WEBVTT - Episode 6: A Bruce Willis Production 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:11.240 This is an I Heart original January. The scene at 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:14.960 Magic Valley Mall in Twin Falls, Idaho can only be 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:19.159 described as bedlam for one thing. It's a mall in 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:24.160 the nineties. The windows are shiny, the floor is polished, 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:29.200 the water fountain is erupting. It's busy with shoppers streaming 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.720 in and out of stores like Hallmark Software, et cetera, 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:38.680 and Walden Books. Today at Magic Valley Mall is different. 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:44.000 It's not full of customers, at least not strictly customers. 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:48.280 It's packed with hopefuls. That's the word of the movie 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:52.960 industry likes to use for actors attending open auditions. It's 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:58.440 a little more polite than the other phrase, cattle calls. 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:01.040 Somewhere in the middle of Idaho is a group of 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:05.679 almost three thousand people gathering near a shop Co department store, 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.600 hoping to snag apart in the next Bruce Willis Blockbuster, 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:12.039 which is going to be shooting right here in the 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:17.520 Gem State. Suddenly there's even more commotion. Bruce Willis has 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:21.800 materialized out of thin air. He's submitting to the adoration 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:25.919 of the people, customers and fans and aspiring actors alike. 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:31.040 He's signing autographs and posing for pictures with disposable cameras. 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:34.720 Bruce Willis is live in the flesh in the mall, 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:39.120 even consent to some interviews with television reporters there to 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.640 cover the casting call. That probably should have been the 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:48.040 first clue that something was a little off. After about 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:52.560 an hour of this, another Willis appears. It's David Willis, 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:56.680 the movie stars brother and a producer on his new film. 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:01.360 David looks at Bruce, Bruce looks at David. It David 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:07.440 realizes that this isn't Bruce Willis. It's a Willis impostor 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:11.480 who decided to have some fun with fans and journalists. 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:15.320 It took Willis's brother to call him out and have 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:21.320 him escorted off the premises. It's a peculiar story, but 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:24.680 the people hoping for a chance at stardom, at least 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:29.799 a brush with stardom, aren't really attuned to that. They 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:32.400 don't know the real Bruce Willis isn't about to make 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.760 another die hard. They don't know he's about to embark 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:41.120 on what is easily the strangest, riskiest project of his career. 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:44.440 But Bruce Willis is so sure he's got a hit 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:47.840 on his hands that he's decided to do something virtually 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:52.720 unheard of for actors to self financed the project. He's 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.560 producing it, starring in it, filming it just an hour 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:59.919 from his house, and recruiting Idahoans to be a part 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:04.320 to them. If it works, Bruce Willis will not only 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:08.320 bring a financial windfall to Idaho, he'll change the way 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:13.760 movies are made forever. If it doesn't, well, maybe he 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:17.600 can blame it on the impostor for I Heart Radio. 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:22.720 This is Haleywood and I Heart original podcast, I'm your 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:26.520 host Danis Schwartz and this is episode six a Bruce 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:35.800 Willis production. From the public's perspective, there weren't many downsides 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.600 to being Bruce Willis in the nineties. He was a 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:43.520 bankable star in action movies. He was married to Demi Moore, 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.839 and he had a getaway in Haley that had been 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:50.160 tailored to suit his every whim, from his own movie 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:54.880 theater to his own diner. But Willis was getting frustrated. 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:59.120 He'd been churning out movies like Mercury Rising, where he 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:03.600 protected antistic child who had cracked a top secret government code, 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:07.360 and Color of Night, which gave audience as their first 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:12.600 ever glimpse of Bruce Willis's genitals. Audiences would have seen more, 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:15.880 but the ratings Board threatened to give the movie an 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:21.680 NC seventeen classification. Not long after, Willis announced he was 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:26.560 getting bored with action movies, with genre movies, with not 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:29.200 being allowed to show his penis for the sake of art. 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:35.080 He hadn't been celebrated for his acting prowess since Pulp Fiction, 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.599 in which he played boxer Butch Coolidge for director Quentin Tarantino. 