I also read that your men refuse to learn from I think the trick is, if you really believe that ninety minutes later so it’s in real time essentially.
their experiences. Do you agree with that? someone loves you and you can take that in fully, I don’t know that they’d have time; I don’t know
you can accept that information. that that guy has time to realize what he’s done or
That’s interesting, that’s probably fairly true because to make amends for it. It’s somewhere in the sequel
a lot of them get away with things. Not necessarily I think so too, and ultimately you find that at the I am never asked to write.
like out right cruelties, like say, In The Company Of core of this [relationship] she can’t sustain this. So it
Men for instance. That’s a little rigged because that starts with this explosion in the middle of that fight. Which is great for you in a way to focus on the
is somebody who really is cruel and says from the And the story is, will they ever be able to reconcile mountain of tension that you are trying to get to.
outset, “let’s do this thing, watch what happens, and with each other. Women are told to be pretty. It’s not
see how funny it is.” And that’s different than people as important for guys; we don’t even look at it as our I think this next play takes another step. I mean if
who just bumble along and make mistakes or have number one thing. And if you’re told that that you look at The Shape Of Things it ends with these
something revealed to them. I think that’s probably should be one of your great attributes and it’s not, two people at odds with each other. That is man and
true cause we are slow to learn. We do make the what do you do? You just hope that people just woman standing across the abyss, not even just man
same mistakes often in life. We’re drawn to the same don’t bring it up in casual conversation. [Laughs] and woman but artist and subject. And then in Fat
kind of people whether they are good for us or not. She makes the thesis, “I want to be with someone Pig there is this “we can’t be together” but there is
We have problems with authority; we don’t sit down where I am not kidding myself about who I am. this also recognition of “ I am the source of the
and say I got to fix that cause I got to get along with I want them to feel like I am a beautiful person.” problem.” Yeah, so I think there is a certain growth
people. So there is that tendency in people, I think, in the trilogy that man is evolving slowly he is
to have great success with that one particular thing. I never try and cater to an audience’s expectations, actually standing upright by the end of the trilogy.
I mean monetarily in this town that no one is asking once I start a story it really has to end at least in my He’s actually able to make the equivalent of fire
me to go back to those characters. So I have never head the way it was meant to. If it ends sadly, it ends in that gesture. /
had to see what the fall out was. I am usually sadly. If it ends unresolved that is where I stopped
interested in the moment of implosion or explosion.
I have had people stubbornly cling to the fact that
Chad (In The Company Of Men) really loved that girl
in that movie, he just still had to do what he did, but
he fell in love with her. I’m like… knock yourself
out, if that’s how you like to see life then that’s how
you’ll see it.
I definitely thought that Tom (Fat Pig) was the
most touching male character, sweet even.
Of all time?
Oh no of just yours. [Both laugh]
It was touching because of how he arrived at
his ah-ha moment. He says, “I’m not strong
enough,” cause so few men can come to that
conclusion. It also goes against what women
are supposed to believe about men…
…the way we were raised and all that, yeah and he
then didn’t turn it into something angry or selfish or
belligerent it was just the honesty of saying, ‘this is
who I am.’ What a horrible thing to find out about
yourself, that you’re a weak person and that you will
cow to the conventions of other people around you
that you don’t even like. That is not an easy thing to
do. And so yeah, I was happy where that guy ended
up. There is a third play that ended up being a
trilogy over the last, however many years, about
beauty, about physical beauty. The Shape of Things is
about how somebody is reconstructed and Fat Pig is
about the prejudice about looks. I am doing one in
the spring in New York and it’s called Reasons To Be
Pretty, it’s more about the face. Are you within a
relationship now?
Yes examining it. And somewhere outside of that frame Above, Neil LaBute sitting on a bench
of those two hours something else is going to happen
inside Stuyvesant Park, New York
How long have you been together? to them that I am not choosing to look at it. And no
Opposite page, Top, Neil on set of his
one else is asking me to look at it. That’s why the
film adaptation of The Shape of Things,
Three years. idea of television fascinates me. I would be very 2003. Paul Rudd & Gretchen Mol
interested to do it, mostly as a writer mostly from
Ok, if you hear in passing that he said, “Look she the idea of, ‘could I honestly sustain a character for
Below, Still from Neil LaBute’s film
adaptation of The Shape of Things, 2003.
doesn’t have the greatest face in the world but it a hundred episodes as opposed to just two hours?’ Paul Rudd & Rachel Weisz - Courtesy of
doesn’t matter, I love her she’s great,” would that
Focus Features
relationship continue on the exact same way? Or Like a play like The Mercy Seat is sort of a post 9/11
would that begin to eat at you? play. She literally walks through the door and they
talk for ninety minutes and she walks out the door
35 / 96
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100