Paul Reubens On "Pee-Wee's Big Holiday" | AOL BUILD

morning hi kid you're the sweetest boy in Fairville morning Peewee morning Peewee how would you ever wonder what life is like outside Fairville nope you know I don't want to go anywhere or try anything new bye French do is up cool what can I get you milkshake please flavor let's say chocolate 3 2 1 chocolate wow thanks you ever been in a fight no broken a rule no you ever had two women fight over you uh have I no I think I know why you and I met you're going to leave faille you're going to take a holiday you got a choice to make stick around here I live a little big go my very first holiday is off to a perfect start hey jackers where you headed Drive pipsqueak come on let me go where are we the Woods New York City our village a snake Farm oh you coming with us this your lucky day where should I sit i' like to say a few words did we uh encyclopedia pimple and uh hairball hey l a t t i TBD look at the time I have to be going thanks everybody thank you Paul thank you so much for being here thank you so much for inviting me uh I I've got to be honest I love peeee growing up anytime there was peee to watch I would watch it and when this movie aired on Netflix or came out on Netflix last weekend I believe maybe the weekend before last weekend the first night I I had to watch it and it was a delight I told you earto ear grinning for minute one to the last minute it is so much fun to watch I am I'm curious you know you this has been in the process since what 2009 2010 this movie uh yeah at least yeah a while and how what was the process like developing this I I had heard in an interview that you had had a bunch of scripts already ready for Peewee but that the that Jud Appel who came on as a producer what didn't want to make those particular scripts yeah Jud wanted to make a uh Road picture that was similar to in tone and feel to Big Adventure so that's what we did and how did you go about how do you go about casting uh or having collaborators CU you've had different collaborators on on essentially all of the movies mhm um you know writing is so solitary and lonely I I and particularly comedy I just rather have someone else there so it's always simpler it for me to have someone to bounce things off of to hear someone's idea and incorporate that or use that idea or change that idea and so I've always written I think I've only written one thing by myself everything else I've written with uh one or two people and uh this one Jud um said at the very first meeting he said I've got just the perfect person he actually just told told uh me and the the audience in at South by Southwest in Austin last week that uh the the collaborator that he put me with Paul rust was so enthusiastic and so excited about writing a Peewee movie and was such a Peewee fan that he had a lot to do with Jud kind of he ort of push Jud over the edge to make the movie so wow and we become very close friends me and Paul rust he has a cameo in the movie and in the in the diner that you that you work in right yeah yeah yeah and it was just an incredible experience really fun and we had a amazing luxury and that we got to write the movie uh over five years because no one wanted to make the movie um but uh that turned out to be a great situation for us and we had an additional amazing opportunity every single weekend we were in production on the film we were actually shooting the film we were able to meet on the weekend and look at the next week's schedule and rewrite just those scenes and in almost every case um some of my favorite stuff in the movie is out of those sessions that were written just like days before we shot it why do you think that is I'm always curious about this when it comes to Comedy because as a comedy writer you obviously were happy with what you initially wrote and you were laughing when you were writing it on the page the first time why do you think it is that the weekend before you felt the need to rewrite it and that it might have even been better to have rewrote it then do you think it's the mood that it it just changes per mood we we didn't necessarily feel like we had to rewrite it we just felt like why not rewrite it let's just look at it and see last minute anything you know it it had been kind of set for a month or two or three before we went into production and uh you know it's just an additional thing we we just decided oh let's just let's just look it over and see in every case we would be oh my God what about this what about that so and how do you work with uh you've had different directors per movie how do you work with uh directors because it is essentially you're the co-writer you're the producer it's your project I'm sure you have a clear idea as to how you want each scene to look or how you want Peewee to come across and the scenes to to come across so are you sort of at the monitor with the director as well or have you conveyed your vision and then let them go ahead both I mean I I I try as much as as my uh OCD and and and personality allows me to let go uh and and uh and give up control um so wherever there was something that I didn't feel super strongly about I would defer to the director John Lee an amazing uh I mean I I I'm not bragging about this but I'm usually not the person who was like I love the director way after