Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to this episode of being the in TJ.
Speaker 1: We have a legend in the studio. Well have you
Speaker 1: heard of a little movie called Bridesmaids? Or how about
Speaker 1: the Heat? There's Ghostbusters from twenty sixteen, a simple favor
Speaker 1: and this soon to be new mega hit another simple favor.
Speaker 1: And I'm just talking about the big screen small screen.
Speaker 1: I mean Freaks and Geeks, Arrested, Development, Nurse Jackie, Madmen,
Speaker 1: the Office, Parks and Recreation, thirty Rock. I mean, it
Speaker 1: just goes on and on and on.
Speaker 2: I'm exhausted hearing about my career.
Speaker 1: But TJ. Obviously we're talking about producer, director, and the
Speaker 1: amazing man behind all of this, the comedic genius Paul
Speaker 1: fig But he's more than that to us, is he not?
Speaker 3: He is, And we haven't talked about this with him yet.
Speaker 3: He's in the studio right here. We're going to talk
Speaker 3: to him. But Paul, you you were one of the
Speaker 3: very last interviews we did before leaving ABC. Yes, you
Speaker 3: were one of the very last ones. And we walked
Speaker 3: out of that interview. I said, yes, we're familiar with
Speaker 3: you movies that that is my favorite director. Because we
Speaker 3: met you, we were so excited Rose that day, like
Speaker 3: he is the coolest freakin' dude, and we had the
Speaker 3: greatest time with you, and that is one of our
Speaker 3: final memories of ABC.
Speaker 2: I'm not kidding.
Speaker 4: I remember it very fondly, very fondly. We were making martiniz.
Speaker 1: Right, yes exactly, we were making mocktails, remember that, because
Speaker 1: it's Disney and we weren't allowed to actually use alcohol.
Speaker 1: But I do believe you left behind a gift for TJ.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, a.
Speaker 3: Bottle of your gins, which I will I'll do. I'll
Speaker 3: tell it at the end, But you when we left ABC, Paul.
Speaker 3: This sounds crazy, but one of the first disappointments and
Speaker 3: things that came to my mind had to do with
Speaker 3: a memory of you.
Speaker 2: And I'll explain at the end. I cyppointing people.
Speaker 3: But yeah, but welcome everybody, who's the Paul Veiga two.
Speaker 2: I'm with you.
Speaker 1: Oh, we are so excited, and today is a big
Speaker 1: day because last night we're recording this the day after
Speaker 1: your big movie premiere here in New York with the
Speaker 1: red carpet. What did how? How did it go? How
Speaker 1: did you feel?
Speaker 2: It was fantastic? It was so much fun.
Speaker 4: We did it an Jazz at Lincoln Center, which is
Speaker 4: an amazing theater to show movies in. Dear Hollywood. Do
Speaker 4: all your premieres in New York at that jazz Jazz.
Speaker 4: It's it's fantastic because we always used to do premieres
Speaker 4: at the Zigfeld and then that closed. And the Zigfeld
Speaker 4: was nice because it was big, but it was always
Speaker 4: kind of a barn and it was really long and narrow,
Speaker 4: and the kind of sound wasn't great and stuff. So
Speaker 4: this it was just spectacular, you know, eleven hundred people
Speaker 4: and the place was rocking.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: The movie's very fun. It gets a lot of response
Speaker 4: from an audience. Yeah, laughs and screams and gasps and
Speaker 4: all that kind of thing, and it was we just
Speaker 4: had the best time. How's the New your premiere compared
Speaker 4: to a LA premiere? I like a New York premiere
Speaker 4: a little bit better, just because people are very responsive.
Speaker 2: You know, LA is such a dustry town.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, they hoot and holler and share, you.
Speaker 4: Know, so they're like, okay, well, you know, because there's
Speaker 4: a my people in the business who are too cool
Speaker 4: to laugh. But we still get good audiences in LA.
Speaker 1: But New York, you know God, yeah, I mean in
Speaker 1: the movie is just like you said, it's a fun
Speaker 1: wild ride and it's just beautiful to look at all.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 1: I mean, Capri, does it get? Does it get more
Speaker 1: beautiful than that?
Speaker 4: Wherever you point a camera in Capri, you got a
Speaker 4: beautiful shot. So yeah, it was I'm I'm you know,
Speaker 4: I really wanted to make this eye candy make it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: The keyword for these simple favorite movies is they have
Speaker 4: to be delicious, and I think this one's extra delicious.
Speaker 2: We have to be honest.
Speaker 3: We missed about a third of the movie because we
Speaker 3: were planning our next vacation because we were so inspired
Speaker 3: by what we were seeing.
Speaker 4: You were, well, that's my favorite place of vacation, and
Speaker 4: I just can really, I completely screwed myself because now
Speaker 4: whoever's going to book and I'm gonna be get it's
Speaker 4: so true.
Speaker 1: You're gonna white Lotus Caprio. Everyone's gonna watch the movie
Speaker 1: and then book their plane tickets and no one's going
Speaker 1: to get into.
Speaker 2: Gabrie this year.
Speaker 1: That's hilarious. So I was looking today because it's been
Speaker 1: wildly just people love this movie for the exact reason
Speaker 1: you said. It's fun it's amazing, the cast incredible. You've
Speaker 1: got Blake and Anna. And then I was looking at
Speaker 1: some of these stupid headlines and I know you've been
Speaker 1: dealing with a lot with them, but there's this like
Speaker 1: fake beef that and I cannot stand this when people
Speaker 1: pit and I say people, but certain and I don't
Speaker 1: even want to call them journalists, certain outlets try to
Speaker 1: pit women against each other. And they were even doing
Speaker 1: like body language experts as to how Anna and Blake
Speaker 1: were on the red carpet last.
Speaker 4: Night, flat out misogyny heads. I mean, I'm telling you,
Speaker 4: it drives me crazy. And I spend all the I
Speaker 4: spend half my time putting these rumors out. We were just
Speaker 4: in Austin in the you know, the south By Southwest
Speaker 4: Film Festival. I'm in the back with with Anna and
Speaker 4: Blake and then the rest of the cast, and we're
Speaker 4: doing these videos together and they're having the best time
Speaker 4: and they're talking and laughing and all this stuff. And
Speaker 4: then like people are putting on the internet, Oh, you know,
Speaker 4: Blake's very mad at all this all, Like you guys,
Speaker 4: it doesn't it's not true, but they just I don't know,
Speaker 4: they somehow they love the pit women against each other.
