DRAWING ON REAL LIFE
Martin changes details, keeps emotions in ‘Dean’
It's a big step from stand-up comedy to directing, writing and starring in your own movie, but that's exactly what Demetri Martin has done with “Dean.”
“Over the years as I did stand-up,” Martin, 43, said while on a recent stop in Boston, “I would start to get ideas and think, `That could maybe be a TV show. Or a movie.' ”
Years ago, he sold two screenplays to studios. “In my naivete, I thought they'd make my movies, but it just didn't work out.
“As years passed, I decided if this is going to happen for me, I'm going to have to do it. It would have to be a smaller movie, one that I could get financing for and I would direct it. It took a while though before it came together.”
“Dean,” which opens Friday, has Martin as the title character, an illustrator whose mother has recently died. When his father (Kevin Kline), a retiree, announces he's selling the family home, Dean flees to L.A.
“To me it's very autobiographical. While none of that specifically happened to me — I lost my father in my real life, not my mom. I was 20 when he died. He was only 46. My mom was 41 when she was widowed, so it really shook our family.
“I didn't want to make a morose story about grief. I did want to try something that was emotionally real as far as my own experience was concerned.
“But I wanted to play with it too, have a little whimsy. So it wasn't just sad.”
The numerous sketches in the film that Dean draws aren't a special effect.
“That's really me. That's a big reason why I made the character an illustrator, because I draw so much. Even for fun,” Martin explained.
“I've done a book of drawings, another one is coming this fall. I thought it would be fun to show the character drawing — there's something authentic about it.
“As a cartoonist, it shows what he's thinking and how he deals with stuff being an introverted person.”
Although Martin hopes to make another movie, stand-up comedy continues. “I've been doing it for almost 20 years now. I really love coming up with jokes, daydreaming, walking around with a notebook and see where my head takes me.”