People who are constantly struggling to lose weight can face cruel ridicule by their peers, particularly younger teens who are still learning to adjust to middle school and high school. The negative emotional effects bullying has on younger teens can be psychologically damaging, but the film industry has been teaching them recently that they’re not alone, and there are people who care about them.
First time feature film director Jason Winn’s new drama ‘The Fat Boy Chronicles,’ which is based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Diane Lang and Michael Buchanan, is now available nationwide at Walmart. The film follows 14-year-old Jimmy Winterpock, played by Christopher Rivera, who weighs 187 pounds and is often bullied by his classmates. Life for him outside the comfort of his home and church is difficult, as the taunts of his classmates while in school and during sports make him feel humiliated. But he remains positive by focusing on his goals of losing weight and wining the girl of his dreams.
Winn generously took the time to chat over the phone what motivated him to adapt Jimmy’s story for the screen. The director also discussed, among other things, what the casting process for Jimmy was like, and how the character reflects the constant struggles bullied teens live with every day.
ShockYa (SY): You directed the new drama ‘The Fat Boy Chronicles,’ which is based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Diane Lang and Michael Buchanan. What was your motivation in adapting the story of the main character, Jimmy Winterpock, into a film? How much knowledge did you have of the book before you began shooting?
Jason Win (JW): Well, I was able to read the manuscript before the book was actually published. So I was always drawn to the character of Jimmy Winterpock, and the things that he was doing. Having been a teenager once myself, I could relate to the situations that he was in.
As far as my motivations in making the film, it was important to me to make a film that would resonate with parents and kids, and wouldn’t talk down to kids. It would talk to them on their level. We wanted to show what it was really like to go to high school, and how it can be mean and wonderful, but we didn’t want to do it in a caricature way; we wanted to make it real. Hopefully that came across.
SY: Diane and Michael also wrote the screenplay for the film. What was your working relationship with them like as you were shooting ‘The Fat Boy Chronicles?’
JW: It was great. Mike and Diane wrote an amazing script, and they turned it over to me whole-heartedly. They allowed me to take the script and all of its wonderful aspects, and add all the things that needed to be added, in order to make it a great film.
They were very collaborative. I would say, we don’t have time to shoot this, so we’ve got to get this emotion across in a short period of time. You’ve got to write a scene that kind of looks like this, and they would go off on set and write it. It was done very quickly. It was a constant, well-oiled machine, basically, when we were in production.
SY: Christopher Rivera portrayed Jimmy in the movie. What was the casting process like for the role of Jimmy, and why did you decide to cast Christopher?
JW: Christopher had come out for the audition for the book cover. So it was more like, hey, he’s on the cover of the book already, let’s see if he can act. What impressed me the most about Christopher is that he didn’t just take it as, oh, I’m on the book cover, so I’ll come in and do an audition.
He came in, and he was thoroughly prepared. He understood the characters and the motivations, and he was able to take my direction and change the delivery and talk about the different subtexts of the character, all in his first audition. Basically, when I saw him for the very first time, I thought, wow, that’s Jimmy Winterpock.
We did go through the casting process, and had several other people in the running. Chris had to come back, and had an extremely painful amount of call-back times. (laughs) We were making him nervous. But Chris was always Jimmy Winterpock in my mind. He did a great job, and brought a lot to the role.
Q: Jimmy is the subject of brutal high school bullying because of his obesity, but overcomes the torment by focusing on losing weight and winning over the girl of his dreams. Do you feel that Jimmy reflects the struggles teens go through as they cope with bullying and trying to fit in?
JW: I think that teens and adults have weight in many forms, whether it is an overweight issue or a bullying issue. I do think that it does reflect society as a whole, especially in the teen world. Bullying has gone beyond kids are kids. Now people are dying, and people are coming to school with guns, and they’re killing each other.
Bullying is just another form of violence. I think until we start treating it as such, it will continue to be a problem that plagues our community and our society. Bullying has really gotten out of hand, and I think technology has a lot to do with it. When I was younger, once you got out of school, you got a reprieve from that. But now these days, these kids are getting bullied 24/7, and nobody can handle that.
One of the things that I think this film really does is it opens kids’ eyes to empathy. I think it opens parents’ eyes to the reality of what their child may be going through. I think all that leads to a starting discussion on the problems and possibly how to fix it. I think that’s a good thing.
Q: Adolescent bullying has garnered attention in the filmy industry recently, between ‘The Fat Boy Chronicles’ and the new documentary ‘Bully.’ Do these movies draw attention to the continuous bullying in schools today?
JW: I think what these films are doing is raising awareness on a national level, on the seriousness of the problem. I think it’s as serious as the “Just Say No” to drugs campaign in the ‘80s, and those kinds of things that went on. I think any film that has to do with these aspects are really just jumping off points to discussion, either on a home level, a community level, or even a governmental level.
