WEBVTT - Spike Lee Live at Tribeca 0:00:02.320 --> 0:00:07.720 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. Everybody. 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:14.360 Welcome Alec Baldwin and Spike Lake. I've been trying to 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.320 get Spike Lee on this program for a long time. 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:20.760 Finally we made it happen in front of a live 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:25.520 audience at this year's t Rebeca Film Festival. The deal 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:28.520 was we would each engage the other in a discussion 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:31.760 about one of our favorite movies of all time. Just 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:35.879 listing Spike Lee's films should be enough to establish his 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:39.200 place as one of the deans of American movie making. 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.560 Do the right thing. Malcolm X, Jungle Fever, She's got 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.040 to have it. They defined what it means to be 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:50.240 black in America and help Spike smash through Hollywood's racial 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:53.720 glass ceiling. And he's still at it with this year's 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:57.920 festival favorite Black Klansmen, in which I make an appearance 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:02.760 alongside stars John David Washington and Adam Driver. And now 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:06.720 our conversation at Spring Studios in New York as part 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:10.480 of the Rebeca Film Festival. We didn't rehearse any of this. 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:13.560 First of all, let me just explain to you what 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:15.920 a pain in the acid is to get him on 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:20.120 the phone. It is so painful to pull him and 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:23.319 text him and text him really sunny. He calls me 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:28.600 back like six, mus what's up? If I see a 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.040 number on my phone, I don't know the number, I 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:37.319 don't pick up and he has four numbers, tell me. 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:42.720 I mean, what I want to know first is because 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.399 I think this helps you know these kinds of origins 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:49.560 help us understand this kind of film appreciation. What was 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:51.800 movie going in your life when you were young, when 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:54.280 you were a child, Tell us where you grew up, 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:56.880 what kind of household you grew up in, and what 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:00.040 was the whole TV movie dynamics of your consumption of 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:01.960 that kind of stuff when you were a child. I 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:03.800 even I never knew that you'd even make a film 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:06.760 growing up. I grew up in the Republic of Brooklyn. 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:11.880 We were the first black family to move into Cobble Hill, 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.200 which is a predominantly a town in American Navy because 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:19.079 Copple is right by the docks, and the docks were 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:23.959 Italian American, and uh, we got called nig a couple 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:27.880 of times first week, But once my friends sold them, 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:30.440 weren't a hundred of other black families moving in behind me. 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:33.640 Then we were just cool after that, so nothe after that. 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.960 And then we my mother decided we gotta stop paying rents, 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:41.239 so we bought a Brownston on a Fourth Green for 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:46.760 forty five thousand dollars. They go for four million. Now 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:51.000 what year was that? Sixty? My father grew up in 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:54.359 four Queen on St. Jame's Place in Fulton's. Yeah, so 0:02:55.480 --> 0:03:00.399 I remember you. Now you're a pain in the ask 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:02.919 then too, I couldn't get you on the phone back 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:09.200 at eight either. You were in four Green and sixty 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:14.560 eight because white flight had happened by then, and people 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:22.040 will move to Long Island. But what's the first movie 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:25.720 you saw on the big screen? The first movie I 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:28.560 can remember my mother took me to see really quick. 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:33.240 My father hated movies, but he loves sports. I got 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:37.600 my love of sports from my father. My mother loves movies, 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:39.640 but my since my father hated movies, I was my 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:44.280 mother's movie date. The first film I can remember my 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:46.360 mother took my late mother take me to. She took 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:50.840 me for Eastern Sunday Race musical, So Bye Bye Birdie. 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.400 And here's the thing though, that film impacted me so 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.320 much I even know it The opening credit sequence would 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.400 do the right thing. Rosie PRIs dancing. That came from 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:07.080 by by Bertie and Margaret. That's where it came from. 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:09.600 And I must have I must have been like seven 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:13.320 eight years old, but it just came out of nowhere? 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:15.680 Did I mean, this is a cliche, I guess, But 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:17.680 did that do something to you the first time you 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:19.120 saw a movie on a big screen? Did you sit 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:23.280 there and go? Yeah? But I didn't want them. It's 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:28.760 not like at that moment, but it was not who who? 