To all outward appearances, Paul Feig is just a pretty cool guy. As co-executive producer and director of the hit television show “The Office,” the creator of “Freaks and Geeks” and a regular director on “Arrested Development,” it is surprising to find out that Feig really is more than a little geeky.
In addition to two comedic memoirs, he recently wrote the first in a science-fiction children’s series called “Ignatius McFarland: Frequenaut!” He will be discussing the book in one of his panels at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Sunday. As a preview of his appearance at the Festival of Books, Feig spoke with the Daily Bruin’s Kelsey Ramos about what it was like to be a 24-year-old virgin, why he never identifies with the cool kids and how fun it really is to work on the set of “The Office.”
Daily Bruin: How did growing up in Michigan influence your writing?
Paul Feig: I always have kept my Midwestern sensibilities intact. I find that there is a very distinct sensibility in the Midwest, especially for comedy, which is just a different kind of comedy.
We tend to be a little bit more honest, a little more subtle. It’s not so dependent on big goofy things happening.
DB: Tell me about what it’s like to work on the set of “The Office.”
PF: I’m very, very proud of this season. … It’s very much shot so much like a documentary that you don’t feel like you’re in a movie set. All the lights are up in the ceiling, it’s an office ““ we don’t pull any walls out.
In everything I do I want the characters to feel real. … (“The Office”) is an honest portrayal of people, even if they’re a little heightened at moments in what they do. It’s fun because you can relate to it.
DB: What are your memoirs like?
PF: My whole goal with any of these memoir books is to just tell really embarrassing stories that people won’t tell about themselves. “Superstud” was more about … one person’s story of how he went from being a completely backward kid brought up in a religious family where sex was never talked about … through when I lost my virginity at the tender age of 24.
DB: Tell me a little bit about your newest book, “Ignatius McFarland: Frequenaut!”
PF: I loved sci-fi, but when I was a kid sci-fi was always really serious and kind of obtuse, so I really wanted to do the kind of book that I would have wanted to read when I was a kid.
It has a lot of comedy in it and a lot of action but fun characters. … (The book) is about a kid who wants to escape his current situation because he’s in school, he’s got bullies. He wants to fit in, and then he tries to do it and ends up sending himself into a different situation where he’s still trapped, and now he doesn’t know anybody. It’s a worse situation than the one he was in. So he’s got to figure out how to get out of it and how to fix it.
DB: Do you have any final advice for aspiring writers, producers or directors at UCLA?
PF: Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do something. You’ll know if you can’t do something ““ your abilities will tell you whether you are able to do it or not.
I was a guy from Michigan, I grew up in a blue-collar town with a father who owned an army surplus store and a mom who was a housewife. I wanted to be in show biz and do it in Hollywood, and everybody told me I was crazy.
Flash forward to the lowest part of my career: I was deciding to transition out of acting when I was 34 and wanted to get behind camera full-time as a director and a writer. I had this terrible year where everything was going badly because I was just writing and not earning money. And then at the end of the year I wrote “Freaks and Geeks,” and that took off, and suddenly I had a legitimate career.
DB: Lastly, an article from The New York Times basically called you a big geek. Can you relate at all to that?
PF: When you walk down the street and there’s a guy cleaning the street, and there’s a really cool lawyer standing on the other side, I’d rather know the story of the guy cleaning the street just because that’s probably going to be a more relatable story to me. … I find that fascinating to put the spotlight on people that in somebody else’s movie or TV show would just be an extra or a background player.
I love geeks, I love outsiders; I just love people who other people don’t give the time of day. … I’m not particularly drawn to stories of really cool guys who are having problems, because who can relate to that?