The three faces of Mike White
By Casey Gillis on Nov. 01, 2007
Mike White has made a career out of tapping into the quirky side of life.
“I kind of just follow what my inspiration is,” the writer/actor/director said during a phone interview earlier this week.
Sometimes that inspiration leads him to indie fare, like the films “Chuck and Buck” and “The Good Girl,” both of which he wrote and acted in.
But White can just as easily crank out the scripts for more mainstream movies, like “School of Rock,” “Orange County” and “Nacho Libre,” all starring his pal Jack Black.
“Obviously, failure is something you want to avoid, but at the same time, huge success is also something that can be a recipe for disaster,” he said. “Maybe I’ll write something that turns out to be ‘School of Rock,’ or maybe I’ll write something that will be a little off.”
White — whose father is the Rev. Mel White, a Lynchburg resident and co-founder of Soul Force, a gay Christian organization — is at the center of the third annual CineViews Film Festival at Riverviews Artspace.
The festival is scheduled to run Nov. 9-11 and includes the screening of nine films, two of which are “The Good Girl” and “School of Rock.”
“He seems like the real deal in terms of what we want to do,” said Mary Ann Racin, executive director of Riverviews, which has begun to make a name for itself as a local film venue.
“Since we’ve started showing films, we’ve discovered this is sort of our niche in way. People are going to remember Riverviews, I think, for film.”
White follows fellow actors Dylan Baker (most recently seen in Fox’s cancelled “Drive”) and Connie Britton (“Friday Night Lights”), who were special guests at the festival’s first and second years, respectively.
“I think it speaks well to Lynchburg that people are willing to come back and try to promote the arts and inspire young people,” Racin said.
Things kick off at 6 p.m. Nov. 9 with “The Three Faces of Mike,” CineViews’ annual gala.
Racin says the event will be set up sort of like an episode of Bravo’s “Inside the Actor’s Studio,” where clips of White’s films will be shown, and Randolph College film professor Jennifer Gauthier will lead a discussion with him.
A screening of “The Good Girl,” starring Jennifer Aniston as an unhappy discount store clerk who has an affair with a coworker (Jake Gyllenhaal), will follow at 9 p.m. (See box for a complete listing of the festival’s films).
White will also lead a screenwriting discussion at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 10 at Riverviews.
This year’s theme is “Rebels and Renegades,” although White, 37, said he’s pretty sure his real rebel days are behind him.
“But I guess I’m still a renegade in some ways,” he said, adding that he considers a renegade to be some-one who tries to do things that are outside of the box.
“I like a little rebellious spirit.”
Racin said they came up with the theme by looking at White’s body of work, which also includes early writing gigs on television’s “Freaks and Geeks” and his recent directorial debut, “Year of the Dog,” starring Molly Shannon.
“His films really were all about rebels, and we just thought we’d have some fun picking (other) movies with that theme,” Racin said. “People who are sort of flawed personalities are more interesting.”
Writing about people with flawed personalities has become something of a hallmark of White’s career.
He’s created characters like Aniston’s depressed store clerk in “Girl,” Shannon’s lonely secretary in “Year of the Dog” and his own Buck, a 27-year-old obsessed with a childhood friend, in “Chuck and Buck” — the first film of White’s that got Hollywood talking.
It won the 2001 Independent Spirit Award for best feature under $500,000, and White took home the acting prize for best male performance at the 2000 Deauville Film Festival and the New American Cinema Award for best writer at the 2000 Seattle International Film Festival.
The funny thing is, White’s original plan was never to be a screenwriter. Or an actor.
Growing up in Pasadena, he was a film buff. But when it came time for college, White crossed the coun-try to Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He graduated in 1992 with a double major in English and theater, and originally planned to move to New York to be a playwright.
“I realized the East Coast was too cold for a little skinny dude from California like me,” he said. “I went out there in pursuit of sunny days, and I kind of fell into the wrong crowd of screenwriters.”
He started out in television, working as a writer on “Dawson’s Creek” for two years. He said he learned a lot about TV production there, but soon wanted to focus on film — until he read a pilot called “Freaks and Geeks.” It was created by Judd Apatow, who recently directed successful films like “The 40 Year Old Vir-gin” and “Knocked Up.”
Of “Freaks and Geeks,” White said, “I thought this is actually what I was trying to do on ‘Dawson’s Creek,’ to find people that reflected my high school life.”
The “Freaks and Geeks” crew — creator/director Apatow and actors Seth Rogen and Jason Segel, among others — tend to work together again and again, and White has found a similar crew, if you will.
He’s worked with Jack Black three times and Molly Shannon twice, first on a short-lived TV series, “Cracking Up,” which he created, and most recently on “Year of the Dog.” He wrote the script, about a lonely woman who becomes an animal activist after the death of her beloved dog, specifically for Shannon.
Directing is something White said he’d always shied away from.
“I’m not really a ship captain person by nature,” he said, but he ended up really enjoying it.
“I felt like it was kind of manageable, and (the script) was so tonally specific to my sensibilities.”
White has no plans to direct again in the immediate future, but said if the right opportunity came along, he’d do it.
But, he added, “I’m not going to have to direct every single thing I write.”
He’s currently writing two new scripts: a film called “Them” with Edgar Wright, the director of “Hot Fuzz,” and a family comedy he recently sold to Paramount.
White said he’s more inclined to work behind the scenes, but still enjoys the occasional acting gig, like the one he shot this week as Molly Shannon’s twin brother on an upcoming episode of ABC’s “Pushing Daisies.”
“Sometimes it’s fun to get out of your cave,” he said, “put down your pen and do something different.”
IF YOU’RE GOING
WHAT: The Three Faces of Mike, CineViews Annual Gala Event
WHEN: 6 p.m. Nov. 9
WHERE: The Craddock-Terry Gallery at Riverviews Artspace, 901 Jefferson St.
TICKETS: $50; must be purchased in advance
INFO: (434) 847-7727 or
IF YOU’RE GOING
WHAT: Screenwriting Workshop/Discussion by Mike White
WHEN: 1:30 p.m. Nov. 10
WHERE: Riverviews Artspace
TICKETS: $10 for students and $20 general admission
INFO: (434) 847-7727 or
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