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:33.599 Who makes a movie? So growing up, I wanted to 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:36.280 play a second base for New York Mets, but genetics 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.760 conspired against that happening. That's where I changed over to 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:44.719 the Yankees. But anyway, I wanted to be a porn star, 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:51.120 but you didn't have inspired against that too, So I 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:54.600 and I grew up wanted to be a filmmaker. But 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:58.200 I remember my mother taking me to see uh mean 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:03.480 streets when Bunny and Clyde came out. I said, can 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:06.720 I go? She said, I'm not taking you. I went 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:10.240 to see Buying Clyde. I had nightmares for two weeks 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:13.120 because I mean, up to that point, there was never 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.359 violent shown like that, and that that shook me for 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:22.279 two weeks. There was groundbreaking the pen. But the reason 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:26.080 why I chose On the Ward from besides is one 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.920 of the greatest films ever, is because I became very 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:36.159 friendly with Bud Schilberg, the great Great Bud Show. I 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:41.960 called him up. You know, back then you called people up. 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:47.840 I called Stanley Dining up, Colcazan up. You get people 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:49.920 on the phone. People don't realize how much that happens 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:52.919 in this business. And you know, I was a young filmmaker, 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:56.520 so you know. And and in fact, I called Billy 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:00.600 Waller up. He said, come on over. And I had 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:02.680 any time my go at people. I got my posters too, 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.159 is I got my postes, you know, just the the 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:09.760 sign but both but But and I we worked on 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:15.000 the script together, and But lived to be ninety four 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:19.400 or five. But when he was ninety we wrote a 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:23.560 script together called Save It's Joe Lewis about this relationship 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:27.840 between Joe Louis and Max Schmellen and his in In 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:29.560 the last two years of life, he would call me 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:31.800 every week and say, Spike, did you get the money yet? 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:34.760 Did you get the money yet? Because I had promised 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:36.599 him that I was gonna make this film before we passed. 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.680 I'm gonna make that promise happen. But we just couldn't 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:41.920 get together up. But it's amazing as an epic has 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:49.679 Hitler Gebels, fdr on the Roosevelt, lenol Horn, Joe Louis, 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:54.839 Max Schmellon Sugar Ray Robinson. I mean it's it's uh, 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.240 We're gonna get it done one day, you know now 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.880 when you when you talk about it in the same 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.040 is in my life where I would watch movies and 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.720 I thought that movie stars were harvested on another planet 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:08.479 and they flew them down here or something, you know. 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.960 I I the idea that myself or anybody like me 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.400 could get into the movie business was just absurd, you know, 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:17.280 to me. And when did that change for you? Meaning 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.640 when did movie making become a direction that you wanted 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:22.880 to set sailing? Oh? When I went to college. I 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:26.239 went to Morouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and my first 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:31.080 two years the house. My first two years I was 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:39.520 the C plus D minor student. What was your major? 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:42.520 I didn't have a major at that point. And so 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:47.200 before second semest ended ended in my south ways trying 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:49.400 to go back to New York. But if some of 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:53.440 my advisor told me had to choose the major when 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:55.600 I come back in the fall, And I said why 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:58.720 and my advisors said, because you have exhaust all your electives. 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:03.680 So I came back to New York and it was 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:07.000 a summer ninth. There was an infamous summer nineteen seventy seven. 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.400 The Yankees won the World Series. The first summer disco 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:18.920 heat was horrible. Therefore you had the blackout and you 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:23.120 had David Berkle. It's on the stad so it's amazing. 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:27.960 Many minutes later I wrote the Corona script with the 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:35.160 Mike Criol Victor Clochio called Summer sam But anyway, New 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:37.920 York City was broke that summer. There's a famous Daily 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:41.880 News front page forward to New York dropped dead. There 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:46.160 you go, you up to that point. If you had 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.320 your workers permit, you get the job doing something. But 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:52.840 there were no jobs in New York City and I 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:54.880 and I didn't want to spend a whole summer playing 0:08:54.920 --> 0:09:00.360 strata matic baseball on my stoop. So at a still 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:02.079 my friend today, her name is if you had to Johnston, 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:04.640 she was very smart. She if you go to Stifers 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.520 and you had to be smart. The test for New 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:12.920 York City was Brooklyn Tech, Science and Stuyverson. Brooklyn Tech 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:17.160 was it might down the block for me here science 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:20.080 and stops. She got in the I mean she was smart. 