Speaker 1: I wonder if this is or if you're regarding this
Speaker 1: as a spiritual preparation for.
Speaker 2: The Resurrection movie you're about to embark on.
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm, you know, I'm being stripped down
Speaker 3: and prepared for something else.
Speaker 4: Now that's maybe very personal, but.
Speaker 3: I feel like I feel like the Almighty is preparing
Speaker 3: me to do something big.
Speaker 1: I'm raim an Arroyo. Welcome to Arroyo Grande. I'm so
Speaker 1: glad you're here. This is our inaugural voyage into the
Speaker 1: wild currents of this culture. My conversation with Mel Gibson
Speaker 1: is straight ahead, and it's both moving and insightful. He
Speaker 1: tells us about how he's recovering from the loss of
Speaker 1: his home in the LA Fires, and later the backstory
Speaker 1: of Braveheart, which I'd never heard before. Mel takes us
Speaker 1: behind the scenes also of his latest project, Flight Risk. Okay,
Speaker 1: before we dive in, I thought I should give you
Speaker 1: a little itinerary of what I hope this applaudcast means
Speaker 1: to you. I hate the term podcast. I use a
Speaker 1: plodcast because when it's over, I want you to applaud.
Speaker 1: I'm too broad for a podcast. We're not chickpeas and
Speaker 1: we're not coffee. We'll call it what you want as
Speaker 1: long as you subscribe to a Royo Grande and keep
Speaker 1: checking in with us. As most of you know, I've
Speaker 1: written a string of New York Times bestsellers for adults
Speaker 1: and kids, some adults who act like kids. I've been
Speaker 1: on TV for decades and I started in kindergarten. Yes
Speaker 1: I did, But this is a new adventure for me.
Speaker 1: It's more direct, not hemmed in by time limitations and
Speaker 1: much else. On each Arroyo Grande show, I'm going to
Speaker 1: navigate and analyze the culture with you. We'll hit lifestyle
Speaker 1: trends and manners or lack thereof the arts, faith, pop culture,
Speaker 1: comparing what is to what went before and sharing what
Speaker 1: it all means. Will celebrate the best in the culture
Speaker 1: while lampooning the rest. And along the way, we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about and to some incredible people about their work,
Speaker 1: their lives, their passions, and un earth practical advice in life,
Speaker 1: lessons and examples that we can use in our daily lives.
Speaker 1: And hopefully we'll have a few laughs along the way.
Speaker 1: The Arroyo Grande in the title, by the way, does
Speaker 1: not refer to big Ray. It's the grand flowing waters
Speaker 1: of life that I'm interested in exploring. At the end
Speaker 1: of this episode, I'll tell you why we're doing all
Speaker 1: of this. That's called a cliffhanger, So hang with us.
Speaker 1: But I'm going to start this and every episode with
Speaker 1: what I call a free flow.
Speaker 2: Here goes what happened to going to the movies? Oh?
Speaker 1: I know, I know you're sitting home now, you're watching
Speaker 1: Hulu and Netflix, but admit it wasn't going to the
Speaker 1: theater fund I would argue it's also important to us
Speaker 1: as a people we forget how long we've been watching
Speaker 1: images in the dark. The first Nickelodeons were introduced in
Speaker 1: nineteen oh five, We're moving images could be viewed. Soon
Speaker 1: projectors gave way to incredible movie making, then the Talkies,
Speaker 1: and by nineteen thirty three, drive ins were introduced. Like sports,
Speaker 1: movies gave all Americans and the world a way to
Speaker 1: relax and escape reality. Together, that all came to a
Speaker 1: screeching halt in twenty twenty when COVID hit A recent
Speaker 1: Harris poll found that two in three people prefer to watch.
Speaker 2: Movies at home.
Speaker 1: Now are they watching what I'm watching? Big Stars and
Speaker 1: kind of pathetic, half baked vehicles.
Speaker 2: Admit it.
Speaker 1: Charlie's Sarren and a forgettable spy thriller is not exactly
Speaker 1: mission impossible, And is Eddie Murphy doing another reboot of
Speaker 1: a really great film this week? It all feels disposable,
Speaker 1: and because we aren't watching it together, it is disposable.
Speaker 2: It's like gum.
Speaker 1: It might taste good for a few minutes, but you
Speaker 1: won't share it with your neighbor, and you'll never discuss
Speaker 1: it tomorrow with your coworkers. We just aren't going to
Speaker 1: movie theaters that often, and that's bad for us and
Speaker 1: it's bad for our kids. According to Advan in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four, attendance at the cineplex is still thirty three
Speaker 1: percent below twenty nineteen pre COVID levels.
Speaker 2: Look, I get it.
Speaker 1: I've spoken to studio heads who say we've not had
Speaker 1: enough consistent, high quality product, which broke the habit of
Speaker 1: movie going. People still want to be entertained, but they
Speaker 1: feel they can do it at home or in their
Speaker 1: jammys or boxers. The studios have offered up mostly franchise
Speaker 1: reboots Jurassic Park, Deadpool, Star Wars or whatever. Live action
Speaker 1: remake Mess Disney is releasing this week. Little incidental question here,
Speaker 1: how did CGI animation become live action? I'm asking for
Speaker 1: a friend, Pinocchio, No wonder audiences are staying home only
Speaker 1: Oppenheimer broke through the non franchise flick a few years ago.
Speaker 2: And Barbie, but she.
Speaker 1: Was kind of an established franchise. Come on, every girl
Speaker 1: had one. Here's why it matters because when we come
Speaker 1: together with strangers and we sit in the dark and
Speaker 1: enter the dreamland of the filmmaker's imagination, something incredible happens
Speaker 1: up there. Nicole Kidnan even looks younger. Heartbreak feels good
Speaker 1: in a place like this, but not when you can't
Speaker 1: keep the doors open or when the guy next to
Speaker 1: you forgot to shower. There's a crucial cultural reason that
Speaker 1: we should go to the movies as a group. When
Speaker 1: you're in that darken theater, you're sharing a human experience
Speaker 1: with others. It's not some isolated thing on your phone
Speaker 1: via earbuds, but a shared moment as one. It's almost
Speaker 1: sacred when it works. I would argue, like sporting events,
Speaker 1: we need these times together. When you're being entertained as one,
Speaker 1: it's easier to live together as one outside the theater.
Speaker 1: Movies can be and we're for decades a source of
Speaker 1: cultural unity. We shared the same references, We loved and
Speaker 1: hated the same characters. Sam Spade and Indiana Jones and
Speaker 1: Dorothy Gail, Rhett Butler, Fredo Corleone. We all knew these
Speaker 1: character It's hard to come up with any contemporary examples
Speaker 1: with that kind of ubiquity. Wolverine aside to try to
Speaker 1: lure people in theater, owners have now gone from Technicolor
Speaker 1: to three D, to Imax to those damn shaking seats
Speaker 1: that make you want to hurl your snowcaps all over
Speaker 1: the row in front of you. Now they brought booze
Speaker 1: and lazy boys in that'll only lull the audience to
Speaker 1: sleep and make them feel they could replicate the experience
Speaker 1: at home in loungewear or underwear. To bring back movie going,
Speaker 1: Hollywood has to improve their product make films rides we
Speaker 1: all want to go on together. It's important for society
Speaker 1: and the civility of our kids to develop the habit
Speaker 1: of coming together and learning as a group and being
Speaker 1: entertained at the same time. If we want to grow
Speaker 1: as a people and if theater owners want to fill
Speaker 1: their chairs, they should heed the words of that great oracle,
Speaker 1: Nicole Kidman, who once said, we make movies better.
