Speaker 1: I'm just gonna say it. Go ahead, how did this happen?
Speaker 2: I'm very excited. I think a Zach made it happen.
Speaker 2: Zach's a dream maker.
Speaker 3: Listen, for any of you out there, this is like
Speaker 3: the freaking Avengers Infinity Saga of Guests when it comes
Speaker 3: to musical theater. Yeah, this is someone who made it
Speaker 3: so that when you go to the movies as a straight,
Speaker 3: heterosexual male, nobody's gonna question you for wearing green skin,
Speaker 3: green paint.
Speaker 1: A hat and a dress. Nobody's gonna question you.
Speaker 2: This is more about how you saw this movie. But okay,
Speaker 2: this is the.
Speaker 3: Man that made it okay for anyone in the audience
Speaker 3: before Cynthia Arriba goes to you know, when it reaches
Speaker 3: crushindo as they call it in musical theater, climax. Climax
Speaker 3: allows anyone in the audience to go.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. I had to turn down my headphones. Sorry, audience.
Speaker 3: This revolutionized theater for musical movie theater theater for twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Well, it's quite a movie and it's a good get.
Speaker 2: We're also going to be joined audience by Myron Kirstine,
Speaker 2: who was nominated for an Academy Award for editing Wicked.
Speaker 2: He's the reason we got to John was because Myron
Speaker 2: has cut most of my movies. He cut Garden State,
Speaker 2: he cut I Wish I was here. He cut a
Speaker 2: movie I made called Going in Style. So we've been
Speaker 2: friends a very long time and his career has been
Speaker 2: on the up and up and up. And this is
Speaker 2: second Oscar nomination.
Speaker 1: He's going to get. He's going to get nominated again.
Speaker 2: When nominated for Out the the Andrew Garfield musical that
Speaker 2: I loved? What was that called? Joel Netflix One?
Speaker 3: No, the one that got nominated for in the movie theater.
Speaker 2: Lin Manuel directed it like Boom something or Tic Tic
Speaker 2: Boom Boom. I love that movie.
Speaker 1: It's a great one.
Speaker 3: Did Lin Manuel get nominated for directing that movie, Bardie Chance?
Speaker 2: I don't know, but I bet you Joel Monique could
Speaker 2: look at it.
Speaker 1: Should have.
Speaker 4: It was a Netflix movie. I like, Yeah, Tictic One
Speaker 4: was a Netflix movie. The director Violin.
Speaker 1: For Netflix movies. Now that's right, I forgot about that.
Speaker 2: I love that movie. By the way, can we digress
Speaker 2: for a moment. Are y'all watching this new Netflix show
Speaker 2: called adolescentscence.
Speaker 4: Adolescents see the first episode, but wow, Donald, it's every
Speaker 4: episode is a wonner.
Speaker 2: And I'm not talking to wonner with fake wipes. I'm
Speaker 2: talking like they choreographed the most insane wonners. And you
Speaker 2: get to the end of the episode and you're like,
Speaker 2: I cannot believe there has not been a cut They've
Speaker 2: been Episode two takes place all around this whole school
Speaker 2: with like hundreds of kids, and they're here, and then
Speaker 2: they're there, and then there's a fire drill, and then
Speaker 2: they're chasing one kid and they get them down. And
Speaker 2: then at the end of the episode. Sorry this is
Speaker 2: not a spoiler, maybe it is, but at the end
Speaker 2: of the episode, the fucking camera takes flight. They clipped
Speaker 2: it onto a drone and it flies to another location
Speaker 2: and lands.
Speaker 1: It's fun gonna put it out there.
Speaker 3: I truly believe that in some ways this can be
Speaker 3: construed as a wonner. But there's no way that they
Speaker 3: can risk that much money and get to like the
Speaker 3: last five minutes.
Speaker 1: Of the show.
Speaker 3: There's somebody go, fuck, what's my line, and them have
Speaker 3: to be like, all right, we're taking it from the top.
Speaker 2: That's what they what they did i'dy, I'm trying to
Speaker 2: there's you can watch the behind the scenes shit on YouTube.
Speaker 2: I I I I'm trying to watch them because as
Speaker 2: a filmmaker, I'm so obsessed with how they executed this.
Speaker 2: But also I don't want any spoilers because I'm only
Speaker 2: I'm only two episodes in out of four. But it's
Speaker 2: it's the I mean, they just rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed,
Speaker 2: and they it was like rehearsing a play, except then
Speaker 2: they started folding in the camera and it's like the
Speaker 2: cameraman's like a like a dancer who basically I mean,
Speaker 2: at moments he's just going around and then at moments
Speaker 2: I saw from the behind the scenes he likes getting
Speaker 2: on it. He like steps onto a golf cart, and
Speaker 2: then the golf cart takes it a tracking shot and
Speaker 2: then I mean the pilot.
Speaker 1: It's all done on steady cam.
Speaker 2: Obviously, no it's not steady kim, it's a it's a gimbal.
Speaker 2: It's a handheld gimbal. But it's I mean, first of all,
Speaker 2: the the the technical production aspects of it are one thing,
Speaker 2: but also it's brilliantly acted and it's the number one
Speaker 2: show on Netflix. I really really recommend it to everybody.
Speaker 1: Amazing.
Speaker 2: How's everybody doing when we haven't been together and so long?
Speaker 2: I miss y'all.
Speaker 1: You've been working, man, You've been working up a storm.
Speaker 2: I've been directing Han Solo.
Speaker 3: I don't know if he likes people calling him that.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm gonna be honest
Speaker 3: with you. If I said if I met him, and
Speaker 3: I was like, I mean, I haven't met him, but
Speaker 3: if when I saw him, I was like, holy shit,
Speaker 3: Han Solo, he'd be like, I will never.
Speaker 2: Be You wouldn't like that from you.
Speaker 3: No, I don't think he likes that from you. I've
Speaker 3: been directing Hans Solo.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't say I wouldn't say that to Han,
Speaker 2: but if him. Sometimes I call him, I'll say something like, okay,
Speaker 2: mister Ford, you're standing here, and he goes, mister Ford's
Speaker 2: my father.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love that Harrison Ford is still like,
Speaker 1: I'm a young man you call me.
Speaker 2: That's at the moment, like there was this moment where
Speaker 2: something was broken on the set, like a piece of
Speaker 2: molding or something, and he the grips are trying to
Speaker 2: put back in place. He goes, let me do it
Speaker 2: and starts kicking it. He goes, I was a carpenter.
Speaker 5: That's a duful.
Speaker 1: He's like one of the most famous.
Speaker 3: He's like one of the fam most famous former carpenters
Speaker 3: in the history of.
Speaker 1: Cars and Jesus, one of the most famous.
Speaker 3: Did you know that Hans Solo was a carpenter before
Speaker 3: he became Han Solo.
Speaker 1: That's the that's the thing. Harrison Ford was a carpenter.
Speaker 3: He was actually laying freaking uh uh it sighting in
Speaker 3: the in the in the office when he was asked
Speaker 3: to audition every human being on the planet is like, yo,
Speaker 3: maybe I can Harrison port it someday him. Daniel day
Speaker 3: lewis most famous shoemaker other than freaking John Madden.
Speaker 1: Freaking most famous.
Speaker 3: I say John maddocause John Maddon stole so many shoe
Speaker 3: I did. But I'm not saying Daniel Dan. But my
Speaker 3: point is, got it. All I gotta do is read
Speaker 3: Daniel's face. Daniel's face is always the one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, Danield's a good read. I can't have question.
Speaker 2: Daniel's a good read. For when you say something that
Speaker 2: we don't know what you're talking about. Danil's face tells
Speaker 2: us that we don't know what you're talking about. But
Speaker 2: uh so anyway, Yeah, I've been directing Shrinking. It's so fun.
Speaker 2: I just really like the cast. Everyone's so cool. It's
Speaker 2: such a good show. Everybody who loves the show. You're
Speaker 2: gonna be blown away by season three. It's really really good,
Speaker 2: really fun.
Speaker 4: Did you get on the pit set? I know that
Speaker 4: was a goal of yours.
Speaker 2: I did. I got a tour of the pit set.
Speaker 2: You know, it's incredible because it's enormous. It's a huge,
Speaker 2: huge set of an er And what they do is
Speaker 2: they everything is controlled. They don't bring any in any
Speaker 2: film lights. Everything is practical lighting within the hot spittal set.
Speaker 2: And so the way they shoot the show, they choreograph
Speaker 2: it and then they don't wait on almost every other
Speaker 2: thing that's made. You then go and light it and
Speaker 2: bring in lights on stands and flags and and and
Speaker 2: all sorts of things to shape and cut the light.
Speaker 2: But on this show they don't do that at all.
Speaker 2: Everything is lit from the actual practical lights that are
Speaker 2: built into the er set. So it's really cool. From
Speaker 2: someone who's a geek of film production. It was a
Speaker 2: cool thing to see.
Speaker 3: If you're the not the D I guess the DP,
Speaker 3: how do you it's just camera setups, then that's it
Speaker 3: it is.
Speaker 2: I think, like, yeah, every single thing. I'm sure they
Speaker 2: have some lighting guys on in case they have to
Speaker 2: adjust something, but everything's in the lighting board. So if
Speaker 2: the if they want more light on the person, they'll
Speaker 2: just bring up the dimmer on that little area, you know,
Speaker 2: almost like a play. I think. Then they told me
Speaker 2: they have a couple of little cheap tricks they do
Speaker 2: where they can they can sort of snap something into
Speaker 2: one of the ceiling lights and that and that will
Speaker 2: bring light further down. There's all these little things, but
Speaker 2: it's just really really incredible and what a great show
Speaker 2: that is. If you're not watching the pit, that's just
Speaker 2: fucking incredible.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's I mean, my mind's going crazy right
Speaker 3: now because all I can think of is that what
Speaker 3: we're going to do when and if we do scrubs.
Speaker 2: I really hope so, by the way, Donald, because it
Speaker 2: gives you so much more time to particularly the stuff
Speaker 2: that's just hospital like if and scrubs, if when you
Speaker 2: get into fantasies and all that stuff. Of course that's different,
Speaker 2: but and specialty shots. But you know, with scrubs, the
Speaker 2: camera is such a character, whereas this is where is
Speaker 2: the pit. It's made to feel almost like a documentary.
Speaker 2: But I got to tell you, when we're just doing
Speaker 2: straight if and when it happens and we're just doing
Speaker 2: straight hospital stuff, we'd have so much more time in
Speaker 2: your day to not be waiting for all these these
Speaker 2: lighting set up changes. So I would love to I
Speaker 2: would love to convince whomever the DP is to do
Speaker 2: it that way. I guess it would come from Bill.
Speaker 2: Bill would just tire someone to say, do it that way.
Speaker 1: You took the tour on your own, or you you
Speaker 1: and Bill went how to go?
Speaker 2: No, So.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Shrinking also has just incredible sets for those of you
Speaker 2: who love the show. All of those interiors are sets there.
Speaker 2: They have houses in the real world that are the exteriors,
Speaker 2: but the office set, Liz's house, Jimmy's house, just Gabby's house.
Speaker 2: All of the big interiors are all built huge sets
Speaker 2: on stage. And the construction coordinator, sorry, there's an ambulance
Speaker 2: some in New York City. The construction the head of
Speaker 2: construction for Shrinking also did the pit and he was like,
Speaker 2: someone told me you like the pit, go Yeah, man,
Speaker 2: can I get a tour of the set because they're
Speaker 2: not shooting right now, but the set is so massive
Speaker 2: they left it up and he's like, of course, So
Speaker 2: he arranged for me to get a whole tour, and
Speaker 2: I thought it was just gonna be him, but he
Speaker 2: brought like the art director, the production designer, and like,
Speaker 2: they gave me this amazing walkthrough. They were so kind.
Speaker 2: They gave me merch. They gave me fucking pit merch.
Speaker 2: I got a pit ski hat. Whew.
Speaker 3: That's how you know you're on a hit show when
Speaker 3: they're like, listen, we're just gonna keep the sets up
Speaker 3: for the summer. We're gonna keep it up for the
Speaker 3: whole year. We're gonna just rent out the stage. The
Speaker 3: stage is ours, don't even worry about it. We're just
Speaker 3: gonna leave it up. That's how you know you're coming
Speaker 3: back next year.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, some of these sets are just so I mean,
Speaker 2: it's crazy. One of those shrinkings, big sets. They moved
Speaker 2: stages and when you see this thing, you're like, I
Speaker 2: can't believe the amount of work it must have taken
Speaker 2: to fucking take this all down and put it back
Speaker 2: up on a different soundstage. It's really really cool. There's
Speaker 2: some great work happening on that show, really good stuff.
Speaker 1: Can we get into a little bit of Star Wars.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but let's keep it brief because we love all
Speaker 2: those things, all of us love all those things.
Speaker 3: But but have you seen this? Is how long it's been.
Speaker 3: Have you seen the trailer for and Or?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 1: No, are we not ready for this this? Have you
Speaker 1: seen the most recent trailer for and Or? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Okay, it's delightful. I'm very excited. I was curious about
Speaker 4: the pomp and circumstances of the first trailer where they
Speaker 4: were like, all the critics love it, but I get
Speaker 4: that they're trying to get people to see it. Disney
Speaker 4: recently released I think all the episodes on YouTube, or
Speaker 4: at the very least the pilot is available on YouTube.
