"I hope you don't mind, but this is how we like to do our interviews," said director David O. Russell as he entered his suite at the Georgetown Ritz.
He climbed onto the couch that actor Jason Schwartzman was sitting on and straddled him. As if this were not strange or awkward enough, Russell began to massage Schwartzman's chest while Schwartzman screamed, "Yes!" and "Oh yeah, that feels soooo good."
It is clear where "I Heart Huckabees" gets its odd sense of humor. But, in order to understand what "Huckabees" is about, it is necessary to know its origins.
"David had a dream where he was being followed by a woman detective," Schwartzman explained. "He wasn't being followed for criminal reasons, but spiritual ones."
Russell elaborated.
"I woke up and wrote the idea down," he said. "I realized that I had something pretty good."
Russell said that the film's title combined comedy and emotion and was designed to make people question what it was about. Other working titles he said included, "I Love Huckabees," and "The Mystery of the Mysterious Mystery."
While he was writing the script, Russell had Schwartzman in mind for the role of Albert, based on his performance in "Rushmore."
"The other characters in the movie were created with their actors loosely in mind," Russell said. "Luckily, they all said yes."
Schwartzman won acclaim in 1998 starring in Wes Anderson's "Rushmore" as Max Fischer, a strange outcast who's fame came from the simple line, "O.R. they?" His character in Russell's new existential comedy "I Huckabees" is similar to Max Fischer, and Schwartzman himself is just as strange as the characters he plays.
Schwartzman, who has previously worked with such greats as Bill Murray and Al Pacino, said he was intimidated to act opposite such an all-star cast.
"Dustin Hoffman was one of the reasons I wanted to be an actor," Schwartzman said. "It was a very scary experience to work with him."
And Schwartzman isn't stopping with "Huckabees." Next he is working with Sophia Coppola on "Marie Antionette," co-starring with Kirsten Dunst.