Speaker 2: We'll see and that's a wrap. Okay, let's go into
Speaker 2: the deep.
Speaker 1: Here's a man who's been making movies better for forty years.
Speaker 1: He's an Academy Award winning director for his Brave Heart,
Speaker 1: and if there were any justice in the world, he
Speaker 1: would have won Oscars for the Passion of the Christ
Speaker 1: and Apocalypto as well. I sat down with Mel Gibson
Speaker 1: twenty years ago on the set of The Passion, which
Speaker 1: I can't believe, and conducted the first interview about.
Speaker 2: That landmark film.
Speaker 1: Now you're going to hear about his latest movie, a
Speaker 1: thriller called Flight Risk. It's an interview we recorded at
Speaker 1: his house, which is coming up. But when these horrible
Speaker 1: fires struck la in January of twenty twenty five and
Speaker 1: he lost his home, I wanted to see how he
Speaker 1: was doing and talk to him about the recovery. Mel
Speaker 1: Gibson joins me. Now, Mel, thank you for being here. Mel.
Speaker 2: What did you think.
Speaker 1: When you drove up to the beautiful room People will
Speaker 1: see in just a moment where we conducted this interview.
Speaker 1: When you saw your neighborhood, when you saw your entire community,
Speaker 1: what was what did you imagine or think at that time?
Speaker 3: Well, first, you know, I thought it was just oh deep,
Speaker 3: bad luck, tragedy. But then I think I came to
Speaker 3: realize that it was monumental mismanagement by our elected officials.
Speaker 3: And that's the nicest thing you can say about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been listening to your governor Gavin Newsom, and
Speaker 1: he's promising LA two point zero, or reimagined Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: He even says he has a Marshall Plan. Is that
Speaker 1: what you and your neighbors want right now?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I mean, as a citizen here news
Speaker 3: them at bath They want us to trust him to
Speaker 3: reimagine the city, our city, you know, in how they
Speaker 3: think it should be. And I mean, look what they've
Speaker 3: done so far to this town, you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: you got nothing but rampant crime, acute homelessness, high taxes,
Speaker 3: mismanagement of water, firefighters, defunding the department. And we're supposed
Speaker 3: to trust them with millions of dollars to sort of
Speaker 3: remake where we live. It's our city, it's the city
Speaker 3: of the people and they have another plan, and you
Speaker 3: know he's saying, build back better. You know this concept
Speaker 3: is that's man that's got whiskers on it. Everybody says it.
Speaker 3: And have you ever seen government build back better? I
Speaker 3: mean there's still people from the Woolsey fire living in
Speaker 3: trailers and stuff.
Speaker 4: Okay, when have you seen the government build back better?
Speaker 3: Very very social engineering, environmental regulation and spending. That's the
Speaker 3: last thing any of us have been burned out in
Speaker 3: need or a bunch of bureaucrats telling us how to
Speaker 3: rebuild our communities.
Speaker 4: I just think it's.
Speaker 5: At the very least it's insensitive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean and with the water challenges, I mean,
Speaker 1: the just focusing on the water mill, the reservoir that
Speaker 1: was left empty, which is the second largest in your
Speaker 1: community in all of the state. That alone raises such
Speaker 1: int tense questions. And it boggles the mind that now
Speaker 1: you have these people saying, but we should be entrusted
Speaker 1: with rebuilding the future.
Speaker 2: You couldn't hold onto the present.
Speaker 3: No, They've they've done, you know, they've bungled it. I think.
Speaker 5: I mean, there are those who say, well, was it intentional?
Speaker 5: Do they need to rebuild the Olympic village and clear
Speaker 5: you know, like the cattle barrens clearing off land or
Speaker 5: you know, I won't go that far, but it certainly was,
Speaker 5: you know, the perfect storm of events, you know, with
Speaker 5: no water, defunded fire department, not enough personnel, and the
Speaker 5: second largest reservoir in the state, you know, to take
Speaker 5: care of the communities of the Palisades Malibu, La County.
Speaker 5: They should have had a backup plan, and they knew
Speaker 5: it was coming, and they had other places where they
Speaker 5: could pump.
Speaker 4: The water from and actually fill that to be ready.
Speaker 4: They knew it was coming. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, look, as you know, I lost my house in Katrina.
Speaker 1: Our family lost our house, and it was gutting and
Speaker 1: it was awful. But you know, I came to see
Speaker 1: it as a as a great blessing in my life
Speaker 1: in time. I was struck. This week you did an
Speaker 1: interview and you said in passing you see this loss
Speaker 1: of your home as a purification.
Speaker 2: How so, well, it was an.
Speaker 3: Odd mixture of sadness and kind of a weird realization
Speaker 3: and blessing. I think because I thought, you know, they're
Speaker 3: just things. I mean, yeah, I'm going to miss some stuff.
Speaker 3: There was valuable stuff. There was personal stuff that just
Speaker 3: breaks my heart, you know. But you know, I feel
Speaker 3: like I'm you know, I'm being stripped down and prepared
Speaker 3: for something else.
Speaker 4: Now that's maybe very personal, but I feel like I
Speaker 4: feel like.
Speaker 5: The Almighty is preparing me to do something big.
Speaker 1: Well, I have to say when I when I heard that,
Speaker 1: I thought, I wonder if this is or if you're
Speaker 1: regarding this as a spiritual preparation.
Speaker 2: For the Resurrection movie you're about to embark on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's kind of it.
Speaker 3: It's like, hey, look, God gives, God takes. We come
Speaker 3: in with nothing. That's the same way we go out,
Speaker 3: you know. And here's the deal. You'll always be okay.
Speaker 3: If you seek first the Kingdom of.
Speaker 5: God, you'll always be okay.
Speaker 3: You'll get what you need. Look at the flowers of
Speaker 3: the field, Look at the birds of the air. They
Speaker 3: get fed, they get clothed. I mean, it's Matthew, I think,
Speaker 3: but I'm a That was one of my dad's favorite passages.
Speaker 3: He said, stop worrying about stuff, about money, about stuff.
Speaker 4: So you know that that's I think.
Speaker 3: I you know, he put that in my head when
Speaker 3: I was very young, and it stayed and I believe it.
Speaker 2: You know, Yeah, well, how has your faith gotten you
Speaker 2: through the smell? I mean, I know you're in a faith.
Speaker 2: I know you practice your faith devotions.
