Speaker 1: Look out. It's only films to be buried with. Hello,
Speaker 1: and welcome to films to be buried with. My name
Speaker 1: is Brett Goldstein. I'm a comedian, an actor, a writer,
Speaker 1: a director, a tube carriage seat, and I love films.
Speaker 1: As William Shakespeare once said, to be or not to
Speaker 1: be in a reclining seat at the cinema? Is it
Speaker 1: better to sit up straight or to be in danger
Speaker 1: of napping during a long film? I hear William Shakespeare
Speaker 1: one of the few things you've ever said that made
Speaker 1: sense to me. Every week I invite a special guest over.
Speaker 1: I tell them they've died. Then I get them to
Speaker 1: discuss their life through the films that meant the most
Speaker 1: of them. Previous guests include Kevin Smith, Barry Jenkins, Sharon Stone,
Speaker 1: and even Zed Campbell's. But this week it is the
Speaker 1: brilliant actor, writer, director, producer and podcaster mister Zach Braff.
Speaker 1: Head over to the Patreon at patron dot com forward
Speaker 1: slash Brett Goldstein, where you're getting extra twenty minutes of
Speaker 1: chat with Zach. We laugh a lot, We talk about
Speaker 1: beginnings and endings. He tells me a secret. You get
Speaker 1: the whole episode uncut and ad free and as a video.
Speaker 1: Check it out over at patreon dot com. Forward slash
Speaker 1: Brett Gostein so Zach Braff, Come on now. Zach Braff
Speaker 1: was the star of Scrubs who went on to become
Speaker 1: a filmmaker in his own right. He's made some excellent films.
Speaker 1: I met him when he directed episode two of season
Speaker 1: one of ted Lasso, for which he was nominated for
Speaker 1: an Emmy. We stayed in touch. He really looked after
Speaker 1: me when I was in LA He's a lovely man.
Speaker 1: He's a brilliant podcaster in his own right, and I
Speaker 1: was very grateful for his time. We had a really
Speaker 1: lovely chat, and I think you're gonna love this one.
Speaker 1: So that is it for now. I very much hope
Speaker 1: you enjoy episode two hundred and eight of Films to
Speaker 1: be Buried With. Hello, and welcome to Films to be
Speaker 1: Buried With. It is I Brett Golstein, and I'm joined
Speaker 1: today by an actor, a right, a producer, a comedian,
Speaker 1: a director, a kickstarter, a doctor, a podcaster, a real
Speaker 1: friend and a fake doctor and a hero to the world.
Speaker 1: Please welcome to this show. It's the one and only
Speaker 1: Can you believe it's here. I certainly can't. I can't
Speaker 1: believe it it's him. Yes, that's right here he is
Speaker 1: is Zach Rath. Wow, thank you. That's the nicest introduction
Speaker 1: I've ever been given in my whole life. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: glad to do it. I really like you. I genuinely
Speaker 1: love you as a human being, and I'm so honored
Speaker 1: to be on your fancy podcast. Well that is a
Speaker 1: very very nice thing to say up top, And I
Speaker 1: love you too, and I'm very grateful that you're doing this.
Speaker 1: So tell me this. What do I want to know?
Speaker 1: I want to know so much about you for the
Speaker 1: podcast obviously. I mean, you're doing this podcast that is
Speaker 1: brilliant and it's sort of has this change your life?
Speaker 1: This podcast thing in a weird way. It's I love it,
Speaker 1: you know. We started during Quarantine and Donald Phayz on
Speaker 1: my costar on Scrubs. The show is called Fake Doctors,
Speaker 1: Real Friends, and it was a way to just initially
Speaker 1: we were gonna do it before the pandemic. We were
Speaker 1: gonna do it in a studio, and then when we
Speaker 1: lockdown happened, we started doing it like we're doing now
Speaker 1: over zoom. But professionally recording it so it sounded good
Speaker 1: and it became one of my one of the things
Speaker 1: that saved me during the during the horrible lockdown, and
Speaker 1: it was just a conversation. Every week we watch episodes
Speaker 1: the whole series of Scrubs, and then we talk about
Speaker 1: each episode. Each episode is looking back so many years
Speaker 1: fifteen twenty years back and going through the show as
Speaker 1: best friends who have the same sense of humor, and
Speaker 1: we don't remember this, it's so long ago. So we're
Speaker 1: watching a show that that is our sense of humor,
Speaker 1: and Bill Lawrence is obviously who you know well, and
Speaker 1: we're just cracking up at stuff we don't remember doing,
Speaker 1: but it's us. It's very surreal, and it was it
Speaker 1: was better than therapy because it was laughing with my
Speaker 1: best body, you know, once or twice a week, and
Speaker 1: it was it really saved me. You know. I think
Speaker 1: that you were a big inspiration. I remember thinking because
Speaker 1: when I really really loved Scrubs, I loved Scrubs and
Speaker 1: you were brilliant at it. And when you went off
Speaker 1: and made Gardens Day and you were like twelve years old,
Speaker 1: I don't know, twenty five. I think twenty five and
Speaker 1: I just remember being like, yeah, fucking right, like and
Speaker 1: what I wonder about that? If you remember, it's also
Speaker 1: like it's such a confident film, Like it's a really
Speaker 1: you know what I want to know it is, do
Speaker 1: you have you always had a strong confidence in what
Speaker 1: you do and everything? Because to be that young and girl,
Speaker 1: I'm going to write and direct this film and starring
Speaker 1: in and do it very very well. Were you full
Speaker 1: of anxiety doing that or was it like no, I was.
Speaker 1: I was, of course, because I've always believed in the
Speaker 1: thing I feel most confident is something that I've actually
Speaker 1: managed to get on the page and I wrote it
Speaker 1: and I believe in it and it's mine and it
Speaker 1: came out of my brain and some people may love it,
Speaker 1: some people I hate it. But it's certainly the story
Speaker 1: I had to tell at the moment. It's what came
Speaker 1: out of me. Yeah, and um, I feel confidence in again.
Speaker 1: It could be polarizing, but but but it is. It's
Speaker 1: it's my it's true for me. It's what's true for me.
Speaker 1: I was lucky enough to have Bonnever write a song
Speaker 1: for my movie Wish I Was here, and Justin wrote
Speaker 1: this incredible song after seeing the movie, stood up and
Speaker 1: wrote a song and and and the song was incredible,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't quite right for the moment that I
Speaker 1: had asked. And I had the audacity to tell him,
Speaker 1: this is brilliant, but it doesn't really kind of fit
Speaker 1: the moment we were talking about. And he goes, I
Speaker 1: don't know what to tell you. That's I watched your
Speaker 1: movie and that's what came out of me. And I
Speaker 1: went back and went, oh, wow, well, now i'm gonna
Speaker 1: it's I'm gonna use it. I'm gonna use it in
Speaker 1: a different spot because it was because it was fucking brilliant.
Speaker 1: But that always is stuck with me, what he said,
Speaker 1: because I think he's a genius. So I I've always thought,
Speaker 1: well that that's that's the film that came out, that's
Speaker 1: what came out of me. So um, and I have
Speaker 1: a new one that I've made and again for better
Speaker 1: for worse, hopefully people will love it. But it's it is,
Speaker 1: It's what came out of me at forty seven years old,
Speaker 1: during after a lot of a string of grief, of
Speaker 1: some people dying and the pandemic and all of it.
Speaker 1: It's what my brain had to say in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: I mean, all of that makes perfect says to me.
Speaker 1: I guess what I'm like curious is the reality of
Speaker 1: making a thing like you're twenty five and having a
Speaker 1: crew and yeah, a movie star and you know all
Speaker 1: these yeah, like and it's quite a big there's quite
Speaker 1: a big cast in the way, there's lots of sea,
Speaker 1: there's some big stuff. Yeah, it was big. And we
Speaker 1: shot it in twenty five days for two and a
Speaker 1: half million dollars um, which, for those of you don't know,
Speaker 1: is it is a lot to do with very little money.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't know, man, I just everyone had
Speaker 1: passed on it. I mean, it's uh, you know what
Speaker 1: happened was nobody wanted to make it, even after Natalie
Speaker 1: had said, yes, nobody wanted to make it. I think
Speaker 1: he thought, you know, it's it's There's a a term
Speaker 1: they used in Hollywood called execution dependent, meaning like this
Speaker 1: is interesting, but it could go so many ways. This
Speaker 1: guy's never made anything. I mean, it did go to
Speaker 1: film school, but they weren't gonna watched my film school shorts,
Speaker 1: you know, so anyway, they called an execution dependent, meaning
Speaker 1: like we have this could go anyway and then um,
Speaker 1: a few people believed in me, one of whom is
Speaker 1: Pam Abdy, who's always been a huge champion of mine. Um.
Speaker 1: In fact, she was an executive at MGM, and she's
Speaker 1: the one who just uh you know, bought my latest film,
Speaker 1: which is called That Person. And then actually, yeah, so
Speaker 1: so she's been one of my biggest supporters of my
Speaker 1: entire career, and she now just became the president of
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers, which is exciting for her because she's incredible
Speaker 1: and really cool and been and just been along with
Speaker 1: Bill Lawrence. Um has been one of my biggest champions
Speaker 1: in my whole life. But sorry, I digress. A lot
Speaker 1: of people had passed. And what happened was a guy,
Speaker 1: a wealthy guy named Gary Gilbert, who he and his
Speaker 1: brother created the mortgage company that would become quick in Loans.
Speaker 1: He wanted to get into Dan Gilbert is a famous
Speaker 1: owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and a famous businessman here. Anyway, Gary,
Speaker 1: his brother wanted to get into film production. And there
Speaker 1: was one company that was dangling a carrot a bit
Speaker 1: like we might we might pay for it if X,
Speaker 1: Y and Z happens. We want to we want to
Speaker 1: get an equity partner to split the cost, and at
Speaker 1: the time, the budget was around six million dollars. And
Speaker 1: Gary came to his first Hollywood meeting as a very
Speaker 1: successful businessman and sat and listened to this company, you
Speaker 1: know this this they call him many majors at the time.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not going to name the company, but
Speaker 1: the company was saying like, yeah, we want to split
Speaker 1: this with you. Here's the deal. And in the parking lot,
Speaker 1: he said, that is the most ludicrous because I don't
Speaker 1: know anything about Hollywood, but this is the dumbest deal
Speaker 1: in the world. Why would you ever do this? Why
Speaker 1: would I ever do this? He goes, they recoup first,
Speaker 1: but you don't recoup and I recoup and it's like
Speaker 1: not fair to anyone but them. He goes, is there
Speaker 1: any looks I don't know any about Hollywood, Is there
Speaker 1: any whe you could make this for half of that,
Speaker 1: because if so, I'll just pay for it myself. And
Speaker 1: we were like, give us a second, and we huddled
Speaker 1: up and we figured out how to make it for
Speaker 1: two and a half million dollars and he paid for
Speaker 1: it himself out of his own pocket and um, and
Speaker 1: it went on to be at Sundance and have a
Speaker 1: big sale and then and then became what it became. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's incredible. It was very successful, wasn't it. I mean,
Speaker 1: what about can I ask you this? Because you were
Speaker 1: twenty four when you got Scrubs? Is that right? Yeah? Ish,
Speaker 1: I think I'm bad with I'm bad with dates twenty four,
Speaker 1: twenty five and maybe Garden State. I was twenty six.
Speaker 1: I forgot, I forgot. I forgot. It was I got
Speaker 1: Scrubs in two thousand, which was twenty two years ago
Speaker 1: that I'm good at. That's easy math. How did you
Speaker 1: cope with fame at that age in the beginning, It's
Speaker 1: quite an adjustment. It was mostly positive. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I feel for the most part, unless people are drunk,
Speaker 1: barring drunk people, um, most people are just very kind.
Speaker 1: Um they come say I love you, I love your work,
Speaker 1: and this is you know. In the beginning was before
Speaker 1: a selfieas and stuff like that. So so people would
Speaker 1: come and say just oh, you know, something nice to you.
Speaker 1: And even drunk people are meanwhile, they just are drunk.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've encountered that. You probably can't walk into
Speaker 1: a fucking bar right now. After No, you should definitely
Speaker 1: not walk around London and go into pubs. But no,
Speaker 1: it's definitely an adjustment. But I find ninety nine percent
Speaker 1: of the time people are lovely interesting. And one thing
Speaker 1: I would say publicly so that people know because the
Speaker 1: dead it is you directed Ted Lessay episode two season went, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you invented part of the style of it because
Speaker 1: we had this the football pitch where the players trained.
Speaker 1: We would tell you're not allowed to put any cameras
Speaker 1: on the pitch. Nothing can go on the pitch because
Speaker 1: it would ruin the pitch. Yeah, they're very sacred about
Speaker 1: the pitch. I know nothing about sports, I should say,
Speaker 1: which is interesting because when Bill ask me it directs
Speaker 1: Ted Lasso, I didn't. I didn't know that I'd be
Speaker 1: right for it, because I mean, I love Jason, I
Speaker 1: love Bill, I'll do anything for him. But I was like,
Speaker 1: off show about football soccer, I don't know, I'm not
Speaker 1: into sports at all, But then I saw what the
Speaker 1: show was. And but interestingly enough, episode two is the
Speaker 1: first one where there's any soccer playing. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: get there and the Greensmen are so protective of this
Speaker 1: pitch that they say, just so you know, you can't
Speaker 1: bring any equipment on here. And you know, normally, if
Speaker 1: it wasn't so giant, you might figure out a way
Speaker 1: to do a crane or there's a piece of gear
Speaker 1: called a steadicam, but it's the ball was moving too
Speaker 1: fast for a steadicam operator to run. I was like,
Speaker 1: how the hell are we going to shoot this? And
Speaker 1: so me and your key Grip together and the DP
Speaker 1: came up with this rig. We devised this, uh, this
Speaker 1: this rig that involved mounting the camera on these giant
Speaker 1: inflatable tires that wouldn't hurt the pitch and it was
Speaker 1: on a remote head, so the operator was on the
Speaker 1: on the sidelines, and then the guys the grips would
Speaker 1: run with football shoes on run with the rig to
Speaker 1: keep up with you guys, and we we we conceived
Speaker 1: that it was really cool, cool man, and that's the
Speaker 1: that's the that's we used it to this day right now.
Speaker 1: Well I should be named after the key Grip because
Speaker 1: he actually built it. But I had a lovely time
Speaker 1: doing that. I really thought that that show was so
Speaker 1: much fun. And of course I had no idea that
Speaker 1: that it would as I'm sure you didn't that it
Speaker 1: would become the worldwide phenomenon that it became. I remember
Speaker 1: it's all being very very nervous about your directing it
Speaker 1: because we were all why because we were all such
Speaker 1: fucking cute. It's it's you know, we were huge, huge,
Speaker 1: huge scraps fans and oh and here you were and
Speaker 1: we were like, we're good actors because I didn't sense
Speaker 1: that at all. Oh yeah, everyone was like, fucking here
Speaker 1: is there were us here. He is fucking out. But
Speaker 1: you were very very I remember being like, fucking he's charming,
Speaker 1: straight up, thank you. I had so much fun. You know.
Speaker 1: It was fun because you guys were so and the
Speaker 1: cast was incredible everyone. I'm not just saying this to
Speaker 1: kiss your ask. Everyone was so um lovely, and Hannah
Speaker 1: was so lovely and all the all the team members
Speaker 1: and and uh and Jason was so funny, and I
Speaker 1: just you know, you know, builds one of my best
Speaker 1: friends in my life. So there we were back together,
Speaker 1: sitting in a monitor, laughing together. It was it was.
Speaker 1: It was my dream. Although I had to adjust to
Speaker 1: I never shot anything outside North America, so I had
Speaker 1: to adjust to the differences over there, the main one
Speaker 1: being there's no overtime. Yeah, but you are allowed to
Speaker 1: pick up a cab. But if you see, what all
Speaker 1: I know is that like you just do ten hours
Speaker 1: in the UK, you don't go over. And I was like,
Speaker 1: can we just finish the shot? And it was like
Speaker 1: a record scratch and then like like someone dropped like
Speaker 1: a ceramic their ceramic teacup silence. And the first they
Speaker 1: do was like, we we can. We need to go
Speaker 1: around and ask every crew member if they're willing to
Speaker 1: go overtime. I was like, oh really, I didn't know that,
Speaker 1: and they did, and they did. They went, they went
Speaker 1: around and everyone said, yeah, sure, we can work a
Speaker 1: little bit longer. And I was like, oh wow, this
Speaker 1: is because here, you know, we worked crazy over ten hours.
Speaker 1: They just work until you until you did right. Well, no,
Speaker 1: they used to, by the way, when I used to
Speaker 1: be a pay on music videos back in the nineties,
Speaker 1: I would do like I did, like twenty four hour days,
Speaker 1: which is so unsafe and dangerous, and they've they've actually
Speaker 1: curtailed people doing that. Um now now it's limited to
Speaker 1: I mean, you'd be hard pressed to go over fourteen
Speaker 1: hours I think these days. But mostly people try and
Speaker 1: stick to twelve, but because it's just dangerous. People were
Speaker 1: getting in car accidents and your people are just exhausted.
