Guardian film 

Zach Braff Q&A – as it happened

The director-star of Garden State and new film Wish I Was Here – and of course Scrubs – has answered your questions on Kickstarter, Scottish independence and ghosts’ nether regions
  
  

Zach Braff
Zach Braff, in his new film Wish I Was Here. Photograph: Merie Weismiller Wallace, SMPSP/PR

User avatar for EllieVioletBramley Guardian staff

That's it folks.

Thanks so much to all of you for your questions, and to Zach for all of his very eloquent answers.

Huples asks:

What film will you do in 2024? :-)

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

InestableVacio says:

I’m wondering, what are your thoughts about people frequently citing Natalie Portman’s character in Garden State as an example of the ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’ trope? Do you find this a legitimate criticism or unfairly reductive?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

Unfairly reductive is a more eloquent way of putting it than I could have put it. I essentially wrote the kind of girl I dreamed I would one day meet.

teebs21 is wondering about the future:

After the grey beard the grey hair will surely follow, and your transformation into Jon Stewart will be closer to completion. (A compliment, naturally.) Would you ever consider moving into Daily Show-style TV?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

No, but I'm so happy that show exists. There's so much ludicrous bullshit on the American news channels that I love it when people like John Stewart, John Oliver, Bill Maher and Stephen Colbert call out the hypocrisy. They are doing God's work.

gerryporter asks:

Who would win in a fight between an otter and a fox?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

Where did you buy your weed, I need some. Hopefully no-one else is reading this but you and I. The only thing in my hotel is bath salts, and I've already smoked that.

AnnieTaps asks:

What inspires you? And what is your hands-down, most favorite place in the world?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

I can answer both your questions at the same time: New York City. Whenever I'm there I feel like I'm in the centre of Earth. You can't look up without seeing every single type of person there is. You can't walk ten blocks without seeing every single type of business there is. And as a lover of the arts, it feels like the cultural centre of Earth. Don't get mad, Londoners, I know London is equally high on that list. It's just that I know New York a whole lot better.

notsureaboutanything has a request:

in ten words or less please provide your views on Scottish Independance

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

I know nothing about it. But I love Groundskeeper Willie.

theDN would like to know:

Zach, “Guy Love” from Scrubs is my ring tone. What is yours?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

My ringtone is Donald singing You Are The Wind Beneath My Wings. He sang it to me when the Internet, a few years back, tricked people into thinking I was dead. I asked Donald to join me in a video I made for Facebook, in order to correct the rumour - to sing Wind Beneath My Wings, because it made me realise if I died before him, I wanted him to sing it at my funeral. The funny thing about that story is, the video announcing that I was still indeed alive, didn't get that many likes.

twilliams0090 asks:

It seems like your fans mean a lot to you - how much of a driving force are they in what you do?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

I was a waiter in the year 2000. I am very aware that I would be nowhere without my incredible fans. Everything that I do I do with them in mind. This particular experiment, making Wish I Was Here, was particularly made for them because I fought hard and many many battles, to bring to the theatres something that I felt pretty confident my fanbase would like. Some actors have other people manage all their social media; I do everything myself. I enjoy the discourse with my fans whether it's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Grindr...

DavidWH0 says:

I’m a fan since Broken Hearts Club and thought you were terrific. I believe you put the lie to the trope that straight can’t play gay and vice versa. Do you think the meme that a gay actor cannot play straight romantic lead is propaganda left over from less tolerant times, and will we ever get past it?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

I personally think society has been way more tolerant of a straight man playing gay, than a gay man playing straight. But like many taboos, this seems to be on its way out, most famously Neil Patrick Harris has been playing a womanizer on the show How I Met Your Mother, and Jim Parsons in my own film Garden State, played a fast food knight that heroically banged Peter Sarsgaard's character's mother.

dinamarca wonders:

How does it feel to see yourself on TV? Do you pause, watch the rest, or frantically push the remote control for next channel?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

I know it's hard to believe but you get to a point where you don't even click on it when you see it on the guide. Sometimes people send me clips on YouTube, on Twitter, saying something like 'one of my favourite Scrubs moments' and I'll click on that and laugh, but no, I never watch it on TV. I also never watch Garden State when it's on TV.

rhysieh93 asks:

When are you and Donald Faison tying the knot?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

Donald decided to marry a woman, which has made it difficult for us to tie the knot. Instead, we regularly get together and tie our penises together, in a glorious skin-knot.

leemarvinismyhero has these ponderances:

Why did Scrub always have sentimental crappy life lessons in every episode? And why didn’t Bob Kelso get his own spin off show? He was the only character worth a damn.

leemarvinismyhero

Scrubs

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

Dear friend,

It is plural, Scrubs, and the show went nine seasons so it seems enough people liked it, as you say, "sentimental crappy life lessons". The show and its style are of course not for everyone, nor is my work independent of Scrubs. If you're not a fan of sentiment, and emotion, along with your comedy, then odds are my style is not for you.

As to your Bob Kelso question, because there would have been no sentiment, and you would have been the only person watching.

Dijay Dave wants to know:

How did you break out of typecasting after so many years of working in Scrubs?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

I don't know that I have. I just keep casting myself.

PlanetNat asks:

Do you have to take special medicine to be so damned handsome? :)

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

A regular diet of ghost dick.