Speaker 4: They're like, please, for love of God, watchings in one
Speaker 4: and come check out season two. So they believe in it.
Speaker 4: I'm excited about it.
Speaker 3: This looks like it looks more Star Wars than anything
Speaker 3: I've seen, and are really like, it looks like great,
Speaker 3: it looks.
Speaker 1: Like it's a lot like they made the Empire strikes
Speaker 1: back again.
Speaker 3: Dude, Like, that's what it looks like, at least that's
Speaker 3: what it looks like to me, the color tone, all
Speaker 3: of that stuff.
Speaker 2: Are you excited about Thunderbolts?
Speaker 3: You know, I'm gonna be honest with you ahead and
Speaker 3: being honest. I just right now Marvel is putting out
Speaker 3: things that I'm I'm excited for Fantastic four. Let's put
Speaker 3: it that way.
Speaker 2: We'll see, Okay, okay, Joel, Are you excited for Thunderbolts?
Speaker 4: I am. Here's why Marvel has had a bit of
Speaker 4: a it's been rough over there. We can't lie, but
Speaker 4: it's clear they believe in this film. It's clear that
Speaker 4: Disney's trying to do some new stuff. They have a
Speaker 4: wild wonky schedule for and or they were like, listen
Speaker 4: a twenty four freaks, y'all have cinema, Come see this.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be movies in a big way here. So
Speaker 4: that makes me excited. Plus, you know, we got love
Speaker 4: for Florence in this house. She's talented. There's a lot
Speaker 4: of good names.
Speaker 1: Up in there.
Speaker 2: So I'm really thought, I don't know if they did
Speaker 2: it off of they cut that trailer there was basically like,
Speaker 2: this is an eight four movie. And I thought that
Speaker 2: was really clever. I don't know if you know, I
Speaker 2: thought that was really good marketing because that kind of
Speaker 2: went to viral.
Speaker 5: Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: There's no way this movie is gonna is A twenty four.
Speaker 3: This shit, and halfway through.
Speaker 2: When you do you see the trailer.
Speaker 3: I'm talking about absolutely halfway through the movie, everybody's going
Speaker 3: to be like, holy shit, this is like more special
Speaker 3: effects than any of this is a this is an
Speaker 3: Avengers movie.
Speaker 1: This is an Avengers level.
Speaker 2: But I think that I think the level of marketing
Speaker 2: was we didn't just hire I mean, I'm just I'm
Speaker 2: just seeing what they're selling. And they're saying we hired
Speaker 2: a lot of people from all of these A twenty
Speaker 2: four movies that you love, and these are the people
Speaker 2: executing this particular Marvel Meet. It might be a bit
Speaker 2: different because it's been made by these people.
Speaker 3: I think that's a I think that's a bonus if
Speaker 3: anything too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so today that's why they're cutting trailers about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm gonna say and I will say this also,
Speaker 3: I feel like, and this is me predicting the future.
Speaker 3: I feel like this universe is dying, and that's why
Speaker 3: the colors are starting to turn into this Also.
Speaker 1: I think we're going to I think we're going.
Speaker 3: To experience a new a new reality in the Marble
Speaker 3: Cinematic Marble Universe to combine all of these characters within
Speaker 3: the next five years.
Speaker 1: I think that's where this is going.
Speaker 2: Well, let me tell you some underbolts. I think you
Speaker 2: can bet on Florence Pew anytime.
Speaker 1: I will bet on her anytime. Anything.
Speaker 2: You're gonna buy stock, taking to buy stock, you could
Speaker 2: buy stock in Florence, save Florence.
Speaker 1: Bet. That is a safe bet.
Speaker 2: When is this going to air? This episode too? Well,
Speaker 2: because my event is coming up next Tuesday. And next Tuesday, okay, well,
Speaker 2: my event for the midnight mission, which is a celebration
Speaker 2: of the music from the Garden State soundtrack twenty years Later,
Speaker 2: is coming up again March twenty ninth. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 2: that's this weekend, buddy. That's not this weekend. That's next weekend. Please,
Speaker 2: I got a lot to do. It's this weekend. It's
Speaker 2: this weekend when people are and I wanted to I
Speaker 2: wanted to make sure everyone knows that if you're unable
Speaker 2: to come. We've partnered with the company called veeps dot
Speaker 2: com v E E p s dot com and you
Speaker 2: can buy the stream of the show starting April six,
Speaker 2: which is my birthday. And thanks to our good pals
Speaker 2: at T Mobile, every single cent of the money you
Speaker 2: spend to buy the stream goes directly to the midnight mission,
Speaker 2: which is really really cool, great time, because these things
Speaker 2: all cost a lot of money, so to be able
Speaker 2: to have T Mobile offset the production cost so that
Speaker 2: every cent of you buying the stream from anywhere in
Speaker 2: the world, anywhere in the world goes directly to the
Speaker 2: midnight mission. So check it out. We're gonna have a
Speaker 2: lot of special guests, including spoiler for you podcast listeners only,
Speaker 2: Donald Fazon I will be there. You know who else
Speaker 2: is going to be there. I'm going to spoil another
Speaker 2: one for the podcast audience. Sarah Chalk.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's going down.
Speaker 1: I have a feeling there's gonna be a whole lot
Speaker 1: of Scrubs people at this event.
Speaker 2: They are They're all coming, but only you two are
Speaker 2: going to be on stage introducing a band with me.
Speaker 1: Is there going to be a teleprompter?
Speaker 2: There will be a teleprompter, but I'm also going to, uh.
Speaker 1: Write your cuff. We could go off the cuff if
Speaker 1: you want.
Speaker 2: Well, you know the bit we're gonna do. I'm going
Speaker 2: to talk about how you said are there any black
Speaker 2: people in this movie?
Speaker 1: Right? And then I'm gonna say, are there any black
Speaker 1: people in this at this concert?
Speaker 2: No, don't do that.
Speaker 1: Don't do that. No, you can't do that. Okay, damn No,
Speaker 1: I don't think that goes that joke.
Speaker 2: That's why I don't want you going off the cuff.
Speaker 2: That's why I don't That's why I don't want you
Speaker 2: going off the cuff.
Speaker 1: Bro.
Speaker 2: You're sticking to the script of all people that are
Speaker 2: going to be on that stage. I need you to
Speaker 2: be sticking to the prompt. Why because you go rogue
Speaker 2: and say stupid ship?
Speaker 1: That's not stupid. It's a good question.
Speaker 2: Remember when Doja Cat left you hanging?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do remember that. That was that was me
Speaker 3: going rogue and doing some stupid ship.
Speaker 2: He's just trying to Doja Cat at some event and
Speaker 2: he went to like do like a high five with
Speaker 2: her and she didn't see him. She wasn't like being rude.
Speaker 2: But then Donald left his hand up there and you
Speaker 2: didn't know what to do with it. So then he
Speaker 2: started high five in it himself.
Speaker 3: It was high five, dude, that's all I know. You
Speaker 3: didn't I did yourself?
Speaker 1: Are you? And then you hit it? Yeah, don't even
Speaker 1: try it.
Speaker 2: It was sometimes I think about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's called to the script.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's sometimes I think about that in the shower
Speaker 2: and I shiver. You don't, but cat left you hanging.
Speaker 1: I know you would shiver. I know you would shiver.
Speaker 3: If I said that ship about how many black people
Speaker 3: are performing at your show, you'd be like, that'd be
Speaker 3: twenty weeks later in the shower.
Speaker 1: Oh god, I remember that.
Speaker 2: He's don't say anything that's going to make me shiver.
Speaker 2: I don't like it when you go off script. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna put your lines in the prompter in bold with
Speaker 2: an underline Sarah. Sarah's gonna get a regular font. You're
Speaker 2: gonna get bold and underlined.
Speaker 1: No, wait, is John here?
Speaker 2: He is?
Speaker 4: Yes, we have both guy, Myron Kirstine.
Speaker 2: Here both myn nervously. What are you nervously? Donald, don't
Speaker 2: embarrass me.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna embarrass you.
Speaker 2: I wish you had a teleprompter right now.
Speaker 1: First question, how do I get in your next.
Speaker 2: No, don't do that. I wish we guy, I wish
Speaker 2: just start chill, okay, okay, Joelle, I wish we had
Speaker 2: a teleprompter for Donald.
Speaker 4: On this fucking zoom Callanel's face, rely on Donald face, Daniel,
Speaker 4: Donald wants channel's face.
Speaker 2: Five six seven eight.
Speaker 7: I'm not sure we made about a bunch of he said,
Speaker 7: he's the stormy net so YadA here yeada.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, yeah, let's gosh.
Speaker 1: I can't believe we did this.
Speaker 2: This is the best.
Speaker 1: Okay they are. Listen you guys. I've been I'm down
Speaker 1: to be chill.
Speaker 3: I've been, I've been prompted to be chill and not
Speaker 3: act crazy. But we have freaking cinema royalty, in my opinion,
Speaker 3: in the motherfucking.
Speaker 2: You guys. Good to see you, Good to see you.
Speaker 2: Welcome Myron and John. That's our engineer, Daniel and our
Speaker 2: producer Joel. And I know you know there are a
Speaker 2: lot of fans of the movie Wicked, but probably the
Speaker 2: number one fan in the universe up there is Donald
Speaker 2: Faison right there, who who has already sung some of
Speaker 2: the songs for our audience before you've joined us.
Speaker 3: I said, I wouldn't do it when you're on the air.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to embarrass myself. Listen, we need to
Speaker 3: stop now. Just Zach proceed because.
Speaker 2: You just calm down.
Speaker 1: Coming up, it's coming up.
Speaker 2: John, John, I'll be the more calm voice and say, uh,
Speaker 2: Donald and I love musicals, and we that's one thing
Speaker 2: we've shared in comments is the day we met. We
Speaker 2: we You know, it's funny because he's into sports and
Speaker 2: so many and Marvel and Star Wars and so many
Speaker 2: things I'm not into. And but one thing we overlap
Speaker 2: with is our just love of musicals. And we both,
Speaker 2: from the bottom of my hearts, think you did the
Speaker 2: most fantastic job with this.
Speaker 1: Both of you did. We I'm gonna get to Myron.
Speaker 2: I'm starting with John. Myron, I'm going to get to
Speaker 2: but John, I just think you absolutely crushed it. I
Speaker 2: loved it. It was my favorite Mooey of last year.
Speaker 8: Thank you.
Speaker 5: I appreciate that. Appreciate that. And it's been a long
Speaker 5: time coming for all of us to be together. I mean,
Speaker 5: I've heard stories of you for so long from Myron.
Speaker 5: He's given me all the secrets of how you've done things.
Speaker 5: So it's been perfect.
Speaker 2: I trained him, So for those of you who don't know,
Speaker 2: I think I mentioned it briefly in the intro, but
Speaker 2: Myron cut Garden State and he was really, you know,
Speaker 2: just absolutely incredible editor, but particularly with music. I mean,
Speaker 2: the reason so much of what worked in Garden State
Speaker 2: with music was because of Myron and how he plays songs.
Speaker 2: And I was just thinking the other day, Myron, and
Speaker 2: how you know, I had always imagined that ecstasy party
Speaker 2: scene to be to be like something like that, but
Speaker 2: I just didn't know how the hell we're going to
Speaker 2: execute it. I remember you came to set one day.
Speaker 2: It was it was so long ago. I think he
Speaker 2: may have even brought like a VHS tape and put
Speaker 2: it in my trailer, in the in the in the
Speaker 2: in the in the VHS player, and I just was
Speaker 2: so floored. I was like, oh my god, I never
Speaker 2: thought it was going to be as good as that.
Speaker 2: So Myron, and from the very beginning of me meeting him,
Speaker 2: it's been someone so gifted, uh with music and and heart.
Speaker 2: So you guys are such a perfect marriage for each
Speaker 2: other because this is like the epitome. I mean, a
Speaker 2: movie cannot get bigger when it comes to music and
Speaker 2: heart than what you guys made.
Speaker 5: Oh that's so nice, and you know, you know the
Speaker 5: only reason, because we've got paired together.
Speaker 8: I never on Crazy Wit Jasions.
Speaker 5: I was looking for another editor and someone suggested him
Speaker 5: and the one credit that brought him into my life
Speaker 5: was Garden State Seeing. I mean, obviously that soundtrack was
Speaker 5: became a part of my life. That movie became a
Speaker 5: part of my life. I was like right in the
Speaker 5: pocket of who you were speaking to in that and
Speaker 5: so it was, it's been, it's been, and it awoke
Speaker 5: me to two different artists and things like that. So
Speaker 5: and how you can make a movie where music is
Speaker 5: the power using the power of music, which is where
Speaker 5: you were where it says so much more than what
Speaker 5: words ever could. And it can be expressed cinematically, visually
Speaker 5: in ways and in cuts in ways that no other
Speaker 5: medium can do.
Speaker 8: So it was really it was.
Speaker 2: Music always a part of your life because you you you.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry to ask. I know you've been on a
Speaker 2: mega press tour and some of these questions you've been
Speaker 2: asked a zillion time, So I promise I have some
Speaker 2: original ones, but it's hard not to ask you as
Speaker 2: someone who's so gifted? I mean you started with dance,
Speaker 2: right with the Dance movie? Yeah, yeah, they step up
Speaker 2: and then, but like, how was it always? Are you
Speaker 2: a dancer? Do you dance at all?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 8: I mean I've taken dance when I was a kid.