Speaker 1: I've forgotten to tell you something, Zack, I forgot. I
Speaker 1: can tell you. I should have told you earlier. I
Speaker 1: feel like an idiot. I should have I probably should
Speaker 1: have opened the bit of this. And now you're gonna
Speaker 1: fade about it. I'll just I'll just tell you that
Speaker 1: you've died. You're dead? Oh fuck? Yeah? Sorry man, how
Speaker 1: did you feel it? This is real, that that lead
Speaker 1: up made it real? Did you die? How did you die?
Speaker 1: I'm front row at the Oscars, and I'm front row
Speaker 1: at the Oscars because I have obviously been nominated for
Speaker 1: Best Director and Best Picture of the Year. Okay, even
Speaker 1: though I'm old interesting you pick those so not not
Speaker 1: best Actor, best writing? You know, oh' to night and
Speaker 1: dangled that. Okay, I'm also for Best Writer. This is
Speaker 1: my dream, thank you. But no, I don't care about acting. Okay,
Speaker 1: I mean I like acting, but my I this is
Speaker 1: my dream. It's my fantasy and it doesn't include acting. Okay, directing, writing,
Speaker 1: picture front row, I got like the I got like
Speaker 1: the next. I'm next to Meryl Streep. You know, I
Speaker 1: got those seats right The Life and Times of Bread Goldstein.
Speaker 1: It's a dut okay. And we get to the part
Speaker 1: of the show where they do the in memorium and um,
Speaker 1: you know, somebody's singing, probably Billy Porter or something, you know, um,
Speaker 1: some sad song, and the montages happened, and I have
Speaker 1: a heart attack right at the top of the memorium,
Speaker 1: and the people on the other side of me, Meryl
Speaker 1: Street and you know, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, you know,
Speaker 1: the big megastars. They're doing CPR on me during during
Speaker 1: the whole memoriam montage, right and by the end, by
Speaker 1: the end, you know, most people don't really most people
Speaker 1: don't see. It's just the megastars at the front, Beyonce,
Speaker 1: you know, they realize and they're doing CPR me. And
Speaker 1: then the memorium is sort of wrapping up, you know,
Speaker 1: getting to the people that people didn't know, like you know,
Speaker 1: editors and publicists, and Billy's about to hit his last
Speaker 1: final note and they really that they're not going to
Speaker 1: resuscitate me, so they all collectively haul me up onto
Speaker 1: the stage and just hold me up for the audience
Speaker 1: to see. Yeah, at the end of you know, Brad
Speaker 1: Pitt's cutting by the waist. He's holding me up like
Speaker 1: like they held up Simba in Lion King and uh
Speaker 1: and I'm just sort of like the the final moment
Speaker 1: of the memorium. That's a really food that you'd be
Speaker 1: a base how often it comes up? Has anyone said
Speaker 1: it that way before? No, that's really funny. I really
Speaker 1: like it. My question is, listen, I was just thinking that.
Speaker 1: I was thinking, well, surely that stops the oscars. But
Speaker 1: then I'm thinking about what happened at the oscars last year.
Speaker 1: I'm like that, yeah, no, and they don't stop. They
Speaker 1: don't stop raining. I think I get a standing Oh
Speaker 1: you get a standing out, just like Will Smith. They
Speaker 1: sweet you up the stage and then they carry out.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they don't stop the oscars. That'd be a
Speaker 1: bit of a vibe in the room, like something happened.
Speaker 1: The room will be tense, Yeah, bit tense. Mary Street
Speaker 1: would wipe a little too. You'd be like, she's very good.
Speaker 1: But then they go back to it. Once I once
Speaker 1: heard this thing, it's like a psychologist told me. Therapist
Speaker 1: told me, he said, you know, when you die, people
Speaker 1: will be very, very sad. They'll go to your funeral
Speaker 1: and they're gonna sob and they're gonna hug each other
Speaker 1: and they're gonna be so upset, and then they're gonna
Speaker 1: go eat lunch. I think about it a lot too.
Speaker 1: It's just the ultimate. It's the ultimate carpet dium. It's
Speaker 1: like they're literally I've had a lot of death in
Speaker 1: my life from loved LUNs and friends in the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, and it's so fucking tragic and true.
Speaker 1: Not to say you don't think about the person I
Speaker 1: lost my father, but I think about them all the time.
Speaker 1: But it's just shocking how quickly life life goes back on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it will fuck you up. You'll get yourself crying on
Speaker 1: the treadmill because you're like, oh my god, I'm back
Speaker 1: on the treadmill and my friend died, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? I do know what you mean. I remember
Speaker 1: seeing it that I won't name them, but there's a
Speaker 1: TV writer here in England who had done a load
Speaker 1: of amazing stuff and they died and someone wrote like
Speaker 1: a very beautiful sort of a bittery about them in
Speaker 1: their career. And I remember reading that and then going
Speaker 1: yeah and then that's it, do you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 1: that's it. It's that a bittery and then everyone, yeah,
Speaker 1: move on and you're like, oh Jesus was what do
Speaker 1: you worry about death? For yourself? I don't worry about it,
Speaker 1: but I think it drives me to seize the day
Speaker 1: and to do as much as I possibly can, and
Speaker 1: to be grateful and to get up and keep going.
Speaker 1: When you when you have the expression that you know English,
Speaker 1: keep calm and carry on, it's like that to keep
Speaker 1: to all together and keep going. Because I don't really,
Speaker 1: I don't believe in an afterlife, so I just think, like, no,
Speaker 1: I think this is it. I mean, I hope I'm
Speaker 1: invited if I'm wrong, but I don't. It's not something
Speaker 1: I believe in. So well you if you're there before me.
Speaker 1: I'm older than you, so i'll make it there before you.
Speaker 1: But um, i'll make it nice and cozy for you.
Speaker 1: I would love it if there to be, of course,
Speaker 1: but I don't. It's not something I my science brain
Speaker 1: can make sense of. So I just say, um, you know,
Speaker 1: see's the day, do it now or never? So you
Speaker 1: have you have no Sorry if this is a dark question,
Speaker 1: I know, isn't it. I heard the Judd Apato one
Speaker 1: and he was so funny. Am I being too dark
Speaker 1: for this? No? No, you're being brilliant at one point.
Speaker 1: If I can ask you this, I think so with
Speaker 1: Oh god, this is such a dark question. If this
Speaker 1: is too much, please say all right, I'll say pass. Yeah.
Speaker 1: With the people that you've lost, and I'm very sorry
Speaker 1: for that. So you you don't feel there's any connection
Speaker 1: to them now, as in they're they're gone, that's done.
Speaker 1: Is that how you feel? I do. I do feel
Speaker 1: connection to them, and I will talk to them, but
Speaker 1: um for comfort, particularly my father, but um, and I
Speaker 1: think about them all the time. But I don't. I don't,
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't. I can't be honest with you
Speaker 1: and say I rationally think that they're in the sky,
Speaker 1: or or that their spirits or their energies around me.
Speaker 1: It's so comforting to think about. I think that's that's
Speaker 1: that really comforts you, like like a teddy bear comforts
Speaker 1: a child. But I don't think that it's actually there.
Speaker 1: I think it's an ideology that's there for comfort. Well
Speaker 1: pretty big, Yeah, yeah, you're wrong, kid out, you're wrong.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I'm gonna fuck up the whole show if
Speaker 1: I'm not alive to talk about the movies. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: there's a heaven, big out heaven, right, and it's filled
Speaker 1: with your favorite thing. What's your favorite thing? My favorite
Speaker 1: thing is probably my dog right there, Billy, Okay, my dogs.
Speaker 1: My dog's not there though, because well you know, she's there.
Speaker 1: She's there because her name is Billy, and she's there
Speaker 1: because this is so in the future and I've outlived
Speaker 1: her because dogs sadly have a shorter life than we do.
Speaker 1: And so she's there. She's there to well me looking
Speaker 1: my face, Okay, well, there you go. She's there. Also,
Speaker 1: she's been cloned, and there's a million of her there.
Speaker 1: I could love you a lot. She's a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a lot. That's a lot of dogs. But everyone's
Speaker 1: very excited to see you. Dogs everywhere all the same one,
Speaker 1: very excited to see you. And everyone is a huge fan.
Speaker 1: They want to know about your life, but they want
Speaker 1: to know about your life through film and the first
Speaker 1: beautiful what a beautiful What a beautiful concept for a podcast.
