Clark Gregg is the son of a former Divinity School professor, but he hit the stage and screen instead of the books and has racked up a host of acting credits. Last week, Gregg's first directorial effort-an adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk novel Choke-came out and recess' Andrew Hibbard sat down in Boston to talk to Gregg about it.
How did you become interested in writing this film?
I was sent the book to adapt as a screenwriter and I sort of freaked out over it. It was sort of the funny, dirty joke I was waiting for. Even though I had been writing original stuff to make a first film out of, I just wanted to see this one so bad. I loved Fight Club. I thought this was kind of an important satiric author.
Did you connect to it at all?
Sadly yes, I did. At first when I clicked with it, I thought it was just because it was so exotic and funny and sad and unusual. And then over the years it took to adapt it, I certainly hit a roadblock at a certain point because I basically just transposed the book into a screenplay and it didn't work. And then you have to start asking some questions. You've got to figure out what's the core, which really boils down to, 'What's this guy's story and why did I connect to it?'
I think this is about a guy who has recovered from damage by creating a false intimacy around himself that's really just a saturation in dysfunctional sexuality but when he actually meets someone he actually likes, he is physically incapable of merging the two. And that sort of felt like something I absolutely connected to. I have a feeling it's not going to be that exotic to a lot of people.
You and Chuck Palahniuk have both called this story a romantic comedy. Why?
Luckily I didn't know that at the time, and I got one phone call with him and I just said, "Okay, you want to break up with me quick, but I feel like at its core, it's kind of like a punk romantic comedy." [He said,] "Yes, exactly. Go write it and don't be too faithful to the book." And then he hung up.
You don't expect for a novelist to tell you to not be too faithful. I struggled for a while but I think what got me out of it is knowing that it's not your standard romantic comedy and you accept that that's the engine driving this unusual cart. Like a lot of important American writers, he's got this reputation of this anarchist or nihilist bad boy and I think he is those things. But I also think, in my subjective read, he's a much more generous artist and writer.
What was the process like of translating an episodic novel into a linear screenplay?
Everyone who reads a book sees a different movie of it. I felt there was a movie in this. By the time I realized some of the problems, I was too deep into it. I had written a first draft that didn't accomplish things and it was devastating. I thought, there are so many great things here, I know what the story is, I'm going to trim a few things, it's going to work. Bam. And that was 2001.
Were you worried about living in the shadow of Fight Club?
My naivete apparently knew no bounds. It just never occurred to me, stupidly. I loved Fight Club and I thought people were just going to be grateful to get another thing from this guy. Fight Club became a deeper cult classic in the past seven or eight years and it wasn't like that when I started.
Since then I've realized that, but I welcome it. I think Chuck's fans are really smart and they get that this is a different kind of story. I think what's unique and ballsy about this writer holds true in both movies.
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