Speaker 1: And then I was just putting myself in their place
Speaker 1: because they were saying that Anna Side hugged Blake, and
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking that gets in your head. You think
Speaker 1: everything I do, every move I make. Anytime you've been
Speaker 1: followed by paparazzi, you know every facial expression you make
Speaker 1: is going to be misinterpreted to fit the narrative that
Speaker 1: they wanted to I was angry for it.
Speaker 3: We've been fighting before, and I say, look, we got
Speaker 3: a whole hands yeah, crushing each other.
Speaker 1: Smile, don't look like you're not at me, because there'll
Speaker 1: be a whole story about it.
Speaker 4: But you know what, there's so much useless outrage these days.
Speaker 4: There's plenty of stuff to be outraged about, my god,
Speaker 4: right now, there's but the outrage over pop culture and
Speaker 4: that kind of stuff is like, you, guys, you gotta
Speaker 4: get channel that energy into some meaningful Please stop with
Speaker 4: it all.
Speaker 3: But you said just a second ago, how you put it,
Speaker 3: But you feel like you're trying to put out fires.
Speaker 3: You still, as much as that stuff is out there,
Speaker 3: you still feel like it's necessary to find a way.
Speaker 3: From a business standpoint and maybe from a personal standpoint
Speaker 3: to still try.
Speaker 2: To combat some of those headlines. You know what I mean.
Speaker 4: I mean, business wise, it's not bad and any controversy
Speaker 4: is good. I'm always like, no press is bad press.
Speaker 4: But I just I know these people, and I like
Speaker 4: these people so much that I work with that I
Speaker 4: want to defend them when somebody just telling blatant lies.
Speaker 2: It makes me crazy.
Speaker 4: Because you know, and it's why, you know, I have
Speaker 4: so many rules that I break all the time. But
Speaker 4: you know, I really screwed up on social media when
Speaker 4: Ghostbusters came out because I started fighting publicly with trolls
Speaker 4: and it's losing them every time, every time, and I
Speaker 4: was like, okay, so I never again. Just don't respond those.
Speaker 4: But sometimes some of you will just say something is
Speaker 4: so infuriating and they've got enough of a reach where
Speaker 4: you're like, I just I gotta stamp this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you went on Twitter when obviously we know
Speaker 1: all of the the Blake and Ryan have been going
Speaker 1: through it with all of the Justin Valdini thing. You
Speaker 1: actually did though, You broke your rule and you went
Speaker 1: onto Twitter to defend her.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love Blake.
Speaker 4: I love Blake, and you know, I just I don't
Speaker 4: like to see people who I really like, who I
Speaker 4: know are good people to get, you know, get bad
Speaker 4: mouth are just to be taken down for false reasons.
Speaker 3: What you just said, I haven't heard anybody say it
Speaker 3: in a while. There's no press is bad prece but
Speaker 3: that still kind of sticks in a situation like this.
Speaker 3: There's a curiosity people are talking about it.
Speaker 2: They're going to possibly about awareness. You want to be
Speaker 2: aware of your project, whatever it is.
Speaker 4: And if they're talking about they're talking about it, if
Speaker 4: they're gonna hate watch it? Sure, Hey, you know, click's
Speaker 4: the same as a click or taking the box office
Speaker 4: is the same whether you liked it or hate or.
Speaker 1: So another simple favor. It drops on Amazon Prime Video
Speaker 1: on May first. So what is when you when you
Speaker 1: measure success with versus the theaters? How do you how
Speaker 1: do you measure success as a director of Prouser when
Speaker 1: you're when your projects live in streaming?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean they the metrics change a lot. It
Speaker 4: used to be completion rates, you know, like who watches
Speaker 4: at the end. Then it was like minutes watch. Then
Speaker 4: it's kind of like how far into it they go?
Speaker 4: So they keep kind of moving the bar for me,
Speaker 4: It's just like whether we're getting talked about, whether I'm
Speaker 4: getting good feedback people like it, and then whatever number
Speaker 4: metric they have, if it's high for however they're judging it,
Speaker 4: I'm happy.
Speaker 2: So but it's a little hard, you know. I'm so
Speaker 2: I'm such an.
Speaker 4: Old school, you know, theatrical guy that I used to
Speaker 4: box office an opening weekend. So you know, my last
Speaker 4: it's I think my fourth movie now that's been a streamer,
Speaker 4: and uh, you know, it's different. I love being in theaters.
Speaker 4: You know, thank you Amazon for for letting us make
Speaker 4: this movie. But you know, I'm excited that my next
Speaker 4: movie is going to be in theaters on Christmas.
Speaker 2: So you said four movies of yours have gone, You've
Speaker 2: done the streaming thing. Does it?
Speaker 3: How do the Does the process feel any different if
Speaker 3: you're shooting a movie that's going to Yeah, you're.
Speaker 2: Already shaking hand. Yeah, the same. What about promotion and
Speaker 2: how you go about getting word out?
Speaker 4: I mean, the slippery thing is that, like almost all
Speaker 4: theatrical movies kind of go into the culture and become
Speaker 4: a thing unless they're really really small, but they get
Speaker 4: talked about. People want to talk about movies for some
Speaker 4: reason streamers. I think there's so many movies that come
Speaker 4: out on streaming and some of the TV shows, and
Speaker 4: there's certain movies that they call kind of programmers, which
Speaker 4: are just kind of like filler. You know, those generally
Speaker 4: become the giant hits, you know, that the unexpected thing,
Speaker 4: like some weird little Western romance or something suddenly goes
Speaker 4: through the roof and takes out the movie that costs
Speaker 4: two hundred million dollars. But yeah, it's I find it
Speaker 4: slightly harder to get people excited about streaming movies. This
Speaker 4: one's different because it's you know, it's got the pedigree
Speaker 4: of being a sequel that people really liked. But in generally, yeah,
Speaker 4: you kind of got to fight a little harder to
Speaker 4: get people to watch.
Speaker 1: A simple favor. I mean, I love that the original
Speaker 1: of the first movie in that it really became him
Speaker 1: a cult classic and it took was it. I mean
Speaker 1: I watched it streaming, I didn't watch it in the theater. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so you see how these movies get life. And
Speaker 1: at what point were you then thinking I can do
Speaker 1: a sequel for this movie.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because you're right, I mean, it did really well
Speaker 4: in the theaters. We made like one hundred million dollars
Speaker 4: worldwide off of a twenty million dollar budget, so that
Speaker 4: was considered success, but still that only has limited reach. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it was really during the pandemic. I think when it
Speaker 4: really started.
