WEBVTT - Titus Welliver 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast. 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:17.599 My guest today is actor Titus Willober Tightest. Good to 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:20.119 have you. Thank you for having me, Bob. I'm a 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:24.720 big fan. Okay, good we're Are you located right this 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:29.680 very second in the era of the pandemic? I'm in Venice, California, 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:34.839 a k a. The Andromeda Straine set. And how are 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:38.760 you coping with self quarantining? You know what I have 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:43.120 to say, Um, it's it's I'm not losing my mind. 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.600 Two of my kids are home doing their school work, 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:49.240 and it's just sort of become the new norm. I 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:53.239 venture out and uh walk around and do things. But 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:56.160 you know, a lot of reading, a lot of watching 0:00:56.480 --> 0:01:01.200 tons of television old new, uh yet to come, and 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:04.560 and lots of films. So I'm trying to utilize this 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:09.319 to my best ability. And it's it's not so bad. Okay, 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:13.560 So you're not really paranoid about getting it now. I've 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:18.240 been really hyper vigilant since it first kind of was 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:23.240 creeping into the into my news feed. UM and my 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:26.240 girlfriend had lived in Hong Kong at one point and 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:30.840 had gone through stars and so she um, we sort 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:35.760 of immediately disimplemented all the the you know, the cautionary behavior, 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:37.679 and it's it seems to serve as well. I mean, 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.679 we venture out to go to the grocery store, and 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:43.280 that's really the extent of it. But you know it is, 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:46.200 you know, you mask up and glove up and go 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.680 in and and that's all we can really do. So 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:54.320 what do you reading? Oh my god, I've just finished 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.080 reading a great book about Sam Peck and Paw who 0:01:57.120 --> 0:01:59.760 was one of my eric directors, called it they moved 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.480 of him, and uh it's been on my shelf. It 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:07.120 was given to me years ago and uh I cracked 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.920 it and quite fascinating. Um, you know, a bit of 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:14.760 an undignified end to a guy who who was a 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:20.760 game changer in the field, but fascinating, really quite fascinating. 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:25.320 So what did you learn? Well, he he had been 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:27.560 in the Marine Corps and he was you know, he 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.360 was not unlike a lot of the characters that that 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:33.560 appeared in his films. I think that his the kinship 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:36.520 to the to the Pike character, to William Holding character 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.320 in The Wild Bunch. He was this sort of avid 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:48.880 outdoorsman hunter, um, you know, boozer, womanizer. It's interesting. I 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:52.560 told now, go back and look at his films. I 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:57.400 see a lot and hear a lot of of him. 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:00.839 Um in the characters in his films. Now he did 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.200 straw Dogs, didn't he he did? He did. That's the 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:07.520 only film I've ever seen where I said, wait a second, 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:11.600 this might be too violent, you know what. I saw 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:15.919 it at a drive in, completely inappropriate from my age 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:17.920 at the time to come out in theater as a 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:21.520 year before, and I ended up going to see it 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:24.919 get this double bill with Deliverance. So if you really 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:32.080 want to completely, you know, destroy your your teenage mind. Um, 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:34.560 it was a game changer. But I remember being very 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:36.800 very disturbed, of course, drawn to it like a mop 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:39.280 to a flame, but then kind of realizing once I 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.400 was watching this film and I was a bit in 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.160 over my head, although it stayed with me, I have 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:48.680 to say, Um, but yeah, both of those films that 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:52.320 I was shaken for quite a while after that. The 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.200 only film that I've really been scared at, and I 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:58.120 was scared in the book too, was Angel Hart. Did 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:00.640 you ever see Angel Heart? Oh? Yeah, yeah, that's why 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:02.960 I actually really really liked that film. In the book, 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:07.560 is is really really fallen Angels a great book. I 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:10.120 thought the film was was quite good. I loved Mickey 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:11.920 Rourke in it, and I thought de Niro, I mean, 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:18.680 Alan quintessential, kind of Alan Parker visually kind of stunning, 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:23.279 and de Niro comes in and suitably menacing and charming 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:25.840 all at once. Now I'm I'm right there with you. 