New CNN film explores comedian’s ‘traumatised’ childhood, SNL exit and Community controversies
Mark Kennedy
New York: Insulting the director who made a documentary about you may not be the most diplomatic choice. Chevy Chase, on the other hand, has never been that diplomatic.
Comedian tops filmmaker Marina Zenovich I’m Chevy Chase and you’re notwhich aired on CNN in the United States this week (an Australian air date has not yet been confirmed). He warns that it won’t be easy to understand her on their first date. He asks him why.
“You’re not smart enough, how come?” he replies.
This exchange allows the film to say a lot about Zenovich and Chase, a talented physical comedian who also starred in classic comedies of the 1970s and ’80s. fletch, Three Friends, Caddyshack and National Lampoon Holiday franchise
“He’s one of those people that everyone thinks they know,” Zenovich says. “It’s got a reputation that precedes it, and there’s something underneath that you want to get to. So it was a big challenge to try to get there.”
A complicated man
I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not Follows Chase’s life and career from his dark childhood to the dawn of his career Saturday Night Live and then Hollywood ended with their complicated time on the TV series, Society. There are perspectives offered by Dan Aykroyd, Beverly D’Angelo, Goldie Hawn, Lorne Michaels, Ryan Reynolds, Martin Short, his wife Jayni Chase, his three daughters, and his brother Ned.
What emerges is a portrait of a sharp and often harsh comedian who has a deep fan base but can rub some people the wrong way with blunt tactlessness. “I’m complex, I’m deep, and I can get hurt easily,” she tells the filmmaker.
The documentary includes home movies as well as footage of his film and TV work; cuddling a cat, playing the piano, playing chess, reading fan mail including a birthday card from former president Bill Clinton, and visiting a florist.
The film has the backing of a harsh critic: Chase himself. “It’s just like a massage. I think: I love massage. It hurts sometimes, but the massage is so nice,” the comedian told The Associated Press.
Childhood is important
Chase is the latest profile of two-time Emmy winner Zenovich, whose previous documentary subjects include Roman Polanski, Richard Pryor, Robin Williams and Lance Armstrong.
“I make movies about these complicated men,” he says. “I am influenced by people and their actions, and Chevy seems to fit into my work.”
Zenovich points to Chase’s early years to help explain how he came to be this way. As a young child, Chase was locked in the basement for days, hit in the face, and locked in a closet by his stepfather and mother as punishment.
“I think the whole key to Chevy is his childhood. I hate to use the word trauma, but I think he was traumatized,” he says. “Humor is his way of dealing with this situation.”
Chase is known to have feuds with many comedians. Society lead actor Joel McHale, SNL his replacements are John Belushi and Bill Murray SNL. he is gone Society Following reports, he used a racial slur and directed insults at co-star Donald Glover. He also had an argument with the series’ creator, Dan Harmon, who was suspended for a time.
“The old Chevy could make you laugh and wink a little, so you were in on the joke,” writer and actor Alan Zweibel says in the film. “Now that seems like a very bad thing.”
The film argues that Chase’s darkness is exacerbated by his drug use. “He doesn’t think he’s malicious,” says Zenovich, who interviewed Chase twice and then followed him around for several days.
“What’s really interesting about Chevy is that he really wanted to try to understand himself. He wanted to go there, but then something stopped him,” he says. “It gets to a certain point and then something stops it.”
‘Hollywood stuff’
Chase, now 82, says he is aware there is a long list of people who consider him inferior, but insists he doesn’t care. “It’s just Hollywood stuff,” he says. “It never really bothered me.”
The film touches on her short-lived TV talk show and its eye-opening first and only season. Saturday Night Live. agreed to leave SNL This was a mistake and shows how painful it was to not be invited on stage when the show celebrated its 50th anniversary earlier this year.
The documentary also shows him enjoying the applause of fans while attending a recent screening. national Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and also reveals that her three daughters are understanding, funny and sweet.
“I think all he really did was manage to break through this intergenerational trauma,” Zenovich says. “There I use that word again. But that’s quite a feat, isn’t it?”
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