WEBVTT 00:00:14.660 --> 00:00:18.300 Good morning St. Roma's Village by way of Tromaville, 00:00:18.390 --> 00:00:21.020 New Jersey and welcome to another episode of 00:00:21.080 --> 00:00:29.280 the Talkin' Troma podcast with your host me, Zack Beins. The show where we fall in a vat of toxic waste and 40 years later, 00:00:29.540 --> 00:00:32.099 A studlier version of us does it again. 00:00:33.120 --> 00:00:36.560 That's right, over 40 years ago, Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:41.300 made a film about a 98-pound weakling who fell into a barrel of toxic waste. 00:00:42.740 --> 00:00:47.140 Melvin Ferd then became international sensation, The Toxic Avenger. 00:00:48.140 --> 00:00:52.160 Toxie got three sequels, The Toxic Crusaders, Children's Cartoon Show, 00:00:52.700 --> 00:00:56.380 countless toys, comic books, video games, TV appearances. 00:00:56.950 --> 00:00:58.700 He became Troma's Mickey Mouse. 00:00:59.300 --> 00:01:05.480 Even if you don't know who Troma or Toxie is, you have at some point seen the iconic imagery 00:01:05.940 --> 00:01:11.300 of the poster with Toxie and his mop. Your grandma maybe even seen Toxie somewhere and didn't even 00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:17.500 realize it. The toxic Avenger made its way to a hungry video market before the over saturation 00:01:17.700 --> 00:01:23.180 of the big budget blockbusters, where such young whippersnappers like Peter Dinklage, Elijah Wood, 00:01:23.380 --> 00:01:28.680 Macon Blair, and even yours truly could pick it up, be shocked, and entertain and say, "Hey, 00:01:29.090 --> 00:01:35.000 I can make a movie too." Not too far after, horror remakes were becoming more and more commonplace 00:01:35.100 --> 00:01:40.260 with new versions of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, The Nightmare on Elm Street, 00:01:40.590 --> 00:01:45.200 and even Troma stepped in the ring with the Darren Limbosman-directed remake of Mother's Day. 00:01:46.160 --> 00:01:50.720 But this was Toxie, and all the stars needed to align for this to happen. 00:01:51.460 --> 00:01:56.380 It went through development hell. Several studios, writers, directors were attached. 00:01:56.890 --> 00:02:00.620 At one point, John Travolta and Arnold Schwarzenegger were slated to act in it, 00:02:01.360 --> 00:02:04.580 although who knows if they just got attached to keep Toxie in the trades. 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:12.220 Enter actor, writer, director, Macon Blair. Filming in Bulgaria, right off the hills of 00:02:12.220 --> 00:02:21.440 the pandemic, with a cast that was just as shocking as the rumors. Dinklage, Wood? Kevin 00:02:21.440 --> 00:02:26.520 movie we would get. Would it be family friendly? Will it have the same spirit as the original? 00:02:27.160 --> 00:02:31.660 Well, we would have to wait a little bit longer, because Toxie would need to find a distributor. 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:37.240 Legendary produced the film, but they are not in the business of distribution. It took 00:02:37.300 --> 00:02:37.660 a while. 00:02:39.100 --> 00:02:45.420 In the days, years, months, everybody was getting impatient, and they were getting news. 00:02:45.700 --> 00:02:50.400 People instantly assumed something was wrong with the movie. There was even unsubstantiated 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:52.300 reports that the movie was unreleasable. 00:02:53.260 --> 00:02:55.840 It played fantastic-fest to glowing reviews. 00:02:56.500 --> 00:02:57.380 And then Crickets again. 00:02:58.360 --> 00:03:03.420 I must confess, I saw an early cut of the film and was not entirely sure why it wasn't 00:03:03.480 --> 00:03:04.080 out yet either. 00:03:05.340 --> 00:03:05.900 Intercineverse. 00:03:06.500 --> 00:03:10.960 They had tremendous success with the release of Terrifier 3 and figured they could capture 00:03:11.040 --> 00:03:13.580 lightning again by putting out The Toxic Avenger. 00:03:14.420 --> 00:03:15.220 Were they successful? 00:03:15.940 --> 00:03:17.860 That's up to you, the listener. 