Speaker 2: How did you get in? How did like, how did
Speaker 2: like step up? Land? Like, how did you know you
Speaker 2: were the right guy for that? Well?
Speaker 5: Well, I grew up in the Bay Area and I'm
Speaker 5: the youngest of five kids, and my parents are immigrants
Speaker 5: from China, and they wanted all us kids to be
Speaker 5: as Americanized as possible so they could be the opposite
Speaker 5: of what they came when they came here, because they
Speaker 5: didn't speak a word of English. So they put us
Speaker 5: in dance classes. I took tap for twelve years because
Speaker 5: I had to be with my sisters basically when they
Speaker 5: were taking it. I took drum, saxophone, violin, guitar. I'm
Speaker 5: not good at any of these things, but I took it.
Speaker 5: And every weekend my parents would take us to the
Speaker 5: theater in San Francisco musical musical season, opera season, ballet season, like.
Speaker 5: We would be there all the time. Of course, we'd
Speaker 5: watch movies all the time. TV was always on our
Speaker 5: on in our house, so it was just sort of
Speaker 5: a part of me. And when I started actually working
Speaker 5: with the camera and editing with my little VHS camera.
Speaker 5: At that time, all my friends were dancers or musicians,
Speaker 5: and so I was the guy with the camera, and
Speaker 5: so that's where I was. I was sort of theater
Speaker 5: kid adjacent. I was part of theater but not great
Speaker 5: at it, but I could. I knew them well enough
Speaker 5: that I could try to communicate what I knew from
Speaker 5: the film side into what they.
Speaker 8: Wanted to say.
Speaker 5: And that's where it sort of all started. And first
Speaker 5: step up that came to me, and I did not
Speaker 5: want to do it because it was a direct to
Speaker 5: DVD movie, and I called my mom. I was like,
Speaker 5: I can't have my first movie be a direct to
Speaker 5: DVD movie. I was discovered by Spielberg from my student
Speaker 5: short like this is not right, and my mom's like,
Speaker 5: when did you become a snob? I was like, if
Speaker 5: you are a storyteller, you can tell a story in
Speaker 5: any medium, in any way. You could be by a campfire,
Speaker 5: you could be in a car, like prove yourself. And
Speaker 5: I was like, you're right, I'm going to make the
Speaker 5: best damn direct to DVD dance movie sequel of all time.
Speaker 8: And that's where it's all sort of started.
Speaker 2: And you did, right, and then they changed it to
Speaker 2: not go directed to DVD. Right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, became a theatrical two weeks after I joined, and
Speaker 5: I repitched it in a way that I thought a
Speaker 5: dance movie should be. Instead of five numbers, I wanted thirteen.
Speaker 5: And all these different Disney who distributed the first movie
Speaker 5: came around, was like, hey, let's listen to your pitch.
Speaker 5: And twenty minutes later they're like, we have a slot,
Speaker 5: but it's in nine months. Can you get it done
Speaker 5: in nine months?
Speaker 8: And we did.
Speaker 2: That's strung me off.
Speaker 1: Wow, So listen to your mom, listen to you.
Speaker 3: I know that a lot of the kids from that
Speaker 3: movie went on to do several of the sequels too,
Speaker 3: So yeah, like that and are very and I looked
Speaker 3: at as high levels in the dance community. Also, do
Speaker 3: you still use any of them when you're doing other projects?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean amazingly.
Speaker 5: One of our actors in it, Christopher Scott, is one
Speaker 5: of the dancers in it. He plays his bit part.
Speaker 5: He auditioned for us in Baltimore because that's where he's from.
Speaker 5: He came back after shooting, and we all became friends
Speaker 5: because we're all young, we're all our first movies, and
Speaker 5: he would just hang out at the edit room. And
Speaker 5: now he's the choreographer of Wicket, and he choreographed in
Speaker 5: the Heights, and so I watched him transition from dancer
Speaker 5: to choreographer. He watched how I pitched movies, and I
Speaker 5: taught him how to use certain things and photoshop and
Speaker 5: keynote and whatever, and he used those skills to get
Speaker 5: his first choreography jobs.
Speaker 8: And so now we get.
Speaker 1: To it together.
Speaker 2: Well, the choreography in this movie was just absolutely incredible.
Speaker 2: I mean, what has it been with you? We have
Speaker 2: so many questions for you, But how does it feel
Speaker 2: when you watch these kids and all these videos of people,
Speaker 2: you know, doing the choreography like it's meant This movie
Speaker 2: has meant so much to people of so many different ages.
Speaker 2: I mean, we're fifty years old and we're walking around
Speaker 2: singing it, and then you've got the little kids walking around,
Speaker 2: you know, doing the dance moves on TikTok. I mean
Speaker 2: that just must be so gratifying for you, guys.
Speaker 8: That's the best. It's the best.
Speaker 5: And Mayron and I share, you know, we're texting each
Speaker 5: other videos, TikTok videos back and forth of people doing it.
Speaker 5: You know, we all, you know, especially as storyteller, if
Speaker 5: we want our stories to be seen and to be
Speaker 5: accepted and for them people to like dig in even deeper.
Speaker 8: And learn the choreography.
Speaker 5: I mean, that's how I learned watching all the Michael
Speaker 5: Jackson videos and you know, recording it, recording MTV on
Speaker 5: my VCR, just watching it over and over and over
Speaker 5: against studying.
Speaker 8: Like to me, that's like that's the ultimate goal from it.
Speaker 2: So heat is so when you just if we can
Speaker 2: just begin to break down, Well, first of all, I
Speaker 2: just wanted to say, how did it come to Cynthia
Speaker 2: and Ariana. I'm sure every woman of who's the right
Speaker 2: age and can sing audition for you, both famous and
Speaker 2: not famous. We can tell why you chose them, because
Speaker 2: they're both absolutely brilliant. But what was that process?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 2: Did you I read in my notes that you that
Speaker 2: you initially thought you'd hire unknowns.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I thought Wicked was big enough that you could we
Speaker 5: could actually like break somebody, and I was I didn't
Speaker 5: want any anything, uh, sort of dictating how the movie
Speaker 5: should feel or be because there's some big star or
Speaker 5: the studio wanted that. And so when I came in,
Speaker 5: it was very clear that studio knew that Wicked could
Speaker 5: be big enough that we could do that, and so
Speaker 5: that was sort of the staate, like whoever's best for this,
Speaker 5: and and in my head it was like, well, we're
Speaker 5: going to discover someone so Wicked is its own thing,
Speaker 5: and of course you're getting We got inundated with calls
Speaker 5: from everyone around town to come, and we said there's
Speaker 5: no offers. Everyone has to come in and read, and
Speaker 5: everyone starts at the same spot. And we saw a
Speaker 5: lot of people and all really really good. I mean,
Speaker 5: everyone prepared. Everyone was so amazing. But you know, there's
Speaker 5: a moment where someone just takes it from your lap.
Speaker 5: And we had been down the road of seeing a
Speaker 5: lot and sort of debating. What we realized is, you know,
Speaker 5: we had to get experienced people because these songs are
Speaker 5: way more difficult than I thought they were. People come in,
Speaker 5: their voices are breaking.
Speaker 2: They're double black diamond songs.
Speaker 8: Absolutely, you know, I have a funny memory.
Speaker 2: Just to digress for a moment, I was reading in
Speaker 2: New York at Bernie Telsey's casting office. I don't know
Speaker 2: if Bernie cast this, didn't.
Speaker 8: He Bernie did.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And for those who don't know, Bernie Telsey is
Speaker 2: by far the biggest Broadway casting directors, particularly musicals. He's
Speaker 2: he's almost got a monopoly on Broadway musical casting. And
Speaker 2: he's a brilliant guy. And I was auditioning. This was
Speaker 2: many years ago, but I was auditioning for the production
Speaker 2: of Angels in America. And next to me in the
Speaker 2: next Versus studio, they were auditioning women to replace Alphaba.
Speaker 1: And to replace Nadel Nazine.
Speaker 2: No, not Adel. This was after Adele Deseine. I think
Speaker 2: it may be in for a tour. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know the specifics. All they know is that
Speaker 2: while I was waiting, they have gotten this down to
Speaker 2: such a science that they really just have them come in.
Speaker 2: And these girls were just women were walking in and
Speaker 2: they were like basically like, oh, like, just can you
Speaker 2: hit the fucking note or not? And then then we'll
Speaker 2: talk to see if you can hit the note.
Speaker 3: And I don't get a ramp ump nothing, huh no
Speaker 3: read it.
Speaker 2: It was basically it may have been like it may
Speaker 2: have been like two bars before the note. I don't know,
Speaker 2: but but it was brutal because they were just like next, next, next,
Speaker 2: And I was shocked how many of these women walked
Speaker 2: into this audition, like, you know, if you could hit
Speaker 2: it or not, why why are you here?
Speaker 3: There's that one chance that God will bless me right
Speaker 3: now at this moment.
Speaker 1: Yes it will come out exact.
Speaker 2: Yes I have never hit it before, but I will
Speaker 2: hit it at Bernie Telsey's.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was an intimidating lobby because you could hear
Speaker 5: everybody going for it, and that would be any if
Speaker 5: you're an actor walking in.
Speaker 8: And we did not just say you had to be
Speaker 8: able to sing.
Speaker 5: I mean this is a movie, and so we needed
Speaker 5: them to be able to act and the camera need
Speaker 5: to be able to be two inches from their face
Speaker 5: and then and give layers to this character and not
Speaker 5: be imitation of what we've seen before, but something fresh
Speaker 5: in news.
Speaker 8: There's a lot to ask.
Speaker 5: Of them, and there were people who were like, you
Speaker 5: know what, don't even worry about the big notes. Just
Speaker 5: go do what you can if it. If you fail,
Speaker 5: it's all good. There's things we can do that can help.
Speaker 5: And but but when those two ladies came in, it
Speaker 5: was just like they had the full package.
Speaker 2: You know, it's it's.
Speaker 3: Timid hold up, but you know it's intimidating when Cynthia Rivo,
Speaker 3: who is known for singing very well and killing it
Speaker 3: and is known for being such a phenomenal actress, had
Speaker 3: to walk into the audition with a blanket tied around
Speaker 3: her neck and a damn and a damn broom.
Speaker 8: In the ninety nine cent store from.
Speaker 3: Anti store to freaking get a leg up on this audition.
Speaker 1: Man. You know, it's really feel when somebody who is
Speaker 1: a comment she is.
Speaker 2: Would walk I would like to walk into audition rooms
Speaker 2: with the confidence of Cynthia Revial walking into sing defying gravity,
Speaker 2: because she must have been like, I got this.
Speaker 3: Well, we know when she walked in with a blanket
Speaker 3: and a broom.
Speaker 5: Let me let me let me clarify that she it
Speaker 5: was a I think that was like a jacket that
Speaker 5: she had on earlier. She had taken that off because
Speaker 5: we sang Wizard and I first, and she was singing
Speaker 5: opposite another big actor and that actor was like.
Speaker 8: You know, she was like awestruck by Cynthia.
Speaker 5: She's like, you know, she just sang at a sold
Speaker 5: out a Disney concert hall last night at like nine pm,
Speaker 5: and she's here this morning. She's like, you know how
Speaker 5: many people would pay for tickets to be sitting here
Speaker 5: in this room right now to watch her sing defying gravity?
Speaker 5: And so already you could feel that vibe. And she
Speaker 5: sang wizard and I first. And when she sang those
Speaker 5: first words, did that really just happen? She became a
Speaker 5: little girl. She became not the Cynthia Rivo on the
Speaker 5: big stage of the sold out show. She became a
Speaker 5: dreamer in their dorm room. And I felt so connected
Speaker 5: with that little girl singing, and then watched her grow
Speaker 5: in that song to hit those final notes. It was
Speaker 5: very clear, very quickly that she was our Alphaba.
Speaker 2: You must have been so excited. I mean, when I'm
Speaker 2: auditioning people, you know, people think people don't know this,
Speaker 2: but you're really quite nervous. You don't know if you're
Speaker 2: going to find the person. You know, you're like, I
Speaker 2: hope we find the person. And when she when she performed,
Speaker 2: you must have been like, oh my god, we found
Speaker 2: the person.
Speaker 3: Hold on, you mean you got how often is it
Speaker 3: that directors and production settles and says, you know what,
Speaker 3: we didn't find a person, but we've found somebody close
Speaker 3: enough to just tell this story.
Speaker 1: How often does that happen? Hold on? This opens up
Speaker 1: a new conversation for me.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know.
Speaker 3: How you feel, like, oh, I got the part, but
Speaker 3: the possibility that I wasn't right for it.
Speaker 1: But they just settled because they could tell the story.
Speaker 2: Now, I don't know if it's settling. It's we're out
Speaker 2: of time and and and I for me, I might
Speaker 2: can only speak for me, not John, but we're out
Speaker 2: of time and this person is great. They might not
Speaker 2: be exactly what I pictured, but maybe they'll be better
Speaker 2: than I could have imagined. But we need to go
Speaker 2: and we need to start now. That's you know what
Speaker 2: John and Myron are engaged is something that's eighteen months
Speaker 2: of pre production. So you certainly have a whole lot
Speaker 2: more time to make sure you find the right person
Speaker 2: for your gargantuan movie.
Speaker 8: But there's always but there's always a leap of faith.
