Speaker 1: Welcome to Playback a Variety podcast. On today's show, we're
Speaker 1: talking about an interesting theme running through a few female
Speaker 1: performances this year and this week's release Deepwater Horizon. A
Speaker 1: little bit later, I'll be talking to Heller high Water
Speaker 1: Star Jeff Bridges. So stick around all right, everyone, I'm
Speaker 1: here with Variety Deputy Chief Lieutenant Captain, Master of All
Speaker 1: the Fish in the Ocean, All the Birds in the Sky,
Speaker 1: Deputy Awards and Features Editor Janelle Riley. Hey, how's it going.
Speaker 1: I nailed it? Um. We were just talking right before
Speaker 1: we started recording here, and we literally were were not
Speaker 1: just saying that a little trend that Janelle was picking
Speaker 1: up on on some of the female performances this year.
Speaker 1: We're all of the supporting that you were talking about, um,
Speaker 1: except for uh, Susan Surrandon, Yes, go ahead, and oh yeah.
Speaker 1: I was just now, I am not a parent. Um.
Speaker 1: I know you are a recent parent. Congratulations you kids
Speaker 1: still alive well as I. But I was really struck
Speaker 1: by how many performances this year um sort of centered
Speaker 1: on or had the theme of motherhood in them. And
Speaker 1: I don't want people to to think that I'm being
Speaker 1: dismissive because like sometimes when you say you know actresses,
Speaker 1: they only play mothers or girlfriends. But these are people
Speaker 1: who are delivering heartbreaking, amazing performances that happened to be
Speaker 1: tied to motherhood. Um, Nicole. The reason that came up
Speaker 1: was because I just saw Lion and Nicole k I
Speaker 1: think it's still crying. I think were we in the
Speaker 1: same screen, were oh my gosh, Okay, Well, then I
Speaker 1: apologize for the you probably heard for the last twenty
Speaker 1: I was silently ugly crying. I was sure. I was
Speaker 1: just like had my hand over my face, like nope,
Speaker 1: I was saying, I want to start rating movies on
Speaker 1: an ugly cry scale, like how many tears and how
Speaker 1: much snod is pouring out of my nose? In line
Speaker 1: would like tip the scale. It was a good cry
Speaker 1: I want. I don't want to scare people away. It
Speaker 1: really builds like naturally to that place to like you know,
Speaker 1: you you kind of know where the narratives is gonna
Speaker 1: end up going. But even once it gets there, you're
Speaker 1: just like, oh my god, this they did it really well.
Speaker 1: It's really well done, and uh, part of the reason
Speaker 1: it works so well, as Nicole Kidman and what you
Speaker 1: might be considered a small performance, but like, it's just
Speaker 1: she is the face of love, the face of unconditional love,
Speaker 1: and plays the adoptive mother of this um Indian child
Speaker 1: who at age five was separated from his family, and um,
Speaker 1: even just talking about it, I'm getting like emotional. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it reminded me of another one of my favorite performances,
Speaker 1: which was Michelle Williams and Manchester by the seat talk
Speaker 1: about yeah she it's and again, um, I think Michell
Speaker 1: was only in like a couple of scenes. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: like the Beatrice straight yea, and it just blows in
Speaker 1: and that especially in that one scene and crushes it
Speaker 1: and you're we walk away thinking about it. We talked
Speaker 1: about that scene a few weeks ago, and I mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier that um Amy Adams delivers two amazing performances this
Speaker 1: year and then Nocturnal Animals end Arrival, and I think
Speaker 1: that for a lead actress nomination, I am would lean
Speaker 1: towards Arrival because you know, there's a lot about motherhood.
Speaker 1: She plays it so beautifully. It's very emotional. Um. And
Speaker 1: then there's some smaller movies Molly Shannon and other people.
Speaker 1: It's quite wonderful Uh. Susan Sarandon and the Midler was
Speaker 1: a big movie I loved. And they don't all have
Speaker 1: to be good mothers. Naomi Harris also kind of a
Speaker 1: small role. You know, I say this knowing there are
Speaker 1: no such thing as small roles. Well, we talked about
Speaker 1: that and specifically with her how she shot it over
Speaker 1: three days, but the places she had to get to
Speaker 1: within those three days on the schedule amazing. It is
Speaker 1: an interesting little trend with these performances. Are your hormones
Speaker 1: saying something to you? You know, oh good Lord, don't
Speaker 1: even go there, but it is interesting, It is interesting. Uh.
Speaker 1: We were also going to talk today about some movies
Speaker 1: that are floating around in September. You know, September seems
Speaker 1: to be like this, I guess, for lack of a
Speaker 1: better term, dumping ground right before the season. A lot
Speaker 1: of people don't give these movies. They're fair shake, uh
Speaker 1: for whatever reason. I mean, I feel like Black Mass
Speaker 1: last year is a good example. This year in October,
Speaker 1: didn't you know it was September? It was September. It
Speaker 1: was right after the festivals, which you know, I think
Speaker 1: might have been part of the problem, the release date.