Speaker 1: I mean what it's always a moment because people don't
Speaker 1: understand unless you've gone through this, the geography of your life,
Speaker 1: the daily visuals of your life are suddenly gone. It
Speaker 1: is to me that was worse than losing the house,
Speaker 1: mel losing the coffee shop, losing the friends, losing the
Speaker 1: icons of my childhood that I you know that I
Speaker 1: remembered that I that I reveled in every day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's yeah, it's kind of an opportunity to recreate
Speaker 3: your path.
Speaker 4: I mean it's a.
Speaker 3: You know, you gotta you've got to look at the
Speaker 3: upside of this. I mean there's plenty of downside and
Speaker 3: but honestly, I see it as kind of a blessing
Speaker 3: and the purification. So, yeah, you lose, Yeah, it's going
Speaker 3: to be murdered getting the insurance. I mean, everybody's renigging,
Speaker 3: and you know it's going to be a real, a
Speaker 3: real clusterbuster.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But uh yeah, anyway, that's all I had. I I
Speaker 3: uh uh, you know, I got a lot of faith.
Speaker 4: Yeah, not in our elected officials, no, no.
Speaker 2: No, but it makes you free.
Speaker 1: But personally it frees you in some ways from the
Speaker 1: things you have to you've been carrying around for the
Speaker 1: even you know, even the things you thought you needed,
Speaker 1: you realize you don't need a whole lot.
Speaker 4: No, you don't do the work.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you a funny story. I mean, it's cold
Speaker 3: at the moment where I'm at, and it's like this
Speaker 3: guy calls me up. He's a friend of mine. He says, hey,
Speaker 3: you got a warm coat. I said no, because you know,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry. I'm just like Zelensky, but not by choice.
Speaker 3: But he said, you got a warm coat, and I'm like, no,
Speaker 3: I don't have a warm coat.
Speaker 5: And he said I got one for you. And I
Speaker 5: feel kind of like, oh, you know, I'll gee, that's
Speaker 5: nice of you.
Speaker 4: I said, is it going to fit me?
Speaker 3: You're six feet three inches tall and he said, no problem,
Speaker 3: it's gonna fit you because you gave it to me
Speaker 3: during the Woolsey fire and.
Speaker 4: Now I'm giving it back.
Speaker 5: Wow, skate, you cheapskate, mother hugger, you know.
Speaker 4: Paying it forward.
Speaker 1: Indeed, look, yeah, you know, And there's something there's something
Speaker 1: else here I don't want to leave on the table.
Speaker 1: You said to Joe Rogan that the timing of the
Speaker 1: Passion sequel the resurrection of the Christ twenty years later
Speaker 1: is perfect. Why why do you think it's perfect now?
Speaker 2: Mil Well?
Speaker 3: I think you know, the cares and the weeds and
Speaker 3: the flower you know, they've all grown up around us
Speaker 3: in the last twenty years to a degree where I
Speaker 3: think society is kind of devolving somehow, and I think
Speaker 3: we need a reminder of, you know, the most basic
Speaker 3: things and the things that forms our civilization, you know,
Speaker 3: and I think, you know, as we watch it, kind
Speaker 3: of you know, the civilization being threatened by the various
Speaker 3: earmarks that you know are precursors of the loss of
Speaker 3: any civilization.
Speaker 4: So I believe it's it's not in my timing. I thought, Man,
Speaker 4: it's too late. It's like twenty years. I mean, wow,
Speaker 4: Jim's got wrinkles. What am I going to do?
Speaker 5: You know?
Speaker 1: And in a long time CG I thank goodness.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can do something, you know, put a little
Speaker 3: vasseline on the lens, say Jim, turn around. He actually
Speaker 3: actually I got to say, twenty years is not dent
Speaker 3: Jim looks great still, so it's it's fantastic. I don't
Speaker 3: look so good, but Jim does. But so I thought
Speaker 3: it was like twenty twenty years maybe a bit a
Speaker 3: bit too late, But I think now it's perfect because.
Speaker 4: And you know, and I've.
Speaker 3: Had all these things taken and it sort of frees
Speaker 3: me up to to not worry about that stuff and
Speaker 3: just move ahead and.
Speaker 4: Do what I'm being called to do.
Speaker 3: And I'm being called to do it. Wow, it's I
Speaker 3: don't even know why it's the right time, but I
Speaker 3: think you know it is.
Speaker 2: No, it certainly feels to feel that. Yeah, it's been
Speaker 2: a long time coming.
Speaker 1: I know you've been toying with it and fighting with
Speaker 1: it and wrestling with it for all of these twenty years.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, no, no, no, it's a it's a big subject
Speaker 3: and very complex and it's taken all those years to
Speaker 3: contemplate it, think about it, and distill it with the
Speaker 3: help of two writers. And so it's it's it's a puzzle,
Speaker 3: but I think I found a way in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what are you hearing from your neighbors, mel going
Speaker 1: back to this tragedy. You all find yourselves in the
Speaker 1: midst of do they want to move on? Do they
Speaker 1: want to stay and rebuild the community in Malibu?
Speaker 2: What are they? What are you hearing?
Speaker 3: Well, a lot of people's spirits are broken, you know,
Speaker 3: because it's you know, it happened, and then it happened again,
Speaker 3: and then you realize that.
Speaker 4: You know, you're elected leaders are not really I.
Speaker 5: Don't you know, you.
Speaker 3: Don't trust them, and isn't going to happen again, And
Speaker 3: a lot of people just want to move on.
Speaker 5: I mean people were already moving out of the state
Speaker 5: in droves droves.
Speaker 3: They go to Texas, they go to Idaho, they go
Speaker 3: to South Carolina and all these different places to get
Speaker 3: away from a political and a social climate developing here
Speaker 3: that they did not dig and they wanted to go
Speaker 3: someplace where they felt like free Americans, you know. So
Speaker 3: I think they were already leaving in droves, and I
Speaker 3: think this is just going to people are just going to.
Speaker 4: Say, it's too hard. It's the too hard.
Speaker 3: Basket we were hanging on, but you know, we got
Speaker 3: to go find something else.
Speaker 5: It's a lot of these middle class families, they haven't
Speaker 5: got the.
Speaker 4: Resources to rebuild.
Speaker 3: And they I mean the insurance company, you know, they
Speaker 3: all canceled their whole things beforehand, and it's just terrible.
Speaker 3: You know, they send drones around. Oh you haven't got
Speaker 3: a railing on your Oh you haven't got a screen
Speaker 3: on your window? You got Oh sorry, we're canceling your insurance.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: It's that kind of It's this crazy thing that's going on.
Speaker 3: And then to have you know, no resources to fight
Speaker 3: this disaster.
Speaker 2: That goes on.
Speaker 1: I mean, the thing that struck me mal Unlike Katrino,
Speaker 1: which was a one and done, it was over in
Speaker 1: twenty four hours, this thing has gone on and on,
Speaker 1: and even with the national attention, they don't seem to
Speaker 1: have marshaled the resources or the will or or the
Speaker 1: organization to at least stop.
Speaker 2: These fires and protect they're citizens.