00:03:18.720 --> 00:03:24.840 release of this episode, it is opening day of the Toxic Avenger. Are you showing the fuck up? I know 00:03:24.920 --> 00:03:29.820 I have my tickets, and I've invited all my friends to come along with me. You could be my friend too, 00:03:30.320 --> 00:03:36.360 at your local theater. One of my buddies, who's not too familiar with Toxie, saw the preview and 00:03:36.480 --> 00:03:41.060 asked me, "This is that thing you're always talking about, right? It's a pretty big deal, 00:03:41.260 --> 00:03:47.760 isn't it?" It really is. At the end of the day, we get a new Toxic Avenger movie. It'll bring more 00:03:47.760 --> 00:03:53.500 eyes on the film I grew up with and love, and it changed my life. It will help cement 00:03:53.580 --> 00:03:57.680 Troma's legacy and preserve them from being a footnote in the annals of film history. 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:03.520 So today, what we bring to you is an in-depth interview with Macon Blair, 00:04:03.940 --> 00:04:08.840 brought to you by producer extraordinaire Chris Lanphier. I wish I could have sat in on it, 00:04:09.220 --> 00:04:14.480 but as the Hollywood interview machine is, it's ready, set, go, so we dropped everything 00:04:14.480 --> 00:04:19.680 to get this once in a lifetime opportunity. Warning, there are spoilers, so do with that 00:04:19.780 --> 00:04:25.200 as you please. But enough of my rambling. Crack open an ice cold can of Toxic Waste, 00:04:25.540 --> 00:04:29.440 and on behalf of myself, Chris Lamphere, and the rest of the Talkin' Troma crew, 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:34.480 let me present to you our interview with Macon Blair. Be sure to show the fuck up 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:39.020 see Toxie in the theater. And remember to stay Tromatized. 00:04:57.300 --> 00:05:02.860 Macon Blair is a multi-hyphenate entertainer. You have seen him as an actor in films like Blue 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:08.220 Ruin, one of my personal favorites, Green Room, and a little small micro-budget film 00:05:08.420 --> 00:05:09.100 called Oppenheimer. 00:05:10.220 --> 00:05:15.420 His 2017 directorial debut, I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore, won the Grand 00:05:15.520 --> 00:05:19.960 Jury Prize at Sundance, and he wrote and directed the film we are here to talk about today, 00:05:20.980 --> 00:05:23.800 2025's The Toxic Avenger, which is in theaters now. 00:05:24.520 --> 00:05:26.560 Macon Blair, welcome to Talkin' Troma. 00:05:26.660 --> 00:05:27.180 How are you? 00:05:27.410 --> 00:05:28.000 I'm very well. 00:05:28.180 --> 00:05:29.180 Thanks for having me here. 00:05:29.480 --> 00:05:29.820 Yeah. 00:05:30.680 --> 00:05:33.780 first movie was kind of a micro budget thing. 00:05:33.900 --> 00:05:35.380 I don't feel at home in this world anymore. 00:05:35.800 --> 00:05:37.560 It had a budget of $1.5 million. 00:05:38.780 --> 00:05:41.340 The Toxic Avengers budget, over $20 million. 00:05:42.520 --> 00:05:45.520 Did you feel an additional pressure to deliver 00:05:45.780 --> 00:05:48.000 based on the larger scale of this production? 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:49.260 Yeah, for sure. 00:05:49.320 --> 00:05:50.620 I mean, I don't think I would say 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:53.180 one and a half million is a micro budget for me. 00:05:53.380 --> 00:05:55.360 Even that felt fucking enormous 00:05:56.680 --> 00:06:00.360 as far as what I had been exposed to up until that point. 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:04.380 So to go from that to something like Toxie, yeah, 00:06:04.460 --> 00:06:09.760 was just extraordinarily bigger as far as anything 00:06:09.760 --> 00:06:11.700 I'd ever worked with before. 00:06:12.580 --> 00:06:15.080 And there was certainly pressure there. 00:06:16.080 --> 00:06:19.420 But the studio that I was working with, Legendary, 00:06:20.080 --> 00:06:24.480 they had pursued the Toxic Avenger rights. 00:06:24.640 --> 00:06:28.400 They worked to form this partnership with Troma 00:06:28.400 --> 00:06:29.780 to do this new version. 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:32.780 They were very supportive of it from the beginning. 