Paul Reubens still tends to get upstaged by his own self-created persona Pee-wee Herman, but that isn't stopping him from trying to reinvent himself in real life as a, well, serious comic actor. A bit of a mystery man himself lately, Reubens is starring in Mystery Men, the action comedy directed by Kinka Usher. In a recent conversation, he was kind of shy but candid about discussing himself, including his love-hate relationship with his latest character in Mystery Men, The Spleen.
PRAIRIE MILLER: Hi. So is this the first time you're doing interviews not as Pee-wee?
PAUL REUBENS: Uh huh.
PM: Why now? You haven't been Pee-wee in a while, have you?
PR: No...
PM: Did you think you might have to come and perform here or something?
PR: Would you like something?
PM: Well no, you're doing just fine as Paul Reubens. But will there be Pee-wee ever again?
PR: There will. I'm just three weeks away from starting writing on The Pee-wee Herman Story.
PM: Is that like a biopic?
PR: Kind of, yeah. It's about fame. It's about Pee-wee becoming famous, and then he turns into a monster. That's the thin plot line! Not unlike Jailhouse Rock, I guess. It follows the same kind of line.
PM: Talk a little about your character in Mystery Men, The Spleen. Why was he the guy for you?
PR: Well, I actually didn't want to play my character! I read the script and met with Kinka and said, I just want to be in this movie. I love the script, I'll play any part you want. And in my mind I was thinking, any part but The Spleen!
I mean for me, it's just different than what I normally do. I like a tougher kind of...like a more challenging laugh, you know? Like to me, getting a fart laugh is just cheap. Like I felt dirty every time I did it!
But the more we started talking about it and working on it, I really liked it. I don't know, I felt like I had every gimmick known to man in Mystery Men. I mean, like I had zits and farting and you know, all this other stuff. I kept thinking, like I don't really have to do much here, it's all kind of working for me. So...
PM: Who would you have rather played?
PR: Hmm...I like Ben Stiller's part! I mean, I don't think I would have been very good! But I liked his part, I liked all the parts in it.
PM: You know, there was definitely a Ratso Rizzo side to your character.
PR: Oh, that's great! That's a part in Midnight Cowboy that I always wanted to play. I just finished doing a movie with Vince Vaughn, and we were talking about that. I mean, I never would want to remake Midnight Cowboy. But we were talking about how he could do a great Joe Buck, and I'd do Ratso Rizzo. But we were just joking around.
PM: What movie are you two guys doing together?
PR: I just finished it. It's called South Of Heaven, West Of Hell. It's a western, a Sam Peckinpah, Fuller kind of violent, bloody movie. Dwight Yoakum directed it.
PM: So what are you up to in this western?
PR: I play Vince's brother. There are like five brothers who are all bank robber murderers. I'm probably a mean bank robber rapist murderer.
PM: How's that for type casting! Did you also have to fart?
PR: No! I don't fart. If I did, it was silent!
PM: Did you have a good time doing Mystery Men?
PR: Oh yeah. It was a phenomenal movie, because there were so many different people. Like the way different people work, it was a great group. And it was something that in my experience isn't like that. I mean, when you work on a film like this, that people are generous. You know, other comics. And everybody gave each other material, jokes. You know, we became really like a team after a couple of weeks. I read the script and loved it, loved the people.
PM: Talk a little more about the cast chemistry.
PR: We became like a writing team actually, the cast. I mean we would come in every day and sit in a trailer and discuss the script. People were incredibly generous. Other actors would give you lines, and we all gave each other ideas. And probably two or three weeks into the shooting, we could come in and rewrite a scene in twenty minutes. And really do a good job, I thought.
PM: I hear the director makes great commercials.
PR: Amazing commercials, with like full blown performances by actors. And Kinka was real too, I saw that Kinka was real, like with his commercials for Taco Bell. His depth put it over the edge for me. Because I was thinking, like who could direct this?
