For a 16mm movie shot in three weeks on a shoestring budget of credit
card financing and $30,000 in savings, The Foot Fist Way has paid huge
dividends for ascendant funnyman Danny McBride, even though it hasn’t
yet grossed dollar one from audiences.
The movie was accepted into competition at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, where it was embraced by a legion of comedic heavyweights, among them Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. Surprised it wasn’t acquired at the festival, the pair later snapped up the movie, via their Gary Sanchez Productions shingle, for distribution through Paramount Vantage. It’s had a long and winding path to release, but the movie quickly conferred “made man” status upon McBride, helping him land memorable supporting roles in Andy Samberg’s Hot Rod, Ben Stiller’s The Heartbreak Kid, Owen Wilson’s Drillbit Taylor and two of this summer’s most highly anticipated comedies, Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder. “It’s been pretty insane,” says McBride of his at-once-quiet-and-quick career trajectory. “I live in Virginia, and every time I would come back out to L.A., I would suddenly hear of all these other people who had seen the film.”
“When we were in college, we would just sit around and drink beer and watch the same movies over and over again,” continues McBride, who will also topline the forthcoming HBO series Eastbound and Down. “And when we made this film, we wanted it to be something that could have that sort of lifespan — something that some other guys in college would sit around and drink some beers to and enjoy. Now I’m running around with Will, and running from dinosaurs in Land of the Lost. It doesn’t seem real.” For the full interview, from CityBeat‘s summer preview issue, click here.