Bobcat Goldthwait didn’t write and direct his latest film, “World’s Greatest Dad,” as an autobiographical effort.
But the former stand-up started seeing bits of himself in the finished product, now available on DVD.
Or, at least his wife did.
“Oh, Alexie [Gilmore] is playing my ex,” Goldthwait says of his wife’s revelation about the actress playing the main character’s on again, off again girlfriend in he dark comedy.
“I don’t see myself as Lance Clayton [the main character played by Robin Williams]. But I was with people who didn’t treat me right [at one point],“ he says.
In the film, Lance becomes famous for all the wrong reasons. The theme resonates with Goldthwait.
It’s taken years to distance himself from his old persona, seen in films like the two “Police Academy” sequels and “One Crazy Summer.”
With “Dad,” he strays as far from his old career as possible. The film’s coal dark humor and mature themes – a teen gets wrapped up in a dangerous form of self pleasure – is nothing like the material found in, say, “Hot to Trot.”
At this point, the edgiest move Goldthwait could make would be to shoot a family film. It crossed his mind.
“I took a stab at a movie that was pretty much a G-rated screenplay, but I was having a hell of a time with it,” he says. “A friend told me, “Bob, you’re not a G-rated guy.’ Oh, yeah, maybe that’s the problem.”
He recalled his past recently while directing episodes of Comedy Central’s “Important Things with Demitri Martin.”
“I’m impressed working with him,” he says. “When I was in his position I didn’t make the choices he did.”
Today, the choices are all his, even if he isn’t a household name anymore.
“I don’t plan on stopping,“ he says, laughing. I’ll make [movies] on tape with a pirate crew … at this age in my career I’m not hoping to make it big,” he says.
Still, he‘s shocked at the positive reaction “Dad“ received from most critics.
“I’m not gonna be that blasé to the critical reaction to the movie. Some of the reviews made me well up,” he says.
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