JOSH RADNOR INTERVIEW
Josh Radnor is perhaps best
known for his role as Ted, the central character on CBS's Emmy-nominated comedy
How I Met Your Mother. He is the writer/director/star of the Sundance Audience
Award winner Happythank youmoreplease. Liberal Arts is his second film to
write/direct/star in.
Whatchamcallit
Reviews:: Where did you get the idea for Liberal Arts?
Josh Radnor: Well about two
years ago I went back to Kenyon College, my alma mater back in Ohio, and I was
shocked by how much older I was than the other students. This was really
strange to me as all my memories of college were so vivid, it was as if I was
there yesterday, and yet, all of a sudden I was nearly twice as old as most of
the students there. And so I just started thinking about time, aging,
nostalgia, growing up and not growing up, and this story started coming to me
about a guy who goes back to his old college at 35 and is kind of
disillusioned, and is worried his best days are behind him, and he meets and is
quite intrigued by this 19 year old sophomore, who’s played by Elizabeth Olson
in the movie.
WR: The film
touches on what a grown-up is, what do you think it means to be grown up? Does
this film represent your view of what growing up is?
JR: You know I don’t
know. I feel like when I’m writing a film or even when I’ve just finished a
film I start with some really big questions that I want to explore. Usually
these questions have to be big enough and elusive enough for me not to lose
interest, and that often means that they don’t have definitive answers. I’m not
sure I know anymore about growing up now than I did before I started the movie,
but there’s a great line in the movie where a character says he’s never not
felt like a 19 year old, even though he’s in his 60s, and he says, “nobody
feels like an adult, that’s the worlds dirty secret.” I believe that line to a
certain degree, but I also believe where we get into trouble is when people dig
there heels in and are resistant to change, and say no to something new. And on
some level this is what both movies are about, people dissatisfied with where
they are and what’s going on in their lives, and in Liberal Arts there are
characters who want to skip forward, characters who want to rewind back, and
the journey of the film, and what you might call growing up, is about these
characters learning accept where they are and living with it, as opposed to
trying to stop it.
WR: What is your
writing strategy since you have to devote so much of your time to How I Met
Your Mother?
JR: We have a 4 and
half month break between seasons. So I do a lot of the writing between
hiatuses. In fact I did the bulk of this writing for Liberal Arts and got the
first draft done about 2 hiatuses ago. After that we got lucky and had the
movie financed pretty quickly because the financiers of Happythankyoumoreplease
wanted to join onto this project as well. So everything came together rather
quickly, which you don’t see all that often. But the writing is just about
finding free moments. I just find the time to do it.
WR: Which do you
prefer more: acting, writing, or directing?
JR: The directing and
the writing feel a lot like the same thing, yet at the same time different
because they take place at different times. I write and then bring the road map
of the script to the shooting, but I’m also the writer as I’m directing because
I’m keeping the whole story in my head. Or I’m the director while I’m writing.
I’m not sure how they all tie in together. Did you ask about acting too?
WR: I did.
JR: You know I’m really
longing to do a movie where I just direct. I originally started writing to give
myself some more acting opportunities. For Liberal Arts I was more thinking as
a director, but I was also thinking of a role that was for me when I wrote it.
But this next go-around I’m trying not to do that. You know I just did a movie
where I just acted in the movie, this wonderful little film called, Afternoon
Delight, with some fantastic people, and I just got re-inspired about acting,
but mostly I’ve been thinking as a writer/director lately. And you know I’ve
already done so much as an actor relatively speaking, and if you said I had to
stop acting right now, and could only write/direct, I think I’d be ok with
that, as writing and directing feels like more of the unexplored territory for
me.
WR: You mentioned
you write and direct in the same time, in sort of a continuous process, how
much do you adapt your work to what your seeing in front of you?
JR: That’s a good
question. I was given some great advise before directing HappyThankYouMorePlease,
which was “don’t direct the movie that’s in your head, direct the movie in
front of you that’s asking to be made.” It’s a delicate balance because you’ve
got this idea in your head, but at the same time, if you surround yourself with
talented people in every area, then they’re going to each have their own ideas
that are going to make you tell your story in a better way. Especially with the
actors, they’re going to surprise you, they’re going to maybe not do things how
you first envisioned, but you have to allow yourself to be more fluid in
allowing your story to take shape in a very organic way rather than bullying it
into what you thought it was supposed to be.
WR: So how was it
shooting the movie at Kenyon, your alma mater?
JR: Well, in my mind
Kenyon is where the movie had to be shot. I have such fond memories there. My
dad went to Kenyon, my sister went to Kenyon, even Allison Janney, who is in
the movie went to Kenyon. Really, it just feels the same no matter when you
went there. You have these buildings that were built in 1824, people live in
the same dorm rooms, take the same classes in the same buildings. So everything
just feels like you just stepped back in time to when you were last there.
WR: I’m sure you
get this all the time, but how do you want How I Met Your Mother to end?
JR: You know, the
people who created the show and who write the show are much more creative than
I am. What I mean to say is I think they’re going to have a lot better idea how
to end the show than I would. You know I was thinking about it recently and I
think on some levels How I Met Your Mother is about a guy who loses and loses
until he eventually wins. And I think that’s what’s endearing about the
character. While the inside of this journey can be kind of frustrating and
demoralizing, you know this guys been through a lot, you just end up believing
in him and the his optimism, and the great story we’re telling of him. And I
think it’s a great underdog tale, but something that’s fantastic about the
premise is that no matter how many times he falls down, no matter how many
times it looks like he’s not going to get it together, he does get it together,
and we know this from the start. And this is kind of comforting to know that he
does get the wife and the kids and the life he dreamed of. And so the end of
the show is about sticking the landing in the most eloquent and truthful way
possible, and I have no doubt that the creators will do just that.
WR: Will you miss
the character once the show is over?
JR: I think I’ll miss
the experience of filming the show, because it’s been so informative and it’s
been a constant for so long, but no I don’t think I’ll miss the character. It’s
been a long time to be someone, and whether we end this season or next season,
I feel like most stones will have been turned over when it comes to that
character.
Liberal Arts opens
in Austin, Dallas, and Houston on September 28th.