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.720 I really enjoy that film. So what's next on your 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:32.560 reading list? Well, you know what, I'm just looking at 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:36.080 my bookshelves. There's uh. I have all the tash and 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:39.520 books that you know, the films of the sixties and 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:41.240 the seventies and the eighties, and so I thought what 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:44.279 I would do is peruse those books and come up 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:47.840 with a with the greatest hits list of films that 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:52.680 my kids have probably not seen, and sitting down with them, 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:55.640 we've been sort of going through some of the films 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:59.640 of Scorsese and and Peck and Paw and Trufou and Melville, 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:02.400 and I've got my own little film school going here. 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:05.039 How old are the kids that are bumping up with you? 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:08.960 Eighteen and fourteen, My daughter's fourteen, my son is eighteen. 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:13.560 Now they're used to me throwing um, you know, films 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.320 at them, But I'm trying to kind of I want 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:17.960 to expand it a little more. I mean, I don't 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.840 think I'm we're gonna, you know, sit through any bonwell 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:25.520 or anything like that. You know, I'll certainly try to 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.440 I'll try to sweeten the deal with something. Although we 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:32.559 did do Polanski's The Tenant, which I that I find 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.799 that film very very scary, maybe more disturbing than anything. 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:40.560 But that film really unnerved and are they receptive, very 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.560 much so, very much so. I think the Innocence, you know, 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:47.120 the debor Caraclic has got to come next, because that's uh, 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:51.120 for me, yet another film you know, still holds up, 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:55.200 still quite quite spooky. I think it's time to to 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:57.520 break it. Of course, my kids want to jump right 0:05:57.560 --> 0:05:59.680 to The Exorcist, which I say in my fourteen year 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.000 old you're not ready for that. You won't recover that 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:05.760 will take you years. Well, that was still in the 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:08.640 era of platform releases, and I remember people have seen 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.480 it over Christmas. I've been out of town and I 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:13.720 went to New York to see it, and I think 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:17.200 I was overhyped, you know, also being Jewish, maybe it 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.919 doesn't really connect. But uh, I wasn't frightened but the 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.880 fact that Max von Sita was in a genre pick 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:25.880 I couldn't believe it. Well, I know, you know, and 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.040 it's very funny because I remember there was an interview 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:32.000 with with him ben Cito, talking about it, and he said, well, 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.680 you know, I'm Scandinavian and so we have lots of 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:39.120 folklore and everything, but the Devil for us really kind 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:43.360 of falls into the column of being sort of silly folklore. 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:47.760 We don't really um, you know that it doesn't we 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.760 don't absorb that. UM. I just think that for me, 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.760 and I was raised in an agnostic household slash probably 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:58.080 more of a Jewish household than anything. But it's still 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.000 scared to beat Jesus out of me. But I think 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:04.120 it was also because I never really considered I remember 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:08.760 kind of finding the paperback book at a friend's house 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:11.200 that I was having a sleepover, and and kind of 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.480 cracking it open and and reading it and thinking, I 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:16.560 don't I don't want to, I don't want to pursue 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.200 this any further. And then of course I saw the 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:23.640 film and it it just it really knocked me. I 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:29.360 didn't sleep solidly for for at least a month after that. Wow, 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:32.040 So what are your favorites if we had to boil 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:38.040 it down to a few from the late eighty Uh, Well, 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:43.040 I love bullet Um and uh love Copolist films, Love 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:49.600 the Conversation, love um and lament huge, Lament, fan Um, 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:52.960 Long Goodbye. I also love I love you talk about 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:55.840 the Long Goodbye with Ellie Gould, with Ellie Gould, Yes, yes, 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:03.680 um uh friends of Eddie coil Um another I I 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:07.520 always have considered that sort of Mitcham's King Lear. I 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:11.040 mean as his performance in that film. There there there 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:15.520 are aspects of that film that feel like a movie 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:17.520 of the week, just in the way that it's shot, 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:21.080 in the music yet the performances Richard Jordan, Peter Boyle 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:26.480 and Alex rock Ohan's sort of amazing collection of actors. 