By Paul Hall
Pete Schwaba is not your normal Hollywood star. His roots start in the Midwest where he was born and raised. He moved from Chicago to Northern Wisconsin before heading back to Chicago to attend Depaul University.
Schwaba takes the helm as writer/director/star of The Godfather of Green Bay, opening in 14 theaters in Wisconsin this weekend.
Pete is an extremely agreeable and tireless promoter of his new film and in fact took a seemingly endless amount of time to talk with myself and Van McNeil (Host of the Van McNeil show heard daily from 3-8 on 99WMYX in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) about The Godfather of Green Bay. After a long day traveling to many TV and Radio Stations, Pete gave us all the time we needed and then some to just chat.
His story follows comic Joe Keegan (played by Schwaba) as he travels from LA to Wisconsin with the slimmest hope of performing before a booker for the Tonight Show. Pete explained that his character is like the “Rocky Balboa of comedy.” He was pegged for stardom and just never got the big break he needed. With a background in stand up comedy himself, when asked how closely the Keegan character resembled his own life he admitted, “those were a couple of my real jokes in there…the two that people laughed at.” “That was kinda my life for 9 years, I mean…I worked all over the country”, Pete related
So how did this first time director get to work with a cast that included Lauren Holly, Tony Goldwyn, Tom Lennon and more? It just came together for him. Holly arrived in the picture courtesy of a friend that passed the script on to her, and Goldwyn came in as “Big Jake” for the 5 days he shot with a great attitude and because he really liked what Schwaba had put together for a script. Despite being a first time director, he didn’t experience any of the star attitudes from the cast. “The first movie I’m directing, I really wanted to work with good people…we kinda had a no A-hole policy you know it turns out everybody was great and we didn’t have one problem with the cast.” That’s truly impressive for a first time director, and especially since he got them all to Wisconsin for much of the filming of the project. The respect that Pete expressed about his co-stars including Lance Barber, Eric Price and Rob Martin as well as the more well known members, can only mean that other actors will be up for working with him in the future.
In fact even the music for the film comes from Wisconsin natives, The Bodeans. Pete dropped an e-mail to the group only to receive a return call from Kurt Neumann’s wife saying sure and come on out to the Weidner Center in Green Bay when we are both in town over the holidays and the rest, shall we say, is history.
Although a low budget film, I told Pete I think the hair folks got most of the money to craft an excellent mullet for Tony Goldwyn. In fact instead of taking it off every day he walked around Pete’s hometown with the mullet on for the 5 days of shooting. I couldn’t believe that if you were paying attention you may have seen Tony Goldwyn walking around a little town in Wisconsin with a mullet. But that is the kind of fun stories that come out of a low budget film when everyone works together like an extended family for a time. No matter who you are, there’s no time for egos when everyone you know has contributed to get the project off the ground.
Only in the lore of independent film can you get the stories like Tony Goldwyn wearing his mullet for days on end, and Pete mentions that everybody had a blast, “everybody just hung out and had a good time, it sounds really cliché…but…it really was like a big family.” Schwaba seems to take delight in the way the group of actors came together on the set.
But the best piece of behind the scenes knowledge that Pete relays was about a certain dance that Tony Goldwyn had to learn for his role as Big Jake. Pete shared, “one of the most surreal moments in my whole life was watching Tony learn the Macarena in my sister’s garage being taught by the hit man who knew it and all these beautiful Hooters waitresses were up there.” Pete exclaimed, “This is so odd, the guy from Ghost is doing the Macarena in my sister’s garage in the North Woods of Wisconsin.”
Schwaba has other projects in the works and one can only hope that Hollywood sees the ability that those of us in the Midwest can see. Pete’s tireless work promoting the film is just one small piece of the Midwestern sensibilities that can be found in him. His family should be proud that while he retains his Midwestern roots, Pete Schwaba has Hollywood caliber abilities. Let’s just hope Hollywood doesn’t make him wait as long as his character in The Godfather of Green Bay.
© 2006 Paul Hall, All Rights Reserved
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