E-mail a friendDavid Schwimmer
original airdate March 26, 2008
Best known for his turn on TV's Friends, David Schwimmer was the first cast member of the megahit to win an Emmy nod. But, his passions are writing and directing. He co-founded Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre Company and continues to work on the stage and screen, as actor and director. His film acting credits include The Pallbearer and, his latest, Run, Fat Boy, Run, which he also directs. Born in NY and raised in LA, Schwimmer began acting when he enrolled in a high school drama class on a whim.
David Schwimmer
Tavis: Pleased to welcome David Schwimmer to the program. The Emmy-nominated actor and former "Friends" star is directing his feature film with the new project "Run, Fat Boy, Run." (Laughter) I like saying that - "Run, Fat Boy, Run."
David Schwimmer: I like hearing you say it.
Tavis: "Run, Fat Boy, Run." The comedy, starring Simon Pegg and Hank Azaria, hits theaters this Friday. Here now a scene from "Run, Fat Boy, Run."
[Clip]
Tavis: David, nice to have you here.
Schwimmer: Hey, nice to be here. Thanks for having me.
Tavis: So now you're a big director and all that.
Schwimmer: Well, I don't know about a big director, but I've done one, so.
Tavis: And the experience was like?
Schwimmer: It was great. It was really - yeah, actually, it was the time of my life, yeah. It was a blast. It was a long process, about a year and a half all told, but there was nothing like it working with Thandie Newton and Simon Pegg, Hank Azaria, in the beautiful city of London. So it was great.
Tavis: So talk to me about the balance between having been on a show like "Friends," where you guys ruled the Earth, and doing -
Schwimmer: I don't know about that.
Tavis: Oh, you know you did. And then a small, independent production that you have to make work on this limited sort of budget.
Schwimmer: Right. Well, they're really worlds apart. Like your show, you're on a sound stage, and "Friends" we shot on a sound stage. So even though I directed like a dozen of those episodes, you didn't have to worry about lighting and you didn't have to worry about sound problems or weather. And when you're on location, and we had 50 locations all over London, those are all huge concerns and big factors to overcome. So it was a big difference, but it was a great challenge, it was fun.
Tavis: I'll let you explain the story line behind "Run, Fat Boy, Run."
Schwimmer: Okay. Is this my - okay.
Tavis: Yeah, it's your moment.
Schwimmer: This is where I do it.
Tavis: Camera two, go for it, there you go.
Schwimmer: Okay, here we go. (Laughter) Basically, the reason I loved the script, and I'll tell you the story in a second, is just that it's kind of three movies in one. It's this great big physical comedy and then you have this terrific, like, drama and romance. And then it turns into a kind of sports movie, like a comedic "Rocky," in a way.
Simon Pegg, from "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz," plays this guy Dennis who in the first scene in the movie, basically, runs away from his pregnant fiancé, abandoning her at the altar, and after this unforgivable kind of act, realizes what a terrible mistake he's made. And cut to five years later, they have a wonderful son together and we see Simon's really active as a dad and everything, but he really wants to win Thandie back.
And only now there's this guy, played by Hank Azaria, who's this really successful, really cut, fit American businessman, and he's got to now compete for Thandie against this guy, and this guy's also a marathon runner. So Simon gets it in his head that all right, I'll do that, too. (Laughter) And this guy, Simon, is completely out of shape. He has two weeks to basically train and prepare for running his first marathon and trying to compete with Hank.
And a lot of stuff happens along the way and to Simon when he's trying to run the marathon, but it's basically this comic "Rocky" story where he is trying to win back the woman he loves and also kind of reclaim his own self-worth.
Tavis: The value of, or the reason for doing it in London was? As opposed to -
Schwimmer: (Laughs) Well, it's funny because it was originally set in New York around the New York marathon, and then suddenly this English company optioned the script and I was still attached, so before I knew it I was directing a British comedy. (Laughter) I didn't set out to direct, oh, my first film, a British comedy.
That wasn't the case. But I've known Simon Pegg for a long time. We were in "Band of Brothers" together and this other little movie called "Big Nothing." And so he was my first natural choice. We're friends and I think he's pretty much a comic genius, so I gave him the script and he did the rewrite and the rest kind of fell into place.
Tavis: As a director - I've listened to you describe this earlier in your own way as, like, three little projects in one, three scenarios in one. When you get a script, how do you know that those three things can work together, and as a director, what's the challenge of making sure - because we all go to movies from time to time, and say, "What'd you think of it?" "Just way too much going on, it was just too much happening." How do you make that work?
Schwimmer: You don't know, I don't think. I think it's a leap of faith. You have to really use the script as your guideline and hope that if you do everything that the script asks of you then when you start cutting the film you'll be able to find that balance. It was really tough. The toughest part was exactly that, in post-production and the editing, constantly cutting and re-cutting and finding that balance between the broad, physical comedy and the romance, the drama, and then this big sports movie.