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.920 Um the last detail which I just uh, that was 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:33.800 a great movie. So Brandy Quaid has kind of left 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:39.520 the planet. Yeah but literally, Yeah, he's on space stations 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.480 qu Equaid right. The funny thing is the woman he's 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:45.600 involved with is the daughter of a professor was at 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:47.680 my college. I never took a course room, but he was. 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:50.160 He taught Russian and he was an odd guy. So 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:53.000 reading about that story was a weird. You know, six 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:58.240 Degrees of Separation. You know another one wages a Fear, 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:02.160 which I just check back into a couple of weeks ago. 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:04.280 I'd forgotten how much I love that film, and I 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:06.640 you know what, I have to say, the remake that 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:10.640 Friedkin did with Roy Scheiner Sorcerer has has got a 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:13.319 lot of merit great. So I agree. I told freaking 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.360 when I saw him a couple of years ago, because 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:18.599 that movie was really denigrated when it came out, but 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:21.440 I felt it had an amazing tension. I saw it 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:24.240 in the National, which was the theater in Westwood before 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.920 they tore it down, and probably five people in the theater, 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:31.640 but it really hit me. Oh no, it's it's it's great. 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:36.240 And that you know that Tangerine Dream score is is fantastic. 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:39.800 I mean it's super solid. I think it's really good. 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.600 In Scheider is great and all those other actors, um, 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:47.040 the foreign actors that that surround him, and I know 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:51.160 it's I think it's a very very underrated film and 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.880 kind of unappreciated, but you appreciate it. I do so. 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.720 And where the two guys, based on this conversation, you 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:02.160 really seem like a Stu into the game very much. 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:06.000 So my parents were both cinephiles. So the weekends were 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:09.160 and of course this is very you know, long before 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.480 we ever had VHS or any right. He actually went 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:16.120 to the theaters and then had the Great Revival theaters 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:18.880 all over New York, Cinema Village and the Waverley Twin 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:23.280 and UM and the Thalia on the Upper West Way 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:29.640 Upper My My weekends were spent seeing the films of 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:35.079 Curasawa and Um and and Bent well Um. My father did, 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:37.800 unfortunately take me to see Sorrow and the Pity when 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:44.320 I was entirely too young, which actually really really traumatized me. 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.520 And I can remember waking up from this horrible nightmare. 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:51.280 I was little, I was a little boy, and my 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:53.280 mother said, well, you know, and I was sobbing, and 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:55.600 she said, what what do you What happened? I had 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:58.120 a bed a nightmare at a nightmare And she said, well, 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.520 what was your nightmare about? And I said, the Nazis 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:05.520 were We're shooting people and pushing them into a ditch. 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:08.280 And my mother went, why would you even think of 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:10.320 such a thing? And I said that movie that I 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.400 went to with dad. My parents were divorced. He said 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:15.520 what movie was that. She's trying to think of some 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.720 World War two maybe something with Burt Lancaster that she 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:22.720 was unaware of because my dad loved World War Two films. 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:25.480 And I said it was The Sorrow something and she 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:29.320 said the Sorrow and the Pity and I my mother 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:33.240 literally going to her nightstand and picking up the phone 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:35.240 and it was probably one o'clock in the morning and 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:39.120 calling my father and just saying, what were you thinking, 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:41.839 you know? And he said, it's a it's an important film, 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:43.960 and she said, you know, I can hear them going 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:46.800 back and forth. I agree, but you know he's he's 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:50.080 too little, and he went, he's got to know. Uh, 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:55.280 he's that Max Offals, I believe. But what I remember 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:57.480 seeing and then he made one just after that was 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.160 like six and a half hours. I remember bringing a 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.480 sandwich to the movie. I don't remember my name right now. 