Written Interview: Mike Birbiglia (“Sleepwalk With Me”)

Nice Indiewire interview with Sleepwalk With Me co-writer, co-director and actor Mike Birbiglia:

What gave you the impetus to adapt “Sleepwalk With Me” for the screen?

I was working on another screenplay at that point and it had a lot of similar themes. It was called “Waking Up Ben.” It was about a guy sleeping through his life. I was writing that and people kept telling me I should just adapt “Sleepwalk With Me” for the screen. But I thought it felt too personal. I didn’t want to become this kind of Lifetime memoirist. But at a certain point I was like, why not give it a try? I thought there were elements that would work. Dreams work cinematically, and I thought sleepwalking would work too, visually. Once I started on the journey, there were so many things about it that worked cinematically that I just pushed on through.

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Was “Sleepwalk With Me” the type of film you envisioned making back then?

Yeah. A movie is never quite going to be what you think it’s going to be. I remember having lunch with Craig Zobel, who did “Compliance.” I have this habit of really picking the brains of people who’s films I really like. At the time, I was asking Zobel, Lena Dunham and Noah Baumbach questions. One of the things Craig Zobel said was, “A film is never what you think it’s going to be. You shoot it, then it’s another thing, and then you mold it from there.” That’s a completely accurate statement.

Tonally, it’s exactly what I wanted to, even since I was in college. I wanted to make something that made me feel the way I feel when I see a James Brooks film, or those Woody Allen films from the middle years. It doesn’t look and it’s not edited in the way I imagined the film would be, but it’s striking the right balance between drama and comedy that I was hoping for.

For more of the interview, go here.

Sleepwalk With Me opens in select theaters this weekend.