Wiig, 34, has a role in the Sean Penn-directed film that is being released across the United States this week. It’s just one of many creative ventures in which he has become involved since graduating from Negaunee High School as the “Most Artistic” member of the Class of 1991, as voted by his peers.
In addition to his relatively new acting career, Wiig has worked with the popular band Metallica for a number of years as “right hand man” to Lars Ulrich, the band’s co-founder and drummer; has played drums in a number of other bands including Papa Wheelie; and has designed album covers, T-shirts, logos and other merchandise as well.
The film is based on a book about a young man named Christopher McCandless, who left behind all he knew to travel around the United States, eventually dying in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness. Wiig said he can identify with McCandless on some levels.
Like in his connection to Metallica.
“I came to know Metallica personally after high school. Not unlike the coming of age of Christopher McCandless, I needed to break away from everything that I had known until then and find some new adventure in some distant land,” Wiig said in an e-mail interview. “To make a long story short, Metallica was my Alaska.”
Growing up in sports-minded Negaunee, Wiig played basketball, football and baseball and tennis, but “was much more interested in rock music and drawing.” That interest guided his path.
“I attended Northern Michigan University for a couple of years and worked at Super One Foods in Marquette,” he said. “I also worked for a local comic book store (KC Comics, owned by Kelly Piar) drawing and designing the store displays.
“Then I had the opportunity to move to Minnesota, first Duluth, then Minneapolis, where I met my future wife (Patricia), played music and began working with Metallica on the road and in the studio.
“After working with Metallica for a few years out of Minnesota, I was invited to move out to the Bay Area to work with them full time at home, on the radio and in the studio.”
Music has always been a part of Wiig’s world.
“My musical origins come from my mom’s side of the family. My grandpa played the accordion, my mom was the church organist (she taught me the piano when I was younger) and I played the trumpet in the Negaunee (High School) band before I started to develop an appetite for ‘heavier’ music and started banging the drums after school.”
Music has always been a part of his life and so has film. While Wiig actually made his major film debut in the documentary “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster,” his fascination with movies goes much farther back, back to the U.P, in fact.
“Growing up, my grandpa Leo ‘Sluga’ Arbelius of Palmer gave our family a video camera as a present one year and things were never quite the same after that,” Wiig said. “I quickly assumed the role of director and ‘tortured’ my younger siblings with bizarre roles and plots for years to come. Kidding aside, that video camera really brought our family closer together.”
Through the years, he had come to know Academy Award-winning actor Penn. Penn approached Wiig about “Into the Wild.”
“Sean gave me a script and said ‘pick a role,’” Wiig explained. “We’ve become good friends over the years and through our socializing, I think he picked up on a few of my ‘impersonations’ and asked if I had ever considered acting. This was when he was casting ‘Into the Wild’. He wanted to see me on camera, so I gave him some footage of my wife and me acting as German tourists right before I left to go on tour with Metallica in South Africa.
“When I got back, he told me he wanted me in the film.”
Wiig perused the script and chose the role as park ranger Steve Koehler.
“I settled on the part because I felt there was a comedic amount of absurdity involved and I felt it helped propel the character (Chris McCandless) down the river. Interestingly, when I called to say that ‘The Ranger’ was the part I was interested in, (Penn) was actually scouting that very location that day.”
Shooting his role will be a special memory for Wiig.
“Filming was one of the most creatively fulfilling days of my life. We shot on location at Lee’s Ferry in Page, Ariz., where the Colorado River meets the Grand Canyon,” he said. “Between Sean, Emile Hirsch (who plays McCandless) and myself, we had a blast playing with the script, improvising and collaborating. The lines exchanged between Emile and I were scripted, while most of my dialogue while I’m on the phone was improvised. At one point, Sean told me to ‘go (Jack) Nicholson’ at the end of a take.
“I’d also gone to a few shooting locations during the filming of the movie, including Alaska, which reminded me a lot of the U.P. — the nature, the remoteness, especially the terrain — but with mountains in the background.”
Penn may have an image as difficult, but Wiig said that’s not reality.
“Sean is a genius and a poet. He’s greatly misunderstood in the media and is a great human being,” Wiig said. “He’s a true friend.”
In e-mailed comments Penn said he “came to know Steve Wiig as an actor by accident. We’d become drinking pals, and in his storytelling I’d see him transform into some wonderful characters. He was just a natural so I said, ‘What do you think of going pro?’ I’m glad he did.”
Wiig said he’s more than pleased with the finished movie.
“It’s an epic journey film. Gorgeous both physically and emotionally. I think this will be a timeless classic — I might be biased, but I can easily see this film having just as much impact 30 years from now as it does now,”Wiig said. “It’s just such a strong story and the movie enhances the book — they actually complement each other.”
Are acting and music in Wiig’s future?
“I would love to continue creatively expressing myself on film,” he said. “My other plans include spending time with my family. There should be a new Metallica album in the next year so maybe a tour. Maybe some more acting.
“I’m just taking life one chapter at a time.”