We’re working with several districts around the country to use the book and film as curriculum, because it does just that. It’s the jumping off point. It definitely doesn’t solve the problem or fix anything. But what it does do is start the discussion. I think with that start-off discussion, things can change.
Q: Do you think that Jimmy and the teens featured in ‘Bully’ can offer hope to teens being targeted across America?
JW: Absolutely. I think, as a teenager, you think you’re the only one. You live in the isolation of your world. You think, the quarterback must have everything in the world, or the pretty girls, or whatever segmented group that you end up following. What you don’t realize, until you become an adult, is that everyone has problems, and that’s okay.
What I think it does is it offers hope for these kids to know that they’re not alone. They’re not alone in their school, and they’re not alone across the country.
So I hope for the bullies out there who see the movie, they realize it’s not cool. For the people being bullied, they realize there is help, and they can take back their dignity and be fine. They just have to understand this is unacceptable.
The other thing I think is that there are the people who just stand around. Really, in a bullying incident, there are three people-the bully, the victim and the bystanders. I think bystanders need to realize they do have the power, especially kids. Parents and teachers may not be able to stop it, but the bystanders can.
What we’re seeing first-hand is that kids are standing up, and saying enough’s enough. I think that’s empowerment. Anytime you empower a child to make that kind of connection, real change can happen.
SY: ‘The Fat Boy Chronicles’ was shot on a limited budget of $500,000. Did having such a small budget hinder what you could include in the film?
JW: Well, whenever you take a book and turn it into a movie, you can’t include every single thing. You have to pick the scenes and the characters that brought out the story, (and bring them) into the film. Shooting on that budget was extremely challenging, and it was the best of times and the worst of times. (laughs)
But at the end of the day, it’s a dream come true. It’s beyond anything that I’ve ever imagined, with the response that we’re getting from kids and parents.
I’m a director, and I just make films and tell stories. To get an email from a 13-year-old girl that says I saw your movie, and I told my parents that I’m a cutter, and now I’m getting help. Or I’d get an email from a kid that says, you know, every day for nine years, Billy came to school and bullied me. After we saw your movie or read your book, he came up to me and apologized.
These are the kinds of comments that we’re getting directly to us, and it’s very humbling. It’s kind of taken on a life of its own.
SY: So you’ve been receiving generally positive reviews for the film from teens and parents across America?
JW: Oh yes, generally positive. People have been saying very heart-warming, touching things. People feel it’s a great jumping off point for a discussion about the subject of bullying, and even teenage obesity with kids and family.
SY: ‘The Fat Boy Chronicles’ is your feature film directorial debut, and you began your filmmaking career with the 2008 short ‘Last Bullet.’ What was the transition period like from ‘Last Bullet’ to ‘The Fat Boy Chronicles?’
JW: Well, I think as a director, every story that you take on has its own life, and that’s the wonderful thing about being a director. “Last Bullet” was the story of two soldiers trapped in a foxhole during Vietnam, and they were isolated from their unit, and one of them had to leave to go get help. It was a story about sacrifice.
So we shot that in two days. It ended up doing really well in the festival circuit. It opened up a lot of doors, which allowed us to raise the money to do ‘Fat Boy.’
“Fat Boy” was a much bigger movie. It was important that we told the story from an artistic standpoint. The book is in first-person, so it’s his journal. There is voice-over in the movie, but rather than have a whole 90-minute film in voice, it was important to me to have music help tell that story and relay those emotions. (It was also important) to have Jimmy go through these events. From that standpoint, it was different, and from a bigness scale, it was different. But every project is kind of its own thing.
I had been directing big commercials and things like that for the past 12 or 15 years. So now I’m excited about the opportunities to go into feature filmmaking full-time, and continue to tell great stories.
SY: Is there anything you learned from your films and commercials that you will use on your future films?
JW: (laughs) Every day I learn something new. I think that’s what’s so great about being able to be a director. Things that you thought were true or the way to do it changes on a given minute.
Basically I tell people being a director of a feature film is like being a captain of a pirate ship. You’re just trying to get from point A to point B with the least amount of damage at the end of the day. You want to tell the best story that you can tell, without having everyone mutiny against you. (laughs)
So it’s a living, breathing organism, your film set. So I’m always, constantly learning. I learned a lot from Jimmy Winerpock and the characters. ‘The Fat Boy Chronicles’ has taught me a lot, and just the experience itself (has as well).
SY: Do you have any upcoming films lined up that you can discuss?
JW: Not that I can discuss, but we’re in development on a couple of things right now, and negotiations. So we’ve got some things that will hopefully be in production in the next six to eight months.
Written by: Karen Benardello
