When Entourage star Adrian Grenier was first introduced to Austin Visschedyk, a young, boyish paparazzo, he was stunned. What was this 13-year-old doing out in the middle of the night photographing celebrities? And where were his parents? Austin had the best gear and was well-liked by the other photographers. Most of the famous people he was shooting knew who he was, or were more likely to allow him to shoot them -- and mainly because of his age. Grenier felt the urge to investigate this kid and went on to chronicle his life in the feature-length documentary Teenage Paparazzo.
“Brad Elterman [another paparazzo] says he’s like someone you’d see in a Spielberg film... exploit him,” Grenier says with a laugh about his reasoning to tell Austin’s story.
Whether you think he’s cute or not, Austin comes across as a smart, ambitious kid with a good head on his shoulders. He’s also very talented with a camera and Grenier admits he was intimidated by him.
“I didn’t know how to control him and I was literally chasing him around. There’s a psychology behind [being a paparazzo]; at one point -- and it didn’t end up making it [in the final film] -- I interviewed Dr. Drew. He talked about this mentality that was out of the ‘60s where kids were rebelling against their parents and when they had kids they were giving them undue attention that they never got. At the same time they wanted to indulge in their own freedom so [you have] this lack of attention and then this misplaced over-indulgence in their kids. It’s definitely a psychology that’s obvious in Austin.”
During the production, Grenier worried what he was doing to Austin emotionally and psychologically and there were also concerns over the legalities of putting Austin in physical danger.
“If something were to happen to him I might be culpable. I talked to counsel about what I should be worried about. Just by default of me being present, being the adult figure, if something were to happen I could be liable. I was nervous about that but we had a story to tell,” Grenier states.
Austin became a celebrity himself while they were making the film and was even offered his own reality show. Grenier feels responsible for having a hand in this.
“I didn’t expect it, but at the same time [I was] trying to teach him how best to be famous. If you’re going to be famous, do it the right way with grace and humbleness and some reflection, and don’t take it for granted,” Grenier says.
For the first few months of production, Grenier couldn’t go out and film with Austin because he felt it would have influenced the situation too much among the other paparazzi. But by the end of production he had bought his own equipment and was shooting his Hollywood peers from the other side.
“It touched this primal side. There’s the chase, the hunt -- that’s undeniably exciting and wonderful. And they [the paparazzi] get that rush every day. That’s more than a lot of people can say about their daily jobs so it’s hard to judge them on that,” he says.
Although Grenier says he feels more “empowered” when dealing with the paparazzi since making the film, he doesn’t believe it changed his outlook towards what they do.
“I feel like I have the tools and the weapons to fight back. Two can play the same game, which is really exciting. For so long it was a one-way conversation and there was no recourse. Whatever you would say, even if you tried to lash out, they would just take it and use it and put a tag line on it and then you’re [branded] an idiot. This whole film, I think, was a way of saying we all have tools of the medium and here’s my two cents.”
Grenier believes that the whole idea of celebrity is changing and its role in society is evolving. “I used to take celebrity for granted,” he says. “I used to think Al Pacino and Robert De Niro were these icons. Their celebrity was inevitable and their glory was always pristine. And now you see these new celebrities and it’s not quite pristine... they look rough around the edges. With the Internet and technology, and the pervasiveness of media and access we all have, suddenly you have a new celebrity every day. It’s changing and there is more competition for that attention. Regular celebrities who have the push of big media companies have to compete just as hard with new media as anybody else. Right now the monopoly has been diffused and everybody has an opportunity. It’s going to be a hard fought battle,” he says.
Grenier has been criticized and mocked for referring to himself as a celebrity in the documentary and claims it was done on purpose in order to fill that role.
“The gag factor increases when you come out and say you’re a celebrity... people just want to rip your head off. I was scared about doing it, but I thought if I could make it more ironic and ridiculous, I could get away with. I’m not as big a celebrity as the celebrity I play [Vincent Chase on Entourage] and I bolstered my celebrity in Teenage Paparazzo because I needed a celebrity to be in the movie,” he says.
This is the second documentary Grenier has directed (he made Shot in the Dark back in 2002, which followed his search for his estranged father) and with next year’s season of Entourage rumoured to be its last, Grenier says he wants to continue directing.
“I want to make one more documentary at least, and I have a couple of features I’m developing. They’re [more difficult to make] and might take a while,” he says.
Teenage Paparazzo opens at The Royal and the AMC Yonge-Dundas on August 27. Find out more about the film at teenagepaparazzo.com.
brian.mckechnie@citynews.rogers.com
Top image: Adrian Grenier and Austin Visschedyk in a scene from Teenage Paparazzo. Courtesy Mongrel Media.