Tom Green was inspired by David Lynch to create ‘Freddy Got Fingered’
When it comes to cult classics of the early part of the 21st Century, perhaps one of the most iconic is Tom Green’s utterly surreal comedy Freddy Got Fingered. The film lies in parallel to Green’s own struggle to make it as a TV writer, though he would eventually be picked up by MTV for The Tom Green Show.
Green was once asked whether he had any non-comedy films in mind when he came to write the film. He replied: “Well, I’ve always loved dark movies and strange films, and, you know, I’m a big fan of David Lynch and David Cronenberg. I also love Monty Python, and I love SCTV, so I had a lot of inspiration from those. And I come from skateboarding and sort of, that sort of, like, you mentioned Being John Malkovich – Spike Jonze came from skateboarding, and he’s got that kind of out-of-the-box, punk rock attitude.”
Indeed, Freddy Got Fingered does have a sort of punk-rock ‘fuck off’ attitude to it, especially considering the layabout slacker character at its forefront. Freddie is evidently rebelling against the abuse of his father whilst simultaneously trying to make his way in the world as a professional artist.
“I think there’s definitely a desire to, as you said, give the middle finger to the standard cookie-cutter movie, and probably a lot of those people I mentioned had the same kind of motivation when they made films,” Green added. “They were tired of seeing the same sort of predictable story, and predictable style of shooting and predictable music, and I definitely wanted to kind of change things up. I wanted to find new ways of doing things.”
It was Green’s first-ever film, so he had much to learn about the nature of editing and storylining that perhaps he had first anticipated. “The movie was changed quite a bit, you know, in the process of editing, through the studio notes and things like that,” Green said. “I definitely think there was a much more cohesive, smoothly moving storyline, and even just visually, I think it cut together and was smoother when I did my initial cut.”
Naturally, the producers and other crew members of the show had one eye on Green’s skills. He added: “I kind of had to listen to the people that paid for it, so I made a few changes here and there. But I ultimately think that, at the end of the day, there was so much bizarre craziness, and the scenes themselves still had the heart and soul of what the movie was supposed to be.”
However, Freddy Got Finger has entered the pantheon of cult classics and received a rousing reception upon its first screening. Green noted: “I remember when we screened it the very first time at the studio, the legendary studio head Arnon Milchan when the movie finished screening, he stood up and he literally started doing the slow clap, and he called it the best film by a first-time director he’d ever seen in his career. Everyone in the room was celebrating how excited they were.”
