Corey Feldman Waited 20 Years To Celebrate ‘The Birthday’

Corey Feldman’s career as an actor is – for better or worse – generally defined by the work that he did during the ‘80s, and when examining his back catalog from that decade, it’s undeniably filled with some true cinematic classics, including Gremlins, The Goonies, The Lost Boys, The ‘Burbs, and – to include a couple of cult outliers as well – License to Drive and Dream a Little Dream. Once you get into the ‘90s and beyond, however, it would be fair to say that there’s…somewhat less consistency on the quality front. 

There is a very dramatic exception to that rule in 2004, however, but it’s one that virtually no one outside of Spain knew anything about until recently: it’s a film called The Birthday, directed by Eugenio Mira. If you know Mira’s work at all, you probably know his 2013 film Grand Piano, starring Elijah Wood and John Cusack, about a concert pianist who is informed that if he plays one wrong note during his performance, he will be taken out by a sniper. The Birthday was Mira’s feature-length debut as a director, and it was critically acclaimed upon its release in Spain, but due to reasons which had nothing to do with Mira or Feldman – in an interview with Salon, Feldman placed the blame on an executive producer who “didn’t want to accept any offer that was not a full refund of his expenses to make it theatrical” – the film never made its way to any sort of release in the US, UK, or anywhere else outside of Spain.

Finally, however, the situation has changed: thanks to a little help from Jordan Peele, who featured The Birthday during an event at Lincoln Center, the film secured enough buzz that not only is it finally getting not only a brief theatrical release via Drafthouse Films, but it’s also being released to streaming platforms. In conjunction with this unexpected development, Feldman has been doing some press for the film, hence his conversation with Decider, and while the majority of the conversation was understandably geared toward The Birthday, we took advantage of critics describing the film as “Lynchian” to also ask Feldman about his work with the late Jack Nance, a frequent David Lynch collaborator who worked alongside Feldman a few times as well.

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DECIDER: Given how long it’s been since The Birthday was originally made, had you reached a point where you thought it might never see a US release?

COREY FELDMAN: No. 

You hadn’t?

No, the mystery and the unique factor of all of this is the fact that there was a promise that I made to Eugenio Mira 20 years ago: someday, someway, whether it was through a revival in my own career or a high point in his, this film would find its way, and when it found its way, it would be in theaters. I don’t know how I had this internal knowledge, if you will, but whether you call it faith or a solid firm belief system or moral fabric, whatever you want to call it, there was this instinct, this gut knowledge inside of me that this movie will find its way, and when it does, it will find its way the way it’s meant to, because it has to be experienced in a theater.

Now, that doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable on a home screen. It is. And those of you now have the opportunity after 20 years to finally see it on a streaming platform, and most people these days have fairly decent sound systems and fairly decent screening rooms for themselves even in the most odd of places. I’ve been to people’s houses in Alabama, and they have these terrific screening rooms. You never know, right? So all over the world, people have built themselves 5.1, 7.1, surround-sound, whatever, great screening rooms to watch things. So it’s do-able. It’s possible. But the way it’s meant to be seen, the way it deserves to be seen, and the way it’s best delivered is in a theater with amazing sound, with amazing capabilities as far as the screen that you’re watching it on. Because it’s not just about watching it big. The film was shot in 70mm anamorphic widescreen. And that, in and of itself, begs for a certain caliber screen and a certain dynamic setting in which to watch the film. But it lives up to it. It’s worth the experience if you can find the theater that’s playing it and make it happen. It’s certainly worth experiencing it in that way. That said, as with most films, it can be enjoyed on your tablet if you have no other option. [Laughs.]

Well, I can confirm that even while watching a screener of the film on Vimeo, it was still enthralling.

Well, that’s good!

So let’s take it back to when you actually made The Birthday. How did you cross paths with Eugenio in the first place? Did he reach out to you, or was it an audition?

We were both at the homeless shelter together, and we thought, “You know, one of these days we’re gonna get out of here, and we’re gonna make a movie together!” [Laughs.] No, actually, he was living in Spain, he was 26 years old, and he had a writing partner, Mikel Alvariño, and they were college students, basically, who came out of college and decided to work on this project together. And they called me because they had a fever-dream idea that was, like, “Hey, we’re gonna get this Hollywood icon, Corey Feldman, to come star in our movie!” Which to them kind of sounded like a fantasy, for fun, and I don’t think they actually expected that we would answer the phone when they called. But when I read the script, I immediately realized that it was brilliant, and that the character was calling to me as something that….I already knew him. It was somebody I knew. It was so well-drawn and laid out as a character that I immediately recognized, “This is how the guy would operate, this is how he would speak, these are his mannerisms…” It all was there in my mind as I read it, but on top of that, I was immediately captivated by the script, by the pace of the script, the fact that I wanted to keep turning to the next page, finding out what was going to happen next. I love scripts like that. They keep you kind of on the edge of your seat. And if you can get that effect and that feeling from just reading a script, then you know that you’re really gonna get it when it’s done right as a film.