Speaker 3: That's what I Chemical spills in Ohio, look at that stuff, Yeah,
Speaker 3: what did they do? Look at all these storms over
Speaker 3: on the East coast now, I mean, really, you know,
Speaker 3: it's just neglect, you know. And and then of course
Speaker 3: we're giving all our money to other other people, and
Speaker 3: you know, and neglecting our own, you know, and giving
Speaker 3: it to giving it to people come you know, illegals
Speaker 3: coming across the border and putting them up in hotels
Speaker 3: and giving them phones and spending billions.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a lack of focus on the citizenry
Speaker 1: and the things that matter and the lasting infrastructure, which
Speaker 1: I certainly see in New Orleans and other places I travel.
Speaker 2: It's just crumbling.
Speaker 1: Look, there are thousands of people now in North Carolina,
Speaker 1: in Florida, now in LA trying to recover from disasters
Speaker 1: and find home again. What has this experience taught you
Speaker 1: and what would you offer them?
Speaker 4: Well, I think you've got to be.
Speaker 3: One has to depend on one's self and one's neighbors,
Speaker 3: and one's family and one's friends and your community in
Speaker 3: order to and to band together and to make your
Speaker 3: voices heard. Because it's clear and all over the country
Speaker 3: that are elected officials, I don't think they give it,
Speaker 3: damn because they're not really doing much. So it's up
Speaker 3: to us, I think so. And it's and and you know,
Speaker 3: put your faith in God and and kind of move forward,
Speaker 3: I think, and and and and that's that's hard to
Speaker 3: do when your ass is on fire.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, And you and the neighborhood around.
Speaker 3: The neighbors, I mean, the people I've seen I may God, Oh,
Speaker 3: you know, woman down the road she had. You know,
Speaker 3: she's got two you know, two boys who are autistic
Speaker 3: and she you know there they don't know what to
Speaker 3: do without their environment, and you know, she's found a
Speaker 3: way to some some special forces guys are doing really
Speaker 3: good services and they're they're going around getting people places
Speaker 3: to live and and and doing really good things. So
Speaker 3: you know, it's in the community like that, and our
Speaker 3: community needs to you know, tell government what we need
Speaker 3: and what we want.
Speaker 1: And demand it happened, well, thank god to the demand. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and look, we're praying for you, your family, all those
Speaker 1: caught in the path of these fires melt and.
Speaker 2: We have much more on the other side of this.
Speaker 2: You know, we're going to talk.
Speaker 1: About your upcoming film, because I do think in the
Speaker 1: midst of tragedies like this, you need to find joy
Speaker 1: and you need to find opportunities to come together as
Speaker 1: a community. And your new film, Flight Risk, is a
Speaker 1: great way to do that.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of fun and it's it's just it's entertainment.
Speaker 3: It's crazy, it's full of you know, thrills and spills,
Speaker 3: and it doesn't last too long.
Speaker 1: You don't have to No, it's a quick ride it's
Speaker 1: a while way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're not going to get a numb You're not
Speaker 3: going to get a numb butt in the cinema. F
Speaker 3: I'm sitting there watching it because it's you're in and
Speaker 3: out in ninety minutes, and it's like it's fast and
Speaker 3: crazy and hopefully and I think it's pretty entertaining.
Speaker 5: Hey, it's the best I can do with no time.
Speaker 1: Well, look, you do a fantastic job. The film is fantastic,
Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about it on the other
Speaker 1: side of this.
Speaker 2: Thank you Melon.
Speaker 1: Before we continue our conversation with Mel Gibson, I wanted
Speaker 1: to tell you a little story about another landmark thriller
Speaker 1: which reached the screen thanks to Mickey Mouse, some bloodshed
Speaker 1: and copious amounts of booze, and you won't believe how
Speaker 1: it ends. In nineteen sixty two, Alfred Hitchcock began shooting
Speaker 1: his legendary film The Birds, his take on the Daphneed
Speaker 1: Jamaria story. But as you know, a key part of
Speaker 1: the story were those psychotic attacking birds. Hitch and Universal
Speaker 1: Studios decided to create mechanical birds to torture Tippy Hedron
Speaker 1: in the cast, but after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Speaker 2: The birds looked ridiculous.
Speaker 1: They just didn't look real, so they hired animal trainer
Speaker 1: Ray Berwick to wrangle live birds. Ravens and seagulls, crows
Speaker 1: and sparrows were collected, but they were unpredictable and they
Speaker 1: did not take direction well. The crew and actors endured
Speaker 1: repeated bird attacks. Tippy Hedron was bloodied by the birds
Speaker 1: and spent a week in a hospital recovering. The birds
Speaker 1: were as vicious on screen as off, but Hitchcock couldn't
Speaker 1: even get the fowls to stay still on a rooftop
Speaker 1: during scenes, so they devised a solution.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned or how it ends?
Speaker 1: So, how did Alfred Hitchcock get those twenty five thousand
Speaker 1: live birds to cooperate on the set of The Birds?
Speaker 1: They had attacked his actors, his crew, and they would
Speaker 1: not stay still long enough to capture on film. Actor
Speaker 1: Rod Taylor revealed the untold story to Hello magazine. He
Speaker 1: said the animal trainers devised a new technique for dealing
Speaker 1: with those unruly birds. The only reason those birds stayed
Speaker 1: still was because they were Taylor said. Apparently the birds
Speaker 1: were given feed drenched in alcohol. They tied the drunken
Speaker 1: birds to the rooftops to keep them in place, But
Speaker 1: what about the flying attacks? For those, Hitchcock turned to
Speaker 1: an animator, ub our Works, who was nominated for an
Speaker 1: Oscar for his Flying Birds. Our Works had a talent
Speaker 1: for animating animals. He was also the man who, in
Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties took a rough sketch given to him
Speaker 1: by his employer Won Walter Disney, and transformed that sketch
Speaker 1: into Mickey Mouse.
Speaker 2: And that's how it is.
Speaker 1: Is Now we go back to Academy Award winning director
Speaker 1: Mel Gibson, who just completed his own new thriller and
Speaker 1: its escapism entertainment just when we need it most. This
Speaker 1: is also the final interview recorded at Mel's Malibu home
Speaker 1: before it burned down in.
Speaker 2: Those Los Angeles fires.
Speaker 1: We talked about his direct total approach, the sequel to
Speaker 1: the Passion of the Christ, and his new film, Flight Risk,
Speaker 1: a taut thriller about a government witness being flown out
Speaker 1: of Alaska to stand trial when really bad things begin
Speaker 1: to happen. It stars Mark Wahlberg in a frightening performance
Speaker 1: and is directed by mister Gibson. Buckle your seat Belts.
Speaker 1: Here's a glimpse of Flight Risk.
Speaker 2: Debetie Hairs, Daryl Booth Hope, light Flying.
Speaker 1: And then from the fugitive before Government witness not a
Speaker 1: fugitive head a goo?
Speaker 2: Is it always this bumpy? He used to it already
Speaker 2: is very disappointed in you and he wants you dead.
Speaker 1: Oh right, you need a pilot White Risk.
Speaker 2: You think of Flight Risk as a buddy movie.
