DVD Verdict Interviews Michael McKean

Judge Patrick Naugle

October 6th, 2003

He's flirted with Laverne and Shirley. He's been part of one of pop culture's most famous mock rock bands. And he's been featured in dozens of movies and TV shows throughout his over three decade career. He's Michael McKean, a featured player in Christopher Guest's latest mockumentary opus A Mighty Wind, now on DVD. DVD Verdict sat down with McKean and probed his brain for the answers to some tough questions

Patrick Naugle: How did the experience of making A MIGHTY WIND differ from other projects?

Michael McKean: There was a lot more involvement than usual because of the songwriting. I did a lot of songwriting in this film with Christopher, Harry [Shearer] and C.J. Vanston, our musical director. So there was a lot more involvement before the cameras rolled. In BEST IN SHOW, for example, while Christopher and Eugene [Levy] were creating the story and subsidiary stories we were having meetings and discussions with Chris about our character and everything. For the most part when the cameras rolled it all came alive. With this one it was quite a bit different because of the songwriting and arranging and a lot of the sessions we had with designers to make sure our look, wardrobe and hair was exactly right. So I just have to say that it was a little more busy work beforehand.

PN: Will there be a possible live tour, ala SPINAL TAP, in the future?

MK: Yeah, we're playing a few dates in the east and a few in the west. We're playing New York, Philadelphia and DC in this coming week and a half. At the end of October we're doing Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vancouver. Possibly Seattle as well.

PN: How detailed is Christopher Guest?

MK: Well, every scene is broken down as far as what happens during the scene. Maybe a few pieces of information are given and that's pretty much it. There's no rehearsal, they roll cameras and they do maybe two or three takes, and the takes are slightly different each time. Then Chris goes back and takes between 50 and 80 hours of film and cuts it down into 90 minutes.

PN: Was there a big difference in working with Christopher Guest on BEST IN SHOW and A MIGHT WINDY and working with director Rob Reiner on THIS IS SPINAL TAP?

MK: Well, it's a slight different case. In SPINAL TAP it was the four of us creating the story and characters all along. We all wrote the film and scenario. All of us were also involved in all the casting sessions and everything, so it was a different process. It was the same process [in BEST IN SHOW], just cut in half.

PN: From your perspective how has the "mockumentary" concept evolved since THIS IS SPINAL TAP and what keeps you coming back to it?

MK: It's a lot of fun. You don't have to learn any lines. You have to do a lot of work and know what you're talking about. You have to know your history of your character and the history of everyone else so that you're all on the same page. For the most part it's still the same thing, mistakes are slightly different. With SPINAL TAP we didn't know if we were even going to release the thing. It was very much a dark horse. When we started previewing SPINAL TAP they [the audience] were confused and didn't know what we were doing. Now people sort of "get it," and it's become a little more conventional as far as storytelling goes. SPINAL TAP was a documentary and the filmmaker was a character in the piece. Chris doesn't have that luxury in his films but he doesn't have to service that end of it, either. It's just an invisible person doing the interview.

PN: What roles are your personal favorites? Who do you get recognized for most?

MK: I guess I still get recognized most for Davis St. Hubbins from SPINAL TAP. He is, of course, a favorite. He's also achieved a life of his own with the liver performances and things like that. I'd have to say that he would be number one. I did an HBO feature called AND STARRING PANCHO VILLA AS HIMSELF which I thought was a wonderful experience where I played a real person. It was the first time in my life I've played a real person, a third string film director named William Christy Cabanne, had a good time doing that. And I love my character Stefan Vanderhoof in BEST IN SHOW; I thought he was a real positive character. The stuff that I don't like I don't think about anymore (laughs). For the most part I've been real happy with the outcome.

PN: What was it like collaborating with your wife on the songs for A MIGHTY WIND?

MK: It was great, it almost came about by accident, or by fate. After 9/11 Annette was in Vancouver doing "Smallville" and she was stuck there with no airplanes. So she got a rental car and drove home. She needed to immediately get back there so we drove up together. This time [September 11th] in everyone's life was so peculiar and disjointed, so the two of drove up there and it was just really nice to be together. So somewhere between Portland and Seattle she asks what's the tune I've got running through my head? [hums "Potato's in the Patty Wagon"]. I said I don't know what that is, I think you made that up. So just to remember it we came up with a nonsense phrase, a mnemonic. It was "potato's in the paddy wagon," just to remember the rhythm and the tune. By the time we got to Vancouver we were so in love with the phrase "potato's in the paddy wagon" that we decided to make that what the song was about. We had to figure out why there was a person named "Potato" and why she was in the paddy wagon, and how to get her out. That was the first song we wrote. When we were both back in the states we went to Chris's office. I had already been working on some of the stuff that Chris and Harry for this film. We played it for them and said "What about this?," and they thought it was great, a perfect song for The Main Street Singers. And then they asked if you guys can think about maybe writing something else. And I said OK, sure. Chris said what we really need is a song for Mitch and Mickey, a signature tune. So Annette and I wrote "Kiss at the End of the Rainbow," and the song has almost become a character in the movie. From then on we just sort of liked writing songs as much as anything else we've done. I've been doing it all my life but Annette has never done it before, and now she's become so prolific and so hardworking. She'll be up in Vancouver working and she'll call me and say 'listen to this!' She'll sing like two verses of a song which I couldn't improve upon, and I'll say why don't you go ahead and finish it, and she'll say, 'No no, we have to finish it together!' It's really been lovely. We have a song on a kid's album called "World of Wonder" which Disney is putting out. We just submitted a song to a friend of mine who's doing music for a big film and he's going to try and sell that to the director for us. So we've become songwriters. It's a really interesting thing.

PN: What's next for the "mockumentary" genre?

MK: I haven't the vaguest idea. It's not my department, really. Chris is usually the one who comes up with the notions. And we'll be there to either help or hinder, which ever is more fun. (laughs)

PN: Finally Michael, what's next for you?

MK: I just finished doing an episode of "Smallville" in which I created the role of Perry White, future editor for the Metropolis Daily Planet. Right now he's a formerly promising journalist who's hit the skids. But as we all do when we encounter Clark Kent, he's improved greatly. Look for him in some future episodes. It will be a recurring part rather than a regular role since he's off in Metropolis rather than Smallville. I also just did the PANCHO VILLA film, which is on HBO right now. Other than that Annette and I are writing music for films and busy doing that. And I'm really liking the idea of having most of September and most of October off. Although I am going to be working with Harry Shearer and Alan Rucker, who's a wonderful writer. The three of us are working on, to use Spaulding Gray's "monster in a box" phrase, this TV special we've been writing for about a year now. It's a wonderful piece but it's so grotesque that we have no idea if they'll like it or not. Every time they [production executives] read a version of it they go, 'Yeah, this is good, but can you do this, and this and this?' So we have to go back and spend another couple weeks working on that and then we'll be done, turn it in and they'll put it under a coffee table to even up the legs and we'll never see it again. (laughs) It's one of those things that so good we have to finish it, but it may not be something that'll ever get done. I'll have to let you know.