Speaker 1: Look it out his only films to be buried with. Hello,
Speaker 1: and welcome to Films to be Buried with. My name
Speaker 1: is Brett Goldstein. I'm a comedian and actor, a writer,
Speaker 1: a director, a bootlegger, and I love films. As Groucho
Speaker 1: Marx once said, humor is reason gone mad, and the
Speaker 1: Lady in the water is filmmaking without executive notes. Well,
Speaker 1: Groucho Marks was always very wise. I suppose every week
Speaker 1: I invite a special guest over. I tell them they've died.
Speaker 1: Then I get them to discuss their life through the
Speaker 1: films that meant the most of them. Previous guests include
Speaker 1: Barry Jenkins, Kevin Smith, Jamila Jamil, Sharon Stone, and even
Speaker 1: said Grambles. But this week it's the amazing mister Paul Fieg.
Speaker 1: Head over to the Patreon at patreon dot com forward
Speaker 1: slash Brett Goldstein, where you get an extra fifteen minutes
Speaker 1: of chat with Paul. We laugh about staff, details, a secret,
Speaker 1: We talked beginnings and endings of films. There's no video
Speaker 1: this week, but they're videos for most of the other apps.
Speaker 1: You get the whole thing, uncut and ad free. Check
Speaker 1: it out over at Patreon dot com Forward Slash Break Goals,
Speaker 1: Team ted Lasso Season two and one is available now
Speaker 1: on Apple TV Plus. You can watch the whole show.
Speaker 1: Super Bob and Soulmates can be seen on Amazon Prime
Speaker 1: in most countries. So Paul Figue, Laddie Hell, come on,
Speaker 1: Paul Figue. Paul Figue is a writer, director, producer, comedian,
Speaker 1: creator everything. He's responsible for so many wonderful things, including
Speaker 1: most of your favorites, from Freaks and Geeks to Spy
Speaker 1: to the most repeated film on this podcast, the brilliant Bridesmaids.
Speaker 1: I was very grateful to meet with Paul over zoom.
Speaker 1: We had a lovely conversation. I think you're really going
Speaker 1: to enjoy it. I was very grateful for his time.
Speaker 1: So that is it for now. I very much hope
Speaker 1: you enjoy Episode one hundred and ninety of Films to
Speaker 1: be Buried With. Hello, and welcome to Films to be
Speaker 1: Buried With. It is I Brett Goldstein, and I'm joined
Speaker 1: today by an actor, a comedian, a writer, a director,
Speaker 1: a producer, an executive producer, a creator, a maker of
Speaker 1: at least three of your favorite all time things of
Speaker 1: all time. At least, I can't believe he's here. It's
Speaker 1: a huge honor to have him. Please welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: It's the brilliant it's mister poufey Oh Brett, my god,
Speaker 1: I can't possibly live up to that's too much. It's
Speaker 1: just too much, my friend. It's all true. It's very
Speaker 1: nice to have you here. Thank you for doing this.
Speaker 1: My pleasure. Thank you for having me. It's such a
Speaker 1: fun podcast. I'm thrilled to be a part of it. No,
Speaker 1: I don't embarrass myself terrible. Well, this is good. I've
Speaker 1: got so many things I want to ask you, if
Speaker 1: I may. First thing I want to know is were
Speaker 1: you a stand up? Where you are you a stand up?
Speaker 1: I was? I was. I made my living as a
Speaker 1: stand up from about nineteen eighty five to nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: five years of professionals stand up a long time ago. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And do you ever miss that? I don't, actually, I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean I I do miss the art form of it.
Speaker 1: It was. It's really to me, stand up sort of
Speaker 1: the purest of all art forms because it's literally just
Speaker 1: a person and a microphone. Um, and so there's something
Speaker 1: wonderful about that. And you know, and John Appata, who
Speaker 1: I've worked with a lot in the past. You know,
Speaker 1: he's doing stand up full time now and he loves it,
Speaker 1: and I think that's great. I just I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just for some reason, the club scene, it all
Speaker 1: kind of I leave it behind me. I leave it
Speaker 1: to people who are much more enthusiastic one than I
Speaker 1: am anymore. That's interesting. And one thing I say up front,
Speaker 1: I'd say, m Bridesmaids, which you made, comes up on
Speaker 1: this podcast probably more than any other film. I'd say
Speaker 1: when asked, well, people's funniest film is that that's probably
Speaker 1: sixty percent of ads is bridesmaid Wow. Nice, that's wrong
Speaker 1: with the other forty percent? But I want to tell
Speaker 1: you no, that's all. That's I love, that's that's a
Speaker 1: great honor. I really m Yeah. But you'll you'll. You know,
Speaker 1: you're very good. You're very good at collaborating and finding
Speaker 1: and I wonder if you can, you know, with freaks
Speaker 1: and geeks, which is one of my favorite things ever,
Speaker 1: Freaks and Geeks, Bridesmaids. You know, you've got an eye
Speaker 1: for talent, and you know you seem to have discovered
Speaker 1: a lot of people who have gone on to become
Speaker 1: massive things. Do you have any idea what that is
Speaker 1: or is it just instincts on your pot Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what it's I mean, honestly, it's I think all
Speaker 1: of us know when you see something great, you know,
Speaker 1: and I think the biggest thing is to just leave
Speaker 1: yourself and your mind open to it. You know, That's
Speaker 1: what casting really is. And you know a lot of
Speaker 1: times when you're working on like a TV show, like
Speaker 1: a weekly TV show, the casting sessions, like one casting
Speaker 1: session and they bring in five people and you go like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: they were the best. But you know, when you're doing
Speaker 1: casting something bigger, either like a four or four an
Speaker 1: entire series or for a movie, you know, you take
Speaker 1: your time and you bring a lot of people in
Speaker 1: and everybody you see, you know, you're always gonna see
Speaker 1: somebody good, Like casting directors aren't going to bring somebody bad.
Speaker 1: So you know, either they're right for the role or
Speaker 1: they're not. And you know, so you see all these
Speaker 1: people and you go like, oh they were really good.
Speaker 1: Oh they were good. Now I'm always right to list like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah they could they could be good in this role.
Speaker 1: They could be good in this role. But then suddenly
Speaker 1: somebody will come in and he's like boom, and it
Speaker 1: just like blows everybody else out of the water, and
Speaker 1: you're like, that's the person. So you just kind of
Speaker 1: you really kind of lay in wait for those moments
Speaker 1: and have to be in tune enough to realize them
Speaker 1: and also be able to adjust the role if you go,
Speaker 1: they're not exactly what I had pictured, but they're so good,
Speaker 1: it's better for me to adjust the role than to
Speaker 1: go like, well, you were great, but you're not quite
Speaker 1: like the person I you know, based it on. You
Speaker 1: know that That's what I think a lot of mistakes
Speaker 1: are made in casting. That's really interesting, I think. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure I've talked about this before, but I think
Speaker 1: that's very much what happened with Kaylee and Ted Lasses.
Speaker 1: I think Gina Temple was so good, but she was
Speaker 1: not quite what we had written, and it was right, Well,
Speaker 1: let's just make it well because it's fucking bad at Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is no, that's true. And yeah, like you say,
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean somebody's not good. It just means they're
Speaker 1: you know, there's just not right for the role. You know,
Speaker 1: when I was an actor, I was an actor for years, um,
Speaker 1: and it was well, you know this is an actor yourself.
Speaker 1: You go into these auditions and you're like, oh, I
Speaker 1: stumbled on a word, and oh I should have you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, been better at that and I blew it.
Speaker 1: And then now when I'm casting, I just people who
Speaker 1: can't even get through, like you know, the sides. But
Speaker 1: you're like, I don't know, there's something interesting about that person.
Speaker 1: I want to write for that person and change it
Speaker 1: around for that person. So you know, you just got
Speaker 1: to be open. That's really interesting. And in terms of directing,
Speaker 1: I heard you. I think it was on Mark Marion.
Speaker 1: I've thought about this a lot since I heard this,
Speaker 1: but you were talking about that the tragedy of being
Speaker 1: a comedy director is you can't show off. You have
Speaker 1: to frame it right and step back and you can't
Speaker 1: do any like Scorsese s typic guy look at me,
Speaker 1: look at me. Yeah, I mean you shouldn't. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I've been I've had that that theory proven
Speaker 1: and misproven over the years. You know, when I went
Speaker 1: to film school, it was very much about the director
Speaker 1: does not put himself, you know, is his you know,
Speaker 1: does not draw attention to himself. I mean, you know
Speaker 1: if you're doing like a big crazy shot. Everybody's going like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's such a cool shot. Now you're not in service
Speaker 1: of the actors, and you're not in serving with the story.