00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:34.160 They had pursued it. 00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:36.480 It was their movie that I came on to. 00:06:37.150 --> 00:06:40.360 And so I didn't feel pressure from that direction. 00:06:40.520 --> 00:06:42.760 I always felt very supported from that direction. 00:06:42.920 --> 00:06:45.540 And I felt like they will budget it 00:06:45.880 --> 00:06:48.800 however they feel is appropriate for what they wanna do 00:06:48.880 --> 00:06:50.240 and we'll work within that. 00:06:50.860 --> 00:06:54.020 The pressure that I did feel and continue to feel 00:06:54.280 --> 00:06:59.420 was wanting to honor what, however you wanna say it, 00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:02.180 a franchise, a character, a brand, whatever, 00:07:02.180 --> 00:07:05.100 the whole Troma thing, and specifically, 00:07:06.140 --> 00:07:10.000 Toxic Avenger is beloved by so many people for so long. 00:07:10.680 --> 00:07:13.800 And I just felt like I didn't want to do something 00:07:13.940 --> 00:07:16.780 that felt like it would step outside of that too much 00:07:16.780 --> 00:07:19.120 and just have the same title, 00:07:19.900 --> 00:07:22.560 but not bear any spiritual resemblance 00:07:22.860 --> 00:07:24.300 to the original thing. 00:07:24.300 --> 00:07:28.119 I felt like that wouldn't do a service 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:33.680 to the fans of the original and so that's really where I put 00:07:33.740 --> 00:07:37.200 the pressure on myself from that direction, 00:07:37.440 --> 00:07:39.040 much more so than the budget. 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:42.940 >> The spiritual succession is interesting because you have, 00:07:43.660 --> 00:07:47.540 the bones of the story are certainly there in your Toxie. 00:07:48.180 --> 00:07:50.600 But Winston Goose, played by Peter Dinklage, 00:07:50.740 --> 00:07:54.340 is a very distinct character from Melvin Furd in the original film. 00:07:54.600 --> 00:07:58.700 Melvin Ferd is of course a janitor at a health spa, 00:07:59.220 --> 00:08:01.400 and Winston is a janitor for 00:08:01.520 --> 00:08:04.480 a large health pharmaceutical company. 00:08:05.100 --> 00:08:08.420 Can you talk about the decision to change these aspects of the plot? 00:08:08.620 --> 00:08:11.320 Instead of having him be a nerd with a girlfriend, 00:08:11.880 --> 00:08:13.260 he's a father with a young son. 00:08:13.760 --> 00:08:21.839 >> Yeah. I had the gut feeling that if somebody is a fan of 00:08:21.840 --> 00:08:23.920 the toxic Avenger, right? 00:08:24.140 --> 00:08:26.760 And they're telling somebody that hasn't seen it 00:08:26.760 --> 00:08:27.500 to check it out. 00:08:28.260 --> 00:08:30.540 I kind of had this gut feeling that the things 00:08:30.600 --> 00:08:33.539 that they're talking about would have to do with, 00:08:34.070 --> 00:08:37.260 you know, the sense of humor and the vibe of the world 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:38.860 and the way the jokes play. 00:08:39.270 --> 00:08:40.940 I don't think that they're saying, like, 00:08:41.300 --> 00:08:44.000 "This is the storyline and this is why you're gonna like it. 00:08:44.020 --> 00:08:46.200 It's because he's a nerd at a health club." 00:08:46.760 --> 00:08:49.259 That's part of it, but I don't think that's the thing 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:52.160 necessarily that people fall in love with. 00:08:52.920 --> 00:08:54.960 And so I felt like what we needed to do 00:08:55.100 --> 00:08:59.820 was carry over those things, the vibe, the sense of humor, 00:09:00.500 --> 00:09:03.460 the sort of the entertainment value, 00:09:04.020 --> 00:09:08.420 but have the actual details of the character's story 00:09:09.460 --> 00:09:11.680 be its own thing so it didn't feel redundant. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:14.860 Like I wanted it to feel like the original 00:09:15.060 --> 00:09:17.540 without being a literal retelling of like, 00:09:17.560 --> 00:09:20.200 okay, he's trying to get a date at the health club. 00:09:20.650 --> 00:09:22.980 I felt like it kind of, to justify itself, 00:09:23.050 --> 00:09:24.700 it needed to do its own thing 00:09:24.770 --> 00:09:28.080 while staying true to the roots of the original. 