Being Michael Stipe

WHILE HE’S PUBLISHED BOOKS OF HIS PHOTOGRAPHY, MICHAEL STIPE IS BEST KNOWN as the frontman for supergroup R.E.M. For most of the past decade, he’s also quietly gone about a mission of changing the face of American movies. As a producer, he’s put his interests and time behind projects both large and small, such as the remarkably funny documentary on no-budget filmmaking, American Movie. But his biggest splash to date is Being John Malkovich, the surreal, subversive comedy of what goes on in the minds of those who wonder what goes on in the minds of celebrities, written by first-timer Charlie Kaufman and directed by video wonder Spike Jonze.

Being John Malkovich takes big chances, starting with its nutty concept, its casting-against-type (John Cusack as a sniveling puppeteer; Cameron Diaz made ordinary as his unloved wife) and working through to its weird and farcical conclusion. It’s filled with the kind of artistry that doesn’t come from formula. We talked on a recent Saturday morning in New York, Stipe walking into the room with a freshly made omelet and hash browns.

Playboy.com: So what prompted you to produce?

Michael Stipe: I’ve been working in film for 12 years, which most people don’t know. Probably the only thing that came out with something of a wide release was Velvet Goldmine, the Todd Haynes glam-rock film. But I’ve done six feature films. Most of the stuff I’ve done is really under the radar.

PB: What do you like about film?

MS: Like music, it’s a very powerful medium. I’m drawn to it. I’m a photographer myself, and I have a lot of friends who work in the film business. There was a point in the early Nineties where I’d been working on very, very guerrilla independent films for a couple of years. Then I wanted to go Hollywood! I knew a lot of people who were incredibly frustrated with the material that they were offered as actors or directors or editors or writers or lighting people or what have you. Naively, I thought, Well, I’ll just create another film company that will make movies that don’t suck. It’s just as easy as that.

PB: So, most movies suck?

MS: Yes. I was on vacation in Athens for a week, having just come off tour with my band before I had to come up for this thing, and I really just wanted to just relax and go see movies with my friends. With all the multiplexes in Clarke County, Georgia, out of 35-odd films playing, I couldn’t find one fucking thing worth seeing that I hadn’t already seen, which was about three of them. I thought The Sixth Sense was wonderful.

PB: American Beauty is what everybody’s talking about.

MS: That was my movie! Seriously, I wanted that script. I thought it was great. We wanted to make it, but we were outbid.

PB: So Being John Malkovich counts as going Hollywood?

MS: This is it. This is my Hollywood. How d’ya like it? This is it.

PB: Did you know Malkovich before?

MS: We met after this project. Actually, we spoke on the phone years ago. I walked into my house after a fact-finding mission to South America and the phone rang. I picked it up, it was John Malkovich. I was asking him to this charitable, human rights thing, which he declined. But we met through this project. I don’t call that a relationship — a refusing phone call! But it was my brush with the greatness that is Malkovich.

PB: Was it always John Malkovich?

MS: Yeah. The short list of alternatives was really dire. And [screenwriter] Charlie [Kaufman] can’t answer, “Why John Malkovich?” For whatever reason, he always just shrugs his shoulders. There is really no one else who could have pulled it off.

PB: Did you ever consider a backup celebrity if Malkovich wouldn’t do it?

MS: No. There’s nobody else who really could have filled that. It was original enough of an idea that we could have tried to insert someone else, but I don’t think it would have worked.

PB: Why?

MS: Y’know, I can’t say. And honestly, believe me, we had a short list of “What if Malkovich is horribly offended and wants to sue us?” and “What if he says this is a crock of shit and I want nothing to do with it?” Who else could do it?

PB: There’s a rumor that Steve Buscemi’s name came up.

MS: Buscemi would be okaaaaay. But there’s something about Malkovich that’s more than his public persona. Which he so brilliantly sends up, and that takes, I’m sorry, that’s a lot of balls to really send yourself up like that.

PB: The obvious dumb question is, What would someone see with a portal into your brain?

MS: [Laughs] The scene where Lotte and Maxine are being chased through his subconscious [witnessing a dozen childhood humiliations]. It’d probably be not dissimilar to that.

PB: Anyone whose eyes you’d like to see through for 15 minutes?

MS: I don’t feel like I need a portal to see into people’s heads. It’s not that hard.

PB: If you sent yourself up musically, what would it be like?

MS: It would be not unlike some version of this film with the Spice Girls. I would go for the biggest buck. I would probably hire teenagers to lip-synch along and disguise my voice so it’s not Michael Stipe. I would hire beautiful young teenagers and strap them into latex and put them on stage.

PB: The Spice Girls?

MS: [Smiles] I wouldn’t do it. I would key into whatever was the next coming musical thing and do that.

PB: Do you find the movie business or the music business more treacherous?

MS: That’s such an easy answer. Film. Hands down. The music business is a walk in the park, because with MP3 all you need is a tape recorder and a guitar.

PB: Any interest in directing?

MS: No desire at all. I know directors who wake up in the morning and they see movies in their head and it’s their place in life. I’m 39 and pretty much I’ve made my mark in music and I’ve had an interest in film since I was 22 and I’ve been a photographer since I was 15. Those are my three creative outlets.

PB: The scenes when Malkovich goes into his own mind is deeply troubling, and so is the end where Malkovich becomes a conduit for dozens of souls.

MS: Yes, the woman on the piano is terrifying. I thought both scenes were brilliant plot twists and a fine ending for a film. It begs the questions, What are we? Who are we? How separate are we, one from the next? It asks all these questions of gender, questions of identity. I’m just hoping this film puts a few more chinks in the armor that is the studio system. [Originally published at playboy.com.]

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