Fred Savage is probably best remembered as a child actor for his roles on The Wonder Years, The Wizard, and The Princess Bride, but he's grown up and into equally prominent roles as a director on shows like It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and Party Down. After dropping his daughter off at ballet school (really), Savage talked to us about his TV and movie viewing habits, why his life is like a Sanda Bullock film (presumably The Net), and why he seeks out movies that are especially painful to watch.

Humpday

[Laughs.] I don't even know what it's doing on my list. I really like the Duplasses and the movies that they do. I like the way they work. I love their movies. I'm really excited to see The Freebie, which his wife did. I heard that's supposed to be fantastic. It's just a different way to tell stories. I would never make those kinds of films, you know? So I think I'm always attracted to films that intimidate me or scare me in some way. "How could they do that? I'd never do that!" Whether it's a small movie or also on my list is, like, District 9. I like exposing myself to movies that I would never make. I know the kind of movies I want to make, and as a director I like exposing myself to things that I wouldn't really see or gravitate to.

“I like exposing myself to movies that I would never make.”

So what is it about Humpday that scares or maybe intimidates you?

The style. Just that whole mumblecore approach to film, where it's highly improvised. I love that genre of movie because it's so foreign and freeing and inspiring to me. The Puffy Chair was amazing. It's just not my comfort zone. It's very freeing to see movies made in a different way, and I like that. Or I think. I don't know: I haven't seen it!

70s Dramas: An Unmarried Woman

I like those '70s, relationship-y movies with the Paul Mazursky world of relationships. They're kinda hopeless and depressing and nihilistic. There are movies like those now, but even the most cynical relationship movies made today have some hope to them. Like, I wouldn't consider Blue Valentine a romantic movie. The more mainstream-y relationship movies have some hope to them, you know? I just love that these other movies are so hopeless.

Why do you think those movies have gotten more optimistic as time has gone on?

I don't know. I think it was certainly a reaction to what came before. Like Pillow Talk wasn't that far away from when they made An Unmarried Woman. Obviously there was a big move towards realism in the '70s, which is coming back now a bit more. I think there's a little hope in movies now, but those movies in the '70s were so bleak. But bleak and raw. I love the [John] Cassavetes movie A Woman Under The Influence with just shadows and faces. They're so brutal and raw. I really like those. [Laughs.]

Which is, by the way, exactly what movies are made for: escape. I feel like I'm very lucky and have a happy life. I like what I do, I have a great wife, I have two great kids. I think whereas some people might go to the movies to, like, "Let's feel good! Let's laugh! Let's watch Sandra Bullock! It's hysterical!" When I walk out of a movie I want to be like, "Ooh, that's pain. I don't feel that very often. That's good!"

“When I walk out of a movie I want to be like, ‘Ooh, that's pain. I don't feel that very often. That's good!’”

So you want to be punished?

Yeah, I guess it's my version of cutting. Like, I just want to feel something. I just watch movies to feel bad. [Laughs.]

Has that always been your relationship with movies, or has it evolved? Because you were just born when these movies in the '70s came out.

[Long pause.] I don't know, I guess so. I kinda know what I like and I know what my experiences are. So I want to see movies that are departures from that, the total opposite of my life. I go to movies alone a lot because my wife is the total opposite. My wife loves any romantic comedy, anything with Sandra Bullock, Reese Witherspoon, or Julia Roberts. She loves them except when they do dark dramatic stuff. And that's a total different filmgoer. Those are the ones who generate box office. They want to enjoy themselves and escape for 90 minutes. But I feel like that's kinda my life everyday, a Sandra Bullock movie. [Laughs.] And so I want to get real, I wanna get raw when I go to the movies.

Have you had this realization before today?

No, and I feel like maybe you could charge me for some therapy.

The Social Network

I liked it. I thought it was really great, and if nothing else, 10, 20 years from now people are going to say this is a real snapshot of this day and age. And I think they're right. Not just the technology, but the people and how we relate to one another. I thought for a movie that was essentially guys sitting in front of a computer or at a conference table getting a deposition -- that's 80 percent of the movie -- it was really compelling.

I want to see Buried for the same reason, because it's an exercise in making a movie compelling. That movie takes place in a box, and I really want to see it. Just as a way to see how you make that interesting. 12 Angry Men is one of my favorite movies for that same reason. It's just 12 guys in a room for an hour and a half, and it's riveting.

Do those bottle episodes of TV shows that carry on in that tradition, being set completely in one room, interest you as well?

No! They don't at all. Because bottle episodes, having directed more than my fair share, aren't done as an exercise in "let's really explore this room." It's done as, hey, we went on location a lot the last couple of episodes, we built a really expensive set, we've had a really expensive guest star, whatever it is. Here's a bottle episode: Let's keep it in our standing sets and shoot it in four days. It's more like, "Let's get this **** done cheaply and fast so we can move onto the next one." It's a pretty spartan approach.

Movies for Yuppies: Please Give

You know what I really want to see? There's these nouveau yuppie movies. I haven't seen Friends With Money or Please Give, which is also here. Me And You And Everyone We Know. There's like this whole genre aimed at yuppies, like Greenberg? [Laughs.] All those kinds of movies. I kind of like their tone, but I also like how presumptuous they are. There was a joke on Saturday Night Live last night which is totally right. Kenan Thompson was doing Tyler Perry on Weekend Update and he was talking about his movies and how they get ignored during awards time. He was talking about white-people movies, "You know movies like Adventureland where the guy is sad because he has a job?" That just nailed it, this yuppie malaise that they make movies about. I like making fun of those people, which these movies also kinda do themselves. Like, anything Catherine Keener is in. It's just nice to remind yourself that wealthy white people have problems, too. You kinda forget that, and it's nice to be reminded. You think they got it all figured out? No. They got problems, too.

“It's just nice to remind yourself that wealthy white people have problems, too.”

Genre Parodies: Shaun Of The Dead

I just love genres poking fun at themselves. There are all these horror movies, and I'm so not into horror movies, but I love that these guys have come along and done these comedy-horror films. I just love the blurring of the genres and that it doesn't take itself super-seriously. But within that they're very fantastic films. I love that world and I love that it's there, but I haven't exposed myself to it. And I want to.

“I just love genres poking fun at themselves.”

A lot of these movies don't really jibe with -- I'm married and I have two small kids. If my wife doesn't want to see it, it isn't happening. If it isn't happening, that means me going to the movies alone. Which is either in the afternoons when I'm not working -- I feel guilty seeing movies, playing hooky, when I should be doing something else like trying to get a job. I'd go on the weekend, but I don't want to be away from my kids or wife. So it's a real catch-22. If Jennifer Aniston had a cameo, game on, but otherwise I'm not gonna see it.

Film School Fare: Broken Flowers

I haven't seen any of that stuff. I don't know if I want to. Part of me is like, I have to eat my vegetables, just to see it and inform myself of what's out there. But another part of me thinks they're just a snapshot of that time or that moment in film. I don't know how relevant they are now. Like I loved Sex, Lies, And Videotape when it came out. It was an amazing movie. What they did was so cool. Now when I go back and watch it, the performances are really good and I can appreciate what [Steven Soderbergh] did at the time, but I don't love the movie now.

So I have all these written down because, like I said, I'm supposed to eat my vegetables. But at the same time I could just watch He's Just Not That Into You on cable again. It's awesome. I can't get enough of it. Or The Hangover.

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