An Interview With Eugene Levy

In A Mighty Wind, Eugene Levy's Mitch Cohen is to over-the-hill folk icons what Ozzy Osbourne is to over-the-hill rock gods, which is to say dazed and confused … but strangely lovable.

The role was a departure for Levy, who's made a tidy career for himself in Hollywood playing variations on SCTV news anchor Earl Camembert. The addled musician - half of the legendary singing-sweetheart duo, Mitch & Mickey -- is nothing at all like the Great North American Doofus character he's practically trademarked in such studio productions as American Pie, Bringing Down the House and Father of the Bride. But, that will hardly come as a surprise to fans of Levy's other SCTV stand-bys: Bobby Bittman, Stan Schmenge, Sid Dithers, Bruno the Hunchback and Rockin' Mel Slurrup.

In addition to their work together on A Mighty Wind, Levy and Christopher Guest co-wrote and co-starred in Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and TV's D.O.A. Both considered Mitch to be something of a "challenge" for the 56-year-old native of Hamilton, Ontario.
Like Guest, though, Levy didn't have to do a lot of research for his assignment in A Mighty Wind. He paid his folk dues as member of the Northern Lights ("Tears Are Not Enough," on the "We Are The World" album) and, later, performed in the original Toronto cast of "Godspell" with Victor Garber, Martin Short, Gilda Radner, and Andrea Martin. He also composed "God Loves A Terrier" and "Terrier Style" for Best in Show.

MOVIE CITY NEWS: So, how much of a stretch was it to play Mitch, the befuddled folk singer?

EUGENE LEVY: The greatest thing about doing this movie was that Chris and I both were involved in folk music in the '60s. I had a group, but I don't think it was at the same level as Chris, because he's an amazing musician.

The caliber of my musicianship was at the level of kids at school just picking up guitars and getting some gigs. But, doing the research for A Mighty Wind -- listening to the groups again -- took me right back.

MCN: Mitch & Mickey reminded me of your fellow Canadians, Ian & Sylvia. Anyone else?

EL: Richard and Mimi Farina also had a reputation of being the sweethearts of folk music, more so even than Ian & Sylvia. Richard and Mimi had a softer, more delicate, innocent kind of a sound. But, it's really about any married couple that performs together, and then has to live together ... Sonny & Cher.

I thought this was kind of a charming way for Mitch & Mickey to go. Their music always had a love theme to it.

MCN: The era depicted in A Mighty Wind seems to pre-date the Dylan-goes-electric and angry protest period in folk music.

EL: Yeah, it takes place in the late '50s, early '60s. We had to cheat a little bit. To go back that far, our characters would have to be in their 70s.

So, these groups probably would have had to be popular in the mid-'60s for the timing to be right.

MCN: The Main Street Singers reminded me of groups like the Pozo-Seco Singers, the Rooftop Singers, We Five, the New Christy Minstrels and Highwaymen, who had hits with songs like "Michael (Row the Boat Ashore)," "Green, Green," "You Were on My Mind" and "Guantanamera."

EL: Yeah, by the time you heard the Serendipity Singers do "My roof has a hole in it, and I might drown ..." on the radio, the folk movement was on its way out. Then, it was folk-rock and the Byrds ... I was into folk between about 1963 and 1973.

MCN: I imagined that the musicians who populate A Mighty Wind are some of the same people who booed Bob Dylan for going electric at Newport. The Bohners seemed to be possessed with something almost demonic.

EL: Chris and I spent a lot of time developing the characters and making them work for the story. Our outline alone was 30 pages long.

We tried to take the characters into different sorts of places, and give them a little bit of insanity. We wanted to add a demonic quality to these white-bread characters and their white-bread sounds.

MCN: If they weren't still singing folk songs, the Bohners (John Michael Higgins and Jane Lynch) would be leading a cult somewhere, with their color-based religion.

EL: Michael's character ... both of them, really ... were really very scary. And it was all in the guise of these happy-go-lucky, up-with-people songs.

MCN: Movies, like A Mighty Wind and Best in Show, are lumped under the general heading of "mockumentary." But I don't ever get the feeling that you and Chris are mocking anyone.

EL: That term really bothers Chris. We don't pick a subject to mock or skewer. SCTV was described as a "biting satire" on television, but I saw it more as a character-driven comedy.

The characters were part of the storylines that ran through each show, and then we went outside the studio to the town of Melonville, with Mayor Tommy Shanks, and there would be elections. We created a universe around those characters.

MCN: I still break out in a smile just thinking about the Schmenges and Bobby Bittman.

EL: These movies are all about characters, too ... putting them into a context. A Mighty Wind is like a documentary, because the camera follows the characters around.

It doesn't create a story … you start in one place and end up somewhere else. Our edge isn't razor-sharp or cutting. It's much softer.

MCN: The audience certainly roots for Mitch & Mickey to get back together … in song, at least.

EL: This is a subject Chris and I both loved. We're not putting it up for ridicule.

MCN: The dog owners and trainers of Best in Show might not agree.

EL: There was nothing inherently, bitingly satirical we wanted to do about the world of dog shows and dogs owners. The characters in Best in Show loved their dogs the same way real dog owners love their dogs when they put them in dog shows. We weren't sending anything up there. We were just reflecting something that was real, and we just followed our characters.

MCN: The popularity of your truly reality-based movies seems to define the term "word-of-mouth."

EL: That's one of the reasons they don't release them like they do Bringing Down the House or other commercial comedies that open in 2,000-3,000 theaters. The studios don't think that movies that are a little off-center will play well in Middle America or America, in general. They only think they will appeal to a small core of hip people.

MCN: But everyone I know who's found Best in Show loves it. They can't wait to rent Guffman.

EL: Personally, I think that if they had released Best in Show in 2,800 theaters, it would have done great business ... OK? Without star power, the studios don't know how to market pictures like this.

People might have gone out to see Best in Show just because it was about dogs. If they had, I'm sure they would have been surprised by how it made them laugh.

MCN: It's taken a while, but when people see the name, Eugene Levy, on a billboard or commercial for a movie, they assume it is going to be funny. I suppose American Pie was the movie that did that for you?

EL: I can feel it happening, but maybe it's because I'm doing better work. American Pie was a charming film ...

MCN: Jim's dad could have been played as yet another doofus father. But, he really was a great father.

EL: Yeah, he was. At first, I wasn't anxious to take it on, because the part wasn't written the way it turned out. It was just a kids' movie and kind of out there.

The Weitz brothers asked me how I wanted to change the character. We'd sit down and do some improvisations, and that was the way the scenes turned out, mostly. The Weitz' are really quite brilliant.

MCN: Not many real-life dads would be nearly as willing to help their sons cut through all the anxiety of achieving manhood.

EL: I wanted him to be a well-meaning father. I didn't want him to become one of the boys, or join in the sex deal. I wanted him to be removed and supportive of his son.

When you come down into the kitchen and find your son humping a pie, you just don't take out the belt. It was, 'Well, how do we deal with this. We'll just tell your mom we ate it all."

MCN: Were the Weitz' looking for an Earl Camembert archetype?

EL: They wanted me for this movie because they loved my work, and I think SCTV was a big part of it. For some reason they saw the fit between me and my character long before I did.

They were quite flexible about me reworking the character. They gave me carte blanche.

MCN: That was very smart of them.

EL: I think so, too. The writer, Adam Herz, also went along with the changes, and it became part of the process.

Christopher Guest Interview