Morgan Neville on Filming Steve Martin for Apple’s ‘STEVE! (martin)’

Morgan Neville has a singular eye for capturing the complexities of the inventive spirit. Who higher than the Oscar-winning documentarian to tackle the Mount Everest of Hollywood geniuses: Steve Martin. The consequence, Apple’s STEVE! (martin) a Documentary in 2 Items, is an insightful movie cut up down the center in stylistically distinct chapters. Half one traces Martin’s path to “wild and loopy” comedy superstardom; half two covers his resolution to step away from touring and into motion pictures, playwriting, artwork and quiet self-exploration. Neville, Emmy-nominated for guiding for a documentary/nonfiction program, spoke to THR in regards to the daunting job of capturing somebody as complicated and worshiped as Martin in a bit over three hours. 

“Finest Fishes” [a gag poster where Martin had a fish sticking out of a his blazer] was the proper comedy for a boy. There was one thing so joyful and foolish about it.

It was foolish, nevertheless it was good. I didn’t get each joke. My dad liked Steve, too. I obtained him to drive me to see Steve in Las Vegas doing stand-up once I was 12. It was considered one of his final stand-up reveals, on the Riviera in the summertime of ’80. When this doc got here up, I used to be like, “There’s no extra excellent matter for me than Steve.”

How do you alter to coping with a lifelong hero like Steve on an intimate, every day foundation? 

The particular person I meet once I begin the movie is simply Steve. It’s not “Steve Martin,” the celebrity. From the start, Steve was like, “OK, if I’m going to do that, I’m actually going to do it.” We began by having these conversations the place I went to his home and recorded us speaking for hours. You’re additionally constructing a relationship and I’m understanding how he sees his personal story and every thing else. However the fan a part of it doesn’t completely go away as a result of sometimes you’re like, “Inform me in regards to the first time you had been on SNL.” 

I simply watched the Faye Dunaway documentary and was disenchanted there have been so few individuals popping out of the woodwork to pay her her due. I’d think about this was the alternative — that everybody needed to say one thing about Steve within the movie.

I may have interviewed any youthful comic and they’d have stated sure. You title it — any SNL particular person, Kimmel, Conan, Fallon, Mulaney, all of them would have talked. Judd Apatow and Patton Oswalt are obsessive about Steve. However I don’t love that sort of doc, the place any person is telling me why any person’s nice. If I’ve that particular person, I can see why they’re nice. I used to be making an attempt to get extra inside with him. 

I think about spending this a lot time with topics begins to really feel like remedy.

Oh, 100 %. Being a documentarian is usually a para-therapeutic relationship, the place you’re asking individuals about crucial issues of their lives and making an attempt to make sense of them. And Steve has finished a bunch of precise remedy. There was this era within the ’90s that we talked about within the movie the place he actually goes into remedy and begins studying self-help books and makes the choice to actually attempt to redefine his relationship together with his mother and father. He takes off time from making motion pictures and begins writing performs as artwork remedy — a method of working via quite a lot of his points. 

What was his first response to the ultimate product?

He stated he wasn’t going to observe it. After I didn’t ship a hyperlink, he stated, “Hey, I by no means obtained the hyperlink!” So I despatched it to him. He wrote me that afternoon and stated, “I liked it.” After which he wrote again 10 minutes later and stated, “Can I present it to my shrink?” Which to me is a superb praise. 

This story first appeared in an August stand-alone problem of The Hollywood Reporter journal. To obtain the journal, click on right here to subscribe.