Catching Up With... Jake Kasdan and John C. Reilly

John C. Reilly
Interview by Pamela Chelin

Dewey Cox is real. Or rather, it would be hard to fault those in attendance at the handful of tour dates John C. Reilly performed in December for thinking so. Reilly remained in character throughout each performance, owning the stage as legitimately as any real-life rock star. He flirted with women in the audience, stripped off clothes and claimed that Robert Dylan stole songs from him.

When Paste spoke with Reilly while on tour in Cleveland, he was about to perform at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Paste: What was your initial reaction to the Walk Hard screenplay?
John C. Reilly: Jake and Judd, who wrote it, called me before they had written it. They had the idea that, before they put energy into writing a script for someone, they wanted to make sure that I wanted to do it. Their whole thing when they started was, "We want to write this for you so that it's not just you trying to do some idea that we have. We want it to fit you perfectly." We had a lot of fun. Jake Kasdan has a lot of funny stuff in there already, but those guys solicited my ideas and I participated in the writing of the script. I quickly realized it's like a dream job to be able to do all this music and get to do a biopic with all the production value and cool time periods and to be as irreverent as we wanted to be and not have to worry about offending someone or someone's family. That's what makes the movie really special and nuts. It is almost like we descended on a set of a real biopic and transplanted all the actors with really funny comedians.

Paste: What was the best part about playing Dewey Cox?
Reilly: The undiluted confidence that he has. I am a pretty modest guy. I generally don't think of myself as a rock star, but to be able to play one is really fun. It is amazing to be able to flirt with every woman you come in contact with and to live the rock 'n' roll lifestyle…at least on camera.

Paste:Then it's back to reality and your wife and children.
Reilly: Yeah. They remind me that I'm Dad and not Dewey.

Paste: How would Dewey describe Dewey?
Reilly: He would describe himself as the greatest music legend that ever lived. He'd say that he was twice as famous as Elvis and 10,000 times as poetic as Bon Jovi. I don't know (laughs). Dewey has a very high opinion of himself. He would say words cannot describe Dewey Cox. It can only be done through music.

Paste: If you had to choose between being an actor or a rock star, which would it be?
Reilly: I'm gonna have to stick with actor because, as an actor, you eventually get to do everything. There's more variety. A rock star's a rock star and then hopefully you have a graceful retirement and hopefully your manager doesn't screw you out of your royalties and you have some money before your body goes. I know actors who were acting to their last day. They died onstage.

Paste: Do you have a favorite rock star?
Reilly: Right now, my favorite rock star is Jack White from the White Stripes. We met at one of his shows and talked a couple of times on the phone. I got his phone number from a friend and I would call him and tell him how much I loved the record and we'd talk about this and that. That is what is great about being an actor. I have Jack White's phone number!

Paste: What is your favorite biopic?
Reilly: Coal Miner's Daughter. That is the gold standard in my opinion. It was one of the first ones before these movies kind of became clichés.

Paste: Did you at all envision This Is Spinal Tap when you were you making this film?
Reilly: Spinal Tap is amazing. It's like Christopher Guest invented a type of movie in order to do the mockumentary. We knew, going into this, that we'd never get close to a Spinal Tap thing. But it also wasn't what we were going after. We were trying to do a polished, finished looking movie.

Paste:Did you ever think you'd be playing the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame?
Reilly: No, that's crazy when you consider the people who are exhibited there. It's a pretty overwhelming feeling. I think people here in Cleveland are happy that we came. And, it's a cold day in Cleveland, so hopefully we'll get revved up and warm everybody up.