13 Inane Questions with Savage Steve Holland

Savage Steve Holland (pictured above with a drawing of one of his menacing "cute and fuzzy bunnies") helped define the '80s teen comedy with wacky flicks like "Better Off Dead" and "One Crazy Summer."

His offbeat style, and addition of demented animation, made his films cult classics. Not to mention they both starred John Cusack.

Recently, Holland created the animated program "Eek the Cat" for the Fox network. On Sunday, Savage's latest effort, "Safety Patrol," will be showcased on "The Wonderful World of Disney."

The film, starring Leslie Nielson, Curtis Armstrong and "Weird" Al Yankovic is equally as wacky as Holland's previous forays into film.

What kind of comedies did you watch while you were growing up?

Woody Allen was my favorite. Yeah, I'm not proud, but I just love that stuff. It made my dad laugh, and my dad was just a crabby lawyer. So, if he would laugh, I thought, "I've got to do that kind of stupid comedy." "Airplane." ... Do you like that kind of stuff?

Yeah, I like off the wall. It's good to relax to.

It is. What's funny is, I made "Better Off Dead" based on an almost all, I know it sounds absurd, true story. And, before that I did this movie called "My 11-year-old Birthday Party," which was a true story about when I had my 11-year-old birthday party and nobody came, except this really mean drunk clown that called me "Mr. Popular." And he got really, really drunk and he tried to pick up my mom. It was just a hateful thing. My sister would ring the doorbell and go "Mom, they're here." And, of course, nobody was there. And so, I made this really sad movie, and it went to this comedy festival and everybody thought it was the funniest movie ever made. And I thought I was onto something if I talk about my miserable love life in "Better Off Dead." And that's how I got that movie made.

So, do you find that your movies are a kind of therapy for yourself?

Absolutely, but I'm in film jail now of course, because of those movies. But, I sure had fun doing them.

What exactly is film jail?

Well, that's when you make movies that aren't successful and you lose all your friends and people are mean to you.

That's not good.

I know. That's okay. I'm in jail rehab right now. I'm in a halfway house. But, I think I'm gonna get out.

What's with the penchant you have with casting Curtis Armstrong?

Oh, I just think he's so wonderful. When I was doing "Better Off Dead" I had this character of my best friend in junior high school named Charles Dumar. I saw Curtis in, oh God, the Tom Cruise movie...
"Risky Business."

Yeah, "Risky Business." And I said, "Oh my God, that's exactly like my friend Charles, except he was older. Obviously, Curtis was not going to play a high school guy. So I put in the line where he says, "I've been going to this school for seven-and-a-half years." ... He's cracked me up ever since. For good luck, even though I'm in film jail, I put him and Taylor Negron in everything.

You say he's your good luck charm, yet youÕre in film jail. Did you ever think he might be your bad luck charm?

That's a really, really good point. But, I don't want to take the chance. So, in "Safety Patrol," I got rid of Taylor and we'll see how that goes.

You say your characters are based on real people. What do the people in your life think of those films?

No one's mad at me. My parents were a little shocked, because the mom and dad in "Better Off Dead" are my mom and dad. My sister, in "One Crazy Summer," is that little girl. And most of my friends are pretty honored by it, even though its silly stuff ... No one sued me or anything, so I look at that as pretty positive.

So who are Ricky and his mother based on?

Gosh, you know what, if they live where you are, I'm gonna die. There was this kid across the street from me ... God it's gonna be mean, but I gotta go for it. The guy was the biggest dork who ever lived. Oh gosh, I'm gonna die. But, his name was Ricky Smith, and his mom was Mrs. Smith. And the thing was, she had a daughter who was really foxy and a slutty kid and it was the most fu*ked up family in the world. And they were our neighbors and we loved them. Because, they had to nail her door shut and he was out crocheting. He really crocheted.

It sounds pretty frightening.

Yeah, and the paper boy, thatÕs true. All of it. It's so sad.

What a demented childhood.

Yeah, but I got to make a movie out of it.

So, what makes you so savage?

You know what, thereÕs not much. I'm pretty pathetic, and a huge wuss. When I was a kid, I was playing soccer, and I kicked a kid in the teeth. I didn't mean to. For some reason someone called me that. Then all the kids started calling me that.

It stuck, when I was probably eight years old. When I started making movies, I thought it would help people not confuse me with other Steve's, like Spielberg.

What do you think of the attempts to revive the wacky '80s comedy like Adam Sandler tries to do?

Oh, I think it's so funny. Did you see "The Wedding Singer?"

Yeah.

Did you think it was really hysterical?

I thought it was really funny.

Okay, I was really loving it, and I had just seen "Happy Gilmore." ... You want to think in your little sick world that you're ahead of your time by doing those kind of stupid things that I got destroyed for doing.

My first review was in "People" magazine by Peter Travers, who now works for "Rolling Stone." And I open this thing up, and I was having the happiest year of my life. It was a dream come true. I was 24, I had just met with all these great people ... Peter Travers basically said, "If you see Savage Steve Holland, please kill him because he's better off dead." And it just went on. It was like I made "Caligula."

When you released "One Crazy Summer," were you worried that people might construe it as a sequel?

In some ways it kind of was. We did "Better Off Dead," and I had the most fun I ever had in my life. I got together the same crew and pretty much the same cast, because we were just so happy.

When we were making "Better Off Dead," we were out in the snow and the rain. But, everyone was happy. So, I said, if everything works, I was going to take everybody to my favorite place which is Nantucket Island, and weÕre going to make another movie, and I didn't even have a script.

Have you thought about doing another project with John Cuscak?

John's not very happy with me. He hated "Better Off Dead" to be honest with you. I just never understood it, but he hated it. And this is a really sad story, but I'll tell you.

I think John's about the coolest guy that lives. Shamefully, when we screened "Better Off Dead" for the same people who were making "One Crazy Summer," we were on day one of shooting. John just walked out and said, "That was the worse piece of sh*t movie I've ever seen." He didn't even watch it. He watched like fifteen minutes of it. He was just miserable during "One Crazy Summer." He was in it, but he wasn't really in it. It's so sad, because I think "Better Off Dead" is one of his best things

I didn't know how much it bothered him until he told me, and then it was like a girlfriend breaking up with you ... I had this career heart bubble thing that was protecting my heart and when John said, "Fu*k you, I hate you!" that popped. I was like a wet sock with meat in it for a summer. It's really pathetic.

Do you have a favorite type of gag that you like to use?

Oh my God, I'm so embarrassed, but I think anybody falling out of screen getting hurt is really keen. That just never seems to fail.

How did your interest in animation start?

I always did that because making films was so expensive ... I had three cats that die in a row. One jumped out of a hotel room window. It was horrible. Then about two weeks later I got another one, and a hawk took it. It was flying away, and you could almost hear it say, "I can see my house from here." Poor little kitty. And the third one was Eek, and he drank this antifreeze from my car. And he was just lying there in this cute little cat position hard as a rock

So I made this little Christmas story about him and went to the guys at Fox. ... I didn't have to eat out the dumpster anymore.