Speaker 1: But uh, Deepwater Horizon is coming out this week. Sorry
Speaker 1: laughing because and I really like Black Mask too, so
Speaker 1: I'm not just picking on you, but I just imagine
Speaker 1: you like sit at home at night carving you. I talked,
Speaker 1: but that's gonna be fun fodder for all of my
Speaker 1: fans exactly. Uh no, no, no, I I just think, uh, well,
Speaker 1: I've talked to the people involved with the film, and
Speaker 1: I think a few of them thought a different release
Speaker 1: date might have been smarter. I think your your adoration
Speaker 1: is refusal to let it go is actually quite adorable. Well,
Speaker 1: you just see how they did with Gravity and Argo
Speaker 1: and where they placed those movies this year. They've got
Speaker 1: the accountant in that release slot, which is Beard. Who
Speaker 1: does anyone know anything? I'm playing into the marketing? Who
Speaker 1: is the accountant? What's going on with the accountant. I
Speaker 1: haven't talked to a single person who's seen the movie neither,
Speaker 1: so I don't I don't know what's going on there.
Speaker 1: I really like Gavin O'Connor's work most of the time,
Speaker 1: and obviously I'm an affleck fan, so I'm very curious. Yeah,
Speaker 1: me too. Well, Deep Water Horizon is uh the September
Speaker 1: movie this year. That I think really stands out personally.
Speaker 1: I thought it was you know, I like Peterburg as
Speaker 1: far as it goes fantastic. I think you can do
Speaker 1: a lot of things really well. And this one's really interesting.
Speaker 1: I just mentioned this somewhere the other day. It has
Speaker 1: a lot of his uh you know, his mentors, Michael Mann.
Speaker 1: They shared I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, they had
Speaker 1: the office space up here. And because you know, like
Speaker 1: Michael Mann is my least favorite filmmaker really, yeah, least favorite.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's a whole other podcast. Yeah, I guess so
Speaker 1: well that, yeah, he's kind of his mentor and they
Speaker 1: share an office space up on the West Olympic up
Speaker 1: here actually, and uh, I think a lot of Michael
Speaker 1: Mann is in this movie actually, right, like, especially in
Speaker 1: the way it's edited and it's captures all these like
Speaker 1: fleeting moments that kind of build towards the bigger mixture.
Speaker 1: But in general, you saw the movie, right, I did,
Speaker 1: and I think I think it's great. I think the
Speaker 1: cast is fantastic. I think, um, Peter Berg, you know,
Speaker 1: he also made Lone Survivor, which was another movie that
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, should have been in the Oscar
Speaker 1: Race more outside of you know, sound editing or whatever
Speaker 1: was nominated for. And first of all, Um, he just
Speaker 1: seems to love to torture Mark Wahlberg. Martin Walhburg seems
Speaker 1: to like it. Yeah. Well, he's really good at it, um,
Speaker 1: and he's assembled a great cast. I mean, Malcolm ches
Speaker 1: in this hurt Russell, Malovich just playing like a Disney
Speaker 1: villain and the best possible. Yes, I mean it as
Speaker 1: a compliment a creole Disney villain. It's it's like he's
Speaker 1: right out of Princess and the Frog or something. But
Speaker 1: but he's really good and it really angry. The movie
Speaker 1: angers you, yes, it does in the best way. And
Speaker 1: it doesn't manipulate you to that point. It just tells
Speaker 1: you what happened, shows you who said what, who acted how,
Speaker 1: And at the end of it, if you're not piste
Speaker 1: off at BP, then you don't have a pulse. It
Speaker 1: was really fun to watch with an audience who was
Speaker 1: so into it and reacting so much. And I spoke
Speaker 1: to Kurt Russell afterwards and said, you know what, Um,
Speaker 1: when this oil spill happened, we all you know saw
Speaker 1: in the news that it was the worst oil spill
Speaker 1: in history. And you know, lots of animals were covered
Speaker 1: in oil, But I literally did not even know there
Speaker 1: were people over a hundred people on this oil rake. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I didn't know that the event was just massive
Speaker 1: is it was like the explosion and right down. I mean,
Speaker 1: the thing just goes up in flames in such a
Speaker 1: spectacular way in the film, and you're just riveted. And
Speaker 1: you know, regarding the below the line nomination's Lone Survivor, God,
Speaker 1: I think this deserves consideration too, because the way that's
Speaker 1: part of the experience, it puts you on that thing,
Speaker 1: and the sound and the visual effects to an extent,
Speaker 1: it's all part of the part of the mixture that
Speaker 1: that puts you there. And I like Burgo. I mean,
Speaker 1: going way back to the Runda. I love the Runda.
Speaker 1: I loved Um. I'm so I'm blanking on it. Very
Speaker 1: Bad Things. Oh yeah, I shouldn't say loved. It disturbed
Speaker 1: me in a very good way. We watched that right
Speaker 1: before my bachelor party, not for like homework or anything.
Speaker 1: I swear it was just like, let's watch very Bad Things.
Speaker 1: But yeah, A huge fan of that movie. Um and
Speaker 1: the performances he got out of I think it was
Speaker 1: as a director, and um, you know he wanted Adam
Speaker 1: Sandler in the Jeremy Piven roll. Yeah, which I think
Speaker 1: would have been fascinating. I'm trying to picture it. I
Speaker 1: wish you people could see Chris's condari face, because Piven
Speaker 1: nails that he kind of slime well like back then,
Speaker 1: especially like Judgment Night is. Yes, but that's I think
Speaker 1: it's that. Um, Jeremy Heaven was great, but almost too
Speaker 1: obvious a choice. Although the obvious choice doesn't mean, as
Speaker 1: David Fincher said about Ben Affleck and Gone Girl, just
Speaker 1: because it's obvious doesn't mean it's wrong, right totally. Well,
Speaker 1: maybe deep Water can get somewhere. It's a Lines of
Speaker 1: Gate movie, and they've got a lot of movies this year.
