My first thought meeting actress Molly Shannon is just how lovely she appears in person.  And this surprises me.  Not because she shouldn’t be, by any means, but because her persona is just so…funny.   And suddenly the old adage about pretty girls not being funny or funny girls not being hot just goes totally out the window.  She’s petite with a smile as big as the rest of her, stylishly decked out in designer duds and for once, larger than life, rather than her signature comic variation on it. 

In Mike White’s dark new comedy, Year of the Dog, a winning Shannon tears into the role of Peggy, a dog-lover—literally—whose life goes into a tailspin with the untimely passing of her beloved pooch, Pencil.  She very quickly loses her grip on what little she has left—a chronically dull office job, a beleaguered neighbor (John C. Reilly) and family-obsessed brother and wife (Thomas McCarthy, Laura Dern).   Soon she begins embezzling corporate cash to fund animal rights farms, subjecting children to animal torture horror stories and adopting a pack of nearly euthanised pups.  Then things get really strange.   

In a film written for Shannon, writer-director White frames Year of the Dog through the lens of some oddly fractured fairy tale satire turned cautionary ode to extremism and the road to hell and—almost—back.  In Shannon’s hands, an uncompromising character becomes a tour-de-force of non-committal to sanity or instability, and we watch a woman unravel in a way we’ve not seen before. 

Lee Shoquist, The Oscar Igloo:  Year of the Dog is a defiant, offbeat film with its mix of tones and its anti-heroine that is very unpredictable. 

Molly Shannon:  I know!  I like it for that reason.  You get so much formulaic stuff, especially with comedies.  I like that it’s sad, horrific and then funny, and that it turns and twists.  It’s more interesting. 

LS:  How do you keep your grip on building a character like Peggy?  You obviously shoot out of sequence and she is so radically different at various points in the picture. 

MS:  Some of the major stuff (Mike White) would try to keep in order.  Like at the very end when she is not doing so well, and is with Brett and Peter, that was shot at the very end.  I think he tried to keep some order of it

LS: Is this the first time that someone has written a role for you? 

LS: Yes!  Mike and I did this TV series together in 2003, called Cracking Up—which got cancelled.  He thought that was a downer.  That was not such a good experience, and we got along so well that he wanted to show me a better time. He thought that was a downer.  He was like, “I’m gonna write a movie for you!”  Which is a very big deal because he’s very sought after.  I was very excited.

LS:  He really strikes some sort of chord in people, I think.  He is very witty in the most off-center way.  Almost a cult-figure. 

MS: He should be!  People love him.  He’s very honest and funny.  He would make me double over with laughter on the set.  He’s really easy going and laid back, but he is a very hard worker.  He is very driven and organized about work and he’s always writing and working, which is why he is so good.  But as a person he has a huge heart.  He’s a very kind and  thoughtful.  Deep thinking; sensitive.   

LS: Have you ever had a pet like Pencil?  That just completed your life and gave you that warm and fuzzy feeling? 

MS:  No, not like Pencil!  We had dogs.  We had a German shepherd like (the character of) Valentine, though bad like Valentine!  Then I had a mixed mutt that we had to get rid of because I’m allergic.

LS: You are allergic to dog hair?

MS:  To dog hair!  I developed an allergy when I was about twelve. 

MS:  (Glancing at my notebook) Wait- are all your questions written like that?

LS:  That’s actually funny because I color-coded them today for the first time!

MS:  That is so cool!

LS:  There are black, and red, and then green and they are separated by three categories—this is film, here is the personal and these are the career stuff. 

MS:  That’s so- God, you are so organized! 

LS:  This is the first time I have actually done this actually.

MS:  I cannot believe it!  Wait, can I just- I just want to glance at it! 

LS:  Of course, just don’t take them away. 

MS:  This is unbelievable!  When is your birthday?

LS:  November.

MS:  So you are a Scorpio?    

LS:  Yes with a Scorpio rising. 

MS:  Interesting.  I’m a Virgo.  This makes me want to get up..

LS:  So you must be really organized!

MS:  I am obsessed.  This makes me want to get up and march in a parade!

LS:  Do you have all of your closets organized to the nth degree?

MS:  Yes.  I do!  I love it.  I have a company called Clutter Busters that comes and they get rid of stuff.

LS:  You do not!  You don’t have a company…

MS:  Yes I do!  Wait, no, it’s not my company!  (laughter)

LS:  You mean you have a company on the side in case this acting thing doesn’t work out, right? 

MS:  No, I know!  Wait, want to hear the funniest story about that?  Heather Graham is a friend of mine and we were going to see this band in LA.   And we were at this place called The Palace and we were up in the box.  And there was Kirsten Dunst, or whom we thought was Kirsten Dunst, up in the box and we were all excited!  This was before Marie Antoinette, before I met her.  So we start talking to her and then she said “I make hats,” and I thought that was so funny that she had a big hat business.  She’s like, “I make the best hats.  I’ll make you one!”  I thought this is so funny!  Kirsten Dunst has a side business making hats!  But then it turned out…she was just a lookalike.  But then we got our picture taken because they were like, “Heather! Molly!  Kirsten!”  And she went along with it and it actually got printed in US Magazine—the lookalike!  But then, like three-quarters through the evening I realized, “That is not Kirsten Dunst.” 

LS:  Peggy really goes into a tailspin after losing Pencil.  Do you think maybe she goes a little beyond the point of no return?  I almost lost my access to her in a way and she kept surprising me in uncomfortable and interesting ways.  Every time I thought I knew what she was going to do, she didn’t. 

MS:  Yes, she goes very off and makes really bad choices!  Ugh, she goes very off!  She really gets off track.  Not to give away the plot, but she’s certainly not always likable—to put it mildly.  She does not want to feel how annihilated and depressed she is, and does things to avoid feeling that way.  But in the end, ultimately she has to feel it and confront it and go through it.  