Speaker 1: That's what I was taught, and so you know, it
Speaker 1: was always very functional and what I would shoot. But
Speaker 1: then you know directors like Spike Lee and all these
Speaker 1: other people, and now you look at movies, you know,
Speaker 1: everything's got all these crazy shots and them, but they
Speaker 1: kind of work and the audiences sort of expect them.
Speaker 1: And so if you don't have that and I'm not
Speaker 1: a believer of just put it in because it's nuts,
Speaker 1: but like, if it's a great way to illustrate a
Speaker 1: feeling or an emotion you're trying to get across with
Speaker 1: the audience, then yeah, why not do it like a
Speaker 1: shot that's evocative and a little bit showy. The other
Speaker 1: question I have, but I suspect your answer is going
Speaker 1: to be the same as for custing, which is you've
Speaker 1: done so many different types of filmily as well at
Speaker 1: different types, then none of them are actually similar. They're
Speaker 1: quite I mean, they're they're all funny, but they're all
Speaker 1: wildly different. And I wonder what it is that makes
Speaker 1: you guys, that's the next project or is it just
Speaker 1: something comes along that is you can't say now too,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Yeah, it's either yeah, it's
Speaker 1: either something comes along with you're like, oh, man, this
Speaker 1: is a genre I've always wanted to do, or oh
Speaker 1: this is the kind of story I've always wanted to tell,
Speaker 1: or if it's something you come up with you on
Speaker 1: your own, it's just this burning idea that hits you,
Speaker 1: like I gotta do this. And for me, it's usually
Speaker 1: based on a genre. I'm really trying to work my
Speaker 1: way around. The genre is just because I find them
Speaker 1: really fun, you know, And I think it's what's great
Speaker 1: about a genre is it brings a lot of tropes
Speaker 1: with it that you can either then play with or
Speaker 1: subvert and have a lot of fun with. And so,
Speaker 1: you know, like a movie like Spy or The Heat,
Speaker 1: you know, those are clearly taking two very established genres
Speaker 1: and sort of flipping them, but also treating them very
Speaker 1: serious too, Like I don't want to do I never
Speaker 1: want to do spoofs or parodies or satires. I have
Speaker 1: no interest in that. I just want to make a
Speaker 1: funny version of a real spy movie. Or of a
Speaker 1: real buddy cop comedy. Yeah, that's great. And the two
Speaker 1: new things you have coming two new TV shows? Tell
Speaker 1: me about it? Yeah, they they just came on the air.
Speaker 1: One is called Welcome the Flatch, which is on Fox
Speaker 1: here in the US, and then um, we have another
Speaker 1: show called Minx which is on HBO Max and they
Speaker 1: both started streaming on the seventeenth. So I'm very excited
Speaker 1: about that. And what was your part in shows you
Speaker 1: create it? I'm an executive producer on both of them.
Speaker 1: For FLATSH I directed the first three episodes and wrote
Speaker 1: two episodes, and then from inks I was an executive producer,
Speaker 1: just watching these amazing people do their thing and trying
Speaker 1: to trying to protect them from any bad that might happen.
Speaker 1: This fascinating, fascinating. Oh poor fake, No, I've forgotten to
Speaker 1: tell you something. Oh yeah, go ahead. I was just
Speaker 1: talking about what fascinating life you had, and then I've
Speaker 1: just remember it. You you've died. You're dead? Over really
Speaker 1: what happened? You tell me? How did you die? Did
Speaker 1: I die? Yeah? You're dead? How did you really? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So sorry, I mean it is a shock. Is it
Speaker 1: shocked everyone? But yeah, I know well, I in fact,
Speaker 1: I thought I felt a little bit weird. But uh,
Speaker 1: but here I am. How did you die? What would
Speaker 1: be your dream death? My dream death? My dream death
Speaker 1: would be gosh, um well, I mean that's it's an
Speaker 1: interesting question. I don't Here's the thing. I don't want
Speaker 1: a funny death. That's that's my that's my desire. I
Speaker 1: don't want to sort of like, oh, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's always it's usually something terrible, like you stuck something
Speaker 1: in something and then it's like you remember that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. So I don't think I want an ironic death.
Speaker 1: I don't think I would enjoy it. Really, I would
Speaker 1: have since, yeah, exactly like either very peacefully going or
Speaker 1: or you know, something kind of I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I was gonna say, a spectacular death, but
Speaker 1: I don't know if I would enjoy that either, because
Speaker 1: it sounds like it might be kind of a drag.
Speaker 1: So let me just depends. I don't want to die
Speaker 1: in public. That I do not, okay, having been a
Speaker 1: stand up several times in public, just um no, I
Speaker 1: hate the idea of like you're in a restaurant, was like,
Speaker 1: oh and you can follow the floor and he's rush
Speaker 1: around and there you are, and then you're you know,
Speaker 1: this body lane there. I'd rather just happen somewhere that
Speaker 1: you know, nobody, nobody knows, like a cat, like take
Speaker 1: yourself up quietly like a cat and die in the
Speaker 1: woods exactly, or an elephant after the after the graveyard
Speaker 1: and just falling and the people go, oh, he was
Speaker 1: a nice guy. I like that. I like that. I've
Speaker 1: always thought it slightly weird, the idea of being surrounded
Speaker 1: by loved ones. I think I always feel like, don't
Speaker 1: you want to be alone? Like it's such a weird.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I don't know. I mean, well, I don't
Speaker 1: like the idea of dying and not being found for days.
Speaker 1: That's not a great thing either, or like the dog
Speaker 1: eats you. You know, you're like, oh no, because then
Speaker 1: it's kind of a funny death, tragically funny. I will
Speaker 1: make sure that whatever happens is very sincere and not humorous.
Speaker 1: No one will be laughing about how pool fig died.
Speaker 1: All right, good, thank you, thank you. Even if it
Speaker 1: was a funny death, please rewrite make it, make it,
Speaker 1: make it emotionally tragic but morally uplifting. At the same time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you want to play your death that's what you went. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there you go exactly. Yeah. Do you worry about death pool? Fake?
Speaker 1: Is it something you think about? Um? I mean there's
Speaker 1: periods in your life when you think about it, it's weird.
Speaker 1: It's like I was. I used used to get freaked
Speaker 1: out at like, you know, birthdays, and especially like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I'm turning thirty. Oh I'm forty or fifty five,
Speaker 1: you know, and I've hit it, you know, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: turned sixty this this, I will turn sixty in September.
Speaker 1: And I now realize I look back at every single
Speaker 1: time I was like, oh my god, I'm so old
Speaker 1: and go like, fuck you. You know you're younger than
Speaker 1: you are now, you know. So I'm kind of like, okay,
Speaker 1: so I'm not planning for when I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully ninety, And I go like, yeah, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: get upset when I turned sixty. One of my best
Speaker 1: friends in the world, Delphine Man. She's ninety two years old.
Speaker 1: She's the most vivacious person ever met. She drives herself
Speaker 1: the Palm Springs every week. She's still weekends. She's still
Speaker 1: a realtor and in Beverly Hills. So I go like,
Speaker 1: you know what, when you're friends or somebody like that,
Speaker 1: you can't complain about your birthdays, like oh god, I'm
Speaker 1: six and so old. She's like, hey, screw you. So
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, So I'm just I'm very cool
Speaker 1: about it. As far as dying, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like, sure, you kind of worry about it, but
Speaker 1: at the same time you go like, yeah, you know
Speaker 1: what am I gonna do? It's gonna happen, So that's
Speaker 1: not wasteful a lot of time worrying about it. What
Speaker 1: do you think it happens when you die? Do you
Speaker 1: think there's enough to life? I'm a bit of an atheist,
Speaker 1: so but I do think there is an I think
Speaker 1: we are all energy, and I kind of feel like
Speaker 1: that energy goes somewhere, but not in a religious way.
Speaker 1: I just think you kind of I don't know, I
Speaker 1: mean beyond that, I don't have any real deep thoughts
Speaker 1: on it. When I was in my teens and twenties,
Speaker 1: I could have gone on for for hours about this,
Speaker 1: as all teens and twenties and year olds can do.
Speaker 1: But now I'm like, yeah, I think, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't like to believe that's just that's it. And then
Speaker 1: there's just you know, then you're gone. But any conscious
Speaker 1: being can't possibly, uh, you know, conceive of the idea
Speaker 1: of being nothing. You know, it's just not a natural state.
