Jay and Mark Duplass on set

There's a po-mo self-awareness to the film in that it features actors playing actors discussing acting. What did you want to explore with this conceit?

JD: Honestly, we didn't want to actively explore this meta-aspect of the movie. We knew it was going to be there, but we were trying to focus more on the individual plights of the actors. Mark and I are completely desperate to try to succeed and not be total failures. We spend a lot of time on the film festival circuit, and I think the epitome of it for us is the desperate actor. They're like the white knight going into battle; they know they're going to lose, but they go in anyway...

MD: ...and get slaughtered over and over again. It's better than "Rocky." We've always loved the lovable loser, and it's just the perfect subject for us. They're ridiculous and normally someone that you would make fun of, or even despise. But we love them, so we hope people feel the same way.

"Baghead" is only now being released in New York and L.A., after first appearing in Austin and Portland. Were you involved in that unusual distribution strategy?

MD: It was a discussion in general, like everything with Sony has been. The Austin and Portland thing was to start the movie out in places we thought would be most receptive. [The alternative would be to] show up on the first weekend in New York and L.A., compete against Batman, maybe not make a killing and then have to go away because of the rules of competitive theatrical releasing.

Are you affected by all the scuttlebutt concerning the indie film world's demise?

JD: We don't see it as much with this movie, because we were lucky enough to have somebody swoop in and give us money. But it's a little scary to think that the middle is falling out of the industry and these kinds of deals might not be around next year. This business changes so much from day to day, and everyone who knows anything knows that they don't know anything.

MD: Our job is to make good movies, and we're trying to just limit it to that. If people want to pay a lot of money for them, then we'll buy boats. If they don't want to pay a lot of money...

JD: ...then we'll make "Daddy Day Road Trip."

MD: It's pretty healthy when we're doing interviews, but then when we're lying in bed at night, it gets a lot more scary.

Your film has its plot twists, but the biggest rug-puller is a thing of genre identity. Now that you're promoting the film instead of making it, how difficult is it to talk about without giving away surprises?

MD: We've gotten very good at evasion techniques, and now we're ready to run for president. We know what it means to say a lot without saying a goddamn thing. [laughs]

Do either of you have any acting gigs coming up?

JD: I have a little part in Joe [Swanberg] and Greta's next movie.

I know you're biased, but who's scarier: your baghead, or Jason Voorhees when he wore a burlap sack over his head throughout "Friday the 13th, Part II?"

MD: I have not seen Jason in "Friday the 13th II." Have you?

JD: I don't even think I have either. I'm pretty sure that one's scarier, though.

MD: It's gotta be!

JD: We're not horror film fans, and we try not to reference other movies when we make our own movies. But we have become aware of the constant iconography of [bagheaded] people in cinema.

MD: We're certainly not claiming to be the first people to use bags, but goddamn it, we'll be the last.

JD: We're the first to use grocery bags. I think we can claim that. Maybe.

[Photos: "Baghead"; directors Jay and Mark Duplass - Sony Pictures Classics, 2008]

"Baghead" is now playing in Austin and Portland; opens in New York and Los Angeles on July 25th.

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