Well it's certainly a title that catches our attention here at Blogging Ohio, and anyone else living in Ohio. Not a lot of movies get set here, and fewer just plain filmed here, so seeing the word 'Ohio' in a title certainly got my attention. "The Oh in Ohio" features Danny Devito, Parker Posey, and Paul Rudd in a tale about a Cleveland woman in a marriage that falls apart due to her inability to... uh, have the big O (an orgasm), and how she's able to find herself sexually on the journey that follows.The movie premieres this weekend in a handful of theatres around the country. In Ohio we'll be able to see it in Cleveland at the Cedar Lee.
Poking around their website, I found out that the whole movie had actually been filmed in Cleveland, and that director Billy Kent and the cast had really enjoyed the city and made an effort to promote the city in the film. Intrigued I spent some time to track down Billy Kent. Yesterday I was able to interview him about the movie, and the experience of filming in Ohio, which he said was fantastic thanks to the city of Cleveland being so welcoming.
Tobias: In the notes to your site I saw that you chose to set this film in Cleveland because you wanted to help Cleveland kind of dig itself out of some of the butt of the jokes and give it some credit. Was working on this film your first time in Cleveland?
Mr. Kent: No, it wasn't my first time. It was probably my third or fourth time. Actually, I had been there a couple of times when I was younger and in college and then Sara, who is my wife, and Adam, who is my screenwriting partner, all went out there when we were talking about the movie to basically walk it out, to kind of like see how Cleveland felt in relation to our story. We really felt it was the appropriate place to put it for a multitude of reasons. One, Adam's first girlfriend came from Cleveland and he was sort of a New York rock guy and really made his way into the rock and roll aspect of Cleveland. You know, it's so undersung in those ways. People don't really understand how important is to the rock and roll culture. Not that there's that much of that in our movie, but -
For over 80 years Ohio has been a major player in
lighter than air travel. It began with Goodyear creating blimps in Akron Ohio, including some of the largest airships
ever made by the US. In the years since airship making has become relegated to floating billboards, with Goodyear using
its 3 blimps to travel around the country and raise awareness of its brand, as well as advertise products for other
companies on the sides of its lighter than air vehicles famous for hovering over major sporting events. Goodyear's
floating advertising platforms are a far cry from the days of the massive airships and the fleets of blimps used by the
Navy for various purposes, but Akron, Ohio, still is the center of Goodyear's airship manufacturing.
