What was it like seeing Swiss Army Man for the first time at Sundance?
Scheinert: I was in San Francisco on business and had travel problems, so I couldn’t get there in time — after we’d planned for the whole family to show up. I got all the way to Sundance, and I’m standing outside the theater, under a heat lamp, waiting for folks to come out. I can vouch for the fact that people were not streaming out during the movie. Then, as people came out
I’m in marketing, so I love this kind of market research. Real filmgoers’ first reaction to the movie: “What? Wait, what?” Which pleased me, because I know that’s what Daniel wanted. I got to see the second showing at the festival. And the audience’s response after the first one was such a zoo that the folks in the second screening were like, “Eyes open. We’ve got our seatbelts on. What’s next?” I watched the audience as much as I watched the film itself, and their exuberant response at the end brought tears to my eyes. Daniel was just leaping with joy: “Yes, we succeeded! We made mom cry!”
Kwan: The movie is very beautiful, touching, and the music and the images are great. But I have to say, I was not used to it. We are probably more used to the Hollywood
The two Daniels have worked together for years now. Was there anything in the film that made you say, “That’s my Daniel”?
Kwan: The whole farting idea is from my Daniel, I think. Daniel and his sister always had fart jokes. And also I saw his influence in the colorful part of the movie. Making things based on trash, to make all the beautiful things that Paul Dano had in his memory. I don’t know about the other Daniel, but our family was always crafty and always made use of things in the house — just a pencil or paper and Play-Doh and clay, or putting pieces of other material together to make something beautiful. My children always liked to do that.
Scheinert: The general perversity of it. That feels like Daniel: If 10 kids are marching in one direction, he will be 30 degrees to the left, going somewhere else. All through his life, when he would go and try something, I’d get this sideways look
So everybody else is talking about how the robin laid an egg in a nest outside their window and all that, and then little Daniel gets up looking like this cherubic little cutie, and he starts reading from his book called The Vampire Cat. It involved a hatchet and an
Watching the film, there’d be parts where you’d think, “Okay, are they gonna get sappy here?” And then it would be jerked back to a lighter point — that definitely felt like Daniel. Touch on the heavy stuff, but don’t beat it to death. No pun intended.
Kwan: I think it’s a movie about looking for love in a lonely world. Paul Dano tries to talk to his inner self: He’s a very withdrawn person, and he tries to get things out to this corpse — this farting corpse. I know that
And maybe people feel it more directly — especially the younger generation. I had my other son sitting next to me [during the movie], and he was so touched he almost cried. But for me, I have to sit back and think, “Why don’t I feel so comfortable about this movie?” I think it’s the generation thing. That’s why Daniel didn’t show this to us. But it’s a beautiful movie.
Was it a challenge having a child who wanted to go into the arts — an area where it’s often notoriously hard to make a living?
Kwan: We’re from a Chinese family, and usually in Chinese families parents want their children to be a doctor or lawyer. I have two sons, and they both went into arts. One is a film major. And my youngest son is an animator. My dream for my children is that they find their passion and do it. I never told them what to do — but if they don’t have
If Daniel doesn’t want to do something, he can sit around and do nothing for days. He ended up going to Emerson, and graduated, and went to California, taking a Dreamworks job. After only about two weeks, he said, “I have to quit my job, I have something I really want to do.” I said, “Daniel, can you at least wait until you can pay off your student loan?” He said, “I can’t.” So I said, “Daniel, you know better. It’s your life. I can’t give you advice anymore, but whatever you do, I will support you. And if you cannot feed yourself, come back home, mommy will feed you.” (Laughs) So I was kind of nervous, but I didn’t worry because life is full of surprises. If you don’t try to do what you really love, it’s a waste of life.
Scheinert: For years, we weren’t sure if Daniel was going to be able to feed himself. You think about those things. We knew he was highly creative, and we certainly supported that strongly. And we thought, “You certainly have a talent for this, and you should do something that you’re good at, whatever that might be. But you need to feed yourself.” He went
That, I think, helped mold his quirkiness, if you will. He had a very strong musical-theater background in high school and won all sorts of things, and his director said, at the end of senior year, “Yes, Daniel was a very good actor, but I’m sorry, he’s going to be a director.” I got to attend a screening of an on-spec short that he did in L.A., which was well attended. Watching the reactions of the audience to the various shorts — his blew them away, knocked their socks off. I thought, “You’re gonna be okay. You’re good.”