Q&A: Success in Spades

Kirk Baird

Saturday, Dec. 30, 2000 | 2:12 a.m.

Known for his acerbic barbs and such "Saturday Night Live"-created characters as the "buh-bye" flight attendant and the irritating personal assistant ("And you are ... ?"), David Spade has a lot to be thankful for this holiday season.

First and foremost, Spade escaped a recent alleged attack with a stun gun from a personal assistant (although he didn't mention it in this interview.)

Then there's a successful run on the NBC sitcom "Just Shoot Me," in which he gets to cavort with supermodels; two new films, the recent "The Emperor's New Groove" and upcoming "The Adventures of Joe Dirt," which hits theaters in March. He also has an ongoing standup act, which brings him and his pal and former "SNL" alum, Dennis Miller, to the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts tonight.

Calling from Arizona, the state the Michigan native considers his home, the 36-year-old Spade recently talked to the Sun about "Dirt," which celebrities intimidate him and why movie critics haven't been kind to him.

Las Vegas Sun: In the film "Joe Dirt," you play a white-trash redneck from Arizona. How much of that is autobiographical?

David Spade: (Laughs) I was kind of a Joe Dirt, like I'd wear stuff in the movie that I wore growing up. Like cut-off Levi shorts and cowboy boots and half-shirts. I was kind of a Dirt, but this guy has that Billy Ray Cyrus haircut.

Sun: You wear one in the movie but, for the record, you never had Cyrus' 'do -- short on top, long in back -- otherwise known as a "mullet," in real life, right?

DS: I didn't. I couldn't rally it. I had long, white-blond hair and everyone thought I was a girl. They still do. Three times last month I was in a store and people were like, "Miss ... Ma'am." And I was going, "What?"

Sun: I read a quote where you said you are not cool. How have you fooled the public this long?

DS: My trick is if I have cool things around me, it's cool. So hangout with Kid Rock, buy a cool jacket, drive a nice car. All that stuff and then the nucleus becomes cool. It's really an optical illusion. That was the whole thing. My brother was cool in high school, and when I got there I was a little math whiz and everyone hated me in my school, and when all our schools merged, everyone was like, "Oh, that's Andy Spade's brother. He must be cool." And everyone from my old school was like, "No, he's a geek. You don't understand." It was too late. It was like a wildfire.

Sun: So now that you're on the record with your "uncoolness," is there a celebrity out there who intimidates you?

DS: Oh yeah. I still get pretty star-struck. I'd love to meet Bono from U2 still. I always wanted to when I was watching the tour and never got to. There's a bunch of people I'd be really freaked out to meet. When I saw Tom Cruise the first time, Harrison Ford. Some of these people are like total stars.

Sun: Does it blow your mind that somebody would say that about you?

DS: I guess, yeah. But I'm lucky. I get to see Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler and Chris Rock and all these guys and they're all really good and at the top of their game. And just the fact that I can be in the vicinity of these guys is really a big deal to me. That was always the thing, of just trying to see how far of a distance there was between me and all the people I liked.

Sun: You've gone from the highs of "Tommy Boy" and "The Emperor's New Groove" to the lows of "Lost & Found" and "8 Heads in a Duffel Bag." Why has your film success been mixed?

DS: I don't know. I love "Tommy Boy" still. I actually liked "Lost & Found." And I think (critics) came out of the woodwork to beat me up in "Lost & Found" and I didn't quiet understand why. These critics were like, "I was retired for three years, but I had to come out and hate this film."

Sun: Do you think there's some lingering animosity over some of your cutting remarks on "SNL"?

DS: Yeah, but still, the critics should say, "Good. He's out there saying stuff we want to say." I mean, I was out there lambasting whoever. It wasn't against them, they have no reason to get me back. I just think that they probably say, "Oh, he dished it out ..." Which is fine.

Sun: In the last few years you've toned down the sarcasm considerably. Why is that?

DS: It just got old. That was really funny for me then. And then when it got too common and too predictable, I was like, "Well, I've got to do something else now." Even (the "SNL" skit) "Hollywood Minute," I think, was good because there were different ways of doing those kind of burns, and when people do it back to me it's not quite as clever. It's not just stupid jokes, it's actually thought out (stuff) that was a blast. I stopped doing it because I was like, "OK, did that. Now what else?"

Sun: When your films were flopping ...

DS: Oooowwwww.

Sun: Sorry. But did you ever feel like you were in danger of becoming a parody of yourself, as had happened to other "SNL" alums?

DS: I think you've just got to keep working. Like athletes, the average movie star or TV star makes his lifelong career money in four years, which is what all the business managers and accountants agree on. If you can get past that four years and still make money to have any longevity -- you can't stay on top forever, but you can always make some money. I just try to think of different ways to be funny. "Joe Dirt" will be fun and "Just Shoot Me" is going well ... I'll just keep going until whenever.