Gay humorist David Sedaris doesn’t grant many interviews, so we weren’t surprised that he wasn’t available to talk about his upcoming appearances at the Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater on Saturday, Oct. 26 and the King Center in Melbourne on Sunday, Oct. 27.
But interestingly, the somewhat reclusive observationalist sanctioned a cinematic adaptation of his first-person essays, and the result is C.O.G.
Comparing a Sedaris story and a film based upon one is like comparing apples to apples. At least when the story takes place on an apple farm.
“There are other things he’s written that would make good films,” shares C.O.G.’s openly gay director, Kyle Patrick Alvarez. “But there was something particular about ‘C.O.G.’ for me. It’s one of the longest things he’s ever written, which is why he never recorded it himself for an audiobook. I also think it’s one of the darker things he’s written.”
GLEE’s Jonathan Groff plays David, a privileged gay East Coast grad student who decides to see how the other half lives by working alongside Mexican migrants on an Oregon apple farm. However, this soul-searching expedition proves a lot less romantic and fulfilling than expected when his best friend bails, and David encounters a slew of misfits, miscreants, and degenerates including a born-again Christian (Dennis O’Hare) and sexually ambiguous apple packing factory worker (Corey Stoll).
Until now, Sedaris had turned down all offers to adapt his work, in large part due to his family members’ concerns over how they would be depicted (and by which actors).
So how did Alvarez manage this coup?
First, he proved himself with a 2009 feature debut, Easier With Practice, based on a first person, humorous article by Davy Rothbart, (originally printed in GQ Magazine). Rothbart, like Sedaris, is a regular contributor to radio show, “This American Life.”
That the story “C.O.G.,” culled from 1997’s Naked tome, which Alvarez first read in high school at age fourteen, did not depict Sedaris’ family members (barring David himself), also helped increase the chance of an okay from the author.
Finally, his approach was to distance the film from the story to exist in its own right, rather than just imitate and throw some flesh on it.
“What I learned from [Ryan Murphy’s version of Augusten Burroughs] Running With Scissors, without saying what I thought about the movie, is being accurate isn’t necessarily being true,” he says. “A movie needs to exist in its own way. Look at the Harry Potter movies. The third is the best and the least accurate to the books. It’s about staying true to the spirit of the story.”
In order to reach Sedaris, which, Alvarez admits, proved difficult through traditional and professional channels, he did as the rest of us would: he went to a book signing/reading event and waited in line, a DVD of the just finished Easier With Practice in hand. Months later, Sedaris finally watched the film, liked it, and, sold on Alvarez’s pitch, gave his approval.
Part of distancing the film from the source story entailed making sure that Sedaris’ onscreen alter-ego didn’t actually resemble Sedaris. Indeed, Groff, whom Alvarez wanted for the role after seeing in Los Angeles production of John Logan’s play, Red, opposite Alfred Molina, looks nothing like Sedaris, nor does he ape the author’s famously tinny voice or mannerisms.
Over the course of raising production funds, other recognizable thespians, including film legend Dean Stockwell as apple farm owner Hobbs, Happy Endings’ Casey Wilson, Midnight in Paris’ Corey Stoll, Dale Dickey (True Blood, Winter’s Bone), and the openly gay O’Hare (American Horror Story, True Blood), signed on to create a character actor dream cast.
“O’Hare’s the best,” Alvarez gushes. “He came in with no rehearsal time and he had to spout out five-page monologues.”
The low-budget, indie film was shot over three-and-a-half weeks on location in Oregon, in some of the actual places Sedaris’ own experiences took place. A working apple packing plant and apple orchard served as locations, and Alvarez admits the “cider smell” of the former could get quite overpowering. However, prior to this he had never toiled on an apple farm as Sedaris had, although he could relate to the hoped-for journey to oneself that drives C.O.G.’s central character; and that ultimately goes wrong.
“I wanted to subvert that kind of movie where someone finds himself,” Alvarez admits. “Where they might be worse off in the end. Sometimes you go on a trip or start a job, and have a fantasy of what it’s going to be. An idealism and in the end it ends up nothing like that and you feel silly that you thought it would elevate you.”
Sedaris certainly enjoyed watching the results, he was present at the film’s Sundance Film Festival premiere in January.
“He responded really well,” Alvarez recalls. “We strayed away from Sedaris in the movie enough to exist in a different way, but he said it was more surreal than he expected to see something that happened to him. As anyone would feel if someone made a movie and they were a character in it.”
Sedaris’ partner, Hugh Hamrick, also screened the film and sent Alvarez a letter of praise, although sibling Amy has not yet seen it. As for reactions from Sedaris’ fans, Alvarez admits they’ve been mixed.
“A lot seem to appreciate that we didn’t go for imitation,” he says. That being the case, now that he’s adapted two notable fan favorite authors’ work, are there any others’ he’d like to tackle?
“That’s so hard to say,” he muses. “I wouldn’t say I’m going to hunt down another known author. It’s a lot of pressure! But I am working on something based on a true story that will have a lot of expectations, so I’m a glutton for punishment.”
Sedaris’ latest book, Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls, a collection of narrative essays, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Books will be available in the lobby following both shows in Clearwater and Melbourne and Sedaris is scheduled to be available for autographs.
MORE INFO:
WHO: David Sedaris
WHERE: Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater; King Center in Melbourne
WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 26 and Sunday, Oct. 27
