Boxoffice-April.2001

48 BOXOFFICE
. That
shows have come to expect, although he
does point out. "I'm proud to say that
there's actually no poo in this movie.
There's actually zero poo. It's completely
100 percent poo-free.
"I don't want people to think that the
movie is a toned-back. toned-down version
of anything, because there's plenty of bodily
liquids in the movie." he continues. "I'm
just saying that there's no poo. There is—is
there urine? There may not be urine either,
now that I think about it. There was almost
urine, but there's no urine, and there's no
poo. There's a lot of
blood, and there's
tears, and there's
saliva, and there's
other liquids that I
feel bashful mentioning."
In fact, knowing
what she was getting
into, Coughlan
considered very
carefully taking the
role. "To this day. I
still don't know if I
feel comfortable
doing this," she says.
"I really wavered.
It's a lot to bite off. I
didn't know if I was
quite ready for it.
[Green] never tiptoes
around anything,
and I'm a big
people pleaser, so
the first time [I
thought], 'I just
don't know if it's going to offend people."
"And then in the end I'm like, 'You
know what? He's sending a message. My
character is strong and beautiful and
great. It's a chance to really be crazy and
push the limits and push the envelope.'
And that's okay. It's art. That's why art
exists. It doesn't always have to be safe
and pretty and in a nice little box. This
certainly isn't any of those things."
Green made sure Fox and New
Regency, the production outfit on the
film, knew this going in. "I was very clear
that I want to whack off a horse in the
movie," he explains, "i know it says that
on the paper, and I fully intend to whack
off a horse,' [I'd say]. And people would
say. Are you really going to whack off a
horse?' And I would say, 'Yeah, I'd like to.
I'd like to whack off a horse if I could.'
"Square one [is] the movie's name is
'Freddy Got Fingered.' You can't go make
sort of a soft, feel-good movie. It's about
that kind of thing. It's not a middle-of-theroad
comedy—it's definitely go-for-it. All
the way through it, there are plenty of
scenes that I'm sure are going to offend a
lot of people, and I'm fully expecting people
to walk out of the theatre disgusted and
angry. I hope that everybody doesn't like. I
hope that it really pisses people off."
In a sense, Green will do whatever it
takes to get people's attention. "I find a
sense of accomplishment from being
able to trick people into letting me do
stuff that isn't customarily done," Green
says. "With my TV show on MTV, every
time we did something that was overthe-top
and crazy —
[like] the first time I
was sucking milk out of a cow's utter,
which is a gross-out joke—at the end of
the day, people wouldn't laugh at the bit.
People would sort of scream with disgust
and be grossed out.
"And then I would look at the person
beside me, Derek or [show regulars]
iy Got f
Glenn [Humplik] or Phil [Giroux], and
we would look at each other with this
sense of accomplishment that we can't
believe a major network is airing this s
kind of stuff never used to get
aired on television. And that to me is
kind of fun breaking that ground, even if
it's really horrible ground to be breaking.
"I get the same kind of sense of fun out
of doing that with the movie, where I
want people to be sitting there in the theatre,
and, whether they like it or not, I
want them to walk out saying, 'That was
not like any movie I've ever seen before.
There was something wrong with that.' I
would have rather have somebody walk
out of the theatre saying, 'That was the
worst movie I've ever seen in my entire
life. I hated it. It was disgusting and
awful." I would rather that, and in fact I
would enjoy that, than them saying, 'Oh.
it was alright.'"
Coughlan says that Green was likewise
unpredictable on the set. "There
was this restaurant scene where he and
his dad end up getting in this huge fight
in this fancy restaurant." she recalls. "He
purposely cast older people as extras
because it was supposed to be fancy,
stuffy place, so there were a lot of elderly
people as extras who don't at all know
what to expect [from him]. He starts
doing his thing, and you just saw [the
"That movie will
have lots of very genuine
reactions because
he just improv'd so
much as you're going
and just got nuttier
and nuttier."
But like Green says
above, at the end of
the day, "It's not
about whacking off a
|
horse; and it's not
about flinging a bleeding,
bloody,
|
sweat-
covered baby by the
[
umbilical cord around
your head; and it's not
about beating your
handicapped girlfriend with a bamboo
stick; it's not about whacking off an elephant;
and it's not about bloody, broken
bones and cutting deer carcasses open
and jumping around on a highway with a
rotten deer on your back—it's not about
anything gross. It's about a kid that wants
to be an animator." ^~
"Freddy Got Fingered. " Starring To,
Green, Rip Torn, Eddie Kaye Thomas and
Marisa Coughlan. Directed by Tom Green.
Written by Tom Green and Derek Harvie.
Produced by Anion Milchan, Larry
Brezner and Lauren Lloyd. A Fox release.
Comedy. Not yet rated. Opens 4120.
PS. from Tom Green: "I would actually
kind of hope that you don't mention
to anybody about the robots, if you
know about the robots in the movie. I
think there's certain things in the movie
that obviously if you know about the
robots, then that's going to ruin most o(
the story. If when you're writing about
this, about 'Freddy.' please at all costs
don't mention the robots. If you could
actually mention in the article 1 don'l
know ii" I can do this but it I could ask
you to mention in the article to pie
mention that I actually asked you lo i
mention the robots." [Oops! How did
that get in there'.'
/-.'