Highway to Hellion

Crispin Glover's making an art of making audiences uncomfortable.

by Shaun Brady

WHAT IS THE WHAT: Kelly Swiderski (left) stars in 2005's What Is It?, directed by Crispin Glover (right).

[ film ]

Rocky Schenck Casting Crispin Hellion Glover in Hot Tub Time Machine was on one hand simply another of the film's explicit winks at 1980s pop culture, referencing the actor's career-making role as George McFly in that other time-travel comedy, Back to the Future. But his role as a menacing one-armed bellhop also acknowledged Glover's ensuing quarter-century of oddball performances, Hollywood's designated weirdo from the Thin Man in the Charlie's Angels films to the Knave of Hearts in Tim Burton's regrettable Alice in Wonderland.

But Glover is the rare character actor whose creepy onscreen persona often seems less bizarre than his real-life image. Whether demonstrating his kicking prowess to David Letterman or recording unnerving covers of songs by Lee Hazlewood and Charles Manson, Glover's image and work have long dwelled in some nether region between inscrutable and alarming.

Perhaps its strangest, if least-seen, manifestation has been through his directorial efforts. The first two films of his planned trilogy both cast disabled actors in lead roles: What Is It? is peopled almost entirely by actors with Down syndrome, while It Is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. is a thriller written by and starring Steven C. Stewart, who was afflicted with cerebral palsy and died within a month of shooting.

"Although it is written in the genre of a murder detective thriller," Glover says via e-mail of It Is Fine!, which he'll screen at I-House Monday, "truths of Stewart's own existence come through much more clearly than if he had written it as a standard autobiography. I feel It Is Fine! will probably be the best film I will have anything to do with in my entire career."

Glover is upfront about the fact that much of his work in Hollywood blockbusters is undertaken in order to fund his own projects. It Is Fine! was largely paid for by Charlie's Angels (finally, a justification for McG's existence). " Charlie's Angels did very well financially and was good for my acting career," he explains. "I started getting better roles that also paid better. I have been able to divorce myself from the content of the films that I act in and look at acting as a craft. If for some reason the director is not truly interested in doing something that I personally find interesting with the character, then I can console myself that with the money I am making to be in their production, I can help to fund my own films that I am so truly passionate about."

His first film, Glover says, explicitly addressed his feelings toward the mainstream film culture that employs him. " What Is It? is not a film about Down syndrome, but my psychological reaction to the corporate restraints that have happened in the last 20 to 30 years in filmmaking," he says. "Specifically, anything that can possibly make an audience uncomfortable is necessarily excised or the film will not be corporately funded or distributed. This is damaging to the culture because it is the very moment when an audience member sits back in their chair, looks up at the screen and thinks, 'Is this right what I am watching? Is this wrong what I am watching? Should I be here? Should the filmmaker have made this? What is it?' and that is the title of the film. For the culture to not be able to ask questions leads toward a noneducational experience, and that is what is happening in this culture. This stupefies this culture and that is, of course, a bad thing."

In addition to presenting It Is Fine! (Glover only screens his films at personal appearances, citing the dying art of vaudeville as his model), Glover will narrate an hourlong slideshow depicting 19th-century books that he has altered with original drawings and reworked imagery. The show, co-presented by R5 Productions and Joseph A. Gervasi, will end with a Q&A session.

This work will in no way mitigate the actor's image as an anachronistic eccentric, some Victorian crazy dropped into the wrong era — an idea he's fully aware of and immune to.

"I am very clear that my off-screen persona can be mixed up by media, and ultimately audiences, with my onscreen persona," he says. "I aspire for my work to hopefully raise genuine questions in people so they think for themselves. There are certain things best left unanswered or partially answered because it could spoil someone's interpretation of a good thing to contemplate if I give too much explanation. My life is and always has been much more 'centric' than many may perceive. "

(s_brady@citypaper.net)

It Is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. screens Mon., Dec. 20, 6:30 p.m., sold out, Ibrahim Theater, International House, 3701 Chestnut St., 215-387-5125, ihousephilly.org, r5productions.com.