Speaker 5: It's always there's always like a section that you're like, well,
Speaker 5: I think that I have confidence they can get there
Speaker 5: in these areas because they haven't dug into obviously the
Speaker 5: text and all that stuff. So it's always just a
Speaker 5: little bit of like, trust your instincts, Myron.
Speaker 3: How how often are you like, look, all right, it's good,
Speaker 3: but I could fix it in post.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about it. I'll fix it. I can fix this.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about it. I mean, you're like freaking Scotty.
Speaker 2: You're asking him to answer that in in front of you.
Speaker 6: Your daily is Donald, I'm always like, I could fix this.
Speaker 6: I don't worry about it.
Speaker 2: Right, you become Scotty.
Speaker 1: I'm giving you.
Speaker 6: Now what I What I love is that you know
Speaker 6: every actor is bringing on the day and then I'm
Speaker 6: there to be the next collaborator to bring my own
Speaker 6: take to it, and everyone's going to do the best job.
Speaker 1: And and what.
Speaker 6: Was so nice about Wicked is that I was privy
Speaker 6: to see some of these auditions, so it was very
Speaker 6: it was it was a real gift to see John's process.
Speaker 6: And then when you did see Cynthia and Ari step in,
Speaker 6: You're like, oh my god, this this is on another level.
Speaker 6: And you know, of course I think that you know
Speaker 6: there's there's a different version of every movie that with
Speaker 6: a different cast in there. But then when you actually
Speaker 6: see it together and you're like, oh, this was inevitable,
Speaker 6: this is exactly it was supposed to be.
Speaker 1: Let's take a break.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back after these fine words. Did you
Speaker 2: guys always plan to have it be to films? I
Speaker 2: wanted to ask you that what was that? Was that
Speaker 2: from the get go? Or because I'm so glad you did,
Speaker 2: because it's so much movie the idea of trying to
Speaker 2: cram that whole story into one, But but was that
Speaker 2: always a plan?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 5: When I came in, you know, they had been they
Speaker 5: had been developing scripts, many scripts for the past I
Speaker 5: don't know, twenty years before I ever came in, and
Speaker 5: those scripts weren't ready, and the big question was can
Speaker 5: you make this into one movie? And so when I
Speaker 5: stepped in, the debate was already in progress. And for me,
Speaker 5: it was like, if you are debating this, then you're
Speaker 5: never going to make two great movies. You're always going
Speaker 5: to be in between, and you might as well just
Speaker 5: shove it all into one and that's a whatever four
Speaker 5: and have five hour movie. Or if you're going to
Speaker 5: get it into let's say you want to get into
Speaker 5: a three hour movie that you're ripping out half the songs,
Speaker 5: and then is that Wicked?
Speaker 8: And it became very clear it was.
Speaker 5: There's almost no question that in order to do Wicked properly,
Speaker 5: you needed to break it up. And then we needed
Speaker 5: to make that decision fast. Usually when you come in
Speaker 5: as a director and something's been sort of half developed,
Speaker 5: then you have about two weeks as the honeymoon period
Speaker 5: you can do whatever you want. And so I knew
Speaker 5: you have to make big, bold choices right from the beginning,
Speaker 5: and that choice of I don't want We're not going
Speaker 5: to debate this anymore two movies. Let's focus in to
Speaker 5: make each movie the best singular movie we can and
Speaker 5: every piece of architecture that we need to do in
Speaker 5: this story in order to make that happen is what
Speaker 5: we need to do, and that's what we need to
Speaker 5: be focusing on.
Speaker 8: Of course, in the back of my mind, I'm always like, well,
Speaker 8: we're going to shoot too.
Speaker 5: If it's better to be one movie, then we'll figure
Speaker 5: that out later. But we had to make bold, very
Speaker 5: specific choices, intentional choices from the very beginning. So that's
Speaker 5: where it started.
Speaker 1: Can I say ask, just say something, yeah, something that
Speaker 1: I really love.
Speaker 2: To raise your hand. It's your podcast you now.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you like to talk too.
Speaker 3: So what I really loved is that you didn't shy
Speaker 3: away from the fantasy part of this story. And a
Speaker 3: lot of people focus mainly on Okay, let's focus on
Speaker 3: the music. Let's focus on let's focus on the dancing.
Speaker 3: Usually when musicals are made, let's focus on that part.
Speaker 3: And then the part that's always left out is either
Speaker 3: the surrounding area, like how the story looks, or the
Speaker 3: or the heart. And you tackled all of them at once,
Speaker 3: and that was for me as a moviegoer. Like he
Speaker 3: said earlier, I love Star Wars, I love Marvel, and
Speaker 3: was great to see all of those genres but flipped
Speaker 3: upside down with music coming through also, and you don't
Speaker 3: really see you. You never see that, to be honest
Speaker 3: with you, Even the biggest movie musical before this, it
Speaker 3: didn't have it. I think what was it grease is
Speaker 3: that the you know what I mean, it has numbers,
Speaker 3: but it's relying on the dance, it's relying on the singing.
Speaker 1: And everything like that.
Speaker 3: You have great performances and musical numbers, but the movie
Speaker 3: also hits fantasy dead on, and I really really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: As a fantasy lover, I really.
Speaker 3: Appreciated that, and so that's one of the reasons why
Speaker 3: this movie sticks with me so well. It's like I'm
Speaker 3: going to see Star Wars, but I'm also getting a
Speaker 3: nice show out of it too, a good song and
Speaker 3: dance out of it too.
Speaker 5: That's great, I think because also, like I said, I'm
Speaker 5: theater adjacent, a theater kid adjacent I'm not.
Speaker 8: I didn't come from theater, so.
Speaker 5: I am definitely of the film side, and yet I
Speaker 5: love it.
Speaker 8: Those are my friends, are my family.
Speaker 5: That's where I enjoy watching stories, and so I think
Speaker 5: we could bridge that gap. There was funny thing because
Speaker 5: and I realized with Wicked that oh, this was a
Speaker 5: property that has opportunities to do the thing that no
Speaker 5: other musical could do. The world of oz was as
Speaker 5: important as the music of Wicked, and that we were
Speaker 5: bringing cinema lovers back to a world that they had
Speaker 5: fallen in love with cinema maybe in the first place,
Speaker 5: and that there was a great responsibility with that. And
Speaker 5: at a time after COVID, when cinemas were hurting, and
Speaker 5: at a time when people are doubting the scope and
Speaker 5: scale of what cinema can do. And we're at a
Speaker 5: time where representation is such an important thing and in
Speaker 5: works of timeless art, that we if we could incorporate
Speaker 5: a physically disabled actor, truly disabled, playing a disabled person
Speaker 5: in the in there, we could We could have people
Speaker 5: of all shaped, the size, colors, ages, and and have
Speaker 5: the music as not as a separate piece, but as
Speaker 5: a as an integral part of the expression of that
Speaker 5: in a timeless world. And by the way, that timeless
Speaker 5: fantasy world maybe one of the first that has accessible
Speaker 5: ramps for the characters and things like that, that we
Speaker 5: can do that, and we and because ultimately the story
Speaker 5: is digging at truth. If we could at these actors
Speaker 5: could could portray the truth, and of course Meyern digging
Speaker 5: that out.
Speaker 8: Then we had something.
Speaker 5: That was very unique in Wicked that I'd never gotten
Speaker 5: that opportunity.
Speaker 2: I think, he's I love I love what you said.
Speaker 2: And from my perspective, I don't go to these you know,
Speaker 2: most of the bockbusters, with these budgets and these scale
Speaker 2: of production are there not made for me. This was
Speaker 2: the first movie in a long time I can remember
Speaker 2: like where I thought, Oh, I get to enjoy the
Speaker 2: spectacle that Donald gets to see in these Marvel movies
Speaker 2: that he enjoys, but in a world that's interesting to me.
Speaker 2: I mean, I can't think of a movie that that Yeah,
Speaker 2: reiterating what you're saying, that that that gives me a
Speaker 2: musical theater lover scope and scale and and fantasy and
Speaker 2: just I mean, I I can segue into into this
Speaker 2: into a question in you built so much of these
Speaker 2: sets practically. I mean, this could have been such a
Speaker 2: It wouldn't have been nearly as beautiful if this had
Speaker 2: been a green screen so much as a green screen.
Speaker 2: I know, obviously you have some green screen in it,
Speaker 2: but yeah, but you built so many practical sets. Was
Speaker 2: that hard to convince the studio to spend the money
Speaker 2: on building those worlds? Because I know you built some
Speaker 2: pretty epic sets. We can tell from watching the movie.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's it still goes to today. You know,
Speaker 5: the amount of money it takes to Mount Oz is
Speaker 5: a lot, and the commitment it takes, I mean today
Speaker 5: is a lot easier than it was five months ago.
Speaker 8: But when you were building these sets, very that.
Speaker 5: Was part of the concept, you know, how I said, like,
Speaker 5: you get two weeks to do whatever you want. Like
Speaker 5: what I knew is I had to sell this idea
Speaker 5: that in order to have us revisit Oz, that we
Speaker 5: had to take the physical attributes of the Wizard of
Speaker 5: Oz of the nineteen thirty nine.
Speaker 8: Movie and break the matte painting.
Speaker 5: And actually, if this movie was about truth, then we
Speaker 5: needed to believe that this place actually exists, that it
Speaker 5: was not in a dream, and so that the grass
Speaker 5: had to be real, the walls had to be high,
Speaker 5: the physicality of it had to be there, and so
Speaker 5: we wanted this. I always sold this, like Lawrence of
Speaker 5: Arabia as Cleopatra, as one of those things that we
Speaker 5: only get once in our lifetime to really build. And
Speaker 5: so by pushing that hard in those first two weeks,
Speaker 5: I sort of like held their feet to the fire
Speaker 5: every time.
Speaker 8: Questions would come.
Speaker 5: And then you get someone like Nathan Crowley, our amazing
Speaker 5: production designer who who is a big trouble maker, builds,
Speaker 5: loves to build. He you know, he worked with Nolan
Speaker 5: for many years and did great, great showmen, and he
Speaker 5: he he's the one who's like John, we're gonna plant
Speaker 5: nine million tulips. John, We're going to build the train
Speaker 5: and it's gonna move. John, We're gonna make that lake
Speaker 5: in front of the in front of the school. And
Speaker 5: I was like, they're gonna kill us. And he's like,
Speaker 5: you don't worry.
Speaker 8: You just keep moving and we'll make it happen.
Speaker 5: He's like, by the way, the tulips are already planted,
Speaker 5: so that's no choice.
Speaker 2: I love a guy like that. I love someone like that.
Speaker 3: Do you think it's because it's Wicked that people feel
Speaker 3: this way? Like Wicked changed Broadway? You know, there are
Speaker 3: not a lot of shows that come into Broadway and
Speaker 3: are sold.
Speaker 1: Out for two years straight.
Speaker 3: I think Wicked was What's the other one that that
Speaker 3: Josh gadd was a part of the Book of Mormon
Speaker 3: is another movie that was sold out for you couldn't.
Speaker 1: Get tickets for two years.
Speaker 3: Do you think the response that you're getting from all
Speaker 3: of these these are the creatives that you are collaborating with,
Speaker 3: is because it's such a special piece, Like.
Speaker 5: Absolutely absolutely, I think that I think it was on
Speaker 5: multiple fronts. I would think of of course, Wicked, the
Speaker 5: show that the work that Kristin Adina, Joe, all these
Speaker 5: people did on the uh.
Speaker 1: Try to call her adele.
Speaker 8: I'm sorry, yes, sorry, yes, yes.
Speaker 5: The work that they did was was huge obviously lifting
Speaker 5: I mean it said it, and it only allowed us
Speaker 5: to do what we could do. What we were able
Speaker 5: to do is then take that and and and use
Speaker 5: them as excuses to then crank it up and to
Speaker 5: actually build it into a cinematic world, which is which
Speaker 5: is a very different thing. But absolutely Stephen Schwartz Winnie
Speaker 5: Holtsman that everybody who worked on that show for twenty years,
Speaker 5: who honed those jokes, who honed the thing, they deserve
Speaker 5: huge amounts of credits because we you don't get this
Speaker 5: kind of uh, this kind of opportunity without the show itself,
Speaker 5: of course, no doubt.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you something I was wondering. This is
Speaker 2: an example with the library dance sequence. So you built
Speaker 2: this insane set that is just so beautiful, and then
Speaker 2: you have choreography that's specific to the moving library stacks,
Speaker 2: which was in stunt people. And I've literally watched behind
Speaker 2: the scenes stuff. That's the level of geeking out I've done.
Speaker 2: But how do you how what's the chicken or the
Speaker 2: egg with that? Does your production designer say, hey, John,
Speaker 2: What if there were these circular spinning library stacks and
Speaker 2: then you go to the choreographer, Okay, what could you
Speaker 2: do with that? How did that, just as an example,
Speaker 2: evolve because I've never directed anything, you know, even with choreography,
Speaker 2: well maybe one tiny thing with choreography, but I've always wondered,
Speaker 2: how how youse a director evolve something like that?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's well, I have some amazing collaborators, of course,
Speaker 5: and we've done this for many years, so we have
Speaker 5: a process. And this may not work for everybody, but
Speaker 5: for us. Myron's in on that process. Alice our DP
Speaker 5: is in on that process. Chris Scott, our choreographer who
Speaker 5: I've known for so long, is in process. By the way,
Speaker 5: Alice our DP I've worked with since college. So she
Speaker 5: shot my college musical. So we can get in a
Speaker 5: room and usually the script is very basic in terms
Speaker 5: of the description of what's happening within the dance. I
Speaker 5: ask them not to go too into detail because I
Speaker 5: then take all the pieces and I'll break them out
Speaker 5: and start to sort of I don't just sort of
Speaker 5: riff off of what I think could happen. And I'm
Speaker 5: there with Chris and so then Chris adds on to
Speaker 5: that and says, well, and this is all just part
Speaker 5: of the discussion, Well what if you did that? What
Speaker 5: if they're if everything is circular? We start with like
Speaker 5: the themes of the of the movie. Okay, so Oz
Speaker 5: is everything is circular. Everything's been constructed to be perfect circles.