Speaker 1: Thank you for inviting me. Well, the first thing that
Speaker 1: they want to know is what's the first film you
Speaker 1: remember seeing, Zach. I've thought about this a lot, and
Speaker 1: I think the first memory I have is For Your
Speaker 1: Eyes Only, which I which I would have been five,
Speaker 1: really in the movie Theater, and it's an odd movie
Speaker 1: to take a five year old too, but I did them.
Speaker 1: I recently read that it came out in nineteen eighty,
Speaker 1: which and if I saw that theater would make me five. Wow.
Speaker 1: Who did you see that with? Do you remember? I
Speaker 1: know not my parents. I didn't. I think a baby. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know that they would have approved. Not that
Speaker 1: For your Eyes Only is too are There's some sexual scenes.
Speaker 1: I remember there being like an ice skater who's trying
Speaker 1: to lure Roger Moore to bed. And I remember, even
Speaker 1: at a very young thinking that that was very interesting.
Speaker 1: I can't put the map together. My answer was right
Speaker 1: away it must have been for your Eyes Only? But
Speaker 1: that makes me five or maybe I was six, I
Speaker 1: don't know, but it was for your Eyes Only? Where
Speaker 1: was this? Where did you grow up? I grew up
Speaker 1: in New Jersey, Garden State. Okay, so English people might
Speaker 1: not know, but each state here has a nickname, a
Speaker 1: sort of slogan or whatever. You want to call it,
Speaker 1: and New Jersey's is the garden State, and that's why
Speaker 1: that's why I name the movie Gardening. So I grew
Speaker 1: up in North Jersey, about forty five minutes outside of Manhattan,
Speaker 1: which was great because we would not only Actually I
Speaker 1: just led me to another answer. That's funny is I
Speaker 1: think the first independent movie I ever saw was The
Speaker 1: Gods Must Be Crazy Because have you seen that movie.
Speaker 1: That's the one where the kite can and the pistre
Speaker 1: is the woman from a plane. Yes, you got to
Speaker 1: see it. I don't know if it holds up, but
Speaker 1: it was. It was amazing because at the time. At
Speaker 1: the time, there weren't independent movies quote unquote, but we
Speaker 1: we lived so close to Manhattan and my father would
Speaker 1: would take us into the stay to see theater so much.
Speaker 1: And then word had spread I guess to New Jersey
Speaker 1: that there was the South African movie that was only
Speaker 1: playing in Manhattan that you had to see. It was
Speaker 1: the movie to see, and so we drove. We drove
Speaker 1: in and so I don't know what year, whatever a
Speaker 1: year that made it to art houses in Manhattan. I
Speaker 1: saw that. Wow. My dad was always taking me to
Speaker 1: movies beyond my years. I mean, he was so into
Speaker 1: movies and he would just bring me. We would I
Speaker 1: would suffer through, like something was so over my head
Speaker 1: like Gandhi or or or or you know, or just
Speaker 1: something that a kid could not possibly understand or was
Speaker 1: too fucked up for them to see. Not not sexually
Speaker 1: or or or even I guess I should say not sexually.
Speaker 1: I just remember like he took me to a reconcilable No,
Speaker 1: not a reconcilable difference. He did take me to Reckon.
Speaker 1: My parents went through a divorce, and he took me
Speaker 1: to a reconcilable differences, which was about a divorce. It
Speaker 1: was so upsetting. Yeah, he took me in terms of endearment,
Speaker 1: which is which is probably one of the saddest movies
Speaker 1: I've ever seen. And I couldn't stop crying. I was sobbing,
Speaker 1: and he felt like he broke me. He was like,
Speaker 1: why can't you stop crying? And I was like, because
Speaker 1: he think I think my mom loses it and then
Speaker 1: you say goodbye to there she says goodbye to her kids.
Speaker 1: And I was just sobbing for hours. It so fucked
Speaker 1: me up. It was so he meant well, I guess,
Speaker 1: but I mean obviously didn't mean to cause me any harm,
Speaker 1: but it was psychologically harmful to show a child. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I haven't talked about this in the podcast for a
Speaker 1: very long time, but like, that's how I felt about eight.
Speaker 1: I felt it was abusive. Taking me to et et
Speaker 1: made me cry so much that I was like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: why have you brought me to this? Why? Why would
Speaker 1: you do this to me? Yeah? Why you? Why do
Speaker 1: you want to hurt me? I have another young memory
Speaker 1: of my mom taking me to Indiana Jones and the
Speaker 1: Temple of Doom with my stepfather. They had gotten divorced.
Speaker 1: I was I must have been maybe eight. I forgot
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't know roughly, and that movie I
Speaker 1: was not appropriate for any year old. I think my
Speaker 1: friend Carrie Brothers, who's a massive movie IMDb Living IMDb,
Speaker 1: said that that's the movie they created the PG thirteen
Speaker 1: rating for in the United States because pants were bringing
Speaker 1: their kids and it was so realistic when he pulls
Speaker 1: in and pulls the heart out and I my mom
Speaker 1: must have looked over at me and such shock, and
Speaker 1: my face must have registered such terror that she was like,
Speaker 1: do you want to go to the lobby and play
Speaker 1: video games. And I just like furiously started nodding, and
Speaker 1: we left my stepfather there to finish the movie and
Speaker 1: we went to play video games in the lobby. I
Speaker 1: was out. I was out second that a heart came out,
Speaker 1: not for me, get it. What's the film that made
Speaker 1: you cry the most terms of endearment as a child, Definitely,
Speaker 1: I think of a color purple. I cried a lot
Speaker 1: when the two sisters are being separated. I remember that
Speaker 1: really really fucking me up. And it's always been a
Speaker 1: point of return to me. When I think about what
Speaker 1: gets me the most in a theater, it's it's love
Speaker 1: that cannot be whether it's romantic or familial. Two people
Speaker 1: that love each other that cannot be together, pulling them apart.
Speaker 1: Um field of dreams. When the father comes out to
Speaker 1: play have a catch with his son, and then they
Speaker 1: has to say goodbye. I mean that kind of thing,
Speaker 1: you know, the mother saying goodbye to her children, Deborah
Speaker 1: Winger saying goodbye to her children. Termine different. That's just
Speaker 1: the eye of the storm for what fucked me up.
Speaker 1: And then as an adult in a romantic way, the
Speaker 1: one that came our mind was Blue is the Warmest
Speaker 1: Color um, which is which you know? That movie? Yeah,
Speaker 1: unbelievable movie. I mean it was. I feel like it
Speaker 1: was sort of sold as like, oh, we have this
Speaker 1: epic sex scene, and I guess that's how they chose
Speaker 1: to market it. And I remember seeing it being like,
Speaker 1: the movie didn't need that sex scene. This movie is
Speaker 1: you didn't? Why did you you? Almost? I mean, god,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to criticize the filmmaker because he is
Speaker 1: a genius and it's a brilliant film, but I was
Speaker 1: almost like why that was almost felt egregious because this
Speaker 1: movie is so brilliant and heartbreaking and anyway, they're there again,
Speaker 1: two lovers who can't be together but should be and
Speaker 1: can't be. And that's that's that's what always gets me.
Speaker 1: Are you always seemed at available? Man? Yeah? I would
Speaker 1: definitely wearing my heart on my sleeve. Have you always
Speaker 1: been that way? Yeah? Yeah? I was a very emotional kid.
Speaker 1: A friend of mine just told me in a term
Speaker 1: I hadn't heard before, called an HSP a highly sensitive person.
Speaker 1: Have you ever heard that? Explain? Only in America? Do
Speaker 1: we have diagnosis like these you guys laugh at us. No,
Speaker 1: But it's like a diagnosis. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I just thought everyone was like that. He's like, no, no,
Speaker 1: there's people that aren't as sensitive as people like you
Speaker 1: and me. And I was like, oh, then I'm I'm
Speaker 1: in the HSP. Oh No, I was a very sensitive kid,
Speaker 1: very sensitive. I'm in SAG. I'm indeed the DGA. I'm
Speaker 1: in HSP. What about being scared? Do you like being scared?
Speaker 1: What's the film that? No? I hate horror movies. I
Speaker 1: never got into horror movies. I never was into them.
Speaker 1: We had two SP I'm two HSP highly sensitive person,
Speaker 1: I'm two ages. Because of that. I do remember liking
Speaker 1: one though, even though it scared me. And this is
Speaker 1: what my answer was. Exorcist three. Well, no, I won't
Speaker 1: spoil it. I don't even remember. I just remember it
Speaker 1: being a horror movie that I was just forced to watch,
Speaker 1: you know, probably as in my twenties or teen years,
Speaker 1: and I remember thinking, man, I hate this. I hate
Speaker 1: being scared, I hate jump scaries, I hate there's a
Speaker 1: thing around the corner. But wow, this movie is sort
Speaker 1: of bizarrely good. There was some I don't know, if
Speaker 1: you're into horror, I'm sure you've probably seen it, but
Speaker 1: anyone who's in the horror listening, uh, check it out.
