Best Worst Movie: Michael Paul Stevenson and George Hardy

Michael Paul Stevenson and George Hardy starred in Troll 2, ranked since 1990 as the worst movie ever made. Now a filmmaker, Stevenson reunited with his costars and fans who screen Troll 2 for fun. Troll 2 director Claudio Fragasso doesn’t seem too happy when realizes this but Hardy and Stevenson have fun with their new fans. Best Worst Movie chronicles their experiences rediscovering Troll 2.

Crave Online: Is this the press junket Troll 2 never had? 

Michael Paul Stevenson: Yeah, you’re dead on about that.

Crave Online: This makes me want to see Troll 2. Should I? 

Michael Paul Stevenson: I don't know if that’s a bad or a good thing. No, you should. A lot of people have said something similar. Most people who’ve seen Best Worst Movie to date really aren’t fans. It’s been on the festival circuit and people who have no idea about what Troll 2 is. After we premiered at South by Southwest a year ago, Troll 2 was the number three rental on Netflix in the state of Texas. So Best Worst Movie is getting more people to watch Troll 2.

Crave Online: Did you put the best parts of Troll 2 in Best Worst Movie or are there more? 

Michael Paul Stevenson: Oh my gosh, no. That was one of the most difficult things in making Best Worst Movie. How do you cram all the amazingness of Troll 2 into another film.

George Hardy: Not even close. 

Michael Paul Stevenson: Actually, one of the producers on the film, it’s funny because he had never seen Troll 2 and then decided to wait until after we even premiered, the documentary was done. He went into Troll 2 thinking, “Oh, you know, I’ve seen it all now.” And he was blown away.

Crave Online: Were the producers of Troll 2 cooperative releasing materials? 

Michael Paul Stevenson: Yeah, MGM owns Troll 2 now. They just assumed it through several distributors going bankrupt. They ended up with Troll 2 and also coincidentally had Troll 1 which obviously has no relation to Troll 2. Basically, it’s not so much about getting them involved in supporting the documentary, just more what is it going to take to be able to use clips from the film. It was about as much fun as you would imagine working with a big studio.

Crave Online: So I guess it worked out? 

Michael Paul Stevenson: Yeah, it did. It completely worked out but it was one of these things when I started making the film. I knew I couldn’t just go. I basically had to figure out how much it would cost to license the clips, and that’s what it ended up being.

Crave Online: Do Claudio and his co-writer not get it? 

Michael Paul Stevenson: Or maybe we don’t understand Troll 2. What they get is different than what a lot of people get I guess. It’s interesting because I have to say, after all this time, Troll 2 is something that I was embarrassed by and really wanted nothing to do with it. Now I find myself enjoying and appreciating Troll 2 more. I’ve gotten closer to the film. Now making this documentary has messed me up so much that I can’t even tell you that it’s a bad movie. I mean, it fails in every regard. Every cinematic principal, everything that feels logical, writing, directing, acting, everything was terrible and failed in the worst way, but somehow Troll 2 did not fail to entertain. The worst thing that you can do I think as a director or a filmmaker is bore people. Claudio does not do that. The level of heart that he had making Troll 2 and that level of sincerity that he had making this film about vegetarian goblins, that’s more heart than most films with 10 times the amount of resources ever have. So I look back on that Italian production crew and it makes sense to me that they took it so sincerely and were so serious about it because that’s what Troll 2 is. If it is nothing else, it is sincere. It’s a sincere kind of failure nonetheless but it’s genuine. There is no irony.

Crave Online: But it seemed to hit him at the screenings and Q&A that people loved it for reasons he didn’t appreciate. 

Michael Paul Stevenson: Oh, absolutely. His perception of what it was is different but I’ll tell you, just like in the film, you have people that go to these screenings that are going there for ironic reasons or whatever, but it’s not a room of 300 hipsters. Troll 2 has managed to kind of leave an impression on people of all types. You do have that ironic contingent but most people who go to these screenings are really going there because they enjoy the film. Not because it’s a great piece of art or this great masterpiece, but because it gives them a level of entertainment that is almost impossible to find in anything else. It is not ever negative or it’s never mean spirited. It’s never like, “Oh, we’re laughing at all of you. You guys all suck.” It’s, for the most part, people having kind of a communal experience in a theater and enjoying a film together. It’s kind of like what Scott Weinberg said in the film. He said, “Bad books are bad, bad food is bad but bad movies aren’t always bad.” Even though that’s not exactly how Claudio may have perceived what the success of this film was, he brought it home at the end. He said one of the most poignant things and it gets to me every time. It’s when he said, “Whether a film makes you cry or makes you laugh or whether it scares you, really it comes down to a film moving you.” Bad or good, it’s kind of almost besides the point. I think that Troll 2 has moved a lot of people.

Crave Online: Have you ever seen Troll 1? 

Michael Paul Stevenson: I have, years ago.

George Hardy: Yeah, I have. Years ago. 

Crave Online: Before making Troll 2 or in retrospect? 

Michael Paul Stevenson: No, when we made Troll 2 it was known as Goblin. Troll 1, I don't know if I saw it before. I think I saw it after. I don't think I saw Troll 1 until I was like 13 or 14.

Crave Online: I have seen Troll 1 and frankly, I don’t have a problem if Troll 2 is goblins instead. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the same thing. 

Michael Paul Stevenson: Right.

Crave Online: But if it continues the plant theme, that’s the connection. 

Michael Paul Stevenson: Perhaps. I’ve actually been learning that really the reason why it got titled Troll 2 was just the Italian distributor was riding on the supposed success of Troll 1 and how well it was doing in America, they decided hey, let’s call our movie Troll 2, almost overnight. They just kind of ripped off Troll 1 and the movie became known as Troll 2.

Crave Online: I don’t remember Troll 1 doing that well. 

Michael Paul Stevenson: No, it didn’t. That’s kind of the funny thing about it all is that they ripped off a movie that really wasn’t doing that well.