LS:  Yes.  And she comes out the end okay in the end—sort of. 

MS:  She does.  She struggles through this stuff to find a better life for herself and her passion.  That is the part of the story that I really like; that is she really struggles through it.  I think that’s so true to life.  People don’t always talk about the shameful things they do, or the embarrassing things.  It’s interesting because it is not always easy to watch.  She does go off a lot. 

LS:  You get to go off a lot in many of your roles, really, though mostly in funny ways.  But if we look at other stuff you have done, like your Scrubs episode, or this or several other examples, I get the sense there is something inside of you that wants to do something bigger or more dramatic.  You certainly can.  They say that if you can do comedy you can do a lot of other things.  You are at a certain, seasoned age now and a bit more lived-in as an actress.

MS:  Right, exactly.  I actually really like that.  This movie came from my friendship with Mike and it wasn’t like I said, “I want to prove that I can do something.”  It came about very naturally so it wasn’t this big, “I’m looking to do something more serious!”  No.  Mike just said, “I want to write this kind of movie; more of an indie movie.”  And I said, “Great!” It was his vision and idea about what he thought would be good for me.

I like broad comedy.  But there is something about the manic…  There are parts of this movie that are funny, but it’s brought down a bit.  Performing it is actually fun because it is subtler; more real.  Like the scene in the car with John C. Reilly when he asks me if I have ever been married.  I love that scene.  It’s real.  It’s actually the kind of comedy- I prefer watching that kind of comedy.  I don’t always go to the mainstream, very commercial comedies.  I like more real stuff. 

LS:  But you are very effective in those mainstream films.  Even in a film like Talladega Nights you stole your two short scenes and were very spot-on, and very funny. 

MS:  Oh, thanks!  They’re great.  Will (Ferrell) and Adam McKay are so experienced with comedy that they are great to work with.  They know comedians and they just let you improvise.  They are really original thinkers and they are great. 

LS:  Yet you float back and forth between Todd Solondz and Mike White, and then the other types of broad comedy. 

MS:  Yes!  I like it all.  It’s all different and it’s great to have people think of you and it’s all exciting and different.  But Todd Solondz is like Mike.  I did that little scene in Happiness.  That was my first time to really have a taste of what it is like.  I did this little scene where I was an office worker and he would say, ‘Take it down.’  Then I would, and he would say, ‘Do it more.’  And I’d be like, ‘Really?’  And I remember how much I loved it.  By the time I did the scene it was so quiet and real.  And you can still get laughs in this quiet or very subtle way.  But then big, broad stuff is fun too!  Talladega Nights is very crazy!

LS:  Do you ever feel not funny?  

MS:  Oh, yeah!  I did sketches on Saturday Night Live, because you always have to try things out.  And you’re trying stuff out and some tanks.  Sometimes on the table it bombs.  Sometimes it will make it as far as the dress rehearsal and you are actually performing it with an audience.  Will Ferrell and I did this sketch that was my idea, about these people who lost a hundred pounds or something, and it did not get a single laugh!  But while performing it we were like, ‘Oh, my god—we’re tanking!’  We literally looked at one another in the middle of it, and it was so quiet that you could hear crickets.  What we would try to do is commit even harder, even though it is bombing, as opposed to giving in to the fact that you are not getting laughs. 

LS:  You talked about Peggy finding her passion in this film, and she does by the conclusion.  What about yours?  

MS:  A big passion for me is being a mother, and my children.  I would say performing, acting, making movies, television, writing, creating stuff.

LS:  What does that do for you?

MS:  There are different kinds of styles.  In this film, it is Mike’s vision and I’m just performing it.  Saturday Night Live, or an original character, is something that is coming from you, and so they are very different.  It is really rewarding to think of a character that you think is funny and then you get it on the air and people like it!  It’s amazing that you could observe something about someone and put it in a sketch form and people respond to it.  It’s very thrilling. 

LS:  There is this whole idea of unconditional love in the film.  Peggy has this line that is very poignant, where she says that the only moments she ever felt truly loved—unconditionally—was by Pencil.   I wonder if there is such a thing between human beings. 

MS:  Oh, yeah!

LS:  Really?

MS:  I do.  I think love transcends time and I believe that you can have unconditional love.   You mean, no matter what they do you would feel love, even if they were terrible? 

LS:  I think in a relationship.  She obviously has a deep relationship with this animal.  It seems so absent in most person-to-person relationships. 

MS:  Right.  With animals it’s easier and not complicated because they can’t talk to you.  So maybe, no!  It\’s a different kind of love.  Maybe more complicated. 

LS:  If this all went away tomorrow and you had to do something else, what would that be?  Besides running Clutter Busters, I mean.  

MS:  Besides Clutter Busters!  I like the world of psychotherapy, family counseling, intervention, and families.  I love that. 

LS:  Dealing with other people’s problems?

MS:  Oh my god, I love it!  I’d probably be some kind of family counselor or I’d be studying that.  Maybe I would go back to school and study psychology.  The individual one-on-one of having a practice seems like it would be exhausting.  But something in that world.  When I was growing up, all I wanted to do was be a waitress at Bob Evans!

LS:  Down on the farm. 

MS:  Down on the farm!  Red tablecloth, buttermilk biscuits and griddles!  That’s all I wanted when I was little! 

LS:  (Tearing off my color-coded questions) I’m going to leave this with you. 

MS:  Oh my God, I am so excited!  This is amazing.  It is so cool.  I love how you shrank it down too!

LS:  I did.  I shrunk it to 8-point.

MS:  You are so- I love shrinking stuff!  That’s so funny. 

Special thanks to Molly Shannon for this interview