The Films of Todd Solondz: June 2001

Saturday, June 30, 2001

It's Never Been Easy Fitting In... Until Now!

Solondz' latest film, Storytelling,due out September 28th, is divided into two segments: Fiction and Non Fiction. The first stars Selma Blair (she played Uma Thurman in Cruel Intentions) and Leo Fitzpatrick (Kids), while Non Fiction stars Paul Giamatti (Martin Lawrence's partner in Big Momma's House), John Goodman, Mike Shank (American Movie) and Julie Hagerty (Airplane!). James Van Der Beek ("Dawson" of Dawson's Creek) and Heather Matarazzo (of course from Welcome To the Dollhouse) also star.

Bio

"I was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in the suburbs. At New York University Film School, I made several short films, one of which, 'Schatt's Last Shot,' was particularly popular.

A screening was set up in Los Angeles, and the next day I was seated in the office of the (then) president of 20th Century Fox, Scott Rudin. A three-picture writing deal with Fox was quickly followed by an additional three-picture deal with Columbia. Unfortunately, the only thing I really liked about these deals was telling everyone I had them.

I had a script I then took to Propaganda Pictures, who then got Polygram to finance it as my first feature. This was a not a happy experience. Released by The Samuel Goldwyn Company, the movie, 'Fear, Anxiety and Depression,' (which I would rather have had titled 'The Young and the Hopeless'), was 'a disappointment.'

Afterwards I left 'the business' (or it left me) and, lacking any marketable skill, became an ESL (English as Second Language) teacher to newly arrived Russian immigrants. Pretending I had never gotten involved in film in the first place, I lived happily for several years. But then one day, when a lawyer/friend of mine said she was able to raise financing for a low-budget independent feature, I felt it was time to have second thoughts.

I had written the screenplay for 'Welcome to the Dollhouse' years before, when I was still 'active,' in part to redeem myself from the horror of my first feature experience, and it was a script I had always been fond of. Evidently, I decided to reactivate."
- Todd Solondz, from Sony Pictures Classics' official Welcome To the Dollhouse site