Speaker 1: That's when I saw it. That is when I saw it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then it's just and then when it hit
Speaker 4: net because that was I think it was on Amazon
Speaker 4: I think, and then when I went to Netflix it
Speaker 4: they had this whole resurgence. We were number one all
Speaker 4: over the world, and it was that was when we
Speaker 4: were kind of like, well, maybe we should. There was
Speaker 4: interest in doing it. It's always been a I love
Speaker 4: these characters, and it's always when I was like, maybe
Speaker 4: there is a sequel in those I think yeah, And
Speaker 4: so that just kind of was like, let's do it.
Speaker 4: And Amazon stepped up. We had a little bit of
Speaker 4: a bidding war with other places, but they did it.
Speaker 1: That's what you mentioned because I was telling TJ. Obviously
Speaker 1: we love you for your brilliant mind and also just
Speaker 1: your amazing personality, but I love as a woman how
Speaker 1: much you have put strong female leads in big movies
Speaker 1: box office successes. Just reiterating the fact that women can
Speaker 1: sell tickets and women will go out to watch other women?
Speaker 1: What have you all? Like, Melissa McCarthy like, obviously you
Speaker 1: just think about all your movies. What is it about
Speaker 1: that you weren't afraid to do that? I think you
Speaker 1: know it's it wasn't about romance and this is about
Speaker 1: the girl getting the guy. They're interesting, creative, unique stories
Speaker 1: about powerful, interesting, diverse women. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean, I just I love I love women. I
Speaker 4: all my friends have been women. You know, since I
Speaker 4: was a kid, and I was an only child, I
Speaker 4: was really close with my mom, and I've always hated
Speaker 4: the way that women are portrayed in movies in the
Speaker 4: last number of decades versus the movies of the thirties
Speaker 4: and forties, when all the women were kind of equals
Speaker 4: with the men, and they were strong characters and stuff
Speaker 4: and three dimensional. And then suddenly, you know, especially in
Speaker 4: the comedy world, it became very male dominated and all
Speaker 4: the women were just kind of props and you know,
Speaker 4: just foils and stuff like this. And I knew so
Speaker 4: many talented women in the business who were playing these
Speaker 4: terrible roles on screen and not getting to showcase what
Speaker 4: they do. And I was just like I want to
Speaker 4: correct that. And also I just I'm just I'm just
Speaker 4: more interested in stories about women. I don't know it
Speaker 4: just for some reason. I grew up watching all these
Speaker 4: male dominated stories, and it's fine, and I enjoy those,
Speaker 4: but I don't have a lot to say about those
Speaker 4: about the male condition.
Speaker 3: You said, naturally, you gravitate me, you talk about your
Speaker 3: friends and the people you're around. But did you also
Speaker 3: identify an opportunity and avoid.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, it wasn't It wasn't that calculated, you know.
Speaker 4: I was just I kind of just relate to these
Speaker 4: female characters more. And after I did Freaks and Geeks.
Speaker 4: You know, my favorite character right for it was Lindsay,
Speaker 4: you know, the part that Linda Carter Leading played, And
Speaker 4: so coming out of that, I was like, I want
Speaker 4: to tell more female centric stories and started pitching them.
Speaker 4: But then that would always be told by whatever studio person.
Speaker 4: Oh no, you can't, because internationally women don't sell blah
Speaker 4: blah blah, and you kind of you. I was green
Speaker 4: enough then to go like, oh, oh, I didn't realize
Speaker 4: it was a rule. Sorry, sorry, And then after a
Speaker 4: number of years you started going like, well, why is
Speaker 4: that a rule? That's crazy. Like women are more than
Speaker 4: half the population of the planet. Clearly they want to
Speaker 4: see stuff, you know, that they can relate to. And
Speaker 4: then fortunately, you know, Bridesmaids came along, you know, and
Speaker 4: then jud had it had just worked with Kristin and
Speaker 4: I'd worked with Kristin on a movie, a Christmas movie
Speaker 4: that I'd made, and you know, he was like, hey,
Speaker 4: I know you like to do female centric stuff. You
Speaker 4: want to, you know, work on this. And it took
Speaker 4: a few years, kind of fell apart for three years,
Speaker 4: and then it came back out of out of nowhere
Speaker 4: and thank God.
Speaker 2: For the movie.
Speaker 3: Is that pushback you talk about steel there or is
Speaker 3: it has there been enough success with female leaves that
Speaker 3: that's not.
Speaker 4: I can only speak for myself. I now that I'm
Speaker 4: known that I do that. It just I don't get
Speaker 4: a lot of pushback on that.
Speaker 2: I'm the man now when I was green.
Speaker 4: But what I think though, is I don't know if
Speaker 4: that happens for a lot of other people. And so
Speaker 4: there's still there's not enough women, you know, there's still
Speaker 4: the disparity is still too wide.
Speaker 1: It's just I just love how creative you are with
Speaker 1: with the roles too, and the types of stories you're
Speaker 1: telling about women and they're funny, and I just I love, love,
Speaker 1: love love watching all of your movies. You mentioned we
Speaker 1: well you're very busy. But I've seen you your inking
Speaker 1: deals here, your inking deals there. You've got multi year
Speaker 1: contracts movies with Lionsgate. You just did is it Warner
Speaker 1: Brothers for television? So what, like, what are you? What's next?
Speaker 1: I'm so excited.
Speaker 4: Oh, we had a lot of stuff in the pipeline.
Speaker 4: It's very exciting. Yeah, we're I mean, we're just developing
Speaker 4: a lot of things.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I love television. That's you know, that's where I came from. Uh,
Speaker 4: movies are my passion. But yeah, there's a lot of
Speaker 4: TV projects. There's the original that I wrote that we're
Speaker 4: trying to they were setting up right now.
Speaker 2: That will be a lot of fun.
Speaker 4: And we just have a lot of all the people
Speaker 4: we work with. You know, I get tired of my
Speaker 4: own voice in my work, and so that's why it's
Speaker 4: I don't write a lot of original movies anymore, as
Speaker 4: much as I'll rewrite ideas that are brought to us,
Speaker 4: because I want other people's take on the world. You know,
Speaker 4: it's really exciting to get something that you would never
Speaker 4: have thought of yourself, you know, or what. Like, I
Speaker 4: love watching things that I just like, you know, I
Speaker 4: just saw Sinners, which is the most amazing movie. It's amazing,
Speaker 4: and I just thought, I just Ryan, like, how did
Speaker 4: you write that? But like that comes from his experience
Speaker 4: and things that he wanted to say. And I love
Speaker 4: that when I go like wow, that's when I see
Speaker 4: something I would never.
