If you look across the street from Jason Lee’s Hollywood office, you can see the building where one of his heroes, Charlie Chaplin, wove his timeless art forever into the fabric of America. “That’s why we took this spot,” says Lee, looking out to see where the comic genius stamped his mark.
    The office, which is nothing more than a converted old Chaplin-era house, is decorated with period piece couches, chairs and tables, a chrome toaster that is used for its purpose, all to insure a black and white silent mood. Hints that you are still in the 21st century don’t readily come from Jason himself, but from the laptop on his desk where he fires off nearly constant emails, a collection of his line of “Stereo Skateboards,” a framed Radio Head poster and an art piece by Chad Robertson. Other than that there are few other modern bits.
    If they ever remake the old Jimmy Stewart classic, It’s a beautiful Life, I would suggest casting Jason Lee. Not only does he look like Jimmy, but he has that approachable good buddy thing going for him along with late show sensibilities on movie making. Skater, turned businessman, turned Mallrat, turned director. For all his success Jason gives the impression that he is more interested in what you have to say than in talking about what he himself is doing. Between question and answer he often puts his hands atop his head and leans back in his chair until he locates the right words. He found the right words often. I was so glad to hear them and to realize that as one of his posters proclaims, The Earth is not a Cold Dead Place.

Risen Magazine: So, that’s Charlie Chaplin’s studio across the street.
Jason Lee: Yup, that’s the reason we got this place. He’s one of my heroes and one of my favorite filmmakers.

RM: I hear you’re working on a script that’s kind of the opposite of most Indy films.
JL: Yeah, it’s a script that I started about 13 years ago. I only finished the first draft at the end of 2003. So it was in my head for all those years and I was wondering all that time if I’d ever finish it. Yeah, it’s a very sweet story, it’s very old fashioned, there’s nothing cool about it, there’s nothing cynical about it. It’s kind of what you get when you see a Chaplin film like City Lights, where there’s a real sense of humanity and it’s not afraid to be real and genuine and have a heart to it. But it’s also creative and unique at the same time. It’s about two kids a boy and a girl who run away from home and have this great experience all across the country. It’s very interesting.

RM: Ironically cool can work against creativity.
JL: Exactly, pop culture is drenched with coolness. I was never into that. I never rode that train. I was never on that boat. I was always much different when I was younger growing up in Orange County. I think my choice of music and films. When I was on tour skating, I had Mozart in my headphones and I was reading books.

RM: A skateboarder reading a book? Did other skateboarders wonder what those paper things in your hands were?
JL: Exactly. Skating is definitely more wide open now. You see a lot more artistically driven skaters now. It was much more closed off and closed minded back then in the 90s. There’re a lot of art exhibitions within skating. You see skaters taking photos…

RM: Is that because it’s become cool?
JL: I’m sure to a degree, yeah, but you get some genuine guys out there. Cool is a big industry.

RM: If you could pass one law, what would it be?
JL: [Laughs] Oh, man, that’s a good question, maybe we’ll come back to it. [We never did come back to it, Jason.]

RM: Can you think of a skateboarder that would be a good president of the United States?
JL: Who I’d like to see be the president, or who would be a good president?
RM: Who you’d like to see.
JL: Geeze, I don’t know what skaters are politically aware and which ones aren’t, but Mark Gonzales would make an interesting president. If he were president, this country would be very colorful and very random. [Laughs]

RM: When was the last time that skating was your whole world?
JL: Um, 1994-95. I’m involved in Stereo Skateboards again.

RM: Did you ever think you’d burn out on it?
JL: I got totally burned out on it. I wanted to try something new. I couldn’t be around it any longer. I had to get out and see what it was like to be just a human being and not be attached to a skateboard all the time. There was a lot of pressure back then. You had to be skating all the time. I was around a lot of people who didn’t know how to exist outside of skateboarding and my tolerance lessened by the day. Now there is a lot more individuality.

RM: I saw Christian [Hosoi] yesterday and he told me about the movie they’re doing on him. He said that Dennis Hopper is narrating it.
JL: I did an interview for that. I’ve known Christian for years. I used to skate his vert ramp over in East Hollywood. He had rented W.C. Fields old house in the early 90s.

RM: We interviewed Christian the first time when he was in prison. Later we interviewed Tony Hawk in a much different setting. It’s like one flew east, one flew west…I think that separately their interesting, but together they’re much more interesting.
JL: I love Christian. He’s an awesome guy.

RM: If someone from another planet landed here, what advice would you give them?
JL: Don’t watch TV. [Laughs]

RM: You were into Charlie Chaplin and Mozart while your peers were into MTV and Mega Death; what shaped your world?
JL: [Laughs] That’s another good question. I guess I knew early on that there was something else. It’s funny, growing up in Orange County I didn’t know about LA or Hollywood. I had no idea it existed. Talk about being in a bubble; I had no clue. But I knew there was something going on. I wasn’t anti social; I was very funny in high school and I got along with almost everyone and I was just a goof. I had a good time. I skated every day after school. But I knew I wasn’t going to go to college. I hated school. I knew I wanted to skate and travel. I had an idea that something else was going on, but I didn’t know what or where. When I traveled to Europe I would go to museums and stuff, rather than just skate all day.

RM: Do you get into things, become obsessed and drop them? Is that a pattern with you?
JL: I played baseball when I was a kid and once I started skating that was it. Then I started acting. Now I have a company and I want to direct. I can’t just do one thing.

RM: Have you ever been in the middle