Film with Down syndrome cast tweaks taboos

FROM HIS PORTRAYAL of geeky dad George McFly in "Back to the Future" to more recent roles in "Willard" and "Epic Movie," Crispin Glover gravitates toward characters that are different. But as he makes his directorial debut with "What Is It?," the eccentric actor employs a cast of unconventional actors, most of whom have Down syndrome. Funded with money from his own pocket, Glover brings the film, in which he also plays the role of the main character's inner psyche, to the Plaza Theatre this weekend for two nights that also include a Q&A and slideshow.

Q: "What Is It?" was about 10 years in the making. What was it about this story that made you want to see it through?

A: The original short film was to promote the viability of having a majority of the characters being played by actors with Down syndrome in a different screenplay I had co-written. David Lynch had agreed to executive produce that screenplay for me to direct, but I went to one of the larger corporate film entities to get funding and they were ... concerned about funding a film wherein a majority of the characters were played by actors with Down syndrome. ... I realized that anything that could be considered taboo in any way, shape or form would be excised for that film to be corporately funded and distributed, and that's a very bad thing. And that's [where I got] the title of the film. What is it that's taboo in the culture and what does it mean when the taboo is ubiquitously excised?

Why did you choose to employ a cast of people with Down syndrome?

A: Earlier on in my life, I went to a private school and there were a couple of times when we went to another school for people with various disabilities. What I noticed was that there was a certain dramatic nature to some of the people that I thought could be good for performance.

What can you say about the live element of these shows?

A: Before I show the film, I perform a one-hour dramatic narration of eight different books I've written over the years. The books are heavily illustrated and I have slides of all the illustrated pages from the books. As I dramatically narrate the books, I go through the slides. Then I show the film and after that I have a Q&A session, which is between 45 minutes to an hour.