00:09:28.700 --> 00:09:30.280 And so if we're gonna do that, 00:09:30.660 --> 00:09:34.560 then it stood to reason as far as I was concerned 00:09:34.860 --> 00:09:36.560 that it should just be a different character. 00:09:36.650 --> 00:09:37.860 He should have a different name 00:09:39.540 --> 00:09:41.800 because there's kind of an inherent question 00:09:41.800 --> 00:09:45.279 in all of this, like the original Toxic Avenger 00:09:45.280 --> 00:09:48.880 is so singular that it's sort of like, why redo it at all? 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:51.180 And so it's, and to me, the answer was like, 00:09:51.260 --> 00:09:53.740 well, to sort of take the vibe of the original 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:55.100 and do something fresh with it. 00:09:55.500 --> 00:09:58.240 But if we're just gonna do literally the exact same thing, 00:09:58.360 --> 00:10:00.720 he's a nerd in a health club, he's trying to get a date, 00:10:01.640 --> 00:10:03.720 you know, the bullies at the health club 00:10:03.880 --> 00:10:05.440 trick him into the toxic waste. 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:08.060 If it's a beat by beat retelling, 00:10:08.740 --> 00:10:11.020 then it really puts a spotlight on the question 00:10:11.140 --> 00:10:12.440 of why do it at all. 00:10:12.600 --> 00:10:15.260 And so that was sort of the reasoning 00:10:15.260 --> 00:10:16.060 made sense to me. 00:10:16.520 --> 00:10:23.760 >> I agree. I've always felt that with reimaginings of beloved media properties that you have 00:10:23.760 --> 00:10:29.680 to introduce something new. You have to find a way to make that story yours because the 00:10:29.760 --> 00:10:36.840 story that you're reinterpreting, it's already been told. That version of that story already 00:10:36.920 --> 00:10:37.500 exists. 00:10:37.500 --> 00:10:37.780 >> Exactly. 00:10:37.820 --> 00:10:43.540 >> With Toxie, it's been retold a few different ways with the cartoon series and the sequels 00:10:43.540 --> 00:10:46.440 retconning the first movie and additional other things. 00:10:47.400 --> 00:10:49.000 If people want that story, 00:10:49.100 --> 00:10:50.000 they've already got that. 00:10:50.460 --> 00:10:53.240 But this movie gives people an opportunity to 00:10:54.679 --> 00:10:58.340 experience a very similar story that has the same bones, 00:10:58.560 --> 00:11:02.180 the same DNA of the original while still being its own thing, 00:11:02.630 --> 00:11:04.540 which I appreciate and I think a lot of people 00:11:04.600 --> 00:11:07.040 will appreciate once they see the movie. 00:11:07.650 --> 00:11:08.940 >> That's a great way to say it. 00:11:08.940 --> 00:11:12.240 I think I use 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:17.360 Batman analogy a lot where there's all these different Batman. You've got an Adam West Batman 00:11:17.560 --> 00:11:23.740 that couldn't be any more different from the Christian Bale Batman, but they're all Batman, 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:30.580 and they all exist side by side. And one doesn't preclude the other one from existing. It's just 00:11:30.650 --> 00:11:36.860 sort of in addition to whatever tradition was started. So I kind of looked at it as this would 00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:46.400 just be a continuation of however you want to say it, the lore or the mythology. But 00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:52.260 as you say, it's in addition to all of those originals, the comics, the cartoons, 00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:58.200 the first four movies, not in place of. >> Yeah, I know that before the trailers 00:11:58.400 --> 00:12:04.820 were released and people started seeing dinklage in the suit and the look and feel of the new Toxie, 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:07.620 there was a lot of discourse online with people saying, 00:12:07.900 --> 00:12:09.720 "Oh, it's too different from the original," or, 00:12:09.860 --> 00:12:11.800 "Oh, it's not exactly what I thought it would be." 00:12:11.800 --> 00:12:14.060 It's like, well, what you thought it would be, 00:12:14.260 --> 00:12:15.420 you've had for 40 years. 