411 Movies Interview: Fido Director Andrew Currie
Posted by Tony Farinella on 11.02.2007
411's Tony Farinella sits down with the director of Fido, Andrew Currie!
Fido, directed by Andrew Currie, is unlike anything you have ever seen before. You see, it's not your typical zombie movie at all. In fact, Fido is a little bit of everything. Plus, what's not to love about Bill Connelly as a pet zombie? That is priceless. With Fido out on DVD, I had the pleasure of interviewing Andrew Currie, who is probably one of the nicest directors I've ever talked to. I've never met the guy, but just from talking to him, I know he's a nice guy. I can sense these things. I spoke with him on Tuesday morning after the Packers defeated the Broncos, and I was in a great mood. Andrew congratulated me. He's good people. For now, check out Fido on DVD. You won't be disappointed.
TONY: It seems like we've seen so many zombie movies in the past 30 years, and we'll probably see zombie movies for another 30 years. What's our fascination with zombies?
Andrew Currie: Yeah, I think it's a really good question. My personal feeling is because they are so much like us. They look like us, and they act like some of us, because they're sort of half way between living and dead and they're hideous, and they're deformed, and they're rotting, and they're decaying, so they kind of remind of us where we're all going, you know? They remind us of disease and death and decay, and that all brings up a lot of, I think, primeval fears in people. And it certainly does in me. So, I think because of that similarity between us, you don't have that same filter where you can go, "Oh, it's a giant gorilla, or it's some demonic creature with horns," because ultimately zombies are so much closer to a human being.
TONY: When you finished the script and you were shopping it around to studios, how did they respond to it? Did they get your vision or were they confused by the script?
Andrew Currie: We didn't actually shop it to that many people. I mean, Lionsgate was one of the first, but definitely the feedback we got from some people was that it was a risky project, because it's not a specific genre. If it was just a straight zombie movie, then that's an easy kind of thing to market. Or if it's just a straight comedy. I mean, it's a very difficult film to market. I think it still is a difficult film to market, because people can't qualify it in a really easy way, and because of that, it makes it harder to explain to the market place, if that makes sense.
TONY: When you were writing Fido, was the tone very specific, or was it somewhat up for grabs?
Andrew Currie: That's a good question. I mean, yeah, but not initially. I mean, we wrote the first draft in 1994, and then we really put it away for a long, long time. The tone was something that I sort of, I guess, imposed on the script to some degree. I mean, at different times, it was sort of different. It was more heavy, and at one point, it was kind of focusing on Zomcon and the military aspect of it all and the control. I wanted to make something that was a little more kind of grounded in humor and kind of had a whimsical kind of feel to it as well.
TONY: I was really impressed with all of the actors in Fido. Everyone in the film really got involved in the story, and they really understood what you were trying to accomplish. Did the actors understand the script right away, or did you have to pull them aside and explain it to them?
Andrew Currie: Well, all the adult actors really got it right away. I mean, there was one that had a slightly different interpretation of his character, but we resolved that really quickly. But it wasn't about the tone as much. I think what I did upfront, as I do with any actor, is I really talk about the kind of movie I'm making, so that they can really get a sense for it. Because I think for an actor what's scary is when you're meeting with a director, and if you don't get a real sense of what their vision of the piece is, you're like, "Well, what am I gonna be stepping into? Does it look like hand-held MiniDV, or is it gonna be big and lush? Is it gonna be done as a complete over-the-top joke or is it gonna be underplayed and dramatic?" So, I'm very upfront about the world that I'm going to create for them, so they have a really clear sense of what it's gonna be like stepping into that. You kind of try to paint a picture that they can see themselves in, I guess I'm saying. And when they can see themselves in it, then they get happy and safe. I think for actors a lot of it is about knowing that they're gonna be secure and safe and protected when they're taking that risk.
TONY: When you were writing this script, Andrew, did you ever think to yourself, "Oh, man, I think this is funny, but I'm not sure if a mainstream audience will get it?" Did you ever think to yourself, "OK, I find this funny, but will everybody else find it funny, too?"
Andrew Currie: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, that was definitely a concern. And it still is for me, because I think I have a very specific kind of humor, and my girlfriend, who also was one of the producers, she just said, "You know, you just have to trust your own sense of humor, because otherwise you just start second guessing." I figured as long as there's a certain percentage of people in the world that have the same sense of humor as me, I'll be OK.
TONY: In Fido, the zombie is not really the bad guy. That said, I wouldn't really call him a good guy either, because he kills people. He's somewhere in the middle. Was that something you tried to do as a writer? He's not really a black or white character. He's really a grey character.
Andrew Currie: Yeah, I mean, I really love grey characters, and I think we're all kind of grey deep down. So, I think pushing that idea, because you can have characters that are like that, but you can hide that a little bit, or you can put it more upfront. And we really wanted to keep it upfront, so the audience could see that, like Fido's ambivalence towards death and also the fact that there is a conflict, because there's moments when he kills, and then he's scolded, but you can see he doesn't really see what the big deal is. That's partly because it is his nature to kill, right? The analogy I use was like a tiger, and if you've got a wild tiger that kills, do you look at that tiger and say, "You're bad?" Not really. It's just his nature.
