Rodney:  It's really a classic love story.

Del: That was my first impression, and it's very well told.  And this was your creation, taken from your stand-up routines?

Rodney: The script is based loosely on characters from my stand-up act and the characters are composites of people in my life.  The people in this movie are taken from Chicagoans, people I've known, and obviously my parents, and dating experiences that I had in Aurora, Illinois, where I grew up.  I got very lucky when I was performing stand-up because a couple of seasoned screenwriters, Jeff Hause and David Hines, saw me in a club and convinced me that the three of us should make this into a movie.  They've sold twelve movies; they're the real deal.  They're probably most famous for Jim Carrey's first movie Once Bitten, which was in addition to the movie that launched Jim Carrey, it was also number one at the boxoffice. So, I got lucky on the script.  That's where the movie came from.

Del: This was an independent production, so it must have been a wonderful compliment to you that these two gentlemen came to you and suggested the three of you make a film from your stand-up bits.

Rodney:  Well, it was just Jeff Hause at first.  When he first asked me if I was interested in something like that, I had no idea who he was.  You know?  It was just a guy walking up to me at another show, which happens every night.  Five or six people walk up and they're usually complimentary and they one says, "Hey, I've got an idea for you."  So I thought it was another 'guy.'  And I kind of told him, "Sure, we'll get right on that."  I later found out from a friend of mine who Jeff Hause was, and then I sought him out and said, "Hey!  You slacker!  When are we going to write that script?" after blowing him off the first time.  And obviously he was still interested and he brought in his partner Dave Hines and there we go.

Del:  As an independent production, what was the next step in your process? Did it take you a while to get to a version of the script you liked?

Rodney:  We actually wrote it fairly quickly, and it was really outrageous.  We really sat down and agreed we wouldn't make any decisions based on what people in the system would like or dislike.  So it was like... I'm not going to say we threw out the rules, we didn't throw out the rules.  But we threw out the sensitivities of 'Hollywood,' whatever those would be of the people who we knew were going to read it and probably hate it, because it no longer followed their rules.  Oddly enough, our agent loved it.  We thought he would just discard it out of hand.  Because it was so incredibly over the top and outrageous.  And people who read it laughed, even the people who rejected it.  They all said, "That's really funny."  And, you know, the best scripts get rejected for a while before they find a home and it was the same with us.  It went through several studios, a couple of which actually bought it (optioned it) from us and we lost control of the script for about four or five years.  Eventually I got the script back; when it doesn't get released you eventually get it back, and decided to raise the money myself and make it myself. And that's what I did.  I raised the money, I cast it, hired the director, and I had two wonderful producers with me... Karen Bailey and Helen Woo, who did most of the work.  And we got two people to fund it and here we are!

Del: And Karen Bailey also co-stars in the film?

Rodney: Karen Bailey is an actress first and a producer second, I believe.  Although maybe she would put those in the reverse, now, but she is my producing partner and she is great in the movie.  She plays essentially the same part I play, which is the friend of the lead.  She is the female friend of the lead, I'm the male friend of the lead.  We gave it a kind of Yin and Yang, actually.

Del: To that end, in the film you cater somewhat to both the masculine and feminine.  How did that come about?  Was that in the original script?

Rodney: It was.  What was taken out of the script, as it was floating around Hollywood, was the outrageousness, because there's always a fear factor.  Now, in between writing it and today there have been many more films that have come out and have been much more outrageous.  But, back then, we were considered extremely more outrageous, so when we got to the point of shooting it, we put back in a lot of the outrageousness.

Del: And you have some great animation which features the characters of Bachelorman and Bachelorette Woman...

Rodney: The animation was something else that was in it from the beginning.  It came out when we were under some budgetary constraints, but then we found two guys who did Pixar-type animation, basically for free. So, the animation got back in at the last second. Without those guys, the animation would have been out.  The animation serves as the innermost thoughts of the lead character, Ted Davis, when he's Bachelorman.  When he becomes the character, in his mind, then we get to see what he sees.  And that's the animated part.  And, certainly, a lot of the outrageousness comes when he turns into the cartoon character.  The film becomes very metaphorical and sometimes it just hits the idea on the head with a hammer.

