Michael Grecco
Filmmakers Brent Hodge and Derik Murray traveled to Madison last June to roll the cameras on I Am Chris Farley, a documentary film that celebrates the life of a recognizable face from Saturday Night Live, Tommy Boy and Beverly Hills Ninja.
A man who lived to make people laugh, Madison native Farley tried hard and was more successful than not. He died tragically of a drug overdose in 1997, at age 33.
From day one of production, the Farley family embraced the filmmakers, says Hodge. With the involvement of Farley’s brother Kevin, who also serves as a producer, Hodge and Murray got deeper into discovering what Farley was like off camera. They learned he was always in character as himself.
“The Chris Farley you get in movies is the Chris Farley you got in college, high school and middle school,” says Hodge. “When you yell cut, he was the same guy with the same kind of shenanigans.”
As the film shows, Farley had an eventful life, operating at full speed.
Hodge and Murray tracked down Farley’s old Marquette University college buddies as well as some more famous friends like Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels and comics/actors Adam Sandler, David Spade, Dan Aykroyd, Mike Myers, Bob Saget and Christina Applegate.
The accumulated stories and memories reveal the impact Farley left on their lives as a fellow comedian and as a friend. Much of the power of I Am Chris Farley, though, comes from the participation of his family. With access to the family archive, the filmmakers were able to add home video footage and photographs to complement the stories.
Although much of the film is a celebration of the life and work of Farley, the filmmakers don’t shy away from the dark side, namely his struggle with addiction.
“Success in show business doesn’t always create the best versions of people,” Saget says in a striking moment of the film. Murray agrees that Farley’s success was both a blessing and a curse.
Farley debuted the character of motivational speaker “Matt Foley” at Second City.
“He moved very quickly from Madison to Second City [in Chicago],” says Murray. “That’s a giant leap to get to that stage. All of sudden he’s on SNL, and a few short years later, he’s the star of movies. That all happened within seven years. The pressures that come with that can be overwhelming for any of us.”
“It was very tough for him,” Murray adds. “There were times that he was able to contend with it and perform at the highest level, but there were moments where he couldn’t. He was really all on his own trying to fight it, and he didn’t win.”
I Am Chris Farley premiered July 27 at Second City. Hodge and Murray say it was a full venue and an emotional night.
The documentary will get its Madison premiere at the Orpheum Theater on Aug. 8, with the Farley family in attendance for the theater’s first film screening in three years. It will also air on Spike TV on the night of Aug. 10 and be available via video on demand and iTunes Aug. 11.
Kevin Farley has seen the film. After watching it for the first time, it took him two hours to recover.
“[Kevin] felt strongly that we had really represented Chris, his joy and love of life,” Hodge says. “He was very proud of his brother because the cast that we assembled, each and every one of them, helped tell the story of Chris in such a way that there’s a lot of love, a lot of respect and a lot of sadness that Chris is no longer with us.”
Though Farley has been dead for nearly 18 years, he still has passionate fans who celebrate his work.
“They can recite lines from Tommy Boy. They can tell you about their favorite SNL sketch,” Murray says. “He puts a smile on their face when you mention his name."