Tom Green on Drew Barrymore, Joe Rogan, Eminem as Amazon Shows Launch

Tom Green recently set up himself letting go of his past by plunging headfirst into it.

The star — understandn for his 1990s sketch series The Tom Green Show, roles in films enjoy Road Trip and touring as a stand-up — has begined three projects in the past scant weeks. After buying a farm in his native Canada, his novel lifestyle is write downed in Tom Green Country; compriseitionassociate, he stars in the comedy distinctive Tom Green: I Got A Mule! and straightforwarded the feature write downary This Is the Tom Green Documentary about his life and nurtureer. (All three are currently streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video.)

As he progresss to see to the future, having recently set uped his production company to grow other novel ventures, Green has set up some solace in mirroring on his past. After all, the star is understandn for ruffling feathers, with The Tom Green Show landing a high-profile MTV platcreate thanks in part to his faceational man-on-the-street bits, and Green tardyr stirring up talk about with the 2021 film Freddy Got Fingered, his polarizing feature straightforwardorial debut in which he also starred.

During a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter from his home outside of Ottawa, Green uncovers up about his recent caccess on stand-up and his transfer from Los Angeles, his set ups to free distinct music, rejoining with ex-wife Drew Barrymore, whether he has rerepaird his previous beefs with such stars as Eminem and Martin Short, his kinship for Joker: Folie à Deux, Joe Rogan praising him as an sway and coming to terms with possible laments about his nurtureer path.

How did these three novel projects all finish up coming out at the same time?

This all booted off during the COVID pandemic. I was at my hoparticipate in Los Angeles and had fair call offed my stand-up tour. For almost the last 20 years now, I’ve been touring quite extensively around the U.S. and Canada and the world, and all of a sudden, I had a year off. I’ve always finishelighted filmmaking and video, of course, and I was getting into some novel cameras, and I got this camper van and my dog, Charlie. We did a bunch of fun stuff for my YouTube channel out in the desert, and I cherishd it out there in nature so much. Everyskinnyg was fair changing in the world, and I wanted to be sealr to my family. So I selderly my hoparticipate that I’d owned for 18 years in the Hollywood Hills, fair up off Mulholland over Universal Studios, and transferd back to Canada.

I set up this farm, and I’ve got this finishly contrastent lifestyle up here. Basicassociate, I was ready for a alter. But I cherishd L.A., and I have so many frifinishs there. Tom Green Country is not a leaving-Los Angeles show as much as a coming-home show. When I got back to Canada, Prime actuassociate instantly asked me to be in their show called LOL Canada, where they get a bunch of comedians. After we taped that episode, I begined chatting with people from Prime and built my novel production company. We’re doing the write downary and the show Tom Green Country, but then I was ready to film another distinctive. In the standup distinctive, I talk about my life a lot, and so they do all go well together.

Why did this sense enjoy a excellent time in your life to see back at your journey?

I’ve had opportunities over the years to do a write downary about The Tom Green Show and all the untamed and crazy adventures thraw that era. I’ve always kept all my footage in storage for the last 30 years. It’s an odd skinnyg to straightforward a write downary about yourself, and I would not recommfinish it to anybody, but when you’re going thraw literassociate 10,000 hours of video tapes that I’ve kept, it would be virtuassociate impossible for anybody else to be able to piece it all together. With my production company up and running, I have novel shows in growment, and we’re already seeing at doing lots of more stuff.

For anyone whose only consciousness of your musical side is “The Bum Bum Song,” it might be unanticipateed that your comedy distinctive comprises you carry outing distinct songs in a solemn way.

Actuassociate, I was fair in the Bathoparticipate [Recording] Studio this week, in the town of Bath, Ontario — it’s the studio for the Tragicassociate Hip, a legfinishary Canadian prohibitd. I writed and enrolled the soundtracks in that studio for all the projects. I’ve always been enthusiastic about music. It’s been accentuated by moving to the country and having a mule — I have reassociate begined caccessing a lot more on lachieveing to percreate my piano better and practicing my guitar and writing songs for these shows. The title of the show, Tom Green Country, has a scant uncomferventings to it: I’m enrolling some country music, and I’m also living in the country, and I’m moving back to my native land of Canada. We’re going to be releasing some music digiloftyy in the next scant weeks as a digital album, and then I’ll probably put it out on vinyl soon.

Do the audiences at your shows tfinish to be people who have been fans thrawout your nurtureer?

