Interview: David Gordon Green

by Lorenz Amunoz

Director David Gordon Green has made a career out of character driven dramas, often set in the South, such as the acclaimed George Washington and All the Real Girls. But Gordon Green, who saw his first movie at the tender age of two-weeks, has now crossed over into studio territory with Pineapple Express, a comedy thriller from the team behind Superbad and Knocked Up. The 33-year-old director says he needed to “recharge” his batteries after coming off so many years of intense, often tragic films. Relaxing in Estes Park, Colorado, Gordon Green answered questions as he tried to catch a fly with a clothespin. But the fly got away.

Pineapple Express is a big departure for you...

It is a departure for me. I have been trying to do a comedy for years and make a transition to bigger budget movies and try some new things. This seemed to scratch all those itches...I had made films where I made such an enormous emotional investment. I wanted to make sure if I was making dramatic material that I could approach it with sincerity and honesty. So I wanted to recharge all those batteries and do something where I could have shootouts and eat popcorn watching it.

This was the first film you directed which you did not write. How was that for you?

It was fine. I don’t really use scripts anyway. It doesn’t matter who wrote them. I don’t have a possessive attitude toward screenplays. We try to make it real and natural. We do a lot of improvisation and that is what made this process so enjoyable. It wasn’t too different in the execution of the product because making Pineapple Express was a highly improvised and highly collaborative process. It is not a film by anyone, it is a film by everyone.

You have mentioned that [director] Judd Apatow and yourself have a similar approach to filmmaking. Can you elaborate?

I think we both have a great respect for actors and having everybody be involved in the making of the film. If you give your collaborators respect and freedom everyone makes everyone look good. A lot of it is in the casting—not the big good looking leading men types but casting people who have human characteristics and vulnerabilities and bring a heart to these characters that a lot of movies can play like clichés and cartoons.

How does working on a studio film differ from your smaller, independent productions?

There are more people standing around all the time. I prefer a small crew. I like to know everybody’s name and trust people’s instinct. When you have 500 people like we did on Pineapple Express on some days there are communication breakdowns and that can be frustrating. But now I really understand the value of pre-visualization and storyboards. On a big production you don’t have time to get to know people you have to just show them the pictures and say go, do that.

How did coming from Little Rock, Arkansas inform your filmmaking sensibilities?

Well, I was born there but I grew up outside of Dallas in Richardson, Texas. It wasn’t super urban or super rural. There is great economic cultural and religious diversity and so there are endless stories. We used to go to movies all the time. I’m told I was two weeks old and my parents took me to see Young Frankenstein. I didn’t sleep or cry. I am sure I was fascinated by the whole thing. When I saw The Karate Kid, I met my friend, David Wingo, who has composed most of the music for my films. We were the only second graders alone in the theater.

Were your parents filmmakers?

No they were teachers. They just like movies. They had four kids. It was a way to get us to stop screaming about stuff. In my youth there was a great sense of escapism that I found through my father who was a movie buff and comic book fan...

Now you live in New Orleans. How is the city doing?

It’s great. I love it. It’s business as usual for me but still very challenging for a lot of people. It’s a timeless environment with a lot of weird people. I like living in a place with a different kind of barber on every corner. It’s an artistic town that takes tragedy and turns them into inspiring tales.

How have you evolved as a filmmaker?

I am able to let go easier. That is good and bad. I work with the same people and I am less possessive and manufactured in what I am trying to do. I look at the curveballs as interesting adventures instead of devastating frustrations.

That is good advice for life, no?

Absolutely. Now its like lets come up with a creative way to make things happen.