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.120 It's funny you talked about because I can remember my 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:11.440 dad taking my brother and I to see um, Lawrence 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:13.640 of Arabia and it was the first film I'd ever 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:18.240 seen and had an intermission, um but of Court yet again. 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.520 You know, that was the Lean films when I was 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:25.600 a kid. They were the Greatest Adventures as absolutely loved 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:29.720 did Doctor Javaga. And I remember having a friend, uh 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.480 sort of a playmate friend of mine come along and 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:35.719 my dad took us to see Doctor Javago, and this 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:38.400 kid just it didn't land on him at all. He 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:41.120 kept staying this stupid and it's so long. And I 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.959 was because that was my life. I was looking at 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:52.000 him like, what a philistine. This kid hasn't been raised properly. Um, okay, 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:56.520 but your father at the time was teaching at Yale. Yes, yes, 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:00.000 but you were living in Manhattan. No, we were living 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.120 in New Haven. I was born in New Haven, and 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.360 so the films that I saw, the very early films 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:08.280 that I saw, were shown at the co Op at Yale. 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:12.200 So I can remember seeing Um Big Deal on Madonna 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:15.520 Street as a little boy there and and the Beatles 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:19.040 movie helped. And then he he left there. He was 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.760 snatched away from Yale by the University of Pennsylvania, where 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:26.720 he became the chairman of the Graduate School of Fine Arts, 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.920 and we then moved to West Philadelphia. I wish there 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:34.640 were a lot of UM great theaters, and in particular, 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:38.280 there was the one down on South Street that showed 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:42.560 UM you know. Every time I turned around, we were 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:46.439 going to see a Kurasawa festival. I remember going for 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:51.480 one one afternoon and and starting with high and Low 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:54.560 and then it was you know, Jimbo, which is to 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.199 this day one of my all time favorite film Santuro 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:04.320 seven Samurai um, and I was. I was thrilled. I 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:06.640 was happy, happy to be there. It was good for 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:09.000 my reading skills too. I always maintained that I learned 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:13.240 how to read because my parents just for films. I 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:15.640 wasn't doing you know, green eggs and him, I was, 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:20.440 you know the city up there, you know, reading the subtitles. 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:22.400 So I had knew what the hell was going on 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:24.720 in all the chaplain of course, and the Silent films 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:30.480 and Buster Keep films, UM and Harold Lloyd and those films. 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.440 I just remember I went to hear John Simon speak, 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:37.400 who recently died, of course, was the film critic for 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:41.800 multiple magazines. And I remember talking to him and he 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:45.040 was not a open guy, and I said, I, if 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:47.160 it's up on the screen, I can pretty much sit 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:50.720 through anything. I love the experiences. No, no, it's not good. 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:55.040 I leave. But you know it's different because when I 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:57.560 first moved to l A in the mid seventies. And 0:14:57.600 --> 0:14:59.120 the great thing about living in the l A because 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:00.840 movies at the time open in New York and l A. 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:05.880 You could literally see everything, whereas today that's literally an impossibility. 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.160 I know, I agree, and and and it breaks my heart. 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:15.359 I mean, we do have one in Brentwood on Montana 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:18.040 that that revival theater, and they and they throw up 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:21.160 some really substantial films and every now and then someone 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:23.480 connected to the film will actually be there for a 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:27.960 little comment afterwards. But uh, you know, because everyone has 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:31.560 blu ray players. Um, the a lot of those theaters 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:33.760 have have have gone away, which kind of breaks my 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:37.680 heart because there's really nothing better, even even watching the 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:42.320 krummy print of a great film. That it's that, you know, 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:47.480 it's that tactile experience of being there, and um, it's 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:51.080 just it's entirely different. And I have a giant TV, 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:55.040 a high def four K ultra gas powered turtlenext letter 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:59.240 to that's with a so no sound system and it's 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:04.240 amazing it. My popcorn isn't as good. And uh, and 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:08.400 I miss if someone should bottle that old cinema smell 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:10.640 like a room spray that you could just sort of 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:14.240 put on your couch before you tuck into a good film. 