Sorry viewers, we’re running late again. We got sucked into adding friends to our MySpace page - you know how it is… Anyhoo, here’s part two of our interview with Richard Linklater and Eric Schlosser.
Were the stars in the film keen to do it because of the issues raised?
Richard Linklater: I think some were and some we didn’t really talk that much about the issues. They liked their characters and they liked where they were going. It didn’t feel like we were making some big activist piece. We were making a piece of drama. I felt very fortunate that these people came aboard and wanted to be in the movie. They certainly didn’t do it for the money. It was an off-the-grid movie with no backing from the industry.
Was it difficult to raise the financing?
RL: I couldn’t have done this on my own, that’s for sure. If it was a project that I was trying to do, I’d still be trying to finance it. I got lucky that the producer [Jeremy Thomas] was initially involved with Eric. We got almost half our budget from Participant, a private company in the US putting money into movies that deal with ethical issues. So as a filmmaker, I got lucky – I got lucky to be able to make this film at all. It’s not a film anyone wanted to make. The industry certainly doesn’t want to make a film like this. They certainly don’t want to make a film that has a bummer ending like this!
Eric Schlosser: The money was provided without any strings. Rick not only had final cut but this film was made without the people raising the money putting any pressure on us.
RL: If you made this in Hollywood, it’s be watered down – in a really nice way. They don’t say ‘don’t do it’; they just beat you to death in a very nice way about an issue and it disappears from the movie.
What was the time-scale with your other film, A Scanner Darkly?
RL: I shot Scanner Darkly two years ago – May 2004. We had already written the script to this – we had been working on this since 2002. It was just a matter of this all coming together. I finished them at the same time but I shot them almost a year-and-a-half apart. This was a very quick post-production. One screening, locked picture, sound mix, done… Scanner took forever. The longest post I’ve ever had. It takes 500 hours to do one minute of animation…
What effect has the book had on the fast food industry?
ES: I wouldn’t claim that what I wrote has changed the world in any way. As a writer, it’s amazing how many people have read the book. It’s far more than I ever thought. I have people come over to me and tell me that it changed them, and that’s an amazing thing. Since the book came out, in the last five years, you’re seeing a whole new attitude towards food. I think it’s happening among educated people, and upper-income people. And the goal now is to spread the awareness to people who are ordinary working people, or the poor. Right now, fast food companies are aggressively targeting low-income communities. They have their own advertising agencies for African-American and Latino customers. They know that as upper-middle class and middle class are rejecting fast food, they have to put more and more pressure on to get poor people to eat it. So there have been big changes – there are even a few healthy items on some of these fast food menus…
RL: That’s mostly political cover, though, when they say, ‘Oh, we have a healthy menu. We have salads. We got fruit. It’s up to individual choice.’ But they’re making all their profits now from the dollar meal – a double-cheeseburger for a dollar. Very cheap. But that’s what they’re targeting. I mean, who goes to McDonalds to eat a salad?
ES: They don’t sell the salad for a dollar either – the salad is more expensive than the burger.
Finally, do you both eat burgers?
RL: I eat veggie burgers. It’s a good time to eat healthy if you want to try.
ES: I still eat burgers. I just don’t eat those ones. I like them from real meat produced from animals raised the right way. But I won’t eat this industrial meat.
Fast Food Nation opens in Falmouth next Friday, Plymouth on June 15 and Exeter on June 22. See the weekly D+CFilm arthouse roundup for details.
Posted by Thin White Duke
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