Eh. Either way, Maurice LaMarche kinda sorta knew who I was when I got on the phone. I’m chalking it up as a win.

Maurice LaMarche: Now, I’m looking here on your Facebook page, and…who are your likes? Because I see you’ve got “The Newsroom,” and then you’ve got this guy with really tightly cropped hair, but then when I go into your page, you’ve got something like 1,200 “likes,” so I can’t tell who he is. Do you know who I’m talking about?

Bullz-Eye: Yeah, he’s…I’m blanking on his name right this second, but he’s part of the cast of USA’s “Suits.”

MLM: Hmmm. Because he looks like a guy who used to be on a show that I loved that got cancelled, a show called “Jake In Progress.” He played a magician, I think, but…God, that’s gonna drive me nuts now. I’ve got to look up “Suits” now! [Laughs.] Sorry! Then we can start. I’m a little compulsive…

BE: Well, look, I’ll help you out: that’s the same guy. His name is Rick Hoffman.

MLM: Yes! I love him! He’s so good. So funny. I love that guy.

BE: Yeah, I think I first saw him on “Samantha Who?”

MLM: Okay, so you never saw him on “Jake in Progress,” then…? Oh, “Jake in Progress” was my favorite show, and it just was treated so… [Puffs up his voice.]  …ignominiously by ABC. Reminiscent of the way they treated a certain futuristic cartoon show, one might say.

BE: I’m sure I don’t know what you’re referring to.

MLM: I’m sure I don’t, either. [Laughs, then puffs up voice again.] But Comedy Central has treated us much better.

BE: Yes, “Futurama” continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. It’s like a zombie: Fox tried to kill it, but they couldn’t get rid of it.

MLM: That’s right. We just keep coming back at you. And we’ll try not to do any zombie storylines, so…thank you for your patronage. [Laughs.]

BE: So when you first came into the mix for “Futurama” way back when, was it as an all-purpose player, or did they envision you for a particular part from the beginning?

MLM: No, I was really supposed to be the utility voice guy. Billy (West) was actually supposed to be that. They had a different Fry in an unaired pilot, and they just felt both the Fry and Leela they had hired weren’t working. So they got Katey (Sagal), and they thought, “Well, Billy’s default voice, if he just talked a little higher, would be good for Fry.” So with him being all through the show, not only as the Professor and Zoidberg, which were parts that he already had, but as Fry, they just felt that they needed another guy, because maybe Billy’s superpowers might be stretched a little thin. [Laughs.] So I came onboard in Episode 2, and…I had done a good audition, but when I heard they went ahead with the pilot, I kind of shrugged and just went, “Okay, I guess I didn’t get this one.” And so when I came onboard in Episode 2, they said, “Okay, so you’re the utility voice guy, and just do everything we tell you. Just be there and be ready to create a whole mess of characters.” So I was just ready to be that guy.

But then round about the fourth episode or so, along came this character, Kif, that Matt (Groening) seemed to have a particular interest in. He came to the session and just directed me and really wanted this dynamic between Zapp (Brannigan) and Kif to really work, to really be kind of another story in the show. Kind of a duo: the bumbling blowhard who doesn’t know he’s a blowhard, and the meek little guy who probably knows more but can’t do anything about it. An impotent little fellow. So it was good. He told me he wanted something that had some of the arrogance of Jon Lovitz… [Laughs.] You know, when Lovitz gets a little pissy. But, y’know, something that also sounded weaker. I thought, “Weaker than Jon Lovitz? You want a weaker voice than Jon Lovitz…?” So I folded in that Truman Capote little flavor, and that’s where Kif came from.

BE: So what does it say in the script when Kif offers up his shuddering sigh?

MLM: Actually, this is nice – it’s actually become a trademark – but it actually just says, “Kif sigh.” It says Kif’s name, and then underneath it’ll say “Kif sigh.” So I know that’s when it’s time to do the patented Kif sigh. [Laughs.] At one point, in the initial scripts, it said something like “sigh of resignation,” and I just…I knew that sound, because I’d been married, so I just went… [Offers a Kif sigh.] And for some reason, they really just clung onto that and the way I sighed, because that became a trademark. They’d actually say, “I just love the way you sigh. It just sounds so…downtrodden.” [Laughs.] So it became a thing. The sigh became a thing.

BE: One of your other regular contributions to the show is the voice of Calculon, which I admit is one of my personal favorites.

MLM: [Launches into his Calculon voice.] I thank you. You know, normally I’m programmed to be very, very busy, Will, but today I’ve made time for you. Anybody who would post on their Facebook that they’re interviewing me, Calculon, and my alter-ego, Maurice LaMarche, deserves my time.

