SETH Gordon talks about some of the pleasures and challenges of making Horrible Bosses and why he thought Jennifer Aniston was perfect from the start for the role of a sex obsessed dentist.

He also talks about being a ruthless editor, how his award-winning documentary The King of Kong changed things for him and forthcoming projects he hopes to get made.

Q. When you’re filming a comedy like Horrible Bosses, do you try and bear in mind the question that might come back to haunt you about being a horrible boss? How nice were you on set?
Seth Gordon: Yeah, I was definitely aware of that! I tried really hard to be a good boss [laughs].

Q. You encouraged improv as much as possible, but is there a danger sometimes of letting it run out of control?
Seth Gordon: Sure, but these guys [Charlie Day, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis] are such great writers, each of them, that they understand how to improvise within the boundaries. So, I think that saved it.

Q. It must be quite a gift to a director to have three leads that carry such great camaraderie…
Seth Gordon: Oh yeah, you couldn’t possibly really even expect anything like that, or plan anything like that. It’s a magical, exceptional chemistry they have together which made my job really fun. It just happened. They’re such seasoned professionals, which obviously helps, but that interaction is also very natural.

Q. Conversely, how much of a kick do you get out of directing someone like Kevin Spacey?
Seth Gordon: Oh, it’s a dream to work with somebody who is that exceptional and talented, and who really brings a bastard to life. If you’ve seen Swimming With Sharks, that’s totally him.

Q. Was he easy to get given his London commitments with The Old Vic?
Seth Gordon: I actually thought he wasn’t available and then when I found out he was interested in doing a project we went after him with great intensity because he’s perfect for thr role.

Q. What made you look to Jennifer Aniston for the slutty, sex obsessed dentist role? It’s completely out of character for her…
Seth Gordon: She’s the first person I pictured playing the role and we sent the script to her and she was just perfect. It’s so exciting to get to work with her in that way because she’s such a talented comedian but rarely given the opportunity to show the other side of what she can do. So, in a way I felt like we had the secret that others didn’t! The truth is, the exciting roles in comedy for women are few and far between.

Q. Apparently, she stuck to script more than any of the other cast members. Was that through nervousness?
Seth Gordon: Well her character’s lines are why I wanted to do the film, so I wasn’t thinking that they needed a lot of help. We invented a few things on the day but it was probably closest to script of any of them!

Q. And Colin Farrell came up with his own look for this?
Seth Gordon: He sure did! We finally saw his real hair, you know… he’s been keeping that secret [laughs]. In my first meeting with him we were already talking about how we would change the look, how do we help him depart, because we didn’t really want the super handsome guy to be Bobby. He’s just almost too hateable like that. He’s a little better in this sort of beleaguered and utterly disgusting place.

Q. You’re a self-taught director, so what was the biggest lesson you learned on Horrible Bosses?
Seth Gordon: Oh, definitely to create a space for the comedians to play around and have a good time because that’s where the best material comes from.

Q. Was grounding it in a semi reality important?
Seth Gordon: Yeah, I mean although it turns out that it doesn’t take much for an audience to be convinced that a boss deserves to die. I thought you’d need a lot more, but we actually let go of a number of scenes because you need hardly any evidence. There’s a lot of great stuff but it ended up slowing things down to labour the point.

Q. Was editing so much great comedic content one of the more difficult aspects of your job here? And do test audiences help at all?
Seth Gordon: It’s the most important job, but my background is editorial so I love it. For me, I like the dark! I like working on a computer and stuff, so that’s completely comfortable for me. But I did show it to friends and there’s sort of an elaborate testing process in Hollywood… ultimately, in anticipation of those first previews you end up getting really picky and decisive about the stuff you absolutely have to have. I’m a bit of a ruthless editor, so if something isn’t absolutely advancing story in a way that you really, really have to have it has to go. There are some things where I was like: “Man, that’s soooo good!” But ultimately pace and surprise trump everything.