Speaker 3: Yeah, why, Well, you know, you've got a couple of
Speaker 3: characters who aren't necessarily It's like war. You know, you
Speaker 3: put people together in a trench somewhere in some war,
Speaker 3: and they don't come from the same background. They don't
Speaker 3: even like one another. They just as soon punch each
Speaker 3: other in the face. But you put them in an
Speaker 3: adverse situation and they form a bond, and they form
Speaker 3: a love for one another, almost better, more love for
Speaker 3: their the guy they don't like.
Speaker 4: Than for themselves because of the adversity. And this is
Speaker 4: the situation here and lethal weapon vibe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know. John Lovett used to have
Speaker 3: a routine on Saturday Night Live. I Love John and
Speaker 3: he and he said he was being a film producer.
Speaker 3: He says, you meet coaches, Yeah, you don't like him,
Speaker 3: you hate each other. But by the end of the movie, youah, friends, you.
Speaker 4: Know he used to do that. Yeah, friends, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean it's kind of and and you know there's
Speaker 3: some challenges for these two and they have to work together.
Speaker 1: Is a federal agent, the other is a witness in
Speaker 1: a criminal against bad characters.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and the other guy's a psycho psychopath as played
Speaker 4: by Mark Wahlberg.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're trapped with a psycho in a wooden box,
Speaker 3: in a flying death trap.
Speaker 1: In Why cast Wohlburg in that character because we were
Speaker 1: really unaccustomed to seeing him there.
Speaker 4: He's usually no, you.
Speaker 3: Don't see him like that, and like, there's he's got
Speaker 3: that in him. Mark's got the madman in him, which
Speaker 3: is like, you know why he's done so well. I
Speaker 3: mean there's a kind of a maverick, a kind of
Speaker 3: a wild side the Mark, and there's and it's a
Speaker 3: dark edge to him and which he is aware of
Speaker 3: and which he kind of like tries to discourage. I
Speaker 3: think he throws a few shovelfuls of dirt on that
Speaker 3: demon every day and then and but it's it's, uh,
Speaker 3: he can draw from.
Speaker 1: It, and he gets to take a walk and well,
Speaker 1: that's right.
Speaker 4: And that's therapeutic. Yeah, I think for an actor or
Speaker 4: for anyone.
Speaker 1: He's he looks very different in this movie too. I
Speaker 1: don't know if we well we talked about it and
Speaker 1: we've seen it in the trailer. Sure something's missing up top.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he looks like Dennis Raider. You know, he's he's
Speaker 3: got this.
Speaker 4: He's got this nude nut, you know, bald head with
Speaker 4: like scraggly hair on it, like.
Speaker 3: Like that bt keg I used to have, which is
Speaker 3: really kind of scary and uh and Mark's frightening.
Speaker 4: He looks kind of terrified, you know.
Speaker 1: He looks like that out of control little monster on
Speaker 1: this this movie evolves. I won't give it away, but wow,
Speaker 1: he really goes there and beyond.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, he does.
Speaker 1: Whose idea was the bald head? It was his.
Speaker 3: He came to me and he said, hey, man, I
Speaker 3: had an idea that I said, like, I'm wearing a
Speaker 3: rug and a hat. But then he gets knocked off
Speaker 3: and I'm bald and I'm like, WHOA. I said, I
Speaker 3: think that's great, but let me give me.
Speaker 4: Twenty four hours to sleep on it. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is a decision you make, you can't
Speaker 3: undo it if you start filming it. So but I
Speaker 3: woke up the next day and I thought, that's kind
Speaker 3: of a genius idea.
Speaker 4: Yeah, parts idea.
Speaker 3: It just symbolically and in many other ways, it just
Speaker 3: like resets Mark and and and resets the ca character
Speaker 3: and it's just bizarre.
Speaker 1: It's another layer of fraud, yes, which I thought, yeah, wow,
Speaker 1: not even the hair is real.
Speaker 3: Yeah, to pay fraud, you know, I mean it's yours real, Yes,
Speaker 3: mine's real for now, some of mine are. Yeah, well
Speaker 3: you believe me. There's less to be real bout. But
Speaker 3: it's what's there? Are you forming the monkey? But I
Speaker 3: am I'm getting nil.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's that camera.
Speaker 1: You notice I never let them shoot me from there?
Speaker 4: There?
Speaker 1: I see be good good, Mel, good Mel. How does
Speaker 1: the actor in you? How does that change the way
Speaker 1: you direct other actors? You were telling me about your
Speaker 1: direction to the show in this movie.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, or Michelle or Mark or anyway.
Speaker 3: I think I think I understand the actor's dilemma on film.
Speaker 3: And you know, it's hard to just like turn up
Speaker 3: and do stuff out of order.
Speaker 4: And and uh and and.
Speaker 3: It's hard to be totally self aware all the time
Speaker 3: about how to gauge a performance. So I think it's
Speaker 3: helpful for someone who's been there to actually help you
Speaker 3: and be a completely objective pair of eyes to kind of.
Speaker 4: Help on the way.
Speaker 3: So you know, I have a lot of empathy for
Speaker 3: actors and directors now, and and I think having having
Speaker 3: you know, shouldered those responsibilities and use those tools, I'm
Speaker 3: able better to instruct those who will have to do it.
Speaker 1: Tell me about at one moment you had a particular
Speaker 1: instruction to Michelle in this movie.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, it's her best moment. Tell me about that. Well,
Speaker 4: she said, what do you mean? I said, Hey, Michelle,
Speaker 4: go Greek. Here.
Speaker 3: She says what I said, go Greek. I said, what
Speaker 3: you mean, like, eat it dol made. I said no,
Speaker 3: I says some columada olives. I said no, no, no, dispense.
Speaker 4: With all that.
Speaker 3: I just said, go Greek, tragedy, go big. And she
Speaker 3: was like okay, and she did it and it's she
Speaker 3: was fantastic.
Speaker 4: She let that cut in. Oh yeah, she's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, it's that sensitivity. Look, I've been on a
Speaker 1: lot of sets. Most directors are asking these actors for
Speaker 1: a result. Give me this, Give me that you work
Speaker 1: in a different way because you are working through an
Speaker 1: actor's instrument, kind of find a different way in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think you can't. You know, you can't
Speaker 3: give them wine readings and all this. You got to
Speaker 3: you gotta use their essence. And that's why you hired
Speaker 3: them after all, because you trust them and I trust it.
Speaker 3: And these are three very talented people. I mean, let's
Speaker 3: let's not goof around here. I mean they've been doing
Speaker 3: what they've been doing for a long time. And it's
Speaker 3: like with Andrew Garfield or any of these guys. You know,
Speaker 3: you just say action cut, that's great. You are really
Speaker 3: you know, and you let them do it. And if
Speaker 3: they ask for help, you give it. And if if
Speaker 3: they don't, if it's not broken, you don't fix it.
Speaker 4: You get out of the way. That's absolutely right.
Speaker 1: What are the obstacles and advantages of working in a
Speaker 1: tight space like this? This is a confined Cessna aircraft.
Speaker 1: I don't know why you didn't shoot on a big Boeing,
Speaker 1: but you can tell me that I'm shot on the
Speaker 1: Boeing double wide.
Speaker 4: Well it was.