Speaker 1: They've got another Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg. I sort
Speaker 1: of feel like Deepwater Horizon is sort of paving the way.
Speaker 1: It's made me really excited about Patriots Stand because again,
Speaker 1: Peterberg is dealing with a real life event. Pairing with
Speaker 1: Mark Wahlberg. Um, I'm sure he'll put him through hell. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I've really really I was always a fan of
Speaker 1: Peterburg as an actor in Chicago. Hope oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Peter Peters. What was the speaking of Michael Man? What
Speaker 1: was the movie he was in? The Michael Man movie Collateral.
Speaker 1: He played that cop in Collateral. Remember I love this
Speaker 1: movie The Kingdom. Do you remember that? Yeah, Jamie Foxx. Yeah. Again.
Speaker 1: He makes these movies that I actually think should be
Speaker 1: Oscar movies, and he's busy. He shoots a ton of commercials.
Speaker 1: Like I'm trying to get him on the podcast. Peter,
Speaker 1: if you're listening, I want you on the Podcas asked Man,
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about Peter. If you're listening,
Speaker 1: I apologize for not like you Michael Mann. We should
Speaker 1: have you interview about Michael Man specifically. What else are
Speaker 1: we going to talk about today? We uh ah, right,
Speaker 1: But well, the New York Film Festival is starting this week.
Speaker 1: It's opening with Able du Vernes. They think they removed
Speaker 1: the I think it's now just about essentially mass incarceration
Speaker 1: in America and this loophole language in the thirteenth Amendment
Speaker 1: that kind of makes it okay for slavery if you're
Speaker 1: convicted of a crime. So she this is a documentary
Speaker 1: she directed, and tal did it kind of on the
Speaker 1: slide like she told She told me first about it
Speaker 1: at our Power of Women event last year, and uh,
Speaker 1: I was like, I didn't know you were working on this.
Speaker 1: I think at the time she was going to try
Speaker 1: to take it to Sundance or something. But it's opening
Speaker 1: New York and that's a big deal actually for a
Speaker 1: documentary to be opening New York, and uh, I don't
Speaker 1: know that I can say much about the movie because
Speaker 1: it's opening tomorrow. I do think it's amazing. I do
Speaker 1: think documentaries that are amazing should be considered in the
Speaker 1: Best Picture race has a documentary ever, because they can
Speaker 1: so easily get a wise it in the documentary feature.
Speaker 1: But I would say the same about animated films, and
Speaker 1: it's been Yea and thorn films, but they occasionally sneak in,
Speaker 1: especially with let's come on with these ten nominations, Well
Speaker 1: now it's between five and ten, and I think that's
Speaker 1: why we haven't seen an animated movie nominated, uh since
Speaker 1: Toy Story three, which was the last year that I
Speaker 1: didn't know that was nominated. They had ten nominations like
Speaker 1: guaranteed at that time, and that's back when they would
Speaker 1: force everyone to pick ten movies and rank them now
Speaker 1: that everybody wants to rank five nomin He's like usual,
Speaker 1: So it's hard to get everybody, you know, enough people
Speaker 1: putting an animated movie in their top five movies, I
Speaker 1: guess is the logic as to why it hasn't happened
Speaker 1: in the last three or four years. Toy Story three
Speaker 1: was nominated for this picture. Sorry, I'm bad at my
Speaker 1: job along Oh well up, oh god, you want to
Speaker 1: see Ugly Tears? Show me the first fourteen minutes of up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that'll do it. But yeah, I just it would be
Speaker 1: nice if movies like that, that are you know, a
Speaker 1: certain form, that aren't immediately considered Best picture contenders should
Speaker 1: be considered Best picture contenders if they capture the zeit
Speaker 1: geis in a fantastic way. And I think that this
Speaker 1: movie opening the New York Film Festival does that. Also,
Speaker 1: playing New York this week is our Next week is
Speaker 1: going to be uh, twentieth Century Women, and then wrapping
Speaker 1: it up as Lost City of Z, which I don't
Speaker 1: even think will come out this year. I don't even
Speaker 1: know this again, I am terrible at my John on
Speaker 1: the New York has kept it kind of low key
Speaker 1: this year. I mean they've got the Youngly movie. They're
Speaker 1: gonna they're gonna, which I'm dying to hear anything about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they might not even do a screening in l
Speaker 1: A because they got that's like a million dollar projector
Speaker 1: or something. They need to run this high frame rate stuff.
Speaker 1: And I hope it's not like a hobbity look. Well,
Speaker 1: that'll be It'll be different because it won't be the
Speaker 1: whole movie. It'll be the battle scenes and it will
Speaker 1: kind of set the tone in those scenes and you know,
Speaker 1: come back to the stadium where he's getting Oh so
Speaker 1: it's okay, it's a little hyper alves maybe, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that's going to be the deal. By the way,
Speaker 1: I was about to agree with you about your whole
Speaker 1: spiel about documentaries making into the race, and I was
Speaker 1: going to say, I agree with you one, it's my
Speaker 1: work for this week. Riley has spoken. Well, we're gonna
Speaker 1: wrap it up there. I'm talking to Jeff Bridges after this.