Speaker 2: Have thought to do. Is really exciting.
Speaker 4: And so that's what's fun working with new writers and
Speaker 4: they bring you ideas and you're like, cool, let me
Speaker 4: hear your voice, you write.
Speaker 2: It, and then we'll help you.
Speaker 3: You know, make it commercial, help us make sense of Sinners.
Speaker 3: And the phenomenon that has become back to back weekends
Speaker 3: almost making the same amount of money.
Speaker 2: That's just huge. That's huge.
Speaker 3: But that's an original story that got made. Yeah, And
Speaker 3: it seems like so many things that folks wanted. There
Speaker 3: was a Minecraft movie, there was a Super Mario, there's
Speaker 3: a bar, but there's they want to do some stuff
Speaker 3: that's already out there that people know. Where are we headed?
Speaker 3: I just want you to give me your take as
Speaker 3: being in Hollywood of where we're going in terms of
Speaker 3: seeing the types of movies like Centers and having more
Speaker 3: of the types of creators like Ryan. Yeah, to have
Speaker 3: that kind of power to get something made.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean you got to credit kind of everybody
Speaker 4: in that one, because I credit Warner Brothers for taking
Speaker 4: a swing and putting that kind of budget into an
Speaker 4: original idea like that. But they got Ryan who is
Speaker 4: a known successful filmmaker who's brilliant, and it was a
Speaker 4: clearly a passion project for him, and that passion comes
Speaker 4: off the screen and that means a lot to an audience,
Speaker 4: you know, And that's I think, you know so much stuff.
Speaker 4: It's all about ip you know, you know, llstual property, and
Speaker 4: so everybody wants something based on something so that they
Speaker 4: can make sure that there is a built an audience somehow,
Speaker 4: you know, And so that's always.
Speaker 2: Going to dominate people.
Speaker 4: Are He's still going to be afraid of original ideas
Speaker 4: because what will happen is, you know, something is original
Speaker 4: does great and people like okay, then they green light
Speaker 4: a bunch of original stuff that might not be as good,
Speaker 4: and then they don't work and they're like, well, see,
Speaker 4: you can't do that it's like, well, no, it's case
Speaker 4: by case. Everything has to be good, you know. That's
Speaker 4: why you know, I think, oh, come on, blinking on
Speaker 4: his name, who did get out? And you know, Jordan
Speaker 4: Pepine is brilliant because he comes up with undeniable ideas
Speaker 4: and that's in my company. It's like, what is an
Speaker 4: undeniable idea? If you go into a theater and you
Speaker 4: see a trailer and go like, I have to see
Speaker 4: that opening weekend. But that's the hardest thing in the
Speaker 4: world to come up with. So but that's what always
Speaker 4: looking for.
Speaker 1: You know. Obviously your your comedic genius is apparent. But
Speaker 1: this one, another simple favor, also has It's a dark
Speaker 1: comedy but also has a thriller thriller element to it.
Speaker 1: And when we were watching Sinners this weekend, I was
Speaker 1: surprised because I didn't do a lot of reading about
Speaker 1: it beforehand, about the musical element to it, and I'm
Speaker 1: seeing that obviously theater. I love theater. You have a
Speaker 1: theater background as well. Have you ever thought about because
Speaker 1: I'm so amazed watching so many different genres of movies
Speaker 1: incorporate singing and music into the movie, and it's jarring
Speaker 1: to some people, but then it's it's kind of fun.
Speaker 1: It's an incredible experience.
Speaker 2: If you do.
Speaker 4: It organically to the story, it's harder to get people into,
Speaker 4: like and then we burst in the song. Although there
Speaker 4: are great movies that do that all the time, or
Speaker 4: there have been.
Speaker 2: We'll talk about Amelia Perez here. Yeah, yeah, I love
Speaker 2: that movie.
Speaker 4: No, I'm one of everybody knows of my company. For years,
Speaker 4: I've been saying, we got to do a musical. We have,
Speaker 4: but they're really hard to develop, really hard to because
Speaker 4: I wanted to do an original one and it's just
Speaker 4: hard to figure out that thing, you know. And Ryan
Speaker 4: did it with that because it's about a club where
Speaker 4: people play music, so it's off to the races, you go.
Speaker 2: You know, that music was great.
Speaker 1: We've been listening to it.
Speaker 2: It's nonstock. And then Buddy Guy shows up. That's the greatest.
Speaker 4: I saw Buddy Guy Lai years ago, and he's such
Speaker 4: a legend. I was like when he came in at
Speaker 4: the end, I was like, oh, yes, now the movie
Speaker 4: is complete.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see the musical comedy thriller mash
Speaker 1: up that you create one day, because I know you
Speaker 1: will and that's very Excitingly, I will, I definitely will.
Speaker 2: You know, I was trying, can you tell what what
Speaker 2: what genre.
Speaker 3: Is simple favor? What genre is another simple favorite? Because
Speaker 3: I was talking to our producers about it, what thriller?
Speaker 1: I said, well, it's kind of a comedy dark.
Speaker 2: Where do you put it?
Speaker 4: I say, it's a dark comedy, dark comedy. Yeeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: But you know, I'm very true to genres. If all
Speaker 4: my movies are genre movies, if you look at them,
Speaker 4: and I love thrillers, that's all I watch. I don't
Speaker 4: watch comedy.
Speaker 2: I just I love I love. You don't watch comedy. No,
Speaker 2: I don't, really no, because I do it.
Speaker 4: It's my job, you know, and I'm always trying to
Speaker 4: figure out what people are doing.
Speaker 2: But I'm more.
Speaker 4: Interested in in moving an audience, making them laugh because
Speaker 4: they're so invested and they're so scared or tense or worried,
Speaker 4: and watching these extreme characters in these extreme situations. That's
Speaker 4: it to me is the most fun thing. And audiences
Speaker 4: have gotten really suspicious about just straight up comedy in
Speaker 4: the last decade, I would dare say, because I think
Speaker 4: they've seen so many comedies that they didn't get invested
Speaker 4: in even if the jokes are funny, you're not you know,
Speaker 4: you're not getting pulled along, and so putting comedy into
Speaker 4: all the best comedy movies right now, horror movies. If
Speaker 4: you see horror movies, they're funny. I mean, Megan is hilarious,
Speaker 4: Abigail is hilarious, you know, and so because the stakes
Speaker 4: are so high, but everything's so extreme, that's what's fun
Speaker 4: to Megan.