BE: [Laughs.] That’s very kind of you. I should also add that my daughter has become an equally obsessive “Futurama” fan.

MLM: Nice.

BE: Although I have to admit that, when we sat down to watch the season premiere together, I…well, actually, I tagged John DiMaggio on this status update, but the questions about how Bender managed to impregnate the soda machine, I deferred to him.

MLM: [Laughs.] I think you must. Oh, but as far as Calculon goes, he’s a favorite of mine, too. And I say that at the risk of sounding like Calculon. But as far as the stable I’ve gotten to build up over the years on “Futurama,” he’s the most fun, because he’s got all this bombastic, but he’s…unlike Zapp, he’s harmless. He doesn’t command a space fleet with laser beams that can slice planets in half. He’s just an actor. So, you know, we can laugh at the huge ego and realize that the worst he can do is yell at a production assistant. [Laughs.] That’s the most harm he can do. So I have a lot of fun with him, and this season…I think it’s the first half of Season 7. Or Season 7A, as we’re now calling it. I think it’s in Season 7A, as opposed to 7B, in which he faces his greatest acting challenge ever. So we’re gonna have fun with that.

BE: Yes, as soon as I told my daughter I was talking to you and tried to clarify which characters you play, I described Calculon, and she hesitated for a second, but then she asked, “Is he the one who made the movie with Zoidberg’s uncle?”

MLM: [Laughs.] “If I don’t win this Oscar, you’re cat food!”

BE: One of the greatest things about “Futurama” is that it has the ability to be incredibly dumb and smart at the same time, I guess is the best way to phrase it.

MLM: Just like Fry. I mean, that’s…the dichotomy of Fry. The why of Fry, which they explored in the episode “The Why of Fry,” is part of the appeal. He’s this incredibly dumbed-down character who occasionally says incredibly insightful things or figures out exactly the right thing to do. And, y’know, it’s apparently to do with being his own grandfather…which I hope you haven’t had to explain to your daughter yet, but…

BE: Actually, we watched the episode the other night, and I basically shrugged it off by saying, “Let’s just say that this could only happen because of time travel and move on.”

MLM: [Laughs.] There you go. So, yeah, we’ve got some of the smartest writers in the business. We’ve got PhDs on our writing staff, MAs, MSCs…half the writing staff is Harvard-educated science geeks, and the other half are from a stable of real seasoned sitcom writers or have written for stand-up comics. And those two coming together…you’ve really got something funny. So it’s great.

BE: The standard reply is that they’re all like your children, I know, but are there any particular episodes that really stand out for you as favorites?

MLM: Hmmm. Over the course of the entire series, or just this upcoming season?

BE: I guess over the course of the entire series, since it gives you more to work with.

MLM: Well, I’ll tell you, my standard line has become, “How can you not love an episode that won you an Emmy?” So “Lrrreconcilable Differences” really stands out, first of all because I had no idea going in that day that it was going to be anything other than a lot of fun and that I was going to meet Katey Sackhoff. But it ended up being a really hilarious script, and then seeing it animated and showing it at Comic-Con…the first time anyone ever laid eyes on it was at Comic-Con, and here the very first shot was this perfect rendering of the San Diego Convention Center in the year 3010. Well, perfect except it’s future-y, so things are floating where they shouldn’t be able to float, because of all the anti-gravity devices. [Laughs.] But there are so many little things, like when he tromps down that ramp and takes the microphone and it’s not close enough. I mean, how many times has that happened at Comic-Con, you know? You’ve seen it. There are so many nice moments in there.

Lrrr is like Kif. Kif, Calculon, and Lrrr are my favorites, in terms of my stable of characters. Lrrr is so…he’s just so messed up. [Laughs.] He’s supposed to be this ruler of planet Omicron Persei VIII, and yet he gets nothing right in his personal life. And I think a lot of people can relate to that. They have a professional face that makes it seem as though they’ve got it all together, and then they get it home and their face hit them in the face with a skillet. [Laughs.] Or yells at them for never taking them anywhere. He’s impotent, you know? He’s facing all these things that certainly the older segment of our audience can relate to. This season, we’ve got…again, I don’t know if it’s 7A or 7B, but there’s a nice Lrrr episode where we explore his relationship with his teenage son, which is exactly where I am in life. I’ve got a teenage son, and sometimes we connect and sometimes we’re on completely different levels. So that one’s a favorite script coming up.

