoholic. It's just like thrown at you. It's your mom. You don't even have a choice. You might want to check out one meeting, and you might just get it in one meeting and be like, "You know what? I totally get it." The phenomenon I explained earlier, where you're gonna get that you're not alone. You're not alone, and that might be enough to just start the healing process. What you went through is an epidemic in America. Alcoholism is a quiet, secret little epidemic. An epidemic means it's killing lots of people. And, look, it killed you in a way.

TONY: Personally, it's given me a lot of strength to focus on my interviews and my work, and it's made me bust my ass to work even harder. It's motivated me, and it's made me work that much harder. And I'm not going to let it ruin my life.

Andy Dick: I know exactly what you're saying. That is what you can come to terms with, and that's what I've come to terms with. It's a demon. And I've embraced my demon, and I will use my demon as opposed to it using me. The things I've gone through and the stupid things I've done and the this and the that, you can literally use it to better yourself. You're doing the right thing, and you're on the right path. Me and you have done the same thing, and you have to. It's either that or give in and just be a victim and just let yourself wither away and die.

TONY: Personally, and I'm not just saying this to pat myself on the back, but I've never had a drink in my life. I can't even look at it or think about it. In fact, I don't even like to be around it, which is hard, because a lot of kids my age love to drink. I've just seen what it does, and I don't want any part of it.

Andy Dick: Exactly. Wow. I can get it, though. That really upsets me, because that's how it is with my kids. I've got three kids, and this is kind of healing for both of us, because my kids, it's completely unfair that their dad is an alcoholic. They didn't ask for that. They didn't ask for me to be an alcoholic. I have tried very, very hard to shelter them from seeing the monster side of me, the drunk me, and I've done a pretty good job of that. They're pretty much being raised by their mothers, and then I get to see them, sometimes on a weekly basis and then sometimes for the whole summer. And I just really work hard at just not drinking at all with them, because, look, it's devastating. I mean, look, you're a perfect example. You just said it aloud. It's just devastating.



TONY: When you hear stories about Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, what do you think is the problem? What's causing all of their behavior?

Andy Dick: I really don't know. I know, with me, through all the therapy and looking back on the AA and everything I've done, that being adopted was an initial weird card to be dealt. I'm not saying it's good or bad, because, like you were saying, I've used it as a strength. You have to. You have to take these things that are dealt to you and are considered bad cards, and you have to use it. It's a joker, and people are laughing about it, but I'm gonna use the joker and I'm gonna trump everyone else's cards. You know what I mean? You've gotta use these bad cards that are dealt to you as a strength, and for me, I was adopted and whatnot. Probably their parents weren't around as much. It always has something to do with the parents, if you ask me. The parents probably were alcoholics. I wouldn't know. I don't know their personal life, but I definitely feel for all of them. If some Freudian psychiatrist was able to analyze all three of us, they would see a through line and a common denominator with all of us.

TONY: If one of your kids came up to you and said, "Dad, I want to be an actor," what would you say?

Andy Dick: My nineteen-year-old moved in with me, and he is an actor, and I'm fine with it. I would never try to get them into acting. They see what I do, they see I have fun, and they come to the set and acting is truly fun for me. And I'm just having a blast and making a lot of money. They see that, and that's appealing. All my kids, except my two youngest ones, the only acting they really do is Shakespeare, which is weird, because I never did that. So, they have this Shakespeare Theatricum in their neighborhood that they go to every summer, and they just love it. And, then, Lucas, my nineteen-year-old, like I said, he's going back to my old stomping grounds and doing improvisation like I did when I was young at the same place, but I did it in Chicago at the Improv Olympic, iO. And he's in my movie. Lucas is in Danny Roane. Remember when the choreographer's water breaks? He's the guy that puts his hand in the water. And I said, "Hey, if you wanna be in my movie, you should just show up." And he showed up one day, and I put him right in. Now, he wishes he would have shown up every day and had a bigger part, because I said you can have as big a part or as small a part as you want. I never push anything. But that was when he was like seventeen or eighteen, and he wishes he was around more, because he's really getting into it. He loves it. He just came back from an audition just now. And he already got cast in a national Chevy commercial that already aired on, I think, it was Thursday Night Football or something like that. He was like a principal in a national Chevy commercial. He's doing great. And he's totally different than me. He's probably gonna be more of a dramatic actor.

TONY: Your film also features James Van Der Beek, and it shows how so many people still see him as Dawson. As an actor, how frustrating is that when you're pigeonholed?

Andy Dick: It's frustrating, but you just have to pretty much take it on yourself to break the mold, and that's what I did with this movie, and I'm gonna continue to do that. I just started to crack the mold. It was actually me making fun of myself trying to break the mold, because my character Danny Roane is trying to make a movie that's a drama about drugs and alcohol. So, that's what a normal actor would have done. A normal actor like me would have actually done a drama about drugs and alcohol, because I could do that. I started doing drama, and I could easily just do a drama, but people wouldn't have been able to take it, so it's better to do a guy trying to do that. I buffered it, and I can slowly ease into that. And, then, Maura Tierney is in my movie, and then she gave me the opportunity, a few months ago, to do a dramatic part on ER. So, that was great. It's a slow process, and you've got to be sensitive to audiences out there. You can't be like, "No, that's not me anymore! I know I've been working twenty years at being this funny guy and this crazy guy, but now I'm gonna be a dramatic actor." No. That's just ridiculous to think that people are gonna be able to change like that. I've set myself up the way I have, and I'd be ridiculous if all of a sudden I thought I could be Forest Whittaker. (laughs) I know I can be, but people aren't going to accept that, so it's gonna take years. They're gonna see me in a different light, slowly but surely.

TONY: What kind of stories do you want to direct in the future?

Andy Dick: I want some comedies that have heart. Movies that make you laugh, but also make you think. Real obscure and absurd movies. I went to see Rendition last night, which I loved, and I saw a Jack Black movie, and it's a Michel Gondry movie called Be Kind Rewind, and that looks fantastic to me. I was a big fan of Being John Malkovich, and this Be Kind Rewind movie looks fantastic. It's exactly the kind of genre I'd like to play in right now and maybe forever. I just love it. It's absurd, it's eccentric, and it's something you've never seen before. I go to the movies a lot of times to see something I've never seen before, like Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I loved it, and it's one of my top five favorite movies. So, things that are so unique that there's only one place to go get it and that's come see one of Andy Dick's movies. And I think that's what Danny Roane is. You've never seen anything like that before.

TONY: Finally, what are your plans for the future?

Andy Dick: I'm doing a new TV show for VH1. I'm producing it and starring in it. And to continue to go on stage live, which my son has encouraged me to do, and I've been going back on stage at iO West live every week, which has been the scariest thing I've done in years. And I see him do it so easily and effortlessly, and I'm like, "Whoa, I used to do that, and what happened?" So, I'm getting up on stage. I'm up on stage with Tim Meadows, and Tim Meadows and I were in our first improv group twenty years ago in Chicago, and we're back together again. Back together! So, it's really fun and exciting. So, just same old, same old ... different day.