TOC's cultural heroes: Harold Ramis

Editor’s note: This is the third expanded interview with one of our 40 cultural heroes: The icons of Chicago who keep this city’s artistic pulse steady. TOC Film writer spoke with writer/director Harold Ramis via phone about his history in Chicago, his thoughts on the state of film comedy, and his favorite Chicago place.

TOC: So I hear I’m supposed to call you “Dame Harold”?
Harold Ramis: [Laughs.] What?

TOC: Time Out London is having Dame Judi Dench for their anniversary issue [so your publicist mentioned]...
Harold Ramis:Please don’t call me Dame Harold.

TOC: Do you have a quintessential Chicago moment?
Harold Ramis: I’ve had a bunch, you know? And this is long-winded…I grew up in Chicago, went away to college for five years, and moved back in—this is like fall of ’67. Drove a cab and taught school when I moved back, and then started freelancing for the Chicago Daily News, then became an editor at Playboy and then got on stage at Second City. So there was an overlap—for about six months, I was doing eight shows a week at Second City and working 40 hours a week as an editor at Playboy. And living at State and Walton and then State and Schiller. And I was only like 23 at the time. Having grown up in Chicago, I thought I’d really nailed it. I had two of the best jobs you could have in this city, and I was having them at the same time. So that was pretty powerful for me.

TOC: Do you have a favorite Chicago place?
Harold Ramis: [Long thought.] Well, I love downtown—I love the whole lakefront downtown. But a hangout you mean?

TOC: It doesn’t have to be anything. It could be an alley. Could be some unsung block that’s never gotten its due.
Harold Ramis: Mr. Beef on Orleans.

TOC: Mr. Beef? Do you have a favorite Mr. Beef moment?
Harold Ramis: No, I don’t. Being recognized in there, though, is pretty cool. I think they have De Niro’s picture up on the…they realized I was associated with De Niro from Analyze This and Analyze That. My picture might even be up there, now that I think about it.

TOC: Do you have a Chicago hero?
Harold Ramis: Maybe Clarence Darrow.

TOC: Why—not necessarily why Clarence Darrow, but why would you, particularly, pick Clarence Darrow?
Harold Ramis: Oh, just being an old lefty myself. I came of age during the ’68 convention and was raised on stories of the labor struggle and the Haymarket Riot and American socialism. Darrow was in there defending every great liberal idea.

TOC: Are you psyched for the [Democratic National] convention?
Harold Ramis: Oh, man. Yeah. Well, I hope it’s not too bloody. When’s it start—do you know what time?

TOC: I think coverage starts at 7. I don’t know whether the convention itself starts at 7 or whether that’s just the start of the commentary.
Harold Ramis: Let me give you a better Chicago moment. When I was working at Playboy, when the Playboy Mansion was still in Chicago—this was like ’69, I guess—the entire cast of Hair was in the basement swimming pool nude, singing “Let The Sunshine In.”

TOC: I don’t know that anyone’s going to top that.
Harold Ramis: That was quite a moment. It was a great Chicago moment, it was a great late-’60s moment, it was a great personal moment.

TOC: Do you have five favorite Chicago movies—or movie moments?
Harold Ramis: That would be movie-attendance moments?

TOC: More moments in movies, but movie-attendance moments would be good too. Do you have a particular anecdote in mind?
Harold Ramis: No. When I was young, there was a theater called the Clark that had double features—it was a revival house. You’d see two movies for a quarter. [Laughs.]

TOC: Where was it?
Harold Ramis: It was on Clark Street downtown, in the Loop.

TOC: You used to go there often?
Harold Ramis: Yeah, we used to go—people would go there late. And it would be a combination of the movie aficionados and homeless people or alcoholics sleeping it off.

TOC: I think that goes down as another Chicago moment—or set of moments.
Harold Ramis: And shooting in Chicago—I love shooting [here]. I did some location work on the Al Franken movie I directed [Stuart Saves His Family] downtown. That was a lot of fun. And on Groundhog Day we did some shooting in the city.

TOC: And Ice Harvest you used the northern suburbs?
Harold Ramis: Yeah. We didn’t get into the city much.