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:18.240 I really missed that a lot, those great double features, 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:21.800 things like you know, American Graffiti and the Wanderers, or 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:25.760 what a great double bill? Oh god, what did that 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.440 guy say when he was banging the bottles together? Wanderers? 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:35.680 That's the Waltering Warriors, Warriors, Wanderers. Brain said Wanderers, My 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.520 lip said warriors. But the Warriors was another one. But 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:40.320 you're talking about that experience. I remember I went to 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:44.640 Hollywood Boulevard for a preview of Halloween and the squel 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:47.720 and the theater was full, and just at a tense moment, 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:51.040 somebody yelled out, you deserve to die, and it was 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:55.000 like that really made the whole Well, that's the day. 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:58.160 I mean those When I was a kid in New York, 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:01.680 we would go to the Times Square because you could 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:05.360 see a triple bill there for three bucks, and so 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:09.439 you would typically get two really awful films and one, 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:13.359 you know, sort of substantive film that would kind of 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:15.119 make up for it. But we didn't care, you know, 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:17.800 we would go and see a triple feature. You know, 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.360 kung fu movies that were you know, maybe they were 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:23.600 they were. They were not high art, but they were 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:27.960 you know, very very entertaining. Um. But you know, that's 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:31.159 where we lived. The popcorn was horrible. They smelled like 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:35.359 cat yearn because all of them had rodent infestations, so 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:39.679 they were just wildcats roaming inside. And you'd have you know, 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:43.600 emotionally disturbed people in the audience with you that would 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:45.600 live in the theater. It was kind of like Escape 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:49.080 from New York waiting for Ernie borg nine to come 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:53.320 strolling out. But the but there was you know, and 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:57.320 they would have these fantastic dialogues with the screen, these 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:01.160 these characters in the movie really and that was sort 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:03.919 of that was worth the price of admission, as it was, 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:06.760 you know, he didn't even care necessarily what was happening. 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:10.040 But they'd be yelling always, typically at the at the 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:12.800 victim who sprains their ankle when they're trying to run 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:17.760 away from you know, the Jason Borhees character. Right, Okay, 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:21.760 we can't leave New Haven without asking you about Peppi's pizza. 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.280 H that's you know, I I it's in my d 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:29.480 n A. I mean there any time my my eldest 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:33.680 son attended Choke Rosemary Hall and so when I go 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:38.800 to visit him. Uh, it was essential that we we 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:42.679 made our way into town. Uh, just to do that. 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:47.080 I mean the really truly is There's lots of different pizza, 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:51.280 but for me, when I eat that pizza, it's my 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:56.720 favorite movie, my favorite song, my my favorite pair of pajamas. 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:01.000 Everything is just rolled into one. Just can't beat it. 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:06.960 It's it's something in that you know. Okay, So at 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:11.840 what age do you lead to Haven? I was about four, okay, 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:14.080 so very early. And how old were you when your 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:17.919 parents divorced? Well, I my I never knew my parents married. 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:20.920 My my my mother got pregnant with me and my 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:26.000 dad uh split sky, So I never I never knew 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:28.760 them as a couple. Um and I didn't even really 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:31.840 technically meet my father until I was almost two years 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:37.320 old because he was um part of a h An 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.600 artist program that was sponsored by the State Department in 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:44.600 which American artists and artists from all over the world. 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:47.400 It was like an exchange program. So my dad traveled 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:52.640 all over the globe for almost two years, living with UM, 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:57.720 you know, hosted by artists in in Vietnam, in France 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:01.399 and Italy. And so he was on and I you know, 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:04.639 my first memory of him, I was about two years old. 