Taglines: The end justifies the mean.
Jason Bateman makes his feature directorial debut with the subversive comedy Bad Words. Mr. Bateman stars as Guy Trilby, a 40-year-old who finds a loophole in the rules of The Golden Quill national spelling bee and decides to cause trouble by hijacking the competition. Contest officials, outraged parents, and overly ambitious 8th graders are no match for Guy, as he ruthlessly crushes their dreams of victory and fame. As a reporter (Kathryn Hahn) attempts to discover his true motivation, Guy finds himself forging an unlikely alliance with a competitor: awkward 10-year-old Chaitanya (Rohan Chand), who is completely unfazed by Guy’s take-no-prisoners approach to life.
Andrew Dodge’s screenplay for Bad Words first caught attention after making The Black List in 2011. Around this time, Jason Bateman’s agent sent him screenplays for possible directorial work. “I said to my lit agent, ‘Please don’t wait for me to have an opening in my acting schedule to pursue the directing stuff. Understand that I’m only acting to create the kind of relevance or capital necessary to get a directing job,’” explained Bateman. “It’s really the only reason I’ve been acting for the last 20 years of this career.”
Principal photography lasted 29 days at the end of 2012 in Los Angeles, with the Sportsman’s Lodge in the San Fernando Valley serving as the location of the national spelling bee final.
Bad Words
Directed by: Jason Bateman
Starring: Jason Bateman, Allison Janney, Rachael Harris, Phillip Baker Hall, Kathryn Hahn, Rohan Chand, Jacquie Barnbrook
Screenplay by: Andrew Dodge
Production Design by: Shepherd Frankel
Cinematography by: Ken Seng
Film Editing by: Tatiana S. Riegel
Costume Design by: April Napier
Set Decoration by: Elizabeth Keenan
Music by: Rolfe Kent
MPAA Rating: R for crude and sexual content, language and brief nudity.
Studio: Focus Features
Release Date: March 28, 2014
Visits: 55