TOC: Which character of yours—or not necessarily of yours, but in one of your movies—do you most identify with?
Harold Ramis: I like to think they’re all versions of me. I’m half Egon [from Ghostbusters] and half the idiot in Stripes, Russell.

TOC: Did you see any of the comedies that came out this summer?
Harold Ramis: Oh yeah.

TOC: Tropic Thunder or Pineapple Express? I read in a Believer interview you did a couple of years ago that you have no use to stoner comedies.
Harold Ramis: Who said that?

TOC: Maybe I’m taking that out of context a little bit.
Harold Ramis: I might have been referring specifically to a couple…Well, I can’t comment freely, but I was not a fan of The Zohan or of The Love Guru. But I did like Tropic Thunder. I liked Step Brothers pretty much—it was okay. I wasn’t crazy about any of them. I thought Superbad last year was really good, and Knocked Up [in which Ramis has a small role] was pretty good. [Editor's note: After this interview, Ramis confirmed he's working on a sequel to Ghostbusters with Knocked Up director Judd Apatow.]

TOC: Do you think that comedy onscreen has changed over the years, in some sort of quantifiable way?
Harold Ramis: I think the ideas are the same.  There’s still a lot of male-bonding comedy, there’s still a lot of romantic comedy. But the kind of hard-core comedy—the comedy that really goes for it, the laugh-out-loud kind of comedy that I’ve always aspired to—that school has gotten a lot cruder than it was, I think as society’s gotten more frank.

TOC: Than it was, when in particular?
Harold Ramis: Even when—Animal House was considered rough stuff in ’78. But now, they’ve gone way, way past.

TOC: Do you have favorite movies that were set in Chicago?
Harold Ramis: Give me a hint. [Laughs.] Chicago was set in Chicago but shot in Toronto, but you didn’t see much of the city. The Dark Knight is a Chicago movie, but not really.

TOC: The Fugitive?
Harold Ramis: Fugitive was good—that was good. I thought they made good use of the city. I’m sure I’m leaving something out. Some great Chicago movie.

TOC: Call Northside 777?
Harold Ramis: [Laughs.] I don’t think anyone’s made a great movie about Chicago yet—where you really felt Chicago was an important player in the movie. I can’t think of any.

TOC: One quote I like of yours that was actually in that same Believer interview—you were talking about people who don’t want to think when they go to the movies, and you said, Why don’t you just shoot yourself in the fucking head? Do you want to elaborate on that?
Harold Ramis: Well, people are always thinking. It goes so counter to something that was practically inscribed over the door at Second City—something Bernie Sahlins said. He said, “Always work at the top of your intelligence.” But I kind of generalize it, too—you know, “Always live at the top of your intelligence.” Why wouldn’t people aspire to be as smart or thoughtful as they could possibly be? It can only enhance your understanding or appreciation of the world. I think what people are really saying when they say they don’t want to think—they don’t want to think about their problems.

TOC: Would it be fair to say that’s the chief lesson you took from Second City, or is that stretching?
Harold Ramis: That was a good one. No, that was a good one. That was big.

TOC: Any others?
Harold Ramis: Well, Del Close used to say—to counter the kind of stand-up mentality of every man for himself—he would say, if everyone on stage [would] just concentrate on making everyone else look really good, then we will all succeed together, or we’ll fail together. Either way, that’s a better lesson for the audience.

TOC: One last question. Right now you’re working on Year One? Anything else?
Harold Ramis: We’re pretty up to our ears in this one. We’re about to have our second preview, we’ll probably do some reshoots, then we gotta do post-production. That won’t be out until next June, though, so I’ll have a good break to think about—to try out something else. But not ’til after New Year’s. I think we won’t finish the picture until Christmas or so.

TOC: And the information on that as far as plot summary—
Harold Ramis: Oh, it’s Jack Black, Michael Cera—

TOC: —that’s all accurate, though, in terms of what’s on IMDb?
Harold Ramis: Oh, yes. Well, it’s Jack Black, Michael Cera—we have a bunch of other really great people. David Cross and Hank Azaria and Oliver Platt. [Black and Cera] are two of the laziest hunter-gatherers in the tribe, venturing out into the ancient world.