You mentioned that you were taking a few months off right now which is the reason for the beard.  So, do you have some things that you’re thinking about because there’s a lot of rumors about a strike happening next June.  I’m sure there’s a lot of movies out there that are…

It’s probably not the best time to be taking off, huh? 

Actually, it might be the best time to be taking off, then when something gears up in January you might be free.

That’s true. Actually it’s weird because I know the climate right now is that everyone is sort of grabbing up everything because there’s this impending strike coming.  Who knows if there’s going to be a strike coming but I don’t want to grab something to grab it. I mean, I’m not starving.  I’ll be fine.

Is there a sense of panic out there because of that or do you think it’s going to happen?

I honestly haven’t opened my union mail since ’91 so I don’t know.  I honestly don’t know.  It’s not even my union, it’s the writers unions and I’m the least qualified human being on the planet Earth to even discuss that.  I just know that it’s supposedly going to happen or maybe it’s going to happen.  I don’t know.

I guess what I was trying to get at was are you purposely not working or are you just waiting for the right script to take the next role?

Oh, I always just waiting for the right script.  I’m never not working intentionally. It’s just a matter of finding the right thing. It’s difficult.  I don’t want to work just to work. Lots of people can do that. I’ve done that before and deeply regretted it. 

You don’t want to mention the film do you?

I don’t want to mention the film.

Do you have anything that you’re planning on doing during your time between movies?

Yeah, I’ve just been traveling.  I was just in Africa which was really cool and saw Maloui which is an interesting place.  I’m always writing and tooling around that way.

How was Europe?

Europe was incredibly European.  I was all over.  I was having a little…I used to backpack when I was younger and loved it.

Would you do that again?

Backback?  I think I can actually safely say I can’t do the hostel thing anymore.  I’m a little too spoiled but I could definitely backpack it around Europe.

I was going to say, can you go through Europe and be anonymous or do you get noticed?

I get noticed. It depends on where I am.  Like Spain, no problem, I can wander all around there and no one gives a shit.  But there are other places, yeah. The German’s.  That Van Wilder is a party animal.

You mentioned you’re writing.  What type of material are you writing?

I’ve always written stuff.  It’s never like script format.  I did some stuff for the Post for awhile and just little shit-agrams.  

So you’re a member of the blogosphere?

I guess so.  What qualifies it as a blog? I don’t what is the criteria?

No one else reads it.

I think that’s exactly it, right.  If no one is reading it then it’s a blog. Wow, oh that’s great. So actually I’m inner monologueing that’s what I’m really doing.  Yeah, I’ve always just kind of written little things.  I’ve been a part of writers circle for a long time so I’m on that but that’s not really for public consumption.

You don’t care about the writer’s strike that’s coming up?

Well, no.  It’s not how my bread and butter is issued.  But I imagine it is for them so John (August) would probably be a much better person to talk to about that.  I believe he opens his mail.

Was there anything in The Nines that you were nervous about doing or apprehencious about doing before you did it?

No, the biggest thing for me was being really careful about Part 2.  Just John and when I started I baby stepped it and checked it out and he’s ok if I’m going this far with it and he was not just ok, he was very happy with it. It was really liberating but it was the one I’d given the least amount of thought to as well because I was so overwhelmed. It was the last one we were shooting, the last piece and it was like one of those nightmares that I just kept putting in the back of my mind like I have no idea how I’m going to do this.  There’s very little script for it.  It’s all kind of improvised reality television kind of feel so it really speaks…you try different processes every time I do a movie.  The research is insane.  It’s so overkill.  I have no life beforehand and I don’t think you see it on the screen as much as I would like to believe.  Like I’d feel like sometimes you can just shoot from the hip and it’s great.  There’s something to be said about just surrendering to something instead of just trying to shape it into something.  I really learned a lot doing that one.  I just really just dove in and I let go and I surrendered and just let myself be it as opposed to trying to figure it out, have some sort of logical equation as to how to play John, you know, just listen to him and do it.