Q. How do you go about choosing your projects given that you’ve done documentaries [The King of Kong], short films and episodes of TV shows like The Office and Modern Family as well as features?
Seth Gordon: They’re all different. With documentaries, it’s if there’s a compelling set of characters and the promise of a story built around an event. For TV it’s just the shows that I enjoy watching or think are doing interesting work in comedy. And for narrative features, it’s if I can’t help, must turn, gotta see what’s going to happen… but that’s rare, really rare. There’s just so many scripts that are recycling a formula or something. This film has three or four turns you don’t see at all coming. There are wow moments when the audience gasps and that’s great. It’s rare to find scenes that you don’t see coming.

Q. How was directing an ensemble show like Modern Family?
Seth Gordon: I don’t know how much you know about TV but it’s really like a writer’s game. So, the director is just a guest… it’s like being a guest at someone else’s house, basically, and you’re doing your best to make the best possible episode. But at the end of the day, it’s the writer that’s got the accountability and who is going to be blamed if it doesn’t work. So, you just have to respect that. But Modern Family is an amazingly well run show. I mean, there’s very little… like you finish every day at 4 or 5pm, it’s amazing. Most places are 12 or 14 hour days. So, it’s just a testament to how focused and well written that show is.

Q. How much did your award-winning documentary The King of Kong change things for you?
Seth Gordon: Everything… yeah King of Kong was my introduction to a lot of people. I think just because the story that we happened to witness was so remarkable and the characters were so extraordinary and the fact that Steve and Billy were such opposites in life and that there was a traditional three act structure that emerged in a regular person’s life was so unusual. So, that just opened all these doors.

Q. Is there going to be a feature film version of that?
Seth Gordon: Yeah, yeah. There’s a script that actually came in about a month ago that’s too long. It’s 135 pages, so we’ve just got to figure out how do trim that to about 110. But it’s great.

Q. Four Christmases performed well for you at the box office but is Horrible Bosses your most successful feature to date and is that starting to open even more doors for you?
Seth Gordon: Well, that’s apples and oranges a little bit, only because we had a five day opening weekend on Four Christmases but the three day was really comparable to this. It’s hard to say what’s going to perform better, you know. You’ve got big ass stars like that [Four Christmases] and so that carries the day. But I’d say I’m really proud of this one. I think this is a more unique and more exciting piece of material.

Q. You seem to be a director who likes to be in control of his own career as much as possible, so will you be looking to develop more of your own scripts in the future, or can you foresee a lot more offers for scripted films such as this?
Seth Gordon: I think so. But it makes sense to… if you read a great script, just do it. I mean there are not very many of them and I’m not arrogant enough to think that I know how to write a script any better. It’s hard! But I’m sure going to try.

Q. Are you doing The Only Living Boy in New York?
Seth Gordon: Yeah, I love that script. I don’t know if you know that story but it’s wonderfully written. But that suffers from a totally different problem in that it’s really hard to make an independent film. I mean that’s essentially such a tough piece of material in terms of it’s not a big fun comedy; it’s a heavy drama, and those are just hard to get funded because frankly audiences don’t ultimately like those. Even the Oscar winners in that category don’t often do very well financially, so it’s hard as a business model.

Q. And presumably that’s got harder in the current economic climate…
Seth Gordon: Oh for sure. Those are the first films to go. And then they make whatever… Red Rover: The Temple [laughs]. Snakes & Ladders: The Movie: Connect 4! It’s not even like a joke. It’s true. It’s crazy.

Q. And is Olivia Wilde still attached?
Seth Gordon: Yeah, she’s actually the most recent addition. Listen, I want that film to happen but I’m a rational, practical person and I see it’s challenges. We’re not even at a start date yet. If you ask the producers, they’ll say it’s October.

Q. And Mixtape?
Seth Gordon: I love that film too and I got an email this morning saying that people want to make it. But I don’t know.

Read our review of Horrible Bosses

Read our interview with Kevin Spacey

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