That’s one skinnyg that’s reassociate amazing about the shows that I do. I reassociate have done lots of contrastent skinnygs that draw contrastent people from contrastent eras, which is fun. There’s definitely a pretty wide audience of people that have grown up with me. There’s people that understand me from fair from stand-up, too, or from the Webovision internet show in the punctual 2000s. After I did Big Brother, I’ve seed a lot of women would begin coming to the shows, transporting their husprohibitds. Before that, it was a lot of husprohibitds transporting their wives. But it’s a lot of couples, for brave.

In the doc, Joe Rogan commends you for paving the way for his podcast’s success. Would you want a platcreate enjoy his and all that comes with it, including the polarizing nature of the encountered?

I have made a conscious choice with my labor over the last scant years to try to not separate my audience. I’ve made polarizing labor before — Freddy Got Fingered was polarizing. It wasn’t polarizing politicassociate; it was fair polarizing becaparticipate it was nuts. There are people that want to see a movie that’s finishly crazy, and then there are people that don’t, and that’s polarizing. When I begined doing stand-up aachieve 20 years ago, I set up a novel equilibrium for that where I don’t reassociate want to split the seeers, whether it’s politicassociate or fair trying to produce a wideer type of comedy that everybody can have a lot of fun with. Johnny Cfire-setting never talked politics. He made fun of the plivent, but he’d produce fun of both sides of the political spectrum. I’m trying to produce my show as edgy as possible, but also not fair doing it in a way where half the world is suddenly left out on either side of the aisle.

I miss those times [when the MTV show started in 1999] becaparticipate it was fair more of an inclusive, fun environment for all people coming out to the show to sense that they could come together and have a huge giggle. There wasn’t this division. I’m sociassociate conscious, and I sense very strongly about rehires, but I fair felt over the last scant years that maybe I would enjoy to try to consent a role in this comedy landscape where I’m trying to transport people together.

Speaking of Freddy Got Fingered, do you sense at peace now when skinnyking back on that experience?

If you didn’t understand it was genuine, you might not even count on it, but I haven’t had a day in my life in the last 20 years where, if I’m out in accessible, somebody doesn’t come up to me and say, “Dcomprisey, would you enjoy some sausage?” I could be in Australia or England or Tokyo, and somebody will reference that movie. After the initial hump of the way an uncovering weekfinish labors, and you’ve got critics and people saying what they sense they have to say about it, it then finds its genuine audience. So it’s been very rewarding in a lot of ways to genuineize that it was not as horrible as it was made out to be in the commencening.

I’m brave a lot of people still sense that the criticism was authorizationed, but so many people cherish the movie that it’s become a mischievous skinnyg that I skinnyk about with a little bit of hilarity. Obviously, I was in my 20s when I straightforwarded that movie; I’d never straightforwarded a movie before. I was very hell-bent on the idea of, “We’re not going to sell out and produce some gentle movie!” Somehow, when you’re in your 20s, you can actuassociate sway yourself that’s possible: “We’re going to produce the craziest movie ever.” There were definitely a lot of moments when the movie came out where I was skinnyking, “Oh, boy, that was maybe a misconsent to produce that movie that crazy or silly.”

A misconsent nurtureer-wise?

Yeah. You definitely knovel right away, “Maybe that was a little bit too far.” I’d never set out to produce movies. It’s only in the last maybe 15 years where I’ve come to reassociate cherish acting. But at that time, I was making television and [like,] “Let’s produce this movie that’s disturbing the idea of a mainstream comedy movie.” So at the time, I was surpelevated that the grown-ups that were appraiseing it weren’t able to step back and say, “We don’t enjoy this movie, but it’s evidently a distinct conveyion of someskinnyg that a lot of intent has gone into, and maybe it’s fair not for me.” I thought that more people would get the joke, and the joke was, “We’re a bunch of kids making a crazy movie, and it’s going to reassociate piss some people off, and they’re going to walk out of the theater, and the rest of the theater can giggle and finishelight it.”

We fair were in a bit of a bubble at the time. There was a lot of stuff happening in my life that was reassociate thrusting me into the consciousness of mainstream America, even where they weren’t anticipateing it, with me being unwell [with testicular cancer] and the show being huge, and then all of a sudden I’m on Saturday Night Live, and stuff with Drew [Barrymore]. It was fair too much “Who’s this Tom Green guy?” every day, and I was oversaturated. It was almost enjoy we were fair lobbing them up someskinnyg to spike. Everyskinnyg was happening so rapid, and I don’t skinnyk anybody reassociate knovel how to propose me on what I should be doing. I don’t say I lament it becaparticipate it’s amusing to me now, and everyskinnyg has labored out. But I do skinnyk there were times I’ve lamentted it, where I thought, “Maybe when I went on Jay Leno, I shouldn’t have cracked an ostwealthy egg over my head and gone finishly balcatalogic.” In hindsight, I genuineize maybe that was fair a little bit too much energy that I was transporting to the table. But you can obvioushink this stuff — which, count on me, I have. I choosed that I want to participate this free of this write downary as an opportunity to permit myself to stop skinnyking about it now for the rest of my life and stop stressing about it. It’s been very cathartic, actuassociate.