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:08.080 He had just come back and of course, you know, 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:11.800 there was no face time or anything like that or 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:16.679 and I kind of wandered downstairs to my bedroom and 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:19.399 there was this chap was asleep on on the couch. 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:23.280 And I went back upstairs to my mother's bedroom and 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:27.000 I said, uh, Mommy, there's a there's a man sleeping 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:30.520 on the couch and she said, that's your dad. Wow. Yeah. 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.080 I went down and I poked him a few times 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:36.560 and he sort of rolled over and looked at me, 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:41.560 and I said hi, and he said hi, and uh, 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:43.720 he said, come here and give me a hug. And 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.720 I said, there was two. I said, I don't know you. So, 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:52.440 um it was sort of crazy, crazy, uh memory. But yeah, 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:56.600 I didn't really sense of of his his presence until 0:20:56.680 --> 0:21:00.879 that age. Okay, so you were there to four and 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:05.240 then you moved to outside Philly. No, we we we 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:10.800 we moved right into the center of West Philadelphia and 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:15.080 my my my parents didn't live very far far apart 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:19.400 from each other, so you know that I had access 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:22.040 to both parents, could could walk, My brother and I 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:25.159 could walk to and from their places, and my dad was. 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:28.600 My mother was a fashion illustrator, so she had a 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:31.240 studio at home where she did her work. As my 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:34.119 father also had his painting studio at his home, but 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:37.239 he was um, you know, nine of the time he 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:39.960 was down on the Penn campus. So I spent a 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:43.320 great deal of time down there. And so siblings, you're 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:47.200 talking about your brother, does he share the same mother? Yes, 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:49.480 I have, Well, I have only one natural sibling, my 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:54.240 brother Silas, who passed away about eighteen years ago from 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:57.880 a pre existing um medical issue. He had a form 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:02.439 of my autonic muscular justtry feet which manifested in his 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:06.720 heart and and he passed away at forty five, sadly 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:11.160 ply um. But so we lived there and my father 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:16.080 remarried and he had three children, two of which passed away. 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:20.240 One was my infant sister. She died from what they 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:22.800 called then crib death now we call it a sudden 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:27.920 infant death syndrome, four months old. And then my other brother, 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:33.040 Eli was killed by misadventure in Thailand. He was in 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:35.800 a saloon and he went to use the bathroom and 0:22:35.800 --> 0:22:38.200 while he was there, these guys sort of targeted him 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:41.320 for for a robbery and they put heroin in his 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:44.120 beer to incapacitate him. Beeknownst to him, he came back, 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:47.840 drank the beer and was uh, you know, losing it. 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:53.920 But he was allergic to heroine and didn't know that 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:58.760 and went into anaphylaxic shock twenty one and died quite 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:02.760 quite tragic. Well, how does death in your feeling? Obviously 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:05.520 you missed these siblings, but how does it affect you 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:10.280 emotionally in terms of your viewpoint on the world. Well, 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:17.360 I would say certainly, you know, being a father, um, 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:20.200 I have I might be a little bit. I don't 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:24.320 want to classify myself as a helicopter parent, but I'm 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:28.879 I'm one of those cautious parents who have you know, 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:32.760 not not necessarily overprotective, but have really tried to raise 0:23:33.280 --> 0:23:37.520 my kids with a sense of always being aware of 0:23:37.560 --> 0:23:40.439 their surroundings, their environment, you know, having their head on 0:23:40.480 --> 0:23:44.640 a swivel without being paranoid and and um because obviously 0:23:44.760 --> 0:23:49.040 I wanted my kids to have a normal childhood. Um 0:23:49.080 --> 0:23:53.600 but but you know, awareness, great awareness. But it's certainly 0:23:53.760 --> 0:23:57.200 you know, many many a sleepless night when they were 0:23:57.280 --> 0:24:00.760 when they were little, for sure. Okay, so, oh, you 0:24:00.880 --> 0:24:03.600 moved to Philly at age four. Do you stay there 0:24:03.640 --> 0:24:10.119 through high school? No, stayed there until I was about eleven, 0:24:10.320 --> 0:24:13.479 and then my father decided to He had a summer 0:24:13.480 --> 0:24:16.600 home in Maine, in a little town called Lincolnville, and 0:24:16.640 --> 0:24:20.479 he decided he wanted to move there and live there 0:24:20.520 --> 0:24:23.480 full time. That was where he painted. He painted the 0:24:23.600 --> 0:24:28.800 landscapes of Maine, and he he wanted to kind of 0:24:28.840 --> 0:24:32.159 he just said the city was too much. And you 0:24:32.200 --> 0:24:35.760