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:24.520 So one day and I swear my mother's grave this 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:27.480 this was not a mistake. I was sitting on my 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:31.439 stoop nothing to do, and the spirit told me, goes 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:35.400 ce Vieta. So I went to her house. She lived 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:40.720 at University Towers on on Waverley No. Willoughby and uh 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:45.080 will it Willoughby and Ashland Cross Street from l I U. 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:49.280 So she's studying. I mean she's studying the whole summer. 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.120 And so there's a box in the corner of the 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:54.920 room and I said, what's that. She said, that's a 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:58.719 Super eight camera. You can have it. I said, was 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:02.440 an other box? She said, that's the stupid that's the 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:04.920 cartridge of the Super eight. The goals into the thing, 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:07.199 says you can have it. I'm gonna be a doctor, 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:11.640 so I don't need this. She is a doctor. She 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:14.120 went to Princeton undergrad and with the Harvard Med School. 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:19.080 So that was not a mistake for me to go. 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:23.320 We at his house that day so now it had 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.000 so now there's something to do. So I spent the 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:29.440 whole summer not trying to be a filmmaker, but just 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:32.840 shooting stuff. So I shot The Blackout. It was the 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:36.000 first summer discos. Every weekend there was a block party 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:40.520 in DJs hook them their turntables and speakers to the 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:44.120 thing and then, uh, it was just a crazy summer. 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.280 So I came back to school in the fall and 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:49.439 declared my major. That's me a mask mun Case is 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:52.280 a major. Now more House didn't have that major, so 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.840 I so I took master Cass across the street at 0:10:55.840 --> 0:11:00.640 Clark College. So you had Spellman, Morehouse, Clark College, Atlanta Versity, 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.880 and Morris Brown, these all black institutions really in the 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:07.520 same Mary in Atlanta. And there's a teacher There's there's 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:10.960 a professor his name is Dr herbiker Berger, still teaching there. 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:15.640 And I told him I had this film I just 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:17.440 shot from footage. I don't know what to do with this, said, 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:19.800 you make up feel with it. So masthemd cases quickly 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:28.520 with film, TV, journalism and broadcast, and he said, make 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.200 a documentary. To make a documentary of the film. The 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:35.800 film end up being called last awesome Brooklyn. I worked 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:39.960 all semester on it, and then many times when he 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.880 had he had the key to the film lab, and 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:48.240 twice a week he would stay extra so I could 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:50.480 spent another four hours edited. And he wasn't getting paid 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.199 for it either extra. Why do you think he did 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:55.760 that he saw something me. I didn't see it, right. 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:58.079 What did he see in you that you didn't see? 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:04.840 I don't know. I never asked him that teaches are 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.560 so important. I mean, I think you're going to somebody 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:14.680 giving you a hand. Explain that, by the way, because 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:16.640 I mean, I don't want to just kiss your butt 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:18.320 here all day, all night long, but because that's very 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:20.280 easy to do. I mean, let listen, I'm gonna get 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:22.800 I don't wanna get emotional here. But like in this business, 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:25.240 there's just something. I mean, you look at people who 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.360 are talented, and you really it just it humbles you, 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.360 it quiets you. You know, this man is one of 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:34.240 the greatest movie makers of the last fifty or seventy 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:36.640 five years in this country. Thank you, Thank you, expands 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:40.760 one of the greatest filmmakers alive. Thank you ever. And 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:44.040 so when you that mentorship thing to explain to people, 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.680 which even was news to me up until recently. You 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.160 don't guest teach, you're on the faculty and you teach 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:51.920 a course every year for how many years? Now, going 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:58.120 on teams a tenured film professor, you're gonna get a 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:01.960 paid check. Man fantastic