Jamie Kennedy – Heckle This!
Actor/comedian Jamie Kennedy has led a career thus far that many would kill for and others would probably kill him over. With notable turns in the Scream series, his own television shows The Jamie Kennedy Experiment and Blowin Up, as well as roles in Romeo+Juliet, Enemy of the State, and Three Kings just to name a few, Kennedy has certainly carved out a solid niche for himself in the overcrowded Hollywood community. However, with public assaults over projects like Malibu’s Most Wanted and Son of the Mask, Jamie Kennedy haters seemingly take as much glee in smashing his work as much as genuine fans who love and appreciate it.
IFQ recently spoke with Jamie Kennedy regarding his latest project and answer to the old and new school haters in Heckler, set for release on September 9th courtesy of Echo Bridge Home Entertainment. Both a treatise on the age old phenomenon of stand-up comedy heckling and ridiculously judgmental critics/bloggers, the film also allows Kennedy an opportunity to come to grips with the influence negative shots has had over his career and recognize valid criticism versus the mean-spirited attention-getting that passes for a substantial amount of film reviewing today.
IFQ: Regarding Heckler, what’s the backstory that led to its making, i.e. the initial idea behind it, raising the money, etc.?
JK: Basically I was getting ready to do a stand-up special and had to go back out on the road to work out my material and as I was doing that funny encounters would happen with people. I had them on film so when I’d see them while playing it back I’d start laughing and think “this is really interesting”. So then I started doing stuff that I knew people would heckle and kind of encouraged that so then people would start going back and forth with me and heckling. Then I started interviewing comedians and asked them about their heckles, I would get their footage and it started growing into this thing that I thought would be pretty interesting. And as I was doing it, I started reading stuff on the internet about myself and thought “wow, blogging is kind of now the new form of heckling” because it’s really one-sided but it’s worse. I started talking to comedians about it and they said that it’s way worse and that’s how it kind of built up from there. It was just a total little pet project. I knew it wasn’t anything that I could go out and get money for I just had to do it; so I did it myself and put my own money into it.
IFQ: Considering hecklers themselves, what has been the worst confrontation you have had with someone that sticks out in your mind?
JK: It would probably be really early in my career, people just saying I was really awful. I remember really early in my career someone shouted out “Next! You don’t have it!” And I was like “Whoa!” because all you have in the beginning of your career when you’re trying to make it is the dream of having “it”. Then you go from set to set or audition to audition and someone says that you don’t have “it”, you’re just like “Oh no! That’s all I have” (laughs). So it took me a little while until I did a show where I got some good laughs that I realized that that particular guy was wrong but it just affects you. You’re just this open gash, this open, vulnerable thing and that’s why you go up on stage. You’re trying to get better and basically saying “Accept me, look at me, laugh at me” and if they don’t it just kills. That one I remember was pretty brutal.
IFQ: Well, on the flip side of that coin, do you remember the harshest or most entertaining instance where you’ve completely shut a heckler down?
JK: There was a time in Canada that was pretty good where I was doing jokes about Canada and stuff. Everybody was really laughing and I was making fun of hockey saying that’s the only thing they do, things like that. And there was a really big black guy there and he said (in Jamaican patois) “Fuck you man! Fucking American piece of shit!” And I was like “Sir, you play hockey?” and he said “No man, but we hate Americans!” I said “How can you hate Americans? You’re from fucking Jamaica”. He got really mad and the audience then laughed at that so I said “Is that your girlfriend?” because there was a white girl next to him. He didn’t say anything. So then I said “Is that your girlfriend or are you just giving her a break for an hour before you put her back on the street?”
He then rushed the stage and came at me; the security guards blocked him before he got there and they were two black guys. I’m like “You see? It’s a black on black crime and in the end the white guy still wins.” He just got madder and madder and madder as I kept on pushing the buttons. Eventually at the end they wanted to throw him out and I said “Listen, I’m not going to throw him out. But I’m not going to end the show until he hugs me”. And I’m like “Everybody here hates you but I love you.” And I went on until he would hug me; so he then gets on the stage with the two security guards there to protect me and he hugged me.
IFQ: Over the course of the film, did your opinion about critics change at all, either positively or negatively, from what you may have felt about them before you started production?
JK: Oh yeah totally, the film was a complete education for me in that way. I never really had an opinion about critics before until I started starring in movies and TV. For the most part, until I did my own show, I was just an actor; I was in movies but no one ever really singled me out. And that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to do my own show, I wanted to become a star and show people my fun side. Listen, I value the critics’ opinions as much as anyone; I mean we all want validation so when I did my show I got a really good critical response from it and that felt awesome. The first turn happened when I did Malibu’s Most Wanted; I’d worked so hard on something and the critics just shit all over it. I didn’t even know that film would get reviewed that much because it was just a comedy. It just got destroyed and people didn’t get it. I’m like “What the fuck? Why do they do that?”
