Thomas Haden Church played one half of a conveniently wedded couple with Debra Messing in "Ned and Stacey," Sony Pictures Television, 1995

This is off-topic, but spiritually relates to the twisty nature of “Don McKay” -- when you were working on "Ned and Stacey," did you know that Charlie Kaufman, who was a writer and producer on the show, was going to be kind of a genius?

The second season of “Ned and Stacy,” Charlie was there the whole year as a writer/producer and I very much enjoyed his company and personality, even though he was as quiet as a finch nesting over eggs. He virtually never said anything. But now and then, I'd go into his office and he and I would talk about this story or that story because I was a creative consultant on the show.

The second season of “Ned and Stacey,” at the very end, Charlie asked me to take a look at a script called “John Malkovich’s Head.” I read about half of it and was like this is the wackiest fucking thing I’ve ever read and possibly the most brilliant. He was like, “What do you think?” And I was like, “Man, I don’t know who’s going to make that, but whenever they do make it, I think some people are going to be really, really happy that it got made.” And he thanked me for indulging him, and now he’s clearly gone on to be a significant screenwriter and director.

When he won the Academy Award for “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” I was very happy for him. I was there myself, and he won [best original screenplay] for “Eternal Sunshine” and then Alexander [Payne] and Jim [Taylor] won [best adapted screenplay] for “Sideways.” It was kind of cool that that year I had worked intimately with both winners of the screenplay category.

With your cattle ranching business in Texas, do you find these days it takes a little something extra to get you to get back into acting?

Oh, I don’t know. It’s a full-time job. I have a four-year-old daughter. I’ve got a whole life in Texas and a business, so it’s definitely got to be something that’s compelling. I have to make a living to feel productive on the financial side, but I’m fairly stable in that way, so I want things to be challenging. I want to go and do something that's meaningful, whether comedic or dramatic or a hybrid -- to do something that has merit and that I can be a part of and have impact on an audience. [laugh] I’m not as enthusiastic to leave the ranch as I was ten years ago, but I still love making movies. I love making good movies. And I’m trying to only make good movies.

“Don McKay” is currently without distribution.

Name (Required)

Email Address (Required, not displayed)

URL

Type your comments here...

Steven Tung

I watched this at the USA Film Festival in Dallas. Absolutely amazing movie. The humor was a pleasant surprise too.

Rob Thomas

I too watched this at the USA Film Festival in Dallas. It was a very entertaining film. Twisty story keeping your mind searching for what is going on and what happens next, and excellent performances by the cast. It is one of those films that has follow through, in that at the end your dealing with the twists, and appreciating the great performances, but is keeps digging deeper into you. I hope it makes it to distribution.