Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The A.V. Club Blog: Patton Oswalt Responds


As far as I'm concerned, I sold out when I took that free plate of buffalo wings at Rumors Nightclub near Dulles Airport in the summer of 1989, at my first paid stand-up gig ($50 – I got the buffalo wings for hosting a belching contest afterwards). Ever since then, the only criteria for my career path is, "How entertaining will this be for me, and how much money can I get?" Getting to work with Brad Bird at Pixar met both those criteria perfectly. But spending a month and a half in Vancouver, watching Wesley Snipes have a slow-motion meltdown inBlade: Trinity, was equally valuable and enriching. Reputation, posterity and cool are traps. Shaky Kane said that, I think.
(*One night, at a dive bar after the day's shooting, the director, me, and Ron Perlman convinced a group of bikers – "convinced" = "bought them a lot of alcohol" – to show up with the director for the next day's filming after Wesley tried to strangle said director the day before).
Thus, my desire to work with Paul Greengrass, Martin Scorsese and Ang Lee is equal to my desire to work with Nicholas Cage, Tom Cruise and Carlos Mencia. I want the money, and the anecdotes.

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