Speaker 1: Audience go, we're laughing because you are speaking our language,
Speaker 1: and because we always traditionally loved horror movies, like just
Speaker 1: from the time we were like five years old, the
Speaker 1: two of us, we're seeking out horror movies. You know,
Speaker 1: when I the first thing I saw was Nightmare on
Speaker 1: Elm Street and then Poltergeist and all that. But now
Speaker 1: it's gotten so elevated, and I think obviously filmmakers are
Speaker 1: understanding the passion and the excitement for that genre and
Speaker 1: they've gotten it now where horror comedy it's our absolute
Speaker 1: favor genre totally, and I don't know that it even
Speaker 1: we had can't be horror movies before.
Speaker 2: I mean horror.
Speaker 4: The thing about horror is people who make horror are
Speaker 4: laughing in the editing room tired. They are just because
Speaker 4: you're because you're so manipulating an audience and the power
Speaker 4: you feel of like, oh my god, they're gonna ship
Speaker 4: their pants, you know, like that's the greatest feeling in
Speaker 4: the world.
Speaker 2: So hard eyes. Have you seen this? This is a
Speaker 2: recent I have not seen that yet.
Speaker 3: They've nailed both elements. They could it could be a
Speaker 3: standalone comedy, it could be a stand they've nailed both.
Speaker 2: Blackening is a good one. Yeah, oh, I love that one.
Speaker 3: That's a great one. But we have in the past
Speaker 3: week watched Abigail. We saw it in the theater. But
Speaker 3: it's just a fun movie.
Speaker 2: Kills me. It's so funny. It's so extreme. The ending.
Speaker 2: I've never seen more blood in a movie, and it's
Speaker 2: so funny. It's so funny. It was the death of
Speaker 2: a Unicorn. We saw that.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we loved that, you know it.
Speaker 2: And I just watched Smile Too, which is so good.
Speaker 1: Five minutes alone, you're like, holy.
Speaker 3: And in the last three minutes yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: That is so fun to talk films with you. In particular,
Speaker 3: you talk about you said something about about comedy and
Speaker 3: I want you to say you get people invested, where
Speaker 3: would you put the heat when it comes to getting
Speaker 3: an audience invested. I'm gonna explain why we can't watch
Speaker 3: this movie. We've seen it a hundred times, but we
Speaker 3: can't have it on and be doing something else because
Speaker 3: we get caught up in the movie. We can't focus
Speaker 3: on anything else. So where does where does that fall
Speaker 3: in what you described?
Speaker 4: I mean, it's it's a buddy cop comedy. But what
Speaker 4: I was really inspired by for that is the movies
Speaker 4: of the eighties like Beverly Hills Cop and forty eight Hours,
Speaker 4: Because you know, I remember as a kid, you know,
Speaker 4: I'd only you know, you go see comedy is gonna
Speaker 4: be comedy and fun and all that. So I go
Speaker 4: to see, you know, forty eight Hours, which you know,
Speaker 4: oh my god, Any Murphy is so funny they can't wait.
Speaker 4: And some guy gets executed, like gets his head blown
Speaker 4: off right in the first few minutes, and you're like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, what's happening. But you realize it's like that.
Speaker 4: Now I'm so invested in the danger that these guys
Speaker 4: are in. So when Eddie Murphy goes into that redneck
Speaker 4: bar and starts throwing things around You're like, Okay, you
Speaker 4: could get really beaten up in here, things can go
Speaker 4: really wrong, but that that's more fun to me now.
Speaker 4: And so that was with with The Heat. You know,
Speaker 4: we've you know, we got some people get killed pretty
Speaker 4: badly in that movie, and it just I think.
Speaker 2: It's just ups the stake. I've never made that connection.
Speaker 2: You're exactly right.
Speaker 3: I know Beverly Hill's cat really well, but his partner
Speaker 3: was Nick Nolty, a drunk, divorced bad cop kind of right.
Speaker 2: It was a very intense movie.
Speaker 3: I never made the connection between The Heat and those classics.
Speaker 4: And I think that's where kind of comedy needs to
Speaker 4: be these days again, as opposed to just it's all
Speaker 4: silly and the villain is silly and we're not worried
Speaker 4: abou him because he's bumbling. It's like, where's my investment
Speaker 4: in that?
Speaker 1: They'll buy no scene in The Heat. I could listen
Speaker 1: to that over and over and just tears are coming out.
Speaker 1: It's funny. My mom is not like really into cursing
Speaker 1: or anything too vulgar, but I had her watch The
Speaker 1: Heat and she was on a plane. She told me
Speaker 1: she saw it. She said she was laughing. So hard
Speaker 1: that people were staring at her because just I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just you cannot stop laughing.
Speaker 4: My goal, My goal was watermelon, Yes, and you know
Speaker 4: because when we shot that, the whole crew was horrified.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you.
Speaker 1: Worry because look, is it harder to make comedy now
Speaker 1: this whole there was all this wokeness. Now there's anti wokeness.
Speaker 1: Everyone gets offended. How hard is it to do good
Speaker 1: comedy in that.
Speaker 4: I am not a person who says, oh no, we
Speaker 4: can't do anything. I think I don't want to offend anybody,
Speaker 4: you know. And I think if you just make things
Speaker 4: funny and based on people's personality and you're not making
Speaker 4: fun of things people can't change about themselves. I mean,
Speaker 4: I will say the only thing I've ever been like
Speaker 4: is the Albino thing, because it' so funny, and we
Speaker 4: set it up going like, look, it's it's making fun
Speaker 4: of the fact that so many movies had bad guys
Speaker 4: that were albino. We actually had that little montage when
Speaker 4: she's flipping around the channels.
Speaker 2: It's all.
Speaker 4: So I tried to set it up, you know, and
Speaker 4: Dan Bakeadell, who's so funny good, But then you know,
Speaker 4: when the movie after it came out, I got some
Speaker 4: A woman wrote me, some of my daughters in albino
Speaker 4: and this is not helpful, and I and I felt
Speaker 4: bad and like I kind of broke my rule or
Speaker 4: making fun of something that people can't change about themselves.
Speaker 2: But it's still really funny.
Speaker 1: But you're also making fun of the fact that they're
Speaker 1: often made into evil characters, that's.
Speaker 4: The thing, and so that would and I kind of
Speaker 4: want to go, oh no, here's why, but you're like,
Speaker 4: it's still you've got to get caught in the blowback
Speaker 4: of that. So but I, you know, I don't feel like,
Speaker 4: you know, if it's good natured and kind of everybody
Speaker 4: gets hit the same way, and you're not being mean,
Speaker 4: if there's a difference between mean spiritedness and just kind
Speaker 4: of like, hey, we're just having fun kind of making
Speaker 4: fun of people things that they can change about themselves.