a year after we finished the movie um for those of you didn't know John Lee did wonders shows in delocated and uh episodes of Broad City as well as peewee's big holiday the hary holler Pat nalo yeah he's done a lot of amazing television work and this is his feature film debut and I told you this backstage I mean he was he's just so cool and collected like he's directed 50 movies it was really amazing person to work with and I I basically uh I wouldn't want to be in that person's shoes be for what what you said it's it's kind of my movie and and and we joked about this if the movie comes out great I get credit if if it comes out terrible it's his fault so uh it's it's not it's I mean that's really kind of true and it's not a great situation to be in um so I'm trying to give him as much credit as possible because I think the movie came out really well and I I mean he's a rock star director I think he's going to go on to amazingly great great things how how could you say if at all peewee has changed over the years since the first time you sort of started doing him I know initially when he was on the uh groundling stage he was a little more R-rated maybe or not not necessarily R-rated but I think he was more of like an adult comedy kind of guy and then you did him on Letterman and you did in some other places and he gradually grew into this thing that was I think more of a some would say a Manchild is that how you would Define him and has he kind of stayed that since then I I mean I've heard that before I never see that really I I just feel like it developed along the lines of it just sort of got a little more um refined or processed or I I don't know I mean it seemed I feel like uh what people respond to from a long time ago about it is sometimes the snarkiness of the character and uh I feel like that's still there and um uh I think it was just sort of like the setting for for what I'm doing it in you know I mean when I first started out I I didn't I was doing it in a comedy club at night where kids weren't allowed and it never really it wasn't a goal to try to figure out like what what would I chop out of this or what would I soften or what would I change in order for kids to be involved in it um but that changed very very quickly almost as as soon as I had a fulllength venue like when when I was doing uh the PeeWee Herman show at the growlings and later at the Roxy Theater in in Los Angeles uh we did matinees for kids and so it was pretty easy to go oh well this is okay for kids when you went into doing this uh when you went into doing this movie and when you going into doing big holiday and Jud says that he wants a road movie similar in tone to peewee's Big Adventure which is a classic at this point it's really just a phenomenal uh film on Tim Burton's first movie it's so much talent in one piece of Cinema there when you go into making this movie did you fear of repeating yourself did you know what you wanted to do with peeee within that framework um I don't know I I feel like I'm a little Fearless on that level and that I or maybe I'm stupid I just don't think about it that much you know I I feel like uh we definitely didn't want to copy big adventure I didn't want people to say wow this is really note fornote big adventure um but other than it being a road picture and I mean there are definitely definite nods to Big Adventure but I I think it's a really different film in a lot of ways um you know a lot A lot's changed in 30 years and uh it just seems like I just realized no one in this audience is probably everyone's under 30 um uh yeah good for you guys um I I don't know I I I think we just I I realize I'm probably lying a little bit like I think we thought about it more than I'm letting on but uh you know it was just a quick kind of gut feeling like oh no too close or no that's or that's the perfect that evokes it but it's it's a nod to it but not really uh anything too close so there's so going on with Peewee that over the over the course of uh I want to say peewee's career uh people have analyzed and overanalyzed but you operate mainly I think as you said from your gut it's about what's funny for you it's about what is what is it funny to have peeee do what situations are funny for this particular character right and it's not really about a I mean you're not sort of trying to touch on anything grander than that at all no I don't think so I mean I wouldn't let that on if I was uh but I but I also think you know th this is dumb to say but comedy is so pure in in in one respect in many respects but in in one big respect in that it's funny or it's not funny I mean you either are looking out at a crowd like I'm looking right now where everyone's very serious um or you or people are laughing you know it's one or the other so um it's almost the same kind of Purity kids have where they're just uncensored and they will tell you something they're not supposed to say or that you're not supposed to hear and comedy really like that you you do something and people think it's funny or don't think it's funny for me I have I have moments in every single thing I've ever done that that are just absolutely I'm the only person that think it's funny and I get some kind of super charge out of that and energy uh on the stage on Broadway there's a couple of points in my Broadway show