Electroboy: the book, the movie, the t-shirt

Considering that Maguire, the star of Spider-Man, may well play Andy in the film, it's perhaps ironic that the introduction to the book on Electroboy's own site refers to another famous superhero, as it announces that "Andy Behrman was Superman".

Andy's memoir offers a high-octane view of his manic depressive experiences - taking transatlantic flights at a whim to "balance out the hot and cold", going on wild shopping sprees and racking up huge amounts of debt, and consuming drugs and alcohol to excess. Finally, after being diagnosed with manic depression and undergoing various combinations of medication, Andy chose to undergo a series of electroshock treatments in order to restore some balance to his life.

One of the central escapades detailed in the book involves Andy's time as an art forger. While working as the publicist for pop artist Mark Kostabi, he made and sold fake works by the artist - this resulted in Andy's arrest and conviction on a charge of fraud, followed by a prison sentence.

Ouch editor Damon Rose recently spoke to Andy Behrman about the plans for the movie, his admiration for Tobey Maguire, and some of the key events in the life of Electroboy.

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Listen to Andy's interview
Click here to listen to an audio stream of the interview. Requires RealPlayer.

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Q: Congratulations on the film. You must be blown away by the news.
A: Yeah, it's been a crazy week here in Tinseltown.

Q: There's been a movie pending on the book for quite a long time, hasn't there? When was Electroboy originally published?
A: The book was released in February 2002 in the US, and one month later in the UK. But the idea for a movie has been in the pipeline since 1999 - almost five years. When my agent sold the book to Random House, she also sold the film rights to Home Box Office (HBO). They had the rights to the film for some time but then decided that they didn't want to go ahead and do it as a television project, which was what it was originally supposed to be. There was always talk that other film production companies, actors, writers and directors were interested in Electroboy, but nothing was really solidified until last March, when the book was optioned again by a company in Los Angeles called Endgame. They're actually producing a film now in London with Eddie Izzard, and a film in the States with Gwyneth Paltrow called Proof. The company is also a big producer of stage shows - they produced Hairspray, The Producers and Little Shop Of Horrors on Broadway. So they have a pretty good track record. It was only last March that they started getting Maguire Entertainment [Tobey Maguire's company] involved.

Q: Will Tobey Maguire be playing you?
A: Well, it's his production company. He's co-producing the project, and according to the article [in Variety magazine] he's 'eyeing' the role of Electroboy!

Q: Spider-Man meets Electroboy - it sounds like a superhero play-off!
A: I'm thinking of something like Spider-Man wants to be Electroboy! But I do think it will be a great role for him. I always imagined if anybody were to play the role that it would be Tobey Maguire, although I know that sounds crazy. There were so many actors to choose from, but he was always my first choice.

Q: Why Tobey?
A: Because I think he's complex and intelligent, and if anybody seems like they would have some understanding of mental illness and disability, I think it would be him. I think he can really depict it well on screen. I'm just hoping that he does take the part - and we'll know that soon.

Q: So it was in March that things started moving again, but can you bring us up to date with what's been happening in recent weeks?
A: It was only on 10 December 2003 that it was announced here, in the Hollywood trade newspaper called Variety. That was the first time that all the producers and writers were named and Tobey Maguire was mentioned as a potential actor in the film. It was the first time that anything was ever linked publically to the book.

Q: Who are the other main characters in the book who may appear in the film?
A: Well, there are tons of doctors! There's the artist that I worked for - Mark Kostabi. I think there are probably about twenty characters, but they haven't done any casting yet. According to Variety, they would like to go into production this summer, aiming for a release in summer 2005. It would technically be the first big budget, mainstream Hollywood film with a protagonist who is a manic depressive - not a schizophrenic or a depressive, but just a regular plain old manic depressive.

Q: What have you thought about films on mental health in the past?
A: I have only one that I like, and that's Frances - which starred Jessica Lange - although there was also Girl, Interrupted, based on the book by Susanna Kaysen. Otherwise, I'm often critical of Hollywood films because they tend to sensationalise mental illness and disability, making it seem either abhorrent or glamorous - and the truth is that it's neither. It's just the way life is. There are lots of people with mental health disabilities, and that's just the way their life is; it's not like you see it in the movies. In this film adaptation of Electroboy, you're going to see a very accurate depiction of mental illness - fingers crossed.

Q: For people who don't know, what's the basic story of Electroboy? What are we going to see?
A: It's a chronicle of a manic depressive's battle with an ongoing illness - which I was aware of ever since I was a child - through to the age of thirty, when I was incarcerated. I think the film will also be a great work about our society and our culture in the late eighties and early nineties. Yes, manic depression was one of my big stumbling blocks, but I was also caught up in a particularly odd era, and I think the screenwriter is going to show that pretty clearly.

Q: You've had some amazing things happen to you in your life - flying around the globe "to balance out" the hot and cold, for instance.
A: Like most manic depressives, some of my symptoms included racing thoughts that I simply had to act upon - flying from New York to Paris and taking the train to Berlin; flying to Argentina in the middle of the night; spending tens of thousands of dollars on unnecessary garments, dinners and gifts. There was also hypersexuality - which some people always question, but ninety-five per cent of all manic depressives I speak with exhibit hypersexual behaviour - and various illegal activities. I think almost all manic depressives exhibit some kind of criminal behaviour, even if it's something as minimal as shoplifting, but then they often go on to bigger and better things - in my case, it was fraud. So the symptoms never end, and there are hundreds of them.

Q: At the time that you were living through these experiences, you were feeling quite good about everything, weren't you?
A: I was euphoric, but I had no idea that there was anything wrong with me. Never. I'm enthusiastic about the film because it's such a great role for an actor. He gets to play so many different parts. It's not at all one-dimensional. He gets to play a psychiatric patient, a public relations agent, an art dealer, a counterfeiter, a prisoner - there's just so many roles within the role.

Q: Finally, can you tell us a little about the incident involving fraud, which ended up with you receiving a prison sentence?
A: Yeah, it was a counterfeiting scheme. I counterfeited Mark Kostabi's artworks. During the eighties, Mark didn't paint his own paintings. Instead, he had other artists painting them and he just added his signature. So what I did was to use some of the same painters, and signed his name myself. Basically, I was doing what he was doing, except I wasn't sharing with him! I was sharing a little bit ... but not enough for him!

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We'll bring you all the latest developments on the Electroboy movie as we get them, so keep checking Ouch at regular intervals.