Schwimmer debuts in a new role

'Friends' star relished the chance to get behind movie camera

By Sid Smith | TRIBUNE CRITIC

March 16, 2008

The youthful, noisy diners and drinkers are packed into the hot boite known as Rockit.

The chatter is chaotic. But then there's a murmur, an audible undertow wending through the noise. "Look, that's David Schwimmer," a customer says as others crane their necks to get a glimpse. "Wow. Right over there in that booth."

Often when he's in Chicago, the "Friends" star, a close pal of Rockit's Billy Dec, is spied there -- handsome Hollywood celebrity and buzz magnet.

But on this recent Saturday, he's there in another guise. Later, upstairs, in a V.I.P. party room, some 250 well-wishers gathered to toast Schwimmer's movie directorial debut, an independent comedy called "Run Fatboy Run."

Quite a few partygoers are not really regulars at this sort of scene. They're fellow members of Schwimmer's Lookingglass Theatre, where past directing endeavors include gripping adaptations of such heady fare as Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" and Studs Terkel's "Race."

For gossip columnists, the shift to directing is an item. For Schwimmer, it's old news.

"I guess I've been directing for 24 years," he says in an interview the day before the party. "Ever since college," by which he means Northwestern University, where the Lookingglass ensemble first met. "But it was mostly in the theater, and I always had this fantasy of directing films. I never went to film school. ... So I thought I'd learn to direct the camera by starting on the show ['Friends'] first."

Job shadowing

Schwimmer approached James Burrows, the legendary TV director and "Friends" colleague, and pitched an informal apprenticeship. "I told him I wanted to learn how to do this, and he said, 'All right, I'll teach you.' So I basically shadowed him. I'd watch him work, and he would explain things to me. Eventually, the execs gave me my first shot, directing an episode, and I didn't screw it up. It actually turned out pretty well.

"Directing a TV episode is very different from directing a movie," he adds. "That soundstage is a soundproof environment. When you're on location, one of the toughest things to get right is sound. There's constant noise, constant traffic. One honk in the middle of a scene can screw up your whole take."

The movie tells of a nerd-like, ne'er-do-well Londoner (Simon Pegg), who's trying to woo back a former flame (Thandie Newton) he once left stranded at the altar. When a rival (Hank Azaria) shows up with all sorts of successful attributes, including athletics, the hero enters a marathon to prove he, too, can compete.

"The marathon was the toughest part of the shoot," Schwimmer recalls. "We were low budget, so we only had about 200 extras. We had to make them look like 10,000 runners and 30,000 spectators, which is what you'd expect at a typical marathon."

Pegg, who plays Dennis, the hero, has a host of smaller roles and a TV series in the United Kingdom to his credit. He gives a multifaceted performance, blending slapstick, rubbery facial expressions and wry British wit into a sit-up-and-take-notice tour de force.

Shared history

Schwimmer has known the actor on and off for years. "We acted in 'Band of Brothers' for HBO about eight years ago, and I've followed his career since. We were cast again in a little movie called 'Big Nothing' and had such a good time together."

"Run Fatboy Run" was originally set in New York but moved to London after a British company purchased the script. "Suddenly, I found myself directing a British comedy, and I wasn't sure I still wanted to do it," Schwimmer says. "Until I gave the script to Simon. He was a natural. I was amazed every day at his range. Americans don't know him now, but I think in the next year or so, they're going to come to know him very well."

Schwimmer also notes proudly the movie's diverse casting. Newton, the hero's love interest, is the daughter of a Zimbabwean mother, and the hero's landlord is played by Indian actor Harish Patel. "London's one of the most diverse cities in the world, and I wanted to reflect that in the casting," he says.

Schwimmer, as always, is reserved, thoughtful, studious -- more Ross-like than wiseguy. "I didn't start out to do a comedy," he says. "I was reading a lot of scripts, and much of the material just wasn't there yet. I wasn't exactly being sent the cream of the crop. But I came across this one, and from Page 1, it was hilarious. And it had enormous heart and personal drama. And it's a sports movie."

Living on 3 coasts

Schwimmer, 41, divides his time among New York, L.A. and a home in Chicago's Greektown. Still single, he has a "girlfriend," a photographer whose privacy he protects. Like so many Chicago actors who have found success in film and TV, he maintains his theater ties: He's possibly coming back as a stage actor next season for either "Our Town" or "The Brothers Karamazov" at Lookingglass, his film schedule permitting.

Around the theater, he shuns playing big shot. Erica Sandvig, assistant production director and company manager at Lookingglass and an attendee at the Rockit party, says, "We sometimes play these get-acquainted games, and I always remember David looking each person directly in the eye, remembering what they say, as if we're all important to him. He makes everyone feel comfortable."

That's a skill, of course, handy in directing. Of the two crafts, acting and directing, Schwimmer says, "They're very different. I guess acting's easier in that it's a shorter gig. It takes up the four months or so of a run at most. This movie took up a year and a half. And acting's more solitary. Most of your work is internal. As a director, it's the other way. You've got this entire crew of 150 people, looking at you every day and asking questions.

"But I love it, I love both, I love the responsibility, I get off on it," he says. "It's the same in the theater. I love the collaborative process."

Talk about friends: "I love working with other people, creating something."

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sismith@tribune.com