Q: Is this going to be a surprising take on John Adams?

Paul: Well, I mean for what people know, I didn’t know anything about him. Most people don’t know much about him.  I mean, he was a weird guy, so, I don’t know for anybody who knows anything about him, I don’t think it will be surprising, but I think for people who come to these things expecting this sort of iconic, y’know, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, white, marble bust kind of thing – he was kind of a lunatic, Adams.  He was..

Q: He was a hypochondriac…

Paul: He was a hypochondriac, he [had a] violent temper, he was constantly sticking his foot in his mouth. He was kind of a nightmare of a guy.

Q: How did he get elected President?

Paul: Well, it wasn’t that hard, back then. But, he was this huge figure to people and there was a lot of weird political maneuvering around that went on. And there was a lot of maneuvering around that went on and Hamilton and all these guys maneuvered around to get him elected.  He was a terrible president. He was a terrible politician. So, we are making a thing about a guy who was basically a failure as a politician.   So, it will be interesting.

Q: What got you to the project and I know it’s a hell of a cast…

Paul: Yeah, it was amazing – hundreds of people. And everyone was great in it down to the smallest parts.  Amazing cast. They sent it to me and I read it and I said it just seemed insane to be trying to do this, but I just thought – I was interested in the fact that he wasn’t one of these iconic guys and the idea was to kind of deconstruct that thing a little bit and show these guys as more human then they than they were. I dunno, I like period stuff and I’m a history guy and it covers a huge piece of history. They were trying to do a different version of the whole ‘Birth of A Nation’ thing than people are kind of used to.  It’s much more a kind of politically history because he sat the war out.  There is no battle scenes in it.  It’s all him wandering around begging for money. I don’t know how interesting that will be, but that’s what he did for the whole war.  He kind of traveled around Europe trying to get people to give money to finance the war.  And he was sick all the time and out of his mind and depressed.  He was a really weird guy.

Q: What does it take for a character like yours in ‘Shoot ‘Em Up’ to try and kill a baby?

Good times.  (Laughter in the room) It was great. My favorite thing was running over the baby with a car. For some reason they though that was the most fucked up thing.  They were like, ‘This is going to be the most fucked up thing. People are going to hate this.’  I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s great. Why not?’ Running over the baby… I never really saw the babies at all. I was never around them. They kept them away from me.  No, it was great. I loved the whole idea of trying to kill a baby. It was fantastic.

Q: Have you seen the movie with an audience?

No, I haven’t even seen this cut of it. I saw an early cut of it.  So, I haven’t seen it in awhile.

Q: You’ve heard how people react to it?

People like it I’ve heard. People find it funny, which is good. Which is really good, because it’s meant to be funny. Y’know, it’s got a lot of tongue in cheek.

Q: Do you never watch your movies with an audience?

I usually have to do at the premieres. So, I dunno if that’s a real audience. It’s never really a real audience.  Occasionally, I have gone and seen something just on at my own and walked in to see what it is like with an audience. I haven’t done that much though.  I usually watch them once and that’s about it.

Q: Do you have any children?

I have a son, yeah. Six-years-old. He’s way to young to see this.  I dunno how I’m gonna explain this one to him.  I’m worried about him seeing the posters with me and the guy with the gun…‘Daddy what are you doing to that woman?’ Oh, boy. I’ll wait awhile till he’ll see this one. I’m sure he’ll like this though.  He’ll like this one someday…

Q: Two more years…

Two more years and he’ll be fine with it.

Q: Did you also do Rob Zombie’s animated movie?

I did. I don’t know whatever happened to that thing, but I did yeah.

Q: What was your character?

I played Satan basically. I played this guy named Dr. Satan. It was kind of like a James Bond villain.  I mean, it was nuts, I don’t know what happened to it. Hopefully it comes out soon, but it was a dirty cartoon.

Q: Are you doing a character voice or your own?

Yeah, I think as I remember I did a kind of Vincent Price-y kind of thing. A sort of fey villain sort of thing. I mean, it was funny.  The animation was funny too, but it’s all sort of sex and drugs and jokes. Which was good, which I like. We’ll see how it works out.

Q: What about ‘Pretty Birds,’ the next project you start on…

We are doing that now. Yeah, yeah. We are doing it in New Jersey unfortunately. It just takes four hours to get to New Jersey from here.  But, it’s unbelievable to get over there. I thought it was going to be much easier. It’s like the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life. I thought this would be an easy job. But that’s based on a real story on these guys who invented a jet pack – a rocket belt and the three of them started stealing it from each other and one of them ended up killing the other one – it’s funny though. (Laughs).  It’s very funny. And Billy Crudup is in it, playing the other guy. I play the guy who actually built it who is a real guy who is in prison now for life because he killed the other guy. 

Q: Did they work?

The belts? The actual belts? People have them.  We actually had a guy who flies them in Colorado for sporting events. They only go up for 30 seconds. They are the most useless thing in the world.  But we had him cone out and actually fly in them. It’s insane. It’s the craziest looking thing I’ve ever seen in my life.  So, they exist and people do them, but they are dangerous as hell.  You can burn yourself horribly…

Q: Did you read the book Where’s My Jetpack?

No, what is that? Is it like how come somebody hasn’t made a real jet pack? They can’t last very long. It’s impossible to make them fly for more than 30 seconds really. You can’t put that much fuel on somebody’s back. No, so, they’re useless, but they are cool looking. They are really impressive, but dangerous.

Q: After this wraps are you already thinking about your next thing?

I don’t know. Yeah, I mean I am always looking for something else to do. But I don’t know what I’m going to do. I probably should take a little bit of a break. I feel a little burnt.  I have been working non-stop for about the last year and a half.

Q: What do you look for in a script?

I dunno. I never know.  Just something different. I just don’t want to get bored. Gotta keep from getting bored. That’s a big thing for me. I never know what I’m going to like or what’s going to strike me the right way.

Q: This may not sound right, but are you doing ‘Bubba Nosferatu’?

I hope so! Y’know, I would really like to do that. Did you ever see ‘Bubba Hotep’? Great movie. And that director, I love that guy’s movies.  All the ‘Phantasm’ movies and stuff. But we are trying to do it. Ossie Davis, yeah, yeah.

Q: Is Campbell still involved though?

Well Bruce Campbell was waffling around about whether he wants to play Elvis or not again. So, that’s the problem. I mean, I’m playing Colonel parker, which will be great, but you gotta have Elvis and you really want him playing Elvis, so, hopefully we can get him to do it. If not, I’m sure they will try and find somebody else. But I think it’s contingent on whether he’ll do it or not. But it’s a great script. A completely insane script. Yeah and I would love to do that.  Because I love that other movie. It’s a great movie.

Q: Have you thought of ever revisiting some of your previous characters?

I haven’t no. I mean if this does alright, Michael has an idea for another one, but it wouldn’t be the same character – it would be a different guy. I dunno. Alexander Payne, somebody actually talked about it, and he said he wouldn’t do one except maybe in 15 years if everyone was still alive. He would do it again in 15 or 20 years. That would be kind of cool, but other than that no.