Speaker 3: It's it's kind of like it's more immediate, it's more claustrophobic,
Speaker 3: not that I think claustrophoby is a great thing for
Speaker 3: an audience, but it does have moments that really open
Speaker 3: it up. So you're not I don't think you're not
Speaker 3: on the plane very long. It's only eighty five minutes.
Speaker 3: It's a fast, tight thriller.
Speaker 4: But I think I don't know the space.
Speaker 3: Just wanted it to be that, And I chose a
Speaker 3: Cessna two eight because that was big enough to be
Speaker 3: able to swing in cat or a dead mouse in
Speaker 3: but like and get cameras and stuff in there and
Speaker 3: do all that, but small enough to be confined and
Speaker 3: believable as.
Speaker 4: A bush plane in Alaska.
Speaker 3: And those planes are indeed bush planes that are like
Speaker 3: a FedEx plane, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, a Cessna
Speaker 3: two o eight, you know, with the T cross wings and.
Speaker 1: You and you're shot in an actual Cessna or the
Speaker 1: remnant of one.
Speaker 4: We shot on the remnants of a of a real Cessna.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know, like you adjusted, well, yeah, you
Speaker 3: had four and a half feet high by five feet
Speaker 3: seven wide with chairs and people and camera.
Speaker 4: Guys and so you're in there pretty tight.
Speaker 1: But I was fascinated by the volume wall you used
Speaker 1: in this, which is kind of new technology. You shot
Speaker 1: all of this in a warehouse.
Speaker 3: Most of it in aware, some of it out on
Speaker 3: your locations, like I had an airstrip and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all the opening close in the movie, but the
Speaker 1: heart of the movie you're really shooting in a in
Speaker 1: a one room. But it looks like you're flying over Alaska.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Dad, you've got you think you're over
Speaker 3: the vastness of the Alaskan Alps and this tundra of
Speaker 3: wilderness that's kind of scary and intimidating. And you see
Speaker 3: it on film and you don't need to do rotoscoping
Speaker 3: or green or blue screen any of that stuff.
Speaker 4: It's real looking.
Speaker 1: And that had to be all shot beforehand.
Speaker 4: I shot those people, I shot the plates beforehand.
Speaker 3: I got in a helicopter with a camera that looks
Speaker 3: like a COVID virus. It has like the three sixty
Speaker 3: degree like things sticking out all around it takes This is.
Speaker 1: The old Disney magic carpet routine. Disney used to do
Speaker 1: a ride coll in the sixties. Walt Disney devised that
Speaker 1: technology home from the bottom of a helicopter. It had
Speaker 1: multiple cameras and it was it was playing around you
Speaker 1: in the round. Oh, people coming, and it gave you
Speaker 1: the feeling that you were flying over things. Okay, that's
Speaker 1: really what your volume wall is. That's it.
Speaker 4: I think technologically it's quite advanced now. I mean the
Speaker 4: image is like wow, unbelieve it's photo.
Speaker 3: Reel and you put it up there and it moves,
Speaker 3: and the actors were getting like, oh, give.
Speaker 4: Me a bucket.
Speaker 1: But so you had to shoot all the drops and
Speaker 1: the nose dives and all that on that helicopter before
Speaker 1: you ever got to principal.
Speaker 3: We got all that stuff, and not all Some of
Speaker 3: them were a few other tricks you can do. And
Speaker 3: you know, I won't tell you anything. I'm like Colonel
Speaker 3: Sando keeping the recipe in my breast pocket.
Speaker 4: I don't blame you.
Speaker 1: But you know he's dead now, so well I won't
Speaker 1: bry any of them out of the bucket.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I worked for that. I work for the colonel. I
Speaker 4: starved under the Corey many times.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, are at the old KFC. I'm a veteran. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I got wounds. I got you a purple heart.
Speaker 1: You know, I think that's I think that's your cardiologist.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the casting here? Why these three principal actors.
Speaker 1: You have lots of other actors. Why these three actors.
Speaker 3: Are wonder and that's all there is to it. They're
Speaker 3: just incredibly accomplished, talented performers and.
Speaker 4: They kind of fit.
Speaker 3: The archetype of what we needed to achieve here now,
Speaker 3: you know. And sometimes you'll pluck somebody like Mark who
Speaker 3: you don't usually associate with this kind of role, but man,
Speaker 3: he was able to just deliver credible Michelle, of course,
Speaker 3: is like the queen of subtlety and and can convey
Speaker 3: so much with just the movement of the eye. I
Speaker 3: was just kind of blown away. And Tofer has this
Speaker 3: insane timing. He's really Yeah, he's funny, you know.
Speaker 4: And they're all funny.
Speaker 3: They all have their little weird, little humorous moments, so
Speaker 3: and they understand that, all of them. So they kind
Speaker 3: of and were able to work that timing amongst themselves,
Speaker 3: most of them.
Speaker 1: And you even cast your Vegas driver in one role,
Speaker 1: which I don't know I can tell people about the role,
Speaker 1: but it's pretty incredible, you know that the driver ended
Speaker 1: up making it into the final cut.
Speaker 3: He was amazing, This guy from from Bulgaria who used
Speaker 3: to drive. He drove my car and I said, dude,
Speaker 3: you ever been on film?
Speaker 4: And he went, no, sir. I'm like, what where are
Speaker 4: you from? And from Bulgaria, from Sofia, you know.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, okay, hey, you want to be in
Speaker 3: and he said, oh yeah, I do, you know?
Speaker 4: And he looked great.
Speaker 3: He's he's got this amazing kind of presence. So I thought,
Speaker 3: I'm going to use it.
Speaker 4: And it worked. Oh yeah, it works. You know exactly
Speaker 4: who he is as soon as you see.
Speaker 3: In fact, you know, the first time I saw him,
Speaker 3: I said, I don't know if I want to drive
Speaker 3: with this guy. But he's the nicest guy on earth,
Speaker 3: you know. But he looks tough. Wow, he looks tough.
Speaker 2: Tell me about Steven Rosenbloom.
Speaker 4: Who have you've worked with before? Sure? Braveheart, brave heart.
Speaker 3: He was my editor and he's the editor on this too,
Speaker 3: And he does not mess around. He is a very
Speaker 3: experienced editor, and he knows how to make a good
Speaker 3: piece of entertainment and how to slice and dice it
Speaker 3: just the way we all want it, you know.
Speaker 4: So he's he's it's a treat to work with.
Speaker 1: Stut do you just hand him the script and you're
Speaker 1: and your cut? Would you give him notes let's watch it?
Speaker 1: Or he does a cut?
Speaker 4: I give it to.
Speaker 3: Him, and I say, here, what can you make out
Speaker 3: of this? You know, you make a silk purse out
Speaker 3: of this? Sal's ear here, help me out here, buddy.
Speaker 3: And he goes away and I leave him to his
Speaker 3: own devices, and he invariably comes up with something great
Speaker 3: and a lot of stuff I didn't even expect, and
Speaker 3: I thought, wow, I didn't even know I shot that,
Speaker 3: you know, and he's using things that I'm like, whoa so?
