'Lakeview Terrace' director talks about filmmaking and more

IT'S NOT always easy to tell who the good guy is in Neil LaBute's films because, usually, there are mostly bad guys to choose from. The filmmaker's debut, "In the Company of Men," was about two guys who date and dump a deaf woman after they decide they want to hurt somebody.

His follow-up films, "Your Friends and Neighbors" and "The Shape of Things," are loaded with conniving and manipulating characters who weave complicated tales and play with your idea of good and bad.

In "Lakeview Terrace," which opens Friday, things are a little more clear. Samuel L. Jackson plays a single father and police officer who disapproves of the interracial couple (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) who moved in next door and will stop at nothing to pressure them to get the hell out.

The Daily News sat down at the Four Seasons with the Washington state-raised LaBute, who now splits his time between Los Angeles and Chicago, where he got his start writing plays.

Q. As someone who may be thought of more as a writer than a director, how do you choose scripts to direct? Do you do a lot of rewriting of other people's scripts?

A. I'm not overcome with it, but it's natural. You read something and you have ideas about it. It's all kind of mixed together for me. You become an editor at some point and that comes with the territory. There's stuff you write and there's stuff that comes your way that your agent might bring you. There's only so long you get to decide. People may say, "We love you for it, but if you're not interested, we have to move on." This was one of those scripts that came by that was an interesting topic to me and I also hadn't made a thriller and wanted to try.

Q. Samuel L. Jackson seemed perfectly creepy the whole time. And everyone else had to react to him.

A. Sam was terrific. The trick for us was that in a thriller you can very easily paint in broader strokes. It's a genre in which the bad guy's the bad guy, let's just make him bad, and yet he loves his kids . . . what a strange character. I thought it was more interesting to show a guy who I could understand where he was coming from. He's raising his kids, he doesn't like what he sees going on around him. Even though I wouldn't react the same way. What he brings out in Chris [Wilson's character] is his worst qualities - he's a bit boyish, a bit selfish. Chris is forced to become a man and protect his home. It's very Wild West, almost a reversion to the baser side of his nature.

Q. You seem like a perfectly nice guy, yet you've been described in reviews as being some kind of monster.

A. The good word hasn't gotten out. I'm just trying to tell some stories.

Early on I was labeled as a misogynist, so everything was based off of that, like, "This doesn't have as much misogyny." That or a misanthrope. You have to ride that wave and not let that affect you.

People go, "I thought you were a Mormon and why would Mormons do that?" Well, it's hard to reconcile those two things. How can I be a good Mormon if, for instance, the Mormons don't want you to go to R-rated movies and you're making R-rated movies. How do you justify those two worlds together? You do it simply by kidding yourself and lying to yourself that those two worlds work out, so eventually I relinquished my membership from the church.

I grew up in a non-denominational community church and am pretty much on my own now. I'm not against religion, just haven't found one I wanted to belong to. My faith remains the same.

Q. How involved was Will Smith in the film? [Smith and Overbrook Entertainment partner James Lassiter produced "Lakeview Terrace."]

A. James in particular was the on-set producer all the time. Will more in the pre-production stages because he was getting ready to make "Hancock." But he was there at the readings and got involved with the script and all that.

Q. What are you working on next?

A. Very next will be theater. I did a play a few years ago called "Fat Pig," and I directed that play in London over the summer and it's continued to do well. We're moving to a new theater. I did a show "Reasons to Be Pretty," which is going to be on Broadway, my first go at Broadway. It's the third part of a loose trilogy on body image, beauty. It's about a guy who makes an offhanded comment that his girlfriend is just sort of regular-looking. He compares her to a beautiful girl and says she isn't that. It gets back to her and it breaks them up. In this beauty-conscious world, could you live with someone who doesn't find you attractive? *