Bobcat Goldthwait isn't that wild about teenagers. You'll get that sense in the first few moments of World's Greatest Dad as soon as you meet Kyle (Daryl Sabara), the most vile, profane, awful teenager ever seen onscreen. Goldthwait acknowledges that the audiences, and even he, came to have some affection for the kid, but that's not at all how he started out. "My girlfriend and I would hear someone say something and go, "Jesus Christ, I met the dumbest fucking guy today." That's where a lot of Kyle's dialogue came from.
I talked to Goldthwait last week about the film, which stars Robin Williams as the titular father who does everything for his teenage son, even when the kid does nothing but resent him for it. Goldthwait, best known for his 80s stand-up and his role in the Police Academy movies, is currently enjoying a second career as a director; between this film and his equally tiny Sleeping Dogs Lie, Goldthwait is establishing himself as an unlikely examiner of the secrets and lies behind seemingly ordinary life.
In our video interview below, he talks about his inspiration for the film's visual style, casting Daryl Sabara only after he proved he wasn't like Kyle in real life, and resisting the urge to cheer Robin Williams up on set. He also talks a little about his current place in indie cinema -- "Every time I get a screenplay sent to my house it's got a coffee stain on it from Spike Jonze and Jason Reitman." Check out the 12-minute interview below.
