In a night of inspired performance art and spirited discussion, actor and artist Crispin Glover kicked off DePaul Humanities Center’s new “In Conversation with Great Minds” series at the Lincoln Park Student Center Thursday, Jan. 30. Glover helmed a three-hour event that included his “Big Slide Show” presentation, clips from films he has directed and a lengthy conversation with Humanities Center Director H. Peter Steeves as well as the audience.
Despite noticeably feeling “under the weather,” Glover gave a lively recitation of eight of his books, which are personally reconstructed versions of other works from the 1800s, and talked at length about his other projects and his craft in general. He followed the show by taking the time to sell and sign copies of his books and personally greet fans.
“He’s really going sort of above and beyond the call of duty,” Steeves said. “It really shows how dedicated he is for doing that, so we’re really grateful.”
Steeves expressed satisfaction at the diversity of the crowd that came out for the event, which had been months in the making. “We had a nice mix of students and other people too, so it was nice to see people coming from outside.” Much of the impetus for the new “In Conversation” series was Steeves’ desire to see the Humanities Center “break down those false boundaries between the university and the community so everybody can come in and have a voice.”
Members of the DePaul community as well as the public seized this opportunity to engage in direct discussion with Glover. “I was the first person who got to stand up and got to ask him a question,” DePaul senior Catherine Rehberger said. “My legs were shaking because I’m talking to … it’s McFly! (laughs).”
Among many other topics, Glover opined about one of his most famous roles as George McFly in “Back to the Future,” as well as his industry precedent-setting lawsuit against the film’s producers when they attempted to use his likeness without permission for the film’s sequel. Glover also established a theme that ran throughout the evening’s conversation when he stated his ethical unease with the first film’s resolution. “He’s asking a fundamental question about ‘Back to the Future’ … do you have a movie where money equals happiness?” David Shuey, Research Programmer at UIC, said. At the same time, Shuey wondered, “Do you think even half of the people would be here if he didn’t show up in ‘Back to the Future’? The movie he thumbs his nose at the entire time?”
While Glover stated that he has certainly “been aware of the element of utilizing the fact that I am known from work in the corporate media,” he nevertheless bemoaned the current state of cinema where “anything that can possibly make an audience uncomfortable is necessarily excised or the film will not be corporately funded or distributed.” With his first directorial outing from which he showed clips, “What Is It?,” Glover states that he sought to bring to life his “psychological reaction to the corporate restraints that have happened in the last 20 to 30 years in film making.”
Michael Zarowny, a film student at Columbia College, sought advice from Glover on navigating the modern film landscape in a similar manner. “I asked a question that couldn’t really be answered,” he said, “but it was good hearing his thoughts on it, because it is really a difficult situation to be in where I feel like I’m understanding a lot about our society and these kind of big questions, and that directly is affecting me because if I want to be successful I have to be complicit with society and the way it’s structured.” Zarowny, a longtime fan of Glover’s, expressed admiration for him because he “manages to bridge the gap… because he did cooperate and he does cooperate with it to an extent…but then he takes what he’s made from that and makes something so radical.”
Glover’s films have in fact proven controversial. “What Is It?” features a cast of actors who predominantly suffer from Down’s Syndrome, although Glover is “very careful to make it quite clear that (it) is not a film about” the condition. The film’s follow up, “It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE.,” which he states will “probably be the best film I will have anything to do with in my entire career,” was written by and stars Steven C. Stewart, who suffered from cerebral palsy and died only one month after principal filming on the project wrapped in 2001. The film is an often violent and surreal work that Glover calls an “autobiographical, psycho-sexual, fantastical retelling of (Stewart’s) point-ofview of life.”
The provocative content of these films drew a mixed a reaction from Thursday evening’s audience as it has from outside fans and critics. David Shuey said that, “the absurdity and strangeness almost took everything to an extreme.” Glover was also asked about his penchant for working with actors with disabilities. Shuey, who volunteers at the Arts of Life, Inc., an organization that provides services and artistic opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities, said that he “didn’t find his answers quite profound … (but) a lot of people throw a lot of really crazy things on screen. He has a vision, he’s an artist and a lot of artists you can’t get on the first pass.”
Conversely, Catherine Rehberger found Glover to be “overall, just a very admirable guy,” for his focus on “doing work that he loves as opposed to just making money … and that he’s giving great opportunities to other actors who have disabilities.” Steeves similarly felt that “this is not just being crazy for crazy’s sake … when you really look at the movies carefully, and when you talk to Crispin as well, you realize that there’s a lot of thought behind this.”
If one common thread can ultimately be found in Glover’s vast and varied artistic output, it could very well be his assertion that “I would like people to think for themselves.”
