I Wish I Made That: Eric Appel, director of 'The Breadwinner'

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of maximumfun.org and is distributed by NPR.

Jesse Thorn (0:28)

It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn. Making good art isn't easy. Even the simplest looking painting and the simplest sounding song took a lifetime of training and practice to develop.

And some art is so powerful, it connects with you so deeply, that you wish you'd made it. Happens a lot, so we started a regular segment here on Bullseye. It's called I Wish I Made That. This week we're talking with Eric Appel. Eric is a writer and director on TV. He's written for shows like Human Giant and Crank Yankers. He's directed episodes of The Office, New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. In 2022, he made his first feature film.

It was called Weird, The Al Yankovic Story, and what a debut.

SPEAKER_3 (1:11)

My whole life, all I wanted.

Jesse Thorn (1:14)

I'm afraid we found your son had a polka party.

SPEAKER_3 (1:19)

Just to make up new words to a song that already exists.

Eric Appel (1:23)

Oh, well you should do that then.

SPEAKER_5 (1:25)

Oh, my little hungry one, hungry one, open up a package of my balona.

SPEAKER_3 (1:34)

Dude, I've got chills.

Jesse Thorn (1:36)

Weird, which Appel co-wrote with Weird Al, did to music biopics what Weird Al did to music. It spoofed the genre brilliantly. A joke a minute, 10 out of 10, no notes. If you haven't seen it, you should. It's a delight.

Appel followed that up with The Breadwinner. Like Weird, The Breadwinner is a comedy, but unlike Weird, it isn't really a spoof. It's actually sincere, a sort of goofy dad comedy. It stars Nate Bargotse as Nate. Nate is married. He has three kids, a steady job, and his wife gets the deal of a lifetime. She wins at Shark Tank. She's running a company now. So Nate does what any loving spouse would do and holds down the fort while his wife gets to work.

But like I said, this is a goofy dad comedy, so everything that can go wrong goes wrong.

SPEAKER_5 (2:23)

Say your name of your school out loud, go now.

SPEAKER_6 (2:25)

Can we do laser tag instead?

SPEAKER_5 (2:27)

No, just give me the name of your school, or I'm going to call mom at the airport.

SPEAKER_6 (2:30)

So you're going to call mom and admit you don't know the locations or names of any of our schools.

Jesse Thorn (2:37)

When we asked Eric about the thing that he wishes he'd made, he picked a movie, no surprise coming from a movie director.

Which movie? Well, what a choice. I'll let Eric take it from here.

Eric Appel (2:51)

I am Eric Appel and I wish I made Pee-wee's Big Adventure.

I believe I was six years old the first time I saw Pee-wee's Big Adventure. You know, when I watched the movie as a kid, it was just, it's a joyful experience. And there's a bit of wish fulfillment in being a kid and watching the Pee-wee character, because Pee-wee is very driven by emotion. How Pee-wee is feeling is how Pee-wee is acting in that scene. And as a kid, you're not really, you're always told to sort of suppress your emotions or not have outbursts, or not roll your eyes or make, you know, be sarcastic. And Pee-wee gets to do all of those things.

SPEAKER_5 (3:45)

Oh, shut up, Pee-wee.

SPEAKER_7 (3:46)

Why don't you make me? Why don't you make me?

SPEAKER_5 (3:48)

Because I don't make monkeys.

SPEAKER_3 (3:51)

I just trade them. Pee-wee, listen to reason.

SPEAKER_7 (3:55)

Come on.

SPEAKER_5 (3:56)

Listen to reason.

Eric Appel (3:58)

So as a kid watching the movie, that's such a part of it, you know, is wanting to be Pee-wee. And also the world, it's such a fun, whimsical world.

SPEAKER_7 (4:12)

Morning, Mr. Backfast.

Eric Appel (4:22)

And then as an adult, you know, as I got older, I learned to appreciate the movie on all these different levels. On its surface, it could look like it's a kids movie, but really it's a movie for adults with adult humor in it, that somehow kids love just as much as the adults do or grow up loving even more. It's really interesting, especially having kids of my own and having shown it to them, their experience with it. And it's similar to what mine was as a kid, but mine as an adult now is just I'm looking at it through a completely different lens. And it still works. And it's still, you know, a total classic that works on so many different levels.

What sticks out to me watching it as an adult is how much fun you can clearly see they're having making it or even writing it. That comes through in what's on screen.