Obviously, anybody who’s writing a script like this would have already in his mind a great idea of how he wanted to capture it. So when I had the first phone call with Eugenio, that’s when I knew immediately that he knew what it took to create this film. I immediately recognized that he was knowledgeable enough about the arts as pop culture references, as history of watching and being a fan of film and cinema, but also cinematographically that he was artistically capable of doing what needed to be done. So I could tell right away that he knew what he was doing and that he was not some kid who was just playing around with toys. He was obviously an artistic person who had great sensibility. So that was really the choice. Can the guy deliver if I take this chance and I go off to Spain, to the middle of the country somewhere, and launch myself full throttle into this adventure? Which basically meant three months living in a morgue which was transformed from a living, working hospital into a series of soundstages that eventually evolved into a full-blown studio. At the time, though, it was still half a fully functioning hospital! And they built the entire hotel set within the other half. 

So I was throwing myself into that kind of environment, where I was to be there literally from morning ’til night, 12-15 hours, sometimes 18 hours a day, six days a week, for three months. Because that was the kind of grueling schedule we needed to be on to get the film complete, and at the same time, because of the fact that this film is so unique in the sense that it’s truistic in its form. Meaning that it starts in real-time and ends in real-time following my character’s adventures, which puts him at the center of every single shot of the film, which cinematically has not been done before. It was the first time that anybody’s tried to achieve a real-time experience with the main character being in every single shot of the film. And doing so is a huge commitment, especially when you’re doing a character that’s not in any way connected to you as a person and becomes an extension of self where you’re actually removed from self for such a long portion of every day. It was to the point where my pregnant wife at the time would be, like, “Hey, can you come back? I need to speak to my husband, and I don’t really want to talk to Norman for the rest of the night.” [Laughs.] That sort of thing. So, yeah, it was quite the endeavor. 

You spoke of choices a moment ago. You made a distinct one with your delivery in this film. Was that a decision you made, or did you discuss it with Eugenio?

Well, again, it all came to me like a thunderbolt. I don’t make choices, per se, when it comes to creating and crafting a character. I read it off the page. Although I’m not credited, I did help a lot with the actual writing of the written page for this film because of the translation factor and the fact that these were two guys in Spain writing about America. So I needed to come in and write pop culture references and things that made it uniquely authentic for its time and its period and the pop culture references around it, things like that. So we did some writing sessions, and in those writing sessions I further developed the character in my own mind. But the director and writer actually never saw that character until day one of filming, and that was for a reason. Because I wanted to keep that kind of in my back pocket as my little secret, because I didn’t want to frighten them and make them think, “Oh, my God, what if this is too much? What if it’s over the top?” 

Because it was such a delicate dance of a balance, creating this character Norman, and the voice and the nervous tics and the physical mannerisms and everything that went with them. I mean, if you really watch the person, the character Norman, it’s so much of a departure for me as…me. [Laughs.] You know, the way I move, the way I talk, everything about him, it’s a complete departure. And so to do that, it’s obviously a risk on my end that I’m going to be able to make it all work and that those connective tissues are going to flow properly and they’re going to fit together the right way from scene to scene and throughout the course of the temperature and the tone of the film, where we’re going, what’s happening in that moment, where it’s coming from, where it’s leading back to. Because you’re obviously not shooting everything in context, so everything is disjointed, and you have to be able to pick up those little pieces in a way that’s seamless, so that it appears that, hey, if I walk out of this room and I’m neurotic and nervous, and then I come back in the next time you see me on this set as emboldened and strong… Well, what made that transformation? So the scenes in between have to characterize that transformation. So things like that made it so much more complicated and involved, because – again – the camera never goes off of the character, and if the camera never goes off the character, then every transition has to be seen emotionally and intelligently in real-time. It can’t be separated and thought about, like, “Oh, well, we can assume that he got to this place.” No, you have to literally see every emotional change in the character as you process the evening and as you proceed through the evening.