Speaker 3: And then we get together and really kind of work
Speaker 3: as a team and like you know, chip away, like
Speaker 3: the old Michelangelo kind of film.
Speaker 4: Ed it?
Speaker 1: Did you cut this movie down in the edit? Uh?
Speaker 4: It's pretty much. Has you got it much? We were
Speaker 4: trying to like, we need more time and this is
Speaker 4: so fast.
Speaker 3: We actually did cut it down, yes, because whenever it
Speaker 3: looked like it was like not moving, or if there
Speaker 3: wasn't a beat that was furthering action plot, or wasn't
Speaker 3: just a laugh in some sense or interesting in some.
Speaker 4: Respect, we would.
Speaker 3: Deviate from it and try and exclude it so that
Speaker 3: what we had was kind of that you never get
Speaker 3: a chance to get let down.
Speaker 4: You're just kind of like watching the whole time.
Speaker 1: There's something I see in all your films, and whether
Speaker 1: it's look and these are some of these things are
Speaker 1: frankly challenges that no other director would undertake or has undertaken.
Speaker 1: When you look at Apocalypto, when you look at the
Speaker 1: passion of the Christ, when you look at this project,
Speaker 1: you direct from the audience point of view YouTube.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's an essential part. I am an audience.
Speaker 3: Member first when I'm directing, And what do I want
Speaker 3: to see? When I'm sitting in a dark room public
Speaker 3: dreaming with like four hundred other people or whatever it
Speaker 3: happens to be.
Speaker 4: Even two other people, what do I want?
Speaker 3: And you have to cater to the need of the
Speaker 3: man in the dark room watching your dream, you know,
Speaker 3: and having a dream with everybody else.
Speaker 4: And who can you drag in? Who can you affect?
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of directors to say no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I write for me, I direct for me, I direct
Speaker 1: for my vision.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well that's partially true, I guess, because I mean, look,
Speaker 3: it's undeniable. If whoever directs a film, they leave their mark. Yeah,
Speaker 3: of course, so they are there and their sensibilities are there.
Speaker 3: So in a sense that's true, but you cannot exclude.
Speaker 3: If you're a chef and you're cooking a great meal,
Speaker 3: you don't just need it yourself and say five stars.
Speaker 4: You gotta share it with.
Speaker 3: A bunch of hungry people who can then give you
Speaker 3: feedback on it.
Speaker 4: You feed them, they feedback.
Speaker 3: If they feedback, you're in trouble. Yeah, but it's a
Speaker 3: bit like any art. It is to be shared, and
Speaker 3: it is.
Speaker 1: To be but it's meant to be consumed by others.
Speaker 1: It's not your little pet product. That's why I know
Speaker 1: so many of these things are inaccessible.
Speaker 4: Well a lot of them are. I mean, if you
Speaker 4: make a film for an elite, you know.
Speaker 3: It needs to work for as brought an audience as possible.
Speaker 1: So tell me about Tell me about you related the
Speaker 1: story of Braveheart, which I had not heard. How you
Speaker 1: came to that project. Well, yeah, tell me about that
Speaker 1: how because you this was not you had read the
Speaker 1: script earlier and casked on it, thinking it.
Speaker 3: Yes, but I liked it and it was it was
Speaker 3: an acting offer, and I thought, oh wow.
Speaker 4: You know, I read it and I was busy doing.
Speaker 3: A bunch of stuff, and you know, I was in
Speaker 3: my mid thirties and I was seriously busy at that.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was like I couldn't you know, oh you know,
Speaker 3: I was turning things down and giving other people shots yep.
Speaker 4: And and I, uh, I sort of just I read it.
Speaker 4: I liked it, but I thought, no, not for me.
Speaker 3: I don't think I can pull off the man. And
Speaker 3: I killed you know thing, and then I sort of
Speaker 3: walked away and did a bunch of other stuff, and
Speaker 3: somebody said, well, what you know, what do you want
Speaker 3: to do next?
Speaker 4: I said, I don't know.
Speaker 3: Man, I read this thing a couple of years years back.
Speaker 3: I thought it was pretty good, and it kind of
Speaker 3: it has some really big themes and and he said,
Speaker 3: oh really, what was it? So I told him the story.
Speaker 3: And but when I told him the story, I was like,
Speaker 3: I was saying, non, you got this low angle here
Speaker 3: with the guy doing.
Speaker 4: You know, And it was like I was almost like
Speaker 4: a shooting script. You were dreaming at your head.
Speaker 3: And I realized that I had been thinking about this,
Speaker 3: like in my wee hours before you go to sleep
Speaker 3: at night. How would I fill that with that you know,
Speaker 3: you know, low angle on the horse hoofs with the
Speaker 3: you know and all.
Speaker 4: This kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: And I was constructing images in my head that sort
Speaker 3: of like excited me. And and uh, and I said
Speaker 3: to the guy, said that sounds amazing. And then we
Speaker 3: got the script and it was Randy's script and it
Speaker 3: was still as good as it was. And I thought, wow,
Speaker 3: I think I need to direct this is because I
Speaker 3: just want to shepherd what we see and how we
Speaker 3: see it in up here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what I constructed over the time.
Speaker 3: And then I said, and I had directed a small film,
Speaker 3: so I put my toe in the water and and
Speaker 3: so I I thought, let's try it on a bigger
Speaker 3: scale here. And I said, Alan Ladd Junior, God rest
Speaker 3: his soul. He's gone now. But he was a good dude.
Speaker 3: You could never understand what he said. He was he mumbled,
Speaker 3: and so it was like, you know, you go, what
Speaker 3: what what? And he always has said something smart. He
Speaker 3: was a smart guy. He just had this kind of
Speaker 3: mumbling thing. And so he used to have a gag.
Speaker 3: I used to say, well, you know, Alan Ladd Junior
Speaker 3: told me one time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so.
Speaker 3: And I even told Laddie that joke. So you know,
Speaker 3: he cleared it with him. Yeah, he was a sweet
Speaker 3: old guy. He's gone now, he's gone to he's gone
Speaker 3: to Gallan.
Speaker 1: He had the he was at MGM at the time.
Speaker 3: He was at MGM uh and he I think he
Speaker 3: got the Golden handshake over there they get, which means
Speaker 3: like get out of here, buddy.
Speaker 4: And uh.
Speaker 3: He said, Okay, I'm leaving, but all right, but I'm
Speaker 3: taking I'm taking two scripts with me. And he took
Speaker 3: two scripts from MGM u A. He took The Brady
Speaker 3: Bunch Yeah and Braveheart.
Speaker 4: He only wanted to be title. Yeah, that must have
Speaker 4: been at the top of the get to c ord.
Speaker 3: So when I reconnected with the project, when I realized
Speaker 3: I wanted to direct.
Speaker 1: It, I.
Speaker 3: Found out that it was at a different studio. It
Speaker 3: had gone from MGM to param Paramount. He moved to Paramount.
Speaker 3: He moved to Paramount, and so I and I said, Laddie,
Speaker 3: you know, I've only done this once before, but I
Speaker 3: want to direct it.
