Joss Whedon Interview – GLEE – Dream On

Tonight's episode of GLEE , "Dream On," was guest-directed by Joss Whedon, and he was available for a conference call interview to talk about the episode specifically, and working on GLEE more generally. It was a great interview, and it's a solid episode.

Also along for tonight's ride is Neil Patrick Harris, as Will's High School rival, and the interplay he creates with various characters is great stuff. Rachel also gets a cassette tape from her mother, and you don't want to miss the reveal there.

You don't want to miss one particular number tonight, which captures the viral video vibe and GLEE's it up.

If you're still coming down off that Madonna high, this is an episode you want to catch. Spend a few minutes with Joss and get yourself psyched up.

Enjoy!

What was it like directing someone else’s show?

J. Whedon Directing somebody else’s show is – I’ve done it once before, twice just with The Office. It helps if the show’s unutterably wonderful.  That takes a lot of the pressure off.  It’s a little tricky.  You’re living in somebody else’s house and you have to make sure that you’re fulfilling their needs.  It also takes some of the burden off you.

You don’t have to be the guy who sees the big picture.  You just take what they give you and make sure that you’re servicing it as best you can.  Having said that, Glee is probably harder to shoot than any other show in recorded history, with all the different elements going on and whatnot; it’s a different kind of challenge, but ultimately enormous fun.

Could you talk a little bit about, was there any sort of feeling that once again, I’m directing sort of a high school show…different one, but…

J. Whedon Well, I don’t feel like I’ve necessarily been pigeonholed.  I like high school shows, needless to say, I think they tap into something very primal.  When you have some elements that take them to the next level, whether it’s physical or musical, it’s the kind of thing that completely jazzes me.  To work with a troupe of people who are still young, and fresh and excited to be doing the work, you can’t beat that.

Could you talk about the dance number, the mall number.  How did that fit in?  Was that the most difficult?

J. Whedon You know, the thing about that number is that really was Zach and Brooke getting it done.  Ultimately, it’s a complicated, it’s a big, big number, very gratifying, I think because we’re seeing things we haven’t seen before.  I do pride myself on being the guy who knew we were actually going to be able to shoot it pretty quickly because once it gets dialed in, you pretty much just shoot them doing it.

Because of the number of extras and the enormity of the number, people thought it was going to be much more of a bear than it actually was.  We had two film cameras and four video cameras going the whole time, so the thing actually went pretty quickly.  We were able to tack on another scene that day, which is great, because those schedules are a bear.

What was it like working with Neil again?

J. Whedon I am so tired of that guy.  Why do they always make me direct Neil?  Why the pain?  Neil is a consummate pro and a dear friend, which is an ideal combination.  There’s no problem.  My only complaint was that I wanted to shoot even more of the kids than I got to, that and certain craft service issues about not having caviar, but really that’s in my …, actually.

I feel like he’s one of those people who expresses the way I wish I could express myself.  He’s like a muse, and he’s friends with Matt.  The sort of rivalry/affection between them just informed the whole thing so much.  We had such a good time.  He came in the day after the Oscars, the day before How I Met Your Mother.  He fit this into his schedule in the most bizarre fashion.  I even got him and Jane Lynch to come in late on Friday night after finishing How I Met Your Mother, just so that we could knock a scene off because the schedule was so hard for him.  Always cooperative, always imaginative; Neil’s the man.

I wonder if you could give as detailed as possible about leading us through, as well as how Neil’s character fits in, his impact on the glee club, but also the other two big story lines, Rachel’s and Artie’s, without giving everything away.  Just to give everyone an idea of everything you explore in this episode.

J. Whedon Well, the idea of the episode being “Dream On” really was let’s take the things that are at the core of what people are.  With Will, it’s his desire to perform and what he may have given up.  With Rachel, its questions about who her real mother was, and Artie obviously thinks about if he’ll ever one day get out of the chair.

These are very, very hard personal things that they don’t necessarily talk about with other people.  I was really lucky because there’s a real fanatic coherence to the episode that really brought them all together on an emotional level.  For me, it was just a question of making sure they dovetailed and didn’t feel sort of random, but they all came together and you understood why these three stories were all in the same show.