00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:20.660 This is an opportunity to expand it and adapt it and 00:12:21.660 --> 00:12:24.300 give it a fresh coat of paint and see where it goes. 00:12:24.380 --> 00:12:28.440 Personally, having watched the movie several times now, 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:33.400 I think it's a tremendous success because all the bones are there, 00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:37.320 all the heart is there, all of the silliness, 00:12:37.580 --> 00:12:41.880 the slapstick, the stuff that Troma fans really love is there. 00:12:42.520 --> 00:12:43.840 >> I'm glad you said that. 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:50.960 To be honest, I've faded away from online existence lately, 00:12:50.980 --> 00:12:55.260 so I actually wasn't terribly aware of any discourse. 00:12:55.400 --> 00:12:57.420 But yeah, it's true, 00:12:57.560 --> 00:12:58.860 it's he looks different. 00:12:59.400 --> 00:13:02.860 We went through a process of different looks for him, 00:13:02.880 --> 00:13:05.520 and some of them were very, very close 00:13:05.570 --> 00:13:07.260 to the original design. 00:13:07.540 --> 00:13:09.920 And to me, it felt like a little too close. 00:13:10.040 --> 00:13:12.960 And some went way fucking far afield 00:13:13.100 --> 00:13:14.740 where he was very melty and drippy. 00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:17.880 And some he looked like, almost like a vampire. 00:13:18.040 --> 00:13:20.600 We had designs where he had like white skin and stuff 00:13:20.640 --> 00:13:22.580 and none of them really felt right. 00:13:22.640 --> 00:13:25.260 And the way we landed on this one was the idea 00:13:25.420 --> 00:13:30.360 of really wanting to be able to see the physical 00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:33.680 facial features of whoever the actor was that's playing, 00:13:33.900 --> 00:13:35.860 you know, the human before he mutates, 00:13:36.420 --> 00:13:40.580 seeing that in the makeup prosthetics. 00:13:40.800 --> 00:13:41.580 So it feels consistent. 00:13:42.280 --> 00:13:43.620 And the other thing you just, a moment ago, 00:13:43.800 --> 00:13:47.120 before I forget, you said something that I clocked to, 00:13:47.280 --> 00:13:48.740 that I really appreciated, which was, 00:13:49.030 --> 00:13:50.800 you mentioned the word silly and you mentioned 00:13:50.880 --> 00:13:51.580 the word heart. 00:13:52.620 --> 00:13:56.480 And well before I even had the job to work on this, 00:13:56.560 --> 00:13:59.279 when I was just having these preliminary conversations 00:13:59.280 --> 00:14:03.040 with Legendary, they had just hooked up with Troma 00:14:03.140 --> 00:14:05.220 and gotten the rights to do a new version 00:14:05.340 --> 00:14:06.580 and they were soliciting pitches. 00:14:07.980 --> 00:14:09.900 So it wasn't even at a point where they were talking 00:14:09.960 --> 00:14:11.720 about what's the story, it was more just like, 00:14:11.780 --> 00:14:12.960 what's the vibe gonna be? 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:15.300 And that was, I didn't have a story, 00:14:15.400 --> 00:14:17.280 but I was like, the vibe should be, 00:14:17.980 --> 00:14:22.840 like, it can't be a grim, dark, self-serious version. 00:14:22.980 --> 00:14:27.200 It really should be silly and it should be heartfelt 00:14:27.300 --> 00:14:29.260 in some way 'cause those are the things 00:14:29.260 --> 00:14:32.340 always reacted to in the original movies. 00:14:32.400 --> 00:14:34.860 I felt like if we got too far away from that, 00:14:35.020 --> 00:14:37.120 that it would be a bad move. 00:14:37.310 --> 00:14:41.700 >> Agree. I think people love the violence, 00:14:41.800 --> 00:14:43.640 and the over-the-top gore, 00:14:43.740 --> 00:14:45.520 and the nudity, and all those things. 00:14:45.640 --> 00:14:49.360 But I think what people really stick around for is the heart. 00:14:49.900 --> 00:14:51.280 Do you remember the first time 00:14:51.580 --> 00:14:53.160 that you saw the original Toxic Avenger? 