Gregg Araki is the cult director of such acclaimed films as The Living End, Nowhere and The Doom Generation. His latest film, Mysterious Skin, is the first film hes done in five years and is also his first adaptation of a book. It stars Brady Corbet and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Kansas teenagers Brian Lackey and Neil McCormick. Both were sexually abused by their baseball coach at the age of nine and over the years they have dealt with their experiences in different ways. By age 18, Brian has come to believe that he was kidnapped by aliens while Neil has taken the more realistic but dangerous approach of becoming a teenage hustler.
Check out the official site for Mysterious Skin
Daniel Robert Epstein: Mysterious Skin comments a bit on that running controversy of whether homosexuals are born or made. I know which side you fall on.
Gregg Araki: Its how many beers they have [laughs].
DRE: Were never sure what the Brian characters sexuality is. Also would Neil have just become a regular gay kid in Kansas rather than a hustler?
GA: Yeah just a regular gay guy like a designer or something. He would design tablecloths.
I dont feel like I was tackling that specific question. Its always been my feeling about the story that Brian is heterosexual and that Neil is gay from a very young age. They have diverging sexual orientations. If you see my movies I always felt that sexuality is an amorphous thing anyway. Ive always been a believer in the gray scale of sexuality.
DRE: Did the coach see that Neil was a gay kid or did he just like the way he played baseball?
GA: Hes the best player on the team [laughs]. I think one of the things that is so provocative about the story is that the Neil character from a young age has desire. I can remember being a very young kid and having desire. What happens in the book is that Neil has desire for the coach and the coach acts on that.
DRE: Since this was your first book adaptation how much was the author, Scott Heim, involved?
GA: It was very important that the piece be realistic. Ive never been to Kansas so it was important to me that it have a Kansas feel to it. Scott wrote me letters telling me what Kansas was like but I felt like the movie has a universal approach to what childhood is like. I grew up in Santa Barbara California which is much different than Kansas but there is a universality to the way I grew up so I really related to the story. When I wrote my script I had the book with me so I would lift whole entire sections from the book.
DRE: I saw an edition of the book that had Fruit Loops on the cover and you use Fruit Loops a lot in the movie. Apparently Fruit Loops is also an insult for a gay kid.
GA: Im not sure where the idea for using Fruit Loops in the title sequence came from. I just had this image of this stuff falling out of the sky with this happy kid. I think it was influenced by the book. Also that song we used is a cover by Slowdive of Syd Barretts Golden Hair. Ive always loved that song so that song with the images of stuff falling all came to me when I wrote the screenplay. It really set the exact tone of the movie I wanted.
One of things I always loved about the book is the job that Scott did with the characters. Even the smallest supporting characters, like Neils johns, all have a real level of nuance and humanity. They are all flawed human beings including coach. They all have human frailty which makes the story so much richer. If the coach was just a bad guy that would just be simplistic.
DRE: Its almost become a movie clich for a male hustler or a female prostitute to eventually get beaten by a john. But in Mysterious Skin after Neil gets beaten that allows him to become more open to understanding Brian. Was that the intention?
GA: I thought that it was essential that Neil goes to New York, become this little fish in the big pond and his acting out becomes increasingly more dangerous. Thats why everything that happens to him on his journey is important.
I really feel that the movie does have closure to it and both characters come to know one another better. Its almost like two halves of the same person being unified.
DRE: Do you think all the frenzy in the media over child abuse will affect the release of the movie?
GA: Were selling tickets at the Michael Jackson trial.
I think the Michael Jackson thing is just static in the air. Its sensationalized Page Six stuff which is just what the problem is when people talk about this issue. Ive never had anything like that happen to me but the book really captured what that experience must feel like. I found it so devastating and emotional to see what these characters go through. But the Michael Jackson trial is like Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. I always knew that this movie would be very uncompromising and that it would upset some people. A lot of people have said that this is my most mainstream and accessible movie. That to me has been the biggest surprise. The movie transcends the boundaries of what a Gregg Araki fans expectations are. At screenings weve had 65 year old ladies watching Neil have sex with random guys and all the rough stuff then they come up and thank me for making the movie.
DRE: The coach character is either fishing for kids or having sex with kids. You never really see him as a person.
GA: Really? I find the coach a really interesting character. The actor who played him, Bill Sage, really worked hard on him. With only like four minutes of screen time I think that character haunts the whole movie. Neil at one point says that he is like a ghost watching us. I dont see the coach as one dimensional but a very complicated person with conflicted feelings.
DRE: Do you see this movie as a continuation of your work or a break?
GA: I see it as both. It is a big departure because I think its my first character driven serious drama. On the other side I think it is so much a part of everything Ive done. There is so much in Mysterious Skin that is in all my movies especially like the Wendy character who is the best friend that is also like a lover. Thats probably why I related so much to the book.
DRE: Do you think you will ever do a movie about 40 something people?
GA: Oh why not! Everyone always asks me why I make all my movies about teenagers. I really only made three movies about teenagers which was like the teen apocalypse trilogy of the mid-90s. But to me Mysterious Skin isnt really about teenagers. Its almost incidental that they are teenagers. These characters are dealing with the aftermath and they just so happen to be 18.
DRE: What is CrEEEEps about?