Speaker 1: By the way, stay tuned and how I water. We
Speaker 1: talked about that. I think one of the first things
Speaker 1: we don't think he really can get a nomination out
Speaker 1: of that should feel like he could do. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean he's we've talked about it. He just tears into
Speaker 1: that role. So and any case, stick around for that.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. Brother. I'm gonna get that money.
Speaker 1: They're going out their doors. You got a gun on
Speaker 1: you all man, You're damn right. I got a gun
Speaker 1: on me. You'll are gonna steal my gun too. When
Speaker 1: you steel from you were sent from the bank. Well
Speaker 1: you hear about these bank robberies. They get to have
Speaker 1: some fun before they send you off to the rock
Speaker 1: and chair. Yet one hunt left me having that been
Speaker 1: a while three months bank breathing out her neck. Everybody
Speaker 1: get on. You'll been here for a while long. That's watch.
Speaker 1: Bank getting rob has been robbing me for thirty years.
Speaker 1: These boys all exactly what they're doing. It's kind of
Speaker 1: raised a certain amount. That's my dish, Toby. It's a
Speaker 1: good thing he does more Dona very step of the way.
Speaker 1: Welcome back everyone. I'm here with Jeff Bridges, the dude himself,
Speaker 1: which I just actually read something that said you were
Speaker 1: you were okay with just being called out as being
Speaker 1: the dude for a whole generation. Thanks for being here, man,
Speaker 1: really appreciated. Uh, we're gonna talk about Hell or High Water,
Speaker 1: which is a great film at the end of the summer.
Speaker 1: I think people were starved for a real movie at
Speaker 1: the end of the summer frankly and responded in kind.
Speaker 1: But before we get there, I just wanted to backtrack
Speaker 1: a couple of years here. I remember early November of
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, Fox Searchlight had this little movie called
Speaker 1: Crazy Heart. They weren't sure what they were going to
Speaker 1: do with it, and they screened it, and I remember
Speaker 1: the first thing I said I walked out of there,
Speaker 1: I said, this is the I just saw the best
Speaker 1: Actor Oscar winning performance. Sure enough. And then that was
Speaker 1: like when a great experience that was. I hit such
Speaker 1: a good time on that one for so many reasons. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got to work with my dear friend t Bone
Speaker 1: Burnett and uh and this brilliant young director got Cooper
Speaker 1: who since his loved by the way, Oh yeah, he
Speaker 1: also wrote crazy Heart, and as you know, he's turned
Speaker 1: out some pretty good movies since then. Yeah, that experience
Speaker 1: of of winning that Oscar, I think so many people
Speaker 1: really wanted that for you, and it was. It was
Speaker 1: a great speech, dedicating it to Dad and everything. What
Speaker 1: was it like being up on that stage, and that
Speaker 1: was a dream I guess come true in a way.
Speaker 1: But no, not even come true. It just seemed like
Speaker 1: a dream. I mean, you know, it was an out
Speaker 1: of body experience, you know. Yeah, where do you keep it? Well,
Speaker 1: we're we just moved, so it's kind of I don't
Speaker 1: know where it is, in a box somewhere right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well that's regarding that. Like I said, I was just
Speaker 1: on the set of of Hostiles, his his new his Western,
Speaker 1: good shooting. I gotta get you in another Western. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was over there making a movie recently called That
Speaker 1: Mountain with Josh Brolin, and we all got together with
Speaker 1: the other the other team, you know, Scott's movie being made,
Speaker 1: and hung out a bit. It's great to see him there. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I just missed Ryan Bingham. He was coming in a
Speaker 1: couple of days. Me too, I just missed him there too. Um,
Speaker 1: what do you think you think you and scottill worked
Speaker 1: together again? By the way, I hope so anyway to
Speaker 1: get you guys together again. Well, regarding Westerns, you know,
Speaker 1: Heller high Water is kind of a neo Western. I
Speaker 1: guess you will. I think it gets to a point
Speaker 1: where if there's Stetsons in West Texas involved. Then people
Speaker 1: want to call it a contemporary Western, but this has
Speaker 1: some of the tropes. You know. Uh. I loved watching
Speaker 1: you in this movie because you seem to relish playing
Speaker 1: the part, like you know, gut out, just chewing on
Speaker 1: that accent, just like you look really comfortable in the role.
Speaker 1: And I'm just curious if is that a hard place
Speaker 1: to get to where you're that comfortable in the skin
Speaker 1: of a character. Well, it's always a challenge, you know,
Speaker 1: You're you're trying to find the tone of the movie.
Speaker 1: So everybody in the movie seems like they're in the
Speaker 1: same world, you know, and uh, you know, starting out, uh,
Speaker 1: I find I'm quite anxious before the first couple of
Speaker 1: days of shooting because you're, you know, the guy isn't
Speaker 1: um there yet until you've captured him on film. And
Speaker 1: once you've captured him on film even one day, then
Speaker 1: you can start to apply kind of more clay around this.
