Barry Sonnenfeld Adds A Bit Of Mamushka To The New 4K Release of ‘The Addams Family’

Barry Sonnenfeld is one of those directors who’s had his hand in just about every aspect of filmmaking at one point or another: he did student films in college, worked on a music video for the Clash, served as cinematographer for the Coen brothers, helmed his own films, worked on prime-time TV series, and most recently his work has popped up on streaming services, most notably as one of the directors of the Apple TV+ comedy-musical series Schmigadoon. He even did a stint in porn, but that’s a tale best told within his 2020 memoir, Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother, provided you can stomach it.

No, really: when we mentioned it, he agreed, “I should’ve put a warning at the top of that chapter.”

The topic that brought Decider into Sonnenfeld’s orbit for this particular conversation, however, was his first feature film as a director: The Addams Family. His classic semi-adaptation of Charles Addams’ classic New Yorker cartoons arrives today on Blu-ray in a new 4K release and digitally on UHD – one which is pointedly subtitled With More Mamushka! – and Sonnenfeld was kind enough to hop on the phone and discuss how he found his way into the film in the first place and what sort of tweaking he had to do to make sure it better matched up with Addams’ sensibilities. In addition, we also discussed his work with the Coens, his history of short-lived TV series, his unexpected connection to John Cougar Mellencamp, the trouble with the release of Big Trouble, and more.

DECIDER: Having had a chance to revisit The Addams Family, which is still great, it occurs to me that I’ve never heard the story of how you found your way onto the film…except, of course, what I read in your book. But since everyone hasn’t read that, how did you find your way onto The Addams Family?

BARRY SONNENFELD: I was very happy, living a happy life as a cinematographer, having shot the first three Coen brothers movies – Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, and Miller’s Crossing – and having shot Big, When Harry Met Sally, and Throw Momma from the Train, and I was a couple of weeks from finishing working on Misery when I was sent the script for Addams Family. And Scott Rudin said, “Read this, meet me in a little while, I think you should be the director of it.”

And the truth is, I loved the IP (intellectual property). I loved the original Charles Addams drawings in The New Yorker. They’re incredibly visual, they’re very dark and quirky, and they also have the same visual concept for comedy that I have, which is, “Make the audience find where the joke is.” You know, sometimes you had to look at those cartoons for a long time and go, “Oh, my God! They’re pouring boiling oil on the singers down below!” I mean, he was a brilliant visual stylist. So it was right up my alley. And I had grown up with those drawings. So I agreed that if Scott could get me the job as the director, I would do it. But I never thought he could convince Orion to let me direct it. I went into a meeting with Orion, and I think they thought I was a mensch-y kind of nice Jewish boy, so they hired me.

I grew up studying every inch of Addams’ My Crowd, so I’m glad that, based on what I read in your book, you took them to task and fought for a script that hewed closer to the feel of the cartoons rather than what it was when you first got it.

That’s right. It was much more based on the television show, and it was much more funny. Like, with jokes. And I hate jokes. [Laughs.] I always tell actors, “Play the reality of the scene. If the scene is funny, you’ll be funny. But never try to be funny.” And the My Crowd drawings are perfect examples of laugh-out-loud funny, but he made you find where the joke was in those images.

Do you agree with folks who say that Addams Family Values is actually better than the first film?

No. I would say that I think Addams Family Values is funnier than the first one, and I would say that Addams Family is much more romantic than the second one. Because for me, the first one is just how much Gomez and Morticia love each other unconditionally and how much Gomez and Morticia love their children. They were so much unlike my parents. They left their kids alone to play with guillotines and electrocute each other and all that stuff. So when the first movie came out, there was a lot of “The Addams Family: The Most Dysfunctional Family Ever!” Trying to be funny. I always thought it was the most functional family. They just loved each other! So I’d say that the first film is more romantic and the second film has some bigger laughs. Because Joan Cusack is so hilarious.

Had Raul Julia not passed as unfortunately young as he did, do you think you would’ve done a third Addams Family film with him and Anjelica Huston?

I don’t know. You know, the second one, Addams Family Values, did okay, but it was not the hit the first one was at the box office. I think part of the reason was that it was promoted too similarly to the first one, so it felt like there was nothing new for the audience to see. We didn’t lean into the Pubert or the Joan Cusack of it all. So I don’t know if there would’ve been a third one. But I don’t think I would’ve done a third one. I did three for Men in Black, and I’m so glad I didn’t do four.

Yes, I can’t wait until you eventually write a sequel to your book, given how, in the foreword, you talk about how awful the experience of doing Men in Black 3 was and how you’d write about it someday.

Yeah, I’m working on it right now!

