Gentlemen Broncos is the Napoleon Dynamite take on science fiction. From writer/director Jared Hess and his wife Jerusha, the story finds a new array of awkward characters. Hess gave a roundtable interview to discuss his bizarre new creation, a new array of awkward characters creating sci-fi stories about battle stags, yeast lords and stolen gonads. 

Q: You do kind of look like Jemaine Clement. 

Jared Hess: Yeah, depending on how hairy either of us are at any given time. 

Q: Who came up with the James Mason voice he was using? 

Jared Hess: He initially wanted to play the character as an American but we told him to watch the original Logan’s Run and try and do like a Michael York voice. So he called back up. He’s like, “Yeah, I’ve been trying it on Miranda, my wife. Check it out.” He’s like, “Hello, Dr. Chevalier.” We were like all right, that’s what we’ll do. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. 

Q: Is he based on any particular author or an amalgam? 

Jared Hess: Not really. Just a combination of egotistical creative types I guess. That’s the one character that we can’t really say was inspired by one of our family members in the film. 

Q: How do you describe your quirky style of films? Is it your own genre? 

Jared Hess: Yeah, we’ve just tried to stay true to the things that inspire us. We live out in Utah and our environment and the people that we know and interact with there are definitely a big part of the characters and the stories that are in our films. 

Q: Is there also something about locking the camera off? 

Jared Hess: Yeah, I think it lets you kind of observe a little longer the details of movement and wardrobe and hair and just kind of soak in the world. I think it makes things a little more uncomfortable too sometimes for viewers when the cameras not moving around. 

Q: I love the locked off shots. I hate the shaky cam. 

Jared Hess: Yeah, it just depends. Especially for the type of films that we make, we just think it works well for comedy. 

Q: Where did the title come from and what does it mean? 

Jared Hess: Yeah, my mom had a really weird parenting book growing up called So You Want to Raise a Boy, because she had six boys. It’s a really old book written in the 50s but there’s a chapter in there called The Gentleman Bronco. It refers to the ages of like I think 15 to 16. I can’t remember the age group exactly but the age when a young man likes to take his shirt off and mow the lawn basically is what it was about according to the author. It has very little to do with the film other than that’s kind of the age of Benjamin. 

Q: But it’s based on a book. 

Jared Hess: Yeah, there you go. 

Q: Did you collect sci-fi books growing up? 

Jared Hess: It’s funny because I was more into the science fiction films but I loved the science fiction cover art. I’m going to be honest with you, I didn’t really read a lot of sci-fi stories. The sci-fi stuff I read wasn’t really sci-fi but it was like my mom’s Reader’s Digets UFO: The Continuing Enigma book. I’m a believer, man. It was those things that fascinated me. The cover art of science fiction books have always been inspiring. 

Q: Who designed yours in the credits? 

Jared Hess: It was actually existing artwork that we used from different famous science fiction artists. Probably the main guy was Freas. We used a lot of his work. We were able to get access to it. We just changed, for the opening credits sequence, changed the titles to the actor credits and stuff. 

Q: Who was Freas? 

Jared Hess: Oh, who is he? He’s a really awesome illustrator. He did like science fiction periodicals and journals and all kinds of stuff. He was really prolific. 

Q: How much room do you leave for actors to contribute to the details you’ve created? 

Jared Hess: It’s great. As prepared as you can be as a director and coming in with a game plan, we like to storyboard all of our films. It’s good because it kind of gives you a point of departure. You know what you need to make this scene or to make that work. So that gives you time. It liberates you in a sense to when you’re working with people like Jennifer Coolidge or Sam Rockwell or Jemaine, people that can improvise and have really fun ideas, it’s good to be able to take advantage of that. It doesn’t always end up in the film but it’s cool. 

Q: What town did you shoot in? 

Jared Hess: We shot, we kinda shot all over the place. Mostly in Salt Lake City but the area that Benjamin lives at was in a little town called Tooele. We were looking for a geodesic dome home and we finally found one. I always wanted to live in one of those as a kid. I was really jealous whenever I’d see one of those on the highway. 

Q: After Paranormal Activity, what have you learned about viral marketing since Napoleon Dynamite? What advice would you give filmmakers? 

Jared Hess: You know, we just have tried to stay true to the things that inspire us creatively.I’ve said this already but living in Utah, I guess for an aspiring anybody that’s trying to make their first film, I think when people look at their own experiences and what they know firsthand is always kind of the best place to start because that’s the way that you kind of find your own original voice. It’s something that nobody else can do but you because it’s your life and those things you know better than anybody. So I would say start there. 

Q: How have you dealt with the fame of being a big director? 

Jared Hess: You know, thank goodness we’re behind the camera. Mike White, he’s got to deal with all those fans. 

Q: What about the Napoleon merchandise? Do you get a cut? 

Jared Hess: Maybe we get a little bit, I don't know. It’s funny because she was the costume designer on Napoleon and she made the Vote For Pedro T-shirt, a T-shirt she got at a thrift store and a couple of iron on letters. But nobody ever knew. You can never anticipate what would happen. 

Q: In any country, you can see the Pedro shirt. 

Jared Hess: Yeah. I remember when [my wife] made that in my mom’s basement, ironing board, tssst.