GA: CrEEEEps is more of a straight horror/sci-fi movie but still, I could never make a movie I wasnt interested in. Gus Van Sant told me that one has to make movies you like even if no one else likes them. Every movie you make is three years out of your life so as a director you only have a limited amount of movies to make in your lifetime then youre dead.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official site for Mysterious Skin
Daniel Robert Epstein: Mysterious Skin comments a bit on that running controversy of whether homosexuals are born or made. I know which side you fall on.
Gregg Araki: Its how many beers they have [laughs].
DRE: Were never sure what the Brian characters sexuality is. Also would Neil have just become a regular gay kid in Kansas rather than a hustler?
GA: Yeah just a regular gay guy like a designer or something. He would design tablecloths.
I dont feel like I was tackling that specific question. Its always been my feeling about the story that Brian is heterosexual and that Neil is gay from a very young age. They have diverging sexual orientations. If you see my movies I always felt that sexuality is an amorphous thing anyway. Ive always been a believer in the gray scale of sexuality.
DRE: Did the coach see that Neil was a gay kid or did he just like the way he played baseball?
GA: Hes the best player on the team [laughs]. I think one of the things that is so provocative about the story is that the Neil character from a young age has desire. I can remember being a very young kid and having desire. What happens in the book is that Neil has desire for the coach and the coach acts on that.
DRE: Since this was your first book adaptation how much was the author, Scott Heim, involved?
GA: It was very important that the piece be realistic. Ive never been to Kansas so it was important to me that it have a Kansas feel to it. Scott wrote me letters telling me what Kansas was like but I felt like the movie has a universal approach to what childhood is like. I grew up in Santa Barbara California which is much different than Kansas but there is a universality to the way I grew up so I really related to the story. When I wrote my script I had the book with me so I would lift whole entire sections from the book.
DRE: I saw an edition of the book that had Fruit Loops on the cover and you use Fruit Loops a lot in the movie. Apparently Fruit Loops is also an insult for a gay kid.
GA: Im not sure where the idea for using Fruit Loops in the title sequence came from. I just had this image of this stuff falling out of the sky with this happy kid. I think it was influenced by the book. Also that song we used is a cover by Slowdive of Syd Barretts Golden Hair. Ive always loved that song so that song with the images of stuff falling all came to me when I wrote the screenplay. It really set the exact tone of the movie I wanted.
One of things I always loved about the book is the job that Scott did with the characters. Even the smallest supporting characters, like Neils johns, all have a real level of nuance and humanity. They are all flawed human beings including coach. They all have human frailty which makes the story so much richer. If the coach was just a bad guy that would just be simplistic.
DRE: Its almost become a movie clich for a male hustler or a female prostitute to eventually get beaten by a john. But in Mysterious Skin after Neil gets beaten that allows him to become more open to understanding Brian. Was that the intention?
GA: I thought that it was essential that Neil goes to New York, become this little fish in the big pond and his acting out becomes increasingly more dangerous. Thats why everything that happens to him on his journey is important.
I really feel that the movie does have closure to it and both characters come to know one another better. Its almost like two halves of the same person being unified.
DRE: Do you think all the frenzy in the media over child abuse will affect the release of the movie?
GA: Were selling tickets at the Michael Jackson trial.
I think the Michael Jackson thing is just static in the air. Its sensationalized Page Six stuff which is just what the problem is when people talk about this issue. Ive never had anything like that happen to me but the book really captured what that experience must feel like. I found it so devastating and emotional to see what these characters go through. But the Michael Jackson trial is like Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. I always knew that this movie would be very uncompromising and that it would upset some people. A lot of people have said that this is my most mainstream and accessible movie. That to me has been the biggest surprise. The movie transcends the boundaries of what a Gregg Araki fans expectations are. At screenings weve had 65 year old ladies watching Neil have sex with random guys and all the rough stuff then they come up and thank me for making the movie.
DRE: The coach character is either fishing for kids or having sex with kids. You never really see him as a person.
GA: Really? I find the coach a really interesting character. The actor who played him, Bill Sage, really worked hard on him. With only like four minutes of screen time I think that character haunts the whole movie. Neil at one point says that he is like a ghost watching us. I dont see the coach as one dimensional but a very complicated person with conflicted feelings.
DRE: Do you see this movie as a continuation of your work or a break?
GA: I see it as both. It is a big departure because I think its my first character driven serious drama. On the other side I think it is so much a part of everything Ive done. There is so much in Mysterious Skin that is in all my movies especially like the Wendy character who is the best friend that is also like a lover. Thats probably why I related so much to the book.
DRE: Do you think you will ever do a movie about 40 something people?
GA: Oh why not! Everyone always asks me why I make all my movies about teenagers. I really only made three movies about teenagers which was like the teen apocalypse trilogy of the mid-90s. But to me Mysterious Skin isnt really about teenagers. Its almost incidental that they are teenagers. These characters are dealing with the aftermath and they just so happen to be 18.
DRE: What is CrEEEEps about?
GA: CrEEEEps is more of a straight horror/sci-fi movie but still, I could never make a movie I wasnt interested in. Gus Van Sant told me that one has to make movies you like even if no one else likes them. Every movie you make is three years out of your life so as a director you only have a limited amount of movies to make in your lifetime then youre dead.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 15 of 15 COMMENTS
thanks for this; ITW... he's my favorite movie maker...