00:14:53.550 --> 00:14:57.640 >> Absolutely. That was how this whole thing came to be. 00:14:57.760 --> 00:15:04.200 I was in sixth grade and this was in the mid to late '80s. 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:08.620 And in those days, in the olden times, 00:15:08.760 --> 00:15:11.180 you would find movies by, well, there was two ways. 00:15:11.280 --> 00:15:13.720 One was you look at the cover of the videotapes 00:15:13.780 --> 00:15:15.900 'cause they would put them face out in the video store 00:15:16.040 --> 00:15:17.960 and you just, whatever had the coolest cover. 00:15:18.860 --> 00:15:22.000 And also it was older brothers and sisters 00:15:22.640 --> 00:15:25.960 would come around and tell you what the cool album 00:15:25.960 --> 00:15:27.980 is to listen to or what the cool movie is to see. 00:15:28.620 --> 00:15:31.180 And my buddy, his older brother came around 00:15:31.320 --> 00:15:34.560 with this VHS tape that had this weird mutant guy 00:15:34.640 --> 00:15:36.140 on the cover with the American flag 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:38.860 and the tutu and the mop, and it just looked insane. 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:41.260 And he was like, "You have to watch this." 00:15:41.480 --> 00:15:43.040 And we did. 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:46.260 We popped it in the VCR and watched it. 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:49.820 And we're kind of flabbergasted on one level 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:52.700 by how absurd and over the top 00:15:52.780 --> 00:15:54.900 and a very entertaining way it was. 00:15:54.920 --> 00:15:58.160 We were laughing hysterically the whole way through. 00:15:59.220 --> 00:16:02.500 But the other thing that was really significant 00:16:02.760 --> 00:16:06.140 was it was kind of one of the first times, 00:16:06.140 --> 00:16:07.220 at least that I can remember, 00:16:07.520 --> 00:16:10.340 that I had seen a movie that really felt homemade. 00:16:10.960 --> 00:16:13.620 I was really fascinated and interested with movies 00:16:14.360 --> 00:16:17.500 from a young age, but it was studio movies. 00:16:17.500 --> 00:16:20.780 It was Star Wars and big, big movies 00:16:20.880 --> 00:16:23.240 that seemed very magical and far away. 00:16:23.280 --> 00:16:26.420 and how they made them was very mysterious. 00:16:27.220 --> 00:16:29.200 This looked like a bunch of people with a mask 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:32.140 running around in their hometown, 00:16:32.300 --> 00:16:33.640 like doing it on their own. 00:16:33.780 --> 00:16:36.940 And we watched this coincidentally at a time 00:16:37.140 --> 00:16:42.100 when we had gotten our hands on a video camera, 00:16:42.200 --> 00:16:45.120 like a VHS half-inch video camera. 00:16:45.900 --> 00:16:47.900 And we were running around trying to make 00:16:48.080 --> 00:16:50.260 our own little movies. 00:16:50.570 --> 00:16:52.420 They were terrible, but it was just sort of like, 00:16:52.440 --> 00:16:55.720 oh, we'll figure out how to do makeup and squibs 00:16:55.780 --> 00:16:58.400 and shoot little action scenes and stuff like that. 00:16:58.460 --> 00:17:01.620 And so watching Toxie, the sense of humor, 00:17:02.100 --> 00:17:05.020 and which we were the right age for it, 00:17:05.060 --> 00:17:07.540 it has this juvenile kind of sense of humor 00:17:07.600 --> 00:17:10.040 that really appealed to us right at that right time. 00:17:10.959 --> 00:17:14.740 But also just the sort of do-it-yourself quality to it 00:17:14.800 --> 00:17:16.459 was kind of inspirational. 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:18.140 And we took both of those things 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:21.500 as we were starting to figure out how to make our own movies 00:17:21.500 --> 00:17:25.400 and it became influential in that way. 00:17:25.800 --> 00:17:27.699 The style of the jokes and 00:17:27.740 --> 00:17:32.520 the deliberate tastelessness of it as a way to be funny, 00:17:33.060 --> 00:17:37.100 became a big part of the things that we were trying to make at that time. 00:17:37.400 --> 00:17:40.480 >> It's the movie that's not afraid to show it seems, 00:17:41.260 --> 00:17:45.280 and the fact that it gives it that homemade quality and 00:17:45.320 --> 00:17:48.420 that DIY punk rock ethos. 