You know, just a comment on the writing, it’s always smart, but I’d have to say that in the first couple of seasons, the shows weren’t…they were a little snarkier and not terribly deep, at least to my mind. I don’t mean this as a slight on the writers. But as all of us have gone on in life…there’s  a core group that’s stayed with the show…the show’s developed a real heart and a real moral center, and I just think the shows keep getting better and better. I’m sure David (X.) Cohen could talk to you more about that, but…you know, there are just different ways that we love our fellows, and we can explore those things by taking them to other places, other planets, other times. But at the core of at all, the message of “Futurama” is that technology may change, the face of the world may change, but people are still flawed. I think that, although they have these eccentricities, these foibles, whatever travails they may go through, that’s what the message will always be. But I feel like it’s sometimes even more effective to tell those stories the way we tell them, in that science-fiction-y way.

BE: I wanted to ask you about a couple of non-“Futurama” things as well. I’ve always been curious: I know that you did the voice of Orson Welles for that scene in “Ed Wood,” but what did Vincent D’Onofrio think of the fact that they had you do that?

MLM: Um…I don’ t know. I’ve never, ever met the man. The word through the grapevine was that he wasn’t terribly pleased at having his voice replaced. I don’t think he has anything against me. I don’t even think he knows I exist. But it spurred him to actually do his own Orson Welles short, which can be found on YouTube. It’s called “Five Minutes, Mr. Welles,” it’s a 30-minute long short where he reprises the role of Welles, and he does an excellent job of it. He actually does try to make the voice right in this one. When he did “Ed Wood,” and I’m one of the handful of people who saw the dailies, ‘cause they sent them to me so I could learn the timing, he chose to do this kind of high-pitched, reedy read. And it was kind of… [Imitates voice.] “How do you do? I’m Orson Welles.” And it almost sounded effeminate. And it was just wrong coming out of that perfect face, the way they’d lit him, the way he…he got down the way Welles pursed his lips before and after taking a puff on his cigar! I mean, it was just…he had every physicality down. And then there was this jarring departure where he did this [Imitates voice again.] “How do you do? Follow your dreams, Ed!” So Burton being, of course, an animator as his background, he still kept his eyes on all things animation and was aware of “Pinky & The Brain,” and just said… [Bellowing.] “Get me the guy that does The Brain!” Oh, yeah, and he sounded like he was in a ‘30s madcap comedy about a newsroom, obviously. [Laughs.] But that was the feeler that went out, and when he found out it was me, they put me on a plane to San Francisco, and I recorded it up there with him in the room.

BE: What are your recollections of working with Rodney Dangerfield and Sam Kinison when you were doing “The 9th Annual Young Comedians Special” for HBO?

MLM: [Hesitates.] Well…okay, first of all, no one’s ever been as supportive or kinder to me than Rodney Dangerfield. That said, I don’t know if you’ve heard the podcast where I told the real story of how Sam Kinison got on the Young Comedians…

BE: I have not.

MLM: Oh, okay. Well… [Starts to laugh.] Basically, I talked Rodney into putting Sam on the show. Now, this is gonna come off all bitter, but the truth is the truth: in Rodney’s book, he tells the story as he had to talk Sam into going on the show, but if you read the conversation in the book, every line he gives himself is a line I said to him, and every line he gives to Sam, where Sam’s, like, “I don’t know if I’m ready, Rodney, I can’t cook in five minutes,” is actually what Rodney said to me. And I’m sitting there on the tour bus, coming back from a gig with him, ‘cause I used to be his opening act, saying, “I’m telling you, Rodney, he can cook in five minutes, he’s got a hugely hilarious opening bit…” So I actually…I didn’t twist his arm, but I got him to take another look. And ultimately the decision was his to put Sam on “The Young Comedians,” which was the most meteoric rise I’ve ever seen since Howie Mandel did the “Make Me Laugh” show.

Kinison was a friend for years. I knew Sam when he was managing the Weston Comedy Store and sleeping in the club, ‘cause he didn’t have money for an apartment. And I’d take him out for food. I was only nominally making a living, but I was doing better than him, so I’d take him to Art’s Delicatessen, and we’d eat and talk about, “Someday it won’t be like this…” And then, y’know, VOOM! “Hey, what was that whoosh?” “Oh, that’s Sam passing me on the fame-and-fortune superhighway.” [Laughs.] But it was great. I couldn’t have been happier for him. And, of course, I couldn’t have been more saddened by his death. Y’know, that’s…that to me was a huge tragedy. And I did try to help Sam to get sober. It was just…he managed to do so for about 88 days, and then I guess something about it being the same number as the number of keys on a piano…? He decided he already owned a keychain and didn’t want to get any more of those chips, and he started up again. But I loved him, he was a dear friend, and I remember him fondly. Every April 10^th, I take a moment to think about him. That was the day he died, in 1992. Yeah, he was a dear friend. And an amazing talent. Changed the face of the game, as they say.

