The Adaptable Mr. Jonze

Spike Jonze

Words: Sandy Hunter
Photo: Ben Kaller

 Enter the Spike Jonze videography...
 The Crew of Adaptation...

"I think short form and features are different beasts," says Jonze, reflecting on his mix of projects. "There is nothing as all-consuming as doing a film: it totally sucks you in. You are thinking about it all the time for a long, long time, so it sort of takes over. In terms of the way I approach them all, though, it's pretty similar. I find an idea I am excited about and figure out what is the best way to execute it. For a video, it can be a rather simple idea if you can figure out how to execute it in a good way. Videos are really fun to do, but it's really hard to come up with an idea both you and the band are excited about."

Jonze's visual output is invariably unique, either for its leftfield story devices or heretofore unseen executions. His work for Fatboy Slim alone runs the gamut, from homemade with "Praise You" to high tech vaudeville with "Weapon of Choice." Above all, it seems that Jonze endeavors to tread new creative ground while ensuring his audience is entertained. His videos are cutting-edge diversions, while his movies amuse yet also explore universal human truths.

Take Adaptation, for example. Here, Jonze re-teamed with Malkovich screenwriter Charlie Kaufman to construct a multi-tiered tale of psychological mutation starring Nicolas Cage as Kaufman, who's given the charge of adapting author Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief into a functional screenplay. Humorously self-reflexive, the film deals with Kaufman's lack of confidence, his inability to commit and his rivalry with twin brother Donald (also played by Cage), all of which leads to a nightmarish scriptwriting process familiar to any writer with a serious case of stasis. Kaufman's efforts are contrasted with the experiences shared by Orlean (Meryl Streep) and orchid aficionado John Laroche (Chris Cooper) in the lusty, Floridian heat prior to, during and after the writing of Orlean's book. Jonze directs the high-profile cast with aplomb, and interweaves writer's block, the journalist-source relationship and one man's passion for horticulture into a touching statement on the beauty of nature and the human condition. Since so much of the film is based around a writer's internal struggles, Jonze strove to emulate the "universal voice that is in your head."

"It was important to try and make Charlie's thought processes feel like the way thoughts go through your brain, you know, fleeting things that go past quick and also things you dwell on," Jonze says. He continues, "Both things you are anxious about and also things you are excited about then feel stupid for being excited about, so you punish yourself for getting excited and then you question yourself."

Jonze drew on his own on-set second-guessing to help synthesize this mood of self-doubt. "You go up to an actor after a take and you are trying to think of what you want to get, and sometimes you can't verbalize it," he explains. "And sometimes you are not saying it in an articulate or a smart way, and sometimes you don't even know what you are thinking, and you walk away going ‘Oh, god, what did I just say, they are totally thinking I am an idiot!"

While Jonze may have his own self doubts, those working around him see him differently. "For someone like Spike, who came to film from doing some of the best skate and music videos, it surprises people that on set, he is all about getting in tune with what the actors are doing and what he is getting from them," says longtime Jonze cinematographer Acord.