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:44.120 Willis bristled when people referred to him as an action hero. 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.920 He'd asked them what they meant by that by action hero. 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:51.360 He said it in italics like it was an insult. 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:54.800 He said that in action movies he didn't feel like 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.040 he was doing his best work, so he decided to 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:02.080 take more control. He knew the best place to demonstrate 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:05.440 his acting ability was where he had gotten started, on 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:10.919 stage before the world was introduced to Bruce Willis in 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.320 Moonlighting in nineteen eighty five, he had gotten a break 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:18.640 that was in many ways just as important, just as big. 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:22.840 In nineteen eighty four, he was cast in an off 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:27.560 Broadway production, A Fool for Love. Playwright Sam Shepard had 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:31.120 debuted it the year prior. It's about two lovers in 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:35.080 a desert motel, Eddie and May, who slowly pick away 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:38.919 at one another emotionally. That year it was a finalist 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:42.479 for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Didn't win, But in 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.400 the case of the Pulleitzer, it really is a pretty 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:49.000 big deal just to be nominated. Willis knew the plays 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:53.120 lead actor will Patton, who suggested Willis be his understudy. 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:57.200 When Patton left the show, Willis stepped in. It was 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:02.240 Willis's biggest part yet, but after roughly a hundred performances, 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:06.400 the plays producers took Willis aside and told him they 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:12.159 needed an actor with more presents, an established star maybe, 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:18.760 they said, a movie star. Ouch. They chose Aidan Quinn. 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:22.240 That must have stung a little, but good things came 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:25.200 out of that short run anyway. It helped land him 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:29.080 an agent, which helped land him auditions and eventually led 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:33.240 to moonlighting. So there's no question the stage world was 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:37.320 on his mind. When Bruce Willis moved to Hayley. Willis 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.520 had even made The Mint, his bar and nightclub, available 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:43.400 to a local production. I and a friend had written 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:47.640 display about our time in New York City, and we 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:50.479 offered it to them, saying we would do it um 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:56.279 kind of a musical comedy if you will. That's David Blampete, 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:59.560 an actor and one time resident of Sun Valley, and 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:01.880 we would with his dinner theater, so that would open 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.040 up his restaurant and give him a chance to show 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:07.039 what he was doing there and us a chance to 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:11.480 do the show show called two More Laps L A 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.880 p s E. It was pretty it was. It was 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:18.000 amazing little thing to be able to do. But it 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:22.200 was Bruce, and you know, they wanted something, and they 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:24.880 knew that we were around and been around and were 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:30.080 local talents. So they got a nice audience. We did 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:34.400 one show and it was it was a great experience 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:38.360 and it went pretty well, except David scared the out 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:42.560 of Bruce Willis without meaning to. I remember we were 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:45.160 trying to rehearse and set up getting ready, and I 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:48.000 needed to ask Bruce if I could use their green room. 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:50.560 He called it, which would be for when he has 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:54.480 his big entertainment. When they said, he just left, and 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:56.520 I went running out the door and saw him in 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:59.200 his truck and water pretty after him, and I'll never 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:01.640 forget to look on the space. You would have thought 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:06.760 he was being stalked or some was trying to rob him. 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.240 He was just shook up that someone was chasing him 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.680 down the street. I apologized and said I just nearly 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:15.720 get need to get his permission to use the green room, 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:19.440 and he said, of course, um. And that's really how 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:24.320 I remember. He was always pretty much willing to to 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:28.040 to give to the community and to people who worked 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.000 with him and whatever. I mean. They made a big 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:35.120 difference to Hayley, Idaho, and to my theater career, if 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:38.840 you will. In the valley. David had come to the 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:43.839 area from the East coast back in bringing his love 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:47.320 of theater with him. That was kind of thinking of 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:51.440 going to Seattle and trying my luck there in theater um, 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:53.760 and then just decided to know this was a good place. 