Have you done that level of improv on film before?

In comedies, yeah, but it’s usually just designed to offend as much as possible. It’s unusual to say oh, you can use this power for good.  This is neat.  No, I’d never done it like that before. That was just all out.

You and Melissa had great chemistry on the screen.

Yeah, I love her.

 More so than you and I forget the other woman’s name?

Oh, Hope Davis.  She’s no small fry either though, Hope Davis. 

How did you two develop such a good chemistry?

I just love Melissa you know what I mean?  I think chemistry is something you can never force and if you try to you see it but if you have it it’s great.  Just from the moment I met Melissa, she’s just like a …you guys have already met her I’m sure…she’s hilarious. The woman is just…

How do you describe this film to your friends who haven’t seen it?

God, I don’t.  I don’t.  I say it’s a charming story about a boy and his dog.  I don’t know what to tell them. It’s really a difficult movie to log line. Most people want to kind of grab onto like what they think is a hook which is oh, you play 3 different people in one movie and it’s not really a hook it’s actually part of the story. It’s not done in this indulgent vain kind of way.  So most people kind of grab onto that.  My parents—oh, that’s the one where you play 3 different people. Oh, I can’t wait to see that.  My mother’s Marge Simpson.  It’s a difficult thing to explain, I usually say it’s 3 separate stories that interlock in mysterious ways.

Well, it’s partly a musical when Hope starts singing.

It is. It has a little bit of that as well.  It was definitely strange. I can’t say that I fully understood what was happening in that moment, but when you see it you do but at least I do but yeah, it was definitely odd though.  It was a great song, though.

Yeah, and I was expecting more like musical numbers and it was like that’s it?

I don’t think it would so well in part 3—the musical number in the woods there with Hope.

What was your experience like at Sundance?  You went didn’t you?

Yeah, I did--the Hollywood ski trip. To be honest I have very little patience for all that stuff, it’s like you just want to get in and out of there as fast as possible.  I’m surprised Girls Gone Wild isn’t showing there. It’s pretty crazy. I mean it’s like oh, why don’t you come in and go to the Prada tent or the Adidas tent and you’re like this is like the free shoes for the rich program. I don’t understand.  Why are all these people lining up and you made $20 million last year and you’re like oh, this is crazy?  So Sundance, I went 10 years ago for the 1^st movie I ever did in L.A. and it was pretty commercial then and there’s nothing wrong with things being commercial but it’s just called the Sundance you know the independent film festival—it’s like one of the biggest ones and it’s always kind of strange.  But it’s just weird seeing all these people that you’re used to seeing driving around in their Bentley’s and Porche’s suddenly everyone’s in parkas and windbreakers. It’s just bizarre.

Do you not like it because it is too commercial or because there’s too many people?

No I don’t like it because it’s sensory overload.  There’s no peace to it. It’s absolutely crazy.  You land and you do 500 interviews, you go to some completely crazy party and you go screen the film and it’s like the 5^th thing on the list—the film that you’re promoting.

You might want to stay away from Comic-Con.

Yeah. I’ve been to Comic-Con but I’m charmed by Comic-Con—I don’t know why. I find it really kind of charming.

But there’s no Prada tents.

Yeah.  There’s no Prada tents. There’s none of that stuff.  These are just people that are really like into this and you wander around and you see all these guys in their Stormtrooper outfits and you just like wonder what that is like to wear.  What does that smell like?  My God.  It’s just awesome.  I could wander around and people watch all day.  It’s great.

Do you pick up comics when you’re there or do you just kind of watch it?

I don’t actually go.  I’ve been just for a movie before but I’ve never gone as a participant or anything like that but when I did go I went to a couple of different ones and they were pretty cool.  It was like wandering around like from pavilion to pavilion and stuff.  I read comics every once in a while but not religiously.