Troy Duffy Still Packs a Punch

The "Boondock Saints" writer/director on fans, douchebags and going Grizzly Adams.

You think cinema is only about escapism?

“Boondock” I and II are definitely escapism, 100%. When you see that shit on the news [about] some guy who rapes and kills a four-year-old girl, whether you are gay, black, Latino, white, Republican… your first fucking inclination is whoever did that should die. A lot of people don’t say it, but they feel it. This movie is a way for us to at least escape a little bit and alleviate that fantasy sometimes.

Have you had any difficulties getting projects off the ground since “Overnight” painted you as a liability?

I think this is probably going to come as a shock to you, Aaron, but people in the business pay more attention to the bottom line and the money. They could give a shit if I was a crack-addicted douchebag. I’m the guy who does films for small budgets that have big-budget grosses. I’m sure the documentary didn’t help out in terms of “Oh my god, is he crazy?” or people wanting to work with me. But nobody ever said, “I’m not going to hire you because of what I saw in a documentary.” This is a very incestuous business, so a lot of them even had stories, like “I happened to be one of the lawyers over at Miramax while that was going on, and I know what these little motherfuckers did to you.”

The two guys that executed that little smear campaign were friends of mine, and we trusted them. They pitched this to us like it was going to be positive, almost for educational purposes: “Watch this newbie in the business make all these mistakes, so you don’t make them yourself. Watch his successes, and you can emulate that. Troy may have done a few things right.” By watching that film, you have no fucking idea how I did that because they chose to assassinate my character, show every one of the bad things that happened over three of the most tumultuous years of my life. There were plenty of triumphs and tragedies. For creative reasons, they decided to focus on the tragedy.

Have you gone on record to refute how you’re perceived in that film?

I’m going to sit here and get in a grudge match with two little fucks that I helped out? They can cleverly edit together anything I say in their 300 hours of footage to make me look like a goddamn liar. These guys have no love for me. These are two friends who asked for a slice of the pie, and I hacked them off a nice big juicy one. They fucked me, and all my friends that helped them out. All those people in that film never left my side. They were angry on my behalf. They wanted to go after these guys in court. I was the one who said, “No, I’m not going to engage in some public dispute with these guys.” I know what happened back then, I was there.

Even if the context were manipulated, though, don’t you still act verbally abusive?

You just answered your own question. Who knows what the context was? How do you know I wasn’t reading a goddamn pair of cue cards? That’s the whole game. This is a documentary. It’s supposed to document and tell the truth. You’re supposed to know what the context is, so you, as the viewer, can make your own decision. They didn’t show you any of that. Yet, you still come and ask me about why I acted this way and that?

These are not legitimate questions?

They’re not when they didn’t provide the context for you. Like I said, you don’t know if I was reading a script. Look how many times in that film they show me talking [where] I’m not actually on film. One of the most scurrilous accusations, they put up a blackboard: “Troy bought a gun and moved out of his apartment because he feared that Miramax operatives were trying to kill him.” They actually wrote that on the screen, and didn’t show anything. That didn’t set off warning bells for you? If you’re a critic, and you have to objectively look at things, you should take another look at that film. As long as you take the hatred for me out of it, I think you’re going to start seeing some amazing fucking things.

This is why I’m giving you a chance to cite specifics.

When we lost everything, I had to be a coach. I had to show some goddamn leadership and tell these guys, “Hey, we’re going to come back from this, and everybody that fucked us this time around is going to be sorry they fucking did it.” You’re sitting there with an entourage of guys looking to you for support and a career. I was trying to bolster the troops sometimes, and it was cleverly edited together to simply make me look like an asshole. If you actually think I accomplished what I accomplished by walking into rooms full of my friends and advisers, acting like an asshole for no apparent reason and then leaving, feel free to take a crack at it yourself.

What’s the biggest misconception that people might have of you?

One time, a buddy of mine was shopping, and he called me up: “Dude, you’re not going to fucking believe this.” He was wearing a “Boondock” shirt, and some guy came up to him and said, “Oh, I love that movie. Isn’t that the director who pulled a Grizzly Adams, living off in the wilderness somewhere? I heard he went crazy.” I’m sure it was because of that documentary.

“The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day” opens in limited release on October 30th.

[Additional photo: Troy Duffy in "Overnight," ThinkFilm, 2004]

Pages: 1 2