Speaker 1: You know, your initial armature there, and it helps terrifically
Speaker 1: if you have a role model or you know, several Um.
Speaker 1: I was very lucky to have Joaquin Jackson, who was
Speaker 1: no longer with us, but was one of the most formidable,
Speaker 1: you know, famous Texas Rangers of old time, really and
Speaker 1: he was there helping me get it, get it right,
Speaker 1: as well as m Taylor Sheridan, the fellow who wrote
Speaker 1: the script. His cousin, um Parnell McNamara, was a marshal
Speaker 1: in Texas. And when I first read that script, I said, God,
Speaker 1: this this writer knows what he's talking about. It felt
Speaker 1: so authetic, and I proved to be right because when
Speaker 1: I met Taylor, turned out he grew up in Texas,
Speaker 1: had this cousin who's uh, you know, a marshal and uh,
Speaker 1: and so having those guys to talk to, Joaquin and
Speaker 1: Parnell that helped tremendously. Yeah, and it's something I noticed
Speaker 1: and a lot of your work, honestly, I I it's
Speaker 1: obviously they're in the Big Lebowski. I see it. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna talk to you later about the Contender. But it's
Speaker 1: it's it's it's in that just this this quality of
Speaker 1: feeling so confidab in the characters skin, and I feel
Speaker 1: like it's got to be a hard thing to pull off.
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe it's just alchemy to you, and it's
Speaker 1: part of the process and you're not thinking about that,
Speaker 1: and as an analyzer, it's something I'm picking up on.
Speaker 1: But it's got to be a the kind of quality
Speaker 1: to actors strive for. Yeah, yeah, sure is somebody else
Speaker 1: I gotta mention, along with role models, especially plating anyone
Speaker 1: from Texas, is my dear buddy Lloyd Catlett, who's my
Speaker 1: stand in and I think we must hold the record
Speaker 1: for actor and standing. We've done over seventy films together.
Speaker 1: We met on the Last Picture Show and he was
Speaker 1: a young kid, a sixteen or something like that, Uh,
Speaker 1: living in with your tall falls, and he's kind of
Speaker 1: he's the thread through all of my movies, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of a constant. So it's wonderful to have a
Speaker 1: pal like that to go through all this stuff with.
Speaker 1: You know. The socio political context of Heller high Water
Speaker 1: is obviously fascinating, uh, very much of the moment and
Speaker 1: the zeitgeist and dealing with banks kind of just banks
Speaker 1: running people over essentially. Uh. And it's interesting too because
Speaker 1: you've got this guy from Scotland comes in and directs
Speaker 1: this movie with all these kind of American tropes and ideas,
Speaker 1: working with David Mackenzie who directed Startup, What What How?
Speaker 1: Did you find. Yeah, well, Uh, he was a big plus,
Speaker 1: a big draw for me to come to the party
Speaker 1: because I saw a start up and was so impressed
Speaker 1: what with what he did with that story and with
Speaker 1: very little money to pull it off, and you know what,
Speaker 1: he did build all those great actors, the performances. And
Speaker 1: I thought this would be a great marriage between Sheridan's
Speaker 1: script and uh and David as director. I thought that
Speaker 1: would be a wonderful team. And man, I thought it was.
Speaker 1: David was so great. You know what I look for
Speaker 1: from a direct or. Uh is was creating the kind
Speaker 1: of the vibe for all of the actors and the
Speaker 1: artists that he's assembled the cook you know what, what
Speaker 1: kind of and he did something that was really terrific.
Speaker 1: We shot at Albuquerque in New Mexico, and these days
Speaker 1: they cut movies, you know, they edit the movies right
Speaker 1: along while you're making them. And Uh there was an
Speaker 1: old log cabin set up in the middle of town
Speaker 1: where the editing was taking place. And every weekend David
Speaker 1: would invite the cast and the crew to come over
Speaker 1: to this little cabin and check out the week's work
Speaker 1: all assembled, and also to party a bit. You get
Speaker 1: to know each other, you know, uh, and to relax
Speaker 1: and uh, you know what you what you mentioned about
Speaker 1: what was the term you used about feeling comfortable in
Speaker 1: the character or what did you say? It? Just feeling
Speaker 1: comfortable in character skin. Yeah, comfortable in the character's skin.
Speaker 1: And a lot of that I think has to do
Speaker 1: with this environment that the director creates. Uh. And I
Speaker 1: think you feel more comfortable in your character's skin when
Speaker 1: you're relaxed and you can kind of tap into this
Speaker 1: thing that was to be born, you know, through you.
Speaker 1: You know, let's let all the the art flow freely.
Speaker 1: And that happens, I think when the atmosphere is right,
Speaker 1: you know, when you're when you feel encouraged from the
Speaker 1: director to you know, just let it all flow. So
Speaker 1: it was a pretty tight group of people. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was a wonderful group of folks. I got most most
Speaker 1: of my scenes were with a wonderful actor, Gil Birmingham,
Speaker 1: who played my partner in the movie, and we had
Speaker 1: a great time. Like the odd couple, Yeah, and this,
Speaker 1: you know, getting to this relaxed, comfortable in the character's state.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of that, uh, comes from a
Speaker 1: certain degree of intimacy that you but you achieved with
Speaker 1: your with your team, you know, and the actors that
Speaker 1: you're working with. And one of the ways that Gil
Speaker 1: and I did that was to play music together. He's
Speaker 1: a great guitarist and I love to play, and so
Speaker 1: we were constantly breaking out our gets and you know,
Speaker 1: picking a bit. Yeah, and that that brought us closer
Speaker 1: and made us, uh, you know, work easy. I just
Speaker 1: want to venture out a little bit here. I just
Speaker 1: saw Rod Laurie's new film Killing Reagan. Oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: got a screener for that. Is that based on what's
Speaker 1: his name? Is? Based? So wild? And how was it?
