I had the bright idea that I would let Schlosser know I didn’t love the movie that was made from his best-selling novel Fast Food Nation, and then we’d get on with it. As you can see below, it didn’t quite go that way. —Annie Wagner

THE STRANGER: I should say right off that I’m not the hugest fan of the movie, but I do love the book, so…

ERIC SCHLOSSER: No, I’m curious. Tell me what—I’m going to turn this interview on you—I’m just kidding. Tell me what you thought about it.

Well, you know, my reservations are primarily things that would be a problem with any transformation of a nonfiction book into a narrative film. I feel like the characters become more mouthpieces than characters.

You just didn’t like it. I’d like to try to persuade you out of that, but that would be the wrong thing to do, because I think, with stuff like that, some people like peanut butter and some people do not. If you really liked peanut butter, I wouldn’t try to talk you out of it. But I will say, for the record, I really like this film. It’s not the book.

Right.

But anyway, I’m not going to try to talk you out of it.

It’s an interesting concept, changing a nonfiction book into a non-documentary narrative film. Did Richard Linklater approach you?

No, I approached him. I just really liked his films. There are a handful of directors of roughly my generation … he’s one of them, Alexander Payne is one of them, Paul Thomas Anderson… I tried for about a year and a half to make a documentary based on the book.

Did you think about going the TV route?

Well, this was 2001, before Bowling for Columbine proved documentaries could have a theatrical life. So these were all filmmakers—I liked the filmmakers—but these were all filmmakers who were backed one way or another by television. And I just ultimately didn’t trust them with the book. I thought they’d be pressured to tone it down, or to smooth over the rough edges. So in the spring of 2002, I was still meeting with documentary filmmakers, when I was approached by the British producer Jeremy Thomas, who does really interesting, mainly European films, by some really good directors. He came to me with the idea of doing a fiction film—and Malcolm McClaren, who’s another producer, had brought him the book. So it didn’t seem like an obvious idea, but I really liked him and respected him, so I didn’t rule it out.

What did he say to you?

He just thought that there was a story here—that said something about America. Being British, maybe he had some perspective. I had worked in the film industry before, I was a screenwriter, and I didn’t picture a film made from Fast Food Nation making any money. So I didn’t quite see it, but I thought it was interesting, and certainly, given who he is, I said I’d consider it. I thought about it a little while, and then I brought it up with Rick [Linklater] and we agreed it was a good idea… I don’t think it was a bad idea. But it could have been a terrible idea. And that we’d only do it if it felt right. And my own experience in the film world is that it’s a director’s medium. It’s the reason that I quit being a screenwriter and became a journalist, because I care about every word, and I care about every semicolon.

You should be a playwright.

Well, you know what?

You have written a play.

That’s where I started! And I have one at home, ready to go. Anyway, so once Rick became serious about doing this—I just wanted to see a Rick Linklater film on the same subject. And I never felt it had to be faithful or literal to the book in any way. It’s his vision as a dramatist of the world I explored in investigative journalism. So it’s by definition going to be different. I feel like—I’m not going to say good things about the film—

[Laughs.] Feel free!

But I feel like it’s true to the spirit of the book, not only in the film itself, but in how the film was made.

In terms of…

Just a totally low-budget production. When I wrote Fast Food Nation, I didn’t have any researchers, it was just me. So obviously, with a film, Rick couldn’t do it all on his own. But the film was made for very little money, it was independently financed, there was no connection to a larger studio. It was shot in 16mm, because that was cheaper and the cameras were more portable. There are some really well-known actors, but they did it for—[gestures to the nice hotel room]—this was not how they were living.

It’s great that you guys got Ashley Johnson. I think she’s really up and coming.

See, you liked something about the film. She really was true to that character. And what’s great about her, is that she was a child actor, and you would expect—I would expect, having been around this industry—that she would be smoking cigars and swearing, or doing drugs in the bathroom or something, and she in real life is such a smart, impassioned, good person. Didn’t you like Wilmer [Valderrama]?

Yeah, I liked him too.