Speaker 5: And yet in order to be a perfect group that
Speaker 5: the cracks need to happen, The sharp edges the z
Speaker 5: in Oz needs to happen. And that's where alpha but
Speaker 5: comes in. So at shiz, everything has been perfectly circled.
Speaker 5: We need to create some cracks in that. And this
Speaker 5: is where the young generation first starts to like let
Speaker 5: loose in their movement. So Chris starts to work on
Speaker 5: like what movement could look like then, and then when
Speaker 5: I bring up this, like what if this is turning bookshelves?
Speaker 5: We knew that everything in Oz couldn't be had to
Speaker 5: be bespoke, had to be a little bit delightful. If
Speaker 5: the Wizard's sort of whole plan is to distract people
Speaker 5: with delight so they didn't have to worry about and
Speaker 5: they could always feel happy and didn't have to worry
Speaker 5: about worry or anything like that, then he could be
Speaker 5: in full control. So so okay, let's let's make the
Speaker 5: bookshelves not straight but delightfully circular. And of course when
Speaker 5: that starts to spin, we had done in the Heights
Speaker 5: a spinning number on a fire escape.
Speaker 8: We had just experienced that.
Speaker 5: So what if this whole thing was circular, and what
Speaker 5: if there's a little nod to two thousand and one,
Speaker 5: like what if it had all these elements to it.
Speaker 5: We wanted to do nods to American movies because we
Speaker 5: were also sort of kicking the tires on the American story.
Speaker 5: So there was this idea that how would the dancers
Speaker 5: do that? And so then we have to convince this
Speaker 5: so that I pitch it to our group, all our
Speaker 5: heads of departments, and we have boards that Alice and
Speaker 5: I work on. We don't know any actual choreography yet.
Speaker 5: Chris doesn't even know what the dancers are able to
Speaker 5: do in a spinning wheel because he doesn't have a
Speaker 5: spinning wheel to actually doesn't know if he needs to
Speaker 5: hire parkour people, chimnysts or bay boys or whatever or combination.
Speaker 5: And so then our engineers start to build our physical
Speaker 5: special effects. People start to say what they can build
Speaker 5: and then Nathan starts to build around it how the
Speaker 5: whole library is sort of circular, and then we deal
Speaker 5: with the insurance, which is a whole other issue, and
Speaker 5: at some point Chris goes into all the choreography before
Speaker 5: getting into the wheel. We got the wheel and we
Speaker 5: videotape it with iPhones or whatever we can. We start
Speaker 5: cutting it together with boards or whatever, and then when
Speaker 5: we got the wheel. We got the wheel about two
Speaker 5: weeks before shooting because it was so expensive, there was
Speaker 5: a lot of fights of getting it done. There's such
Speaker 5: huge elements of engineering to actually complete it. Two weeks
Speaker 5: before is when Chris started to actually choreograph within that.
Speaker 5: So this we could have shipped the bed like, we
Speaker 5: could have spent all this money and it wouldn't have
Speaker 5: been good. We had no idea, but Chris and I
Speaker 5: just sort of looked at each other and we're like,
Speaker 5: you just fucking figure it out, because I don't want
Speaker 5: to have to turn to my line producer and say, sorry,
Speaker 5: it doesn't work. But we knew that there was that risk,
Speaker 5: and we just don't tell everybody else.
Speaker 1: That Ron, you must no doubt.
Speaker 5: And then we just dump it on Myron, Ye say Maron,
Speaker 5: you must have great rhythm, like when the dance parties happened,
Speaker 5: you must be front and on the dance floor.
Speaker 3: Because literally, like from Garden State to Wicked bro like,
Speaker 3: everything has a rhythm and everything is you know, we've
Speaker 3: been listening to John and we've been listening to Zach
Speaker 3: talk about the process of making and everything. But then
Speaker 3: you're given this huge puzzle and of course you have
Speaker 3: help from the directors and everything, and it's now here's
Speaker 3: my vision. Make it work.
Speaker 1: Well, you know what I mean, make it, make it.
Speaker 3: When I watch it, I wanted to feel like I
Speaker 3: wanted to feel like how I saw it in my head.
Speaker 3: That is so much pressure, dude, so much pressure. Well
Speaker 3: can you talk about that, just to rewind a little bit.
Speaker 6: You know, when I when I met Zach, I was
Speaker 6: so excited by the script he had written because I
Speaker 6: felt this emotion, I felt this this kinship with this character.
Speaker 6: And while making the film, it was first about the
Speaker 6: heart and wearing your heart on your sleeve, and then
Speaker 6: the music was secondary. And of course I loved musicals
Speaker 6: growing up. I loved, you know how Ashby films. I
Speaker 6: loved films that had a lot of source of music
Speaker 6: John Hughes films all that, But it was first about
Speaker 6: the heart. And so when I got to work on
Speaker 6: Garden State and I get to apply my love for music,
Speaker 6: it was mostly about how does that support the motion?
Speaker 6: And then when I got to work on more complicated
Speaker 6: things like In the Heights and Crazy Rich Asians and
Speaker 6: then Wicked, it all started with a heart and then
Speaker 6: the rhythm and all that stuff afterwards just came from
Speaker 6: out of the emotion of like what what what was
Speaker 6: I trying to evoke emotionally through dance or through character
Speaker 6: or through music. And and so Zach came at the
Speaker 6: right time of the career, you know, he did train
Speaker 6: me in some ways, and then and then and then
Speaker 6: when I found when I found John, it was this
Speaker 6: further exploration about how do I, how do I sincerely
Speaker 6: like express heart without it feeling cynical or something I
Speaker 6: don't know what it was. But then to use dance
Speaker 6: and music, and then the rhythm just comes out of
Speaker 6: something internally that has to do with just expressing this emotion.
Speaker 2: It has, But you must get so much, like just
Speaker 2: to stick with the library example, there must be so
Speaker 2: much much footage. I can't believe how you you know,
Speaker 2: on an indie there's a finite amount of footage. I'm
Speaker 2: just imagining it's so challenging for you to go, well,
Speaker 2: all of these shots, I mean so many of these
Speaker 2: shots are beautiful for this moment. How do I decide
Speaker 2: what to go to where?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean John shoots a lot of he has
Speaker 6: sometimes in some of these big numbers who have three
Speaker 6: cameras going at once, just to just to make sure
Speaker 6: he's not missing something or has a little piece that
Speaker 6: we can use somewhere in the edit. And again it's
Speaker 6: just I really pride myself of just watching everything and
Speaker 6: just being really patient with learning the footage, and because
Speaker 6: there is some kind of nugget or kernel. I remember
Speaker 6: when we first worked togere Zachaus, It's like, you got
Speaker 6: to make sure you watch everything because there might be
Speaker 6: just that one little piece of improv.
Speaker 2: Or so what I always do what I always do,
Speaker 2: And I'm directing Shrinking now, and I'm still worried about it.
Speaker 2: When I'm directing Shrinking even is like we just we
Speaker 2: keep the camera rolling and we're riffing around, and I'm
Speaker 2: always worried that the editor is going to miss something
Speaker 2: that's it's at the end of take seven, and it
Speaker 2: was just one take of it. And so I'm always like,
Speaker 2: you watched everything, right, you watch everything.
Speaker 1: Let's take a break.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back after these fine words. One thing
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask you with a number, like defining gravity.
Speaker 2: You know, so much of this movie was practical, but
Speaker 2: in Defining Gravity you obviously have a lot of visual effects.
Speaker 2: How do you cut something so effectively when so much
Speaker 2: of it isn't going to be there until you've locked picture?
Speaker 2: Do you know what I mean? Like that whole sequence
Speaker 2: in the mirror and all of that, the whole all
Speaker 2: the whole climax of the end of the movie, how
Speaker 2: do you how do you cut that with so much
Speaker 2: green screen footage and and stuff you know isn't going
Speaker 2: to gonna You have to use your imagination, really use
Speaker 2: your imagination.
Speaker 6: You really have to imagine in the building in the background,
Speaker 6: you know, moving with her. But at the end of
Speaker 6: the day, you know, you again, you're really focused on performance,
Speaker 6: you know, and focused on you know, you know, Cynthia,
Speaker 6: and then looking at this this one, I forget the
Speaker 6: the cast members named the little girl looking at her, Yeah,
Speaker 6: and then you know, just focusing on the performance and
Speaker 6: then imagining everything else. And then you're of course pacing
Speaker 6: that stuff out, and then you know, you start to
Speaker 6: get things like post viz in there, and you get like,
Speaker 6: you know, really crappy versions of a building flying in
Speaker 6: the background, or you know, a cutout version of a
Speaker 6: monkey chasing her. But ultimately it's just again just really
Speaker 6: focusing on the performance and then just trying to use
Speaker 6: your imagination. I mean, you you Donald, you talk about
Speaker 6: all these films like Star Wars or Empire Strikes Back,
Speaker 6: and I was always thinking about these movies when I
Speaker 6: was cutting this movie, you know, just like I was
Speaker 6: just so happy I finally got a chance to work
Speaker 6: with a s geeky side in myself that I've always
Speaker 6: wanted to do these movies, these really big epic films,
Speaker 6: and now I get this chance. I was like, Okay,
Speaker 6: what would Spielberg do, what would Lucas do? Like what
Speaker 6: you know, what, you know, what kind of shot would
Speaker 6: he want to cut to?
Speaker 2: You?
Speaker 6: You know, when the balloon is going up in the
Speaker 6: air and then the you know cascades, you know, uh,
Speaker 6: you know, fiery down to the ground, and.
Speaker 5: I just I would be like, what would you do Myron?
Speaker 2: Do you ever do you ever call maron you were cutting?
Speaker 2: I'm assuming while they were shooting, do you ever call
Speaker 2: John and be like, hey, you know'd be great. You
Speaker 2: don't have this, it'd be great if you got this.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's usually a series of texts that I ignore.
Speaker 2: I mean, what's what is nice?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 6: I was in London for eight months during the shoot,
Speaker 6: and it was over one hundred and fifty five days,
Speaker 6: and you know, to be there and then I can
Speaker 6: actually walk downstairs to the set and say, hey, can
Speaker 6: I show you this piece? And you know, I think
Speaker 6: we might be missing here or are you okay if
Speaker 6: I ask second unit to pick up something, you know,
Speaker 6: And sometimes like on the balloon chase scene, we're kind
Speaker 6: of like figuring that scene as John was still shooting,
Speaker 6: Like he shot one version of this of the scene,
Speaker 6: and then we were like, maybe there should be a
Speaker 6: ticking clock with the with the roof closing, So then
Speaker 6: we we, uh we kind of I developed it with
Speaker 6: the effects and then I presented to John and John's like, okay,
Speaker 6: this kind of works, this we could change and then
Speaker 6: we then he shot principal and second unit again, and
Speaker 6: so it's nice to be there, to be able to
Speaker 6: not affect production but just be involved.
Speaker 1: In it, you know, to have money. That's all that
Speaker 1: is rich people, I know.
Speaker 2: I mean just for those of for our listeners who
Speaker 2: don't know film production, I mean, this is just filmmaking
Speaker 2: on the largest scale. Second unit is a whole other
Speaker 2: unit that's shooting stuff that doesn't involve the stars. So
Speaker 2: forming to be able to like, hey, do you mind
Speaker 2: if I have second unit go off and shoot this?
Speaker 2: That's pretty bougie.
Speaker 5: But I'll tell you what the best part about working
Speaker 5: with someone like Mayra and you really did, Zach. I
Speaker 5: don't know how you guys got to this, but finding
Speaker 5: those little in between moments intakes like that's to me
Speaker 5: was what I've been always looking for because I love
Speaker 5: finding things with our actors.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: The hardest part I think about directing is getting used
Speaker 5: to not being in control all the time. When you're
Speaker 5: making your little things, you are literally in control all
Speaker 5: your time. I'm telling my friends to grab the thing
Speaker 5: at this time and whatever itever. But when you start
Speaker 5: to get into the bigger movies, you need you need people,
Speaker 5: and you need them to make it better than you
Speaker 5: ever could. If it's what you could imagine in your bedroom,
Speaker 5: then it's not good enough, and so you're con instantly.
Speaker 5: I think you have to have the fundamentals right, your
Speaker 5: intention of the story, where what the architecture is.
Speaker 8: How you want these characters unfold.
Speaker 5: Then if you're going to be truly collaborative, the actors
Speaker 5: bring a whole new perspective to that.
Speaker 8: At a certain point.
