Advertisement

Movies & TV News & Features

Jon Favreau

CHEF written and directed by Jon Favreau, starring Favreau, Emjay Anthony, John Leguizamo and Sofia Vergara. A VVS Films release. 115 minutes. Opens Friday (June 6). For venues and times, see Movies.


First things first: yes, Jon Favreau knows Chef is a metaphor for his own career.

The actor-turned-filmmaker – who broke out in 1996 when he wrote and starred in Swingers, then shaped the Marvel cinematic universe as the director of Iron Man and its first sequel, and oversaw Cowboys & Aliens as that film spiralled into disaster – made a conscious decision to back away from blockbusters and return to his indie roots with his new picture.

Chef, a modest dramedy about a celebrity restaurateur who self-destructs on social media and has to reinvent himself behind the wheel of a food truck, was conceived as a project to get Favreau back to basics. Not that he was exactly starting from the bottom this time.

“Yeah, I had a lot more available to me now, financially and talent-wise, than I had back in the Swingers days,” he says. “The question was, did I still have the chops and the voice? That was a big unknown. So a big part of what was satisfying about this process is that there’s a continuation from my earlier work.”

In contrast to the over-cluttered business of Iron Man 2 and Cowboys & Aliens, Chef is content to just let its characters interact with one another for long stretches of time without advancing the plot.

“That’s something I would not be permitted to do on a big studio film. There’s no patience for it.

“With good chefs, so much of it is in the layering and the preparation, and how fastidious every step of the process is. And as a filmmaker, you’re building ingredients as well, trusting that it’ll ultimately satisfy the consumer.”

Working on a larger scale, says Favreau, corners get cut and those things are seen to be not worth the time.

“You’re fighting and trying to justify things that you can’t explain why you want them in. That’s why in a film like this, scaling back – so I had complete control over where I shot, what I shot, what I wrote, who I cast, how I edited – was the most impor≠tant aspect.”

Favreau’s particularly happy about how things worked out with his leading man.

“It’s the first time I really feel like I got a great performance out of myself, you know?” he says before immediately backtracking.

“‘Great’ might be overstating it,” he laughs, “but it’s a level of performance I would have given in somebody else’s film. I’ve tended to be a better actor when I wasn’t worried about making the movie, but here I actually was able to have my moments where I could really go for it. And that was fun.”

Interview Clips

Jon Favreau on what you can lose when you set out to make a blockbuster:

Download associated audio clip.

Favreau on the gestation of the script:

Download associated audio clip.

Favreau on the current generation of chefs’ discomfort with the spotlight:

Download associated audio clip.

normw@nowtoronto.com | @normwilner

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted