Tracy Morgan, Paul Simon and other stars celebrate SNL50
The three-hour “SNL” 50th anniversary special featured nostalgic skits, including an Adam Sandler song that looked back on the show’s history.
- Chevy Chase is the subject of a CNN documentary, “I’m Chevy Chase, You’re Not,” which will premiere on January 1st.
- “I’m Chevy Chase, You’re Not” delves into the actor’s personal life and his complicated show business legacy.
- “It’s a tough game for him,” coach Marina Zenovic told USA TODAY. “We didn’t coat the surface with anything.
Filmmaker Marina Zenovic’s fame preceded her when she was hired to direct a CNN documentary about the life of Chevy Chase.
“I’ve been making movies about complicated men,” Zenovich said in an interview with USA TODAY. Her documentaries feature everyone from comedians like Richard Pryor and Robin Williams to celebrated director-turned-fugitive Roman Polanski to cancer survivor and blood-doping denier Lance Armstrong.
“I think[in ‘Rance’]you knew I was going to go head-to-head with someone.”
In “I’m Chevy Chase, and You’re Not” (premiering New Year’s Day, 8 PT), Zenovich gets into a figurative ring with the 82-year-old controversial comedian who coined the title phrase on the debut season of “Saturday Night Live.” Chase’s resourcefulness proved to be a box office triumph with successes like “Caddyshack,” National Lampoon’s “Vacation” movies, and “Fletch.”
But off-screen, Chase built a reputation.
Terry Sweeney, the first openly gay SNL star, recalled that Chase was “a monster” when he returned to host in 1985. He “insulted everyone,” Sweeney said in his book Live from New York, and suggested a sketch in which Sweeney had AIDS and weighed himself every week.
“So he ended up having to apologize and actually come to my office,” Sweeney says. “He was really furious that he had to apologize to me.”
And the behavior continued. “Home Alone” director Chris Columbus blames Chase’s actions for his departure from the 1989 classic “National Lampoon’s Vacation.” Dan Harmon, the creator of the six-season NBC comedy “Community” (2009-2015) on which Chase was killed off, told The New Yorker in 2018 that Chase was jealous of co-star Donald Glover. “And his way of expressing his jealousy was to try to push Donald away. I remember apologizing to Donald after a particularly bad night in a non-PC Chevrolet car.”
Zenovich gets a taste of Chase’s growl just minutes into the film when she says she’s trying to understand the actor. “It won’t be easy for you,” he warns her. “You’re not very bright. What do you think?” he says with a smile.
Zenovich is stunned by his bluntness. “Well, you asked,” Chase says. “I know you don’t show it, and I hope you don’t. But my answer is that I’m complex, deep down, and vulnerable, so I naturally react, so to speak, to people who try to understand me. As someone who protects my bodyguards, I’m not going to let anyone understand me, per se.”
“The moment he asked me that, I thought, ‘Oh my god, I’m interested too,'” Zenovich says. “You know, ‘People think you’re boring.’ And he was like, ‘What?’…He didn’t realize it.”
Zenovich spoke to USA TODAY about what her interview with Chase was like, what she thought of the film, and whether the director felt she understood the man’s feelings.
Question: What were some of the challenges in making this documentary?
Answer: It felt like Chevrolet wanted to go there. But because he’s protective of himself, he’ll only go so far due to years of trauma. he goes there Some people don’t go at all, but he wants to go. He wants to try to understand himself, but we also have limits to self-preservation.
In your press notes, you say, “I had to give[Chase]a brazen interview, which certainly wasn’t easy. He’s a kind and polite man, but he’s also an 80-something-year-old self-admitted “angry kid.”” What was the experience like interviewing him?
He called me “B—-” at one point, (but) everything about him is a joke. You have to make the skin thicker, but once that’s done, it’s like eating a hamburger and fries because it’s not easy! It’s not that easy! It completely drained me of my energy… I’m so turned on, it’s exhausting! You need to turn them on.
That’s why he wants to open up, even though he is open-minded and tries to deflect and close it to protect himself. So this dance is the beauty of making this film. It’s just trying to understand humanity and trying to understand people. But it’s difficult.
Do you think you understood Chevrolet even though it was so guarded against?
I feel like I was too, because we’re getting into his backstory, and the key to Chevy is what happened to him as a kid. (As a child, Chase was abused by his mother and stepfather.) I use the word trauma so much that it has lost much of its potency. But I think he had quite a bit of trauma as a child and did the best he could with what he had.
I love his friend Peter Aaron’s line, “Chevy, you’re not using your God-given talent.” I feel chills. He’s very cocky and confident, but I don’t think he really believed it himself. In other words, he was an interesting young man, gorgeous and talented, but broken inside.
When you ask Chevrolet about his interaction with Terry Sweeney, he insists that nothing like Sweeney described happened. But his daughter Kaylee says his memory is affected by health issues. Do you think that has any effect on his denial?
It affects his denial. I think that explains it. I think it’s twofold. He is not good at apologizing, but everyone around him will tell you that he is the first person to do so. So it’s a bit of a mixed message. But I think what happened with his memory loss plays a big role. It felt like the circuit had stopped and restarted, so maybe something was lost. Especially things I don’t want to remember.
What does Chevrolet think about this movie?
At the premiere, he was very vulnerable and talking about having anxiety and insecurities (after the movie came out), which was really appealing because it allows people to be more honest about their insecurities and how they feel. I think this movie really humanizes him and that’s something I’m proud of.
It’s a tough watch for him. I mean, his wife says she still wakes him up and he remembers his mother hitting him. Nothing is coated.
At the end of the movie, Chevrolet apologizes “for being who I am.” Do you feel obligated to apologize? Were you caught off guard when he said that?
It was. It was a moment where he was a little vulnerable, but he opened up in exchange for a little something, and I appreciated that.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
