CraveOnline: Did you enjoy committing blasphemy in full priest costumes?
Thomas Lennon: What would you say is blasphemous about the film?
The priests swear, don’t they?
Thomas Lennon: That isn’t blasphemous though. That’s just swearing.
Robert Ben Garant: Blasphemy’s anti-God.
Thomas Lennon: Oh, you ought to meet old timey priests. They swear a little bit. It’s not blasphemous. In fact, it’s actually very pro-Catholic church. They get some stuff done. They lose a couple priests in the process but they also kill a devil baby.
Robert Ben Garant: Which is huge.
Thomas Lennon: I think it’s kind of a good recruitment video. To be fair, when we got permission to film in that church down in New Orleans…
Robert Ben Garant: That’s a real Catholic church where we shoot the Vatican scene.
Thomas Lennon: The priest asked us what it’s about and we said, “Yeah, it’s about those old timey priests who fight and smoke cigarettes.” And he’s like, “We could use more of those kind of priests.” That is word for word what he said.
Robert Ben Garant: And he approved. He was watching the scene. He was like, “All right.”
Thomas Lennon: I think the Catholic Church would agree, the message of this movie is that the devil is real and he’s a dick, which is literally word for word what we say.
Did the full frontal nudity of Riki Lindhome still get an R-rating?
Thomas Lennon: And back. And back.
Yeah, but it’s the front that always gets in trouble with the MPAA.
Robert Ben Garant: Language and violence also.
Thomas Lennon: Language and violence also get it. Certainly other than Riki being glisteningly oiled and really, really naked for a long time, there’s a lot of other things that would’ve made it an R anyway.
Robert Ben Garant: The violence is an R.
No, but they didn’t give you an NC-17 for showing her full frontal?
Thomas Lennon: No, for sure not. That’s because luckily I don’t think we see too much of Corddry’s boner popping about.
Robert Ben Garant: Yeah, it’s got to be sexual. It’s got to be like Brown Bunny stuff.
Thomas Lennon: That’s not a sexual scene.
Robert Ben Garant: She’s just naked.
I thought they didn’t like to see vagina.
Robert Ben Garant: Everybody likes to see vagina.
Thomas Lennon: Come on, MPAA, we all like to see vagina. Come on, you guys.
Robert Ben Garant: Come on.
Thomas Lennon: Come on. They’re fun. That’s what this movie’s about. This movie’s about things in a movie that are fun.
Robert Ben Garant: And stuff that you don’t see in every movie. When you see the movie you go, “Oh wow, yeah, you used to see that in movies. That’s great.”
Thomas Lennon: Glistening vaginas, monster puppets that bite your face, huge sandwiches.
Robert Ben Garant: Massive po’ boys.