Speaker 4: And he said I don't know, And I said, great,
Speaker 4: we got a deal, right. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So it was fantastic and one of the best, I
Speaker 3: mean hard so funny, you know, seven days a week
Speaker 3: sometimes what was the pre production on that snappy. It
Speaker 3: was like as soon as I said, can I direct?
Speaker 3: He said, I don't have a problem with that. I said, great,
Speaker 3: let's go. Ten weeks of pre production on this is
Speaker 3: lightning for any film, but on that, oh, my goodness.
Speaker 4: An epic.
Speaker 1: I mean all the just the people you have to move,
Speaker 1: my gosh, that's incredible.
Speaker 3: Well, I was fortunate and I had a really good
Speaker 3: production team, you know, and and we were able to
Speaker 3: go over and find what.
Speaker 4: We needed in Europe.
Speaker 3: Ireland was very helpful with not only tax credits, but
Speaker 3: there resources and they bend over backwards and for and
Speaker 3: forth but to and extended a hand, and we were
Speaker 3: able to shoot it in Scotland, you know, and Ireland
Speaker 3: and and get and get, and the UK really really
Speaker 3: put out for a surprise.
Speaker 1: I guess I'd forgotten. It didn't pop at the box
Speaker 1: office when it first emerged.
Speaker 4: It wasn't a huge box office on the screen. It
Speaker 4: wasn't on the big screen.
Speaker 3: I think it made like seventy five million or something,
Speaker 3: which was not really okay, uh and uh, but We're
Speaker 3: really did good.
Speaker 4: Was on VHS. It went crazy on that won a
Speaker 4: bunch of Academy Awards.
Speaker 3: After it once, you know, one of you know, all
Speaker 3: these Academy Awards, and then and then went big on BHS.
Speaker 3: So hey, it came in, It slid, it slid into
Speaker 3: Home played. Eventually it holds up. It's still a classic.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it holds up.
Speaker 3: It inspired a lot of other films because the battle
Speaker 3: epic had been buying large abandoned, you know, with Charlie Neston,
Speaker 3: you know, you know, l Sid or Spartacus or back
Speaker 3: in the fifties, and then we kind of resurrected the
Speaker 3: whole the big genre battle epic with that film. And
Speaker 3: then of course Ridley and Tony saw it. Ridley and
Speaker 3: Tony's saw they were like, whoa nobody does?
Speaker 4: And it was like oh, and I was flattered. They
Speaker 4: called me about it. They were like wow.
Speaker 3: And then you know, it spawned things like Troy and
Speaker 3: Gladiator and all the series of most good and some
Speaker 3: good films, you know, and and and so you know,
Speaker 3: it kind of brought those things back. Now, I think,
Speaker 3: you know, you got to cool it on those things now.
Speaker 3: But maybe there's a yeah, there's another.
Speaker 4: One or two left.
Speaker 3: There's a couple of big story out there that that
Speaker 3: would really resonate.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the viral you've released, these little viral
Speaker 1: moments around flight risk kind of tie one of them
Speaker 1: ties to Brave Heart.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, what's what were.
Speaker 1: You trying to do with these?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 3: Look, it was so it was so much fun to
Speaker 3: work on. You know, it was fun to shoot with
Speaker 3: these actors and stuff. And I just felt like, you know,
Speaker 3: what we got was a little odd and a little
Speaker 3: quirky and off to the side a little bit, but
Speaker 3: still fast and entertaining. And I thought, you know, hey,
Speaker 3: let's just keep the spirit of this thing going. And
Speaker 3: I just wanted to kind of goof on it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know, and and and.
Speaker 3: And let the audience know that, hey, don't take this
Speaker 3: too seriously. This is just a nice thrill ride, a
Speaker 3: fast piece of entertainment.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: And and and you are on the edge of your
Speaker 1: seat and going, oh my, I mean, you don't hear
Speaker 1: people gasp this way theater. It's very often to tell
Speaker 1: me about the resurrection before we run out of time.
Speaker 1: Obvious one of the great master works of your life. Yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: And career people have been waiting for this movie for.
Speaker 4: A long time. Yeah, like twenty years or so.
Speaker 3: It'll be about it'll be even longer by the time
Speaker 3: it actually makes it.
Speaker 4: And I'm not sure when that is.
Speaker 3: I know, I'm my focus now is on that. I'm
Speaker 3: in a pre production mode. It's it's complex and it
Speaker 3: took a long time. It's like it's like labor pains,
Speaker 3: you know, it's like giving like birth to this to
Speaker 3: this creation that's got to be.
Speaker 4: You know, all working parts. And it's been a long labor.
Speaker 1: And you told me last time we talked, this isn't
Speaker 1: just Jesus rises acts of the apostles. It's much more complex.
Speaker 3: Well, yes, because you have to ask the essential question
Speaker 3: of you know, in our existence, why why are the
Speaker 3: big realms of good and evil? And they exist, they're
Speaker 3: as real as we are. Why are these realms slugging
Speaker 3: it out for the souls of the hearts and souls
Speaker 3: of mankind?
Speaker 4: Why are we the meat in that sandwich? Little old us,
Speaker 4: flawed us, imperfect us? Why why is that about us?
Speaker 4: And I'm trying to answer that question. I don't know
Speaker 4: if I can.
Speaker 3: I've attempted, and maybe with God's help and with image
Speaker 3: and with sound, and music.
Speaker 4: We can deliver on.
Speaker 3: Some answers to some of those massive questions, these existential questions.
Speaker 4: I can't wait to see it. Yeah, that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, we'll go to flight risk. Yeah, why
Speaker 1: not go to flight risks?
Speaker 4: How fun?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you don't want to you don't want to be
Speaker 4: going down on that not that one.
Speaker 1: No, I'd like to. I'll be in the freight downstairs.
Speaker 1: I'd rather not be with Wahlberg and company.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Two, I'm afraid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, here's the hole.
Speaker 2: The takeaway.
Speaker 1: Whatever you do, do it for others, whether you're an
Speaker 1: artist or a teacher, or a mechanic or a stay
Speaker 1: at home parent. The thing that struck me about that
Speaker 1: conversation was your gifts are for others. They should be
Speaker 1: our focus. In Mel's case, the audience is always front
Speaker 1: and center, and Mel reminds me every time I see
Speaker 1: him keep the humor in the forefront. I would argue
Speaker 1: it's one of his superpowers on screen or otherwise. He
Speaker 1: uses comedy to drive the drama and the thrills. Alfred
Speaker 1: Hitchcock once said suspense doesn't have any value if it's
Speaker 1: not balanced by humor.
Speaker 2: Neither does life. I hope you enjoyed the show come
Speaker 2: back next time.
Speaker 1: As I'm going to recall on every episode, why live
Speaker 1: a dry, narrow, constricted life when if you fill it
Speaker 1: with good things, it can flow into to a broad,
Speaker 1: thriving Arroyo Grande. I'm raiming Arroyo. Make sure you subscribe
Speaker 1: and like this episode. Thanks for diving in, and we'll
Speaker 1: see you next time. Arroyo Grande is produced in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeart Podcasts and is available on the iHeartRadio app
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts