David Dobkin may be known as a comedic director but drama is where he’s always wanted to be. After making movies like Wedding Crashers, The Change-Up and Shanghai Knights, Dobkin is very upfront about wanting to change the direction of his career to what he always intended.

That new path starts with this Friday’s release of The Judge, a family drama about a jaded lawyer from the big city (Robert Downey Jr.) who returns to his small-town roots only to discover unresolved daddy issues and a murder trial.

The Judge is mostly a drama but it has sprinkles of comedy throughout, proving that some habits die hard for this seasoned filmmaker. It also brings back memories of his debut feature Clay Pigeons with Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix, another of his films that walked a fine line between comedy and drama.

Dobkin recently traveled to San Francisco to promote The Judge and our conversation is an interesting one. We talk about the movie, his reaction to Robert Duvall speaking his mind and why The Change-Up is one of his favorites. The following is a transcription of that conversation.

Q: How has this promotional tour been different for you compared to your other movies?

David Dobkin: When you’re promoting a comedy there’s not much to talk about except how much fun it was making the movie but with a drama there’s a lot more to talk about. The themes that this movie brings up are very unique.

Q: This movie is mostly a drama but does have very specific comedic moments.

Dobkin: But you have to make it fun for people, it has to be palatable. I looked at movies like Rain Man and Terms of Endearment and they are challenging in the human drama sense but they’re also fun. They have really beautiful moments and ideas inside them.

Q: How did you find the right balance between drama and comedy?

Dobkin: Coming from comedy, that part was easy.

Q: Do test screenings come into the mix when you’re doing that?

Dobkin: Yes. I love them, I think they’re valuable and you need to know what people are watching and how they’re reacting to your movie. With a comedy, an audience is either laughing or they’re not and you need to know where those markers are for the editing process. The same goes for dramas. When those test cards came back I thought this movie was not going to test high because dramas don’t usually test high but this movie tested very well. We were shocked but I think it has to do with Robert Downey Jr and people love him. It’s almost like an event to see him go on this character journey.

Q: It’s been a while, certainly pre-Iron Man, that he’s flexed his dramatic muscles.

Dobkin: I don’t know how many movies he was the actual lead in and when you look back, this is a very unique time in his career.

Q: He likes to go off the deep end sometimes and improv a lot on set. Did you ever have to reel him in?

Dobkin: Never. I love actors who can bring it.

Q: The other big piece of this puzzle is obviously Robert Duvall. How easy or difficult was it to find someone who could go toe to toe with Downey onscreen?

Dobkin: I needed an actor who was going to be unflinching in his portrayal of this man and Duvall is a rare breed of actor. When he commits he commits and he’s really ballsy in that he doesn’t care how he comes off as long as he comes off truthfully.

Q: He definitely is very truthful. I read a conversation he had with a journalist last week and when asked why he took the role he answered because the studio paid him money and the check cleared.

Dobkin: (laughs) He says that and I’m sure he’s half winking when he says that.

Q: I’m sure he is too but it’s very funny to hear him say that.

Dobkin: Robert Duvall originally turned this movie down and his wife and agent convinced him to get on the phone with me. We talked shop, great roles and great movies. Then I flew and sat down him, had another conversation and we connected. Once he commits, he’s all in.

Q: You obviously are mostly known for your comedic work. Were you deliberately looking for a change of pace when you took on The Judge?

Dobkin: Absolutely. I came to Hollywood thinking I was going to make movies like this. I got into music videos because I thought they were really artistic and really cool, my first videos were for Tupac Shakur. Ridley Scott is my mentor and he got me signed to his commercial company and I started getting commercial work.

Q: And that led to Clay Pigeons?

Dobkin: Yes. Clay Pigeons was a big break for me and gave me a chance to play with comedy and drama and that obviously helped me in making The Judge with Downey. In fact, Downey and I go way back to 2007 in trying to get this movie made. I had thought of him for this movie when I was trying to get him cast in Fred Claus. The role he came in for on that movie was too small for him. I thought this guy is too big and too talented for this small role but I want to work with him in a bigger capacity someday. He needed a bigger canvas.

Q: Which of your films do you feel is the most underrated?

Dobkin: Clay Pigeons is the one that I think is really special and at the time a lot of these music video directors were making movies that were really big and flashy and I had an adverse reaction to that. I thought I’m going to make a movie that is a slow, dark, sizzling movie. I thought I was being punk rock. (laughs)

Q: Are you talking about the Propaganda Films guys from the 90’s? David Fincher, Spike Jonze, Michael Bay, Antoine Fuqua, Dominic Sena, etc?

Dobkin: Yes. Not a lot of people saw Clay Pigeons initially but over the years, that’s the movie that actors would tell me was their favorite.

Q: Clay Pigeons was one of my first press screenings way back in ’98. I have fond memories of those indie days.

Dobkin: Then you remember how small the release for that movie was. The studio liked Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix in that movie so much they put them in another one right after mine.

Q: Return to Paradise.

Dobkin: Wow. You really know your stuff, even I had forgotten the name of that movie.

Q: That’s because it’s not very good.

Dobkin: (laughs) I think you’re right.

Q: You’re obviously going from city to city answering a lot of the same questions. Is there one question you wish would go away?

Dobkin: This is not the kind of movie where someone asks, “what kind of funny thing happened on set,” so I’m very fortunate.

Q: So then last time for The Change-Up you were being asked, “are Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman that funny in real life?”

Dobkin: (laughs) Yes but by the way, that movie is really funny. That movie tested really high. Unfortunately there were two things against us on that one.

Q: Marketing?

Dobkin: The marketing on that movie was not good. They made it look like it was a PG-13 movie instead of embracing that it was an edgy R-rated movie. People went in expecting a PG-13 movie and were shocked when they saw in the first minute of the movie Jason Bateman getting shit in his face. With test audiences who hadn’t been exposed to the marketing of the movie, that scene blew the roof off the theatre. But when I saw it with a regular audience there were gasps instead of laughs. That taught me a valuable lesson, you can’t lie to your audience when you market a movie. What was even more frustrating is that they had built an R-rated marketing campaign for it and abandoned it.

Q: Why did Universal get cold feet and fail to pull the trigger on that campaign?

Dobkin: Because it tested high and they got greedy and they thought they had a four-quadrant hit. They were careless, it happens.

The Judge is now playing in theatres nationwide.