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Was making this movie therapy for you?

You damn right.  For 25 years I have had a burning hatred for Hollywood.  I spent 8 incredibly horrible years in L.A. (from 1974, to 1982).  They were the worst years of my entire life.  When I left L.A., I was reborn.  I began to live again.  After many years of relating many of my experiences in Hollywood to various people, one day it hit me that I should make a movie about it.  I had seen THE PLAYER and SWIMMING WITH SHARKS.  To my way of thinking, they were cowardly.  They pulled their punches.  The films let the executives off the hook (especially the latter).  They were simply cynical and innocuous.   Totally harmless.

 I wanted to go all the way.   I wanted to make the most rabidly anti-Hollywood film ever made.   I wanted to let it all hang out.   Damn, what great therapy!

 

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I find your film to be completely without merit.  I have lived in Hollywood for several years, and I love it.  How can you justify your mean-spiritedness?

There are three kinds of people who live in Hollywood: 

1.                     People who see it for what it is (hell on earth).  They hate it but desperately want to succeed there.  They usually become druggies, alcoholics, psychos, or they commit suicide, or, if they have any capacity to think anymore, they get the hell out of town.

2.                     People who thrive on the evil that is Hollywood.  People who wallow in the filth and flourish.  I call these people the ‘Harry Limes.’  They can rationalize anything.  They get away with anything.  These are usually the most successful slimeballs.    They live (rot) in Hollywood forever.

3.                     People who never change once they arrive in Hollywood.  They remain the same, nice, lovable people they were before they arrived in the cesspool.  They are convinced everything is ok.  They block out all the evil and scum.  I call these people the ‘Eva Brauns,’ after Adolf’s lovely little mistress.  Once, when someone told Eva that Hitler was doing bad things to people, she argued that one shouldn’t waste their time on the negative.  One should look to the positive.  While she frolicked in the woods and shopped ‘til she dropped, millions of people died all around her.   She took ‘denial’ to the limits.  These ‘Eva Brauns’  in Hollywood deny that there are drugs.  They deny that suicide is rampant.   They drift along in a goofy stupor, much like the pod people from INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.  Perhaps that is why Scientology does so well in Hollywood.  They have a great defense mechanism to block out all of the negative shit.  I find it humorously ironic that the pod people (Scientologists) are out to take over the pod people (the Eva Brauns).  All the power to them.  Let them have Hollywood.  Hollywood deserves them and they deserve Hollywood.

 

As for my being ‘mean-spirited,’ let me say that I hate catch phrases, and ‘mean-spirited’ is one of those catch phrases perpetuated by that infamous politically correct brigade.  It is similar to ‘ethnic cleansing,’  one of the most reprehensible catch phrases ever used (and accepted whole-heartedly by the news media). 

         Here’s a message for Roger Ebert and other critics:

Quit using ‘mean-spirited’ in your reviews.  Show some intelligence and originality in your reviews. 

I say this, in all honesty, because I know if these ‘critics’ ever see WORMWOOD,  they will all dub it as the most mean-spirited film they have ever seen.  Am I being defensive?  Yes, goddammit, I am!

 

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Why don’t you make a movie that is just simple entertainment?  Why do you have to have all these ‘messages’ banging us over the heads?

Every movie ever made is political.  Every movie ever made has messages strewn about.  Every filmmaker brings his/her socio/political baggage with them to the film.  Most filmmakers hide the ‘messages’ as much as they can.  Sometimes the messages are from their subconscious.  Sometimes their messages are cynical clichés the filmmaker copies from other successful films with hopes of equaling its success.  Name any movie and we can discuss the political subtext.   I personally find all Hollywood films to be extremely cowardly and conservative.  I decided, partially because of the ultra-low budget nature of our film, to be as obvious as possible.  As I wrote the screenplay, people (including my wife) told me ‘you can’t say that,’  or ‘you can’t show that.’

I said, ‘Why not?  Who the fuck says I can’t…’ 

It was very liberating.  I knew I was never going to try and sell it to some fucking asshole in Hollywood, so I wrote my heart out.  Many people I know write screenplays, and then spend years trying to pitch the scripts to THEM.  They re-write the script over and over in hopes that it will please THEM.    THEM!  THEM!   -  Well, fuck THEM!

Now, with digital technology and low costs, anybody can go out and make their own movie, and say whatever they want.  The floodgates are open.  The next step is to burn the studios to the ground and bring back the guillotine.  Er, uh next question…

 

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Is your film pornographic?

Of course not (although I don’t think there is anything wrong with pornography).  Our film, however,  is very offensive.  It deals frankly with many disgusting subjects.  There is some nudity and some simulated sex. The language is very rough.  The Politically Correct Brigade (i.e. ‘liberals’) is not very happy with much of what is SAID.    I have found, with this film,  that there is very little difference between liberals and conservatives.   They can both kiss my ass, one cheek for each!

 

Here’s a great quote for all of ya:

                  “Good taste is the enemy of creativity”

                                                      Picasso

I use to write that quote on the blackboard in my classroom at the University of Arizona.  Generally, students would snicker but never take the quote to heart.    They had been indoctrinated into that oh so popular club:  The Politically Correct Brigade.

Some people ask if some day they can rent WORMWOOD at Blockbuster Video.  My answer is, ‘Are you fucking kidding???!!’     God, I hope not!!  Blockbuster Video has done more for the cause of censorship in this country than any other entity.  I have heard they are now trying to lure indy filmmakers into their evil den.  My advice:  Stay away from them, stay far far away.  Perhaps I am behind the times.  Perhaps they have changed their ways, but I will never trust them unless I see a signed statement saying they will offer ANY movie, no matter what the subject matter.  If they will gladly rent out THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST and all Woody Allen movies and all unrated movies, only then would I change my mind about them.  Until I see that, fuck Blockbuster Video.  No one who really loves movies would ever be a regular Blockbuster customer.

 

 

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Why is your film called ‘Wormwood’?

I had heard the word, ‘wormwood’ in HAMLET and always wondered what it meant.  I looked it up and when I found out one of its meanings is ‘bitter or sour,’  I loved it and thought it would be perfect for my proposed screenplay about Hollywood!  I also found out, during the shooting of WORMWOOD, that ‘Chernobyl’ is Ukrainian for ‘wormwood.’  I love irony.

I might also add that an alternate title to WORMWOOD was VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD, but it was already taken by Jesus Franco’s classic film from the early ‘70’s.

Another title I toyed with:    MEAN-SPIRITED SONS A BITCHES

 

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What does ‘P.O.E.’ stand for in P.O.E. Productions?

Purity of Essence.  Or Peace on Earth.  From DR. STRANGELOVE.  One of our film’s crew members commented one day that it should be ‘piss off everyone.’  I liked that.  When we were making up our limited liability company and had to think of a name, I couldn’t think of anything.  Since WORMWOOD is a dark comedy/satire, I thought of Kubrick’s film, the greatest satire of all time, and the recall code stuck out.  So, if you want to think real hard about it, our production company is named after ‘pure semen.’

 

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