BE: Do you have a favorite project you’ve worked on over the years that didn’t get the love you thought it deserved? Excluding “Futurama,” I guess, since Fox obviously didn’t respect that quite as much as they should’ve.

MLM: Oh, we got our love, though. [Laughs.] And, listen, 20^th Century Fox Television is incredibly supportive of the show. It’s the network that didn’t see its potential. But 20^th Century TV and Gary and Dana have been champions of the show, along with Doug Herzog over at Comedy Central. So, yeah, we’ve definitely gotten the love. [Does Hedonism Bot voice.] It’s merely taken awhile for the cream of “Futurama” to rise to the top!

I’ll tell you a show that I thought, “Wow, that really should’ve gone longer,” which was a show I did back in the early ‘90s called “Taz-Mania.” That was sort of the brainchild of Art Vitello, the idea of taking Taz – a three-shot character, really, when all was said and done with the classic Looney Tunes – and giving him a home life, showing that he has this sort of Bing Crosby dad… [Adopts Bing Crosby voice.] “Well, what are you doing there, son? Blah, blah, blah, yakity smakity. That’s a dog…? Well, he’s got stinky breath, that’s normal for a dog, but it looks like a turtle!” So I got to play the dad, and we even brought in an uncle character who sounded like Bob Hope. And I did an entire episode as Hope and Crosby doing this “Road” picture where basically the whole script was me, except for, like, five lines. [Laughs.] And it was really clever, and we had so much fun making the show. And it just kind of did nothing on television. I don’t know why it never garnered a following. I think it was sandwiched between “Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toons” and “Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs,” and “Steven Spielberg Presents Pinky & The Brain.” All shows that I had the extreme pleasure of working on, but…right in the middle was this thing that was just, y’know, “Warner Brothers Presents Taz-Mania.” It had no “Steven Spielberg Presents.” So I don’t know if they didn’t push it hard enough or it didn’t have that Spielbergian flavor, but…I always felt it never got its due. I thought it was a great show.

BE: Over the course of your career, you’ve stepped into roles that were obviously established by other voice actors. Do you get intimidated by that, or do you just see it as a challenge?

MLM: Oh, no, no, it’s very intimidating. I mean, when I had the temerity to read for Popeye back in the 1980s, I just thought, “How do you step into this iconic role?” I’d been watching it since I was a little kid, y’know? Jack Mercer was Popeye for 52 years. There was a guy named Red Pepper Sam – Bill Costello was his name, Red Pepper Sam was his stage name – and he…oh, God, Billy West knows this. He’s much more of a cartoon historian than I am, and Tom Kenny is even more of one than Billy West. I’m pretty bad at this stuff. But…I think he only did a handful of episodes, but he was the established voice of Popeye, and then he left for some reason. I can’t remember if it was for the war effort or for more money, but Mercer stepped in. He was an animator, but when he pitched a story, he did the voice pretty damned good, so they got him in there, and he was the voice for 52 years. And I just thought, “How am I supposed to take over for this guy that passed away? They created the show ‘Popeye and Son’ for him!” So when I got it…I thought for sure somebody else would get it…I was stunned. And I think I was intimidated all through that, thinking…I had that voice in my head, saying, “Who are you, thinking you can play an icon like Popeye?” And you know what? It only lasted a season. [Laughs.] So maybe I sucked at the damned thing! Or it could’ve been the fact that Olive Oyl wore legwarmers and an aerobics outfit. [Laughs.] Hey, it was the ‘80s…

BE: Lastly, I saw on Wikipedia that, during your stand-up days, you actually served as the opening act for people like Donna Summer and David Sanborn. First of all, this immediately reminded me of Albert Brooks’ routine about opening for Richie Havens, but I was just wondering what your experiences were like as a stand-up opening for a musical act.

MLM: Well, first of all, I wish I knew the Richie Havens bit. I love Albert Brooks! [Laughs.] But I really only had great experiences opening for people. I never had a negative one. Donna Summer was lovely to me, God rest her soul. She had me to her dressing room to say “hello” and “thanks for the great job” about midway through my time with her. Sanborn was great. First of all, he was a jazz hero of mine, so…he actually took me on tour with him. I only did a few dates with Donna in Atlantic City, but David took me on tour with him. And when we were off-tour, he called me at my house just to see how I was doing. It was great. And I remember going backstage for another concert…it was Al Jarreau…and David was there, and he came up and just gave me the hugest hug. It impressed the hell out of my date. [Laughs.] It was great.

I’ve really only had great experiences. (George) Carlin was great. A nice, nice guy. But Rodney really, of all of them, was the most generous. I’ll never forget a time where we pulled into Latham, New York, and my name was not on the billboard. He always insisted that I get 50% billing. In Las Vegas, you have to fight for 25% billing, but here I was generously being given 50% letters. My letters were half as tall as his. I have a picture with my father standing in front of my billboard. He couldn’t have been prouder. But we pulled up to Latham and my name wasn’t on the billboard, and he refused to go on until someone got on a cherry picker. [Laughs.] And the billboard was up on one of these Jetsons-like poles that just shot up as far as you could go, so the guy got up there and did it. Rodney’s road manager pulled me out there and said, “Take a look at this,” and, sure enough, there as this guy risking his life to put “Maurice LeMarche” on there. I said, “Ah, I wish he hadn’t done that. It’s okay.” He said, “Hey, Rodney knows what it’s like to work shit joints all of his career. He’s not going on ‘til you get what he asked for, because he doesn’t want it to be so tough for you.” So, y’know, those were my opening-act experiences. I look back it as a very fond time in my life.

BE: And clearly things have gone well for you in the voice acting business as well.

MLM: Yes, that is true. [Laughs.] I do miss stand-up, but I’ve found this wonderful second career in voiceover, and, y’know, it’s been a wonderful ride. And I hope it keeps going on.

The late, great Sam Kinison died 20 years ago today. Check out our profile of Sam Kinison that we published when we inducted him into our Stand-up Comics Hall of Fame.

Illustration by Brian Smith. Copyright 2009 Bullz-Eye.com, LLC. Click here for usage restrictions.

Bullz-Eye: First of all, in case you haven’t heard, I should let you know that we put you into our Director’s Hall of Fame last year.

John Landis: Oh, thank you very much!

BE: Our pleasure. After all, we’re a guy-centric site, and it would be fair to say that you’ve made a few movies that have been appreciated by many a man over the years…including, of course, “¡Three Amigos!”

JL: [Laughs.] So did you get a chance to watch the Blu-ray, then?

BE: I did. It looks fantastic.

JL: Yeah, I was able to restore it to the way it’s supposed to be seen. I’m very pleased with the way it looks.

BE: I was actually going to ask you about that process. I presume there’s at least a little bit of difference when it comes to restoring a comedy for Blu-ray versus, say, a full-on special effects extravaganza.

JL: Actually, no. [Laughs.] That would be an untrue presumption. I mean, every picture’s individual, and it depends on the look you were going for with that particular movie. When they made the Blu-ray for “Animal House,” I was upset. I thought they made it much too bright and clean. “Animal House” is supposed to look dirty and funky. [Laughs.] I remember the technician, when I had to check it, he kept writing on his chart, “Image degraded per director.” But every movie you make, you try – or at least I do, anyway – for a different kind of look. On “¡Three Amigos!” I was really trying to go for those beautiful westerns that Hollywood used to make in the ‘50s. The Technicolor pictures. We wanted the colors to be incredibly vibrant. You know, the old DVD wasn’t even the correct aspect ratio. So I’m happy that I got the chance to restore it.

BE: Well, as I say, it looks fantastic. And sounds great, too.

JL: Yeah, it’s a great score. It’s a unique situation where Elmer Bernstein, I asked him…I said, “Listen, I want you to satirize yourself.” And that’s what he did. [Laughs.] He’s doing his wacky version of “The Magnificent Seven,” and I was just so pleased with that. And the songs by Randy Newman…I mean, the movie’s got incredible music.

BE: And the Singing Bush. I mean, come on…

JL: The Singing Bush is Randy Newman! [Laughs.]

BE: Absolutely. Did you have to prod him at all to play that part?

JL: Yes. [Laughs.] But he did a great job. The role he was born to play!

BE: You and your stars – Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short – reunited for an Empire Magazine article not so long ago.

JL: Right, that was recently. It was only about four months ago, I think.

BE: It was a great article, although as I read it, I couldn’t help but think, “Gee, I’m sure he loved being reminded that ‘¡Three Amigos!’ made less money at the box office than ‘Police Academy 3.’”

JL: Yeah, but ‘Police Academy 3’ was a gigantic hit!

BE: Well, sure. But when you look back on classic films of the ‘80s, ‘¡Three Amigos!’ would seem to rank higher than ‘Police Academy 3.’

JL: Maybe, but…I make a movie that I want to see. When you make a film…Peter Bogdanovich famously said, “The only true test of a movie is time,” and there are movies that were originally failures, like “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which was such a failure that it bankrupted the company, but it’s considered a great American film…because it is! [Laughs.]

