Paul Feig: ‘Everyone went cannibal over the female Ghostbusters. A lot of dudes were looking for a fight’

You have done more than almost any man alive to promote female‑led comedy. What has made this so close to your heart? Oroklini
I love funny women. I was an only child. I was close to my mom, who was very funny. I lived next door to a family of eight kids, six of whom were girls. Most of my friends were either girls or super-nerdy guys. When I got to Hollywood, I started hanging out with these funny women that I knew from when I was a standup comedian. When I went to see their movies, they just played the mean girlfriend. I thought: I don’t like this balance. I relate more to stories of funny women because they tend to be less aggressive and toxic. I was bullied so much as a kid that I would run to the girls for solace.

Do you believe comedy can still be laugh-out-loud funny with so many restrictions on what is and is not allowed, or do you believe that the muzzling of many topics restricts the scene? Sudikko
I’m not in the school of thought that political correctness has killed comedy. My only goal is to make people laugh and hopefully not offend anybody in the process. What offends people is making fun of things people can’t change, like their physical appearance, their race, their gender. But if you are just making jokes about extreme characters and the human condition, you can get away with a lot of stuff.

Considering the success of the US Office [Feig produced and directed 14 episodes], have you ever thought of taking another Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant idea, Extras, and making a US version with entrants such as Meryl Streep, Melissa McCarthy and John Cena? teabags12
It’s actually a really good idea to do an American version. The problem is, in America, it’s hard to do projects about showbiz because it’s hard for audiences not to root for the main character. Americans don’t like making fun of lead characters. That’s the biggest difference I’ve found between British and American comedy. Ricky Gervais’s Office is so funny because his character is really unlikable. British audiences enjoy taking the piss out of pompous lead characters who are not lovable. He’s an idiot because he doesn’t realise he’s offending people because he thinks he’s being funny. We soon realised that we had to make Steve Carell less mean-spirited. The first episode I directed was Office Olympics [season two, episode three], where he gets so upset that people went: “Oh, he does have a heart.”

You’re a well-dressed guy. Who’s doing the best men’s fashion right now? LABeachGuy
Men’s fashion is all over the place. Suiting is coming back. People are stepping up with jackets and we’re getting away from hypercasuals. There’s a lot of streetwear, which is always very popular. I definitely see people bringing more individual style. Am I always this immaculately turned out? Always! I’ll wear jeans with a sports coat or a nice leather jacket, but I do love a good suit. I get a lot of my suits from Anderson & Sheppard on Savile Row, but I also wear a lot of Ralph Lauren.

What’s your advice for a comedy writer trying to break into the industry? TheMikeDee
Write about situations and relationships you’ve been in, insecurities you’ve had, but put them in a bigger setting. If you went through a crazy relationship, put it in a dystopian sci-fi epic so that you’ve got more than just the actual things that inspired you. You then have those characters in an extreme situation and it’s the reacting that creates the comedy.

Jokes don’t necessarily get laughs because audiences are very aware when they’re being told a joke. I think it comes from YouTube, where we watch real people reacting to real events. If you have written comedy that feels silly, the audience don’t like it. That’s why The Office is so good, because it’s a behavioural comedy. There are tons of jokes in it, but they’re all sold very behaviourally.

What made you think Jason Statham would be so funny in Spy? PaulMariner
Crank and Crank 2. Those movies are bananas. I’m a huge Statham fan. I’ve seen every movie he’s ever done. I love him to death, but I always thought: I wonder if he could be funny. When you see Crank, you think: there’s no way that guy does not know this movie’s absurd. I thought: if he can go that nuts in a movie, he’s got to have a good sense of humour.

I had him come in to read some lines, just to see how they were playing. He said: “Should I play this funny?” I said: “Jason, if you’re going to try to be wacky, then I’m just going to tell you not to. You have to play this like the most serious movie you’ve ever done. And then it’s funny.”

Why did you make 2016’s Ghostbusters [starring McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones] a full-blown reboot that ignored the original films? Bengis
Bill [Murray] had publicly said he didn’t want to do another Ghostbusters at that point. Harold Ramis had died. Dan [Aykroyd] and Ernie [Hudson] were there, but half the team felt weird. It had been 30 years and Bill and the gang were so iconic; I didn’t want to do anything that hurt the original movies.

Related:On my radar: Paul Feig’s cultural highlights

The political climate of the time was really weird, with Hillary Clinton running for office in 2016. There were a lot of dudes looking for a fight. When I was getting piled on, on Twitter, I’d go back and see who they were. So many were Trump supporters. Then Trump came out against us. He was like: “They’re remaking Indiana Jones without Harrison Ford. You can’t do that. And now they’re making Ghostbusters with only women. What’s going on?” and got all upset. Everybody went fucking cannibal. It turned the movie into a political statement, as if to say: “If you’re pro-women, you’re going to go see this. If you’re not, then …” I didn’t think it mattered at all that the main characters were women, but people brought a lot of baggage.

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