Live From New York - James H. Miller [207]
Janeane Garofalo raised hell with three or four people before I got wind of it that I was being “disrespectful to women” in that it is a fault of a guy to scream like a girl, that because Farley screaming like a girl would bring chastisement, she said that meant that women therefore are deserving to be chastised for the way they scream. It was one of the most convoluted, strangest, most ridiculous reasons I’ve ever heard to dislike a sketch.
JANEANE GAROFALO:
There were nights where I had a really nice time. Actually, I had a great night the night Alec Baldwin hosted. My family was in the audience. It was super fun. It was the Christmas show. The party afterwards was incredibly enjoyable. The Beastie Boys were the musical guests. It was just like I had fantasized it would be. I actually had things to do in the sketches. It was very exciting. My family was really pleased.
But I was usually embarrassed. My family did not like the show that season. My father felt that his intelligence was being insulted, and I was always embarrassed by that too at that time.
JAMES DOWNEY, Writer:
The fact is that for all the people who talk about what a nightmare this place is, there’ve been remarkably few true assholes. People can be difficult, and artists are always difficult one way or another. But it’s a trade-off and worth it for what you get. There are a few people where everyone agrees that nothing they give us is worth the pain they give.
I wouldn’t consider Janeane one of those. In her case, I think she’s a very good actress. She’s smart and does great nuance. But to me, the most frustrating thing about her is her whole thing about how straight-ahead and honest she is, and “it’s all about the work.” I’ve never encountered anyone who’s more into the whole working-the-press thing. Someone said she had her first press agent when she was like twenty, and I can believe it. The year she was here, she spent the entire year on the phone with the press, giving them searching, candid interviews about the show. That’s fine, but then don’t play like “I don’t know the system.”
CHRIS ELLIOTT:
My kids watch reruns on Comedy Central, and they’ll come to me and say, “I just saw you half-naked doing this thing where you’re walking into an alien spaceship and you’re supposed to be naked.” And I’m thinking, “Fuck, did I ever do that?” I seriously have no memory of it. And I think it was just such a miserable experience that I have sort of blacked out a lot of these things. That whole year I was just embarrassed.
I think I tried to quit once and, you know, Lorne said no, I’m the type of thing that the show needs. That kind of stuff, you know, blah, blah, blah. I was amazed Janeane actually got out. She had a movie offer and she was just incredibly miserable. And I guess somehow she got out of it. I think I was with Brillstein-Grey, who of course represented Lorne at the time, so there was more pressure on me to stay.
JANEANE GAROFALO:
Although I wanted out after the first week, it took — for whatever reason — until March to make it happen. I talked to my agent and I would talk to other people and then, finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I just couldn’t take it. And I walked into Lorne’s office and I basically told him I was leaving. It wasn’t like a debate or a discussion. Plus, I did not sign a five-year contract, because I had a feeling it would come in handy, and I fought and I fought against signing for five years.
I think when I quit, it was the first time Lorne ever respected me, to be quite honest. It was the nicest he ever was to me, even though he was generally nice to me. The nicest he was was after I quit, and I think he had a bizarre respect and then also, in some way, he hated me, you know? He despised me and was pleased that I quit