Yet the quality of the films is what sets them apart.
Hardy’s first film, 1990’s “Troll 2” follows the Waits family as their vacation to a remote town named Nilbog is derailed when its citizens turn out to be hungry, vegetarian goblins.
The shoot was plagued by its own horrors. Director Claudio Fragasso and his wife, screenwriter Rossella Drudi, were Italian filmmakers who spoke minimal English. Still, they required the lines be read by the film’s amateur actors word-for-word.
After filming in 1989, Hardy married and set up his dental practice in Alabama, where life went back to normal.
In the meantime, “Troll 2” became a cult classic, eventually earning the only zero percent score on the popular movie review site Rottentomatoes.com. With its cheesy production value, oddball story and impressively horrible lines, the movie developed an ever- increasing fan base.
Catching wind of its popularity, Hardy and “Troll 2” co-star Michael Stephenson filmed the documentary “Best Worst Movie.” With Stephenson directing and Hardy acting as the movie’s guide, they hit eight countries and filmed 420 hours worth of footage beginning in 2006.
As curiously awful as “Troll 2” is, “Best Worst Movie” showed the colorful characters behind it, from Fragasso, who still sees the film as an important work, to the reclusive Margo Prey, who portrayed Hardy’s wife. “Best Worst Movie” currently holds a 95 percent Fresh rating on Rottentomatoes.com.
Saturday’s back-to-back screening of “Best Worst Movie” and “Troll 2” at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring will also feature an appearance by Hardy, on-screen via Skype, who will introduce the documentary and participate in a post-screening discussion. In between appointments with patients, Hardy spoke with The Gazette about the movies, the fans and possible future of the franchise.
A&E: Was it a juggling act to film “Best Worst Movie” and maintain your practice?
Hardy: At the time it was. It really, really was. Believe it or not, I missed very little time from my practice because I would leave that on Thursdays and then Friday, Saturday, Sunday is when I would go to these events. So I did it all on the weekends. But ... over the course of three and a half years, [I] probably missed three or four weeks of work, which I would have done as vacation time anyway. We went to Italy twice, so that was cool to connect with Italians, which I’m now doing now with Rossella and Claudio. ... They’re working on a 3D film in Africa right now. And what’s cool is, we’re looking for production and the pulling together of “Troll 3D,” which she’s written a treatment [for], which is really cool. I’ve read it and it’s fantastic.
A&E: I was curious about what it was like on set. Was it very serious or were you guys having fun?
Hardy: Darren Ewing, who plays Arnold ... he says in “Best Worst Movie” we were really trying to make a really good movie. We really were. ... We were all amateur actors. None of us — I had only done high school plays and was a college cheerleader, you know... I’m not probably your normal dentist kind of guy, but I did always kind of want to go into acting ... And so we were really all trying hard to make a really good movie, but we didn’t know and it was so discombobulated, we just didn’t understand anything. We would try to decipher what the script meant and I would try to sit there and analyze scenes and couldn’t do it, and it was just like, ‘Oh well, what the heck, let’s just wing it and do the best we can.” And there was as a huge sense of innocence about that, because, you know, there was nothing really cynical about “Troll 2.” ... I think that it was miraculously made in the fact it delivers from scene to scene in how they edited it, the music and the campiness of it and the timing of it. I mean, the older “Troll 2” gets, the more popular it’s going to be. It’s one of those things that’s never going to go away. It’s a cult classic, it’s forever. And you take that film and you compare it to one that’s intentionally made to be bad like “Birdemic: [Shock and Terror]” or “The Room” and you see they were really trying to make a good movie.
A&E: Even in the film, Claudio seems so driven by his vision. He never seems to doubt himself for a moment. He totally believes in what he was doing.Hardy: I really feel like “Troll 2” was this piece of work that was put on canvas as a treatment… that’s what I really love about Claudio and Rossella, either one, from the Italian or the European way of looking at things. They don’t really care what people think, they simply want to move people’s hearts and they want to entertain and they don’t care whether its good or bad. Take it or leave it. It’s simply like Claudio said. I really think he’s right about making an impression. And, I have to say, I really admire him for that and I really do think Claudio and Rossella are very creative people and they’re both very, very bright. And I wish I only spoke Italian so that I could really get to know who they really are, but it’s been kind of hard to understand them even with interpreters. But, I do know, there’s a beautiful sense of innocence with Rossella. She’s very lighthearted. And Claudio, he has a bit of an ego but he’s just a huge sweetheart. And every time I call, which has been a lot recently, he’s thrilled to talk to me. And I’m just not going to quit until “Troll 3D” is made. I just don’t know. Being a general dentist in Alabama, it’s pretty damn hard to make contacts in the west coast or New York. I don’t really know how that’s really done. I’m just trying to get feelers out there.
Photos courtesy George Hardy, AFI
No comments:
Post a Comment