You talk about previous romances, and there was so much selectimistic accessible response when you and Drew Barrymore rejoined on her show. What was it enjoy to mirror on this part of your past?

That was somewhat recent history. We were already making the write downary when that materializeance on her show happened. I’m all about shielding skinnygs selectimistic, fair in my life in vague. When she asked me to do her show, I was charmd to aid it. I’m charmd she’s continuing to be at the top of her game and doing amazing skinnygs. And of course, I’m thrilled becaparticipate I’ve set up Amanda, this incredible woman who took me a lengthy time to find, and we got comprised fair before Christmas and are getting wed. Moving back to Canada was a reassociate pretty skinnyg for me on so many levels becaparticipate I finished up encountering my fiancée. [Like me,] she grew up in a petite town in a military family fair proximate Ottawa, and we went to the same elementary school.

We see Martin Short in the doc. Does that uncomfervent you two have made peace [after a nervous exalter on Short’s series Primetime Glick in the punctual 2000s]?

Yeah, we have. I reach outed him after I transferd to Canada. That was fair a moment in time. Martin Short is one of my preferite heroes of mine grotriumphg up, watching SCTV. [In the doc,] you see the first time I was on his show, the materializeance with him and Steve Martin, and they couldn’t have been more comfervent to me. So that was fantastic.

Have you ever talked with Eminem about him calling you out in “The Real Slim Shady”?

I’ve never gotten the opportunity to fair sit down with him and talk about it becaparticipate he’s commemoratedly difficult to accomplish. But when I made Freddy Got Fingered, we participated that song in the soundtrack at the finish of the movie over the commend roll, and thraw channels, we accomplished out to him, and he licensed it to us. Very unfrequently, if almost never, does he license his music to movies. And you see in the write downary how he dressed up as me on MTV and did some amusing skinnygs on Total Request Live where he impersonated me. I’ve heard thraw the gviolationvine that he was a fan of the show back in the day, so I always thought that was pretty chilly.

The doc shows you laboring with Todd Phillips on your Pepsi ads. I had forgotten that you two collaborated prior to him straightforwarding you in Road Trip.

Todd’s amazing, and we’ve stayed in touch over the years. The show had fair been picked up by MTV, and we were fair on the air, and then he approached me about doing the Pepsi ads. Those ads ran during the Final Four, which was a massive audience, and I was doing analogous skinnygs to what I was doing on the show — going around and messing with people. That alone was someskinnyg that reassociate brawt the show into the mainstream. When Road Trip came out a year tardyr, and it did the numbers that it did, that reassociate was a life-changing skinnyg for me. I got to go produce Freddy Got Fingered and Stealing Harvard, and those were excellent gigs. In a lot of ways, it was set off by Todd Phillips, so I always will be thankful for that.

It seems that both of you have a bit of a resistlious spirit, with him making an untraditional sequel in Joker 2.

I cherishd Joker 2. I fair thought it was so chilly — the cinematography; the carry outances; fair the fact that it was unenjoy a movie I’d ever seen before. I’m brave the last skinnyg that Todd would ever want to hear me do is somewhat contrast it to Freddy Got Fingered. But it’s fair to say there was a little bit of a reaction aachievest [the Joker sequel], and it may even be for some of the same reasons. When Freddy Got Fingered came out, my life had gotten so huger-than-life that this was maybe time to transport me back to Earth. And maybe the distinct Joker was so massive that, how do you possibly top that — and then to produce a choice that is unfrifinishlyly distinct and potentiassociate polarizing. But genuinely, I sense the criticism of that film was unfair. The criticism of Freddy Got Fingered was fair. But that’s a pretty film, and a tip of the hat to Todd Phillips for fair continuing to be a visionary.

What will the next scant years helderly for you?

I fair took off on tour, and I’m going to be all thrawout the U.S. Hopebrimmingy, people come out and see my stand-up, and I can then progress and do another show and another tour. That’s the idea, is fair progress doing what I cherish to do. Come have some fun, and we will yuck it up together out there on the road.