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:58.320 And so with this these friends of mine formed a 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:02.720 company called New Theater Company. The New Theater Company put 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:08.760 on local productions, nothing big, but good, solid, well produced plays. 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:13.280 What David really wanted to do was one about Ernest Hemingway, 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:16.840 the famous writer was also a one time resident of Ketchum, 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.839 not far from Haley. I was asked because I've been 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:24.360 told I looked a lot like a young Hemingway to 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:28.200 do something um about Hemingway, And if I found a 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:30.920 show I liked, I thought I might do it. Once 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:33.480 David found the right script, he tried to get the 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:38.480 show off the ground. I wonder if Bruce or to 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:42.360 me might be interested in getting involved, and I remember 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:45.880 a very brief conversation and these you know said well 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:51.920 not at this time. Uh. Not much later he brought 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:56.560 in these old I guess schoolmates that had a theater 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:01.959 company in North Carolina called Company of Fools. And that's 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:05.200 when the renovation of the Liberty Theater became clear that 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:09.439 he wanted to do live theater, not just a movie theater. 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:13.480 And obviously with with Bruce and Demi's name behind it, 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:20.720 um yeah they they funding became a little more difficult 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:25.240 to get from my company. Um but we we coexisted 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:30.560 for a few years. It was hard to compete with 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:33.480 a theater company that had Bruce Willis's money to spend. 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.640 David would have to hit the streets for fundraising. Willis 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:40.480 just wrote a check. But I did pay attention to 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:42.800 what they were doing. They were there were some interesting, 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.160 interesting new stuff and very I mean very innovative for 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:52.840 for Haley. They did even they put in an aquatic 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:58.120 area around the stage for their production of The Tendest 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:01.640 so that they could get in out of water. It 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:05.360 was an astounding renovation. I mean, if if you could 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:08.559 have seen, it was just a concrete square movie theater. 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.480 I mean, there was there was nothing about it that 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:16.800 said really welcoming theater um. But they just decided they 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:20.480 were going to make it the center of Hailey culture. 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:26.040 And they did. They did a very, very very nice job, 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:30.400 and I saw many productions there. I even saw while 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:37.160 Robin Williams were warming up the act the Liberty decided 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:40.319 to make a splash by mounting Fool for Love, a 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:43.800 play Willis loved but which hadn't always loved him back. 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.199 This time, he was in his early forties, the seasoned 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:51.880 movie star, the off Broadway producers had wanted him to 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:56.199 be years ago, and he owned the theater. No one 0:11:56.240 --> 0:12:01.559 could fire him. Movies, Willis said, were take after take 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:06.520 after take until everyone was happy. The stage was immediate. 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.840 You didn't have to wait for test screenings or opening 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:13.160 weekend to figure out if something worked, if it was funny, 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:17.600 people laughed, if it was sad, people cried more than that. 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:22.800 It was dramatic. Not dramatic because of machine guns, but 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:27.199 dramatic because of its emotional heft. Even though Willis had 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.520 been pigeonholed as an action hero, that wasn't why he 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:34.120 got into acting. There was a real performer under the 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:39.080 bloodied muscle shirts and one liners, one that increasingly wanted 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:42.600 and needed a way to feel that again. If the 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:46.920 Mint gave Willis his musical outlet, the Liberty would prove 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:50.040 his dramatic chops. He could have done the play for 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:53.080 big money in New York City, but New York City 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:59.719 wasn't Hailey, it wasn't home. According to reviewers, Willis was dazzling. 