Speaker 4: You know, if somebody's a jerk, it's really fun to
Speaker 4: make fun of them, or they have really crazy beliefs,
Speaker 4: like that's kind of fun to make fun of because
Speaker 4: they could change that if they wanted to.
Speaker 3: Their dialogue they're back and forth, how they equip at
Speaker 3: each other in that scene is absolutely hilarious.
Speaker 2: I have to have you here.
Speaker 3: I'm curious what you said you don't watch comedy necessarily.
Speaker 3: Let's go through this the Oscar season. What were some
Speaker 3: of your favorite movies that you saw during this season
Speaker 3: and what kind do you have any like, oh, I
Speaker 3: gotta go watch this show, or like we watched ninety
Speaker 3: Day Fiance or whatever it may be. Do you have
Speaker 3: as a just I'm curious what a guy in your position,
Speaker 3: what kind of stuff you watch you admire?
Speaker 1: You like?
Speaker 4: Well, I watch a lot of thrillers and I watch
Speaker 4: a lot of true crime because I'm fascinated by terrible
Speaker 4: people because I like to think I'm a nice person,
Speaker 4: you know, and so you know, you get to act
Speaker 4: out in that way. And so I'm just watching especially,
Speaker 4: I mean, we're such in the age of.
Speaker 2: The con man right now. Let's not talk about.
Speaker 4: Who who's leading that charge in our country right now,
Speaker 4: but but that so, all these true crime things are
Speaker 4: about people conning people, you know, and trying to pull
Speaker 4: stuff off and being fake and putting up these scams
Speaker 4: and stuff, and I'm just fascinated by it. And then
Speaker 4: on top of it, just you know, a good murder
Speaker 4: thing is always fascinating to watch. I really like all that,
Speaker 4: like the movies, you know, the movie movies from from
Speaker 4: this Oscar season. You know, I saw Honora thinking it
Speaker 4: was gonna be like a drama. It turns out is
Speaker 4: one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time,
Speaker 4: and I didn't know that going in. And honestly, when
Speaker 4: when you know the guy leaves and that those guys
Speaker 4: are coming over to get her, I was like, oh man,
Speaker 4: this is gonna get really dark. And that turns hilarious
Speaker 4: because it's so bumbling and but that but that's to me,
Speaker 4: that's what a great comedy because you don't know it.
Speaker 4: It's it's hidden in there, and it still really emotional,
Speaker 4: you know, And you know, I'd still tear up in
Speaker 4: that end scene when she's in the car.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it's just a killer.
Speaker 1: You know. We honestly everything you're saying we are vibing
Speaker 1: with because we do murder in the morning. We watch
Speaker 1: all the true crime stories. We love horror comedy. We
Speaker 1: love your movies. It's about moving people and making people
Speaker 1: feel think about things differently. I love that you do that.
Speaker 1: You mentioned you've got this Christmas movie coming up, can
Speaker 1: you give us a little taste of it?
Speaker 2: Very dark Christmas?
Speaker 1: We love that too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's called The Housemaid is based on this book
Speaker 4: that's been a bestseller on the New York Times list
Speaker 4: for a year and a half now, Freedom McFadden wrote it,
Speaker 4: and uh yeah, it's Sidney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried and
Speaker 4: Brandon's glenar and then Michaelay moroney from another Simple Favor.
Speaker 4: And it's a dark thriller. It's still got funny stuff
Speaker 4: and it just because it gets very extreme.
Speaker 2: But it's great. I'm really excited about it.
Speaker 4: We just started our first test screening of an early
Speaker 4: cut and it tested through the roof, so I mean
Speaker 4: the cast.
Speaker 2: It's just amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love your two strong female leads there.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, boy if they turned in the amazing performance.
Speaker 3: Oh what is what is your assessment?
Speaker 2: Right? We went through COVID. As far as the industry goes,
Speaker 2: has the industry come back?
Speaker 3: It's hard to say come back, like where is the
Speaker 3: need to get? But do you feel good about how
Speaker 3: the industry has recovered to a certain degree? And as
Speaker 3: always back and forth about movies and what type and
Speaker 3: these theories. There's all kinds of stuff going on. But
Speaker 3: what is the state of the industry that you are
Speaker 3: such a leader in at this point?
Speaker 4: Well, thanks, I'm very optimistic about it. It's changed a bit.
Speaker 4: It's contracted a little bit because it got so wild
Speaker 4: West with all the streamers and everybody having a streamer
Speaker 4: that there was just a glut of content, which is
Speaker 4: kind of great because it got a lot of people working.
Speaker 4: But I think the writer's strike made that contracted everything
Speaker 4: in a way that Hollywood was looking for an excuse
Speaker 4: to contract and so they really used the writer's strike
Speaker 4: too as an excuse to do that. But what the
Speaker 4: good thing I think is that people are coming back
Speaker 4: to theaters. I mean this past weekend you know we're
Speaker 4: taping right now, was a big weekend in Sinners. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's holding. I mean they had like hardly any drop
Speaker 4: off between weeks. So that's so it shows audiences are
Speaker 4: ready for stuff. It's just we in our business have
Speaker 4: to service that. We have to give them stuff they
Speaker 4: want to see. We have to challenge them. Not challenge
Speaker 4: challenge sounds like homework. You have to give them stuff
Speaker 4: where they're like they're going to be surprised that they like,
Speaker 4: you know, I mean you Sinners is a total surprise.
Speaker 4: You know, if you would have asked people, you know,
Speaker 4: a year ago, you know, how do you feel about
Speaker 4: a vampire movie about the Blues? You know, I don't
Speaker 4: know if they'd be like, oh cool, but you know,
Speaker 4: the minute you see what it is, you're like, oh
Speaker 4: my god, I go to go see that. So yeah,
Speaker 4: it's really it's the opportunities are out there. They're fewer,
Speaker 4: but they're a bigger payoff for an audience when they're
Speaker 4: done right, and it's just up to us to make
Speaker 4: sure that we're good.
Speaker 1: Do you have any comedic actresses or actresses that you
Speaker 1: want to work with that you haven't yet that you've
Speaker 1: got your eye on that you're thinking about for future projects?
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, there's so many people that I'm dying
Speaker 4: to work with. I mean, I hate ton't name anybody,
Speaker 4: but just because I'll send anybody else but Jennifer Lawrence
Speaker 4: and I've been trying to figure out something to do forever,
Speaker 4: and so I think we might have something for her
Speaker 4: and have a.