BE: You’ve been at the helm of quite a few films that continue to be reflected upon both on and between their key anniversaries. Is “¡Three Amigos!” one that surprises you with its endurance?

JL: No. Because it’s very funny. [Laughs.] And I think that the Amigos themselves are very sweet. And…there are not that many movies you can watch with the whole family, other than Disney or Pixar films, where the parents enjoy it as much as the kids.

BE: I discovered this morning that if I go to Google and type in the words “would you say,” it instantly attempts to finish the phrase with “I have a plethora of piñatas”?

JL: [Bursts out laughing.] Is that true?

BE: That is absolutely true.

JL: That’s…odd. [Laughs.]

BE: But it’s also, I think, a testament to the enduring fan base for that film.

JL: Well, that’s also the wonderful Alfonso Arau and Tony Plana. They’re so great.

BE: Are there any lines that stand out for you personally as favorites?

JL: Oh, many. I think my favorite, the one that I quote the most, is when Dusty Bottoms comes to the Mexican village and the peasants feed them and give them lunch, and Chevy says, “Do you have anything besides Mexican food?” [Laughs.] My wife and I were three months in India, and I found myself saying “do you have anything besides…Mexican food?” all the time.

BE: One of the things I noticed in re-watching the film – something I can’t say as I paid attention to before – was that, in the scene where the Amigos meet with the head of their movie studio, you’ve got three guys working together who would go on to be three of the most popular guest voices on The Simpsons: Phil Hartman (Troy McClure), Jon Lovitz (Artie Ziff), and Joe Mantegna (Fat Tony).

JL: Oh, you know, I never thought of that! [Laughs.] That was Joe Mantegna’s first movie. And Jon Loviz and Phil Hartman, they’re in it because I really wanted Lorne (Michaels) to see them, to put them on “Saturday Night Live,” and…he had a prejudice against L.A. at that time, and because they were from a comedy group in L.A. called The Groundlings, he didn’t want to know. So I gave them parts in the movie so he could see how brilliant they were.

BE: If you listen to Joe Mantegna in the scene, he’s essentially doing his Fat Tony voice.

JL: That’s so funny. That never occurred to me. I didn’t even make that connection. Did you watch the cut scenes on the Blu-ray?

BE: I did, yes.

JL: Okay, so you know there was originally a lot more of them in the film.

BE: Yep. It wasn’t until recently, though, that I learned that Sam Kinison had originally been in the film…not that there’s any trace of his work left, unfortunately.

JL: Yeah, he was this cannibal mountain man. I wish we knew where that footage was. It’s only about four minutes worth, but it’s very funny.

BE: A number of surprising films from the ‘80s have emerged as cult hits. Is there one of your past films – not necessarily limiting yourself to the ‘80s – that you feel is ripe for reevaluation?

JL: Well, I’ve been really lucky, in that most of my films – not all, but most – have had a tremendous life. They’re still showing “Animal House” and “The Blues Brothers” and “An American Werewolf in London” and “Trading Places” and “Coming to America.” They’re all sort of still out there. And, of course, my work with Michael Jackson. All of that stuff is still very relevant.

BE: Speaking of Michael Jackson, I wrote in your entry for our Director’s Hall of Fame, “Kids, ask your parents if they ever made a point of tuning in to MTV at the top of the hour in order to catch an airing of ‘Thriller.’ If they tell you they didn’t, then ask them what it was like to grow up in a cultural vacuum.”

JL: [Laughs.] There was a time where it was, like, all “Thriller,” all the time!

BE: What were your thoughts on tackling that project? I mean, Michael Jackson is obviously someone high-profile enough to find him worth working with, but did you have any trepidation about doing a music video?

JL: Well, I didn’t want to do a music video! [Laughs.] When Michael first called me…he’d seen “An American Werewolf in London” and was very taken with Rick Baker’s work, and he just really wanted to turn into a monster. That’s what he wanted: “I want to turn into a monster onscreen.” And I said, “Instead of doing a video, which is just a three-minute commercial for a record, why don’t we do a short?” And it was meant to be…well, it was, actually, a theatrical short. Disney actually distributed it with “Fantasia” before it was on TV. And that’s why it’s 14 minutes: because it’s the length of a theatrical short. So it ended up being like a little movie, and I had no problem doing it. It was great fun.

BE: Having read your bio, I know you worked at least to some extent on “Once Upon a Time in the West.”

JL: I was on that movie for over a month!

BE: Did you learn any life lessons from Sergio Leone?

