SHUT YER DIRTY LITTLE MOUTH is a film by Robert Taicher starring Glenn Shadix and Gill Gayle as Pete and Ray, two alcoholic roommates living in San Francisco in the mid 1980's. Their drunken, screaming fights and constant bickering were recorded by their neighbors, first as evidence for an eviction proceeding and eventually as a compulsive hobby. The tapes were passed around the artist community in San Francisco and playwright Gregg Gibbs wrote the play "SHUT UP LITTLE MAN" based on these recordings.

SF: You recently attended the New York Film and Video Festival screening of SHUT YER DIRTY LITTLE MOUTH, a film in which you star with Gill Gayle. How did you come to do this film?

GS: I met the director Bob Taicher at Michelle Phillip's "Last Full Moon of The Millennium" party back in the fall of 1999. We were talking about film and Bob ask me to read a script he was preparing to shoot. I took the script and read it that night after the party. We spoke the next day and I told him I wanted to do the film.

SF: This is a true story, right?

GS: Very much so. All of the dialogue in the film is taken directly from the tapes made of Pete and Ray's escapades that their neighbors secretly recorded over a two year period. Including repetitive, drunken verbal sparring that was constant in the "Pepto Bismol Palace" the name given to their apartment complex.

SF: What was it that drew you to this offbeat production?

GS: In a way it was because it was so impenetrable as a script. Since it is all real dialogue and not a screenplay per say, it had a strange intense reality. It left room for the actors to do a lot of interpretation and create an inner life for these admittedly pathetic characters. There were the wonderful non sequiturs and off the wall comments and the endless repetition that smacked of reality and not screenplay.

SF: What sort of budget did you have for the film?

GS: Small. The entire movie was shot on a small soundstage in Los Angeles in 14 days. 14 LONG days. The post production has been a real odyssey. Robert Taicher is a very dedicated and dogged director. He worked with a number of editors, added a few scenes where we see the neighbors, and finally had the movie (which had been shot on digital video) transferred to film and color adjusted. The color adjustment came after a screening for The San Francisco Independent Film Festival (for which it won BEST PICTURE). There was a mistake in the projection booth and the color went way too intense and everyone, including the cast and director, absolutely loved it! The transfer to film and intensification of the color made a tremendous difference.

SF: What was is like working with Gill Gayle?

GS: It was an incredibly wonderful experience. Gill and I grew up just miles apart in Alabama but did not meet until we were cast in this film. Gill played the role of Ray on stage both in Los Angeles and in New York and was much more familiar with the background and history of the piece. In our rehearsals before shooting started we would learn some of the scenes (especially where repetition and variation made memorization difficult) like songs. Literally sing the roles in rhythm to sink the words into our brains. The performances in this film are inextricably tied to one another. Gill is brilliant and, by the way, not yet forty years old. He endured long hours of make-up every morning to become the sick and elderly Ray.

Gill Gayle, Michelle Phillips, Glenn Shadix, Robert Taicher.

SF: What sort of future do you see for this production?

GS: I hope it finds an audience through a good art house distribution. This is quite obviously, not a mainstream commercial film. I am hopeful it will make it to theaters in the bigger cities here and with a little luck, others around the world.

SF: What was your experience in New York like?

GS: Michelle Phillips made my trip to New York! Michelle has been a huge supporter of this film from the very beginning when she introduced me to it's director Robert Taicher. Ask me about Bob in a minute. Anyway, Michelle used her connections to garner some publicity in The Daily News and she helped pack the theater the night of the screening. I produced (with Bob Taicher's backing) the party after the screening at CLAY in the Nolita (north of Little Italy) district. I burned 5 CD's for the music and my cousin Chef Kyle Shadix catered the affair. Michelle and I left the party at 4am and it was still hopping! I had great fun in New York. Michelle and I saw HAIRSPRAY the following night and spent our last evening with friends at Elaine's. New York was a completely delicious experience.

SF: Okay, tell me about Robert Taicher.

GS: Bob Taicher is an incredible character and a true artist. We fought and laughed and raged (I did most of the fighting and raging). Bob eats his health food and tells just awful jokes. He stands fast for what he wants and he has a real vision. His determination is responsible for SHUT YER DIRTY LITTLE MOUTH. He also produced Alejandro Jodorowsky's HOLY MOUNTAIN and he directed Elliot Gould and Jennifer Tilly in INSIDE OUT.

SF: You've lost a lot of weight since you made the film. What's it like to see yourself at your top weight?

GS: It's like a gigantic"before" picture. I think it was this film that was the catalyst for my getting serious about weight loss. I am glad I was able to bring Pete alive while I was at that weight, however. It really worked for the character.

SF: So, what's next?

GS: I just did a guest cameo on Providence which will air Friday October 25th on NBC. And there is another project brewing but I must shut my dirty little mouth about that for now.