Speaker 2: Stone I love.
Speaker 4: And you know, yeah, there are people that I know
Speaker 4: that I've met with who are always kind of like,
Speaker 4: we got to figure it out. But you know, it's
Speaker 4: got to be the right thing. You can't just throw
Speaker 4: somebody into a role if they're not perfect for it,
Speaker 4: you know. And that's what's fun is trying to figure
Speaker 4: out who we want to work with, finding the right project.
Speaker 1: How do you find the you know, my daughter actually
Speaker 1: is graduating from NYU with a theater degree, and she's
Speaker 1: got four jobs right now, but hoping, you know, trying
Speaker 1: to do what she loves, which is acting. But she's
Speaker 1: always saying like, I wasn't right for it, I didn't
Speaker 1: look the part, I didn't you know whatever it is
Speaker 1: during these auditions. But how do you know do you
Speaker 1: know immediately within five minutes five seconds, that's the perfect person,
Speaker 1: that's who I need to play this character.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it comes in different waves. I mean to me,
Speaker 4: it's the material first that dominates everything. So I very
Speaker 4: rarely kind of go, oh, we've got this person, let's
Speaker 4: develop this thing for them. It's more like, we got
Speaker 4: to get this story right, this has to be right,
Speaker 4: and then it's like, who do I think of for this?
Speaker 4: And it usually you get someone in your head pretty
Speaker 4: quickly when you're working on something. It's like they would
Speaker 4: be perfect. But then sometimes you don't get that person.
Speaker 4: You know, they turn it down or they're not available,
Speaker 4: and then it's always like kind of doing that shift.
Speaker 4: And I've had great success with that of like you know,
Speaker 4: say who they were, you know, because but you thought
Speaker 4: this person would be perfect for this, they didn't turn
Speaker 4: it didn't work out. And then the person you got,
Speaker 4: then you go like, I can't imagine the other person
Speaker 4: ever doing this.
Speaker 2: This is them.
Speaker 4: And also you tail once you get them, you tailor
Speaker 4: it to them. You know, it's not these scripts aren't
Speaker 4: set in stone. It's like this is their strength. That's
Speaker 4: why I loved before I work with somebody new, like
Speaker 4: let's just go out to dinner, let's have drinks or
Speaker 4: have lefe, so I can know who you are and
Speaker 4: I can see a side of you that the audience
Speaker 4: doesn't know exists, and then we're gonna play that up.
Speaker 3: Do you have a story of I hate regret the
Speaker 3: word regret, so not one that you regret, But did
Speaker 3: you have a story or a person or an actors
Speaker 3: or actress that you passed on and then you saw
Speaker 3: something landa go I mate the wrong.
Speaker 2: Call on that. I can't say who right, right.
Speaker 4: No, there's some just you get something in your head,
Speaker 4: you know, and you like somebody so much, or you
Speaker 4: just kind of want to I don't know, you just
Speaker 4: get something stuck in your head and it's not It
Speaker 4: works fine, but you're kind of like, oh, I should
Speaker 4: have you know, I should have? Yeah, but very rarely,
Speaker 4: very rarely. It's just only been a couple of times.
Speaker 4: And I have no regret about who I did cast
Speaker 4: and just to go like, oh, I think maybe that.
Speaker 2: Would have worked.
Speaker 3: Is there a project that you passed on or something
Speaker 3: that ended up being developed and I should have done
Speaker 3: that movie?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: Nothing like that.
Speaker 4: I can't say because it would make somebody else feel
Speaker 4: bad something. But no, they do very rarely, very rarely.
Speaker 4: I'm pretty good about that kind of thing. There's more
Speaker 4: for me. It's more things that I've developed that didn't
Speaker 4: get to go. I had a monster movie at the
Speaker 4: Universal called Dark Army that I was really excited about,
Speaker 4: and they just we developed it for a long time.
Speaker 4: They decided it was going to be too expensive. I
Speaker 4: didn't agree with them. I thought I could do it cheap,
Speaker 4: but they just didn't want to do it. And they
Speaker 4: were kind of in a weird place with their Monster
Speaker 4: Movie universe at that time. But I hope some day
Speaker 4: it comes okay.
Speaker 1: I mean I was going to say it sounds like
Speaker 1: something that we would watch.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent.
Speaker 1: I mean, and with all I mean, with all of
Speaker 1: your success, what would you say it is about? Paul Figue?
Speaker 1: What is it that you bring to the table that
Speaker 1: creates so many incredible successes? I mean, what is it
Speaker 1: that you do? What you know that maybe other directors,
Speaker 1: other producers don't do it, because you really do. I
Speaker 1: mean your list of just art because it's movies and
Speaker 1: television is remarkable and it's lasting. I mean, these are
Speaker 1: movies that you don't just go to the movie theater
Speaker 1: once and see and say, yeah, that was great. I mean,
Speaker 1: these are movies that I watch over, we watch over
Speaker 1: and over because they're that good. They they have holding power,
Speaker 1: lasting power, and they're still funny. What is it? What
Speaker 1: do you do? I'm fascinated.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm awesome. First of all, Well that's very kind.
Speaker 4: You know, if I could really figure it out, I'd
Speaker 4: be even more successful.
Speaker 2: No, you know what, I.
Speaker 4: Try to have fun. I want to make everything fun.
Speaker 4: I always kind of say, my movie these every movie
Speaker 4: should be like a party, some kind of a party,
Speaker 4: you know, whether it's a scary party or a just
Speaker 4: a nutty party or whatever. But it has to be
Speaker 4: good natured, you know. I don't like nihilistic. It's not
Speaker 4: only beef with a lot of horror, is that it
Speaker 4: all ends very nihilistically. And that's why I love to
Speaker 4: love Megan so much. It's like there's a victory at
Speaker 4: the end of it, you know, And so that's what
Speaker 4: I'm always looking for because my message is never you
Speaker 4: can't win.
Speaker 2: Terrible people win. Good people get pushed aside, you know.
Speaker 2: I don't like that.
Speaker 4: So even as dark as my movies can get, they
Speaker 4: are fairly good natured, even if they.
Speaker 2: Get very dark.
Speaker 4: And so I think people kind of respond to that.
Speaker 4: And then we just try to make them as dense
Speaker 4: as possible so you can watch them over and over again.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I like when people go like, oh, I missed half
Speaker 4: the jokes because the audience was laughing. Like, good, watch
Speaker 4: it the can and you'll pick.