Speaker 1: Think about. Well, you're absolutely right, because there is a heaven,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't end. Yeah, you're You're welcome inside it
Speaker 1: as well. Everyone's a big fan that really have to
Speaker 1: see you. It's filled with your favorite thing. What's your
Speaker 1: favorite thing? It would be a martinis. Okay, it's absolutely
Speaker 1: made of martinis. The seats. The seats are like those
Speaker 1: cocktail glasses that they used to advertise Earth guys are
Speaker 1: easy or whatever. You know what I mean. That's sort
Speaker 1: of that sort of look. And everyone carries martinis around everyone.
Speaker 1: It's very erudite. Actually, this this heaven and delighted to
Speaker 1: see you. The cocktails are perfect. Everyone wants to talk
Speaker 1: about you, and they want to talk about your life,
Speaker 1: but they want to talk about your life through film.
Speaker 1: And the first thing they ask you is what is
Speaker 1: the first film you remember seeing? Paul fi The first
Speaker 1: film I saw was a double feature. Actually I was
Speaker 1: very very young. I was probably five or six, I think,
Speaker 1: and it was a double old bill of Winnie the
Speaker 1: Pooh and Robin in the Seven Hoods, which was a
Speaker 1: red and yeah. So I my mother took me. And
Speaker 1: I was known as being a very chicken kid. I
Speaker 1: was very afraid of loud noises and thunder and anything.
Speaker 1: I would cry the drop of a hat. It was
Speaker 1: just terrified of the world. And so she takes me
Speaker 1: to see Winnie the Pooh and that's so much fun,
Speaker 1: you know, and oh yeah, I loved it. And then
Speaker 1: on comes Robin in the Seven Hoods, which is this
Speaker 1: sort of you know, Prohibition era comedy musical, and it
Speaker 1: starts with this big scene and a speakeasy and Sammy
Speaker 1: Davis Junior starts his dance number with a with a
Speaker 1: Tommy gun or a machine gun and all over the place,
Speaker 1: and I burst into tears and I have to be
Speaker 1: taken out of the theater screaming crun So there you go,
Speaker 1: entranced and traumatized by the movies in one single setting.
Speaker 1: That's not a bad stuff. Where was this? Where in
Speaker 1: the world was this? This was in Michigan, in Mount Clemens, Michigan,
Speaker 1: where I grew up right about twenty minutes outside of
Speaker 1: the Detroit Neimes. Yes. I was an only child, so
Speaker 1: that's how you get away with being such a cry baby.
Speaker 1: That's really interesting, I say, yeah, exactly. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: little Lord Fauntleroy's not happy. Let's yeah, let's get him
Speaker 1: out of here. Did you guys to cinema a lot
Speaker 1: with your with your mom? Yeah? Well, yes and no
Speaker 1: occasionally because I she had to drive me usually unless
Speaker 1: says there was there's a theater like down the block
Speaker 1: from us. I could walk up too, called the Parkway,
Speaker 1: but they didn't show the greatest movie is there that
Speaker 1: you always had to go, like to see Star Wars
Speaker 1: or something, you had to drive to Dearborn to the
Speaker 1: American to see it. But I had a very traumatic
Speaker 1: experience with my mother once because she took me to
Speaker 1: see Nashville, Robert Altman's Nashville, because she was like, oh,
Speaker 1: they're supposed to be so great, but it's the first
Speaker 1: time I'd ever seen nudity and sex in the movie.
Speaker 1: And I'm sitting there with my mother and just absolutely horrified.
Speaker 1: And she was uncomfortable too, So everybody was uncomfortable, and
Speaker 1: at some point somebody get I forget it was Geraldine
Speaker 1: chat Wait one of the chaplains is in that, I think,
Speaker 1: and she gets out of bed and like in her
Speaker 1: naked butt is exposed. From minute my mother goes like
Speaker 1: oh and she was all like angry about it, and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh God, please let this movie in,
Speaker 1: please God. And then yeah, that ends with somebody getting shot.
Speaker 1: It's the weirdest ending, like somebody gets shot at a
Speaker 1: concert and then the concert immediately starts up again, which
Speaker 1: I was like, is that how life works? I can
Speaker 1: get kid, but also I grow up. You know. I
Speaker 1: was a kid in the sixties where everybody's getting assassinated,
Speaker 1: and so it's why, you know, I had moments of
Speaker 1: wanting to go into politics when I was younger. I
Speaker 1: was like, no, if you go into politics, you get assassinated,
Speaker 1: because that's just what everybody did in the sixties. Apparently, Yeah,
Speaker 1: did you really want to go into politics. I had
Speaker 1: moments of it, Yeah, you know, I mean, because you know,
Speaker 1: but before I kind of discovered I could could do
Speaker 1: okay in show biz. You know, what was what was
Speaker 1: they what they say in Washington politics is just Hollywood
Speaker 1: for ugly people, and and so I qualified definitely on
Speaker 1: that that regard I thought be kind of cool, But
Speaker 1: then I'm so glad I didn't, because I don't know
Speaker 1: what I deal with, just dealing with with like people
Speaker 1: on the internet and rolls and you're like, okay, that
Speaker 1: must be politics times a thousand if you're in charge
Speaker 1: of something. God. What is the film that made you
Speaker 1: cry the most? We already know you cry? Yes, um,
Speaker 1: it was actually a more recent film within the last
Speaker 1: number of years called The Butterfly and the Diving Bell.
Speaker 1: I love that film. I literally talking about it yesterday.
Speaker 1: I think it's fucking beautiful, that film. Yeah, genuinely, I
Speaker 1: think I think it's yeah going please you said no, no, please, no,
Speaker 1: But with you it's it's a gorgeous film. And my
Speaker 1: father had Parkinson's and he was blind from diabetes, so
Speaker 1: so I really kind of it just hit me in
Speaker 1: that way, especially towards the end, just at the end,
Speaker 1: I just kind of fell apart because this guy trapped
Speaker 1: in his body, you know, and it was just like
Speaker 1: and it's just it's so beautifully done, and even just
Speaker 1: the end credits with the ice falling into the water,
Speaker 1: just I don't know, I would just absolute wreck my
Speaker 1: wife was kind of looking at me like it's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, just reminding me a dad for some reason.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that one was very effective. The reason I
Speaker 1: love that film is is like I put off seeing
Speaker 1: it for years because it just sounded so depressing for
Speaker 1: the listener if you haven't seen it. It's a true
Speaker 1: story of a man who had locked in syndrome and
Speaker 1: he could only move one eyelid. Basically, he could only
Speaker 1: see out of one eye and move that to communicate.
Speaker 1: And it sounds horrendous, and obviously it is horrendous, but
Speaker 1: what's It's a really kind of sensual film and the
Speaker 1: camera is his eye for the first half an hour,
Speaker 1: and the way that everyone treats him is so loving,
Speaker 1: and it's just that thing of like humanity that if
Speaker 1: someone was that vulnerable, people that are lovely, Like I
Speaker 1: just found it really weirdly kind of beautiful in because
Speaker 1: of that, because it's just this amount of love that's
Speaker 1: been kind of poured into the camera, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Oh totally. I mean, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: the nurses had getting them. You know, he can only
Speaker 1: communicate by blinking, and they have an old code and
Speaker 1: they teach it to but yeah, you're just so in
Speaker 1: his head and it's you know, I just I love
Speaker 1: all my movies are really kind of point of view movies.
Speaker 1: I call them like they're all happened from the lead
Speaker 1: character's point of view, so you don't you know, there's
Speaker 1: exceptions to the rule in some of my movies, but
Speaker 1: you don't tend to go away like and now let's
Speaker 1: go to the bad guy's layer and hear what they're
Speaker 1: planning them. Oh, our hero doesn't know about it, so
Speaker 1: you know, we kind of like to stay away from that.
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, I just think that's a it's a
Speaker 1: great way to tell a story. Yeah, really good onset. Well,
Speaker 1: is the film that scared you the nice? Do you
Speaker 1: like being scared? I did not used to like being scared?
