Parker Posey has now been making movies with Christopher Guest for 20 years, releasing their first project together back in 1996. Considering that they've worked on five films together in that time, it's pretty clear that they enjoy working together -- though what you probably don't know is that Posey has been living with a silent pain since the start of their collaboration. It turns out that she's spent the last 20 years sincerely missing Corky St. Clair -- Christopher Guest's character from Waiting For Guffman - and it was a pain that finally subsided thanks to her work on the newly released Mascots.
Last week, I had the immense pleasure of sitting down with Parker Posey during the Los Angeles press day for Mascots, and it was while discussing her long collaboration with Christopher Guest that the subject of Corky St. Clair came up. For the first time since Waiting For Guffman, the character appears back on screen in the actor/director's latest feature, and he is actually paired up for most of the film with Posey's Cindi Babineaux. I asked the actress what it was like to once again be working with Guest as a scene partner, and she explained just how much she deeply missed Corky since the making of her first Christopher Guest movie. Said Posey,
I was devastated after Waiting for Guffman, that I'd never see Corky again. It was devastating. It was like a bunch of people had died!... It's just the truth, man. And then it's gone. It's gone from all of them, you know, and it's just like, uhhh.
For those who haven't seen Waiting For Guffman, Christopher Guest's Corky St. Clair was introduced as a community theater director trying to stage a musical with a band of local actors. Included in this troupe is Parker Posey's Libby Mae Brown, who is a Dairy Queen employee in addition to being an amateur actor. In Mascots, Corky returns to the big screen, though instead of directing he is serving as a mascot coach for Posey's Cindi Babineaux.
Acknowledging Corky St. Clair's close relationship with both Libby Mae Brown and Cindi Babineaux, I asked Parker Posey if she thought it ever occurred to Corky that he knows two women who look exactly alike. Apparently this was just too much for Posey to wrap her mind around, however, as she said, laughing,
I can't! I can't. I have nothing to say about it, because it was too, too much, you know?... He's the creator of this Guest world, and shows up as Corky. No, I can't. I don't know how to, I just don't know how to talk about it. I really don't know how to talk about it.
For those who want to catch both the latest collaboration between Parker Posey and Christopher Guest, as well as the return of Corky St. Clair, Mascots is now currently available to stream for all Netflix subscribers.
