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Patton Oswalt always has funny things to say. Since we got to interview him, he could comment on recent events like the birthers, Sarah Palin’s resignation and the Health Care protestors. His latest movie is a drama, but it still has a quirky twist. In Big Fan, from writer/director Robert Siegel, Oswalt plays a fan so devoted that even when his favorite quarterback beats him up, he doesn’t want to press charges and lose the team’s star player.
Crave Online: If this movie were done now, what would your character say about Michael Vick?
Patton Oswalt: You know what? I’d bet he would think that he’s got amazing fuel to use against his hated team, and he would blow it somehow, he would misquote or say something so stupid that it would work against him. He’d be excited thinking, oh, I’m going to nail this guy, and then he would just be, he’d say something so dumb. He’d say something so dumb.
Crave Online: Do you feel pity for him?
Patton Oswalt: I can see how you’d think he’d be a pitiful character, there is a lot to be pitied, but at the same time, in a weird way, he’s not a needy character from the other characters in the movie. He actually is fighting hard to stay in his little bubble of obsession, so in a way, that’s actually not that pitiful for me. At least that’s the way I saw it, it’s not like he’s trying to force the world to come around to his point of view. He just wants the world to leave him alone. That’s all he wants, so I think there’s kind of something weirdly heroic about that, in a very weird way.
Crave Online: Do you find any way to relate with him?
Patton Oswalt: Yeah, we all get obsessed with things, especially when you want to feel like you have a bigger place in the world sometimes. Oh, I’m into this thing, so in being into it, I am thus like it. So yeah, there are definitely, in the kind of pop culture obsessions I have, and stuff with literature and being a film buff, that’s all definitely there.
Crave Online: What is that thing for you?
Patton Oswalt: Movies especially, politics, comic books, food and scotch, just like things that you kind of anthropomorphize the things that you like as if they’re you, or I’m doing well now, or that little movie that I saw did really well and you almost, without saying it out loud, it’s like it’s part of you that’s doing well.
Crave Online: But not sports for you?
Patton Oswalt: I’ve never followed sports, man. I’ve never followed it. I don’t hate it, and I actually like watching people get wrapped up in sports, but there’s no love, there’s no hate, it just doesn’t affect me, I don’t know what it is.
Crave Online: Well, I’m the same way. I can relate to a movie, but I don’t understand relating to in athletic competition.
Patton Oswalt: And it’s weird because it’s the exact same thing that we’re doing, but for some reason it doesn’t slosh over into both.
Crave Online: It’s also sort of interesting because if you went into your office and you said, “Well, in Issue 175 of Spider-man, this happened,” everybody would think you were a weirdo, but if you walked into your office and said, “Remember that game in 1972…” Why is that?
Patton Oswalt: Again, I think it goes back to people wanting to feel connected. I mean, I think Kurt Vonnegut said something about that, like why do we follow horoscopes, because, oh, well I’m an Aquarius, and so is Burt Reynolds and so is Mozart. So people look at like, what famous people have my birthday, because we’re all in the same group together. Everyone wants to feel connected, and you want to feel like you take up a bigger space in the world. So people can do that with anything. It’s the basis I think for religion and a lot of political ideologies. And I mean, if you look at Comic-Con, some of these panels, it’s like people going to root for their team. But they’re not going to celebrate a movie that’s out, they’re saying, “We’re going to be released next summer, and we want you to get behind us.” And people at the Twilight panel will boo and hiss about another vampire project, literally, like they will compete. Or if you’re going on the Iron Man 2 panel, and someone mentions D.C. Comics, they’ll boo that and it’s Marvel versus D.C. It’s the same spark, it’s just different fuel.
Crave Online: But why is it more socially acceptable to be that baseball nerd as opposed to a comic nerd?
Patton Oswalt: Probably because there is a link to athleticism I guess. There is a link to the moving human body and being out in the sunshine, whereas there is something kind of creepy about grown men who, look, I understand when like young boys who are feeling powerless link up to something like The Hulk, or Captain America. But if you’re in your 40s, and you haven’t established enough of a place in the world that you are still looking at, what sometimes could be some kind of fascist power fantasies, yeah, that does seem a little sad. Although in a way the language that people use to describe their sports teams, is very much like the stuff you might hear at a white power rally. It’s that same thing, “We’ve got to crush these people.” I’m probably not doing this movie any favors, but it’s just a way for people to feel more powerful than they are I guess. I mean, look at what’s happening with these insane f*cking birthers. It’s the same thing. It’s “I have exotic information that you don’t have, and I’m part of this giant movement, and that is why I’m smarter and better than you guys.” You could literally show them evidence, but it’s f*cking bullsh*t. They will keep their delusion up, just like you could show a comic book fan that, look, it’s just drawings on paper man, it doesn’t really relate to real life. “But someone could work out and get to be like Batman!” No they can’t. You can’t jump off a f*cking building and survive, so it’s the same thing.