That was—I can’t persuade you! But…

So, obviously Colorado Springs [which the book focuses on in detail] has been in the news recently, with Ted Haggard—

I know. And I spent a lot of time there, but it never ceases to amaze me.

Had you ever been to any services at the New Life Church?

No, I hadn’t. But I was familiar with him. And I was especially familiar with him as the leader of the anti-gay movement there. I love Colorado Springs. If you told me I had to go live there now, I’d do it. But I’m appalled by it at the same time. It’s a perfect symbol for how I feel about this country. It’s a beautiful setting, the people there are amazing, but it’s also horrible at the same time. And [Haggard’s] behavior—I mean, at some level I can feel compassion for him. Clearly he was a tormented person. But I have less sympathy for tormented people who turn and torment other people. He should have just looked at himself in the mirror, and been honest about what he liked, and gone off and did it. Not try to destroy the lives of people around him.

The movie doesn’t get into much of the religious content in the book. Was that a conscious decision?

We really just decided to put aside the book. We kept the title, and the spirit of the subject matter, but we set it in a town in Colorado that isn’t Colorado Springs. The town of Cody that we created is a mix of Greeley and Fountain, which is outside of Colorado Springs. We just tried to see who’d be in that town, what would be happening. So the religious part—we could have had a fundamentalist character, but for me, the heart of the film ultimately was the immigrants, and what’s happening to them. There’s a film being made now called There Will Be Blood, a Paul Thomas Anderson film, based on an Upton Sinclair novel, and it has really strong religious themes. I haven’t seen what he’s done with it, but… Anyway, in Fast Food Nation, the illegal immigrant part seemed like the most important theme… This film pays homage to The Jungle in that respect. In addition, the more vulnerable the worker—especially the women—the more they’re subject to sexual harassment. I spent a year in California agriculture, following migrant workers, following the harvest—

Strawberries?

Strawberries, yeah. And the sexual harassment there is just unbelievable. The film doesn’t completely get into it, but it’s also happening to women who are crossing the border, the way they’re mistreated… Anyway, that’s really the heart and soul of the film. I think it was really bold of Rick to make the film about poor people. It’s very rare.

It’s also rare to see a lot of subtitled dialogue in a Hollywood movie. Though I feel like that must be changing, with Babel…

In America. Yeah, you know, this has big Hollywood actors in it, now it’s being distributed by Fox, but it was really done differently. I think if you see it again, you may change your mind.

[Laughs.] We’ll see. Were any of the characters or stories based on actual people you encountered while researching the book?

There were elements that I could draw on. None of the characters are directly based on any person. I interviewed one meatpacking worker whose father had worked at the plant, he’d been at the plant since he was a little boy. He got injured, severely mangled his hand, and he was bleeding, he was in unbelievable, excruciating pain. And they wouldn’t give him any painkillers. Before they would give him any painkillers, they wanted him to urinate. And he could not urinate. They waited about three hours until he could finally produce some urine. And he thought that his urinating was part of his medical treatment. Basically, they wanted a urine drug test. Under the rules, if he tested positive for illegal drugs, the company wouldn’t be responsible for his medical bills, because it was a violation not only of the law, but also of his employment rules. He was so embittered with this company—which his family has been working for for so many years—that they would rather he be in mind-bending pain than jeopardize his drug test. So, things like that…

I knew another worker who was standing on top of a hamburger grinder, cleaning it, and the metal screen that he was standing on had been improperly attached. People had been complaining for weeks that it had been improperly attached. And as he was standing on it, it slid out of the way, and his leg went right down into the grinder—he was being pulled into the grinder and his leg was being ground up. I heard that people had to get him under the arms and literally pull him out. So, the industrial accident was different in the film. And there’s a lot of autobiographical stuff—about people who are trying to make good choices.

One of my favorite moments in the film when Ethan Hawke is lecturing Ashley about what she needs to do with her life, and follow your passions, and it all sounds great. And in a very sweet way, she turns in back on him and says, “What have you done?” Not in a hostile way. And he says, I can’t say I’m proud of what I’ve done, but I’m proud of what I didn’t do. That kind of thing.