And ultimately the audience really decides. You cut a version of the movie, you put it out there, you test it, see how the audience - you ask the audience "How was this section? Was it too slow, was it too fast? Do you care about this relationship?" And then you get feedback and then you go back and cut some more and try to find the movie in there.
Tavis: I can only imagine, of course, that even with the beard, which is nice, by the way.
Schwimmer: Oh, thanks, you too.
Tavis: Even with the beard, (laughter) you can't walk around New York, obviously, and not get noticed and get people running you down because of "Friends." Did they know "Friends" in London? I assume -
Schwimmer: Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.
Tavis: Yeah. Same thing happened there?
Schwimmer: Yeah, but I don't exactly walk around, like, with a t-shirt, "Friends." A baseball cap and an iPod and a backpack, head down. I just kind of do my own thing and people are cool.
Tavis: I can read - and I want your take on this, obviously -
Schwimmer: You can read?
Tavis: Yeah, yeah. (Laughter) I can read, okay. Ba-dum-bump.
Schwimmer: I just learned. Just learned.
Tavis: Yeah, yeah, that's what happens when you direct a British comedy. Yeah, his timing is still on. I can read the "Friends" experience in one of two ways, David - you tell me. On the one hand, you're extremely popular, extremely recognizable. You've got money in the bank, so it gives you a certain freedom.
Schwimmer: Yeah, absolutely
Tavis: To live your life now the way you want to. On the other hand, there is this forever connection to this project that you can't get away from no matter how hard you try. How do you navigate those realities?
Schwimmer: Well, there's only so much in your control. First of all, every one of us feels that that show was, like, the best job we've ever had, and was a huge blessing. It was kind of like winning the lottery in a way, because all my friends are working actors and struggling. So I don't feel for one second I'm more talented or more deserving than they are, all my best friends in Chicago.
I just got lucky. And once you acknowledge that and realize that, at least for me, there's kind of a feeling of, number one, I want to share that luck, so I give back either to family, friends, charities, whatever your personal things are. But also I realize that I'm no different than I was 20 years ago. Just because I can pay the rent more easily than I did the seven years I was waiting tables before "Friends" doesn't mean that that hunger for acting and directing has in any way diminished.
I realize I'm just - I want exactly what I wanted 20 years ago. I want to work with people that inspire me. Like I can't wait - I hope I should be so lucky I get to act in a film directed by the Coen brothers or Mike Nichols or Sydney Pollack or Ron Howard or Spielberg - any of these incredibly talented men. And at the same time, I can't wait to have the opportunity, hopefully, to direct actors that inspire me, like Phillip Seymour Hoffman. So I think I have the same goals I did 20 years ago.
Tavis: But you said in that answer, though, that you and your friends think that may well have been the best job you've ever had.
Schwimmer: Yeah.
Tavis: Which doesn't mean there isn't something greater that could come along, but it'd be awfully hard to top the run you had on "Friends." How do you navigate, even with all the hunger you have to do other stuff, in the back of your mind thinking that this may have been as good as it gets, and it's behind me now.
Schwimmer: But I don't think that. I never thought it was as good as it gets. I thought it was great. Like when it was happening, it was great. But I had equally incredible experiences before "Friends" working on, say, plays with my theater company in Chicago and since. Like directing this movie was one of the greatest experiences in my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
So I certainly don't think, like, that was it. Otherwise, hang it up. I do see it as like another 40, 50-year career.
Tavis: Knock on wood, yeah, sure.
Schwimmer: Touch wood. So I think that was an amazing 10-year chapter, and now close that chapter and now on to the next. And this was a great chapter, and now I'm up for the next one.
Tavis: So going forward, how do you intend to, how will you balance the directing thing with the acting thing? Because you've just said you want to (unintelligible) both.
Schwimmer: Oh, I have no idea, I have no idea.
Tavis: Yeah, you haven't figured it out yet, yeah.
Schwimmer: Because I look at directors' careers that I admire, like Ron Howard's, but it seems like he just stopped acting and became a terrific director. I'd like to continue acting. I don't know how I'm going to do both, but I don't think there's any -
Tavis: I've got an idea.
Schwimmer: Okay. I'm not going to direct myself.
Tavis: There you go. (Laughter) I was about to suggest, direct yourself. Cast yourself, produce yourself, write for yourself, and direct yourself.
Schwimmer: Oh, man, but there are so many other -
Tavis: Be like a Prince record.
Schwimmer: - so many other talented people I want to work with, I just don't think that's the solution, but we'll see.
Tavis: All right. Well in the meantime, "Run, Fat Boy, Run." I'm going to be saying that for the rest of the week - "Run, Fat Boy, Run." The first feature directed by one David Schwimmer. Nice to have you here, David.
Schwimmer: Hey, thanks a lot, thanks for having me.
Tavis: Good to see you.
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