Are there other shows that you’d like to direct?  What are some of the other shows that you enjoy, that you’re a fan of?

J. Whedon I’m going to just go ahead and make a blanket statement.  I don’t want to direct the shows I’m a fan of anymore.  It means I always have to read the episodes that come before it.  It’s like a giant slew of spoilers that quite frankly is not fair.  I would say after Glee, Friday Night Lights is probably the show that blows me away the most.  But, I definitely don’t want to direct one of those, because I’m still on Season 2.

When you do these things where you’re only wearing the directing hat, does that give you a chance to hone specific directing skills that you’re trying to work on?

J. Whedon I have no directing skills.  This is … for me to tell you, but I pretty much just say, “Point the camera at the people” and then hope that the scene’s good.  Ultimately, the thing about directing a TV show like this is you’re not just honing your directing skills.

Yes, you do get a little more time to really sit and work with the actors because you’re not prepping the next show or cutting the last show; but, at the same time, in prepping musical numbers, in working this incredibly difficult show, in trying to find the truth of the things.

You know, I’m talking to the producers about the dialogue, which I’m talking about minor tweaks… a beautiful script, but I’m trying to find the through line.  I’m trying to find how to make the schedule work.  So, I feel I just look for it, as a producer/director, just trying to make sure I’ve got them there on schedule and that I was being realistic and … with it. Ultimately, you kind of feel like you are doing all these other jobs as well, even though you’re ultimately carried, and carried by extremely competent people, it’s such a complicated show that you feel like you’re flexing everything.

In past episodes, it’s kind of clear that the cast is lip-syncing, but in “Dream On,” particularly the bar scene with Matthew and Neil, it didn’t really seem that way.  Was it sung live?

J. Whedon Yes, it was.  They had … just so they could hear the music and then they sang it live.  Every now and then they like to do these sing-alongs as opposed to just  a number, and for sing-alongs you have to have the originals so they’ve got it in their head.  Then we lay it over them.  So, yes, that was sung.

How is Glee different from anything else you’ve ever worked on.

J. Whedon Glee is different from anything else period.  Every show is different.  I would just say that the enormous amount of work that everybody is doing at all times on that show kind of spun my head around.  It’s not an easy show to make and the kids, the whole cast works so hard and are busy working on every episode.

I did have one of the actors say, “Well, how do I … this guy?”  So, really, I don’t remember we’re shooting four episodes at once.  It’s hard to keep your head around all of it, the rehearsals, the recording, and the show moves as quickly as it moves.  So, production … is tough and you have to be on your feet at all times.

You’ve got a different aesthetic, an old-fashioned aesthetic in the lighting and the camerawork is very classical.  It’s not edgy in that sense.  The edge comes from taking a very comforting milieu, the comfort, and ease of set, and then putting something rather kind of shocking.  Either shocking because it’s so snarky, or dirty, or funny, or because it’s just so open hearted in the middle of it.

I was just wondering, you obviously did a musical episode of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.  How does that compare to Glee?  Did it prepare you in a way?

J. Whedon Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.  Doing Buffy and doing Dr. Horrible were both great prep for something like this.  This is obviously not my first rodeo.  It’s different, Glee, obviously, but knowing a little bit of the realities of the difference in a day’s work between shooting a musical number and shooting just a regular scene, is very useful.  It’s the kind of thing that I would like to spend a lot more of my time doing.  I love musicals deeply and dearly.  This was a return to home for me.  Not my home, but a very welcoming one.

So, would you do another episode of Glee in the future?

J. Whedon “Nevah, nevah.”  Oh, yeah, I choked, totally.  Sorry.  If I had the window and they would take me, yes, in a heartbeat.

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About Marc Eastman

Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. His reviews have brought him personal praise from the director of a major motion picture, and have been used as required reading in a course at a major University. These priceless rewards, along with just bags of cash, keep him from straying from freelance writing. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.

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