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 Clark Gregg
Interview By: Michael Dance "I'm the kind of person who's drawn to those kind of dirty jokes that can clear a room. And I thought, 'Oh God, this is the cinematic equivalent of one of my favorite ultra-foul jokes." We're talking with Clark Gregg about Choke, the dark comedy he wrote and directed based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, and he's explaining why he thought he would never be allowed to make the movie. Despite appearing to appeal to only a limited number of people, though, Gregg assures us that its themes have wide appeal. "The kind of emotional trauma of trying to grow up, being focused too much on sex versus intimacy -- I'm not ashamed to say, I think it's something a lot of people are going to relate to," he says. Of course, the movie's also about a colonial theme park employee who goes to sex addict meetings and has devised a money-making scheme that involves pretending to choke in crowded restaurants. Gregg had his doubts about whether he would ever direct a film that went beyond the tricky subject matter of Choke. For one thing, over the past few years, he seems to have found his footing in Hollywood as a character actor. He's nabbed steady work as government agents (Iron Man, The West Wing) and pompous jerks (In Good Company, The Air I Breathe), and in 2006, even found a stable gig as Julia Louis-Dreyfus's ex-husband on The New Adventures of Old Christine. During his time off, though, Gregg was itching to get behind the camera. He'd already had a taste of behind-the-scenes work when, in 2000, he landed a screenplay and story credit for the blockbuster What Lies Beneath; he would later do occasional uncredited script doctoring for a number of different studios. And he had directing experience, too, at least on stage: drama school at NYU led to an artistic director gig at the Atlantic Theater Company, which he co-founded; that in turn led to directing the plays Distant Fires, The Big Easy, and David Mamet's Edmond. When he decided to write and direct his own feature film, Gregg optioned Choke after becoming a fan of cult novelist Palahniuk (Fight Club). And then he re-optioned it, again and again, as the years went by and little progress was made. "It was really this thing, that people kind of chuckled at me," Gregg says. "My friends would go, 'what are you doing?' And I'd be saying, 'Well, I'm still working on this thing Choke,' and they'd give me a look: aw, you sad bastard. 'That won't get made. You know that, right?' "I didn't disagree with them. It seemed ludicrous. And, I'm not a very cosmic thinker, but when I read it, (a) it was funny as shit, and (b) it was like nothing I'd ever seen before." Above anyone else, Gregg credits author Palahniuk for allowing him to buck expectations and actually get the movie made. "He ... |
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