As different as "Fast Food Nation” is from “Dazed and Confused,” “Newton Boys,” “Before Sunset” and “School of Rock” they all have one thing in common -- Richard Linklater. Normally, a director is labeled a comedic director (Todd Phillips) or an action director (Michael Bay) yet Linklater is able to jump from drama to comedy to science-fiction (“A Scanner Darkly”).
In his newest film, which will open in Chicago on Nov. 17, he takes on the fast food industry. But this isn't just about a couple of extra pounds we pack on eating fries. “Fast Food Nation” is based on the non-fiction book from Eric Schlosser and takes a look at working conditions, the food the animals eat, and a kill floor.
Linklater and I sat around an enormous 20-person oval table at the Four Seasons, but he immediately made it feel like we were hanging out having a beer, and by beer I mean water. It's easy to see why actors like Ethan Hawke keep finding time to work with him.
When we weren't talking about Austin (I got engaged there, he lives there) we found time to talk about the food industry and his other films.
Bayer: When you first encountered the book, was there the thought of making it a non-fiction documentary? Linklater: No. I read the book and never thought of it as a movie. I read most non-fiction and can turn off my movie brain. It was only when I met Eric, he was coming through Austin, he wanted to meet me and talk about it as a movie. He immediately said “think of it as a fictional film.” Take a town and tell stories about people around that town. And I thought, yeah that’s what I kind of do, and I’d been trying for years to get a movie made about industrial workers or some of these subjects. It was an opportunity to get to make that film that I wanted to make. And it was his idea to kind of throw out the book. It’s still of the book. It’s fiction, which frees you up. He spends his whole life with lawyers and fact-checking.
Bayer: Tons of big-name actors in this film. How did they come aboard? Linklater: I call them up and make sure they are right for the part. With Bruce Willis, I had never technically met him, but I’ve been in the same room as him. I sent him the part, it was a one-day thing and I thought it was a fun scene and someone could come in here and dig in. I was lucky, he wanted to do it. Kris Kristofferson, Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette, it all worked like that. All the younger actors auditioned (Wilmer Valderrama and Avril Lavigne). It was a great cast, I was lucky. You never know, people are busy and you're not really paying them anything. I’m always flattered.
Bayer: Is the main point of the film a “Did you know?” for America? Linklater: I hadn’t thought of it in those terms, but I guess yeah. It'’ intentionally pulling back the veil behind a whole industry that we know for a fact they don't want us to know how it works. We know about a lot of things, like behind the scenes of how movies are made. We don’t know anything about food. In fact, it exists in a mythological place somewhere in our minds; there is a farm somewhere, there is a family that runs that farm. They have some cows and some pigs, a whole garden and they sell there stuff and it’s healthy and we eat it. Once you get rid of that myth, the meat you are eating most likely is from cows eating their own feces, being pumped up with hormones and antibiotics. It’s important to remind people.
Bayer: “Super Size Me” and my fiancée got me off of fast food. What do you hope “Fast Food Nation” does? Linklater: I hope people care. I hope they care about the characters. And I hope they have to think about it a little bit. The first screening we ever had, a woman came up to me and said, “I'll never eat that again and not think about all that stuff behind it.” We only vote two or four years in our political environment, but you vote every single day to the food system you want ... “Fast Food Nation” isn't just about fast food, it’s about the corporate model that just squeezes out profits at the expense of every other element.
Bayer: Is there a villain in the film? Linklater: No, I don’t think so. You meet people at any corporate level, they’re good people. They look in the mirror and think they’re doing right by their family. The villain is the soullessness of the machine world. To me the villain is complacency. The villain is willful ignorance. When you are aware of something, you can vote with your consumer dollars.
Bayer: Cody’s Meat Packing Plant, how did you create that? Animals were killed? Linklater: Obviously animals were killed, that would have been the best digital effects of the year probably. We gained access almost by undercover means at a plant in Mexico. I won’t say where out of respect to them. We were given very limited access to film the kill floor scene. They were very nice, and I’ve heard the plants in Mexico are clean compared to the plants in the U.S. The smell, believe it our not, is grass, because all of those cows had been grass fed. Like you just mowed your lawn, but the warm blood fecal matter smell was mixed with it.
Bayer: As a director is seems you have the rare ability to cross many genres of film. Why? Linklater: I don’t know. Guys used to. We are living in the age of specialization, where if you are proven in something, you’re going to get rewarded and encouraged to do it again.
Bayer: So you’ve just been a failure in all your endeavors? Linklater: Exactly (laughing). My lack of blatant success at any one has allowed me to dance between [different genres].
Bayer: “A Scanner Darkly” didn’t have to be animated, compared to “Waking Life.” So why did you take that route? Linklater: From frame one you are in a different head space, questioning your reality from the get-go. I think that animation technique helps tell that story. And then there’s the practical consideration. I could shoot very low budget and animate it. With live-action, the scramble suit would have been tough, maybe would have been a little cheesy. I didn’t know how to pull off the few sci-fi elements, and it would have been more expensive.
Bayer: With “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset,” how many more do you want to do? And by the way, “Before Sunrise” was incredibly effective for me in college. Linklater: Good, you owe me. Hey, it’s been effective for me. Usually at the moment of break up I hear, “I can't believe you were the guy who did ‘Before Sunset’.” It's something that Ethan (Hawke), Julie (Delpy) and I joke about, that at some point we might, but you never know the future.
Bayer: With “Dazed and Confused” it kills me that two popular seniors want to hang out with two freshmen for the whole day. Why did that happen? No other seniors do it, so it’s not tradition (I also told him I love the film, which is true). Linklater: They sort of luck into it, in a big brother, big sister way. They even call it “Big Sisters” for the girls. They gave them a ride to the party, but then once at the party they’re only vaguely responsible. I remember it really being that way, it was auto-biographical. I was the only junior-high kid in sight.
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