The thing is though the fans loved it so much, the fans that like me. And the people that love it really love it like “that’s a really sneaky cult hit”. It’s one of those things that gets better over time when you see the little inside jokes in it and whatnot. Anyway, that’s the first time where I was really stung. Then I was doing Son of the Mask and it was a really rough patch. We thought we’d take a chance and thought we could make something; the movie was not the movie we set out to make and the studio made a big change on it, they changed it and took a lot of things away.
IFQ: Things like that happen all the time in film and people rarely keep that in mind when watching something if they’re even aware of it at all.
JK: Yes that happens all the time and they never keep it in mind, and I just got lambasted. It was basically like if I did a bad take then I’m just a piece of shit, this and that, you know. So then [the criticism] really started to affect me but I couldn’t not read it; I’m just a glutton for punishment. So then I started hating critics and then the bloggers came and I was just like “What the fuck?”. They just have this mob mentality like the witch trials, and then people argue within the talkback section with each other and all this stuff. So first of all, it changed because [the film] educated me; I really got to see who these people are. You know it’s funny, some of my best reviews ever or most non-biased are from like The New York Times. I’m not kidding.
IFQ: Really?
JK: It’s kind of like my theory of like in the movie George Lucas was the easiest guy to get a release from as opposed to let’s say, the two Australian strippers who pulled their shirts up. The higher people are, the easier they are to deal with because that’s why they’re at the top. The cream rises to the top; if you’ve ever met Tom Hanks you realize why he’s the nicest guy. He’s the nicest, most approachable guy. And so with The New York Times, with my last movie, Kickin It Old Skool, they said “…it’s funnier than it has every right to be” and “…you can’t believe you’re actually laughing at this”. It’s backhanded but it’s way better than the Idaho Gazette going after it. But that’s what I’m saying, it’s because people who have watched film and have learned and lived a little are actually saying this.
They’re not in love with their job, they’re in love with film. They’re in love with movies, TV, whatever, that’s what they love. These other people are in love with their perception of the power they think they have. So it taught me, a) consider the source, who’s doing it and b) that they are very useful. There are some great critics out there and great bloggers out there too. And even bloggers that ultimately shit on you all the time like Perez Hilton who does it in an entertaining way, you at least know that’s apart of his shtick. Now is he harsh at times? Yeah, but it’s funny. So that’s what I was basically taught through this process.
IFQ: Well that makes me wonder about your opinion on what constitutes positive, constructive criticism versus the mean-spirited work that a lot of the guys you confront in the film put out there?
JK: Well again I want this to be separate so people understand this; this movie is not like me trying to be Captain Positivity. Because I am in the limelight and I choose to put something out there to say “Hey, take your attention away from what you’re doing and look at this”. So it is definitely ripe for criticism and should be, good or bad. And especially by the consumer, that’s why I love the Internet now because a critic can write something bad about you but Amazon feedback might give you four stars and love you. So the consumers are really what it’s about. Basically, I look for an educated person, just know what you’re talking about.
So many people write things and they have no idea; they just make things up. Like in the film one of the guys said how he hated Uwe Boll. Now whether you like Uwe Boll or not, most of the guys said things like “Yeah most of his movies suck, I mean I haven’t really seen any of them but you don’t have to.” And I’m like “Wait, you’re a reviewer? Yeah you do.” Or that one guy in the movie who said he hates my work; I’m like “You’ve seen one thing. Have you seen all the other stuff I’ve done?” and he basically says “Nah, I don’t need to. You stink”. And I’m like “Look at the other stuff”, you see that’s the whole thing; educate yourself and then if you don’t like it be specific about it like “…it’s a tired plot we’ve seen ten times before…the acting was like from a different movie…” then that’s fine. But don’t just say “…this guy sucks and he’s ugly and I’m tired of seeing him around”. So that’s what it is, if you’re trying to get popular from writing a review like that because you want to get people to read your column then ok. I can spot that a mile away now whereas before I couldn’t.
IFQ: To wrap things up, when people watch this film what ideas or information would you hope they take to heart besides sitting back and having a good time watching it?
JK: I would say criticize the piece, not the person. You know, go after what they’re doing not who they are; that’s the main thing. Whether it’s heckling like if you want to heckle a sports guy, heckle the way he plays not his private life. If you want to heckle a politician, heckle his policies, don’t heckle the way his nose looks.