Speaker 1: And only honestly, I gotta say in literally like the
Speaker 1: last two or three years have I gotten into more
Speaker 1: scary movies and horror movies. And you know, because because
Speaker 1: I sold this movie to a universal that I wanted
Speaker 1: to direct, called A Dark Army, which was a monster
Speaker 1: movie based on you know, the old James Whale, you know, Frankenstein, Draga,
Speaker 1: that feel of movie, and it's so in writing that
Speaker 1: it's like I gotta really, you know, get into into
Speaker 1: scary movies because I was terrified the scary movies as
Speaker 1: a kid, and I when I would get taken to one,
Speaker 1: I would be so angry at the movie that it
Speaker 1: scared me so much. And the two movies that scared
Speaker 1: me the most, I have to have to take two.
Speaker 1: There's two that traumatized me. One was Jaws, which just
Speaker 1: because I, again I wasn't used to scary things. I
Speaker 1: avoided that kind of thing. But it was a big
Speaker 1: blockbuster in my neighbor, who was, you know, Mike Sampson,
Speaker 1: who's my film buddy. We were sci fi nerds and
Speaker 1: film nerds. He's like, I gotta go see this movie.
Speaker 1: It's the biggest hit and you get into Place's pack
Speaker 1: and I was just like just terrified to the point
Speaker 1: where when I got home that night, I took a
Speaker 1: bath and I remember being in the bathtub looking around
Speaker 1: and like completely traumatized, Like I thought there was a
Speaker 1: shark would be in the bathtub. Like that's how bad
Speaker 1: I was, you know. But I've never heard a bigger
Speaker 1: scream out of an audience as when that face appears
Speaker 1: in the hole in the bottom of that boat. I
Speaker 1: have never heard an audience go that crazy before since,
Speaker 1: And you go, that's the power of film man, and
Speaker 1: that that's you know, all of us who make movies
Speaker 1: feel this way, especially with comedy. That's why I like
Speaker 1: comedy and horror at the same time, because you didn't
Speaker 1: have something that scream and then laugh, you know, like
Speaker 1: we have a scene of The Heat where where McMillan
Speaker 1: and listen, McCarthy has to put this knife back into
Speaker 1: Sandra Bullock's leg and the audience just goes crazy because
Speaker 1: they're just screaming, but they're laughing and they're horrified, but
Speaker 1: they loved and like to elicit that kind of you know,
Speaker 1: emotion of an audience is really exciting. And then the
Speaker 1: other movie that then absolutely killed me was with Alien,
Speaker 1: the first Alien, and I have an interesting story and
Speaker 1: how I ended up at Alien. My friend and I
Speaker 1: were such sci fi nerds, I mean, just you know,
Speaker 1: the worst. And I was supposed to go to the
Speaker 1: homecoming dance and I invited this girl in my class
Speaker 1: and she was a lovely, lovely person. But then Mike
Speaker 1: says to me, he goes, Alien is opening on Friday night.
Speaker 1: We gotta go to see the first show and like
Speaker 1: that's the night of the homecoming. Wait, I gotta and
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, let me get out of it.
Speaker 1: It's I pulled out that week like it literally like
Speaker 1: maybe three or four days before the homecoming dance with
Speaker 1: some lame ass, you know. I was like, oh, we
Speaker 1: gotta go visit my aunt and we can't get out
Speaker 1: of it. And this girl's just looking at me like
Speaker 1: are you kidding me? And just terrible. So then so
Speaker 1: there I go off. I go with Mike because I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: this would be like a fun sci fi movie like
Speaker 1: Star Wars. Sit down and this movie starts, and from
Speaker 1: the very first second, you go, this is the scariest
Speaker 1: thing I've ever seen in my life. I'm going to
Speaker 1: have a heart attack. And I was literally sitting there,
Speaker 1: absolutely numb, numb with fear. I mean, they're going through
Speaker 1: the thing and they find the eggs and everything, and
Speaker 1: and it just gets worse and worse because then it
Speaker 1: pays off in terrible ways, and I'm just going, this
Speaker 1: is my punishment for canceling on that girl. Then I
Speaker 1: found out that and that Monday that the guy she
Speaker 1: went with now their boyfriend girlfriend and she never looked prettier.
Speaker 1: And I go like, okay, I'm just fucking loser. That
Speaker 1: is extraordinary. I mean, that is so interesting. You went
Speaker 1: on to make freaks and geeks and that that is
Speaker 1: the like I need version of that story I've ever
Speaker 1: heard where you turned down to go to go amazing. Yes,
Speaker 1: and I was not a guy that got a lot
Speaker 1: of dates. Let's just say that. So that's amazing. What
Speaker 1: is the film that you love. It is not critically acclaimed,
Speaker 1: most people don't like it, but you stand by it
Speaker 1: to the death. Well I think maybe people might now
Speaker 1: think it's cool, but it was not thought of its
Speaker 1: being cool for a long long time. And that is um.
Speaker 1: Rudy Ray Moore is The Human Tornado, which I think
Speaker 1: is one of the greatest movies ever made. I don't
Speaker 1: know that film. It's that Dolomite. Yeah, yeah, it was
Speaker 1: the second Help that everybody knows that first Dolomite one,
Speaker 1: but but not a lot of people know The Human Tornado,
Speaker 1: which is just bananas and it's kind of a stag
Speaker 1: film a little bit because and I forgot because I
Speaker 1: I a few years ago the Austin Film Festival they
Speaker 1: had me program like a double feature of two movies
Speaker 1: that I love, and so I showed What's Up, Doc,
Speaker 1: and then I showed I showed Human Tornado, which people loved.
Speaker 1: But there's a big section in the middle that is
Speaker 1: clearly a stag film of like, you know, this naked
Speaker 1: woman running around and there's this end let's kind of
Speaker 1: sex scene. And I was just like, oh no, like
Speaker 1: I forgot this was in there, and then I felt
Speaker 1: really shitty. But people kind of took it in, took
Speaker 1: it in the right right way. But it's it's funny,
Speaker 1: it's so self aware. The opening credits are the greatest,
Speaker 1: the opening credits. He's got. The titles are written on
Speaker 1: the back of a cape, and he keeps like coming
Speaker 1: out with his shirt off, preening around on this mountaintop
Speaker 1: with his cape, and then at one point, like he's
Speaker 1: being chased by hillbillies and he jumps out of this
Speaker 1: car and rolls down the hill and he goes like, hey,
Speaker 1: that's done so great, back it up. I want to
Speaker 1: see it again. And so the film backs up and
Speaker 1: he jumps out again, and it's lots of that kind
Speaker 1: of madness in it, and there's at one point, there's
Speaker 1: witches and zombies and it's it's treat yourself, my friends,
Speaker 1: human tornado making a night. Now on the other end
Speaker 1: of this, guy, well film did you used to love?
Speaker 1: But what's recently and you don't like it anymore? It
Speaker 1: may be for personal reasons. Yeah, you know, when I
Speaker 1: was when I was a teenager, nineteen forty one came
Speaker 1: out Steven Spielberg's big comedy, and we thought it was
Speaker 1: the funniest thing we've ever seen. We just I mean,
Speaker 1: it was the level of destruction in it and just
Speaker 1: cool special effect and just everything blowing up and cool
Speaker 1: models and airplanes and all this stuff and just you know,
Speaker 1: they destroy a house at the end. We just thought
Speaker 1: it was the greatest thing. But over the years I've
Speaker 1: watched it and go like, it's okay, it's really I
Speaker 1: admire it still because it's so nutty and he really
Speaker 1: goes for it, but it's it's sort of you know,
Speaker 1: Spielberg's one of my heroes. So I say this with love.
Speaker 1: It's sort of a freshman effort from somebody who doesn't
Speaker 1: normally do comedy, and so people who don't normally do
Speaker 1: comedy go like, make it gigantic and then that's gonna
Speaker 1: be funny. And so everything's like it up here and
Speaker 1: it's just every every performance is just through the roof,
Speaker 1: you know. But there's still some amazing stuff that some
Speaker 1: of the miniature work in it is the coolest thing
Speaker 1: you've ever seen of these these fighter planes going down
Speaker 1: Hollywood Boulevard, really cool stuff. So so I do I
Speaker 1: still have a soft spot for it, but it's it
Speaker 1: doesn't hold up the way that I thought at mine
Speaker 1: when I watched it a few years ago. Why it's
Speaker 1: nice to hear it because people are never nice about
Speaker 1: that film. At least you did like it. Yeah, I've
Speaker 1: never really had that. Well, that's the thing. When it
Speaker 1: came out, I remember we thought and loved it, and
Speaker 1: then we started reading all these things about like, oh,
Speaker 1: the guy that you know directed Jaws made this comedy
Speaker 1: and it's ruined his career and everybody hates it, and
Speaker 1: we were like, wait, we saw that movie. We thought
Speaker 1: it was really funny. But that's the thing growing up
Speaker 1: in Michigan, before there was internet and before there was
Speaker 1: a lot of like you know, hyper attention on Hollywood
Speaker 1: in box office and all that is, you would just
Speaker 1: watch something like, oh, I really like that. I remember
Speaker 1: mel Brooks had a TV show called When Things Were Rotten.
