Marina Zenovich‘s “I’m Chevy Chase, and You’re Not” is not your average celebrity documentary. From the film’s outset, it is clear that the 82-year-old comedian had zero editorial control over the project.
A minute into the CNN doc, Zenovich (“Lance,” “Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind”) can be heard off camera saying to Chase, “I’m just trying to figure you out.”
His response: “No shit. It’s not going to be easy for you.”
“Why is it not going to be easy?” Zenovich asks.
“You’re not bright enough,” Chase deadpans. “How’s that?” Then the comedian grins.
Zenovich says that while she was taken aback by Chase’s response, she was also relieved.
“I’d never done an interview where someone was so rude to me,” Zenovich tells Variety. “But I was so worried going into that first interview with him about how I was going to say to him, like, ‘Everyone thinks you’re an asshole.’ I thought if I did, he would throw me out of his house. So the minute he said that to me, I had a way in.”
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The doc, premiering Jan. 1 on CNN, charts Chase’s rise from breakout “Saturday Night Live” to leading man, his three marriages, his addiction to cocaine and alcohol, heart failure that led to a coma, childhood abuse, depression, a failed talk show, and the star’s various on-set disputes with actors like Terry Sweeney and the entire cast of the NBC comedy “Community.”
“I wanted to figure out who was the real person behind the conflicted, guarded and somewhat fragile man we see on camera,” Zenovich says. “What was behind the surface of his slightly intimidating superstar bravado? Was there any self-awareness there? Having interviewed Chevy at length, I have to say that yes, it’s all there – and a whole lot of pain and heartache too.”
In addition to Chase and his family, the doc includes revealing interviews with the star’s former collaborators and confidants, including Mike Ovitz, Dan Aykroyd, Beverly D’Angelo, Goldie Hawn, Lorne Michaels, Ryan Reynolds and Martin Short.
Variety spoke with Zenovich and her husband, and long-time producing partner P.G. Morgan, about why Chase decided to make the doc and getting someone, anyone, from “Community” to give an interview.
You have worked together on quite a few docs about celebrities, including “Lance,” about Lance Armstrong, “Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind,” “Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic,” “Jerry Brown: The Disrupter,” and “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.” Where does Chevy Chase rate on the difficulty meter?
Zenovich: When I first sat down with Lance Armstrong, he was sitting at the edge of a seat and ready to spar with me. That is exciting because you don’t know what you’re going get. Then I did Jerry Brown, whom I tried to do that wit,h but he had no interest whatsoever. So, each person is different. Chevy was willing to go there, but he would stop himself. He wouldn’t go all the way. The interviews with him were very hard.
Morgan: There were a lot of unknowns going into the interviews. Chevy is incredibly quick-witted and always on, so you have to be able to go toe-to-toe with him. He’s a bit intimidating as well, and we had a lot of stuff that we wanted to talk to him about – the good stuff and the touchy stuff.
When it comes to celebrity documentaries, the celebrity is usually promoting something like a tour, a fashion line or a book. Chase wasn’t promoting anything. Why do you think he wanted to make this film, which isn’t exactly a flattering portrait of him?
Zenovich: Someone wrote a book about him, and I don’t think that [Chase’s] family liked it. I think they were trying to right a wrong. I don’t know if they think that they did because it has been hard. [The doc] was a hard watch for him and his family, but I think in the end they appreciate it.
Morgan: I’m guessing that they felt as a family that he wasn’t getting his due. That there’s been a whole run of these documentaries about other people from his generation. I think it hurt that he hadn’t had the same recognition.
Do you think that the people who said no to interviews, like Steve Martin and Christopher Guest, were really saying, ‘We don’t like the guy’?
Zenovich: I can’t answer for them, but I think that the absences speak for themselves. Whether it’s scheduling, personal, or saving it for their own doc. In the end, I think we got the right mix of people. I was initially disappointed that we didn’t get more people from “Community,” but there are things people don’t want to talk about.
How hard was it to get anyone from “Community” to sit down with you?
Every single person said no. I ran into (“Community” creator) Dan Harmon at a screening of “Deaf President Now!” and I got his number. I was so excited. I thought it was going to happen but then he declined. I was so lucky to get Jay Chandrasekhar (“Community” director). He has such an amazing delivery and he was willing to go there. If Jay had said no, I would have been screwed.
“I’m Chevy Chase, and You’re Not” premieres Thursday, Jan. 1, on CNN. The film streams live for pay TV subscribers via CNN.com, CNN Connected TV and mobile apps on Jan. 1.