where no one ever laughed at it I know I knew no one would ever laugh at it and when I would do that line and there would would be crickets out there it would I it would give me such energy I would just like I would get so excited by it for some warped reason I I can't really well there's a there there's a bit in the in the movie like that that I think everybody does laugh at but the joke is that it's so long and that I was talking you about this backstage I love it so much and that is the balloon bit which I don't know if everybody has se anybody has seen the movie out here you should uh you definitely you make noises with a balloon in one uncut shot for about 2 and 1/2 minutes while nobody else talks you think I would know how long that is but I don't don't the balloon is this big and it goes down to being completely flat and it is so funny because it could I mean there is such a daringness to doing that joke for as long as you do it it's sort of cheating in a little a little bit you think so think yeah I think so why is that well I mean that's something that you you I don't know what the right word you have to be like a pill you have to be somebody who's like I hate everything in in in order to not like at least be amused by that slightly uh and what about the casting of Joe manelo in in in this film I mean he's pretty perfect in in this role how did he come up um I met Joe about six years ago at a party uh an after uh Emmy party that was in uh put on by HBO and he was a big HBO star I was just there because I was at the Emmys and uh he I I looked way across the room I mean really far huge party huge big tent and uh I looked way across the room and I saw this guy kind of looking at me and he started walking toward me and I started walking toward him and we met halfway in the middle of the party and he said to me I'm like a huge Peewee freak I love PeeWee Herman and I uh Joe menel I was like wow I mean when he said I'm a big fan I was like yeah I mean you're he's 6 65 uh was wearing a tuxedo and he was like showering me with praise so I what's not to like there you know it was like a fantastic moment and um we exchanged information and a few days later he called and asked me if I wanted to go to the Tim Burton retrospective at the uh Los Angeles County Museum of Art I missed it here in New York and I missed it in Los Angeles the opening and I felt like I shouldn't go to that after to not be at the opening to just have somebody see me standing looking at the peeee Herman stuff in the show I thought would be kind of cheesy so assume they could assume that you go every day maybe every other day I work there I'm part of thing or something like um so I I standing next to him being like that's it's me right there I'm that guy um but I you know I almost I somehow intuitively knew going with Joe would be the perfect person to go with and he was I I was literally standing right next to the Peewee Herm and peewee's big adventure stuff in that show and people were pulling me away pushing me out of the way to get to Joe to be like Joe oh my God Joe uh and so yeah so he's the perfect person for me to go anywhere with because you and now that he's married the two of them together you could be the Pope I mean you could you could be anyone and then and they would you'd be invisible so he must have essentially he must have died when you told him that you had a part for him in the movie when you started writing this part for him he was very excited yes I mean that's incredible I would imagine that a lot of the people that you have in this movie who get to who got to show up on set were very excited to be in a new Peewee movie it's hard to have grown up in the 8S and not be a Peewee fan um there were amazing moments all the way through uh there were a lot of people who was their first movie um so it was more about like oh my God I can't believe I'm doing I'm in a movie kind of kind of thing um but but one of the grips uh one of the technicians on the movie on the second day pulled me aside and said something to me I will never forget I wish I I I recorded it but I kind of made a New Groove in my brain about it he um he said to me you know I met you about a month ago on the location scout in the backyard we in in a movie you go on location and wherever you're going to be you go ahead of time with the whole crew you take your director and the lighting people and the prop all all the different departments Come Along on a location shoot and you look at the location and everyone asks questions and the director says stuff and you sort of figure out a lot of logistical um information before you get there and you you know what you're doing ahead of time and I I met everybody all the whole crew at that time but I wasn't in in my peee stuff and this guy pulled me aside on the second day and he said you know I met you a month ago at the location scout and he said you know I was a huge fan it was really exciting to meet you and stuff he said but I'm going to tell you something man and he almost started crying and I'm almost going to start to cry like telling you this so corny but he said to me like I don't know if you have any idea like who you're working with here he said but you have an entire crew of people who grew up on your show like I've never been involved in a project like this where every