Cult classic Napoleon Dynamite is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year with a special watch-along streaming event tonight on Slipstream. A portion of the proceeds are going to support Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer / LA Loves Alex’s Lemonade.
Along with the film’s director, Jared Hess and writer Jerusha Hess, cast members taking a walk down memory lane and sharing stories about the making of the film include Jon Heder (who, of course danced his way into our hearts as Napoleon), Efrem Ramirez (Pedro), Shondrella Avery (Lafawnduh) and Trevor Snarr, who played Napoleon’s preppy antagonist, Don.
Napoleon Dynamite was Trevor’s first film, and even though he only shot for a week, he had plenty of tales to share. We chatted about the movie and got some behind-the-scenes tea. In our exclusive interview, we also discussed the enduring popularity of this film, which has secured its place in the pop culture pantheon.
What is your background? How did you get involved with acting and Napoleon Dynamite?
I’m from Utah originally, and the winter Olympics came in 2002 – that kind of opened my mind to possibly doing acting. I joined the Air Force Reserves in 2003 and then when I got back, that’s when I auditioned for Napoleon Dynamite. I was fresh out of the military and just always had it on my mind.
I always wanted to do it as a kid but I never did any theater, I kind of just was in my own little zone down in my basement with my over the shoulder camera, because you know, I’m an 80s/90s kid. I was 25 years old when I auditioned for that – and it was the first movie I auditioned for – and just turned out to be a very weird, strange, but yet successful movie. I had no idea what it was going to become.
What was the experience like shooting the movie, especially as a newbie to acting?
I was in Idaho and I think we shot for, I think they did it for about a month, but I was there for about a week. I didn’t really know anybody other than just going in and auditioning for the director and some of the executive producers, they’d been shooting for probably about three weeks at that time. So, I was there the last week and I felt that I met everybody in character. There was no getting together and reading the script and getting to know the other actors and actresses outside of the film. I honestly went into it thinking yes, this is a movie, but at the end of the day, these people are really weird.
I was trying to make sense of all of it because when Jared [Hess], the director, introduced me to Jon Heder, he was just full-on in character. And he said, “Hey, Don, you want to come meet Napoleon?” I said, okay and he was just sitting there just with his eyes, half closed, heavy breathing.
And then Jared is there, just kind of directing us. And he asks, “Don’t you want to slap him?” – because there was a scene, it didn’t make the final cut, but there’s a kickball scene where he ends up slapping me. He was just getting us both geared up for our characters. And he goes, heck yes, I do. And then threw his head to the side and it was just a very awkward pause moment after that. I kind of looked at him like, okay and I just walked away and Jared was laughing…it was different in that sense because I was so new and then I was just thrown on set and there was no cordial like, “Hey, I’m Jon, this is Jared. Let’s do a read.” It was just straight out the gate, like here we go. We’re shooting a movie. Everybody get into character.
I loved the character of Don. Was there any of you in Don or was that an invented character?
Most of what you saw in my character came mostly from my drill sergeants. I loved my drill sergeants – they had a job to do and they did it fairly well, well enough where I took that energy from them and just went and applied it to this jock named Don that is just, you know, a preppy. I’m sure inside he has some other things going on, but on the facade, he’s just what you see on screen.
I mean, in high school, I was preppy. I will say that. I watched Saved by the Bell. I loved Zach Morris. I wanted to be like Zach Morris, but then I want to have the body of Slater. There were some kids in high school that kind of had the arrogance about them and just felt like that they were better than everybody else. Real life is always the best choice to pull from – people that you’ve met in real life, especially when you’re going back to high school when you’re 25 years old.
Well, one thing that I loved about your performance in Napoleon Dynamite were your reactions. Were you prompted to react like that?
The best acting is reacting and knowing where your character stands in that environment. I remember the first thing I did was the vote for Summer scene, where we’re handing out the buttons and Jared, he was wanting me to act a little bit more animated because it’s kind of monotone throughout the movie.
I mean, the actors are just kind of, yes, no and Pedro is doing his thing, but I was kind of nervous at the time, since it was my first time on set and I was handing him the button. But when he threw it and then it cuts to me, I just reacted to the situation. I made my facial expression, which I guess I have this, they call it the “Snarr smirk”. I kind of just looked at him like trying to figure him out and to what you do see in the movie is me really trying to figure out what’s going on, you know, because I did not know these guys. I didn’t know what type of film this was going to be. Obviously it was very strange. The biggest moment was the happy hands moment when Jared was directing Jon to do this whole routine, and then it cuts to me. And [my reaction] was just a natural thing that just came out.
And there was this guy, I can’t remember his name. He came up to me and he goes, “Hey man, you’re doing a really good job. I enjoy your work.” And I’m like, work? I’m just reacting. I’m just being who I am, but being a character in this movie, it was weird for me. I didn’t consider it work because I was just sitting there reacting to something weird happening. It just came naturally. My brain is trying to make sense of what’s going on.