Speaker 1: It was kind of like a Robin Hood comedy, and
Speaker 1: we thought it was the funniest thing. Every week we
Speaker 1: would watch it and just so excited. And then when
Speaker 1: I got into Hollywood, I found it was like a
Speaker 1: famous disaster that like, it got no ratings and everybody
Speaker 1: said it was like one of the worst shows ever.
Speaker 1: And You're like, okay, but I kind of miss those
Speaker 1: days when you could just form your own opinion and
Speaker 1: like something, Yeah, le me say, man, what is the
Speaker 1: film that means the mice to you? Not necessarily the
Speaker 1: film is any good, but because the experience you had
Speaker 1: around seeing it will always make it special to you.
Speaker 1: I have a few movies like that, but the one
Speaker 1: that I think of in this moment is The Conversation.
Speaker 1: A couple of movie The Conversation, and what it was
Speaker 1: is I was such a comedy nerd, you know, sci
Speaker 1: fi nerd, but definitely a comedy guy. And all I
Speaker 1: want to do is comedy. And I I wasn't in
Speaker 1: film school. I was at you. I was at Wayne
Speaker 1: State University in Detroit, going for like a mass communications
Speaker 1: degree because they didn't have a film degree there obviously,
Speaker 1: And I took this film studies class, and again I
Speaker 1: was just like marsh Brothers movies and just you know,
Speaker 1: three Stooges and bugs money. That's all I cared about
Speaker 1: is just that kind of comedy and Monty Python. And
Speaker 1: then I watched this, you know, the Conversation, and it
Speaker 1: just transported me in a way because it was so haunting,
Speaker 1: it was so the characters are so interesting. But to me,
Speaker 1: it was the soundtrack. It was this David Scheyer did
Speaker 1: this just solo piano soundtrack, to me is one of
Speaker 1: my two top soundtracks of all time because it's so
Speaker 1: effective and it's so haunting, but it's so beautifully composed.
Speaker 1: And I just remember just kind of walking out out
Speaker 1: of that film. Well he was in a classroom, it
Speaker 1: wasn't even a theater. I'm just almost kind of like
Speaker 1: a little bit numb of like, oh, this is what
Speaker 1: you can do. Like I didn't necessarily go like I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do drama. I was like, Wow, you can bring
Speaker 1: these other elements into a film and you know, with
Speaker 1: like a cool soundtrack and tell like a you know,
Speaker 1: a deeper story but then I was always like, but
Speaker 1: maybe you can do it and you know, and still
Speaker 1: keep the comedy about it, because there's some very funny
Speaker 1: moments in that in that you know, some of them
Speaker 1: are kind of misogynistic. I had to say, but but
Speaker 1: there's you know, John Kazelle is amazing in that movie. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just it's just a killer film. So I'll always
Speaker 1: have a real soft spot that I always feel like
Speaker 1: that kind of knocked me out of being a kid
Speaker 1: and kind of to being an adult a little bit.
Speaker 1: I watched that film quite like any watched. I think
Speaker 1: I watched it in lockdown for the first time. I know,
Speaker 1: it's fucking brilliant. It really is, Like it's as good
Speaker 1: as they say, it's really yeah, and it shot so
Speaker 1: great and it just looks pretty and oh man, it's
Speaker 1: so good. Yeah. What's the film he mice related to
Speaker 1: po fake m I think it would be Close Encounters
Speaker 1: of the third kind. Uh yeah, Because when I was
Speaker 1: a kid, again, you know, I'm an older guy, so
Speaker 1: I saw these movies from the opening weekend because again,
Speaker 1: we were such sci fi nerds, but you know, I
Speaker 1: was a bullied kid. I felt like an outsider and
Speaker 1: then watch this movie and it was like, here's this
Speaker 1: story of this guy who's you know, he's not really
Speaker 1: an outsider, but he's kind of a weirdo, you know,
Speaker 1: Richard Dreyfus's character, and just the idea that something from
Speaker 1: another world appreciates you so much that they come to
Speaker 1: get you. Yeah, to me that that wasn't a movie.
Speaker 1: It was like an aspiration of what I wanted to
Speaker 1: happen in my life. I didn't kind of under at
Speaker 1: that point my life. I didn't understand and movies. I
Speaker 1: knew what movies were, but you know, living in Michigan,
Speaker 1: other than making Super eight movies with my next neighbor,
Speaker 1: like Hollywood, movies were just sort of like things that happened.
Speaker 1: I don't know, it sounds like a weird thing to say,
Speaker 1: but like I didn't process it like it was entertainment. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so to me, it was just like this is
Speaker 1: a roadmap for what I wanted to happen in my life.
Speaker 1: And so after that, like I would go up on
Speaker 1: the roof with my telescope and like sit up there
Speaker 1: every night waiting for an alien to come down and
Speaker 1: take me away. Like I was certain they wanted me
Speaker 1: because nobody appreciated me here, and so I really you know,
Speaker 1: and then when they put out the special edition, which
Speaker 1: I still I still like the original one, because when
Speaker 1: they did the special edition, I don't know if you
Speaker 1: know all this, I can go on and on about
Speaker 1: close Encountered Go and no, I love this term. I'm
Speaker 1: a big, big fan of term. Yeah. Well, they put
Speaker 1: out the original one and then apparently Spielberg was always
Speaker 1: upset because they wanted he wanted to go inside the
Speaker 1: spaceship at the end, and they didn't give him the
Speaker 1: budget to do it. So they finally went a movie
Speaker 1: did so well, they let him make the special Edition,
Speaker 1: so he shot inside it. But then to do that,
Speaker 1: for some reason, they cut out they cut out that
Speaker 1: scene where he goes around like he's going to construct
Speaker 1: the mountain in his house, so he's like pulling up
Speaker 1: all the plants and throwing chicken wire and everything through
Speaker 1: the windows. But that got cut out. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: when I started, I was like, wait, where's that scene
Speaker 1: because that would be one of my favorite scenes. That's
Speaker 1: such a funny scene. And again that brought the house
Speaker 1: down in the theater. But but you know, but when
Speaker 1: I saw him go inside and there's this moment you know,
Speaker 1: where he's just like so overcome with emotion and then
Speaker 1: all the you know, light rains down on him, he
Speaker 1: turns into an alien or whatever. That again, I'm just like, oh,
Speaker 1: please let that be me someday. I'm glad it didn't happen.
Speaker 1: I'd rather not be up with aliens right now. Might
Speaker 1: have been great. Well, maybe Hollywood was your aliens. Hollywood
Speaker 1: was your aliens. Hollywood came got you. If I can
Speaker 1: ask this, look, I understand everyone's life and career is
Speaker 1: a very very long journey with lots of things. If
Speaker 1: you went from not knowing what films were to where
Speaker 1: you are now as a filmmaker, was there a turning point?
Speaker 1: Did you start with stand up? Was that what your
Speaker 1: first sort of way? Yeah? I started with stand up
Speaker 1: just because that was you know, available, you could do it,
Speaker 1: because anybody could do it, really, I mean meaning you know,
Speaker 1: you didn't need a lot of resources to do it.
Speaker 1: You just have to have an actor, which you know,
Speaker 1: I started doing it fifteen and yeah, yeah, I wasn't
Speaker 1: good by any stretch of imagination. There's tapes to me,
Speaker 1: and they're terrible but the audience is laughing because clearly
Speaker 1: they just think it's funny that it is a fifteen
Speaker 1: year old kid they're telling dumb, dumb jokes. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it was you know that that was kind of the
Speaker 1: eye an eye opener for me to begin to get
Speaker 1: my own material out there. But I was always writing
Speaker 1: things like I wrote, got really into writing sketches, like
Speaker 1: you know, because I was really in the Second City
Speaker 1: TV and Saturday Night Live, so I'd write sketches that
Speaker 1: I could never do anywhere. Then I started doing like
Speaker 1: I got a tape recorder. I would do radio plays
Speaker 1: in my room and write these things and you know,
Speaker 1: read them like old nineteen forties kind of you know,
Speaker 1: detective plays and all this kind of thing. So I
Speaker 1: was always trying to produced stuff in that way. It'll
Speaker 1: only make our Super eight films, but they always look
Speaker 1: so junky, sadly, but you know, so that's why I
Speaker 1: went off to USC Film School because I finally, I mean,
Speaker 1: there's one I have to credit one movie for this,
Speaker 1: but it's it's something that I know, the movie that
Speaker 1: people mentioned on your show all the time, So I'll
Speaker 1: blurase through it quickly. But Raiders of The Lost Art
Speaker 1: because I went to the opening day first show at
Speaker 1: the man Chinese Theater of Raiders the Lost Art and
Speaker 1: knew nothing about it. And I have never seen an
Speaker 1: audience be so affected throughout an entire movie as they
Speaker 1: were that. I mean, people were up on their feet,
Speaker 1: jumping out of their seats when that boulder, which now
Speaker 1: is you know we've seen a gazillion times, came down.