single person's freaking out they're working with you and I didn't have any idea that I really didn't see that so that was an incredible thing and um I can't say the word that he used because uh it's not a you're allowed to hear if you want well I don't want to have to bleep anything really and you know these kids haven't heard some of this stuff I'm sure um huh okay I pushed your button there um he said you know I almost lost my like I mean uh he said like everyone here is free freaking out you can't you can't believe it and it was so heartfelt and so emotional and so like right here in my face it was just an amazing and the second he said it I I realized that it was like that and so um we just had this incredible Love Fest making the movie where every day we're at a different location because of the nature of a road picture you have a different uh set of actors and a different uh scene every day or every two days we're in a different completely different place and so it's just incredible to come to work you know like and I bet you're showing up to this new crew of actors every day dressed as as Peewee and every day you get a new crew of actors kind of you walk on set and they're just going like just kind of it was yeah the actors are one thing but the the crew I mean the crew becomes your family really during the six eight 10 weeks this was a 7 week shoot and uh and the kind of hours you keep and and just the Clos of it all is uh what what what kind of how are you on set when you're when you're doing peeee for seven weeks are you I mean I don't want to say method because it sounds pretentious but I could imagine it could be difficult to sort of come in and out of this character and the big things that you have to do are you are you in and out yeah no I have I just I guess this is sort of the proof that I'm a lot like Peewee is I it it's just I just turn it on and turn it off and it's uh I mean I don't want it to sound super crass but um it just you know it just happens I I don't really think about it that much it's definitely not very method in terms of you being uh as you said a lot like uh Peewee you know was there ever a time where you wanted to develop other characters outside of PeeWee or was there a moment where you realized that Peewee might be kind of like your magnum opus in terms of characters that you would that I don't have that much range really I I I think uh that is not true you're a phenomenal actor that was setup for that comment um you can give me the later for that one uh no I I mean I had a lot of characters at the time PeeWee Herman came out you know um I I I had probably 15 other characters that were pretty fleshed out and I was doing doing those at the comedy improv group The Groundlings that I belong to and uh PB Herman came out one night and boom I mean it was just such a different reaction that I started to started to toy with the idea of dropping all the rest of the work I was doing and just focusing on that um I came out of the Walt Disney Art School Cal Arts which was uh at that time a lot of art was about performance work and conceptual art and so I I felt in a certain way like I stumbled on something conceptual that was so conceptual no one knew it was conceptual just I was the only person who knew and I spent a lot of time and energy early on in my career and then I perpetuated it for many many years through big adventure for sure and through the kid show um that Peewee was a real person and I would go places even in Hollywood and Executives and movie companies would be like you know great to meet you Peewee and I mean just never really you would take meetings as Peewee no not really no but but I mean I look the same so so people would just call me Peewee and act like I was was was that character and uh that's you know I I thought it worked better like that I I like that people didn't didn't know mean didn't didn't know there was an actor behind it when you took a break from uh doing P but let me just say one other thing about the power of it I uh I was toying with the idea like oh this is you know people are reacting way differently to this character and there's something here and then shortly after that I put that suit on and answered an a cattle call after advertisement in the casting paper for actors for uh contestants for The Dating Game and I put on my peee suit and I went to The Dating Game audition sat down at a desk and I could tell the second the people second I walked in all the people that worked there were trying to mask like oh my God like freak this guy's a freak you know I mean like I could just tell that I was going to be on the show immediately I was the only person like that in the whole room everyone was like a a normal contestant on The Dating Game but me and I put really weird answers on my form you know like I like to clean my room and stuff like that and uh I got home literally by the time I got home there was a call like you know be on The Dating Game so that was didn't you win I won once I was on three times and I won once and uh and we're now married um wait I want to know did did Peewee actually was there a date after the no by the time we got to the date she couldn't do it then I couldn't do it then neither of us could do it then when we both could do it it was somehow I don't know would you have gone on