Speaker 1: It was good? It was good. You know, to Matheson
Speaker 1: plays Reagan and he's great. Oh, he's a good it's
Speaker 1: really interesting casting choice. Oh guys, I gotta so. Oh
Speaker 1: that's great. You got me thinking about the contender obviously
Speaker 1: directing another president, a fictional president since and uh, I've
Speaker 1: always been curious, like, that's another role where you look
Speaker 1: like you had a lot of fun playing it. But
Speaker 1: what was the most fun you had being able to
Speaker 1: play a president on film? Asking for the Shark Sandwich
Speaker 1: or whatever it was was one of my That's something
Speaker 1: that I remember a little piece of business that I
Speaker 1: enjoyed seeing myself to wash when he's putting his shoes
Speaker 1: back on after bowling, just kind of smelling his shoe.
Speaker 1: But Rod, again, that's another example of a script being
Speaker 1: written by a guy who really knows the turf, you know.
Speaker 1: And Rod certainly, certainly yes and did. One of the
Speaker 1: interesting things about Rod Lourie is um, many years before
Speaker 1: we did the movie together, he was a, um, how
Speaker 1: do you are you a journalist? Is this what were journaling?
Speaker 1: You journal? Yeah? Yeah, because he's a journalist. And he
Speaker 1: told me that I was his first assignment, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you heard that before. And then he said, uh, he said,
Speaker 1: you know, the reason I became a journalist was because
Speaker 1: I wanted to become a director, and I thought that'd
Speaker 1: be an interesting path, you know, kind of like Trufaux
Speaker 1: or beg Donovich. Yeah. And I often would run into
Speaker 1: other journalists and ask me, oh, do you know Rodd
Speaker 1: Lori And they go, oh yeah, and their eyes would roll.
Speaker 1: I think, why are your eyes rolling? He said, Well,
Speaker 1: we'd be in these you know, interviews with directors around
Speaker 1: table or something, and he'd be asking all of these
Speaker 1: technical questions, you know, trying to you know, not be
Speaker 1: not to put him in his article necessarily, but just
Speaker 1: because he wanted to direct and learn. But I think
Speaker 1: that was a great idea. You know, here's an audience
Speaker 1: for that, especially now I think you've got designs for that. Well.
Speaker 1: You know, I think I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: involved in this industry and some the or another want
Speaker 1: to create at some point. Oh yeah, but yeah, it's
Speaker 1: I think it's great to talk to people and just
Speaker 1: get underneath the just how it works and kind of
Speaker 1: convey that to people who might be interested. I do
Speaker 1: think there's an audience for that, so many different ways
Speaker 1: to do it. Yeah. Um, And you know, regarding the contender,
Speaker 1: I'd be curious if any stat hounds out there want
Speaker 1: to track this down. I mean, I can think of
Speaker 1: Anthony Hopkins for Nixon and Daniel day Lewis for Lincoln,
Speaker 1: like getting nominated for playing a president, but I don't
Speaker 1: know if there's been a fictional president where someone played
Speaker 1: and got nominated until you I was. I found out,
Speaker 1: what's a couple of days ago that my guy, my
Speaker 1: pres is Obama's favorite movie President. That's pretty um, you know,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to talk about two movies recently, uh
Speaker 1: r I P D. And Seventh Son. These are two
Speaker 1: movies that they didn't work with critics or at the
Speaker 1: box office. And I'm curious how you take it when
Speaker 1: something like that happens, because these happened back to back,
Speaker 1: and it's a bummer. You were on this high with
Speaker 1: a couple of movies that True GrITT and Crazy Heart
Speaker 1: that happens. How do you usually take that kind of thing? Well,
Speaker 1: when you bring those, when you bring those two movies
Speaker 1: of a couple of things popping into my head to
Speaker 1: answer your question, not too bad because normally I'm onto
Speaker 1: something else right away. You know, when a movie comes out,
Speaker 1: it's a bit like you got a Horse in the
Speaker 1: Horse ration. You say, come on, alright, p D. Come on,
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, it's anything ship alright, alright, now you're
Speaker 1: going with the rest of your day, you know. But
Speaker 1: both of those movies, um man, they were disappointing on
Speaker 1: an artistic creative level, far more than the financial box
Speaker 1: office deal. Um They tend to do this with these
Speaker 1: big budgeted movies. They castrate the directors, man, and they
Speaker 1: they think the suits have a better idea about how
Speaker 1: to paste the thing together. And they screwed up you know,
Speaker 1: both of those movies. I think if they left it
Speaker 1: in the hands of the filmmakers, they would have been
Speaker 1: a much better movie. Yeah. I've had this conversation with
Speaker 1: with people a lot this year about uh, studios seem
Speaker 1: kind of ramshackle by by I P Lately. It's like
Speaker 1: their studios are becoming more IP management companies than they
Speaker 1: are what's I like, an intellectual property, So like you know,
Speaker 1: Star Wars, d C comics, Marvel, like they're they're kind
Speaker 1: they seem to be in the business of that, whereas
Speaker 1: in the past that they were. Yeah. Yeah, they show
Speaker 1: business at the business side of things, you know, overpowers
Speaker 1: that sometimes. Yeah, I mean it used to be that