Del: Well, the quality of that animation is fantastic.  In fact, the quality of he entire production is superb, which is something you don't normally see in an independent project. 

Rodney: Well, what happened there is, I called in every chip that I've built up in 15 years.  I ended up with, roughly, $6 to $8 million dollars worth of assets in everything from cameras to locations to lighting to people and reduced fees to everybody from forest rangers to director to line producers.  People working for 1/10^th of what they would normally work for, bringing their equipment.  But that's independent filmmaking.  So, we were able to take $2 million dollars and make a $10 million dollar movie.  When I say that, I say that with some backup.  If you go to studio systems or you have people who do this for a living, that's typical.  It's always an $8 to $10 million dollar movie.  I feel like, not only was it $6 or $8 million dollars of free stuff, but it got reflected in the production values of the movie, so that's nice.  I'd hate for anyone to say, "Oh, that looks like a $2 million dollar movie," and go "Ugh."

Del: And you've had your hand in every aspect of this film from pre-production to production and post and now, exhibition.

Rodney: Yes.  Everything that that I've done, though... I don't want to come off like I'm some film genius, because I'm not.  Everything I've done I did because I had to. 

[Blender starts up in the background; we in a coffee shop.]

Rodney: This used to happen to me when I was doing stand-up and just about to deliver a punchline, by the way.  And it just sends a chill up my spine.  Right now all I can think of is being in some dingy bar in Texas and bombing because some customer ordered a Margarita and the bartender actually forgot I was there.  That's how good I was doing, he actually forgot I was there.

[Blender stops.]

Rodney: Anyway, the only reason I did what I'm doing is that, every step of the way, the doors were shut.  It's very difficult to break through in Hollywood and one day I woke up and said, "I guess I've just got to do this myself."  And I've always planned on bringing the movie here, so I packed it up, brought it in, and I've been talking to everybody about it.  I talked directly to the theatre owners themselves, something that I was told not to do.  As in, not only will it not work, but don't even do that, it's inappropriate.  Well, I found out why it's inappropriate, because the theatre owners couldn't wait to talk to me.  And they were thrilled that I was calling them and meeting with them and they don't get to see filmmakers, and they are a little bit tired of being dictated to by studios.  And there was not a single theatre owner, manager, company that said no to me.  I mean, I had trouble picking the six to eight theatres we're going to be in because I was offered hundreds of theatres in the Chicagoland area, Milwaukee, Southern Illinois and Indiana.  AMC Theatres said immediately, "We're opening you in all 12 theatres in Illinois and how far do you want to expand?"  And I said I really don't want... what I'd like is your five best theatres, if that's okay, and they said, "Absolutely, and you can have the premiere downtown, near Navy Pier, just like the big boys." And I asked, "How much is that going to cost?" And they said, "All you have to do is pay for extra security - the rest is free."  So Bachelorman is showing in a very high end, top shelf commercial theatre rather than a dusty, independent art house, which is where most independents land, because that's the only place where studios think they should land.  So, I was really lucky. 

Del:  Well, I'm very happy for you because it's an excellent film and it deserves to be shown in theatres and not go directly to DVD.  It's just as good, if not better, than so many comedy efforts coming out from the major studios.  So it's opening...

Rodney: September 24^th.

Del:  How long will it run at these local theatres?

Rodney:  Probably until it stops making money.  I mean, it could run for a month, but - don't wait!  Because it could get yanked on Sunday afternoon, so, please go to see it on Friday or Saturday, and that will insure that other folks, not so fortunate, will be able to go and see it the following week.  It's important to think it's not going to be there for a month, although probably it will.

Del:  And you're out right now doing all the PR, promoting the film, trying to get people to come in...

Rodney: I am.  I've been doing radio shows.  Again, people that I went to in the Chicago area - the radio, newsprint, yourself - whom I've gone to with my hat in my hand saying, "Look, I've got nothing for you but this movie.  Please watch it, and please let me be on your radio show and please write about it, even if you write something bad about it, at least it will be something.  And, to a man, there's been no one... I have yet to have had a door shut on me in Chicago.  I mean, I went to a gigantic - I'm not going to name them - but a gigantic public relations firm, one of the top five in the city who did things like Spider-man 2 for Chicago, Lord of the Rings, and they never asked me for money.  When I ask, "How much are you going to spend, here?" and they said, "How can we help?" That's been the kind of reception I've gotten.  I did have to say, "I'm a local boy."  Releasing this movie in LA versus releasing it here (in Chicago) has to be such two different experiences.  It's an unbelievable experience releasing a film here and I've got a couple more films in the pipeline and I'm going to release 'em all here whether Bachelorman does well or not.  But I do suspect it will do well and I expect a much wider release; AMC is ready to go to a couple hundred theatres if we do well here.