Excellent. Well, as we established, The Addams Family was your first film as a director, but did you actually have a desire to venture forth from cinematography into directing? Or do you think you would have gone that route eventually if The Addams Family hadn’t landed in your lap?

No. You know, I was really happy as a cinematographer. I loved the crews I worked with. I had a great crew in New York and a really great crew in L.A., so depending on where I was shooting, I had two great crews. And I loved being in control of my craft. However I thought something should look, by selecting the lens and lighting it a certain way, I could really achieve exactly what I set out to do. And I was fearful that, with a director, there’s even that much more collaboration, and I had no idea what it was going to be like directing actors. It turns out that if you know how to be a parent, you know how to be a director to a certain extent. Unconditional love, consistency of tone…

So I don’t know that I ever would’ve necessarily become a director, but when I was a cameraman, I always called myself “The Friend of the Director.” You know, I would just as equally talk to a director about the energy of the actors before lunch versus after lunch as I would ask, “Wouldn’t it be fun if we put a camera there?” So having gone to NYU Film School and having directed movies, I was able to approach cinematography from a different point of view than most cinematographers, which was that I really enjoyed helping the directors any way I could. Working really quickly if they needed a lot of set-ups that day and not being precious about lightning, other days being very precious about lighting because I knew that’s what was important… So I loved being a cinematographer. And now I love being a director as well.

Are there particular moments that stand out as personal highlights in your cinematography in those first three Coen brothers movies?

Well, I’m proud of all three. I’m proud of Miller’s Crossing because I think it’s the most beautifully lit movie I had done, and I thought it was the most beautiful movie. I’m proud of Raising Arizona because the camera is a character in the movie, and I think that most filmmakers use the camera as a recording device as opposed to a storytelling device. And even on Addams Family, you know, the camera plays a big role. The lens selections, the wide angle lens and all that, the tracking… And then Blood Simple I like because it was the first movie I shot, although Joel, Ethan, and I cringe watching it. We did a Criterion version where we make fun of each other the whole time. They make fun of my cinematography, I make fun of their directing and writing.

But that bar tracking shot… I mean, come on.

Well, so they took it out of the movie. I used to visit them at the Brill Building… Actually, they cut that one at 1619 Broadway! And one day I went to visit them, and they had taken the shot out. The camera tracking over the drunk and up to a closeup of the bartender. And I said, “Why’d you take that shot out?” And Joel said, “I dunno, it feels kinda self-conscious.” I said, “You’re picking on that shot? The whole movie is self-conscious!” So they put it back in, thank God.

But that’s the first movie I shot, and what I’m proud of about everything I did both as a cinematographer and the way I shoot as a director… We talked about the camera as a storytelling device? The camera is me. I want to be in the movies, but I can’t act. So, really, the camera is me. And, boy, that is one self-conscious camera. You know, right off the bat, pulling the first shots of The Addams Family, we come off the cuckoo clock and we track with Thing down this whole hallway, and he gets past Gomez’s legs. So right away, right from the beginning, it’s a very visual directorial debut.

When I posted on social media that I was going to be talking to you, I had one person ask, “Why, after doing your student film for free, didn’t you hire me for one of your great big fabulous films?” This was a gentleman named Xander Berkeley who wanted to know that.

[Laughs.] Oh, yeah, I know Xander. Xander played the villain in my first student film. But Xander’s a very good actor, and please, get back to Xander and apologize and tell him I’ll work on that!

[Although the student film in question is apparently nowhere to be found online, we did ask Berkeley – who attended Hampshire College with Sonnenfeld – what he remembered about it: “I remember him shooting from between my knees across at a couple in the film, who were also friends from Hampshire College. But I recognized the shot when I saw Raising Arizona, which was what made me realize he had become their DP. Inventive perspectives are a key to great cinematography and filmmaking in general.”]

I’m in the Television Critics Association, so I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the set of Pushing Daisies just before the show’s second season premiered. It’s such a gorgeous looking series, one that I really wish had lasted longer than just those two seasons, but at least it’s on HBO Max for people to discover. How was the experience of working on that? Because I know you’ve had your share of short-lived series.

Yeah, like The Tick! [Laughs.] I loved working on Pushing Daisies. It was a great experience to work with Bryan Fuller, who was the creator and showrunner. It was one of those rare situations where I literally didn’t want to rehearse a scene without Bryan on the set. You know, he’d be in the writers room, and I’d say, “Call him down!” Because the great thing about Bryan is that he wasn’t precious with his work. I shot-list everything in storyboard, so he knew all the angles, but after rehearsal I could say to Bryan, “Can we jump-cut out these four lines? It feels repetitive,” or something like that, and Bryan could go, “Great idea!” Because if you can cut out lines that aren’t working on the set before you shoot them, then it doesn’t force you into cutting in post-production.