PM: You're really good at just coming up with stuff on the spot. So many of your best moments seemed to be spur of the moment type things. What did you bring to your character in Mystery Men that wasn't there on the written page? Like was your speech impediment actually in the script?
PR: No, that was something that was a suggestion that came to me. I found that out later. I thought everyone was imitating me! Kinka's family was around, his brothers and sisters. His brothers were working on the film, and they imitated me right off the bat.
And I thought, this is a good sign. And then I found out later that they did that voice when they were kids. So I don't know where that came from, that's something from his childhood.
PM: What about The Spleen's complexion problem?
PR: I think that was me. I'm pretty sure that was me! And originally the character was way more toxic. He had toxic saliva and toxic body odor. There were a lot more things. And we cut it way down, because I kind of felt that if he had that many things, that it was too much, it was too powerful, you know? Particularly because some of the other people didn't actually have real powers. It just seemed too much.
PM: I think kids are really going to go crazy when they see you.
PR: It's so not what I normally do. I felt...cheap. Because it's so easy kind of, to do.
PM: Did you read superhero comics when you were a kid?
PR: I wasn't a fanatic, but I liked Superman and Batman. I used to like the Superman TV show.
PM: How about that Wes Studi doing comedy in Mystery Men?
PR: He was very nervous though throughout the movie, because he had never done comedy. I've worked with a few people who had never done comedy. And there's always this concern, like what do I do? Am I going to be funny? He came out very funny.
PM: How do you feel about the resurgence of Pee-wee on cable and video?
PR: Yeah, it's very exciting. I was so busy the first time around that I never really got a chance to appreciate people's reactions. Like I never actually saw the show with a kid, I never talked to parents about it. And this time it's just...on! I mean it's really incredible to be looking at it.
PM: How did you get started as a performer?
PR: I always wanted to be an actor for as long as I can remember being a kid. And I got my first chance when I was in the sixth grade. My mother told me there was an ad for an audition in the paper, for a play called A Thousand Clowns. And that was my stage debut.
They told me years later that they were pretty sure I wouldn't get the part, and that would kind of get it out of my system. But...they were wrong! I used to sit on the floor of my living room in the middle of nowhere and go like, how am I ever going to get to Hollywood? I was completely like, I never thought it would happen.
PM: How did the idea of Pee-wee Herman come to you?
PR: Pee-wee Herman just kind of came out one day. I had a lot of training, I had done rap, classical, Shakespeare. I was in four or five different acting programs in different schools. I joined this improv group, and we did a lot of different character work, writing and improv. And just one day it...came out.
I was always wondering when I was studying in school, like what I would wind up doing. And I kind of just trusted that everything I was doing would sort of reveal itself in some way to you know, show me what I was supposed to be doing. And that's what happened.
PM: Do you sometimes wish you weren't as closely associated with that character?
PR: I think there was maybe a period when I felt like that a long time ago, like at the peak of it all. But no, I love that character. I'm real proud of that work. I mean I've been at the point for years now where I answer to that name, it's kind of pathetic!
PM: You know, you always used to do interviews as Pee-wee, and we've never actually spoken to Paul Reubens before.
PR: Yeah. But it was really easier!
PM: How about with the public?
PR: I was somewhere the other day, and like a four-year-old, a kid about this big walked by me somewhere, and just really casually went like 'Hi Peewee!' Like completely impassive. It was really bizarre.
PM: Is there a void for you without Phil Hartman since he's gone, and you two had worked so closely together?
PR: I miss Phil. I didn't get to see him, because we lived on different coasts.
PM: So after everything that you've been through, you're talking to the press again. What's changed? What made you decide it was time?
PR: You mean to be doing interviews and stuff? Well, this is the first movie I've done in a while that I really felt like promoting. And...I felt like it would be weird to come in as Pee-wee Herman!
PM: But it has been quite some time since you've done interviews at all.
PR: Yeah. Well that was then...I'm not sure I have a reason. I mean, other than it just seemed like it was time.
Copyright by Prairie Miller 1999
Copyright © 1999 BigStar Entertainment, Inc.