Speaker 1: Because I remember thinking, I'm someone who doesn't like horror,
Speaker 1: but why is this movie also kind of brilliant? No?
Speaker 1: I don't want I don't I don't like being scared.
Speaker 1: I don't like interesting that harbor. I don't like that
Speaker 1: feeling if there's something around the corner. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1: I love it? You do? Yeah? You love horror? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm friends with Eli Roth. You know that filmmaker Eli Roth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's like them. He's that's like his thing. He's the
Speaker 1: master of that, and he's so knowledgeable. Here's a whole
Speaker 1: show about exploring the world of horror cinema. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's never never my thing? What about? What is the
Speaker 1: film that you love? People don't like it, it's not
Speaker 1: critically well received, but you love it. You don't give
Speaker 1: a shit what anyone tells you about. I don't know
Speaker 1: if this counts right, but I do feel it's a
Speaker 1: polarizing movie going and it's a recent movie. But I
Speaker 1: loved it so much, and I feel like some people
Speaker 1: fucking hated it, La la land. I love it, But yes,
Speaker 1: I love it, And it might be because I love
Speaker 1: musicals and I love em A Stone and I love
Speaker 1: Ryan Gosling, and I just thought the filmmaking was beautiful,
Speaker 1: and I it's, of course it's about a world that
Speaker 1: I'm in auditioning and directing and making movies. But I
Speaker 1: just thought it was a masterpiece. And I know that
Speaker 1: there's people that abhor it and people that won't even
Speaker 1: watch a musical, but that's a movie that really really
Speaker 1: blew me away. Are that Emma Stone's performance in that movie,
Speaker 1: She's amazing in particular. I just think she's she's she's brilliant.
Speaker 1: I love the ending. The ending is what makes it.
Speaker 1: I love the ending. I love the ending, and I
Speaker 1: love an ending like that where you know it's funny.
Speaker 1: My father was alive and he loved it. He'd loved
Speaker 1: musicals and he would he would love to talk about
Speaker 1: the end of that movie. He was like, you, so,
Speaker 1: do you think it's that is that earlier? Is that
Speaker 1: her fantasy? Or is that a prem sort of a
Speaker 1: premonition that they're going to get back together? And I
Speaker 1: have great fond memories of my father being alive, wanting
Speaker 1: to wanting to debate the movie, and actually Donald Phaze
Speaker 1: on It's Funny, my co star on Scrubs. He almost
Speaker 1: almost ninety nine percent of what he consumes is Marvel
Speaker 1: and Star Wars movies. But he also does love musicals,
Speaker 1: and that's a movie he loved. And there was the
Speaker 1: time back in the day where he would go on Twitter.
Speaker 1: He would he would be flying a lot, you know,
Speaker 1: for work or whatever, and he would back when we
Speaker 1: were both on Twitter a lot. Now we're both not anymore,
Speaker 1: but he would he would drunk. I always knew he
Speaker 1: was on I always knew the plane because he'd watched
Speaker 1: La La Land and like drunk tweet about it. He's like,
Speaker 1: there's no reason he couldn't have come to Paris. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and why he puts so much in there? Why didn't
Speaker 1: she in find There's plenty of jazz clubs in Paris.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh god, Donald's drunk tweeting about Lala
Speaker 1: Land on a plane. But I mean he would just
Speaker 1: get on the plane and play La La over and
Speaker 1: over again and get drunk and then like scream about
Speaker 1: why the movie was had fucked him up so much?
Speaker 1: It is I mean, again, I'm sure I tooked about it.
Speaker 1: But that the end of land before the end end,
Speaker 1: which I love. But what do you make of it?
Speaker 1: She she sort of guys, I've got a job in Paris,
Speaker 1: and he goes, well, obviously we can't be together anymore.
Speaker 1: You're like, yeah, that that that that that that needed
Speaker 1: to be so for you for it to have brilliant
Speaker 1: ending that it had, would that would? I love that
Speaker 1: dream sequence. I just thought it was inspired and it
Speaker 1: was a way for you, for the filmmaker to give
Speaker 1: the audience both endings. You know. Was as a filmmaker,
Speaker 1: it's so hard to end a movie, and anyone who's
Speaker 1: paying for it or or testing it needs the audience
Speaker 1: to be gratified. At whatever budget point you're at, they're
Speaker 1: going to test it and they're gonna be an audience
Speaker 1: who says they love the ending or I hate the ending,
Speaker 1: and that filmmaker found a way to give you both.
Speaker 1: It was like, here's the super happy ending and here's
Speaker 1: the sad ending, and you get to decide if you want.
Speaker 1: It's up for interpretation which one you get, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? I thought that was like a way
Speaker 1: to have your cake and eat it too. That's like
Speaker 1: what David Lynch and Mark frusted with twin Pakes to
Speaker 1: return if she watched it. I didn't watch that. No, incredible,
Speaker 1: you would like it. It's scary. Hey, we pause for
Speaker 1: one second while I pee. Yeah, well, I know, I
Speaker 1: pee pee quick. Don't worry. Okay, this is so much fun.
Speaker 1: I'm having such a good time. I just like talking
Speaker 1: to you. I wish that we had an appointment to
Speaker 1: weekly zoom. Let's say that I think I pee quick.
Speaker 1: The Zach rep Story is a pretty good title. Feel men, West,
Speaker 1: I'd be Quick, Zach. That's my autobiography. Time, I'd be Quick,
Speaker 1: I'd be Quick. The Daries of an HSP. I'd be Quick,
Speaker 1: Life and Times of an HSP. D GA sag Riddle
Speaker 1: me this, What is the film that you used to
Speaker 1: love but you've watched it recently and you've thought, I
Speaker 1: don't like this anymore and it maybe you've changed, or
Speaker 1: the world has chased you might be anything. Um. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of movies that we grew up on
Speaker 1: in the eighties that are so now politically incorrect and
Speaker 1: fucked up and have aspects of them that are that
Speaker 1: are so wrong. But you know, in the eighties, we
Speaker 1: didn't see that like Revenge of the Nerds or Weird Science. Yeah,
Speaker 1: those are those are my like some of my favorite
Speaker 1: movies growing up as a kid. Yeah, And and now
Speaker 1: they have aspects of them that we're like, we don't
Speaker 1: even we can't even talk about them on on our
Speaker 1: our podcast because they sometimes come up and we go,
Speaker 1: you know what, we can't even talk about this fucking movie.
Speaker 1: It's so it has things in it that are you know, wrong,
Speaker 1: And uh, I'll take a funny story though about Revenge
Speaker 1: of the Nerns. I remember a babysitter brought me um
Speaker 1: that I had a crush on. It was a very
Speaker 1: young child, but I was old enough to have a
Speaker 1: crush on a probably shouldn't have been seen this movie.
Speaker 1: It was definitely are and I was too young to
Speaker 1: probably be seeing it. But but a babysitter that I
Speaker 1: had a crush on brought me. And it's got lots
Speaker 1: of nudity and sex and and um, I was clearly
Speaker 1: sort of maybe you know, turned on even as a
Speaker 1: as a young boy. He started you would you would
Speaker 1: primed young, I guess, I don't know. But anyway, so
Speaker 1: after the movie, we go into the sea, you know,
Speaker 1: drug store or something um pharmacy, you know, a supermarket
Speaker 1: kind of plays because my sister with my sister too,
Speaker 1: and she wants to buy makeup or something, you know,
Speaker 1: the babysitters taking us into the to a to a
Speaker 1: big market. And I remember thinking I need to impress
Speaker 1: my babysitter by wanting something that only an adult, like
Speaker 1: a grown up would want. And then so I wandered
Speaker 1: into the hardware aisle, and uh, and I found these batteries.
Speaker 1: They were, you know, like the bat like a big battery,
Speaker 1: like like this big, like you like in the old
Speaker 1: days he used like on a lantern. And uh, I
Speaker 1: didn't even I didn't even probably know that at the time.
Speaker 1: It was just a big battery. And she came, she was,
Speaker 1: what are you doing in this aisle? What are you?
Speaker 1: What are you doing? And I remember, like, see this,
Speaker 1: she goes, the big battery. Yeah, I want this for
Speaker 1: my birthday. Very sweet. Yeah, they meet this battery just
Speaker 1: so you know, if anyone asks for a birthday and
Speaker 1: revenge of the nurse, I'll never forget as long as
Speaker 1: it made me. It made me I have the audacity
Speaker 1: to think that choosing a giant battery in a supermarket
Speaker 1: would somehow make my babysitter go, Wow, this is a
Speaker 1: very adult young man. I wish I could date him.
