In my travels, I’ve found that the people who don’t like Matthew Lillard know him only from Scooby Doo, Scream, or any number of disposable teen rom-coms from the late ‘90s, but have never seen SLC Punk! or his wonderfully understated performance in The Descendants.
For anyone in the SLC Punk! cult (myself included) Lillard will always have a place in our heart, and his film sins (he admits Scooby Doo was a sell-out move, and that many of the films he’s appeared in have been awful) are pardoned. With his directorial debut, Fat Kid Rules the World, Lillard isn’t asking you to like him. He’s simply trying to get a film about an obese teenager whose life is transformed by punk rock out to the world. Having viewed a screener, I believe that the film could resonate with any kid feeling alienated, bullied or lost in the world—if they actually get a chance to see it.
Fat Kid’s made its debut at SXSW (in fact, it was one of our best films from the event) and was greeted with overwhelmingly positive response. But distributors, for whatever reason, balked. In an attempt to self-finance, Lillard launched a Kickstarter campaign on May 10 with a goal of $150,000. In the short interim between interviewing Lillard and writing this piece, the financial goal was reached (and then some) and Arc Entertainment has acquired Fat Kid for North American distribution rights. Finally, it seems that Fat Kid may get a chance to rule the world, or at least get into some theaters.
Paste: What first attracted you to the literary source material of Fat Kid Rules the World, and how did the project get rolling?
Matthew Lillard: I was doing Scooby Doo at the time, and I got the offer to do the book on tape. It came across my desk, or my manager’s desk, and I was like “whatever.” It wasn’t a lot of money, and it wasn’t like I had always dreamed of doing a book on tape. It was the only offer I’ve gotten to do a book on tape, and I haven’t gotten another offer since. I had to decide by noon, and the book had been on my desk for two months because I was working and hadn’t looked at it. My manager finally said, “Look, you’ve got to give me an answer right now. It’s about an obese teenager that finds punk rock music. I think you should do it.” I said, “Okay fine, I’ll do it.” I started to read the book and I was twenty pages in, and I found myself completely moved by the whole thing. I saw myself in him. I saw myself in that character. I had a really emotional reaction to it, and I thought that this could be a movie.
Paste: What’s the process for securing the rights to a literary property like? Did you have to win over author K.L. Going?
Lillard: I offered her agent a piece of money, and it wasn’t a lot, because it was my money; a personal investment. At the time, I was a relative name, but I’m not hugely famous by any stretch of the imagination. I’m not rich by any stretch of the imagination, and I offered her something like ten grand, which was a considerable piece of money for me. I got on the phone, the offer was out there, and I’ll never forget because I was on my way home from Palm Springs on Memorial Day weekend, probably ten years ago, and I just said to her “Look, I believe in this movie. I’ve never directed, and you have no reason to believe in me, but I’m passionate about this kid and I’m not going to let you down.” She said yes, and I had the script written on spec, which basically means that I had a guy work on it for free. So I figured I’d take it out into the world and do it for ten million bucks. Nobody in Hollywood wanted to do a story about an obese teenager and punk rock for $10 million. So it finally took me about nine years to find someone who would take that leap of faith with me. At the time, the least I thought I could do it for was ten million. And we ended up doing it for way less than a million bucks.
Paste: Did you have a lot of trepidation stepping into the director’s chair?
Lillard: It was something I always wanted to do, ever since I started acting. It was always the trajectory I wanted to go. It felt completely natural. I finally found something that I completely loved. I love the craft of acting, but doing the same line or the same scene over the course of a day isn’t really exhilarating. It’s a good job, but the parts I get aren’t really that amazing. Being a director of a movie, you get to do a lot more. There’s a lot more at stake and a lot more responsibility. It’s more of a challenge and way more fun than just hitting your mark and saying your line. There’s risk and challenge, and that’s exhilarating.