Speaker 5: I always say, like, we can plan, plan, plan, but
Speaker 5: when you start making the movie, the movie starts speaking
Speaker 5: back to you, and you better be listening. And that's
Speaker 5: where Myron comes in, because he's the ultimate listener. He's
Speaker 5: getting footage that I haven't even shared how I think
Speaker 5: it's being cut. He hasn't even seen boards of some
Speaker 5: of these things that's in my head. I don't even
Speaker 5: share boards with people on set, really because I just
Speaker 5: want to feel like we're just playing in most instances,
Speaker 5: and I want the freedom to be able to do
Speaker 5: that and not have checkboxes. But then I dump it
Speaker 5: to Myron and he has to actually figure it out
Speaker 5: himself and go where instinctually it feels right in the
Speaker 5: performances themselves, or with the camera work or whatever it is,
Speaker 5: and so for me that reset and you have to
Speaker 5: do that reset several times in this movie to find
Speaker 5: the best version. Is takes experience, It takes trust with
Speaker 5: each other, within you yourself.
Speaker 8: But that's my favorite part is that you just don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And one thing you're saying that it applies to
Speaker 2: all filmmakers who are listening, whether you're about to direct
Speaker 2: a several hundred million dollar movie or you're going to
Speaker 2: direct your first short film. And you've spoken a lot
Speaker 2: about this, John, is reliance on your collaborators and trust
Speaker 2: in your collaborators and not needing to be the one
Speaker 2: who has the best idea. That's something I really had
Speaker 2: to grow into when I made Garden State. I was like,
Speaker 2: I have to be the one. This is my movie,
Speaker 2: I wrote it. I have to be the one who
Speaker 2: has the best idea. And little by little, you know,
Speaker 2: Larry Sure, the legendary DP would be like, you know,
Speaker 2: I know you want to put the camera here, but
Speaker 2: look at it over here, and I'd be like, wow,
Speaker 2: that is cool. Or Myron would cut some sequence and
Speaker 2: I'd be like, holy shit, that's not how I didn't
Speaker 2: think you were going to put I didn't I wanted
Speaker 2: to put the Simon and Garf Fogus song on the movie.
Speaker 2: I didn't think it was going to go here. That's
Speaker 2: I've got goosebumps all over my whole body. And what
Speaker 2: you're saying with all your collaborators on set, that's that's
Speaker 2: something I'm still I'm still doing. We were improving a
Speaker 2: scene and shrinking the other day and we had cut
Speaker 2: and as we were moving on to change the setup,
Speaker 2: the DP riffed a punchline to a joke and I went,
Speaker 2: that's the why didn't you fucking see that earlier? That's
Speaker 2: the funniest joke we've come up with. And and he
Speaker 2: was like, ah, it's too late. I go, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: roll it again. We're gonna go again and do the
Speaker 2: dp's joke. And that does take a lot of time
Speaker 2: for you to get to a place where I can
Speaker 2: where I can have my ego be relaxed and be
Speaker 2: open to like whoever has the best idea wins, you know.
Speaker 5: And it's a balance too, because you know, you do
Speaker 5: have to lead the group of course a horizon, and
Speaker 5: yet you have to be open enough to discover the
Speaker 5: better things that come about and that's that is a
Speaker 5: difficult thing, and I you know, you struggle with it
Speaker 5: the whole time, no matter what, like even when score
Speaker 5: comes in and the score isn't exactly what you've lived
Speaker 5: with in the temp and then you start to feel like,
Speaker 5: well I really wanted that be. But then they're offering
Speaker 5: you something and if you're not listening to it, and
Speaker 5: maybe they're wrong, and you have to be aware when
Speaker 5: they're wrong and get you back on course.
Speaker 8: But there are but there are plenty of moments.
Speaker 5: Where where they're actually itching at something that or a
Speaker 5: symptom of something that you need to address.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say too that are probably going to get
Speaker 1: me in a lot of trouble too.
Speaker 2: Oh god, see he's gotten comfortable. Wait you need Daniel. Wait, Daniel,
Speaker 2: come back on when when Donald, when Donald says something inappropriate,
Speaker 2: U Daniel shakes his head and he knows the stop
Speaker 2: with one.
Speaker 3: Thank goodness for digital chip in the camera now instead
Speaker 3: of film because all of these things that you guys,
Speaker 3: Daniel don't do.
Speaker 2: That that's not controversial.
Speaker 1: Because all of these things that you guys are I thought.
Speaker 2: You're going to be like, can I get Cynthia's number?
Speaker 3: No, but thank goodness for that because now you can
Speaker 3: afford to go back and do things that you couldn't
Speaker 3: do before, back in the day when it was film
Speaker 3: and you had this is the amount of film we
Speaker 3: have for the for the for the movie, yo, So
Speaker 3: we can't just go back to the other setup and shoot.
Speaker 1: That's one, Zach, you told me a story once.
Speaker 3: This is the other thing that I thought was amazing
Speaker 3: and is when you were filming Going in Style and
Speaker 3: Alan Arkin Arkin was called Alan Aldo, that's the dude
Speaker 3: from ash Alan Arkin. He was on the bench and
Speaker 3: they with the love interest in the show, and they were, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, going back and forth. They had a line
Speaker 3: and you didn't know if you got it or anything
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 1: And some of the.
Speaker 3: Magic was actually in the in between takes where they're
Speaker 3: just talking as the camera is you know, settling and
Speaker 3: they're getting shots and everything like that, and he's looking
Speaker 3: at her and he's giving her looks and she's giving
Speaker 3: him looks. And a lot of that information wasn't present
Speaker 3: while you were shooting the thing, but actually came after
Speaker 3: it was shot, and those things wound up in the movie.
Speaker 2: Well, that was that was that scene you're talking about
Speaker 2: it was an example where I when it was over,
Speaker 2: I was like, oh Jesus, I didn't I didn't crack
Speaker 2: the scene and were out of time, and I was
Speaker 2: not operating on a Wicked like budget where it was like, well,
Speaker 2: we're going to reshoot that next week and figure it out.
Speaker 2: So I handed it off to Myron and was like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, can you make something out of this?
Speaker 2: And Myron did. Myron found those moments, And I think
Speaker 2: that there's so much there's so much to be found
Speaker 2: in the unexpected and just letting the camera roll and
Speaker 2: letting people continue to talk and riff. And that example
Speaker 2: you're giving is is that they had such a nice
Speaker 2: banter and friendship those two actors on set that there
Speaker 2: were little magical moments in just watching them interact that
Speaker 2: we actually ended up using in a cut of that scene.
Speaker 5: I'm interested to know, Like for you, Zach too, is
Speaker 5: because you're you've been on both sides, Like when you
Speaker 5: started directing, did that change the way you saw acting,
Speaker 5: what your role was as an actor on set of
Speaker 5: being present and what you are trying to control, or
Speaker 5: did that make you more aware of like, oh shit,
Speaker 5: my performance could be changed very dramatically.
Speaker 2: That's a great question. Uh. What I felt was, you know,
Speaker 2: sometimes I just need a shot of you looking out
Speaker 2: the window, like like, you don't need to do all
Speaker 2: this thinking you're doing and overthinking and get tears in
Speaker 2: your eyes because your dad screamed at you, just like
Speaker 2: I just need a shot of you looking out the
Speaker 2: window and I and that really helped me as an
Speaker 2: actor because it is such a collaborative collage on the on.
Speaker 2: On the other side of things, there's times where I
Speaker 2: thought I really brought it, and I see a cut
Speaker 2: of my performance and I think, oh, you you you
Speaker 2: didn't make me. I remember the pilot of Scrubs, Bill
Speaker 2: was cutting the Lawrence was cutting out air from a
Speaker 2: dramatic moment to make the show so tight, And I
Speaker 2: was like I even had the audacity at that, at
Speaker 2: that young of an age to be like you, you
Speaker 2: made me look like not as good of an actor,
Speaker 2: because the right thing to do there is to take
Speaker 2: a pause and digest that information and not just speak
Speaker 2: right away. So there are moments where where you're like,
Speaker 2: why did you You know? It does make me as
Speaker 2: an actor when I'm sometimes feel like there's a better
Speaker 2: performance than the one you cut of me, and I
Speaker 2: can sometimes I'm in a position where I can say, hey,
Speaker 2: why didn't you use that take? Or hey, when you
Speaker 2: play that on my back, I think it's weird or
Speaker 2: a lot of times with comedy, because I do think
Speaker 2: that's the thing I have the most experience on. I
Speaker 2: promise you that joke will play better better if you
Speaker 2: cut to me for the reaction or cut to the
Speaker 2: other person. The joke doesn't land on the person saying,
Speaker 2: it's going to land on the reaction for the other person.
Speaker 2: That kind of thing just has become natural in my body.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean that also has so much of like
Speaker 5: what if myron doesn't know how to cut a joke,
Speaker 5: then the joke will not work. It doesn't matter how
Speaker 5: good the performance is. Or you set back and you
Speaker 5: let the actor play the joke out and then you know.
Speaker 8: So it's always like.
Speaker 2: It's funny when you go down and you test somebody
Speaker 2: test a comedy and you go, why isn't that joke working?
Speaker 2: It was so funny on set. And then it can
Speaker 2: literally be removing some frames or it can be literally
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, where you're trying to play the joke
Speaker 2: on the person who said the funny thing, whereas then
Speaker 2: you discover the audience laps way harder when you cut
Speaker 2: to the dead pan reaction of the person listening and
Speaker 2: you just didn't see it that way. By the way,
Speaker 2: were you able to test this movie or because it
Speaker 2: was so high profile? Was that helpful to you? The
Speaker 2: testing process?
Speaker 6: It was? It was, It was really helpful because you know, well,
Speaker 6: first of all, we do a series of smaller screenings,
Speaker 6: like almost like any other film, you know, where you're
Speaker 6: testing it on your friends and like groups of like
Speaker 6: five and ten and fifteen, and then you're you get
Speaker 6: more confident over time, and then you're testing on like
Speaker 6: two hundred really close friends. Yeah, close friends. But and
Speaker 6: then and then you go out to like we went
Speaker 6: out to Arizona and Vegas and San Diego and you
Speaker 6: know they had to you know, sign in DA's and
Speaker 6: all that stuff. But uh, you know, we wanted to
Speaker 6: make sure that the film was going to work for
Speaker 6: a general audience. And I think that was really brave
Speaker 6: of Mark Platt and Universal to allow us to do that.
Speaker 2: And yeah, it's so helpful, and you know, I know
Speaker 2: a lot of times are these huge movies, these huge ips.
Speaker 2: They don't want to do it just because they don't
Speaker 2: even want to risk anything anyone going online and saying
Speaker 2: I saw an early cut and all that stuff. But
Speaker 2: I think I think it would be so helpful for
Speaker 2: you guys to get the feedback, especially with a musical comedy.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think some directors don't like to share because they
Speaker 5: want their work and that's what it is. And and
Speaker 5: I just think for us, I think it's it's not
Speaker 5: necessarily what the audience says back because most of their.
Speaker 8: Solutions are not good.
Speaker 5: They don't know the architectures, they don't have solutions, but
Speaker 5: the consistency of the symptoms of something, whether they don't,
Speaker 5: oh they don't, they're not rooting for this character. So
Speaker 5: it's not necessarily in that scene that's the problem. It's yeah,
Speaker 5: well we need to like empathize with that character way earlier.
Speaker 5: So I think we need that data in order to
Speaker 5: find solutions.
Speaker 2: I think it's the most valuable thing is just sitting
Speaker 2: with the audience. I mean, you can feel when they're lost,
Speaker 2: you can feel when they're bored, you can feel the
Speaker 2: jokes that aren't playing, And that's more valuable than anything
Speaker 2: they write on the cards.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's part of my question. When do you know
Speaker 3: you did it? You know, when do you know? So
Speaker 3: you completed the.
Speaker 2: Movie Friday night of opening weekend? Probably right?
Speaker 3: Really is that when it happens? Okay, So here's an example.
Speaker 3: I remember when I saw I Remember the Titans for
Speaker 3: the first time. I got to show were you in that?
Speaker 2: Donald?
Speaker 1: I was. It's a little movie by the day.
Speaker 2: It is Denzel Washington in that.
Speaker 3: Denzel Washington is the star of it. I'm in it
Speaker 3: also with Denzil I have quite a few scenes with them.
Speaker 2: By the Yeah, I've heard about that.
Speaker 1: I hold my own, John, I hold my own Anyway.
Speaker 1: The point is.
Speaker 3: I remember holding a small group of people in a theater.
Speaker 3: Jerry Bruckheimer and then were nice enough to allow me
Speaker 3: to have my family come and see the movie. Some
Speaker 3: of my cousins and my parents were in a big
Speaker 3: musical theater. They were in a theater growing up for
Speaker 3: me growing up, So I watched my parents.
Speaker 1: Do musical theater. That's what I should say.
Speaker 3: So a lot of the repertory company came, or a
Speaker 3: lot of the company came, and we're watching it and
Speaker 3: they're so into it, and there was that moment where
Speaker 3: it was like, holy shit, I did it. I did
Speaker 3: exactly what I told my mom I was gonna do.
Speaker 3: I left the house and I fucking became an actor,
Speaker 3: and I'm in a movie that everybody's gonna fucking go see.
Speaker 1: I know it for a fact.
Speaker 3: I could feel it right now as just by the
Speaker 3: way everyone in the room is behaving. Some people look
Speaker 3: at when you you know, artists, when musical artists go
Speaker 3: into the studio and they're making a song and there's
Speaker 3: that moment where it's like, oh shit, we made a
Speaker 3: hit before it even hits the radio. They just know
Speaker 3: when at I'm asking all three of you, at what point, Myron, John,
Speaker 3: Zach are you Myron where you're like, Okay, this is
Speaker 3: all I can do. I think this is it. John,
Speaker 3: where you're like, holy fuck, we made it. Zach, where
Speaker 3: you're like there was a point where you saw a
Speaker 3: garden state and you were like, holy shit, everybody's gonna
Speaker 3: love this shit. There's gotta be a moment.