the date as Peewee uh you know I can't remember what I was thinking back then probably not but you know they you went with a chaperone and and they took pictures and stuff during it so I probably would have had to right uh I think we have to turn over to audience questions for a minute or two right here hey Paul how are you hey um before I get to my question I just wanted to say I worked with you on a pilot a couple of months ago and by far you were the nicest actor that I ever had the pleasure of um working with as well as everybody that worked on production as well um their professionalism is above and beyond day I'm never like that you um but my question is why do you think the peeee character still resonates with people all these years later interesting question that I'm not going to answer um uh you know know honestly this sounds bogus and dumb but um but it's the truth I feel like that's other people's thing like I I don't like to think like that about it because it sort of uh ruins it for me a little bit um it just makes it into something that I don't I feel like my head would become gigantic and I would I turn into a jerk if I knew all that stuff so um oh too late no um uh I just really honest I don't I never think about stuff like that I get asked that kind of stuff sometimes as I get older and older and older um but I I really I never think about it but I'm I'm flattered you're asking me that question but I don't know I have no idea and I don't I'm I feel like I would Jinx everything for myself if I did ask myself that and or answered that did you ever read any of the kind of like cultural analysis that came out about Peewee in the 80s and like the90s did I read some fascinated about what he could symbolize in regards to God so out there some of it is really crazy it goes way there's an episode in the second season of the show when we moved from New York to Los Angeles and we were forced to change the set and so we the first episode there's house cleaning and remodeling and stuff and at a certain point Miss Avon puts on a uh uh like a raincoat or it might have even been a rainy day episode but I think it was this episode where we're painting and cleaning and she puts something on to cover her dress but it's a clear plastic dress made to go exactly fits exactly over what she's wearing I feel like I'm going to get electrocuted here with the this um you can't buy that kind of publicity though right be live um uh all right I'll do it no um uh and people wrote that that it was a safe sex uh uh reference and all I mean just the craziest craziest stuff that people wrote that we didn't have any idea of and then then sometimes people touch on stuff that I I didn't think about at all and I I hear it and I go oh you know that's probably true but I I just read it and spend that amount of time on it and then don't well because there's something so uh in the world of peewee's playhouse in particular and even maybe big adventure there's something about the world that is so uh resonates in a sort of 50s Nostalgia way like it's making fun of that or mocking it or sort of showcasing The Nostalgia that we have for this post-war time but at the same time you're also just doing jokes and doing what's funny to you and I think so many people thought that you were satirizing something um I you know I never feel like I'm making fun of anything like when my first when the PB Herman show came out um the stage show people said it was a um we were mocking kid shows that it was this and that and I always thought it was like a full-on homage to all that stuff so for me it's always coming from like love and respect and I something I am obsessed with or think is fantastic so I I just I don't know why people add that other thing to it but it's fun to add fre yeah uh next question how's it going uh you touched upon this a little earlier about like the range of roles that you've done so I mean it goes without saying your role as p is a little different from your roles Derek and blow so how do you um approach each role differently and is there one type of role that You' like to play more than another no I I think like I probably approach it all the same way as I approach PeeWee Herman I don't give it like a whole lot of thought although if you're a director listening to this right now that's you know I'm just making that up sir but um no I mean I for me this is probably really oversimplified but in so many ways acting feels like when you're crawling around on your stomach playing soldier in your front front lawn when you're like a little kid I mean if you played that I don't know what you played um but you know it's sort of play acting really I mean there's lots of technical stuff one can know and experience uh you know I've had years of of of experience doing that and I tell people a lot of times that you know one of the biggest skills really of being an actor is to be able to play a very intimate tiny little scene you're whispering to someone or talking to somebody who's right here and it's a very you know personal kind of thing and you know this far away from you 3 feet away from you are 800 people you know all doing doing their job to make the movie and so one really big skill is to just be able to do that and not have that affect you and be able to concentrate on on what's at hand so for me