He's a master of improvisation, but Christopher Guest doesn't give it away. Sitting in a Manhattan hotel suite, Waiting for Guffman's mastermind seems more like the English lord he happens to be since inheriting the title: sober beyond deadpan. His tantrums as drama queen Corky St. Clair -- ''You're just bastard people! And I'm going home, and I'm gonna bite my pillow is what I'm gonna do!'' -- may have cracked up his costars, but here Guest notes that their chuckles ''would not be proper in the movie.''
Could this be the same man whose synchronized swimming on SNL brought us to our knees? Could this be volume-hungry guitarist Nigel Tufnel of This Is Spinal Tap? Could this be Jamie Lee Curtis' husband of 12 years? ''He's got a very dry demeanor in real life,'' says Eugene Levy, the SCTV veteran who helped blueprint Guffman's action before the cast turned on the improv. ''You can't tell what he's thinking. But in a writing session he works himself up into a frothing at the mouth.''
Guest, 49, who's putting the finishing touches on his next directorial effort, the Matthew Perry-Chris Farley explorer comedy Edwards and Hunt, doesn't concern himself with the bottom line: ''I have no concept of how some people create a product they think a lot of people will see.'' Fortunately, box office boasts aren't necessary when your buddy is Castle Rock partner Rob Reiner, who directed Guest in Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride, and your cast features old hands like Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard willing to work for scale. Guest just lets the comedy come.
And where does it come from? ''If I knew that,'' he shrugs, ''I'd be lying on a couch somewhere.''
You Might Also Like
- Movie Review Waiting for Guffman (1997) | Owen Gleiberman
- DVD Review Waiting for Guffman (Aug 21, 2001) | Scott Brown
- Fall Movie Preview Fall Movie Preview: Also in October (1997)
- Video News A different take on ''Waiting for Guffman'' | Jason Cochran
- Video Commentary Three gay-themed comedies on home video | Stephen Whitty
- ENTERTAINERS OF THE YEAR 'WALL-E': Entertainer of the year (Jun 27, 2008) | Steve Daly
