Interview: ‘You Cannot Kill David Arquette’ directors David Darg and Price James on their hugely entertaining wrestling doc [Fantasia 2020]

Professional wrestling may be scripted, but that didn’t stop fans and even fellow wrestlers from collectively losing their minds when actor David Arquette won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in 2000. Arquette’s tie-in to WCW was part of a promotional campaign for his wrestling-themed comedy Ready to Rumble, but as a lifelong wrestling fan, Arquette took the intense vitriol that followed his win to heart.

With his acting career stalling after his breakout role in the Scream franchise and his newfound wrestling career mired in controversy, Arquette fell into a long depression, self-medicating with drugs and alcohol, and eventually divorcing from his wife Courtney Cox.

As the years ticked by, Arquette began planning a return to wrestling in order to clear his name in the minds of the fans and the industry, but the years out of the ring had taken a toll on his body, mind, and confidence. You Cannot Kill David Arquette, co-directed by David Darg and Price James, follows Arquette over a two-year stretch as he attempts to get back in the ring, to the initial bemusement of his wife Christina McLarty and his children. Starting from the very bottom of the wresting industry, the documentary captures Arquette getting his feet wet in the brutal indie wrestling world in his late 40s, moving from a backyard match in Virginia in front of a handful of fans to a “deathmatch” in L.A. that nearly cost him his life after he was impaled by a lighting tube.

A joyous, hilarious, and intense ode to wrestling, You Cannot Kill David Arquette is also a touching portrait of someone trying to (literally) wrestle control of their life by reclaiming their troubled past.

We caught up with the film’s directors to discuss how the project came about, just how dangerous some of the matches were, and how Arquette changed over the course of the two years they worked on the film. You Cannot Kill David Arquette screens at the online Fantasia Film Festival on August 24 and arrives on video-on-demand on August 28.

Bad Feeling Magazine: How did you come to this project? You both have very different backgrounds.

David Darg: David and the Arquettes have been friends for about 10 years. We connected in Haiti after the earthquake, doing some humanitarian work, and they were familiar with my work in documentary. And David, knowing that this would be a good story, as he set out on this journey, wanted to start capturing it. And so as you alluded to, Price and I come from very different film backgrounds, but I knew that there was a big part of this story that involves a lot of comedy and trope and genre, and that’s Price’s expertise, whereas mine is more traditional documentary background. And Price and I grew up together, we’ve been friends for years and so we’ve always wanted to do a project together and this was the perfect opportunity. So we came together on the project and set off on this crazy ride and the first day of filming we got in a bar fight with a bunch of wrestlers and got our camera smashed and after that, it never really got any better.

Price James: Yeah, that was one and a half hours after meeting David, and we ended up going to a car park and our microphones and our like, 30 grand camera lens was smashed immediately.

Were you ever nervous enough during the fights that you wanted to step in? Is it even possible at a time like that?

David Darg: Yeah, you kind of have to stay neutral, even though through the progression of the project, we grew even closer to David as friends. And so by the time you get to that deathmatch scene, we’re super close. And, you know, that night I was literally picking glass out of my hair, and I had his blood all over me as well. So that’s how brutal and close to the action we were. But you know, for us, fortunately, there was enough people with us and around us, like you saw in that scene. Luke [Perry] was there to take care of him and help him. So, if there was no one to help him, I think we would have had to just shut down and help him out. But we were there to capture the scene and tell the story, also knowing that in that moment that was such a big part of his story and those moments make the film, so you just have to keep the camera rolling, as tough as it is.

I’m thinking about the backyard scene, which I find even more brutal in some ways, it’s almost like a horror movie. There was obviously some awareness on his part about what he was getting into, but do you think he was anticipating it would go that badly?

There’s no more grassroots indie scene than Virginia. Those kids and the passion they have, it’s so real because they’re doing it in their back garden with like six friends watching. And David was just like, “I want to go from the bottom to the top.” So we dug in, we found them, and they were up for it. And David was up for anything and they were like, “Well, what we’re gonna do is, we’re going to put on a regular show as we would do for our friends, if he’s up for that. Are you sure he’s up for that?” So you know, he was full committal — that’s the thing with David, he’s all or nothing and he was all in, so we knew we were going to get gold. That sequence especially is something that we’ll think about forever. We keep talking about how great the Virginia sequence was.

For people who aren’t super well versed in wrestling, it’s almost surprising how much animosity wrestlers and fans have towards David — is that what pushed him to try and prove himself?

David Darg: Yeah, one hundred percent. I mean, David has a real love for wrestling and that comes across in the film, and he always has, he grew up as a huge wrestling fan. And so when he was given the opportunity to win the title, he like anyone, just said, “of course, sounds amazing,” and never anticipated the backlash. So when it came, it came really hard. He’s a sensitive guy as well, and so there was so much irony in the vitriol because he’s an actor and was hated for basically acting in a scene.

But the hate is very real, people would spit on him and the online negativity was brutal and he just hated being the whipping boy for wrestling. And so this journey was him looking for redemption in his personal life to transform himself, wrestling with his demons, of course, but it was also just to say, “Hey, wait a minute,” and prove once and for all, there was someone else that wrote the script, and he was just a pawn in the whole story.

And so that was the crux of it all. Price and I grew up watching wrestling, and we were sort of fans as wrestling as kids, but we grew away from the sport and then I actually didn’t know when we started the project with David, I had no idea that he had been world champion. I think that’s such a great starting point because I think so many people out there were like us, they had no idea. And so that just makes the film that much more watchable, because it’s such a great premise to build on from there.

So much of the film hangs on David’s journey to Mexico, and there’s no way to know if you would have been accepted by the luchadores down there — what was that whole experience like?

Price: Oh, man, it was probably the most memorable sequence. And as far as filming, we were only there for like six days in total, and the hope was that we would be fully accepted by the luchadores. And we were, so that was like, kind of a dream come true. We lived as luchadores. David was treated like a beginner in that world and to sort of be immersed in that culture that’s so rampant through Mexican culture, like the fact you have to have a license to be a Luchador given to you by the government. And the fact that it’s so culturally revered, and we knew that was probably going to be the best place for him to start or at least learn the kind of the ethics and the sort of golden rules of wrestling, which is about respect really because they all do it for no money. You have street wrestlers in there begging literally whilst performing wrestling at you know, traffic lights, and it’s something that we’ll never, never forget. And also, we were in such peril shooting that street wrestling sequence that we can never forget that. [Laughs]

How does David feel now that the film is done and it’s starting to be shown?

David Darg: I think he’s got a huge sense of relief. Because, you know, during production, Price and I had incredible access into his personal life. And we pushed that I think, further than he anticipated initially, you know? He wanted to make a love letter to wrestling, which the film certainly is, but we felt it important to get deeper than that and unpack some of the deep things in his personal life that were driving him on this quest. And so, obviously, we were dealing with some really touchy, very uncomfortable things for him. And all the way through post-production, we could tell he was super nervous about what we were making, as you would be, like, “What the hell are these guys gonna come out with in the end?” But I think when we did a screening with friends and family in L.A. a couple of months ago, he was really happy with the end result and the reaction from everyone was really real and gave him a boost of confidence. And now he’s super pumped and tonight we’re premiering the film at a drive-in theatre here in L.A. He’s coming dressed to the nines as a wrestler, so he’s gonna have a lot of fun with the run of this production as well.

You Cannot Kill David Arquette screens at the online Fantasia Film Festival on August 24 and arrives on video-on-demand on August 28.