I guess um uh I could talk a little slower and make this even longer this uh nonresponse to your question um it it really I just approach everything from how do I find like fun and joy in it or what's the core of it or um a lot of times I start with like the hair I like go like what does the guy look like um and then you know a writer and a director have a lot to do with shaping stuff they tell you things that they see in things and uh um there's no real super answer to it I mean there's just lots of different considerations but um I'm finding myself more and more in situations where I think what I bring to something is knowing that I shouldn't do very much that it's uh that it's written already or that the between the writing and the Wardrobe you don't have to do very much that kind of thing so does that sort of answer it I mean thank you thanks for asking last question dad uh hi uh you mentioned Groundlings and I know you worked a lot with the Groundlings crew in the original show and the movie and everything uh and for this movie you had to work with a lot of new blood and I was wondering if when making this movie you felt like you had to tap into what you and your crew originally were working on or if you found like you with all the new people that you're working with you were able to to really go with a new direction for it I think it's probably both you know I think like we certainly there were there were so many moments during the movie I thought of many many things out of the past and then you know one is sort of forced to to or at least it makes sense to stay in the present and and be thinking about the future so um I think I think I would just try to draw on all of that and I think it's it's for me personally it's good to kind of be open to all that and and try to sort of sort of pull from your roots and you know think about where you're growing and what's going to happen to make a bad nature analogy uh you know I'm curious I I kind of hate to ask this because we just got a new Peewee movie but it's so wonderful and it was such a delight to watch and You' said that Netflix is sort of a big supporter of yours and they're talking about sort of going global with kind of the peeee brand are we going to get more Peewee do you want to play Peewee more if there was another Playhouse or if there no we this is first time this is coming out right right here but we did kind of like what they do on um Harry Potter all those things I mean we shot four movies at the same time so there I wish we did that would have been really good did you see did you see like all the blood drain from I was like oh my God oh my God here we go here we go I know I almost believed it myself when I said that it's just um yeah I'm I'm waiting for the phone to ring I mean my phone is in my pocket you know right now I'm waiting for it to like vibrate so uh could Peewee be a character that that that sort of lives on forever like I mean in terms maybe if you stop playing him and there's another actor that you feel like could pick up the torch like Paul Russ for instance I feel like who's worked with you could potentially play a version of PeeWee in the future uh if he were alive then yeah but I don't think that's going to happen um yeah I think I think that would that that's a possibility to be honest with you I thought that would have happened by now I when I was out pitching this movie I was pitching to everybody like new Peewee you know um and uh who do you think would have played Peewee when you were pitching it who was who I don't know we kept talking about Michael Cena like a little bit okay uh wait Michael S Sarah Oh M wait isn't it is Michael Cena the wrestler that's John Cena John Cena I know I got them confused they're easy to confuse um I'm so sorry Michael that I screwed up your name I know your name um but you will never be peee uh there is only one peee well I mean honestly I'm I'm in the minority that think this but I I really feel like five years from now no more actors it's all going to be digital um I do I really do you know why you don't think that cuz you are old you're old for this that's true that's really true if you think about it your kids's kids are going to be looking at work right now and going like oh wow this is so weird this is like before they figured out real people didn't have to do this I really think that's going to happen I mean we're this close to a digital peeee I'm you're practically seeing a digital peeee on on here already um was there a lot of work done to there might have been is that something you're open to talking about or uh you know what I was open to talking about it a lot more before the movie was finished and people kept saying to me what's your secret oh my God like you never age and I feel like okay right yeah uh Paul uh it's been a delight talking to you I have to let you go I love the movie so much congratulations you're going to let me let me run I'm yeah I'm going to let you let me run uh it's on Netflix right now right right this second and now and now and now and now Paul thank you so much thank you an honor thanks for thank you guys w 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Channel: BUILD Series

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Id: 5pILwO9JUu0

Length: 35min 31sec (2131 seconds)

Published: Wed May 11 2016