Well, I will say that, for your sake, I really wish this film had come out properly when it was made, because it’s really a great performance. Hopefully you’ll see some effect on your career from this film finally getting a release.

Well, thank you. Listen, I stay out of the results. [Laughs.] So I don’t think that I’m missing anything. I think everything happens the way it’s meant to. I have no regrets. Everything happens the way God intends, I believe, and if it’s God’s intention for everybody to see this film and for people to appreciate my work in it, then that’s what it’ll be. But going back to that, the idea or the concept that this movie would one day get its justice, its due diligence, and one day it would see the light of the day… All of that I felt absolutely 100% an affirmation of such. And even when everybody said, “This is impossible, it’s done, it didn’t happen, it missed its mark, it didn’t make it,” I would always tell Eugenio and other people around me, “It’s gonna happen eventually. It’s only a matter of time. But within the next 20 years, I promise you, somehow, someway, this film will make its way to theaters.” And here we are, and it’s in theaters. And not only is it in theaters, it’s also streaming, so everybody gets a chance to see it. So we’re just thrilled. Yes, maybe it took a little bit longer than it should’ve, but thanks to the good will of Jordan Peele and Ian Cooper and the people at Monkey Paw who believed in it and got behind us, and of course the wonderful people at Drafthouse who believed in it enough to to take the risk to do all of this, to the people who created it with us…We’re just very grateful for everybody involved and the fact that here we are, 20 years later, and people finally know what we’re talking about when we say, “My movie, The Birthday.” [Laughs.]

So the story is that you invited Jordan Peele over to your house to watch the film, and that’s kind of what kicked off the series of events that led to this release. Did you actually know him before then, or did you just know that he was a horror buff?

Well, I never really considered the film a horror film, first of all. I considered it more of a romantic comedy. Romantic dark comedy. With some sci-fi and thriller or horror edges to it. But that wasn’t really it. So what happened was that I had been hearing a rumor that Jordan was a fan, and people had been sending me these little snapshots on my phone of Jordan making different appearances on talk shows, and he was acknowledging me and mentioning my name and saying that he was inspired by my work, which I took, of course, as a huge compliment. I was blown away! 

 So I guess it was not long after that when I was invited to the Nope premiere, and that was right after COVID, so everybody was still a little bit sheepish about going out. I guess it was…the summer of 2022? People were still wearing their masks, but I decided to go anyway, because I got this random invitation. And when I got there, I still didn’t catch on that it was Jordan who invited me, so I was kind of not really knowing why I was there. I just figured they were starting up premieres again, and it was kind of hard to get people to come out, so they figured, “Hey, we’ll ask Corey! Maybe he’ll come!” [Laughs.] Or something like that. But when I got there, I was, like, “Oh, maybe I got the invite from Jordan!”

So I went up to thank him, and we took a picture together, and at that time, he said, “Hey, my phone is in my pocket. Would you mind putting your hand in my pocket and grabbing my phone and texting yourself a message?” That was because his arm was around me and we were taking a picture together. [Laughs.] And I said, “Sure, okay.” So I picked up the phone and I texted a mesasge, and later that night he got back with me, and that kind of started our friendship. And we immediately became fast friends and saw eye to eye on a lot of pop culture references and things like that, our love for art and great stuff from music to comedy to film to whatever. We just started riffing on all of it. And, of course, my appreciation for his work, and his appreciation for my work, all of that kind of stuff. 

But through that conversation, which went on for several days, he at some point said, “Is there any regret that you have? Or anything that you wish that you could’ve gotten out to the world but it never made it?” Something like that. And I said, “Well, yeah, there’s this film that I love so much that unfortunately has been sitting kind of on a shelf. It did come out in Europe, but it was never released in America on any format, and it’s a shame. I’d really love people to see it.” And he said, “Well, what’s it called?” I said, “The Birthday.” And he said, “Well, is there a way I can see it?” And I said, “Not really, because I have one copy on DVD, but that copy is literally the only copy, and if I send it out and I don’t get it back, I may never be able to see the movie again, because the only copy that really exists is in Germany, where they sell it on Amazon, but it’s an edited version, so it’s only 90 minutes, and the full version is 117 minutes. So I wouldn’t be able to part with my 117-minute version, just in case there’s a chance that I couldn’t get it back. But if you want to come over and watch it, I’m more than happy to show it to you at my house.” And he said, “Sure!” So I said, “Cool!”

