“St. Vincent,” written and directed by Theodore Melfi, opened last Friday in Chicago. The DePaulia sat down with Mr. Melfi to understand the film a little better.

The DePaulia: I’d like to first talk about the editing a bit, because it’s a very deliberate pace. It focuses on the characters a lot with some long takes, especially just focusing on Bill Murray vegetating. What was your process going into the editing room, what did you see the film as being?

Theodore Melfi: Our first cut was 2 hours and 20 minutes, which made me want to kill myself, because I thought “this is long, this is boring, it’s manipulative and drawn out, and so we just had to get rid of storylines. When you make a movie, the script is usually perfect in your mind; it’s complete. Even Terrence Howard had two extra scenes. And Vin, people kept asking “well how does he keep getting money?” and there’s another scene that shows where he got it. I shot all that, and when you get to the editing room and you’ve put it all in and now it’s not important anymore. The audience doesn’t want to sit through 15 more minutes of Terrence Howard when they don’t care about Terrence Howard. I can’t sit through three-hour movies anymore; they’re not focused. They’d be better with 20 minutes cut off. To me it’s self-indulgence, and in the editing bay you can’t do that. You’re making the movie for the audience.

TD: Was that especially hard for you because that was your script?

TM: Oh yeah. But, I separated myself right away, and hired an editor who doesn’t give a s–t; he was not a sensitive dude. He’d say “that’s gotta go” a lot, and there were times where I’d say, “oh I really love that shot” and he’d ask “what does that mean, what value does it have?” You immediately have to let your baby go so they can start to walk.

TD: What was the most challenging thing to occur during shooting?

TM: I think overall, just the heat. It was so freaking hot. Everything’s a mess. But other than that, the actors and me got along like family. It’s rare that everyone really loved each other and cared about each other. There was the challenge of working with a child actor who could only work eight hours a day because of child labor laws, and Bill who’s always hard to find. And Melissa only had 19 days to shoot all of her scenes. Production is like a Rubik’s cube that never really gets all six sides. It gets like two, and if it’s good it’s good, and if it’s not, it’s not.

TD: Did you write Vincent specifically for Bill Murray?

TM: I didn’t have anybody in mind for Vin, because I wrote it for my wife’s father, so I solely thought of him. He was an asshole, who then became a saint, so I only thought of him. What Bill did was give him more of a sense of humor. My father in law…people were scared of him. Bill is the only person on the planet that can make people hate him and like him at the same time. He’s kind of a punch and jab kind of character. He’s flawed, but with a lot of goodness. Vin’s a good man, but not really; when you peel away the layers, you see that society has just piled on top of him, you learn so much more about him.

TD: Did you always intend for Vincent to be this layered character, or was he originally just supposed to be a terrible person?

TM: People say to me “you know it’s predictable”, and I say “wow, you’re so smart.” Like would you think that a movie called St. Vincent wouldn’t end happily? The movie is called “St. Vincent” because he’s eventually moving towards redemption. So it was always intended for him to be moving towards redemption. It was never meant to be a red herring, but a journey of a bad man trying becoming something better.

TD: What was it like writing, directing and producing all at the same time?

TM: It was overwhelming. The writing was easy, and that’s what I love to do, you’re alone, you can do what you have to do. The directing was exhausting, 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, for months. The producing…well I won’t get into that. You just want to tell a story and not have the business get involved. Because I was a producer, I was able to make the kind of movie I wanted to make, I don’t think many first time directors can say that. It’s a good thing, I wanted Melissa McCarthy, and had I not been all 3, I wouldn’t have been able to get her to audition.