Speaker 1: People literally the whole theater jumped up and was screaming
Speaker 1: and yelling, and it was I mean, I'm just going like,
Speaker 1: that's what a director can do. If a director can
Speaker 1: do that to an audience, I want in wow, love
Speaker 1: that fat What is the sexiest film ever made? Well,
Speaker 1: I am you can only say, you know for yourself,
Speaker 1: videosel Yeah, this is it was a hard one to
Speaker 1: figure this one out, but I think for me it
Speaker 1: was risky business. Um right, yeah, because I mean, first
Speaker 1: of all, Rebecca d mornay was so gorgeous in that film,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's a wacky film. It kind of
Speaker 1: it holds up, but it's also you know, some of
Speaker 1: the some of the morality of that movie is a
Speaker 1: little little it's a little problematic exactly but but I
Speaker 1: mean those moments between she and Tom Cruise just I
Speaker 1: mean especially I was young. I was lonely college student
Speaker 1: watching that movie, you know, still a virgin, and just like,
Speaker 1: oh if I can never you know, have that? Um
Speaker 1: so yeah, that one, that one, that one really got
Speaker 1: me and and my that's my other favorite soundtrack of
Speaker 1: all time is The Risky Business, the Tangerine Dream soundtrack.
Speaker 1: Oh and what was the first one? It was the Conversation, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a subcategory pool fake upside. Sorry, the subcategory question
Speaker 1: is traveling Biden is worrying? Why don't What's a film
Speaker 1: I hate? I mean, I hate myself. It was a
Speaker 1: film you found arousing that you thought maybe you shouldn't
Speaker 1: have Well, I don't know, I don't know if I
Speaker 1: wasn't supposed to think it was arousing, but it just
Speaker 1: it seemed wrong. Yeah. And it was, oh my god,
Speaker 1: you're making me choke bro um. It was a Kentucky
Speaker 1: Fried movie, Brothers first movie. Yeah, yeah, because that one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there's there was a couple of there's the one
Speaker 1: thing they did this the Catholic high school girls in trouble.
Speaker 1: It was it was a it was like a trailer
Speaker 1: for a fake movie. But it was all just you know,
Speaker 1: topless women. But they're the way they did it was
Speaker 1: you know at the time. I was so young at
Speaker 1: the time, and of course that's the movie you wish
Speaker 1: you could just take home with you. Thank you, Thank
Speaker 1: you for answering that question. I appreciate thank you for
Speaker 1: let me just breeze through that exactly. What is objectively,
Speaker 1: objectively the greatest film of all time? Maybe not you,
Speaker 1: but it's objectively the pinnacles of cinema. Yeah. Well, when
Speaker 1: you put it that way, to pinnacle of cinema, that
Speaker 1: makes it much harder for me to say this. Um no,
Speaker 1: it's it's a It's a wonderful life to me is
Speaker 1: to me the greatest movie because it does everything a
Speaker 1: movie is supposed to do, every single thing is supposed
Speaker 1: to do. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry,
Speaker 1: it makes you emotional, it makes you fall in love,
Speaker 1: it makes you happy, tears of joy makes you angry.
Speaker 1: I just you know, I never got out and I
Speaker 1: didn't see it until I was in film school, just
Speaker 1: wandered into some other They would show movies in this
Speaker 1: uh in the big theater, Norris Theater, which is this big,
Speaker 1: beautiful theater. They would just have them up for different
Speaker 1: classes to come in, and so I would wander in there,
Speaker 1: and you know, when I had a free moment and
Speaker 1: just walk into a film and that one just happened
Speaker 1: to be up and I'd heard about it, I was like,
Speaker 1: oh no, I don't know if I want to watch this.
Speaker 1: And then it's just you know, a sobbing mess at
Speaker 1: the end, and h and when and walked out of
Speaker 1: that theater going like, if I could make a movie
Speaker 1: like that, that would be I would be so happy.
Speaker 1: Like that's what I want movies to be. And you know,
Speaker 1: people would make fun of Frank Capra, you know it's
Speaker 1: called his stuff, Capricorn and all that, and I was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, fuck them, Like, I think these this
Speaker 1: is this is what movies should be. That for me,
Speaker 1: that's what I want movies to be. I want to
Speaker 1: be entertain an audience, make them feel something, send them
Speaker 1: off feeling better about their lives. And they did when
Speaker 1: they got in, and you know, just be trying to
Speaker 1: uplift the world in our own little way. And it's oh, Jake, society,
Speaker 1: it's fucking profound. It's a wonderful life. It's not it's
Speaker 1: not a smooth message. It's like that is some deep shit.
Speaker 1: It's really yeah, oh no, totally done in such a
Speaker 1: kind of a like a fun, sweet small town way.
Speaker 1: But there's you know, and also it's done in the
Speaker 1: middle of the war, you know, And it was you know,
Speaker 1: all these you know, filmmakers like Capra started Liberty Films,
Speaker 1: and it was supposed to be this big, you know,
Speaker 1: like cool thing. So it wasn't kind of like a
Speaker 1: Hallmark movie. It was definitely made by people who really
Speaker 1: loved and respected cinema and wanted to tell this take
Speaker 1: on a you know, Christmas Carol. Yeah it What is
Speaker 1: the film that you could well have? What's the mist Iver?
Speaker 1: And Iver? Again? Well there's two. Am I allowed to
Speaker 1: cheat and say what one is a very unexpected I think,
Speaker 1: which is breakdown everything, breakdown these film? Yes, the Kurt
Speaker 1: Russell movie exactly. Yes, I have seen that. I love
Speaker 1: that movie. If I'm flipping around and I come on
Speaker 1: that come across that movie, it's just like, okay, well
Speaker 1: game over, I gotta watch the whole thing. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: have I have a great love of smart guys going
Speaker 1: up against dumb guys. I find those movies so much fun.
Speaker 1: And this one's the ultimate one. I mean, Everybody Encounters
Speaker 1: was terrible. You know when he's like joking that guy
Speaker 1: in the car, he's got him tie his neck around
Speaker 1: the thing and he slams on the brakes and because
Speaker 1: I got so mean and terrible and just you know,
Speaker 1: it's my father. When I was growing up, my father
Speaker 1: loved the Charles Bronson movies, the Death Wish movies for
Speaker 1: some reason. And he was like, oh my god, it
Speaker 1: was like, Dad, that's really uncool. It's like the world
Speaker 1: could be like that. It's like, Dad, that's not cool
Speaker 1: to say that at all. But for him, I was
Speaker 1: you know, he was a business owner and you know,
Speaker 1: the head to deal with you know, shoplifters and all
Speaker 1: the time. So to him that was great. But I
Speaker 1: don't know, just for me, Breakdown it's just really well made.
Speaker 1: It's such a great it's super fun. I actually got
Speaker 1: to be at a DJ event with Jonathan Mostole, who
Speaker 1: directed it years ago, and just I think I freaked
Speaker 1: him out. I literally cornered him and talked to him
Speaker 1: about an hour about Breakdown. He's like, Wow, nobody ever
Speaker 1: talks about that movie. He's like, well, guess what you
Speaker 1: met your match? So nice. Well, it's one of them films.
Speaker 1: It is quite rare, and it because it's very it's
Speaker 1: a very sort of sleek thriller. It's all quite contained
Speaker 1: and stunts not kind of cgi no no cities exploding.
Speaker 1: It's so well the mission it's just human drama, like
Speaker 1: just I love the huge like human drama, bodies and motion.