So he came over to my house with his producing partner, Ian Cooper, and I showed them the film, and when the film ended, Jordan looked at me and said, “Corey, I have to tell you, this is a cinematic masterpiece, and I think it’s your finest performance, and I think that it’s a complete disservice to your fans and to the rest of the world if you don’t let them see it.” And I said, “Well, it’s not my call!” [Laughs.] “I’d love to let them see it, but I have no way to let them do that!” And he said, “Well, I have a feeling that this movie is going to get a release. I have a feeling that it’s going to get out there somehow, and it’s going to get into the hearts and the minds of everybody that wants to see it.” And I said, “From your lips to God’s ears!” And he said, “Well, this is going to be Corey Feldman’s year. I have a feeling.” I said, “Really? Well, that’s also good to hear. Are you psychic, I guess?” But he was right. 

A few months later, he called me up and he said, “I’m doing a film series at the Lincoln Center, and I would like to include The Birthday, if I have your permission, along with a couple of your other films, because I’m doing a film series about what inspired my movie Nope.” And it ended up being a couple of my films, and a couple of Michael Jackson films, and a couple of other things, like…King Kong was one of them. And the very first film ever made, which was a jockey riding a horse. Things like that. So anyway, he included all of those, and then he included The Birthday as the last piece of the series at the Lincoln Center at the Met…and it sold out two shows in a row. And we were, like, “Wow! Okay, didn’t see that coming!” And because of that, we got some offers from distributors, and…here we are!

Okay, I know we have to wrap this up, but I have one last question. During watching the film, I thought of it as feeling very Lynchian, which is an adjective that I know other people have used as well, but it also reminded me that I wanted to ask you if you’d discuss your time working with Jack Nance.

Well, I actually worked with Jack on two films, so Jack and I knew each other pretty well and spent some good time together. Great guy, really a sweetheart of a man. Tragic story, though. I first worked with him on Happy Campers, which was the name of the film that we did together which later was licensed and sold as Meatballs 4. But the film that we both signed on to do and were contracted to do was a quirky dark comedy called Happy Campers, which was later edited differently and turned into a cheesy T&A spin-off of Meatballs. But the great Bentley Mitchum starred in that movie with me – that’s Robert Mitchum’s grandson – along with Jack Nance and Sarah Douglas. It was actually a pretty good cast of real actors before they decided to sell it out. [Laughs.] But that’s a whole other story. I’m a little touchy on that one. Whenever they forsake art for sleaze and take the easy way out, it always pisses me off.

Anyway, Jack was on it, and it was a great casting choice, because he was obviously a wildly different type of actor. And he was very sober during that. He’d been a longtime alcoholic. He had a big problem with alcohol, and he told me many of his stories about how he struggled. He told me how he was walking down Hollywood Boulevard and realized that there were three films in theaters where his name was on the poster, and he actually walked into the theater, saw his name, and said, “That’s me! What am I doing in that thing?” He was so out of his own mind that he didn’t even realize that he was a big actor. So his career died, but then he got sober and got his life together. But during the filming of our movie, a tragedy happened: his wife committed suicide – on the phone with him! – while he was on the set. I mean, it was probably one of the most horrific things that I’ve ever experienced on a set, ever, him having to go through that. It was just a tragic thing. So he left for a few days, but then he came back to complete the film like a hero.

And then we went and shot Voodoo together, which was was brilliant in. Unfortunately, he relapsed by that time, so it was a little bit tougher of a situation. Obviously, how can you blame the guy? He had a wife, he’d gotten his life together, he was sober and going to 12-step meetings and all that stuff…and then that tragedy happened, and of course, he kind of fell apart. And after that, unfortunately, he was on the streets again, and he got murdered and…just a tragic, tragic story of  such a brilliant actor and a wonderful human. Just a really nice, sweet guy. I’m glad you asked. I’ve never really had a chance to talk about him much, but he was a great man.

[Just as a point of clarification, Nance’s death was not actually ruled a homicide. Per an article in the L.A. Times written at that time, “The 53-year-old actor…was punched in the head during a fight with two men Sunday at a doughnut shop, said Deputy Mark Bailey of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department. Homicide detectives said Nance had blunt-force head injuries, but the cause of death has not been determined, Bailey said.” – WH]

I know we have to close, but I’m glad we had a chance to talk, and as I said, I really enjoyed the film as well as your performance. I’m glad it’s finally getting out there.

Thanks, man. Good talking to you!

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The Birthday is now playing in select theaters, and you can also stream it on Prime Video, Apple TV, and more.

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 also collaborated on Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!, a book with David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. (And don’t call him Shirley.)