Speaker 2: Well, there's started. That's a great question, and I want
Speaker 2: John to go first, but I'll just say that there's
Speaker 2: two different moments. Really, there's holy shit I made something
Speaker 2: I'm proud of and be holy shit, the audience likes this.
Speaker 2: So John, what was that for you?
Speaker 8: Well?
Speaker 5: I remember it more clearly for crazy rich Asians because
Speaker 5: I did not have any big expectations for that.
Speaker 8: And I love that movie.
Speaker 5: I loved making that movie. When we were there, it
Speaker 5: felt like something special was happening. But I still held
Speaker 5: onto the idea that no one's ever seen this movie,
Speaker 5: but what we were doing was the right thing to do.
Speaker 8: I when we.
Speaker 5: Showed it to our first when we showed that movie
Speaker 5: to our first audience, and watching them fall in love
Speaker 5: with those characters who did not look traditionally like their
Speaker 5: romantic leads, and they were crying and doing and and
Speaker 5: following along.
Speaker 8: These things that felt so specifically to me and my family.
Speaker 5: And then they stayed in the lobby for like an
Speaker 5: hour afterwards just talking about it. To me, that meant
Speaker 5: everything we hadn't you know, we hadn't opened yet, but
Speaker 5: it felt like, Okay, we did our thing I think
Speaker 5: for and then in the Heights when we did in
Speaker 5: the Heights, I felt when we were making it, I
Speaker 5: literally said like this is the best I can do,
Speaker 5: Like I don't something is really working in this and
Speaker 5: I don't know what it is. And then movie came
Speaker 5: out and nobody went to see it, and so I
Speaker 5: have had and then the critics loved it, and then
Speaker 5: nobody went to go see it.
Speaker 8: So I had this like mental whiplash.
Speaker 5: And so for Wicked, I made myself very prepared that
Speaker 5: it didn't matter how I felt about after it, that
Speaker 5: I was only focusing on process. I was only focusing
Speaker 5: on getting it to as best as we could. And
Speaker 5: then I had to like shield everything out. It was
Speaker 5: too painful in the heights, to be honest, and so
Speaker 5: I've kept it actually pretty far from me and have
Speaker 5: a second half.
Speaker 8: So it's also like it's not done yet. So I'm
Speaker 8: thinking a little bit ahead.
Speaker 5: I think at the AFI luncheon, when they showed the
Speaker 5: clip from they showed the clips from all the Oscar
Speaker 5: nominated movies or whatever, and they showed the end of Wicked,
Speaker 5: and all those scenes were amazing that from all the
Speaker 5: other movies. I was like, Oh, no, they're going to
Speaker 5: show a musical scene from our movie and it's going
Speaker 5: to be like, oh, just a musical number whatever. But
Speaker 5: when they showed the end of Defying Gravity, that audience
Speaker 5: in that room connected so hard, and these are people
Speaker 5: who are jaded, and they clapped so loud and stood
Speaker 5: up what they hadn't done for anyone. And it just
Speaker 5: felt like, no matter what you give us or not
Speaker 5: give us or acknowledge, it makes you feel this. It
Speaker 5: makes you feel And remember the Titans. I remember being
Speaker 5: in that audience, with that audience when they scored a touchdown,
Speaker 5: everybody was standing in the theater.
Speaker 8: I'd never felt that.
Speaker 5: I was like, we have that with defin if we
Speaker 5: can do that, and I think I said that to you, Myron,
Speaker 5: remember the Titans. There's a moment. If we can get
Speaker 5: people to stand up in that theater, that's like our goal.
Speaker 5: We get this beautiful gift to define Gravis. So I
Speaker 5: haven't fully let it in, but I've I left pieces,
Speaker 5: left pieces in yet so far.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. Thank you.
Speaker 6: I mean, it's well, certainly you know this is gonna
Speaker 6: sound silly, but in both Garden State, crazy Rich Asians
Speaker 6: in the Heights and Wicked, it's the same feeling I
Speaker 6: have when I finished the assembly. If I'm crying and
Speaker 6: feeling emotional and I'm feeling the same way on the
Speaker 6: mixing stage and in the theater, like I know, it's
Speaker 6: working and consistently with all those movies. I felt that
Speaker 6: over and over again. You know, of course it's nice
Speaker 6: when they're applauding at AFI, I mean that was an
Speaker 6: incredible experience. Or even at the Oscars, you're.
Speaker 2: Like sitularly like, oh my god, they playing a clip.
Speaker 6: At the Oscars, you know, but it really is that
Speaker 6: very pure moment of like what it feels like when
Speaker 6: you see the first movie for the first time and
Speaker 6: you're like, oh my god, I'm just feeling deeply for
Speaker 6: these characters. This seems so special. I remember that first
Speaker 6: my first cup at Guarden State, are going to Sundance
Speaker 6: for the first time. It all felt like the same feeling.
Speaker 6: It just was like it just was on repeat. And
Speaker 6: so when that, you know, the first kind of Wicked
Speaker 6: was before John saw. It was on my birthday like
Speaker 6: two years ago, and I just my assistants were in
Speaker 6: the room with me and we're just like just crying,
Speaker 6: and it was like just you know, card saying, you know,
Speaker 6: shot of monkeys missing here. But still it was just
Speaker 6: like this really ultimately just beautiful emotional experience.
Speaker 2: Zachart Well for me, it was you know in Garden State,
Speaker 2: it was you know, Meyern and I cut that in
Speaker 2: my living room and so we were sitting there thinking,
Speaker 2: I think we made something really good, but we had
Speaker 2: no idea. And then I remember it got into Sundance
Speaker 2: and it played at the Eccles Theater and I introduced
Speaker 2: it and I went to the back of the theater
Speaker 2: and I just started sobbing. I just felt like, I
Speaker 2: can't believe this happened. I can't believe we're here. I
Speaker 2: can't believe my first movie premiering at Sundance, and then
Speaker 2: it had such a reaction. It was really one of
Speaker 2: the greatest moments of my life. And you know, with
Speaker 2: my last film, A Good Person, I was so happy
Speaker 2: with it and so proud of it, and then you know,
Speaker 2: it didn't really have the theatrical reaction I wanted, and
Speaker 2: that was a really disappointing and similar to what John
Speaker 2: is saying about in the Heights, I really was felt
Speaker 2: really sad that it didn't have the theatrical reaction. And
Speaker 2: then when it finally was free on Prime at Christmas,
Speaker 2: it was number one on Prime, and then all of
Speaker 2: these Christmas movies started coming in and I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: this is definitely gonna get kicked out of the top
Speaker 2: ten on Prime because of all these Christmas And it
Speaker 2: stayed in the top ten on Prime with just a
Speaker 2: Good Person and Christmas movies for like two weeks, and
Speaker 2: the well, the executive at Amazon called me. She's like,
Speaker 2: do you know how many people are watching this movie
Speaker 2: when you're in the top five on Amazon Prime across
Speaker 2: the So then I finally felt like some vindication for
Speaker 2: it not performing well theatrically. But it's it's it's I
Speaker 2: had two more questions because I know you guys got
Speaker 2: to go, but I just wanted to say, Myron, I
Speaker 2: read that you it was your idea or John it
Speaker 2: was a collaboration. But what was the decision process behind
Speaker 2: not just going hard cut to black after the big note,
Speaker 2: but having that boom boom boom boom, which I loved. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I thought that was rad And I know there's a.
Speaker 3: Little story how she takes off don't don't don't don't dun.
Speaker 2: I thought that was brilliant. What was the process of that?
Speaker 6: Well? I uh so, okay, so of course you get
Speaker 6: ended on the war cry. I sometimes I.
Speaker 1: Don't know it. I love that you called it a
Speaker 1: war cry.
Speaker 2: Well that's what we got.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you. That's what you're saying.
Speaker 2: Oh god, Donalds are not the note Sorry everybody not everybody? Yeah, well,
Speaker 2: at least listener. I think they already shot those part
Speaker 2: two donald.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so that you know that. Of course, that's where
Speaker 6: you're supposed to end. I think when I was sometimes
Speaker 6: I so John oftentimes would say, you know, do you
Speaker 6: want to know my plan with a film, like how
Speaker 6: to cut a scene together? And I say, no, I
Speaker 6: don't want to know your plan because I want to
Speaker 6: play with the footage and just see, you know what
Speaker 6: do I come up with just that way? If I
Speaker 6: make mistakes or I just discover something from the course
Speaker 6: of editing, then that's great. And one of those things
Speaker 6: was how to end the movie. And I had basically
Speaker 6: had a lot of you know, previews of like you know,
Speaker 6: Alfa but flying and and I was like, I want
Speaker 6: to use some of this footage. And so I during
Speaker 6: my first assembly, I actually went to my music editors
Speaker 6: and said, can we extend the music after the war Cry?
Speaker 6: And the music editors, of course, we are looking at
Speaker 6: me like I don't know if we should do that,
Speaker 6: and we're like no, no, no, just it's just me and you.
Speaker 6: We're just we're just messing around a little bit. And
Speaker 6: it was like, yeah, okay, well are amazing editor music
Speaker 6: editors Jack Dolman and Katherine Wilson, they said, okay, we'll
Speaker 6: try to extend that, and then, of course, you know,
Speaker 6: kind of worked. And then I said, I literally said
Speaker 6: to Jack's like, can we try the two thousand and
Speaker 6: one you know tippany hits to like help? And then
Speaker 6: I said to him, can we can we repeat the
Speaker 6: word down And it's just like no, no, no, we can't
Speaker 6: do any of this, Steven Schwartz, John, Everyone's gonna kill us.
Speaker 6: And I was like, just just try it, and so
Speaker 6: we did it. We workshopped the idea at my assembly stage,
Speaker 6: and then I presented it to John. Little did I know, like,
Speaker 6: you know, eight months later, I'm watching the end of
Speaker 6: Tea at like vidiots, uh, and I'm watching and literally
Speaker 6: John Williams is doing these same Tippany hits like and
Speaker 6: so I think that something just in my my d
Speaker 6: NNA had told me to extend this moment, make it
Speaker 6: feel like this back to the Future Empire strikes Back,
Speaker 6: Cliffhanger ending, and then I presented John and you know,
Speaker 6: there's a lot of debate after you do these things,
Speaker 6: you know whether it's the right idea, but you know,
Speaker 6: it ended up sticking.
Speaker 2: I loved it.
Speaker 5: He also was not in the room when I when
Speaker 5: I showed the movie to Steven Spielberg and I'm sitting
Speaker 5: there after in the dark with him and he turns
Speaker 5: to me and he says, I heard those e t TV.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say. Steven Spielberg was like, took that from me?
Speaker 8: I was like, mine, where's mine?
Speaker 2: I've never heard you? Did he actually say that?
Speaker 6: Are you making that out?
Speaker 1: That's the first time.
Speaker 2: That's so wait but wait, John, did you re record
Speaker 2: the orchestra? Are those literally the timpany from No.
Speaker 8: They're not there.
Speaker 1: We were.
Speaker 7: They were our own orchestra for Suresh Bilboard watching all
Speaker 7: the week and goes, oh, you took that from you?
Speaker 2: So that ship. Oh god, But that's the highest compliment.
Speaker 2: That's the highest compliment when they when they actually know
Speaker 2: what you're doing. It's like, it's all right, last question.
Speaker 1: That was a great moment.
Speaker 3: That is one of my look there are so many
Speaker 3: moments in this movie that are my favorite moments. I
Speaker 3: was really worried about Popular. I didn't know how you
Speaker 3: were going to be able to do that define gravity.
Speaker 3: I you know, you have an imagination that succeeded that
Speaker 3: my imagination, but Popular. I was so worried about, how
Speaker 3: are they going to make this part funny?
Speaker 1: How are they going hard?
Speaker 5: Good?
Speaker 3: That's funny, But that's the that's the piece in the
Speaker 3: play where if you missed that one, guess.
Speaker 5: What, well, and you're in it and you're stuck in
Speaker 5: a dorm room and now you're really late in this movie.
Speaker 5: If you actually look at the architecture, do you really
Speaker 5: need Popular?
Speaker 2: The song?
Speaker 8: I'm not sure it moves anything for it. So we
Speaker 8: had to give reasons for it to be.
Speaker 5: She had to be fucking on it on every thing
Speaker 5: and not again copying anything of Kristin, and the dorm
Speaker 5: had to have space and room for them to do it.
Speaker 1: Was a lot.
Speaker 2: When I was watching it, I was in the theater going,
Speaker 2: she's fucking hilarious, She's amazing.
Speaker 3: I was watching this going, holy shit, Ariana Grande's doing
Speaker 3: exactly Look okay, so look, my kids love Victorious which
Speaker 3: is a television show that she was on back in
Speaker 3: the day.
Speaker 1: And if you watch that show now, it's great.
Speaker 3: It's a bunch of great performances from young actors and
Speaker 3: actresses and stuff like that. But the person that really
Speaker 3: stands out is Ariana, you know what I mean. She's
Speaker 3: the comic relief in it. She's the voice in it.