Speaker 1: You know. That's why I love Dogday Afternoon. I mean
Speaker 1: that's just like, you know, it just people flying around
Speaker 1: and emotions are you know, a thousand percent and it's
Speaker 1: just so great, you know. Um. So there's that one
Speaker 1: and then the other one that I've watched the million
Speaker 1: times and I loved the other day I Die is
Speaker 1: Casino Real the first Daniel Craig James bonb oh oh wow.
Speaker 1: Bifaction films. Yeah, yeah, I love. I love action films.
Speaker 1: I love you know, Hong Kong cinema. I like any again.
Speaker 1: I like bodies in motion, I like kinetic you know,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing but with with you know, emotion involved. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So ye see, it was really great and it was
Speaker 1: also that thing of right from the beginning, I don't
Speaker 1: quite even know. You know, I know a lot about film,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I still can't. It's like classical Hollywood action.
Speaker 1: It's not first cutting. It's very beautifully shot, and it's
Speaker 1: clear that there's stunts going on, which is my favorite
Speaker 1: thing that you feel the suspense of. That's a real
Speaker 1: person jumping off a real thing. Totally. It's not all
Speaker 1: that shaky cam shit, which I hate, which you know,
Speaker 1: which I can't stand when I can't figure out the
Speaker 1: geography of stunts or or a fight scene. And I
Speaker 1: got like, okay, if it's one thing, if you're covering
Speaker 1: up like an actor, just this lame and can't throw
Speaker 1: a punch. But I've seen it in movies where I
Speaker 1: know the people are doing good stunts and they're still
Speaker 1: jiggling the camera all over the place. It's like, stop
Speaker 1: doing that. That's why I love Hong Kong cinema. Like
Speaker 1: still these long, you know, head to toe takes of
Speaker 1: these fights and people are doing all these moves. You go, yeah,
Speaker 1: they are doing it. I don't want to see it manufactured.
Speaker 1: I want to see it happening. Yeah, I degree. I
Speaker 1: don't like spe negative pooh fake if you do. But dude,
Speaker 1: this family. Quick, what's the worst film you ever saw?
Speaker 1: There's been a few. I mean there's there's something that
Speaker 1: you watch this because you go, oh, this is so funny.
Speaker 1: This is so shitty, you know, you know, like mystery
Speaker 1: science Theater and those kind of things you want. So
Speaker 1: that's that's fun. But I credit this is being the
Speaker 1: worst because we got bamboozled into it because it was
Speaker 1: right after Star Wars came out and all of us
Speaker 1: sci fi nerds were just desperate for more stuff like that.
Speaker 1: They released this Japanese film in America it called Battle
Speaker 1: Beyond the Stars. I was thinking, oh my god, god,
Speaker 1: it's the worst movie ever because it just it's a
Speaker 1: total rip off of Star Our Wars but so poorly done.
Speaker 1: And these like weird spaceships that looked like egg beaters
Speaker 1: and they're kind of coming. Then they go these weird
Speaker 1: special effects, and then Robert Vaughan's in the middle of
Speaker 1: it somehow, just like completely just collecting a paycheck, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, just like just since there were this kind
Speaker 1: of set face like and like he's still staring staring
Speaker 1: a spaceship and they just keep like turning the camera
Speaker 1: and he's just staring. You know, It's like, Okay, he
Speaker 1: didn't want to be there. Nobody wanted to be there.
Speaker 1: So we were very upset about that because we really
Speaker 1: got bamboozled into it thinking it was going to be
Speaker 1: as good as Star Wars. So that was on us.
Speaker 1: That was on us clearly. Ooh, fake, you're in comedy.
Speaker 1: You've made some of the great comedies of all time.
Speaker 1: What's the film that made you laugh the most. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a tough one because there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: films that have made me laugh over the course of
Speaker 1: my life. But I think the one I sort of
Speaker 1: pound for pound laughed the most and like just heartily
Speaker 1: was Napoleon Dynamite. Oh well, I just I And it's
Speaker 1: funny because I didn't see My wife saw it first
Speaker 1: and she came back and she said, I think I
Speaker 1: just saw your new favorite movie. Could i'd seen ads
Speaker 1: for I was like, I don't know, looks kind of weird.
Speaker 1: She goes, you're going to love this movie, and she goes,
Speaker 1: I want to go with you just to hear you laugh.
Speaker 1: And I literally I just laughed from top to bottom
Speaker 1: of that film. It just maybe John Heater's performance is
Speaker 1: so hilarious and it's just so well made, and just
Speaker 1: that the weird just the weird time that they take
Speaker 1: to just have him like sigh, you know, and be
Speaker 1: upset about something and just I just thought it was spectacular.
Speaker 1: That's great. Can I ask you this when you're making
Speaker 1: something like Bridesmaid or any of your films, when they're
Speaker 1: really really funny and you're in the edit and you're
Speaker 1: editing and editing going over the same bit. I actually
Speaker 1: don't know what you're going to answer. Do you stop
Speaker 1: finding it funny or does it remain if it's really funny?
Speaker 1: Is it always funny? Or did it then become just
Speaker 1: a technical excize like well, I mean, you know, again,
Speaker 1: we're watching things, you know, a thousand times by the
Speaker 1: time the movie's done, but it will still always kind
Speaker 1: of make us laugh. I have to say, there are
Speaker 1: times when you're kind of like, okay, you know, you
Speaker 1: just know it's coming, But it depends, you know. What
Speaker 1: we do is we do a lot of test screenings
Speaker 1: when we're putting those movies together, so we'll kind of
Speaker 1: be clinical about it, although we're always trying to fine tune.
Speaker 1: It'll be funnier like loose two frames. Oh now that's funnier,
Speaker 1: you know, because the Tony just jumps it or whatever.
Speaker 1: But then it's really when we then go and do
Speaker 1: the test screening because my editor Brent White and I
Speaker 1: sit in the middle of the audience and so we
Speaker 1: can be surrounded by the audience to hear them laughing,
Speaker 1: kind of see them, let's see how they're reacting and
Speaker 1: all that, and that's when it's super fun because then
Speaker 1: you're like, then you then you're like watching it for
Speaker 1: the first time. You know, when it gets laugh When
Speaker 1: it doesn't get a laugh, it's the worst thing in
Speaker 1: the world. And we have plenty of those where you
Speaker 1: go like this is gonna kill and like, oh wow,
Speaker 1: that got nothing. Okay, well let's let's replace that. But
Speaker 1: you know, we get you never. I love my movies
Speaker 1: all the way up until I'm at the premiere watching them,
Speaker 1: and then the minute I'm at the premiere is something
Speaker 1: in my head goes, I'm never going to watch this movie,
Speaker 1: and I usually don't. Yeah, it's like a release and
Speaker 1: now you belong to the world. Get off, Get off
Speaker 1: my play exactly, Get out of my head. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: One of a question if I may, you have made three,
Speaker 1: I believe, three films with the incredible Melissa mccarfey. What
Speaker 1: is your theory on why she is so fucking funny?
Speaker 1: Do you have a theory or you just think she is? No?
Speaker 1: I mean I she's a great actress first and foremost,
Speaker 1: and so she's able to be hilarious in ways that
Speaker 1: you believe. You know, there's some people that are funny
Speaker 1: because they're big and over the top, and you go, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't believe that characters real, but I really think
Speaker 1: they're funny doing you know, it's like Groucho Marx. You know, like,
Speaker 1: you know, Groucho's hilarious, but you don't go like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's a really nuanced character. He's just a guy telling jokes,
Speaker 1: you know, but it's fantastic and you know that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. But yeah, she's she's a great actress, so
Speaker 1: she can make anything feel real. But then she can
Speaker 1: create these very extreme characters that have their own kind
Speaker 1: of inner logic that's just funny and twisted. You know,
Speaker 1: actually even made four movies together. I was just thinking,
Speaker 1: did Bridesmaids, The Heat Spy and Ghostbusters? And you know,
Speaker 1: each time she did something different. And you know, for me,
Speaker 1: it's once I get to know somebody who's funny, I
Speaker 1: then go, oh, I'm want to show other sides of them,
Speaker 1: you know. And we had done we had done Bridesmaids
Speaker 1: in the Heat, where she played very aggressive characters, and
Speaker 1: I remember some snarky reviewers, you know, going, oh, it
Speaker 1: only does one thing, blah blah blah blah blah. And
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I's screw them. So, you know,
Speaker 1: because in real life, Melissa's the sweetest person you've ever met.