Carmel Ann Maria Roper says:

Hey zach, since watching scrubs my son insists on calling me biatch (for this I forgive you). As a family we have watched with admiration and have been inspired by your wish to make a film how you intended it to be made (for this we thank you). How does the reaction to kickstarter vary (if at all and yes i use too many brckets) from country to country? X

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

Dear Biatch,

That's a great question. In my own country 95% of all anyone wanted to talk about was the crowdfunding. As I've done this European tour, it's been really interesting that of course people are interested in talking about the Kickstarter element, because it's the first completely original film to be made on this scale in this way. But then after we get one or two questions of it out of the way, they're way more interested in talking about the film over here. The critiques of the film, good or bad, for better or for worse, seem way more based on the merits of the film itself, than from the viewpoint of someone who is already biased from thoughts on crowdfunding.

slobberfest has this question for Zach:

Would you ever pay a director 10,000 dollars to be be in a film they were making?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

If I had the money, and it would be a cool present for someone, and wasn't in the business, sure. In the case of my film, we had one $10,000 reward to have a line in the film. A wealthy stockbroker bought it for his girlfriend, because Garden State had been their first date. So for him, it was quite a romantic gesture, and I feel pretty confident it got him laid.

GeekStinkBreath would like to know:

Any thoughts on Family Guy’s criticism of Scrubs?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

To be honest I have never seen an episode of Family Guy. I do know and have heard that Seth Macfarlane took frequent digs at the show - the year the characters hosted the Emmy's the first joke was a giant diss of Scrubs. But I do think it's important to be able to take a joke and allow someone to, as you Brits say, take the piss. As I said in Garden State, if you can't laugh at yourself, life's going to seem a whole lot longer than you'd like. Also, I do think Ted was hilarious.

vambeefco has a question:

Have you ever seen a ghost’s dick?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

No, and I've never even thought of this question. But it's got me thinking. Each and every one of us is accidentally, constantly, blowing ghosts.

Zach answering your questions…

Ryan Boyle would like to know:

Is it disappointing that Kickstarter is the only way to get smaller projects off the ground or heartening that people want to see your work so will support you?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

Kickstarter is not the only way but because it was new and groundbreaking I thought it would be a really cool experiment. It was incredibly heartening that 47,000 people participated, especially since many naysayers said it wouldn't work. What had worked about Veronica Mars, people said, was that it was a known entity and I wasn't saying I'm going to make Scrubs the movie, or Garden State 2, I was asking my fanbase to take a leap with me, and trust that I would make something that I was pretty sure they'd like if they'd liked Scrubs and/or Garden State. We had a month to raise our goal, and when it funded in 48 hours, I was just as shocked as the rest of the interwebs, and very honoured and thrilled.

To answer your question, it is harder and harder to get smaller personal films made. The list of compromises the filmmaker must make grows longer and longer. Filmmakers have to continually try and out of the box ways to get these smaller personal projects made.

twilliams0090 wonders:

How have you managed to maintain such flawless facial hair?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

All the parts I ever do, they want me to be clean shaven, with the exception of that one season of Scrubs, when I grew what Dr Cox described as a 'puberty beard'. Now that I finally have some time off, I was free to let my facial hair grow, only to discover this last year of making Wish I Was Here and doing a Broadway show has rendered it way more grey that I remember.

Kevcoe says:

Zach, saw your play All New People in London a couple of years back, really enjoyed it, any further plans of a theatrical nature?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

Thanks for coming to see All New People at the Duke of Yorks. It was one of the most thrilling experiences of my life and I can't wait to come back to the London stage. I have just completed 189 shows in a row of Woody Allen's first musical Bullets Over Broadway, on Broadway, so it's a little like asking someone who's just completed a marathon if they want to run a marathon. But I definitely want to do more theatre, and you'll definitely see me back here.

SerPounce24 asks:

What’s Rowdy up to these days?

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

I tried to keep Rowdy after Scrubs and it was the only thing I asked for and at the very last moment someone from the studio swooped in a kidnapped him. I imagine he's in a giant warehouse, kind of like the Ark at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I decided to give him a cameo in Wish I Was Here, he's in the background of one of the shots. You have to find him like Where's Waldo. The studio sent him with an armed guard.

Zach Braff is ready to answer your questions…

User avatar for ZachBraff Guardian contributor

Hi guys, I'm here. Let's get started.

Post your questions for Zach Braff

Zach Braff could easily have just stayed sitcom-famous, content to unspool internal monologue as John Dorian in US comedy series Scrubs – a doctor bullied by colleagues and his own hopeless romanticism across 175 episodes.

But instead the American actor emerged with Garden State in 2004, an indie drama he wrote, directed and starred in. It made $35m off a $2.5m budget and earned a cult who loved its vivid portrayal of Gen-Y inertia.

Ten years on, following various stage and film roles, he’s set to release his next directorial effort, Wish I Was Here. Braff also wrote the film alongside his brother Adam, and stars as Aidan Bloom, who takes it upon himself to home school his children with his own curriculum – cue life lessons for Aidan as much as his kids. Braff got the film off the ground partly via a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign, which raised over $3.1m from 46,520 backers.

Watch the trailer for Wish I Was Here

With the film getting a UK release on 19 September, Zach is coming to the Guardian to answer your questions about it or indeed anything else about his work. He’ll be here from 2pm onwards on Wednesday 17 September – post your questions in the comments section below and he’ll endeavour to answer as many as possible.

 

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