"I see you're drinking one percent. Is that 'cause you think you're fat?" Most people would be able to identify this quote as being from "Napoleon Dynamite."
"Napoleon Dynamite" became one of the most quotable films of recent years, even now — two years later — people are still wearing T-shirts with lines from the movie. Despite all the success, director Jared Hess has stayed pretty low key, but now he's back.
On June 16, the sophomore effort from Hess, "Nacho Libre" will be released in theaters nationwide. The film tells the story of a priest who moonlights as a luchador, the performer in the sport of lucha libre, which loosely translates as freestyle fighting and is a Mexican genre of professional wrestling. Jack Black stars as the priest, who is fighting to save an orphanage.
Hess took some time to do a conference interview with The State News and other college media about the upcoming film.
State News: Where did you get the idea for the film?
Jared Hess: Kind of the idea came about when I learned about a real Mexican luchador who really was a Catholic priest in Mexico fighting to support an orphanage, so the movie is loosely inspired by what he did.
SN: "Napoleon Dynamite" was shot in a small studio on a very small budget. What was the switch from a small studio to a big studio for "Nacho Libre" like?
JH: Going from such a small movie and going to something that has a lot more money behind it is a different experience all around, but ultimately you're still making a movie. Nonetheless, shooting down in Mexico was one of the best crews that I've ever worked with, and the whole experience making the movie has been fantastic.
SN: What was it like to work with Jack Black, and did you ever have any creative disagreements?
JH: It was a real dream to work with someone like Jack. He is one of the nicest human beings I have ever met. He doesn't have any ego at all. We came up with new ideas about his character and the different things we were doing together — it was a true collaboration in every sense of the word.
SN: What are your overall goals for the film?
JH: It's a film with a lot of heart and good laughs and for people to discover lucha libre too. I think people will really enjoy the film and feel the good spirit that it has.
SN: Did you make a concentrated effort while writing this film to write something that would look great on a T-shirt?
JH: Not really, I just try to write what's good for that particular character. That's something that was very surprising to me when Dynamite came out; to me it was just very normal for characters to say those sort of things. With Nacho, we'll wait and see what people do with it.
SN: Were you concerned about the possibility of stereotyping the sport of lucha libre or Mexico in general while making the movie, and what did you do to make sure you were accurate in your portrayal?
JH: I attended as many lucha libre matches as possible. It's been something that I've been a fan of for such a long time, it's just something that I wanted to do right from the beginning. The whole experience with the crew and everybody involved in making the film was just something very special. It was very, very important to everyone involved that we wanted to do it right; like I said, I've been such a fan of the sport.
SN: When were you first introduced to lucha libre?
JH: I think my first exposure was through the Fanta movie — it was the Muhammad Ali of the lucha world. After college I saw his film and just completely fell in love, and later I served a Mormon mission when I was in Spain and after that I really fell in love with it.
SN: What qualities make a good director?
JH: I think just having a very specific point of view of the world you are trying to create. I see a lot of movies that could have been directed by ten different people. The films I like are the ones that have a very specific voice and something that their own life experience can be filtered through.
SN: Your characters in "Napoleon Dynamite" were really out there, were they based on people you knew?
JH: Napoleon was definitely kind of parts of my brothers and myself, kind of one person. The characters in the film all definitely came from people or things that I knew. The character Deb is largely based on my wife Jerusha and her experiences growing up. She did go to a high school dance with big sleeves and a guy grabbed them and said 'Wow, I like these, they are real big.'"
For more information on the movie, visit www.nacholibre.com.
