My Jon Favreau Story or “Why I’m Such a Tool”
For those of you that don’t immediately recognize the name, Jon Favreau is commonly known as “the other guy” from Swingers (i.e. “not Vince Vaughn”). What most people don’t know is that he actually wrote and directed Swingers, along with Made and has also written and directed a lot of other projects over the years as well as acted in many more.
I had the pleasure of actually meeting Jon Favreau once; unfortunately, my opinion of him after that meeting was less than favorable after what I thought was a brush off answer he gave me during our discussion.
One Friday night a few years ago, I was at the Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank enjoying a classic car night that was heavy on 60s Mustangs, a favorite of mine. After looking over a particularly cherry ’64 convertible, I looked up to see none other than Jon Favreau looking over the same car. Being a big fan of his work, I broke my usual rule of leaving celebrities alone (they’re people too, and I can just imagine that sometimes they just want to hang out like regular people) and walked over to introduce myself.
After making sure it was him by asking, “Jon, right?”, I proceeded to gush a tad by telling him how much I loved Swingers, Made, and his other work and then I asked him what he was currently working on, hoping to get a little inside information from the source.
Then Jon Favreau looked me dead in the eye and said, “Jumanji 2”.
I said, “Oh, cool.” and thanked him for talking to me and slowly walked away like he had just told me he was into juggling kittens.
In case you don’t remember, Jumanji was a movie starring Robin Williams that came out in the mid 90s and told the story of two children who find a magical board game that causes them all kinds of trouble when it “comes alive” and destroys their house. In my opinion, it was actually a good movie and I’m sure kids loved it… alas, it just didn’t do that well at the box office (I think it did get a little more life on video).
So, when I heard Jon Favreau say that he was working on a sequel, I immediately thought he was pulling my chain as a way to ditch a rabid fan. Later on, I even told friends that I met Jon Favreau and thought he was kind of a jerk because he brushed me off with a BS answer to a legit question.
So, a few years later I’m sitting in a midnight show for Serenity in Hollywood and I see a preview for a movie coming out this holiday season called Zathura, about two kids who find a board game that whisks their house out into space and causes all kinds of problems. Then, just as I make a mental note to try and see that with my godson, the movie wraps up with the tagline “From the World of Jumanji”.
Oh no…
The next morning, I check the Internet Movie Database and sure enough, Zathura is directed by… Jon Favreau… I am such a tool.
This whole time I’ve been slandering one of my favorite people in Hollywood and it turns out what I thought was a way to ditch me was a totally legit answer. And the really sad part is that there’s little chance that I’ll meet up with the guy again and get the chance to apologize… although I doubt he even remembers me or that I could have possibly been ticked at the answer he gave me back then.
I really don’t have a moral to this story outside of avoid being a tool to Jon Favreau, but it does make for a great story… when I need to be reminded of what a tool I can be… sigh.
Jeff @ The Gag