spotlight
DIRECTOR CRAIG JOHNSON’S LABOR OF LOVE
by joel martens Craig Johnson says he was obsessed with film from a very early age. A child of the ‘80s, it was a perfect time to be a boy who
totally grooved on movies. The movie making business was experiencing a very fertile moment, producing films likeBack To The Future, Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, ET, Karate Kid, Return of the Jedi andNational Lampoon’s Vaca- tion, as well as the spat of teen angst films from John Hughes like Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off andPretty In Pink, films that would eventually inform his own work as a filmmaker. He talked about what it was like to catch celluloid fever, “I actually remember seeing the trailer for the movieGremlins and thinking, “What is this?” I have to go see this movie. And, my dad didn’t want to take me because I was too young, but I talked him into it and thought it was the greatest thing I had ever seen.” Johnson would pursue acting in his early years and as he said, “He was a total theatre geek in high school...”
continuing his pursuit of that dream as an college undergraduate. It was there he said in our recent interview, “I really became a true film nerd. I was obsessed with movie directors, and I figured out that film was sort of my first love.” Graduate school film studies followed at NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, “That’s where I started making short films, even though I had only done theatre up until that point. I did some short films, and then made my first feature, calledTrue Adolescence, which was technically my thesis film for film school. People liked that movie alright and that allowed me to make even more.” The Skeleton Twins with Kristen Wiig and Bill Harder would follow in 2014 and be met with positive reviews for the film, its actors, and in particular, Johnson’s direction. He used that success as a springboard for his next project, the comedy-drama filmWilson featuring Woody Harrelson and Laura Dern—another critical success. Now, fast forward
to 2018 and we are graced with his latest effort, Alex Strangelove, a tale about a young high school boy just learning who he is in the world. It’s a coming-of-age story and a coming out tale, told from the perspective of someone who is in the process, someone who is still grappling with sexuality and sexual identity. It’s a sweet story with an adult sensibility and one that pretty much anyone can relate to. I know I did. Johnson sat down with us to discuss the film, his take on the world in which we live and what he hopes people get from Alex Strangelove’s experiences.
I’m very interested to know the evolution ofAlex Strangelove. It’s a unique take on coming out because the main character is still figuring himself out both emotionally and sexually throughout the film. Was that an idea you wanted to tell as you set up the storyline for the film? I’m very conscious of the fact that one’s sexuality is an
important part of who they are, but it’s just a part of them. I did this movie calledThe Skeleton Twins, and Bill Hader’s character is gay, but that’s only a part of who he is. His struggles in that movie have very little to do with the fact that he’s gay, it’s the one thing he’s actually comfortable with. InAlex Strangelove the character is more autobiographical, because I had sort of a long, incremental coming out process. I knew it was there, but I would have these girlfriends in high school and college who I was so emotionally invested in and it was very confusing to me when the sex part didn’t work out. (Laughs) I eventually figured out that I was gay, came out
and once I did that, I was like, “Wow, what a rollercoaster and what a weird journey I just went through.” (Laughs) It was a defining journey of my life and as a filmmaker I thought “What’s the movie version of this?” I started thinking about the classic high school genre as a movie—a high school sex comedy—sort of reminiscent of the John Hughes films that I loved so much. I thought, “What if we just tell a story about a high school kid who is struggling with his sexuality, but really anchored it in a high school genre?” I enjoyed the fact that Alex is still undecided about who he is sexually and that we get to participate and experience his process…in all of its discomfort. It’s very different than the perspective that we got from the other recent teen filmLove, Simon. Was that a conscious choice? I think that everybody is different and that there is a huge spectrum. Some say, “I knew when I was four-years-old” and
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RAGE monthly | JUNE 2018
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