JL: No. But he was very sweet and very funny. He had this ridiculous Italian accent – he didn’t speak English very well then – and I enjoyed watching him direct Henry Fonda, who he called Hank, and say, “Hank-a, I want-a you to…” [Starts laughing.] It was really funny. But the guy was brilliant. I love that movie.

BE: Do you have any Robert Shaw stories from working on “A Town Called Hell”?

JL: Just that, boy, that guy could drink unbelievably. [Laughs.] He could consume amounts of alcohol that could kill most people.

BE: I don’t know if you’re familiar with the website Splitsider.com, but they recently did a piece called “The Lost Roles of ‘Animal House.’”

JL: [Laughs.] No, I’m not.

BE: They ran through a list of people who’d either been seriously considered or at least thought about for various roles in the film. I hadn’t known that Meat Loaf was more or less in contention for Bluto.

JL: He was on the list, yeah. If we couldn’t get (John) Belushi. I remember it was Josh Mostel, Meat Loaf, and…there were like five or six guys. But John was the only one we actually offered it to, and he took it.

BE: And I can’t help but smile at the thought of Jack Webb playing Dean Wormer.

JL: Well, now, he was my first choice. I went to Jack Webb, and he thought I was nuts. [Laughs.] I mean, I had long hair, and…he did everything but call me a Jew commie faggot. But he sat there, drinking Scotch, and he listened to me. But he had no interest. The casting that I was always disappointed in was when I made “The Blues Brothers.” For Bob – of Bob’s Country Bunker – I had lunch with Roy Rogers. And Roy was a very nice guy, by the way, but he just couldn’t be in an R-rated film.

BE: Were there any musicians you wanted in “The Blues Brothers” that you couldn’t wrangle?

JL: Little Richard. At the moment, Little Richard…you know, he finds and loses Jesus all the time. Just my luck, he found him at that moment. [Laughs.]

BE: In the case of a film like “The Blues Brothers,” where you had to deliver a shorter cut at the studio’s request, is that something always gnaws at you for the long haul, or have there been occasions when you were, like, “God help me, but it might just be better this way”?

JL: Well, I mean, for “The Blues Brothers,” we trimmed it tremendously and made it a lot shorter, but most of the time came out of various musical numbers and stuff. For the most part, the answer is “no.” The only time I’ve ever had a studio really fuck with me was on the sequel, on “Blues Brothers 2000,” where they really just kind of destroyed that movie. But I’m still proud of the music in the movie, which is incredible, and the people who are in it are extraordinary. I’m happy that we were able to document those artists and put them on film. But that’s the only time I ever had a studio really fuck me. [Laughs.]

BE: Did you have fun working with Paul Mazursky on “Into the Night” both as a director and as an actor?

JL: I did! He’s one of those guys that I don’t think people remember what a big filmmaker he was. He made some very interesting movies.

BE: I’d expect it was a kick to be able to threaten him onscreen as you did.

JL: Did I threaten him? Oh, yeah, I had a gun! [Laughs.] Paul’s actually a very good actor.

BE: You’re obviously best known for your comedies, but do you ever have an interest in venturing more into drama?

JL: Oh, sure. I mean, you know, there’s this interesting thing, and it’s true not just to critics but in the industry, too, and I’ve never really understood it, but…if you’re a filmmaker and you can tell a story through the juxtaposition of images, which is how movies are made, then genre doesn’t matter. If you can direct a film, you can direct any genre. But directors get typed just like actors, and if you have great success in comedy, then that’s what they want you to do. And it’s frustrating. [Laughs.]

BE: I was talking to Carl Gottlieb recently, and he said the same of screenwriters, suggesting that there was a time when you wouldn’t think twice about having the guy who wrote “The King’s Speech” write “Transformers 3,” or what have you.

JL: That’s absolutely true. But that’s gone. Now, you know, the executives…they’re like Winnie the Pooh: a bear of very little brain. [Laughs.]

BE: I was curious about the experience of working with Bob Hope on “Spies Like Us.”

JL: Well, Bob was literally on his way to the airport. [Laughs.] He was in London, and I called him up and…he was doing a Command Performance, and I asked him if he would be in the film, since the film is clearly my attempt at doing a kind of “Road” picture, a Hope & Crosby kind of picture. He said, “Sure! Give $35,000 to the Boys Club of America, and I’ll do it!” And I said, “Deal!” And he just literally stopped by. I had it lit and ready, and…I’ll tell you, it was an interesting thing. I don’t know if you remember, but in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Bob Hope started making these bad movies, and he became…well, he was not the Bob Hope of the ‘30s and ‘40s, let’s put it that way. And he came in, and he said, “What do you want me to do?” And I told him, and he said, “No, no, show me.” Which, you know, most actors don’t want you to do that kind of thing. But I found myself doing an imitation of Bob Hope from the ‘30s. [Laughs.] I did that, and then Bob…well, basically, he was doing an imitation of me doing an imitation of him from the ‘30s. But being Bob Hope, he was great at it! He just came in and did it. One take. He did it, and he left. And I was honored to have him in the picture.