Speaker 1: I wish I could date him. Did it work? No? No,
Speaker 1: I did not work. I never dated my babysitter. You
Speaker 1: never had anything that would actually fit that battery. No,
Speaker 1: But isn't that that's a memory. I will always have
Speaker 1: Revenge of the Nerds. So anyway, my answer is, you
Speaker 1: know eighties comedies that are they have really on a
Speaker 1: really sort of in hindsight fucked up shit in them.
Speaker 1: But I was raised on them and and and loved them.
Speaker 1: Why I didn't it? Sixteen Candles is another one that
Speaker 1: falls into that. Yeah, that was riddled with programs. What
Speaker 1: is the film that means the most to you? Not
Speaker 1: necessarily the film itself is good, but because the experience
Speaker 1: you had around seeing it always makes it special to
Speaker 1: This is a very special movie to me, and it
Speaker 1: is a great movie, but it's special to me as
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills cop Um. It was the first our movie
Speaker 1: that my father brought me to as like father's son,
Speaker 1: We're gonna go see an R rated movie. And I
Speaker 1: love Eddie Murphy, always loved Eddie Murphy. Eddie Murphy's one
Speaker 1: of the reasons I wanted to be a funny person
Speaker 1: with my life. I just think he's a genius. And
Speaker 1: I and Beverly Hills. Cop was the first rated movie
Speaker 1: my father took me to. And we were late. My
Speaker 1: father was chronically late, and I was always so pissed
Speaker 1: and it was a big annoying problem in my life
Speaker 1: that he just could not be on time. And we
Speaker 1: came to the movie probably fifteen minutes late, but we
Speaker 1: saw it and we both laughed together, and it was
Speaker 1: so you know, we were laughing at at jokes that
Speaker 1: were very adult and and there was a strip club scene.
Speaker 1: But he was he was he was sort of saying, like,
Speaker 1: your old enough son to go to an R rated movie.
Speaker 1: My dad and and I loved it, and he said,
Speaker 1: you know what, and the movies over, the credits are rolling.
Speaker 1: He goes, why don't we stay and watch the first
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes? And so the credits roll, the audience leaves,
Speaker 1: new audience comes in. We wait there the whole time,
Speaker 1: and then we watched the first fifteen minutes and when
Speaker 1: it got to the part that we had already seen,
Speaker 1: me left. Um, So that's a really fond memory I
Speaker 1: have with my father. That's really really nice. It's been
Speaker 1: a touchstone in my life because it was an ultimate
Speaker 1: example of UM doing a comedy where where the stakes
Speaker 1: and everything's played straight, but but interspersed. It's Eddie's very
Speaker 1: being very broad, I mean incredibly broad at times. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Forty Trading Places is another similar thing. It's like everything
Speaker 1: is everyone else is playing it straight. And in Beverly
Speaker 1: Hill's Cop, the bad guys are genuinely bad guys and
Speaker 1: the stakes are played real, but Eddie's it gives Eddie
Speaker 1: the freedom to be as broad as he got and
Speaker 1: even looked down the barrel of the lens and look
Speaker 1: at the audience at one point. He does that in
Speaker 1: both Trading Places and The Hills Cop. He breaks the
Speaker 1: fourth wall and looks at the audience like are you
Speaker 1: watching this ship? And so I know, I just think
Speaker 1: it's a good It's always a good touchstone for for
Speaker 1: action comedy, for UM. You know, I love to do UM.
Speaker 1: You know what Bill's style is obviously on Ted Last
Speaker 1: and Scrubs, and I think it's just it's crosses over
Speaker 1: with my films is to do something that will make
Speaker 1: you laugh and then hopefully break your heart. You as
Speaker 1: Roy in the locker room at the at the end
Speaker 1: of season one is just the ultimate example of that.
Speaker 1: You just had us laughing and now we've got tears
Speaker 1: in our eyes. Um and your performance there was so good.
Speaker 1: I was mad at it and direct that one. God
Speaker 1: bless sees that. But anyway, Beverly Hills Copps is a
Speaker 1: great example of how you can have both. You can
Speaker 1: you can and in that case its action and stakes
Speaker 1: and and and drama, but also have broad laughs. What's
Speaker 1: the films again? Again? A lot of my answers are
Speaker 1: just from my from growing up. I'm not so far
Speaker 1: on answering current day or recent movies. But Ferris Spieler's
Speaker 1: day Off was who I wanted to be. When I
Speaker 1: saw Matthew Broderick and Ferris Spieler's dy Off, I was like,
Speaker 1: He's the coolest person in the world. Also, because I
Speaker 1: felt like in school, I felt like that I wasn't
Speaker 1: into sports at all. I was I was. I wasn't
Speaker 1: quite a theater geek because I was too shy to
Speaker 1: do plays in school. I would do stuff outside of school,
Speaker 1: but I was the class clown right And I felt
Speaker 1: like Ferres was the ultimate example of like the popular
Speaker 1: kid who all the groups? Like who has nothing to
Speaker 1: do with sports? Because in my school was it was
Speaker 1: like if you didn't play a sport, it's like, how
Speaker 1: are you gonna make friends? I mean, you know, of
Speaker 1: course we had you know, the stoners and the all
Speaker 1: the stereotypes and the goths kids and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: But and then you know, but but for me, I
Speaker 1: felt like I was kind of like I want to
Speaker 1: be Ferres Bueller that I was. I was a class
Speaker 1: clown who could who could go to different groups? Did
Speaker 1: you ever take a day off? I did, but I
Speaker 1: didn't get into all the fun that Ferris got into.
Speaker 1: You didn't take every pred just stayed home and watch
Speaker 1: the prices? Right is the question? I guess I've been
Speaker 1: nice excited about that? Is everyone listening? What's the sexiest
Speaker 1: Philmi ever? Stay in sect? Right? Well, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: say again from my childhood, this is this is the
Speaker 1: last movie I shouldn't have seen as a young person.
Speaker 1: But it was Fast Times at Ridgemond High. Okay, now
Speaker 1: I hadn't. We didn't have cable in my town. My
Speaker 1: town when I grew up was was for some reason,
Speaker 1: they didn't have We didn't have cable like other towns,
Speaker 1: so movies you couldn't stumble. We only had the networks,
Speaker 1: the main networks. You couldn't stumble across an ORATD movie
Speaker 1: in my house. But while staying over a friend's house,
Speaker 1: Fast Times at Ridgemont High was on the TV and
Speaker 1: I had just I mean, it just blew my mind.
Speaker 1: When I was seeing Phoebe Kates coming out of the pool.
Speaker 1: Was the sexiest thing I'd ever seen in my life.
Speaker 1: It's still to this day it might be the most wondrous.
Speaker 1: It's really magical. It might just it's still to this
Speaker 1: day it might be the most sexy thing I've ever
Speaker 1: seen on film, especially to a teenage boy. I had
Speaker 1: never seen anything like that. She was so beautiful and
Speaker 1: it was so sexy, and of course what's happening is
Speaker 1: so taboo, and I just, um, it blew my mind.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't know that there were movies like that?
Speaker 1: What about? What about? There's a subcategory traveling bone is worrying?
Speaker 1: Why dons? Who framed Roger Rabbit? Oh? Here we go?
Speaker 1: I was definitely lit up by by Jessica Rabbit yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, did you did you not find her or
Speaker 1: more mental? I did? I don't know what's coupling about it.
Speaker 1: I'm like, imbelievable. Well, it's a cartoon I guess that's
Speaker 1: what's troubling about it. I don't know. I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess that's you're meant to be You're meant to be
Speaker 1: turned on by her, meant to be troubled. But I
Speaker 1: think it was the only time in my life I've
Speaker 1: been turned on by by a cartoon character. Oh, I
Speaker 1: wish I could concur with that. It's a cartoon character.
Speaker 1: Let's turn you on so many of them, most of them,
Speaker 1: I know what you're listening, Scar, Scar, most of the
Speaker 1: Castle Lank, the entire castle line. I just did it
Speaker 1: for me. What It's objectively the greatest film of all time.
Speaker 1: It might not be your favorite, but it is the
Speaker 1: ultimate in cinema. I think it's hard to say not
Speaker 1: the Godfather. Um. I think, I know that's probably a
Speaker 1: common answer, but I think in terms of like, um,
Speaker 1: the movies I've seen in my life, that it might
Speaker 1: not be the best film of all time, but in
Speaker 1: terms of my experience watching cinema, it being the most. Oh,
Speaker 1: my god, the geniusness of the art mixed with not
Speaker 1: being so artful that you alienate an audience that you're
Speaker 1: telling it's a story that makes every single person lean forward.
