Chuck Palahniuk Q&A

20 November 2008

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Chuck Palahniuk has become one of Hollywood's most popular actors as Choke is released this week starring Sam Rockwell. The film is the second of the writer's novels to be adapted for the big screen after the success of Fight Club in 1999.

What�s the reaction to the film been like?

You know, at Sundance and the LA Film Festival it was huge, there was laughter for two hours. Then we saw it screened in Locarno at midnight, and the subtitles were not translated very well, and it followed Nordwand, this German movie where everybody dies hideously, freezing to death hanging on ropes from a cliff face in a blizzard.

There�s this thundering opera music, and then they all die in the end. We had to follow that at midnight, and everyone�s buzz was wearing off and there was general laughter but it was not nearly what it was in LA so we were a little stunned. It�s either been really terrific, or it�s been kind of milder like it was in Locarno. But the press screening at Locarno was really positive, so that made me feel good.

Are you happy with the way the film has turned out?

I am really happy with it. At Sundance there were some technical things that weren�t happening. The whole humour with Clark Gregg�s character, with the dialect and the olden speak and breaking character so often, didn�t work because the soundtrack was kind of muddy. They then re-recorded the soundtrack and re-cut it and got Radiohead to add a song and now the film really works and I�m 100% happy with it.

That must have been a dream come true, getting Radiohead to be involved?

It feels so odd, when things like that happen or you meet somebody that you�ve always seen like Anjelica Huston or Brad Pitt, that it doesn�t even occur like a real experience because it�s so beyond what you ever expected. It doesn�t feel real and you can�t even remember it like a memory.

Your books frequently deal with ordinary people with things to hide do you think a lot of successful people are hiding things too?

That�s why they�re successful, jeez. But to a certain extent everybody has a certain sort of way of being a persona they learn how to be when they�re really little. They figure out that if they�re really funny or if they�re really pretty or if they work really, really hard or if they�re really smart that is what�s going to get them by.

That�s what will make people like them. And then around the age of 33 they start to realise that that�s a really limiting thing, that they don�t want to be that funny person or that pretty person for the rest of their lives.

That�s when they kind of face a crisis. That�s sort of what I depict in my books people facing that crisis of either continuing to be that person, but being it in an angry way like the angry beautiful woman, that hates you for the fact that you like her because she�s beautiful. Or the angry funny person who�s just mean.

Or people kill themselves. A lot of them do, 33 for men, 36 for women are the ages when they typically do that. Or they get it together and re-invent themselves in a more thorough way which is always kind of preferential, always the best option.

How did Clark convince you to make his directorial debut with this material?

At the time that he bought the option he�d just gotten his first screenplay produced and that was What Lies Beneath. That turned out so well, people were so impressed by that, that it was kind of easy to hand it on to see what he would do with it. And also part of you doesn�t expect that it will ever go into production, so it�s kind of easy because you think that it�s never going to happen, so why not?

More Chuck Palahniuk QA on page 2