Often, comedy plays out in two shots. It plays out in masters. And if you know you’re shooting something that’s not going to work and that’s going to force you into all of these cuts, then the more you can figure out pace and dialogue on the set… Like, I hate trying to control pace in post-production, because that requires you to cut. My favorite comedies are the Howard Hawks and Preston Sturges comedies. Palm Beach Story, Bringing Up Baby, that kind of stuff. People aren’t listening to each other talking, they’re just talking. That’s what I love. If actors talk fast enough, it prevents them from acting. And I hate watching acting. I just hate it. I love watching reality. I hate watching acting.

I always wished – as I’m sure you did as well – that Maximum Bob had lasted longer than it did.

Yeah, that was a tough one. And you know what? It was the first thing I ever directed for television, and I should’ve stuck around more. There’s several things I did – Maximum Bob, Fantasy Island with Malcolm McDowell – early in my career that were like that. I directed the pilot of Maximum Bob, I didn’t direct anything on Fantasy Island, but I didn’t realize how important it was to be around and to be on the set. And I lived in East Hampton, and I had young kids and stuff. So I regret that. I think some of that stuff was my fault. In the case of the Patrick Warburton version of The Tick, Sony went out of the television business, so there was no one for Fox to go back to and say, “We want to pick up another season.” I think they might’ve. But I loved The Tick as well. I loved Maximum Bob. And I blame myself for not being more involved.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about working with The Clash on the video for “Rock the Casbah.”

Oh, you know, this is pre-video cameras. It used to be that all those videos were shot on 16mm film. And I bought a used 16mm camera – a CP-16 Reflex – with someone from film school named Bob Chapel. So we would get these jobs mainly so we could pay back the cost of the mortgage on the camera! So one of the things Bob got us was shooting a Clash video, and…I think we shot it in Austin, Texas. It was a rabbi and an armadillo, I remember that. [Laughs.] It was fun.

I also shot a video for MTV. You know “Pink Houses,” the John Cougar Mellencamp song? Well, we went to Indiana, and MTV bought a house, and we painted the whole house pink. Mark Gordon produced that. Mark went on to become a huge producer of major television shows, but he also produced that MTV video.

Would you say there’s ever been a film that’s had worse timing with its release than…

…than Big Trouble? [Laughs.] No. I think that was a good one for bad timing. And it’s so sad, because I really liked that movie. We had a fantastic cast in that movie. I loved the experience. We shot one day and 59 nights. And the crew go crazy when you shoot only nights, but I love it. And in Florida, it was so hot during the day that you could never think straight, but at night it was loamy and moist and warm, and you could control the lighting because it wasn’t harsh sunlight. But the timing was really bad, because we were supposed to come out 11 days after 9/11, and it’s a comedy that involves the theft of a suitcase with a nuclear bomb.

But that’s an example where all the actors knew to play the reality and not the comedy, except Tom Sizemore on the very first day. When I hired Tom… Tom really wanted that part, because he wanted to be in a comedy, and I said, “Okay, under two conditions: you’re never allowed to hit me, and you have to do whatever I tell you to do.” And on the first day, he added a tic and a limp. And I called him into my camper at the end of the day, and I said, “Tom, I have to fire you.” And he said, “Why?” I said, “What are you doing?” He said, “It’s a comedy! I’m trying to be funny!” I said, “Just play the reality of the scene! Don’t play the comedy, just play the reality. Don’t be funny!” So after that he behaved. And he didn’t hit me. But, yeah, that was bad timing, Big Trouble.

How did you enjoy working with Alex Rocco in Get Shorty?

You know what? He was great. He got the joke right away. He’s the one who gets shot through the eye toward the end of the first Godfather, so I said, “Well, here’s the thing: can you…” And he said, “Yeah, yeah, I got the glasses.” [Laughs.] So he got the joke. He was lovely. He didn’t try to do anything but acknowledge what the joke was. so it was fun working with him.

Getting the joke is half the battle. Didn’t I read that Gene Hackman didn’t so much get the comedy in the film?

No, that was Tommy Lee Jones who didn’t get the comedy in Men in Black. [Laughs.] Gene got the joke. He just didn’t understand why I thought he was funny. He said, “I’m not funny.” I said, “Exactly. That’s why you’re funny.”

Will Harris (@NonStopPop) has a longstanding history of doing long-form interviews with random pop culture figures for the A.V. Club, Vulture, and a variety of other outlets, including Variety. He’s currently working on a book with David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. (And don’t call him Shirley.)

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