Del: Working with film distribution companies can be difficult for an independent, but you're not going that route.  You're doing this on your own.

Rodney: Yeah, I have no distribution company, per se.  I have a distributing partner, but it's not his business, he's not considered a studio or distribution company.  's a guy named Dale Poniewaz and his company, Profile Entertainment, and they provided the funds to get the film into the theatres, which was a substantial amount of money and we're goin' from there.  We answer to no one and nobody else has a say in what's going on here, and it is great not to have to go through anybody.  Of course, I was told many, many times that you can't do what I'm doing and the only reason I did it was because every other door was shut.  I did it on my own found out you can!  I was just as surprised as anybody.  Again, I'm not trying to come off like a rebel, like I thought up this genius plan.  This was my fallback.  What happens if everyone says, "No"?  I guess I'll go do it myself.  That's what I should have done in he first place and, certainly, next time I will.  There are no distribution companies in my future unless the company goes "large" to 2,000 screens, but if that happened there'd be a company who'd know how to do that.  I can do one city.  [Laughs.]  That's about as thin as I can spread myself.

Del: What about festivals?

Rodney: We actually did our festival run already in 2003.  I was amazed we were even accepted into festivals because it's a broad comedy, and not traditional festival material.  But we ended up winning 15 festival awards in less than 15 months. It was really exciting, and I'm glad we went the festival route, because we won so many audience awards.  I didn't know this, but festivals are dominated by the female audience.  Apparently, the only way to win a festival award is to make all the females happy.  So it gave me extra confidence that this is a movie for everybody.  It's funny, 'cause I'm not worried if guys will like this movie; guys will love this movie.  But sometimes guys say, "Well, it was really funny, but there are some slow parts in there."  And that was when the characters were falling in love and parts when all the women were laughing, so some guys tend to think that's slow.  But I made sure that about once every six minutes there was a huge, outrageous thing that happened and in between there are some little clever things, hopefully, so that everybody is happy.  It's a two hour movie, but at the last second we took out 30 minutes of film, and the result is what will be shown at the end of the month. But, some of the things that are going to be on the DVD include this "making of" film which is the result of a guy following me around with a camera for almost three years, and that 45 minutes of footage is probably as funny as the film.  There's a baby in the movie itself, but there's about 20 minutes of me trying to get this $16,000 dollar (automaton) baby for 6 hours, and finally the lady that owned it said, "Take the baby and get out of here!"  But it's so real.  You hold it and it feels like a real baby.  But that section of the documentary is really funny.

Del:  So now that you're back home, what's next?

Rodney: More movies.  I'm going to write, perform in, and distribute films here in Chicago.  And we're going to know before we write scripts or shoot film that these films will be in theatres, and that's a big difference for the performers and people behind the scenes.  I want to have the best independent talent, the best crew I can find, and we're going to make great films here in Chicago.

Del: I wish you great success with Bachelorman and all your future films.  Any final thoughts?

Rodney: The great thing about Bachelorman was that it was my ticket home.  I'm dead serious now, it was my ticket home.  Not that I don't like California; California was great.  But it will be just so great to make movies here in Chicago.  Except for those four or five months where your car gets frozen to the driveway... I may be in LA for those months. But those other 7 or 8 months we're going to be making movies here and that is, more than money or more than fame, that's the icing on the cake.  And one of the true feelings of victory for me were the accolades for Bachelorman.  I rode Bachelorman back into town.  It's overwhelming how great that is. 

Del: Congratulations on your film, and welcome home.

Rodney: Thank you.  It's good to be back.

Bachelorman opens in Chicago on Friday, September 24^th, 2004.  Click here for more information.

Del Harvey is the founder of Film Monthly and teaches screenwriting at Columbia College Chicago.