Speaker 1: everybody at the top, but we're film people, and now
Speaker 1: it seems like everybody at the top tends to be
Speaker 1: more on the on the business side of the spectrum.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it seems to me that you know, you've
Speaker 1: got these have they got to three million dollars movies
Speaker 1: yet I don't know what they have is it? Yeah? Probably? Yeah, probably,
Speaker 1: And they bitched about Heaven's Gate got it costing forty
Speaker 1: million bucks. But what I'm happy to see is that
Speaker 1: maybe in response to these giant budgeted movies, you get
Speaker 1: movies like a Tangerine. Have you seen that? Beautiful? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it knocked me out. It's shot on an iPhone. Man,
Speaker 1: and you're a big fan of Once Once and I
Speaker 1: just saw I think it was his next film Street. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But those shot for nothing, and you know they're as
Speaker 1: far as entertainment value, I think they're much better. They
Speaker 1: entertained me certainly more than you know, all the C
Speaker 1: G I stuff. I remember we had a conversation a
Speaker 1: few years back and you were talking about Iron Man.
Speaker 1: Was like they didn't have a script basically, but now
Speaker 1: that now, that is a whole different story. They set
Speaker 1: the release date, but were they the Iron Man? Uh?
Speaker 1: You know there's many roads to Rome, where's the success
Speaker 1: or whatever? And you know, many ways to do the
Speaker 1: thing I Iron Man. Um the script wasn't quite right
Speaker 1: when we got it, and Jon Favreau and Robert Downey
Speaker 1: knew that wasn't quite there. We spent a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks the three of us honing the script, and then
Speaker 1: the day before shooting, Marvel threw it out said no,
Speaker 1: we don't want this, and we said, what do you
Speaker 1: tell ship and Uh. We were so fortunate to have
Speaker 1: Jon Favreau as our leader because he was able to
Speaker 1: keep his cool, manage it and make the movie in
Speaker 1: this bizarre way that it was made. Many days we
Speaker 1: would muster in my trailer, uh with Jon Favreau, Robert
Speaker 1: Downey and all the suits from Marvel, and we would
Speaker 1: try to write the scene that we were going to
Speaker 1: shoot that day while all the crew was tapping their
Speaker 1: foot inside in the studio. And you know, John would say, oh,
Speaker 1: I know a writer he might have. What's that let
Speaker 1: me call him. He called the France. Now here's the scene,
Speaker 1: and you know, we would switch part you know down
Speaker 1: He would play my guy, I would play his guy.
Speaker 1: Tried to come up with some things, you know, and
Speaker 1: it was driving me crazy because I like to kind
Speaker 1: of know my lines, you know, as other actors prepare
Speaker 1: a little differently, you know. But this is why I
Speaker 1: liked it, and so it was frustrating from me until
Speaker 1: I made a little adjustment in my head and that
Speaker 1: made all the difference. And that adjustment was, Jeff, will
Speaker 1: you please relax. You're making a two hundred million dollar
Speaker 1: student film. Just relax, Just roll with it and so
Speaker 1: that's what and then and we had a ball and
Speaker 1: it was great fun and just you know that relaxing
Speaker 1: Uh again, it's that the the director who can create
Speaker 1: that atmosphere. And I got, you know, hats off to
Speaker 1: John to be able to create that kind of relaxed
Speaker 1: atmosphere in this panicked state that he was in. And God,
Speaker 1: he's turned out some wonderful work. That's a jungle Book.
Speaker 1: I saw A jungle Book was incredible. Chef rocked me out.
Speaker 1: I mean, because he can go back and forth between
Speaker 1: something like something like jungle Books and then Downey. Of course,
Speaker 1: we were blessed to have him as Iron Man. He's
Speaker 1: you know, so so talented and improvisation which was you
Speaker 1: know which that movie really required a lot of and
Speaker 1: he just keeps going back. Um, I looked back. I
Speaker 1: wanted I didn't want to ask you this if you
Speaker 1: had been asked a lot and it's like the only
Speaker 1: time you really addressed it was a time around the
Speaker 1: time of The Giver, whenever you were doing press for that,
Speaker 1: and that is uh Robin Williams who passed away right
Speaker 1: around there, and I just wanted to do you still
Speaker 1: think of Robin? You know, the magic you guys made
Speaker 1: together on Fisher King with Terry Gilliam. Oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: think him thinking about about him a lot. I mean,
Speaker 1: even as we mentioned him, all kinds of you know,
Speaker 1: different memories you know, are flowing in my brain. Really
Speaker 1: where to what the share we are? Well? That the
Speaker 1: film you made together, I mean that that magical scene
Speaker 1: in Grand Central and and just yeah, all of those.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, when I first got on board
Speaker 1: that movie, I was, you know, a bit concerned because well,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of funny stuff in it, there's also
Speaker 1: some quite dramatic stuff. And I had this long monologue
Speaker 1: that I've got to give to Robin while he's in
Speaker 1: a coma there, you know, And I had these visions
Speaker 1: of him looking up at me and you know, screwing
Speaker 1: around with me, trying to make me laugh while I'm
Speaker 1: into this saying. And the opposite proved to be the case.