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:05.960 His Eddie was pugnacious, desperate, commanding. Willis performed Fool for 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:09.200 Love over a dozen times that spring and summer of 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:15.800 ticket sales were always brisk. As reclusive as Willis could be, 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.600 The Liberty was the ideal place to showcase his craft, 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:23.600 not his die hard craft with explosions, but the craft 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:25.520 that had made him want to be an actor in 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:30.120 the first place. But there had to be a way 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:34.800 to marry his dramatic sensibilities with a major feature film right, 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:38.480 a movie done on his turns, a movie where he 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:41.640 had full creative control, just like he had on stage, 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.400 where he didn't have to point a gun at anyone. 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:57.439 And that's how Bruce Willis met Kurt Vonnegut. Kurt Vonneguet 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:00.520 had probably never seen a die Hard movie, but Willis 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:05.479 had read plenty of Vonnegut. His irreverent satires like Slaughterhouse 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:09.360 Five combine a droll humor with a keen perception of 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:15.160 the human condition. Vonnegut's seventy three novel Breakfast of Champions 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:19.880 had been kicking around Hollywood for decades. A dark comedy, 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.840 it tells the story of a car dealer named Dwyane 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:27.240 Hoover who gradually loses his mind after meeting a science 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:31.200 fiction author named Kilgore Trout. If that promise sounds a 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:35.120 little hard to grasp, then you know how studio executives felt, 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.560 like most of Vonnegut's work. Breakfast of Champions was filed 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:44.600 away as a project that was virtually unfilmable. It was 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:48.480 too insulated, too much of an interior character study to 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:52.800 be visualized, But that didn't dissuade director Alan Rudolph from 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:57.320 trying Rudolph acquired the rights to Breakfast of Champions and 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.520 spent years trying to get a feature film. He couldn't 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:06.400 manage it. It was impenetrable. No one wanted to finance 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:08.880 a movie about a car dealer who had a breakdown 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:12.920 because he met a man named Kilgore Trout. But Rudolph 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:17.720 got a break in. He directed a film titled Mortal Thoughts, 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.560 a thriller about a woman who asked to fight off 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:25.040 charges that she killed a friend's abusive husband. The movie 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:28.920 starred Bruce Willis's wife, Demi Moore. It also co starred 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:32.600 Willis as Jimmy, the man Moore's character is alleged to 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:36.800 have killed. Over the course of filming, Willis became friendly 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:40.720 with Rudolph. At some point, Rudolf mentioned he had the 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:44.720 rights to Breakfast of Champions. He'd even written a script, 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:48.160 which was now over twenty years old. In the throes 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:51.680 of his stardom in the nine nineties, It's possible Willis 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:54.240 didn't think too much about it at the time, but 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:57.520 as the nineties went on and more and more guns 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:01.320 were shoved into his hand on movie posters, Willis thought 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:07.720 about alan Rudolph about Kurt Vonnegut and about taking a chance. Well, 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:09.600 that's why. That's why I believed it was it was 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.800 a pet project. It was his to begin with, rather 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:16.840 than signing him into it. It was his pet, just 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:20.400 something for him to be able to spread his wings 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:24.000 as an actor, to producer, to the director. Because Bruce 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.760 Willis wanted to have considerable influence over the movie, he 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.560 decided to ensure he had complete ownership of it. His 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:35.720 agents financed it through a complex system of pre selling 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:39.280 foreign distribution rights and using that to secure a loan, 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:44.000 and when the production still needed money, Willis used his own. 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:51.560 This is not something actors do like ever, it must 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:53.760 have been a labor of law of you know Kurt 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:59.120 Vonnegut novel all that. Yeah, most of them are looking 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:05.520 for other people's money, you know, opm. That's Peg Owens, 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:09.480 the one time film commissioner for Idaho. Peg came to 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:12.640 the state from California, where she had been a photographer 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:16.560 for tourism promotion. I did that and I handled film 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:22.439 permits and back then, um, oh gosh, I think the 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:26.119 biggest one was I'm sorry, this is quite quite a 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:31.960 while ago. Um, a Mel Gibson movie. What was the 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:35.639 one where he was the crazy detective lethal Weapon. Yes, 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.680 the first lethal weapon was filmed in my jurisdiction. I'm sorry, 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.399 um so I was. I was in Long Beach when 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:49.920 they filmed lethal Weapon. Anyway, So I went from photography 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:56.040 to learning how to handle a film production in a jurisdiction, 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:59.960 knowing the laws of my jurisdiction and what what they 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.200 it allow and not allowing where they park and all 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:05.280 of that stuff, all of all of the logistics. And 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:07.159 so I did that for three and a half years, 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:11.240 and then I moved up to Idaho and unbeknounced seen. 