Speaker 1: I think Godfather wanted too. Uh sorry, I'll combine them.
Speaker 1: Are are sort of the best example of that to me.
Speaker 1: Still singing in the rain though, is it? It's not
Speaker 1: that's your singing in the rain. Yeah, it's not singing
Speaker 1: in the rain though, is it? Well? Do you know
Speaker 1: do you know that movie with where they the Beatles
Speaker 1: all the Beatles songs were had never happened in the
Speaker 1: in the in the Kids Today. Yeah, the funniest line
Speaker 1: in that movie was when he's singing one of the
Speaker 1: and it's like some some giant beetles hit and some
Speaker 1: some woman goes, it's not fix you? Is it? It's good?
Speaker 1: It's not fix you? Is it? What is the film
Speaker 1: you could? Are we going too slow? Am I going
Speaker 1: too slow? All? Right? Day? Too fast? No? No, no,
Speaker 1: I'm just enjoying it so much. What is What is
Speaker 1: the film you could? Or have? What's the most over
Speaker 1: and over get? Probably Harold and Maud. Oh, great film.
Speaker 1: I love that movie so much and it's been a
Speaker 1: big touchstone for me in my life. I have like
Speaker 1: I have it, and you know, I have a collection
Speaker 1: of some foreign movie posters and I must have that
Speaker 1: in like four languages. I just think it's it's And
Speaker 1: also the foreign posters for that movie are particularly beautiful.
Speaker 1: Why is it specially? I mean, I really loved that film,
Speaker 1: but just for you, why is it special? To um?
Speaker 1: It really was sort of very formulative for me in
Speaker 1: terms of what I wanted to make. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you look at Garden State, to me, it's very inspired
Speaker 1: by that movie. Um. Even though it's a different kind
Speaker 1: of love story, it's um, it's moving, it's funny, it's
Speaker 1: a love story. It has the most amazing epics Cat
Speaker 1: Stephen the soundtrack, it's beautifully photographed, and it's unique. There's
Speaker 1: not another movie like it. And um, and I just
Speaker 1: thought it was so genius when it was, when it
Speaker 1: was when I was exposed to it, and it's just
Speaker 1: been a special movie from my whole life. I love it.
Speaker 1: I don't like to be negative exact. I don't know
Speaker 1: about you, but let's do it quickly. What's the worst
Speaker 1: filvie I've ever seen? Meatballs too? Did you ever see Meatballs. No,
Speaker 1: I've never seen mebles Zill meat Bles too. Okay, Meatballs
Speaker 1: is a Bill Murray movie that's amazing. Horrible title Beatballs
Speaker 1: meat Balls is an insult to how good the movie is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I always confused meat both with Spaceballs, and
Speaker 1: I thought it was a Spaceballs is a space Bass
Speaker 1: mel Brooks's Star Wars spoof, Yeah, which I have said.
Speaker 1: Meatballs is a great kids Bill Murray movie, right, and
Speaker 1: young Bill Murray like snl age Bill Murray. It's a
Speaker 1: great movie, and that it was such a hit. They
Speaker 1: made a sequel without Bill Murray, and it was the
Speaker 1: time of ET, where ET was so successful that in
Speaker 1: meat Balls Too, they didn't have Bill Murray, so they
Speaker 1: needed a hook, and it takes place at a camp
Speaker 1: and the hook is that the kids find an alien
Speaker 1: that looked a lot like ET. So they went from
Speaker 1: this really epic Bill Murray comedy that had had an
Speaker 1: impact on either child and they lost Bill Murray. So
Speaker 1: they replaced the hook of Bill Murray with the kids
Speaker 1: stumbling across an alien that was like a knockoff of
Speaker 1: ET and they have to help him like Mac and
Speaker 1: may Ma. Yes, yeah, meat Balls Too, You can skip
Speaker 1: me balls too. But you're teenagers. Young teenagers if they
Speaker 1: like eighties movies, might like meat Ball's one. He may
Speaker 1: would always make boys team more. To be honest, comedy,
Speaker 1: you're a comedian, you're very, very funny. What's the film
Speaker 1: that made you laugh the most? Um, anything with any
Speaker 1: Murphy I mean the early Eddie Murphy Trading Places, Beverly
Speaker 1: Hills comp I mean any any of the any Murphy hits,
Speaker 1: but the first one that comes to minus Trading Places,
Speaker 1: Zach Brad. Yes, sir. Now, the film that you made,
Speaker 1: The Life and Times of Brett Goldstein, got nominated for
Speaker 1: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Writer. And you who
Speaker 1: plays bred Goldstein? Who would you want to play bred
Speaker 1: Goldstein in this movie? Denzel? Okay, yeah, he's my favorite actor.
Speaker 1: I mean too, I love Denzel. Who doesn't love Denzel?
Speaker 1: That that's that's one of the few topics that isn't
Speaker 1: polarizing in twenty twenty two. Everybody loves Denzel. I'm sure
Speaker 1: he'd do a good job. He can do anything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he can do anything. He can play he can play
Speaker 1: an English comedian. So anyway, yeah, you're at the Oscars.
Speaker 1: He'd be one of the people holding me up. Then
Speaker 1: we'd probably be seated next to each other, so he'd
Speaker 1: be other people. That is the thing. Yeah, you're you're
Speaker 1: set with Denzel. You're at the front army next to Merrill, Denzel,
Speaker 1: Brad and someone else. You're set in the front row
Speaker 1: of the Oscars. Time of your life is so excited.
Speaker 1: It's finally happening. And then they do the in memoriam
Speaker 1: section and Billy Porter comes out and sings this song,
Speaker 1: of course, very beautifully singing this song, and you start
Speaker 1: to have a heart attack and you're like tapping merrow sorry,
Speaker 1: and Denzel bull sides think now I think I'm having
Speaker 1: You're like it, start flapping like a bird. I think
Speaker 1: I'm having a heart attack. And they go watch because
Speaker 1: they're crying, like sorry, Zach, but we're watching the rude.
Speaker 1: We're in the front row and I'll be ruined to Billy,
Speaker 1: I think I'm having a heart attack, and they go,
Speaker 1: oh God. And then Merril, having studied probably for a
Speaker 1: part cbr she gets straight. She throws you to the
Speaker 1: ground and Denzel puts his foot on your neck and
Speaker 1: he goes, what are we doing? Mary goes, no, no,
Speaker 1: he's having your heart attack if you get I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I reacted, and she starts giving you CPR and to
Speaker 1: the tune of the Immemorial song, of course, but well
Speaker 1: that's probably not fast enough because the memorial song is
Speaker 1: usually slow and sad. Yeah, which is, oh, that's so
Speaker 1: you you die because the song was too sad, and
Speaker 1: you you die. And Denzels put into your he's gone,
Speaker 1: He's gone, and Billy Porter hits about to hit the
Speaker 1: high note. Billy, no, Brad, Denzel merry up like simber,
Speaker 1: like simber, and they carry you onto the stage to
Speaker 1: face the the audience. Everyone's so shocked and upset. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, and we what do we do? And then
Speaker 1: one more? We've got one more? Yeah, Denzel, guys, one more,
Speaker 1: one more? Everybody, everybody, Billy hold that note. We've got
Speaker 1: one more. And then the audience starts chanting one more.
Speaker 1: And then everyone's sad and shocked, and then they presenter
Speaker 1: looks across Brandon, he goes, shrugs and carries you off stage,
Speaker 1: and then just bring out the next presenter and get
Speaker 1: on with the woods. It's a little bit of an
Speaker 1: atmosphere for the next couple of things. You actually win
Speaker 1: for Best Best Writer, Best Screenplay, And there's like a
Speaker 1: moment you get announced and Denzel looks at Merrill and
Speaker 1: he goes, I guess I should do because I play Brandy.
Speaker 1: So he goes, he goes off, and he goes, I mean, obviously, well, zachs,
Speaker 1: should we get him out again? And they two seat
Speaker 1: fillers carry you, carry you on Weekend of Bernie's Weekend
Speaker 1: of Bernie's. Yeah, and Denzel just does an impressive of
Speaker 1: you whilst nod in your head. Thank you very much,
Speaker 1: thank you, and they take you off again and then
Speaker 1: you win Best Director. Oh my god. By this point
Speaker 1: they've they've rigged me to the to the fly of
Speaker 1: ropes so they can kind of bring me out like
Speaker 1: a marionette puppet. Yeah, now you come out like this, now, mate,
Speaker 1: Now my weekended Bernie's props is able via ropes to
Speaker 1: accept the award, and Donald fas he's at the side
Speaker 1: that he's now he can do a very good, impressive view.