Speaker 2: Up the jokes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that is so true. Like, and I
Speaker 1: love the idea because we might not even realize it.
Speaker 1: As moviegoers or as consumers of your art. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you remember all the funny pross, but you also remember
Speaker 1: how it made you feel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know.
Speaker 4: It's I always say my movies are just dramas that
Speaker 4: are funny, because that's how you have to plot out
Speaker 4: a movie. It has to have a real storyline with
Speaker 4: real emotions and real stakes in it, and then you
Speaker 4: build the comedy up from the extremeness of the characters,
Speaker 4: the extremness of the situation and how they interact and
Speaker 4: react to each other. That's where the fun comes from.
Speaker 3: Just hit nor to hear you put it together. We've
Speaker 3: watched your movies and all that makes it. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: oh yeah that's why. I Oh, that's what that was.
Speaker 3: So it's it's cool to see it. It's so good
Speaker 3: to have you back, just to see you again. We
Speaker 3: were jumping through the phone when they say we have
Speaker 3: a chance.
Speaker 2: To get pauffee. I'm thrilled.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 4: I've always loved you guys, and you were so nice
Speaker 4: to me on the show, and I've was following all
Speaker 4: this stuff you went through and I was like, oh no,
Speaker 4: I want to please get through this. Then you came
Speaker 4: out so strong. I mean, my god, congrats, but.
Speaker 3: Your name came up and it was a moment of
Speaker 3: I guess just a little reverence and little strength and
Speaker 3: maybe we understood that things are going to be okay.
Speaker 3: But I'll tell you this. Through it all, when we
Speaker 3: got off the air, there there are all kinds of
Speaker 3: stuff in tabloids and folks were trying to unname source
Speaker 3: as this but to make us look essentially as bad
Speaker 3: as possible what.
Speaker 2: Was out there.
Speaker 3: So one of the stories was about Robot being an
Speaker 3: absolute drunk, right they did. It was, you know, better
Speaker 3: than idea, but there was you were accused of being
Speaker 3: drunk and on.
Speaker 2: The air at the game.
Speaker 1: Okay, while we were negotiating our exits, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: like literally, it's unbelievable, all of a sudden.
Speaker 2: Isn't that magical?
Speaker 1: Isn't it weird how that coincidentally just started. No pressure
Speaker 1: was intended. I'm sure to have all of these false
Speaker 1: stories leaked.
Speaker 2: Yes, crisis pr No, No, they would never do that.
Speaker 3: So this is happening to that point, talking about her
Speaker 3: drinking and working all this. Never a word anywhere about
Speaker 3: me and drinking or anything else. Paul I had a
Speaker 3: full bar in my dressing room a full bar, A
Speaker 3: hero and everybody knew it because when people come through,
Speaker 3: they look.
Speaker 2: We've had several people.
Speaker 3: Duane the Rock Johnson gave me a bottle of his tequila.
Speaker 3: I had a bottle of gin from Ryan Reynolds. Cecilia
Speaker 3: Vega worked there. She brought me a bottle of tequila.
Speaker 3: One of the floor directors went to the Caribbean brought
Speaker 3: me back a bottle of whiskey. You can only get
Speaker 3: so people just gift you think. One day when we
Speaker 3: were out of there, I had I needed somebody to
Speaker 3: go into my dressing room. We weren't allowed in the building,
Speaker 3: and somebody went to my dressing room to grab something
Speaker 3: for me, and they had taken pictures and say this
Speaker 3: which you needed. My entire shelf of liquor had been
Speaker 3: cleared out.
Speaker 2: All of it.
Speaker 3: What's gone? No big deal, It's fine. But we just
Speaker 3: thought it was funny. But one of the things I
Speaker 3: said to her, Damn, Paul FIG's gin was in there.
Speaker 3: I never got a chance to open it. No, I
Speaker 3: kid you not. And we looked at each other. We
Speaker 3: just kind of laughed that we were so disappointed. We're
Speaker 3: in the midst of losing Careers.
Speaker 2: For a review.
Speaker 3: Losers, But it was that segment you were on talking
Speaker 3: about your book about cocktails and this and but you
Speaker 3: left and you gifted me that and we appreciated it.
Speaker 3: But in that moment of all that chaos, we just
Speaker 3: looked at each other and laughed about we were upset
Speaker 3: that we didn't get your.
Speaker 2: Gin sending you a bottle. So it's going to happen.
Speaker 3: And we'll apologize to you as well, because in that
Speaker 3: last segment we did late November, you weren't aware, just
Speaker 3: like the rest of the world was, that we were
Speaker 3: actually dating at that time. So excellent, Hi, paul, I'm TJ.
Speaker 2: This is my girlfriend.
Speaker 1: I could tell, and we were both in the middle
Speaker 1: of divorces at that time, so it's just like it's
Speaker 1: just a ridiculous thing that happened.
Speaker 4: I was so happy for you guys when I despite
Speaker 4: all the b you went through, just because I like
Speaker 4: you too, so so I'm really happy for you.
Speaker 1: The feeling is mutual, and yeah, just I'm so excited
Speaker 1: about all the projects that you have coming up and
Speaker 1: we get to have more Paula figue magic in our lives,
Speaker 1: and I just thank you for sharing the process behind
Speaker 1: how you make all of this great art, because it
Speaker 1: is so cool and I understand it now. I understand
Speaker 1: why I like it now more the psychology behind it.
Speaker 1: But it's it's your brilliance. And thank you for bringing
Speaker 1: it to the world because that that is a gift.
Speaker 1: It is a gift to laugh. You know, we leaned
Speaker 1: on a lot of your movies during there was about
Speaker 1: a year of confinement for us where we consumed a
Speaker 1: lot of entertainment to try and escape our own fate.
Speaker 2: There you go, And.
Speaker 1: Honestly, your movies were a huge part of that, like
Speaker 1: a huge part of that. And that's a that's a service,
Speaker 1: you know, to give people an escape, to give people
Speaker 1: a reason to laugh. And so thank you for what
Speaker 1: you bring to the world.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
Speaker 4: I always say, like, if my movies can just be
Speaker 4: considered comfort food, I'm happy as a clam.
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you, thank you for coming on the on
Speaker 1: the on the podcast today because we consider it a
Speaker 1: huge honor for you to be here with us in studios.
Speaker 2: So thank you honor for me and another simple favor
Speaker 2: starts streaming on maybe first Amazon Prime Prime Video, right, folks,
Speaker 2: I appreciate it always for listening. We'll see a new