~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ eye WEEKLY May 5 1994 Toronto's arts newspaper ...free every Thursday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FILM FILM
CLEAN SLATE
Starring Dana Carvey and Valeria Golino.
Screenplay by Robert King. Directed by Mick Jackson.
(STC) Opens May 5.
NO JOHN WAYNE, NO WIG, NO MEMORY: DANA CARVEY GETS A CLEAN SLATE
by
Michael Leo
Young people may grow up quickly in today's complicated world, but still they seem to want pop heroes who are in perpetual childhood. That's been Dana Carvey's great fortune.
Acquiring a hefty youth following during his seven years on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, Carvey combines a parodistic accuracy with a smart kid's let's-pretend delight in showing off. It was all part of a lifelong practice of surviving socially.
"I was half-shy, half-funny," he says of his tyke-to-teen years. "I discovered I had an ear and could mimic things when I was 7 years old--and I could get attention. And that's how it started. I was alternately shy or extroverted all through grade school."
Though his most popular character has been chronic adolescent Garth of WAYNE'S WORLD, he's branching into grown-up territory--sort of. In his new screen venture, CLEAN SLATE, he takes his cue from gumshoe movies, stands tall and tries out an adult character--albeit a funster one.
Directed by Mick Jackson (THE BODYGUARD), this cloak-and-dagger comedy casts him as a private detective with memory loss who's due to testify at an important trial.
Along the way, he gets snared by a femme fatale (mahogany-voiced Valeria Golino) and locates a missing coin worth millions. The hook is that Carvey keeps losing his bearings while the audience stays way ahead of him.
"I thought the script was charming and kind of different," he says. "It was like some '40s movie, so it's retro, like some kind of Danny Kaye-Bob Hope movie. So I thought, 'I'll give this a shot.'"
The part he plays doesn't call for mimicry, and Carvey wasn't interested in doing any. "That wasn't really the gig--I was just supporting the story. I liked the idea that the audience would get ahead of the character."
This did not keep him from amusing his fellow workers between takes with constant caricatures, so much so that Golino says, "After a while you wanted to say, 'Could I talk to Dana now?'"
Two of his biggest fans have been his most public targets: Ross Perot and George Bush, who have both called him up to pal around.
"I was in the White House, real nervous, having cocktails with George and Barbara Bush," he says, "and I said, 'Ross Perot is a gift to comedians everywhere,' and Bush said, 'He wasn't a gift to me.' I wanted to be sucked into the ventilation system at that point."
Soon to come are films that may release new forms of deviltry. Promising in particular is Alan Parker's upcoming adaptation of T. Coraghessan Boyle's bestseller THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE, in which he plays an all-out maniac opposite Anthony Hopkins.
"I get to throw bottles of feces--human excrement--at Sir Tony's face," he says with satisfaction. "It's a dark, twisted movie."
He's also in the middle of the Toronto shoot of It Started In Paradise, a mafia comedy that casts him as an Italian-American hood opposite Nicholas Cage. And there's a completed Hans and Franz script that may one day be filmed, equipped with a musical part for Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"Arnold loved the idea of it. His favorite line is [and with automatic ease he assumes Schwarzenegger's wiener-schnitzel baritone] 'I could flick you with my little finger and you would fly across the room and land in your own baby poop.'"
Not quite adult talk, but Carvey's juvenilia is infectious. He may not be forever young (one day he and Michael J. Fox may battle to inherit Mickey Rooney's twinkling geezer roles), but for the moment our hero is the Earl of Adolescence.
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