Director David Wain is used to working under the radar. The quirky auteur got his start in 1993 on MTV’s short-lived, sophomoric sketch comedy show The State, then wrote and directed 2001’s summer camp cult comedy Wet Hot American Summer and 2007’s religious spoof The Ten.
Wain launched his web series Wainy Days on comedy site My Damn Channel last year. Since then, more than 6 million viewers have tuned in to watch him bumble his way through dating misfires and awkward encounters. Along the way, he’s had a little help from high-profile friends — including Jonah Hill (Superbad), Rashida Jones (The Office) and Michael Ian Black (VH1’s Best Week Ever).
With the third season of Wainy Days wrapping Monday, Wain is gearing up for the big screen once again, with a roster of new projects that includes the movie Role Models, starring Paul Rudd and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and a new animated series, Superjail, on Adult Swim, both of which are due to hit this fall.
Wired.com caught up with Wain to chat about his psychedelic jails, the "infinite freedom" of the web and his obsession with getting girls.
Wired.com: Who is the target audience of Wainy Days? Fans of your work on The State, Strangers With Candy, Crank Yankers or more of the YouTube crowd?
David Wain: For better or for worse, I never think too much about the audience for anything I do. With this particular project, My Damn Channel approached me and said, "Take a few bucks and do anything you want."
Wired.com: And you came up with Wainy Days.
Wain: Yeah, it’s a series of shorts, about five to six minutes each. And each episode is about me meeting a different girl and then somehow screwing it up, and all the different kinds of silly adventures that take place.
Wired.com: With total free rein for the show, what made you zero in on that?
Wain: It’s a topic that has been on the forefront of my thoughts for 15 years — getting girls.
Wired.com: Is that awkward for your girlfriend, to watch you create, write and star in three seasons of episodes all about getting girls?
Wain: I think she’d rather see me making out with some girl on a web series than in real life — so it’s OK. My girlfriend (Zandy Hartig) is actually on the show, though, and I think she kind of gets into it. She plays Zandy, the woman that I have this potential long-term relationship with. At the end of the first season, she gets pregnant, and episode 11 is all about our relationship.
Wired.com: What goes into putting together each episode and season of Wainy Days?
Wain: It depends on what we all have going on that week — usually we shoot two a day, but for this last batch of six, we shot them all in one week. Most of what I’ve done — up until this year — is incredibly low budget. I’m used to moving fast and understanding what needs to get done — its the opposite of how most movies are made. But it works for me and I don’t get bored.
Wired.com: How does writing Wainy Days differ from writing a TV show or movie?
Wain: Infinite freedom. I can do anything and there’s no approval process at all. It’s so different to shoot [an episode and] have it be [watched] in three days. The current film I’m working on has been a two-month-long [filming] process and even that was fast. With Wainy Days, I just whip it out as fast as I can and shoot. With a movie or TV show, there’s much more diplomacy and rewriting. This is much more pure. But that’s what I like about the web.
Wired.com: The new movie you’re talking about is Role Models (trailer embedded), with Paul Rudd (40 Year Old Virgin, Anchorman), Seann William Scott (American Pie, The Rundown) and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (who played McLovin’ in Superbad), right?
Wain: The movie had been in development before I got involved. It’s kind of like a mainstream comedy told through a David Wain lens, which is great.
Wired.com: Your last big film projects — The Ten and Wet Hot American Summer — were made without the support of a major Hollywood studio. What’s it like working with Universal?
Wain: I was surprised how similar it was — no matter how many different people are making it and millions of dollars go into the project, ultimately, it’s the same process. Obviously in a studio project there are so many more resources at your disposal. Summer was made with $1 million, and The Ten, $3.5 million, financed by investors, as compared to Hollywood comedies like Step Brothers which cost about $60 million. So it gives it a different flavor and it’s not as crazily left of center as Wet Hot American Summer. But in some ways it’s more enjoyable because of that. Wired.com: Are you going to do more film projects or do see yourself continuing to do web shows or a season 4 of Wainy Days?
Wain: Well, we have one more episode of Days … and then honestly, it’s unknown. But I have a great series coming out in September on Adult Swim called Superjail. It’s an insane story about a bizarre warden — played by me — who runs a psychedelic superjail. It’s almost impossible to describe.
See also:
Underwire 2.0: Jenna Wortham’s Google Reader, FriendFeed**, Twitter; The Underwire on Twitter and Facebook.