Did Jared allow the cast to improvise or was the movie very scripted?
Yeah, I mean, there were moments where it was like, Hey, you know, like the vote for Summer, you know, I really didn’t know what else to do other than just look at Napoleon, especially when he throws the button, which I thought was funny because I think initially, you know, I think my character would be like, Hey, that was my girlfriend’s button. What are you doing? But we thought it would be funnier if Napoleon just looks at me like I’m going to actually do something to him and I don’t, and then he just runs off.
But for the kickball scene, we had a little improv. You can look it up online. It’s one of my favorite scenes. It’s so sad that it got cut, but they didn’t want Napoleon to look like too much of like a jerk. Because he slaps Kip, he slaps me. There was this huge ball that they were using for this kickball scene. And Napoleon pegs Summer Wheatley and pretty aggressively and I’m behind the dugout. I’m like, what the heck?
The other improv was me watching Summer do her dance, which I did not see. You know, the camera’s on stage and Jared was just saying, “Hey, your girlfriend’s up there, you’re in love with her” and he talked me through it. I just started doing all these things like, “Ooh, yeah. Ooh, she’s good looking. You know, that’s my girlfriend. I’m so proud of her.” I think I did stand up on my own, which I think people kind of were clapping, they just left it in there for me just to stand up all by myself clapping. I mean, it was mostly scripted, but there were little moments where it was like nonverbal stuff, where Jared allowed me to kind of just bring out the Don emotions.
What was it like to get back with everybody after all this time and talk about the film?
It was so cool. It was kind of gnarly because earlier this year we had the 20-year anniversary screening for Sundance and going up there to Sundance in a theater with everybody again was just gnarly. My brain was going back 20 years ago trying to figure out I’m in this movie and it’s weird, but then people started liking it.
But this past screening that we did for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer, it’s just cool because you get to get together and watch and talk during the movie, which normally you know don’t get to do. The commentary was fun. And every time I do get together, I hear all these other stories that come out that, you know, because I wasn’t shooting for three weeks, I keep on hearing all these really funny stories that come out and it’s wild.
It just seems like yesterday, but at the same time, it’s fun to watch their reactions, especially on Zoom. Everybody’s just watching and you’re not looking at each other, but it was really cool to watch everybody’s reactions to the scenes and their stories behind those scenes.
Did you find out anything new from the watch along that you didn’t know before?
What I learned about is that there was a little bit of a debate as to one of the scenes that Jared and Jon, were talking about. There were moments where you can see Napoleon’s hair – because he had it permed… and the first scene that they shot, which I think it was the time machine. because his hair is not as puffy, it’s more matted and the continuity is not there, but they were in this debate as to whether or not that was the first scene or not. And they’re like, well, we should pull up the call sheet, you know, and it went back and forth. But, it is noticeable, you can see that his hair, it looks like he just got out of the shower. I always am reminded of that. The episode where Kramer and Seinfeld, he has no pressure and he gets to see Jerry and his hair is all matted and that’s one of the things I learned and I thought that was very interesting.
Why do you think that this movie has stayed in the public eye for so long and become such a cult favorite?
I remember the first screening at Sundance. You could hear crickets at times while watching the movie. And I thought, Okay. How are people going to react? What are they going to think about this? But as they continue to show it and more people brought their friends and over time, people just kind of gravitated to it, especially towards the ending. It was just this very sweet, fun-loving experience for these two oddball characters, Pedro and Napoleon, to come together and to kind of look out for each other.
Pedro had no idea that Napoleon was going to do that dance and blow everybody away and then win him the election. That was kind of like the big surprise out of all of it is that this quiet kid that everybody kind of sees is awkward and kind of off the wall inwardly has some genuine sweet skills that nobody really knew about. And it’s just that quiet kid that comes out and just blows everybody away.
Part of the success of it, I really have to hand it to Fox Searchlight. They did an amazing job in publicizing and marketing it. When it was released, it was just, I think, it was just in the top five markets at the time in the United States in 2004. They probably had a little bit of print and advertising money, but not a lot. They really banked on showing the movie for free in a variety of theaters throughout the five markets. And then they banked on that once they kind of generated that interest, then people would then take their friends back to see the movie when it hit the theaters, which was, I think, a great concept as to what they did with that.
And now a lot of the memes that you now see on the internet of, for example, Kip. One of my favorite ones is Kip when he bowls that strike and he goes, “yes.” It’s one of my favorite GIFs to use to, to send back to people, but I’m honestly still kind of perplexed that it would still have this staying power 20 years later.