00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:54.120 >> Troma is often credited with bringing the punk rock aesthetic to filmmaking, 00:17:54.970 --> 00:17:56.780 and that's very clear in that film. 00:17:57.090 --> 00:17:59.920 >> Yeah. You mentioned seeing the seams. 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:02.480 I find that very charming. 00:18:02.940 --> 00:18:06.380 So there was something about on this movie, 00:18:06.650 --> 00:18:08.540 we had a lot of talks internally, 00:18:09.130 --> 00:18:11.040 in particular with the DP, 00:18:11.400 --> 00:18:14.000 who's a really sharp guy named Dana Gonzalez, 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:16.720 and also the designer, Alex Cameron. 00:18:18.380 --> 00:18:21.600 And it was this idea that like on one hand, 00:18:22.260 --> 00:18:24.820 it's a big movie and, or I mean, 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:27.660 relative to what I was used to, it was a very big movie. 00:18:27.840 --> 00:18:30.580 And so we're sort of trying to appeal 00:18:30.780 --> 00:18:33.620 to a broad audience in that way, but at the same time, 00:18:34.340 --> 00:18:38.060 and it goes back to the question of tone and vibe, 00:18:39.080 --> 00:18:42.020 without having it be too obvious, 00:18:42.020 --> 00:18:45.220 we kind of wanted to bake in the feeling that like, 00:18:46.680 --> 00:18:49.520 we just had one camera and a tripod, you know? 00:18:49.800 --> 00:18:53.680 And like, so we tried to avoid overly complicated 00:18:54.060 --> 00:18:56.600 camera moves or things that made it seem like, 00:18:57.280 --> 00:18:58.560 look how flashy the budget is. 00:18:58.560 --> 00:19:01.060 We tried to deliberately sort of constrain ourselves. 00:19:01.320 --> 00:19:03.000 And we broke this rule here and there, 00:19:03.100 --> 00:19:05.720 but for the most part, we tried to sort of keep it 00:19:07.400 --> 00:19:11.100 a little contained and a little smaller 00:19:11.280 --> 00:19:15.360 so it had the feeling of that kind of homemade quality 00:19:15.360 --> 00:19:18.440 that I found very appealing about the originals. 00:19:18.840 --> 00:19:22.700 So we tried to sort of feather that into our choices whenever we could. 00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:27.520 >> Part of the legacy of the original film is that it's a movie that's kind of definitively 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:32.940 80s but also has a certain timelessness to it that's allowed it to live on for as long as it has. 00:19:33.980 --> 00:19:37.420 When you made your Toxie, did you approach to making that 00:19:37.700 --> 00:19:41.300 with the idea that it'd be a similar time capsule of here and now? 00:19:41.300 --> 00:19:44.040 >> Totally. It was like, I mean, 00:19:44.290 --> 00:19:47.680 there are aspects to it like, 00:19:48.460 --> 00:19:51.960 there's a reference to social media and there's smartphones, 00:19:52.460 --> 00:19:53.840 and there's little things here and there that 00:19:54.100 --> 00:19:56.920 suggest it's a contemporary story. 00:19:56.920 --> 00:19:58.800 But I really like the idea that it is 00:19:58.880 --> 00:20:02.300 a self-contained little weirdo universe 00:20:02.700 --> 00:20:04.380 that is slightly out of time. 00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:09.280 So we didn't really specify exactly when or where it was, 00:20:09.280 --> 00:20:11.400 but when we were choosing picture cars 00:20:11.500 --> 00:20:13.000 that you would just see in the background or whatever, 00:20:13.100 --> 00:20:16.600 we tried to push for things that were 20 or 25 years old. 00:20:16.740 --> 00:20:19.020 When we were talking with Vanessa Porter, 00:20:19.140 --> 00:20:20.060 the costume designer, 00:20:20.740 --> 00:20:22.420 what sort of clothes people would wear, 00:20:22.540 --> 00:20:26.000 we would sort of try and push it towards a more 90s 00:20:26.650 --> 00:20:29.440 kind of look without making it hopefully feel like, 00:20:29.520 --> 00:20:31.600 oh, this is taking place in 1995, 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:35.720 but just so you have this kind of feeling 00:20:35.820 --> 00:20:38.120 that it's not exactly precisely connected 00:20:38.120 --> 00:20:43.280 to a particular time period that felt just as important as what I was just saying about 00:20:43.360 --> 00:20:48.180 the camera moves and the makeup and everything else, having it felt a little bit outside 00:20:48.180 --> 00:20:48.680 of time. 00:20:49.420 --> 00:20:51.300 >> Let's talk about Peter Dinklage for a second. 