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Q&A // TUCKER MAX because we have questions, celebrities have answers.
Tucker Max has made a living out of being an asshole. His 2006 New York Times bestseller, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, is a personal narrative of numerous alcohol-induced incidents and conquests of not-so-nicely-named women. And now the profane comedy is being introduced to 31 college campuses across the nation as a movie based on one of the book's stories. The movie opens nationwide tomorrow.
I wrote a scathing review of the book last year, but as I found myself sitting on his tour bus for this interview, my mind began to change. He didn't seem like such a jerk after all. Where was this straight-shooting, self-absorbed womanizer? I found out in his responses about fame, fortune and life on board the Tucker Max tour bus.
Jayplay How's the tour going so far and what do you think of Lawrence in general?
Tucker Max I knew the tour would go good,
I knew the fans would love the movie, but
I didn't know the rest of the world would
figure it out so quickly. Lawrence is about
what I expected: hot girls, bad drinkers. No,
I'm just teasing. Actually, my buddy was a Beta and did undergrad at KU so I came here when he got married at the chapel on campus. It's a fun city.
JP. How much creative input did you have and how involved were you in the movie?
TM: Nils Parker and I wrote the script, picked the director and cast the actors. The final cut is our cut, so we were the beginning and end of all creative decisions. If this thing is a success, Nils and I will answer to no one else the rest of our lives, except for our fans.
JP. What was it like seeing Matt Czuchry play you in the movie?
TM: Once you do something enough you get tired of it and I had seen it so many times so it wasn't that weird. Matt took the character in a different, better direction. Movie Tucker is a lot more likeable and redeemable than I am in real life. Like I can be a lot of fun, but I'm really a fucking dick.
JP: And you had to have a cameo as the best man ...
TM: Of course I did. I'm a narcissist. I have to be in my own fucking movie.
JP In one of your stories from I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, you say, "at 21 I was possibly the worst person in existence, I was narcissistic and self-absorbed to the point of psychotic delusion." Have you changed at all?
TM: The book isn't about the narcissism so much, it's just funny stories. But the movie is about the fallout and how my behavior impacts my friends, and what I have to do when it gets to the point where they don't want to be friends with me and how I fix that situation. Look, I'm 33. If I hadn't grown up at all that would be fucking weird and awful. I've definitely changed, I've definitely matured and I've learned how to empathize and how to outthink my narcissism to some extent.
JP: When you wrote the book, did you think about the people who wouldn't appreciate it?
TM: The people who hate you, generally speaking, hate you for their own reasons. I love them because one, your enemies are always the first to find your faults, second is because I love being hated because it's like Eminem said: "It lets me know that I made it." No one hates someone who's anonymous. Every time they write about me it's like throwing a gasoline-soaked log on the raging inferno that is my ego.
JP. Do you ever look back or re-read stories and have regrets?
TM: If you don't have regrets that means you haven't lived life. Just because the stories are funny doesn't mean they're right. I had to fail a lot and learn a lot of painful lessons and do a lot of introspective self-examination, which means looking at what you're doing and being honest with yourself about it.
JP. Where do you think you would be if you wouldn't have written the book or made the movie?
TM: I don't know what I would've done, I know what I did. I wanted to be a fucking star, and I wanted to stand in the pantheon among the greats.
Photo by Adam Buhler
Hey, at least he's honest: Tucker Max's it looks may have earned him a bad reputation, but he doesn't deny some of his unfavorable traits: A story from his book; I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, has been made into a movie of the same title. The movie hits theaters tomorrow.
Why do you think some people hate you?
TM: I mean there are plenty of reasons to not like me — I'm self-centered and I care more about my own happiness than anyone else's to a bad degree. Sometimes I cross the line to meanness, like tonight when I said an audience member looked like a keg with a hat on. It was funny, but still kind of mean.
JP Why do you think some people hate you?
JP: What are you looking for in a girl?
TM: I'm a fucking brilliant, complicated dude.
It's going to take a very smart, very strong woman to match up to me. It's not just about the checklist, it's about being in the right place. I can't tell you how many girls met me when I was 21 and they were smart enough to see the man I would become in a few years but they tried to change me into
that, and now the road to Tucker Max is littered with their broken souls. They gave a lot to me before I was ready to give a lot back and they got burned. What they should've learned is that you can't change a dude.
// KELCI SHIPLEY
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