TONY:Fido is set in the 50's, and I think it does a great job of portraying the old-school American father. He's cold, distant, and standoffish, and he's actually a zombie to his own family. Did you do a lot of research on that subject? It seems like men always have trouble communicating, and I know a lot of older folks who grew up in that era.
Andrew Currie: Yeah. You know, I mean, I don't want to talk about my own dad, but he came from that era, too. But I think that it's still a problem today as well. It's about men in general. I mean, the theme of the whole movie is really that Fido is this fear-based culture, just like a lot of cultures today. The government uses fear as a way of kind of justifying whatever it's doing. As long as you keep people and the population in a state of fear, then they're much more moldable to what you want them to do. It's sort of been happening throughout history for thousands of years, that kind of a idea. For me, what was interesting was using zombies in that way. Zomcon uses the zombies as this great thing, but also, look, they're this big threat, and Fido proves the theme, which is love not fear makes us more alive. So, Fido comes in, and he actually is the catalyst for change within the family. The kid suddenly stops being so much of a loner, and Helen Robinson starts kind of feeling love and starts changing. And Bill is the guy, who because he's so fear-based and shut down, he can't really see beyond the fear and pays the ultimate price for it. I mean, that's kind of intellectualizing a zombie movie in some ways. (laughs)
TONY: It's true, though.
Andrew Currie: It merits just whether people want to go in and see that or not, but we put it in there for that reason.
TONY: When Fido came out, the film got fairly good reviews from most mainstream critics. It seems like they really understood the film and understood what you were trying to accomplish. That said, a few critics seemed to completely miss the point of Fido. As a filmmaker, do you pay attention to critics?
Andrew Currie: Well, I like critics a lot. I love good critics, because, to me, I've actually got ideas from critics, and I've had deeper thinking about different movies, because of critics, you know? I think the good critics are really good, because they actually push you to think about your film in a new way or a different way, or what's really exciting is when they actually get something that you weren't sure people were getting. And they get the depth, and they get the meaning. And that's a wonderful feeling. I think there are, obviously, critics out there who just want to tear things down, and they're not as much fun. (laughs) But, if it's a justified one, you know? I remember one, I think it was just like a blog, and it was a blog critic, but they were just sort of saying, "This is the ugliest film I've ever seen, and the acting was terrible." And you realize there's no way they saw the movie, or if they did, what are they judging it against, you know? You can't really say that the acting is all horrible and the film looks horrible, because it doesn't. And that's objectively speaking, it doesn't. So, it's weird when you get that.
TONY: When you were filming Fido, how did you balance the comedy and the horror? Was it hard to balance both without going overboard?
Andrew Currie: Well, you know, I mean, tone and setting tone is always a matter of taste. I mean, that's kind of how I direct. If you have a room full of people all telling jokes and some of them are funny to some people and some are funny to another, and you just say, "That's what I think is funny. Let's focus on that." So, it's kind of finding what is funny or not funny to you and focusing or refocusing the scene, so that it kind of falls within your world, you know? And that's why I always think of directing, in a way, like filtering, because so much material and so much information is coming at you, and you've gotta be able to kind of know what your filter is and what your sensibility is. And, in terms of the humor/horror balance, I always wanted the humor to be present, even in the moments of horror. And if you're expecting to be scared in a movie, Fido is not your movie, because it's simply not scary at all. That was never the intent was to be like a really super gory horror film.
TONY: Did you ever consider releasing your film PG-13 in order to get a wider audience?
Andrew Currie: No. Well, yes, in the sense that we thought we were getting a PG-13 based on the movie. The movie that you see that's an R rating, it was my understanding and Lionsgate's understanding that that would have got a PG-13, but for some unknown reason, the MPAA in the states slapped a restricted on it. Then, I probably spent about six months talking with the MPAA, and there were a couple of things they were talking about that really were very small issues that I didn't even have a problem with. We were talking about shaving a few frames here and a few frames there, so I did an outline of that. And it was fine, but they said, "No, it doesn't go far enough." I wasn't happy and Lionsgate wasn't happy, so we decided to just keep it as a restricted film, because it was creating a slippery slope and to get a PG-13 would have meant compromising the movie.
TONY: With your film out on DVD, how do you feel about it as a finished product?
Andrew Currie: I feel really good. I mean, I feel like it's a real labor of love, and I haven't actually seen it on DVD yet, because it doesn't come out in Canada until November 6th. But Lionsgate sent me a bunch of the American version, so I'm looking forward to getting my copy, but I feel really good. It is a labor of love, and there were so many great people involved in the movie. It feels great that everybody involved, including all the cast, is so happy with it. I mean, I got so much support from the actors, and they all loved the movie, and that means a lot to me as well. And getting it out on DVD is nice, because it's always best to see something on the big screen, but having it out on DVD gives it kind of a permanent feel.
TONY: Finally, what are your plans for the future?
Andrew Currie: Well, I've been reading a lot of scripts that are being sent to me, and I'm writing right now a script that I've been working on for a while called The Truth About Lying, which is about a young guy who's a compulsive liar and his sort of vicious and controlling mother, who he finds out is even a bigger liar than he is. I'm sort of just doing that, and then my company, Anagram Pictures, we've got about ten features at various forms of development. So, we're juggling a lot of different things right now.
TONY: Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Have a great day.