Speaker 3: So she's an actual person who's carrying it with her
Speaker 3: singing and everything. Everybody else is kind of dancing and
Speaker 3: singing too, but she's the star and you don't really
Speaker 3: notice it until you go back.
Speaker 1: And watch it.
Speaker 3: When I saw that she got this part, I was like,
Speaker 3: she's getting nominated for an Oscar. I was saying that before.
Speaker 3: I was saying that from the gate. Once the trailer
Speaker 3: came out, I was like, she's getting nominated. It's a rap.
Speaker 1: When that part came up and I was like, all right, now,
Speaker 1: here's the thing.
Speaker 3: Do you Ariana Grande's situation and you sing it with
Speaker 3: all of his soul and stuff, or do you stick
Speaker 3: to what the way it was? And the fact that
Speaker 3: she was able to find that middle and hit you
Speaker 3: still with the little riff here and there, you can't
Speaker 3: beat it, like I saw somebody say, I don't know
Speaker 3: where I'm going with this. I saw somebody on the
Speaker 3: internet say, look, ladies and gentlemen of the Wicked community,
Speaker 3: those of you who are going to go on and
Speaker 3: do Wicked on Broadway or off Broadway, please stick to
Speaker 3: the way it is originally written. You don't have what
Speaker 3: it takes to do what Arianna and Sydneya did, like
Speaker 3: sickly like.
Speaker 1: It's just it was so refreshing because we could have
Speaker 1: and I'm and I'm, and I'm and I'm and I'm
Speaker 1: you know, I'm. I just love the movie so much.
Speaker 1: But you can't.
Speaker 3: You can't do the same movie as the play and
Speaker 3: expect everybody to be like, absolutely, you know that you
Speaker 3: did it.
Speaker 1: It has to be something different. It has to be innovative.
Speaker 1: There has to, you know.
Speaker 3: George Lucas is the king of saying this. If you're
Speaker 3: doing the same thing over and over again, you're not
Speaker 3: really making good movies. You're just making a movie. You
Speaker 3: gotta make it different in some way, and you found ways,
Speaker 3: thank you.
Speaker 5: And and and. The theater experience is completely different than
Speaker 5: the cinematic experience in terms of the perspective of the
Speaker 5: audience like we had to uncover very early. Uh that
Speaker 5: when the audience sits in a theater, you're in with
Speaker 5: the world that's in front of you.
Speaker 8: You're expecting a musical.
Speaker 5: She comes into the bubble, she's like, Glinda is the
Speaker 5: host for the night, and then this and and then
Speaker 5: the odd girl drops in, the green girl, and then
Speaker 5: you laugh at the green girl, and then and then
Speaker 5: she has to win you over throughout through throughout, but
Speaker 5: you still.
Speaker 8: Have Glinda as the host. In the movie. The audience
Speaker 8: is skeptical from the beginning, like, show me why I
Speaker 8: need to believe in a musical world. I don't even
Speaker 8: like musicals. And so you have this wall already.
Speaker 5: And then the green girl drops in and everyone's singing
Speaker 5: around her, and she's looking around and she's the audience
Speaker 5: being like, what the fuck have I just dropped into?
Speaker 5: And why are all these people singing? And so her
Speaker 5: first words, uh in wizard and I did that really
Speaker 5: just happen? And she starts to sing. You're like, oh
Speaker 5: my gosh, she has a better singing like power than
Speaker 5: anybody in this movie.
Speaker 8: And you're like, then you root for her, And it's through.
Speaker 5: The medium of the actual way you're telling this story,
Speaker 5: and I think all those things. And then the brilliance
Speaker 5: of Ariana Grande is that, you know, you laugh at
Speaker 5: her in this movie because.
Speaker 8: She's silly and crazy whatever. She's fully committed.
Speaker 5: But by the time you get to the os Dust
Speaker 5: and she she sacrifices her own sort of what she
Speaker 5: thinks is important to be there just with her friend
Speaker 5: or this new friend. Then by the time you get
Speaker 5: to Popular, you're not laughing at her anymore. You're laughing
Speaker 5: with her. And that transition because right before she says,
Speaker 5: it's not your fault, and you can see and in
Speaker 5: Cynthia's and this Myron's brilliance is that you see in
Speaker 5: Cynthia's eyes her like falling for this girl, like wow,
Speaker 5: she sees the world so simply and it has value.
Speaker 5: And then Glinda says, oh, look, it's tomorrow, like hope
Speaker 5: in a bottle. And then she gets to sing popular,
Speaker 5: and now you're in love with them. You're in love
Speaker 5: with her, and now popular comes across as like just
Speaker 5: fun and it's driving your their relationship closer. So we
Speaker 5: had to recognize the different medium in order to uncover
Speaker 5: the things we need to do in in this media,
Speaker 5: in this, in this movie, to make it work.
Speaker 2: Actually, when you were such the perfect person for the job.
Speaker 8: I'm so thank you.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad that you I'm so glad you both
Speaker 2: got the assignment. I can't wait to watch the next part.
Speaker 2: I love for good. That song is just one of
Speaker 2: the most beautiful songs ever written.
Speaker 3: I'm excited. Essay these motherfuck is it going to be
Speaker 3: fighting each other and everything?
Speaker 1: John?
Speaker 2: Did you ever did you ever see the video of
Speaker 2: Kristin Chenowith at the Hollywood Bowl calling up a school
Speaker 2: teacher to sing for good with her?
Speaker 5: No, I've seen some of those kind of videos, but
Speaker 5: I haven't seen that one in particular.
Speaker 2: Well, I think I think it's safe to assume it
Speaker 2: was a plant and she knew because just go the audience,
Speaker 2: go watch this, and John, please admire and watch it.
Speaker 2: It's it's Cynthia Revea at the Hollywood Bowl and she says,
Speaker 2: I need someone to sing for good with me, and
Speaker 2: she calls up a woman from the audience, and the
Speaker 2: woman says, she says, what do you do? She says,
Speaker 2: I actually teach singing. I'm a school teacher. And everyone
Speaker 2: applauds and The woman proceeds to give the most breathtaking
Speaker 2: rendition of the song with Kristen Cynthia Rebo with Kristin Chenniwan.
Speaker 2: Yeah did I say Cynthia. I meant Kristin. Anyway, it's
Speaker 2: just a little thing I wanted to share with you because.
Speaker 5: I will say about the Hollywood bull Is, you did
Speaker 5: a video there for Joshua Raiden and I love that video.
Speaker 2: Oh, John, thank you.
Speaker 8: And there's a simplicity with the light that you did
Speaker 8: with it. I was just so beautiful.
Speaker 5: And I you know in our end credits when we
Speaker 5: talk about the lights, that was part of the inspiration.
Speaker 5: I was like, oh yeah, that like that video, like
Speaker 5: that Zach did. And so anyway that that video stays
Speaker 5: very is in my brain a lot, and you.
Speaker 3: Don't have a lot of them, John, But if you
Speaker 3: want to come to the Garden State concert, I'm sure
Speaker 3: my boy can hook it on.
Speaker 6: Myron.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's I don't know if you're I don't know
Speaker 2: if you're in La on March twenty ninth, John Chew,
Speaker 2: But Myron's going to be there, and uh, I know
Speaker 2: a fellow that can get you in.
Speaker 1: Let's see.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'll make my I'll make my stage.
Speaker 2: And so I know you like both Garden State and
Speaker 2: things shot and things shot, an outdoor amphitheaters. Last question, Donald,
Speaker 2: and I heard you're doing Joseph, and I know that
Speaker 2: fifty year old men might be too, but listen, Jesus
Speaker 2: no is not in Joseph. She's fucking ruining my pitch already.
Speaker 2: She's a superstar. My bad, My bad, All right now,
Speaker 2: now we're down to forty five seconds. Okay, do you
Speaker 2: want Donald to night audition? Even though we're fifty and
Speaker 2: most of the characters probably aren't fifty, we we would
Speaker 2: love to. I had to pitch that Donald and I
Speaker 2: were going to do Joseph on Broadway and we were
Speaker 2: going to alternate all of the principal roles, and.
Speaker 1: That is not going to work. He's nodding like he's
Speaker 1: nodding like, oh, did you really interesting?
Speaker 2: Anyway?
Speaker 5: I love I love Joseph so much, and I want
Speaker 5: to do I I wanted I want to do something
Speaker 5: that is just ridiculous and crazy and and it's south
Speaker 5: and for some reason, I don't know, Joseph has always
Speaker 5: been that for me, but also about a dreamer or
Speaker 5: someone who's dreaming of something for them.
Speaker 2: I also feel like the show is so much better
Speaker 2: than the treatment it gets. It's always been treated like
Speaker 2: it's always been treated like a Vegas act, and and
Speaker 2: I think that the show is so much better and
Speaker 2: smarter than that. So I'm glad it's in your hands.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say this, and then we're gonna let you go.
Speaker 2: He's gotta go.
Speaker 3: I say this is Zach all the time. You guys
Speaker 3: both should be directing Star Wars and or Marble. I'm
Speaker 3: just gonna put it out there.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna put it out there.
Speaker 2: What if I told you that they're onto things that
Speaker 2: are more important to us than that. All right, guys,
Speaker 2: thank you for your time. We know you're so busy.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 8: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Guys.
Speaker 2: Well, we were almost in Joseph and you had to
Speaker 2: ruin it.
Speaker 1: I didn't ruin anything.
Speaker 2: You had to make a Jesus joke, and then you
Speaker 2: allowed him to pivot off of us.
Speaker 1: Look, my point is this this back.
Speaker 3: We have to be persistent like the ice If we
Speaker 3: want to be a part of his world, you have
Speaker 3: to be persistent like the fucking ice cream truck and
Speaker 3: consistently be outside his window.
Speaker 2: I want y'all to know that it's fucking March eighteenth
Speaker 2: in New York and the fucking ice cream truck is back. Anyway,
Speaker 2: that was amazing. Huh. That was one of my favorite
Speaker 2: episodes we've ever done. But two people at the top
Speaker 2: of their game.
Speaker 3: I was about to say this, this will go down
Speaker 3: in history ten years from now. Hopefully this age is
Speaker 3: like fine wine and you and I both keep our
Speaker 3: nose clean. But we just had, in my opinion, the
Speaker 3: next big blockbuster director on this podcast, and I think
Speaker 3: in ten years he will do. I look at him
Speaker 3: like Spielberg, and I look at him like, uh, like
Speaker 3: Lucas in a lot of ways, because he's very innovative
Speaker 3: and he's doing something different with musical and fantasy. I
Speaker 3: imagine Joseph in the Technicolored dream Coat is gonna be
Speaker 3: freaking outrageous.
Speaker 2: Bro, He's so smart. I love what he was saying
Speaker 2: when he was talking about how like OZ, everything in
Speaker 2: OZ is meant to be a distraction and it's perfect,
Speaker 2: and then the Z is alphabe it cuts through the
Speaker 2: perfection of OZ.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh shit, it's refreshing to see someone.
Speaker 3: I mean, you're very much like this too. The way
Speaker 3: you talk about directing and everything like that and telling stories,
Speaker 3: you could tell he's a fan of the stories that
Speaker 3: he's telling.
Speaker 2: Let's go back to the fact that my Josh Raiden
Speaker 2: video at the Hollywood Ball inspired him.
Speaker 3: Not only that, dude Wicked being so good, I would
Speaker 3: remember the Titans, bro always remember that.
Speaker 1: He remember the Titans. If we could have that feeling
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 2: I don't know, did no, no, no? He basically my
Speaker 2: Josh Raiden music video is the reason Wicked was so good.
Speaker 3: I'm going to go and say the reason to remember
Speaker 3: the Titans. Remember the Titans is the reason why Wicked
Speaker 3: was so good because he wanted to get that feeling
Speaker 3: that you got when they scored a touchdown and remember
Speaker 3: the Titans, how the audience stood up in a movie theater.
Speaker 1: He wanted that for Wicket.
Speaker 2: You know what I think about what you just said?
Speaker 1: What eat these bowls?
Speaker 2: All right? What a show? Joelle? Thank you for coordinating
Speaker 2: all that. I know it was a tricky to get
Speaker 2: it all scheduled.
Speaker 3: That was most impressive. And the fact that he stayed
Speaker 3: on for as long as he stayed on too. He
Speaker 3: stayed on for over an hour.
Speaker 2: So thank you to Marin Christine and John Chew and audience.
Speaker 2: If you're listening and you're gonna be in La March
Speaker 2: twenty ninth, come check out my benefit for the midnight
Speaker 2: mission the Garden State twentieth Anniversary Concert. And if you
Speaker 2: can't make it, buy a ticket about to stream it
Speaker 2: on starting April sixth, You can buy the tickets right
Speaker 2: now at veeps dot com. Every single cent of your
Speaker 2: streaming ticket purchase goes to the charity. And also you
Speaker 2: can buy merch there. The merchant is even available. This
Speaker 2: is a little podcast insider scoop. The Merchant isn't even
Speaker 2: available to buy yet. If you go to the veep site,
Speaker 2: they've they've they've got it up there, so you can
Speaker 2: buy it already, all right inside scool, I love you guys.
Speaker 1: What a great show. Eight stories.
Speaker 7: That show we made about a bunch of talks and
Speaker 7: nurses and janitor. I said, here's the stories net you
Speaker 7: all should know. So Ganda round here up, Yander, round
Speaker 7: here up.
Speaker 1: Seat show wis