Speaker 1: And so that's why I wrote. One of the reasons
Speaker 1: they wrote Spy is like, oh, I want to show
Speaker 1: off the real Melissa, who's kind of her in the
Speaker 1: beginning of that movie, Like she's very sweet and kind
Speaker 1: of alway doesn't want insult anybody and all that, and
Speaker 1: so like, oh, let's take that person then turn them
Speaker 1: into a tiger, because they have to have to turn
Speaker 1: at tiger they're gonna be killed. So yeah, but she's
Speaker 1: just her brain works amazingly in a funny way, but
Speaker 1: always trying to find the real And again, I just
Speaker 1: think it's the combination of funny and real that really
Speaker 1: takes a hilarious person and then puts them to the
Speaker 1: next level. Steve crows the same way. You know, excellent,
Speaker 1: excellent answer. You've been excellent. I'm wonderful and I really
Speaker 1: appreciate you. However, when you got to a certain age
Speaker 1: and you felt a bit like more than Harold and
Speaker 1: more do, you thought time's up for me. But I
Speaker 1: don't want to be in public and whatever happens, I
Speaker 1: don't want to have a funny death. So you quietly
Speaker 1: took yourself off to the woods near your house. You
Speaker 1: just went to the woods and you lay down in
Speaker 1: the leaves, and you waited until you were consumed by
Speaker 1: animals for the icy hand of death to come. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't funny. It was very serious. These animals very
Speaker 1: seriously ate you. Well, what kind of animal ate me?
Speaker 1: It could be funny if it was, you know, I
Speaker 1: got eaten my mice or something. No, it was a
Speaker 1: very serious looking like wolves. And but you were very
Speaker 1: calm about it, and they ate you. And but also
Speaker 1: as requested, it wasn't long that till people found you.
Speaker 1: I was walking along with a coffin, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm like, And I go buy your house and I
Speaker 1: put it's Paul around and they say no, I went
Speaker 1: for a walk in the woods, and I go, oh,
Speaker 1: I think I know what that means. Okay, come with me, guys.
Speaker 1: We go out to the woods. There's bits of your
Speaker 1: corps everywhere, been moved around by animals. Some of its
Speaker 1: it's a mess. I pick up all the bits I
Speaker 1: can pick up extra bits. That leaves extra bits of woods.
Speaker 1: Some tree comes in. I stuff it all in the coffin.
Speaker 1: Coffin is now full. It's more full than I expected.
Speaker 1: There is really only enough room to be able to
Speaker 1: slip one DVD into the side with you to take
Speaker 1: across to the other side. And on the other side,
Speaker 1: it's movie night every night. What film are you going
Speaker 1: to show the people of heaven when it is your
Speaker 1: movie night? Pol fake please? I think it would be
Speaker 1: What's Up? Dog? What a twist the Peter Bangdanovich films. Yes,
Speaker 1: but the straighten right on? Neil Yeah, Austin Pembleton, Pemberton,
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, it's it's you know it was. It was
Speaker 1: um Badanovitch's nod to uh screwball comedies. I at the
Speaker 1: point when I saw What's Up Dock didn't realize there
Speaker 1: were screwball comedies. So to me, I was just like,
Speaker 1: who is this genius who thought of all this hilarious stuff.
Speaker 1: But you think once you learned about all the all
Speaker 1: you know, see other screwball comedies, you go like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's not as good. It holds up so well. This
Speaker 1: is the one I screened also on the double bill
Speaker 1: with The Human Tornado with the Awesome Film Festival, and
Speaker 1: it destroyed. I mean, it brought the house down, and
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm so happy that this movie still
Speaker 1: completely works because it's nuts. It's big and nutty, you know,
Speaker 1: but the stakes are really fun and the romance in
Speaker 1: the middle of it is really cute, and and uh,
Speaker 1: it's got one of my favorite action scenes of all time.
Speaker 1: The car chase through through San Francisco is still one
Speaker 1: of the greatest comedy action sequences ever on film. I
Speaker 1: will go to my go into that car often where
Speaker 1: being torn apart by animals, believing that pool fake. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for your time. Tell the people the
Speaker 1: two things that they should be looking out for, if
Speaker 1: not more before you Yeah, there's a few things. Um yes, um.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Flatch is on Fox right now and is
Speaker 1: also streaming on Hulu. Uh. And then a Minx which
Speaker 1: is a great show about the first very fictional retelling
Speaker 1: of the the origins of Playgirl magazine. Super funny and
Speaker 1: there's lots of nudity too, so enjoy that. Um yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And Welcome to Flatch is actually the American version of
Speaker 1: the great BBC docuseries called This Country, and it's very,
Speaker 1: very funny. Man Pusey for a minute, just to say,
Speaker 1: I watched the trailer for Welcome to Flats, which it's
Speaker 1: very funny, and I was so delighted you had one
Speaker 1: of my favorite people in it, Chrissy Chulia. You. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is fucking funny. So that was a very good choice. Excellent. No,
Speaker 1: We've got an amazing cast. It's really I'm thrilled. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: So there's that. And then also come September, I've got
Speaker 1: a movie coming out on Netflix called The School for
Speaker 1: Good and Evil, which is a giant special effects fantasy.
Speaker 1: It's kind of Princess Bride meets Frozen with a bit
Speaker 1: of a Harry Potter thrown into it. And I'm very
Speaker 1: excited about that. It's based on a series of books.
Speaker 1: And then then I also have a gin out right
Speaker 1: now UM that you can get in the UK and
Speaker 1: the US UM. It's called Artingstalls Gin. Go to Artingstalls
Speaker 1: gin dot com to find out where you can get it.
Speaker 1: If you're in the UK, you can get it from
Speaker 1: the Whiskey Exchange and if you're here in the States,
Speaker 1: you can get it a lot of places. Go to
Speaker 1: once again Artingstalls gin dot com. Then you'll find out
Speaker 1: where to get it. We've won lots of awards for it.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful have you ever seen the bottles of
Speaker 1: the bottle there it is. It's a good looking, beautiful bottle.
Speaker 1: Why is it code arting stoves? What does that mean?
Speaker 1: Forgive my ignorance. That was my mother's maiden name, my
Speaker 1: mom's maiden who was a Canadian, and then her family
Speaker 1: is it was British, so it's a London dry and
Speaker 1: it's got London roots. So there you go. And then
Speaker 1: then finally, have you got a cocktail book coming out?
Speaker 1: A cocktail book coming out in November? There you go,
Speaker 1: called called Cocktail Time based on the Instagram cocktail show
Speaker 1: Daily Show that I did during the pandemic, and lots
Speaker 1: of the one hundred and twenty five recipes, a lot
Speaker 1: of original recipes, advice on how to throw throw cocktail parties,
Speaker 1: how to stock your bar, and also lots of really
Speaker 1: embarrassing funny stories from my life in with the drinks.
Speaker 1: So there you go. Who wouldn't want fantastic? I won
Speaker 1: that poo fig. What a pleasure. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for your time. It really means it looks to me,
Speaker 1: I know it's a big deal. Everyone is very busy.
Speaker 1: Thank you for giving me all this time my pleasure.
Speaker 1: This was so much fun. I think what you do
Speaker 1: here is great, and you're an amazing host who informed
Speaker 1: that I have died twice during the show, So I
Speaker 1: like that. It makes me appreciate life. I appreciate you
Speaker 1: have a wonderful death. Good day to you, sir, Thank
Speaker 1: you my friend. Excellent. So that was episode one hundred
Speaker 1: and ninety. Head over to patreon dot com forward last
Speaker 1: break gold Steam for the extra fifteen minutes of chat
Speaker 1: and secrets with Paul. Go to Apple Podcasts. Give us
Speaker 1: a five star rating. But right about the film that
Speaker 1: means the most of you and why that's about it,
Speaker 1: you know the rest of it. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for everyone who listens. I hope you're all doing well.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much to Paul for giving me the time.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Natasha for sorting it out. Thanks this Crepus
Speaker 1: Pip and the Distraction Pieces Network. Thanks to Buddy Peace
Speaker 1: for producing it. Thanks to ACAS for hosting it. Thanks
Speaker 1: to Addamschism for the graphics and Lease allowed them for
Speaker 1: the photography. Come and join me next week. Who's next week? Oh?
Speaker 1: I tell you what, someone else brilliant in it. It's
Speaker 1: always someone brilliant. I don't have bad people in this show,
Speaker 1: any good people, you know what I mean. No deck
Speaker 1: heads allowed. So whoever it is next week, you're in
Speaker 1: for a treat. I hope you're all well. Lots of
Speaker 1: love to you all. So that is it for now.
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, have a lovely week, and please,
Speaker 1: now more than ever, be excellent to each other.