I thought, you know, maybe 10, 15, 20, but this is a movie that people can relate to, and then they start showing other people. My cousin showed it to his kids. It gets passed along, which is great. I hope it just continues to do what it does. I mean, it’s a really weird movie and during the screening, there was talks about doing a Napoleon 2 and I feel that it’s been way too long. I know they did Dumb and Dumber 2, but I think we should leave it. This is just my opinion. Just leave it as is, don’t touch it. Let it just be in cinematic history, you know, forever as just Napoleon Dynamite. But, in this screening, we do talk about what would our characters be like 20 years later and I was always convinced that my character would have a lawn mowing business in Preston called Don’s Lawns.
What has been going on with you since Napoleon Dynamite?
Napoleon Dynamite caught me by surprise. I wasn’t really prepared to be an actor. That was my first audition. I was in the middle of getting my degree at the University of Utah and I was a chaplain assistant at the 419 Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base. I was in the Air Force reserves. I moved to LA after Napoleon, just to see if I really wanted to pursue this. I’m a very start-to-finish type of person and I was right in the middle of getting my degree. I just joined the Air Force and at the time I just felt like, eh, this is just not for me right now, so I moved back to Utah, finished my degree and finished my Air Force enlistment.
Then I ended up booking a handful of Disney channel movies here in Utah and that’s how I got my SAG card. The union card was through Minutemen, because one of the things that was difficult trying to transition into the LA market, even being in Napoleon, is that I could not get my SAG card off of that. They said that it was what they called an experimental film. My contract wasn’t written up for any residuals or anything like that. I would say most of the established actors like John Gries that played Uncle Rico and Efren Ramirez who played Pedro and Haley Duff who played Summer, they were kind of established and ready and they kind of knew what to do.
For me, I was kind of like, yeah, I don’t know what to do. I then got a job at the Utah film commission as a publicist, marketing the state for film projects after I graduated college for three and a half years. I went back to acting and then I started booking a lot of roles just here in Utah.
I did Granite Flats for BYU TV where I played this 1950s cop and then the most fun role I had was for this Discovery Channel project. It’s called Gold Fever. It’s a docudrama on the Gold Rush in San Francisco. I got to be kind of a bully, a Western guy, and I got to ride horses –which was crazy for me. My character in that project, he’s very impatient with the whole gold thing. So, he starts just taking the laws into his own hands and killing people and stealing their gold and getting thrown out of the saloon.
After that, I started booking a lot here in Utah, and then I transitioned to LA in 2013. I moved to LA and booked General Hospital for four episodes. That was fun. My mom was all excited about that…and then I did a sci-fi TV series in Qatar that’s yet to be distributed here in the States, it’s called Medinah. They released it in the Middle East last year, but they’re still trying to try to get it over here to America. If it does get picked up, then I might go back to Qatar for two to three months and shoot that.
The next project, for which I had no lines, which is fine because I was happy that I was just even booked on it is the new Joker movie, Joker: Folie à Deux with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. I’m the bailiff in the courtroom scene where Joaquin is arguing with Harvey Dent. It was a good month and a half of shooting that we did last January to February-ish, maybe a little bit into March of last year and now it’s finally coming out on October fourth. I hope I get some good screen time out of it. It looks amazing. I mean, just to watch Joaquin and Lady Gaga do their thing. I mean, it was really cool.
And so, other than that, outside of acting, I just do a lot of non-profit work for Trekking for Kids, where we go and trek certain parts of the world and help orphans in that particular area. I finally went to Scotland and Ireland for the first time a couple of years ago. I’ve got my hands in a lot of different things, but acting and filmmaking is my go-to. I’m working on a documentary about my sister who has multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis runs in our family. And so, outside of acting, I’m slowly getting into this filmmaker mindset of, either producing documentaries or just being a producer in general because I like a lot of the stuff that goes behind the scenes like the pre-production, production then post, you know, so, I’ve just been keeping super busy.
I’m in Utah currently. I moved here because I felt like something big was going to happen. And I just felt like, well, I’ll go back home and help my family out because my mom just got diagnosed with dementia. That’s another thing – that if the documentary on the MS turns out well, I might want to do another documentary on dementia and how that affects people and families and loved ones. So, I am just here kicking it for another Utah football season. I’m a big college football fan, so I’m like, maybe I’ll stay for the season and then I’ll move back to California, but there are a lot of good things coming.
I’m just impressed with all the projects that I’ve been involved with so far and with the handful of A-list celebrities that I’ve been around. It’s just amazing to watch their work and see how they build up their scenes. It is fun because you do get to learn a lot about the pacing and what the director is thinking, and then when you see the final cut, you go, Oh, okay. Now I understand why they shot it from this angle and used this type of lighting. It’s a fun industry. I’ve missed it. It’s been a while since I’ve been on set since the strike. So. I’m anxious to get back on there and do my thing.
The Napoleon Dynamite watch along event streams tonight on Slipstream. Stay in touch for news and updates for future events by subscribing to Slipstream’s newsletter here. Follow Trevor on Instagram.
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