Philadelphia Weekly

To those who grew up in the ‘80s, Bobcat Goldthwait was likely a fixture of your nascent movie-watching. In three Police Academys and movies like One Crazy Summer, Burglar and Hot to Trot, Goldthwait transferred to the screen his aggressive stand-up schtick, which consisted of a mega-slovenly appearance and a braying voice that sounds like the child of the Muppets’ Animal and Sesame Street’s Grover. But there were signs that he wasn’t quite on the level of, say, Steve Guttenberg. In 1992 he wrote, directed and starred in Shakes the Clown, a problematic but not uninteresting portrait of an alkie clown. Then in 2006 came word from Sundance that one of the best films was Sleeping Dogs Lie, written and directed by Goldthwait. Dogs took a crude premise – a woman who once blew her dog – and explored it in intelligent (though still hilarious) ways. His new feature, World’s Greatest Dad, starring Robin Williams as a hapless poetry teacher whose son is maybe the worst spawn in film history, proves the film was no fluke. PW sat down with Goldthwait, whose real voice and demeanor, it should be noted, is quiet, somewhat meek, yet very friendly.

Welcome to Philadelphia.

Thanks. This could go horribly wrong and you and I could get into a huge fight, but so far Philly has been very, very, very nice to me.

Really?

Yeah. As a comic I used to play here and there would be fistfights in the audience. Brotherly Love – I was like, where do I see it? But the press I’ve done today - I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

We do throw batteries at Santa Claus. Just stay away from the sports stadiums.

Well, that’s why I’m not a sports fan. I don’t want to get a beer bong in the back of the head.

So, World’s Greatest Dad is more overtly comedic than Sleeping Dogs Lie. Was that a conscious decision on your part?

No, not at all. The comic element of both these movies, or of the other screenplays I’ve written, I never think about one way or the other. It’s more about telling stories. With the comedy - I have detractors who will tell you neither of them are funny. But I don’t write jokes. I don’t think about things being funny. For me it’s about if a situation is believable in this world as opposed to just making people laugh.

What did you want to try out with World’s Greatest Dad that you didn’t with Sleeping Dogs Lie?

For me the big difference between these two movies is that with Sleeping Dogs Lie I didn’t have contempt for any of the characters. And with this movie I have contempt for a lot of the characters. In fact, I even have contempt for Lance, Robin’s character.

Was making something more serious something you always wanted to do?

No. It took me a long time to realize what I’m happy doing. I find these films more fulfilling than any part of my career. I do stand-up solely so I can keep making small indie movies. A lot of people younger than me say they’re going to do studio pictures. And then they make the biggest piece fo crap. I’ve already made giant turds as an actor. I have no interest in selling out again.

What was the impetus behind Sleeping Dogs Lie?

I didn’t write it thinking I was going to make it. It just came out of me. I was just trying to write movies, not to get made, but to see if I could hand it to somebody and they would say, “Oh, this makes sense.” Once I stopped trying to write movies to sell them or get them made, everything changed.

Then you made it yourself.

We shot it over two weeks on my vacation from directing The Jimmy Kimmel show. I hired a crew from Craigslist.