00:20:51.940 --> 00:20:58.240 Because it's still, despite the fact that it was announced and there were so many other 00:20:58.320 --> 00:21:02.240 rumors of people being attached to it, like Arnold Schwarzenegger was attached to it before 00:21:02.320 --> 00:21:03.500 you came on at one point. 00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:07.880 been a strange journey to get here and even though I've seen the movie, 00:21:08.590 --> 00:21:12.800 it still boggles my mind that Peter Dinklage plays the toxic adventure. 00:21:13.680 --> 00:21:16.940 He's been traditionally known for heavy dramatic acting, 00:21:17.120 --> 00:21:19.180 but he gets to have a lot of fun in this movie. 00:21:19.900 --> 00:21:23.680 Can you talk about your approach to working with an actor of his caliber? 00:21:24.360 --> 00:21:29.360 >> Yeah. I had met him at a film festival and he had seen 00:21:29.460 --> 00:21:33.360 my first movie and he reached out to me and was just very kindly, 00:21:33.420 --> 00:21:34.480 was like, "Hey, I like this. 00:21:36.620 --> 00:21:37.880 You wanna get a beer sometime?" 00:21:37.880 --> 00:21:38.560 Like that kind of thing. 00:21:38.660 --> 00:21:42.900 And so we just, we sort of met semi-informally that way. 00:21:43.060 --> 00:21:44.660 And then we kind of stayed in touch 00:21:46.540 --> 00:21:48.420 where every couple of times a year 00:21:48.520 --> 00:21:50.140 I would send them a script to read 00:21:50.140 --> 00:21:51.300 or he might send me a script 00:21:51.380 --> 00:21:52.840 and just sort of like trying to see 00:21:52.840 --> 00:21:54.380 if there was anything we could work on together. 00:21:54.600 --> 00:21:58.080 So when we got to the point of Toxie was, 00:21:58.500 --> 00:21:59.400 you know, we had a script 00:21:59.520 --> 00:22:02.140 and Legendary was committed to make it. 00:22:02.600 --> 00:22:04.460 and we were getting into the casting, 00:22:05.860 --> 00:22:10.860 it just felt to me that we've got about 25 minutes, 00:22:10.940 --> 00:22:13.720 maybe 30 minutes at the start of the movie 00:22:13.880 --> 00:22:18.000 where the audience really needs to connect with this guy. 00:22:18.780 --> 00:22:23.580 And he doesn't have a big monologue, 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:28.960 or there's not a big arc for him to latch onto 00:22:29.500 --> 00:22:31.980 to connect him to the audience. 00:22:32.020 --> 00:22:34.000 He's just kind of, with his presence, 00:22:34.500 --> 00:22:36.480 he's just got to be sympathetic 00:22:36.650 --> 00:22:38.660 and they've got to get on his side very quickly 00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:41.060 before he mutates into the makeup 00:22:41.360 --> 00:22:43.800 and then we don't really see him anymore. 00:22:44.900 --> 00:22:48.280 And I just thought like he has this quality of, 00:22:48.580 --> 00:22:53.700 my theory is like, I think people who watched Game of Thrones 00:22:54.080 --> 00:22:56.100 tended to say that Tyrion might've been 00:22:56.160 --> 00:22:57.820 their favorite character for this reason, 00:22:57.900 --> 00:23:01.460 that he just has this charismatic quality 00:23:01.460 --> 00:23:04.180 that while doing or saying very little, 00:23:04.230 --> 00:23:06.040 he can connect with the audience. 00:23:06.580 --> 00:23:09.380 He's also, you mentioned he does these dramatic roles 00:23:09.380 --> 00:23:11.240 and that's true, but he's also very funny. 00:23:11.500 --> 00:23:15.860 And so I felt like this would be a great use of him 00:23:15.980 --> 00:23:18.540 to in that short amount of time at the start of the movie 00:23:19.020 --> 00:23:20.900