Napoleon Dynamite in Tarrytown: 11 questions for Jon Heder

If the rare sighting of a llama makes you reflexively blurt out “Tina, eat your FOOD!,” welcome to the club, a club that is about to have a meeting in Tarrytown.

On Sept. 9, three stars of the 2004 indie favorite “Napoleon Dynamite” — Jon Heder (Napoleon), Jon Gries (Uncle Rico), and Efren Ramirez (Pedro) — will meet fans at the Tarrytown Music Hall and have an on-stage conversation after a screening of the film.

The quirky film — about a mouth-breathing, frizzy-haired, squinting Idaho teen who wears moonboots year-round, loves tetherball and has mad dance skills — hit theaters 18 years ago. Made for $200,000, it earned nearly $46 million in its first year. Fox Searchlight erected a bronze statue of the title character on its Hollywood lot.

Director Jared Hess filmed "Napoleon Dynamite" in his hometown of Preston, Idaho, with his film-studies friends (and one professor) from BYU. Fans still quote it regularly: "Your mom goes to college." And "Back in '82, I used to be able to throw a pigskin a quarter mile." And "Vote for me, and all your wildest dreams will come true."

In advance of the Tarrytown stop, Heder phoned from California to talk all things “Napoleon,” including his favorite line (not one you'd expect), the time he was asked to throw meat at a college kid, getting two perms, and how “guerrilla” the filmmaking got. Here’s an edited version of that conversation.

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"Napoleon Dynamite" started out small, didn’t it?

JH: “It was like the weirdest rollout, but kind of the best thing for the film because people kept going back and watching it. By starting out small it just helped create a buzz. If it was immediately released, wide theaters, the 15 seconds of fame would have lasted 15 seconds."

You’re coming to Tarrytown with Jon Gries and Efren Ramirez. Do people show up with, like, cakes and steaks and pinatas and tots? Do they dress in costumes?

JH: “Yeah, they get into it for sure. Like there's no requirement, but, you know, people are into it and it's great. It's just so fun. It's like a mini festival every time.”

Napoleon’s a quirky character. Are your fans that way, too? Anything strange ever happen at these events?

JH: “Everybody's very respectful. I remember early on, there was a couple colleges I went to to do Q-and-A type things, because people were just like mesmerized by the film and they just wanted to see us in real life and they wanted to reach out and touch you in that way. I remember this one kid who brought a steak to a meet-and-greet and said: 'Hey, I'll let you throw a steak at me.' He came up on stage and as he's walking across the stage, I got to hock a piece of meat, nail him in the face with some steak.”

"Napoleon Dynamite" was your first feature and it had a wild fan reaction, which you’ve clearly embraced. Was there ever a time when you thought: "Hmmm. I really kind of wish I could put those glasses and moonboots away for a bit."?

JH:"I've always loved it. I'm very proud of the film. What's great, and you'll hear it from all of us, we are all-in on this movie. It was very important for all of us, for different reasons. What's great is that we love it and we're so grateful for what it became unexpectedly."

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“Napoleon” began life as “Seth,” in a 9-minute short director Jared Hess made called “Peluca.” You played Seth. How close was he to Napoleon?

JH: “It was the same character, just a different name. As a student at BYU, where we all went to school, Jared knew he could tell a funny, quirky story involving weird characters based largely on his brothers and maybe a few kids he knew. When he brought it to me, I was just like, ‘Yeah, I know this character.’ There's bits and pieces that are taken from our family cultures. We had very similar families and upbringings, religiously and creatively in kind of the way we were raised. It just felt like, 'Oh, yeah, I get this world.'”

Napoleon's hair was yours, thanks to two perms. True that you weren't allowed to wash your hair the entire 24-day shoot?

JH: “We had permed it once and it wasn't great and then we permed it again. But you're just like, 'Ooh, this could fall out or this may not set.' The perm for the short film was perfection. It looked great. It was a bit of a ordeal dealing with the hair for the feature film. We were like, 'Well, maybe we shouldn't wash it too much.'”

This was really guerrilla filmmaking: Jared gathering his BYU friends and taking them to Preston, Idaho, where his hometown really embraced the project. Do you think that community spirit gave the film some of its heart?

JH: “You can tell the actors loved being there. The crew loved being there. It was a labor of love. They were putting their everything into it. It wasn't just another paycheck, because it really wasn't much of a paycheck to a lot of us, to pretty much everyone.”

The costumes were thrift-store finds? Is that where you found Napoleon?

JH: “It helped a ton, for sure. I think he was there on the page and when Jared and I talked about it, but as soon as we went to the thrift store to start shopping for his wardrobe, that's kind of when we did a lot of workshopping of the character. We're like, 'Oh, he would totally wear something like this,' and we'd kind of be playing around with the voice as we shopped. For me it's always like that: As soon as get into costume, it's way easier to slip into character."

Tell me you wore a cup when you shot the bike jump scene, which looks really painful.

JH: (Laughs.) I don't remember. I don't think so. Because they were like: 'It's OK, we scored this board, so it should break pretty easily when you go to it.' I don't remember it really hurting. Very guerrilla filmmaking, for sure. If it looks like it's me doing it, it is. There's one stunt double in the movie which is grandma's stunt double when she flies off the sand dunes. That's it. I did the drawings, I did the dancing. Jon Gries was the one who threw the steak at my face. It wasn't some crew guy.”

This movie is so quotable. What’s your favorite line?

JH: “The one I think that doesn't get enough love at all — people never quote it, but I love it — is when he's in the supermarket with Uncle Rico and he's giving Napoleon grief for buying the 24 pack of colored markers. And Napoleon shushes him and says: 'Say it so the whole world can hear.' That's such a kid thing to say, like stop embarrassing me. Every line is great and it's so illustrative of who this character is. And I think that one is just beautiful.”

Your film broke the Netflix algorithm back when they were still delivering movies by mail in red envelopes. Netflix could not predict how people would respond to it. It got 1 star or 5 stars. Even your BYU film professor, Thomas Lefler, who played the principal and lectured Pedro about pride, he said his wife said the script for ''Napoleon Dynamite'' was “the stupidest thing I’ve  ever read.” And her husband was in it! Why do you think it's either absolutely adored or completely dismissed?

JH: “I think it’s because it’s so different. You either get it or you don’t. I just say that people who don’t like it need to watch it again."

See Jon Heder, Jon Gries and Efren Ramirez at the Tarrytown Music Hall, 13 Main St., Tarrytown, NY. Tickets $28 to $48. VIP meet-and-greet an additional $70. tarrytownmusichall.org. 914-233-3856.

This article originally appeared on New York State Team: 'Napoleon Dynamite' stars coming to Tarrytown for screening