Crispin Hellion Glover, my guest on this latest episode of Nobody's Ever Asked Me That, actually has a lot in common with my guest on the previous episode, Tim Blake Nelson, as they are both actors who have moved well beyond their thespian roots to become really fascinating, thoughtful artists working across multiple mediums.
With all that said, Glover is a unique human being, a true original. He’s George McFly from Back to the Future, he’s Layne from River’s Edge, he’s the Thin Man from the Charlie’s Angels movies, he’s one of the faces on the Mount Rushmore of weird David Letterman guests (up there with Harvey Pekar and Harmony Korine), he’s the Orkly Kid! (If you know, you know.)
He’s also been making art books since the late ’80s, he once put out a record, and he writes and directs movies that are kind of unlike anything else out there, such as What Is It?, where almost the whole cast were actors who had Down’s Syndrome but were playing characters who did not, and It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine, a psychosexual drama co-written by, starring and about a man with cerebral palsy with a fetish for women with long hair.
Right now, Glover is promoting two different movies. His third directorial feature, No! YOU'RE WRONG. or: Spooky Action at a Distance, a historical drama in which he stars in opposite his father, the late Bruce Glover, who passed away earlier this year. And also the Kafka-esque drama Mr. K, in which he plays a traveling magician staying at a hotel he is inexplicably unable to leave. And full disclosure: I had a chance to see Mr. K, which I liked a lot, but not No You’re Wrong, as it had not screened for anyone before our conversation.
However, Glover and I did talk about No! YOU'RE WRONG, along with a lot of other varied stuff, including: the acting job he’s still mad he missed out on at 13; supernatural goings on at the chateau he bought in the Czech Republic; his very imaginative alternative to traveling by car; plus, his hopes for the future of AI (which is not what you’d think) and his understandable reservations about self-cloning.
Mr K. is out now in select theaters and No! YOU'RE WRONG. or: Spooky Action at a Distance is playing at the IFC Center in New York City and will screen at theaters around the country over the coming months. Check crispinglover.com for more info.
This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan and the theme music is by The Range.