BE: I just wanted to jump back to the comment I made earlier about unlikely films from the ’80 developing cult followings. I recently wrote a review of the “Clue” miniseries that was done for The Hub, where I made an offhanded comment about how the movie version of “Clue” – which you co-wrote – had a fantastic cast but maybe wasn’t necessarily what you’d call a great movie…though, in fairness, I haven’t seen it in 20 years. But there was a downright vehement reaction from the readership, the general premise of the replies being, “To hell with you! It goddamned well is a great movie!”

JL: [Laughs.] Excellent! Good for those guys! Well, on “Clue,” I wrote the outline, and then I couldn’t solve it. I created this situation I couldn’t solve. I knew the butler goes, “And then this is who did it,” but I couldn’t figure it out! And then Tom Stoppard worked on it for awhile, and then he gave up. And then I was in London, and there was this wonderful TV series called “Yes, Minister” that was written by Tony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. And I met Jonathan and I asked him to write it, and he wrote it. And then…I’ve forgotten what happened, but I was doing another movie, and I said, “Listen, Jon, I’ll try to get you for this, if you’d like to direct it.” And he did!

BE: Do you have a favorite project that you’ve worked on over the years that didn’t get the love you thought it deserved?

JL: Oh, gee, that’s interesting. I don’t know. You know, you make movies, and they sort of have a life of their own. They go out into the world… [Laughs.] …and depending on where I am and who I’m with is the movie they want to talk about. But…yes, I can think of one. My only children’s film was called “The Stupids,” and I’m quite proud of that movie, but it was unfortunate: I made it for a company called Savoy, and they went bankrupt while I was in post-production, so my film, along with a number of movies, went on a shelf. And Mike Eisner and Disney tried to buy it, and that would’ve been great, because it was PG. Maybe it was even G-rated. Captain Kangaroo’s in it, for God’s sake! [Laughs.] It has puppets! It’s a children’s film!

But it sat there for about three years because Victor Kaufman wouldn’t sell it without the other movies. You had to buy the whole slate of Savoy movies. It would’ve been great if Disney had bought it, because it would’ve said, “Walt Disney presents ‘The Stupids.” But it was eventually bought by New Line, and that’s when they were doing the “Freddy’s Nightmare” movie. I’ll never forget it: I went to a screening and…they had never seen the movie. They bought it for a lot of money, but they’d never seen it! [Laughs.] These schmucks, they thought it was a teenage tits-and-ass movie because a girl named Jenny McCarthy, who was a model in Toronto, she had a small part, but in the years that it sat on the shelf, she became Playmate of the Year and a celebrity. So they thought, “Tom Arnold? Jenny McCarthy?!?” They thought it was gonna be a tits-on-the-beach movie! So when they saw it, they went, “This is a children’s film!” I went, “Yeah…?” And they were really upset about it and kind of dumped it. And it always bothered me, because if you show that to the people who it’s aimed for, which is ages 7 to 10, it plays great. [Laughs.] I’m very happy with that picture. So that’s the one I wish had gotten more love.

BE: Lastly, given how many times you’ve turned up in front of the camera, do you have a favorite of your appearances as an actor? And just to clarify, it doesn’t need to have been a role where you actually had to speak.

JL: Um, I don’t know if you know this, but I’m not really an actor. [Laughs.] Do you remember those commercials that Robert Young used to do, where he said, “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV”? I always feel like I should be saying, “I’m not an actor, but I play one in the movies.” Because I’ve been in a shitload of movies. I’ve been in over a hundred films. But…I don’t know, I like my little moment with John Belushi in “1941.” But the film’s not great. [Laughs.] And…I don’t know, I also enjoyed “Into the Night,” because it was kind of slapstick. I enjoyed doing that. I didn’t intend to be in the movie, but I had hired these Persian actors, these Iranian guys, and they were very serious actors and they got the scary, but they couldn’t do the physical comedy. I was trying to do this deadly Keystone Kops slapstick, but they just had trouble with the physical stuff, so I ended up just going, “Fuck it, I look Persian, I’ll do it.” So I’m in there, and, really, the only reason I’m in there – and it worked quite well – was just to get them to be able to do the falling-down stuff like I wanted it. But you’ll notice I don’t speak in that movie. Sorry, I don’t speak Farsi. [Laughs.]