The author of the New York Times bestseller Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser, teamed up with writer/director Richard Linklater to turn his popular book into a feature film. The result is a movie that explores the fast food industry through the eyes of a couple of individuals intimately involved in pushing those meals over the counter.
The super busy Greg Kinnear (Little Miss Sunshine, Invincible) stars as Don Anderson, a master of marketing who jumps ship from a sports network to the fictional fast food chain, Mickey?s.
Even though he?s new to the industry, Don?s charged with discovering how contaminants are getting into the meat served at Mickey?s. During his investigation, Don uncovers some highly disturbing facts about the fast food industry in general.
Did you stop eating meat?
?I actually have not been reborn since reading Eric?s startling book. I still eat red meat. Is that okay? Sorry. I guess I?m guilty. Is this the 60 Minutes portion of the interview, because you got me! Love that In-N-Out.
No, actually I?ve never been a fast food consumer but I eat red meat. You know, Eric Schlosser spent three years writing this book, and still does as well, which I thought was kind of revealing?liberating. I don?t think the movie and I don?t think the book is really necessarily an indictment of red meat. I really don?t?or beef, in general. I think the fast food industry, the average burger that you eat form a fast food place the meat in it can be made up of hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of different cattle.
And the concept about how those cattle are fed?where that meat source comes from and the conditions at the packing plant [and] who works there? All of that stuff is more what the book and movie are about. It just asks people to think a little bit about that whole [process].
It?s like a sociology study, Eric?s book. I was amazed by it. Then, I think, at the end of the day, when [he] and Rick [Linklater] sent me the script, I was kind of nervous. I thought it might be a?I don?t know just a big preachy book saying, ?Don?t eat red meat!? Or, Feel this way,? or tell people how to behave. I thought they did a really nice job of just taking real characters and telling a narrative story that I was really intrigued by. Usually you?re asked to play a good guy or a bad guy, you?re never asked to play a guy who?s both. I was kind of intrigued by that.?
How shocking was it to learn about the chemical ingredients in fast food products?
?I think the fact that there?s chemists involved in food. You never like those two to intersect if you can avoid it. ?Let?s keep the chemists over here and the food over here,? that?s my feeling. What do I know? But that is a big aspect of fast food is there ability to artificially taint the colors and the smells and stuff to stimulate appetite.
What I was most amazed by?and it was the other aspect of playing this guy that I really loved, is he?s a marketing guy that comes from ESPN. [He] hasn?t really gotten his feet wet in this fast food thing yet. But, if you read the book, there?s a fascinating assessment of all of the grown up men and women who sit around tables like this, with PhDs - well-educated - and figure out how to market to children as young as two to three years old. To stimulate their images on a television screen, to make those kids [interested]. My daughter is three and I think about it all the time. They are good at; they work hard to do things that will entice that child to bring their mother, or their grandfather or their grandmother, to one of those fast food places. To me, there?s just something very creepy about that. I guess it?s a reality. It?s 2006, so I need to get on with it.?
Have you ever been on a ?kill? floor?
?You know I wanted to go to the kill floor. Catalina [Sandino Moreno] went, Richard ? obviously - and some of the crew. They were pretty particular who they let in. I got there the day after they had shot on the kill floor, kind of a dark day on the set when I showed up. But Jeremy [Thomas, producer] was trying to get me access in there and they just weren?t able to do it. So, no, I never went into the kill floor. I went to the packing plant, obviously, which, as represented in the movie, and in the book, is a very clean operation. The place where they actually do the packing and the freezing and stuff is pretty remarkable. [It?s] very technical and it moves very quickly and efficiently. But there?s something you can?t change, you know? The ugliness of that kill floor and what goes on there is just one of the things where it?s unavoidable to not be shocked.?
How was working with director Richard Linklater?
?He just has a very easy spirit about him, an easy disposition. I really like his casts. He had a great group of people in this movie that I got to work with and he?s very easy going. ?He kind of lets movies breathe a little bit. He doesn?t come in saying, ?Everything has to be just this way!? He kind of really works with actors and gives them room and space, and lets you feel like you could own some of it. That?s not always the case.?
Have you ever felt you should stand up for something and you didn?t because it was too inconvenient or cost you too much?
?You mean before I became the leader of all men? Yeah, I?m sure, of course, I?m sure there?s things that I?ve wished I?d been more vocal about and taken more of a stronger position about over the years. That stuff?s happening all the time, you having to take positions on stuff. You know, having to maybe take a little stronger stance than you might otherwise have taken. It?s easy to take the shorter road. I?ve done that many times, I would have to say, but not without listing for you all the places I?ve come up short in my life.?
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