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.680 At the time, Idaho was creating a film commission job 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.200 um the title of film Specialist at the Department of Commerce, 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:22.960 and I landed that job and held it for twenty 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:27.360 six years. So that's how peg Owents found herself amidst 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.919 a Bruce Willis production in Idaho, one in which he 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:35.920 could essentially veto anyone else. Taking the level of control 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:39.639 Willis wanted comes with risks, and once you're on top 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:43.000 in Hollywood, there's no reason to take those risks yourself. 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:47.960 That's the job of studios and production companies. But Willis 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:52.560 wasn't one for conventional wisdom. He formed Flying Heart Films, 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:56.280 named after the Flying Heart Ranch housing subdivision where he 0:18:56.400 --> 0:19:00.640 lived in Haley, and as the uncredited executive of producer, 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:04.600 and partial financier of the movie, Willis could determine where 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:09.400 it was shot. The story was set in fictional Midland 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:13.960 City in all American town Twin Falls, Idaho was the 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:18.440 perfect stand in for Midland City. Willis thought it had 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:22.240 beautiful backdrops like Campas Prairie and a little further afield 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:26.040 the Craters of the Moon National Monument. Best of all, 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:29.040 it was only seventy miles from his house, an easy 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.240 commute in one of his classic cars. If it worked out, 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:36.200 Willis indicated he'd shoot one movie a year right in Idaho. 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.600 Shooting a movie in the state wasn't unheard of. Michael 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:44.160 Chimino shot some of the highly vilified Heaven's Gate there 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:48.840 in Napoleon Dynamite would be shot there a few years 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:54.680 later in two thousand three, most notably, the volcano disaster 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:59.080 movie Dante's Peak was filmed there in a town named Wallace. 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:03.280 That production was massive. It had a budget of over 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.679 ninety million dollars. That was the one that spent the 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:12.280 most money. It was here the longest UM. I only 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:15.280 really showed them to locations, and they picked one of 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:19.400 those two. Um. It was fascinating to watch what they 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:22.520 did to the city of Wallace to make it look 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:25.960 like it had been asked by a volcano. They put 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:31.760 up frames with like cardboard so they can then spread 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:37.720 it was really like newspaper pulp that was then sprayed 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:42.200 all over these kind of curved things so that it 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:44.600 would look like it was a pile of ash when 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:49.679 it was really a wooden frame covered by uh newspaper. 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:55.800 Newspaper pulp was the ash yep nine million dollars. It 0:20:55.880 --> 0:21:00.400 was really a very pleasant um experience because the production 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:04.240 company was great and the town was great as a 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:08.600 filming location. Idaho had a lot to offer. From that perspective. 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:13.520 Peg wasn't surprised Willis wanted to mount production there. Oh well, 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:16.680 I thought it was a wonderful idea. You know, we 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:21.439 have had a number of celebrities living here that chose 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:26.480 not to work here, and so it was very hopeful 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:29.320 at the time that he would not only do that one, 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:33.480 but would bring more. Willis believed shooting in Idaho would 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:37.240 bring an economic boost to the local community. Cast and 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:41.080 crew were there to spend money at stores, on hotels everywhere. 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:44.920 All told, the impact might amount to around two million dollars. 