Speaker 1: He was so supportive in the most kind of zen
Speaker 1: like way. You know, how can you you know, be
Speaker 1: supportive without saying anything with their eyes closed, but just
Speaker 1: feeling that support radiating off him. And I learned that
Speaker 1: his comedic talus was just one of many in his
Speaker 1: actor bag. You know, he studied Juilliard and he was
Speaker 1: you know, I'd love to see his movies, his later
Speaker 1: movies when he's playing bad guys, you know, wonderful like insomnia, Insomnia.
Speaker 1: What was the other way? He photo and our photo? Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was so great in that. And that's a wonderful,
Speaker 1: wonderful guy. You produced the give are speaking of that?
Speaker 1: You're interested in doing more of that? More producing? I
Speaker 1: like I like doing that. Um. I produced a couple
Speaker 1: of movies, uh do one called American Heart that I
Speaker 1: really dug that and one called Hidden in America that
Speaker 1: my brother Bo started. And it's nice to uh, you know,
Speaker 1: get the get the whole run of the movie. It takes,
Speaker 1: you know, quite a while to the Giver at God,
Speaker 1: I was maybe twenty years you know, and trying to
Speaker 1: get that up on the screen. I remember reading that book,
Speaker 1: like the book when it came out. I remember reading
Speaker 1: it in school. Yeah. Yeah, I have a I think
Speaker 1: on the extras on the DVD. I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: this is true or not. Is it Jean? Maybe Jean
Speaker 1: was my publicist. She's sitting here, um, but some mut
Speaker 1: I don't know how many years ago it was over
Speaker 1: many years ago. I think I wanted to direct it
Speaker 1: the movie and produced and directed. I wanted my father
Speaker 1: Woodbridges to start in it, and so these, you know,
Speaker 1: thirty years ago wherever it was. I assembled my whole
Speaker 1: family in my father mom's house, and my father we
Speaker 1: read the whole book on video, and my young nephew,
Speaker 1: who played led the young kid in you know, and
Speaker 1: my mother played Meryl Streeps parts, you know, And of
Speaker 1: course Merrill wasn't casting at that time, but we shot
Speaker 1: the whole book and that I think is available as
Speaker 1: the extras on the DVD or some of it. Go
Speaker 1: pick that up and check it out. Well, closed by
Speaker 1: talking about the movie, you're you're I guess you just
Speaker 1: finished right in New Mexico. Are you still doing? Yeah?
Speaker 1: You're working with your tron director on this. Is that
Speaker 1: why you've got seen your face in a while? Shad
Speaker 1: get the short hairs after something? Uh? Well before that,
Speaker 1: I was in England making the sequel to Kingsman and
Speaker 1: that had clean shape and that's one of the things.
Speaker 1: You actors were constantly changing our stuff stuff. Yeah, working
Speaker 1: on this film with the Joe what's it called again?
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, granted amount Granite Mountain. It's about the firefighters, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: in Arizona. How how was that everything is being shot
Speaker 1: in New Mexico lately. Well, that's because they give us
Speaker 1: the yeah, the text stuff, and I wish, wish California
Speaker 1: would do that. It's kind of crazy they don't. I
Speaker 1: don't know what the downside of it is. I think
Speaker 1: North Carolina just got rid of theirs or something. I'm
Speaker 1: wondering about some reason it doesn't work for some people.
Speaker 1: I don't know. How How was it working on that film?
Speaker 1: And that story is amazing obviously, I remember when it
Speaker 1: was going around as a possible project. Yeah, tragic, you know,
Speaker 1: these four team firefighters losing their lives. I got to
Speaker 1: work with Josh Brolin, whom I had worked with and
Speaker 1: True Grit. Actually we didn't have any scenes together. We
Speaker 1: hung out a bit and True Grit, but it was great. Uh.
Speaker 1: He's a wonderful guy, amazing actor. I look forward to
Speaker 1: that and everybody go check out Heller high Water. It's
Speaker 1: doing well at the box office, which is nice for
Speaker 1: a movie like that, a little movie to be trucking along. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a good one. I'm really pleased with that. It
Speaker 1: was called Commancharia at one point. Well, I think it's
Speaker 1: in some countries, you know, in the in France and Spain,
Speaker 1: Mexico will be still called Commanchari, referring to this large
Speaker 1: expanse of land that was once ruled by the Comanches.
Speaker 1: Taylor is an interesting writer. I thought, Oh, isn't he great.
Speaker 1: We're gonna only heard he just directed his first film too,
Speaker 1: So we're gonna be hearing a lot from that guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so. Well. Thank you for coming on today, man,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. Good luck better right, Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening everyone. Remember to subscribe and check back next week
Speaker 1: when I'm talking to Sully and Bleed for this Star.
Speaker 1: Aaron eck Art, you've been listening to playback at Variety,