Speaker 1: So he's now doing your voice. Yes, and he's probably crying.
Speaker 1: I'd like to think he's crying. He's crying. He's doing
Speaker 1: my voice but through tears. Yeah, but it seems like
Speaker 1: you're crying because you're an invest and then it comes
Speaker 1: the best picture and you don't win it, and what
Speaker 1: happens is they drop your body from the ceiling and
Speaker 1: as you land goes that's bullshit anyway. I happen to
Speaker 1: be there with a coffin because you know, I had
Speaker 1: a plus one and I've seen the absolute state of
Speaker 1: this and I'm like, blood, yeah, zag, what have you done?
Speaker 1: What have you done? Mate? So I've come out and
Speaker 1: that everyone as the credits are rolling, you know, it's
Speaker 1: the credits and there's sort of people waving like it's
Speaker 1: the end of USNL, but your body is just crumbled
Speaker 1: under stage, and I'm sort of like, sorry, guysmerol, do
Speaker 1: you mind because you get to excuse me, Mary, get
Speaker 1: excuse me anyway, just give me a hamm with this
Speaker 1: brand with you get your body. Because of all the
Speaker 1: contraptions that were stuck on you or all the rigging
Speaker 1: that have been built, there's more of you than I
Speaker 1: was expecting. So I'm having to be like, has anyone
Speaker 1: got any any axes on them? And comes out? It
Speaker 1: comes out with the axe. He gets to having the
Speaker 1: shining carries around, so we're chopping up, chopping you up,
Speaker 1: chopping you up, chopping you up, so that we can
Speaker 1: get you into the coffin. Are the credits rolling or
Speaker 1: is this people being splashed with your blood? But they're
Speaker 1: just waving, waving like it's yeah and blood of waving anyway,
Speaker 1: chops you up, put you in the coffin. But the
Speaker 1: coffin is full, much fuller than I expected with all
Speaker 1: the extra stuff. There is only enough room in this
Speaker 1: coffin to slide one DVD into the eye of you
Speaker 1: for you to take across to the other side. On
Speaker 1: the other side, it's movie night every night. What film
Speaker 1: are you taking to show the people of heaven and
Speaker 1: your million dogs when it is your movie night? Zach
Speaker 1: Braff got Beverly Hills Cop. They're delighted. They're absolutely delighted,
Speaker 1: just because we're gonna laugh. I mean, I can take
Speaker 1: other things, but everyone in Heaven's gonna want to laugh.
Speaker 1: And uh, and of course I'll be reunited with my
Speaker 1: father and we can rewatch it together. And Billy, Yeah,
Speaker 1: well you've done it. You've bloody dad it. This is
Speaker 1: ending on a sad note. I'm dead. You've done exactly
Speaker 1: what you wanted. Familiar films. You've made it and I
Speaker 1: want the best And I won the Best Picture for
Speaker 1: for doing the bread old scene story. Oh no, I
Speaker 1: didn't win. Didn't want screen screenwriting is kind of the
Speaker 1: coolest one to win. Yeah, I think you're one of
Speaker 1: the few people on earth. So who's seen my movie?
Speaker 1: My new one? My new one? Um is called a
Speaker 1: good person? And U like Bret. I like Brett in
Speaker 1: his opinions so much, um that I asked him to
Speaker 1: watch it. I did watch it, and I found it
Speaker 1: incredibly moving and thank you and funny hopefully. Yeah, it's funny,
Speaker 1: but it is also really sad. But it's scary patriot
Speaker 1: and people away from watching it. It's it's a very
Speaker 1: move it's hopefully and that was hilarious. No, no, you
Speaker 1: know it's it's a it's a it's a drama, but
Speaker 1: there's comedy. My favorite thing. Like Brett like like like
Speaker 1: Juno coming into the locker room. I've got tears coming
Speaker 1: down my face when you say don't come in here,
Speaker 1: because you know why, I'm Brett. You're really talking about
Speaker 1: your heart. Yeah, you get it? When did you did
Speaker 1: you get your subtext? Yeah? Um? End of March, end
Speaker 1: of March. Um, oh, actually, you know what, in the
Speaker 1: United Kingdom it may come out later, but in the
Speaker 1: in North America, I think we're aiming for March next
Speaker 1: year and then um, I believe it may come out
Speaker 1: fall in the UK, but that I'm not positively. I
Speaker 1: just know that the North American date is end of Mark.
Speaker 1: It's very very well directed as well. You're a very
Speaker 1: good director, and thank You've amazed me that you made
Speaker 1: that film in like two days or whatever it was
Speaker 1: twenty five. Thank you either an amazing crew and an
Speaker 1: amazing cast. And I love cinematographers. I have just so
Speaker 1: many crushes on their talent, and this particular cinematographer is genius.
Speaker 1: And he went It was was so fast at which
Speaker 1: I needed him to be. He's really fancy, and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, I hope his name is Malo Fiori
Speaker 1: and he's incredible, and I was like, I hope he
Speaker 1: can go fast because he's made some big ass movies
Speaker 1: and he did, and it's so so beautiful. It is beautiful,
Speaker 1: Zach Brab is that anything else you would like people
Speaker 1: to look out for? Listen to your podcast, perhaps my podcast,
Speaker 1: just to tune in you don't really. I mean it
Speaker 1: helps if you've seen Scrubs, but you don't actually really
Speaker 1: need to have seen Scrubs. Is just two fellows laughing
Speaker 1: and hopefully trying to make you laugh. It's called fake doc.
Speaker 1: There's real friends, and you can get it wherever you
Speaker 1: get podcasts. We release new ones every Tuesday. I mean
Speaker 1: a kids movie recently called Cheaper by the Dozen, uh
Speaker 1: with Gabrielle Union that's on Disney Plus. If you have kids, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's very fun to watch with an eight year old
Speaker 1: um because it's you know, aimed at the at young kids.
Speaker 1: But it's uh, it's I promise you you as an
Speaker 1: adult will laugh too because it's it's it's it's got
Speaker 1: some good, good laughs for the parents in there too.
Speaker 1: That's a Disney Plus. That's all I have to plug
Speaker 1: for now. Zach Braff, You're a pleasure and a delight.
Speaker 1: Thank you for doing this, and I love you and
Speaker 1: I think you're a great human being. And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm very honored and I'm going to direct your new show.
Speaker 1: Are we allowed to talk about your new show? Probably
Speaker 1: by the time this comes out. Yeah, Well you better
Speaker 1: not delay this forever, Like how cute. My talk is, um, UM,
Speaker 1: I'm going to I'm honored to be directing something that
Speaker 1: you wrote with Bill Lawrence, um created with Bill Lawrence.
Speaker 1: And UM, I get the the the honor of directing
Speaker 1: Harrison Ford, which is pretty crazy. And Jason Segels, I've
Speaker 1: always thought was so incredibly talented cast a cast you
Speaker 1: put together. I can't believe it. I'm so happy for you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I just wish it meant that you were
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles a bit more. Well, i'll see you said,
Speaker 1: I know that the people of England want you there.
Speaker 1: You're theres we want to have you. We want to
Speaker 1: have you sometimes too. You're very kind, what nice man?
Speaker 1: All right, well, all right man, I will stop the recording.
Speaker 1: And so that was episode two hundred and eight. Head
Speaker 1: over to patreon dot com forward slash Brett Golstein for
Speaker 1: extra twenty minutes of chat, secrets and video is that
Speaker 1: Go to Apple Podcast give us a five star rating.
Speaker 1: But right about the film that means the most to
Speaker 1: you and why it's a lovely thing to read. My
Speaker 1: neighbor Marian loves it and it helps with numbers, et cetera.
Speaker 1: And it is very much a nice thing. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much to Zach for giving me that time. Go
Speaker 1: see his film A Good Person when it comes out.
Speaker 1: Listen to his podcast Fake Doctors, Real Friends with the
Speaker 1: wonderful Donald phase On. Thank you to Scrubs, Pip and
Speaker 1: the Distraction Pieces Network. Thanks to Buddy Peace for producing it.
Speaker 1: Thanks to ACAS for hosting it. Thanks to Added Richardson
Speaker 1: for the graphics at least Laden for the photography. Come
Speaker 1: and join me next week for another incredible, amazing guest.
Speaker 1: I hope you're all well. Thank you for listening. That
Speaker 1: is it for now. In the meantime, have a lovely week,
Speaker 1: and please, now more than ever, be excellent to each other.