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:51.080 I think the difficulty in people like Bruce Willis trying 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:55.600 to make films in the place in which they lived is, 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:58.399 first of all, I has to match you know, I 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:01.000 mean die Hard would not have matched Anhing in Idaho, right, 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.960 So there has to be a script match. All of 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:08.520 that has to work first. But then you come upon 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:11.919 a huge problem, and that is you have to just 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:16.159 about flying. Everybody right in any big movie is going 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:19.240 to bring all their principles. The cast was full of 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:22.480 big names like Willis who would play Dwayne Hoover, and 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:26.080 Albert Finney who would play Killgore Trout, as well as 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:29.679 Nick Nolty and Owen Wilson, but they also wanted to 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:33.440 hire local talent to fill out smaller parts. To do that, 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:37.320 Willis and the production put out a casting call. Extras 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:40.640 is different extras you get anywhere. Extras might as well 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:44.600 be a lamp post. They're just moving lamp posts, right hey, 0:22:45.000 --> 0:22:49.000 walk here, walk there. The extras is totally different at 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:51.880 the Magic Valley Mall, Once the dust settled on the 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:57.640 impostor stunt Idahoan's laid out there credentials. A realtor brought 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:00.480 his wedding portrait and his World War Two medal to 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:04.680 show casting directors. Another man was a dry waller who 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:08.800 said he had once played Ronald McDonald. One actor who 0:23:08.840 --> 0:23:11.520 didn't have to go to the mall was David Blampie, 0:23:12.200 --> 0:23:14.560 the guy who once made Bruce Willis think that he 0:23:14.640 --> 0:23:17.160 was about to get mumped. I got a call from 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:21.840 the casting director who said, and I said, well, why 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:24.800 are you calling me? I mean, I'm very pleased and 0:23:24.800 --> 0:23:28.000 would love the audition. And she said, well, Bruce wanted 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:32.640 to have all of his friends the audition. And I thought, 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:35.000 well that's really nice. I didn't think of myself as 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:37.480 a personal friend of Bruce, just what I mean, he 0:23:37.520 --> 0:23:39.399 knew who I was and knew what I was doing, 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:44.840 so so I appreciated being included in the audition process. 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:50.639 And the couple of roles that I auditioned for and 0:23:50.359 --> 0:23:53.600 and and they called me back. One I thought was 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:56.199 pretty good. It was a state trooper or whatever. But 0:23:56.359 --> 0:23:59.879 because whatever the scene was, there was a car that 0:24:00.040 --> 0:24:04.159 almost knocked the guy off the road, they wanted to 0:24:04.200 --> 0:24:06.560 get a stunt man instead of using an actor for 0:24:06.600 --> 0:24:12.280 them their role. I thought, well, I'm disappointed, but well 0:24:12.280 --> 0:24:15.679 it's that's life. And then they called me and offered 0:24:15.720 --> 0:24:23.160 me um a role as a police officer who's arresting 0:24:24.800 --> 0:24:31.960 m m M names. I hated kill Gore Trout. His 0:24:32.080 --> 0:24:35.640 first scene, which had him acting opposite Albert Finney, had 0:24:35.720 --> 0:24:38.880 problems with extras not doing what they were supposed to do. 0:24:39.520 --> 0:24:42.240 David's head is in the frame, but not his face. 0:24:42.920 --> 0:24:46.920 He was disappointed, but then he got another call David Blocker. 0:24:47.080 --> 0:24:50.320 He was the producer of this film, and he introduced us. 0:24:50.480 --> 0:24:53.480 It's David Blocker, and we noticed you didn't get any 0:24:53.520 --> 0:24:57.040 on camera time, wondering if you wanted to do another part. 0:24:57.880 --> 0:25:00.560 So April one, I was waiting from my April first jokes, 0:25:00.560 --> 0:25:02.919 I said, who who sent you? Who told you to 0:25:02.960 --> 0:25:05.840 do this? Who is this? So I didn't believe him. 0:25:07.400 --> 0:25:09.880 I did not believe him, and he was very gracious 0:25:09.960 --> 0:25:14.960 and said, I'll have the castarter call you. And at 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:19.760 that point I went, oh, okay, yeah, do that. Two 0:25:19.800 --> 0:25:23.280 minutes later, a very irate casting director you said I 0:25:23.320 --> 0:25:25.760 have to call you. You You don't believe David Blockers giving 0:25:25.760 --> 0:25:28.240 you a role in the movie, So I'm sorry, it's 0:25:28.240 --> 0:25:31.320 April first. What did I know? So I have two 0:25:31.359 --> 0:25:35.919 speaking roles in Breakfast Champions. I got to play a 0:25:35.960 --> 0:25:40.160 prison guard in the next part of the film, and 0:25:40.200 --> 0:25:43.800 it was on camera, So I owe that. I am sure. 0:25:44.680 --> 0:25:48.560 To the lovely Albert Finney, who knew I was disappointed 0:25:48.600 --> 0:25:51.960 and probably sitting in screening, said why don't you call 0:25:52.000 --> 0:25:56.919 this guy? The production had other issues. At the auto 0:25:56.960 --> 0:26:00.480 dealer doubling as Dwayne Hoover's dealership in the movie, real 0:26:00.520 --> 0:26:03.800 life customers looking for a new or used car had 0:26:03.840 --> 0:26:07.919 to walk around police barricades. A giant billboard of Bruce 0:26:07.920 --> 0:26:11.720 Willis in character as Dwayne Hoover was installed overlooking the 0:26:11.800 --> 0:26:14.680 highway in town. It was for a scene where Hoover 0:26:14.760 --> 0:26:19.000 has to navigate a massive highway pile up involving fifty 0:26:18.640 --> 0:26:22.320 five cars to achieve that the crew shut down a 0:26:22.480 --> 0:26:27.480 major highway artery, diverting traffic through a detour. Locals were 0:26:27.520 --> 0:26:31.720 not amused, so it was traffic jams, sometimes probably in 0:26:32.240 --> 0:26:36.600 confusion that the street was closed or whatever. And you know, um, 0:26:38.200 --> 0:26:41.600 how do I put it? You know, there's a there's 0:26:41.600 --> 0:26:47.240 a simplicity to life in in the in Idaho. There 0:26:47.320 --> 0:26:49.320 was always a sense, even when I first got there, 0:26:49.440 --> 0:26:54.080 of feeling like I was invading their territory. You know. 0:26:56.320 --> 0:26:59.080 I guess they've always felt that if somebody was coming in, 0:26:59.119 --> 0:27:02.000 whether it was the Sun Valley Company or something to 0:27:02.080 --> 0:27:05.280 build and buy and take up land and and push 0:27:05.400 --> 0:27:10.760 people socially away, if you will, just that's how they felt. 0:27:11.480 --> 0:27:14.359 They felt that, you know, their life was being taken 0:27:14.359 --> 0:27:18.960 over by these Hollywood stars and people coming into Sun 0:27:19.040 --> 0:27:24.800 Valley to a ski or whatever. Um So, yeah, Twin Falls. 0:27:25.960 --> 0:27:29.320