he had paid now. But the 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:05.920 thing is that both my children went to n y U, 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:13.240 so that tuition ain't no joke. But my mother was 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.559 a teacher, my late mother, she taught at St. Ann's 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:20.520 in Brooken Heights on the legendary seven Balls. None of 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:27.160 my grandmother taught. My grandmother's grandma was a slave. Yes, 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:31.120 she graduated from Spellman. My mother, my mother graduated from Spellman, 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:35.040 My grandmother graduated Spellman. My father and grand grandfather and 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:39.199 grandfather graduated from Warhouse. My father's a freshman. Dr Martha 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:42.160 Came was a senior martincme the third and our classmates 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:46.040 the class seventy nine. But my grandmother taught art the 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:50.280 fifty years in Atlanta, George and fifty years she never 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:53.440 had one white student because of the Jim Crow laws 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:58.400 and in in South, specifically in Atlanta and the fifty years, 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:02.560 white students missed on the ate. Our teacher and my mother, 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:06.400 my grandmother fifty years saved their social Security checks for 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:12.480 grandchildren education. So says that was the first grandchild. She 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:15.560 put me through more house and n y U just 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:21.440 accumulation of the social Security checks over fifty years. M 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.560 and she gave me the seed money for my my 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.440 thesis film, Joe's Best Side Barbershop We Cut Heads is 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:31.200 one which wanted due to kemmy ward and a little 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:33.680 bit money for us. She's gonna have it the first film. 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:36.400 But but even more important than the money, and we 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:38.760 gotta go, we gotta talk about the films even more important. 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:43.240 And here's the thing though, here's what I say when 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:45.400 I when I speak in public, I always say this, 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:52.360 parents kill more dreams than anybody, so specifically if those 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.480 dreams that their children have had to do with the arts. 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:01.120 So I grew up in a very artistic families. So 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:03.880 when I said my tory, but I wanted to be 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:07.080 a filmmaker, nobody said, get the funk out of you're crazy. 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.440 No black filmmakers. You know, Melvin was not around anymore. 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:13.920 I wasn't making films. Ozzie Daves, Oscar Show Oscar Showmen 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:15.960 dead for many of me the years, but I only 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:23.040 got encouragement. And so often when a child a young 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:25.680 adult tells their parents, you know what, what are you 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:32.560 gonna major in poetry, ballet, dance, photography, whatever it is, 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:38.520 they're like, now they're black. Parents goes like this, as 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:42.280 long as your monkey has as black living in my house, 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:48.920 where are my clothes? Eat my food? We we didn't. 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:50.920 We didn't take out a second more of the house. 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:54.080 And I mean they got some points, you know, in 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:56.560 my house that played out like this. I'm going to 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:59.480 g W to study political science. I go up to 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:02.000 New York. Long story, but I go my audition for 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:04.840 the acting program and I get accepted, and I'm going 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:06.480 to go to the n y U Acting program. And 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.760 I explained to my parents how it's actually gonna cost 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:12.320 less for me to go to n y U, even 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.240 though it's more expensive school, because I requalified for all 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.320 this New York State based loans and scholarships, you know, 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:21.240 region scholarship, things that I've forfeited when I went to Washington. 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:23.800 So I call my family and I say, I'm gonna 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.000 leave GW. I'm not gonna go to law school. I'm 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:27.760 gonna go to n y U and study acting. And 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:30.480 my mother, I means, she screamed like a heart, like 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:32.800 like like Jamie Lee Curtis in a horror movie. She 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:34.280 was like. My mother was like, are you out of 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:38.280 your mind? Are you insane? She's screaming, and I go, no, no, 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:40.040 I go listen, I go. It's gonna cost you, guys, 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:42.120 let's money. And my father, let's hear him out. Let's 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:50.040 hear him out. Hear him out, Director Spike Lee. He 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:54.000 also teaches in the graduate film program at n y U. 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:57.160 And when we return, we'll do some analysis on our 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:01.200 chosen films. A Place in the Sun and on the Waterfront. 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:14.440 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing now, 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.480 more of my conversation in front of a live audience 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:21.960 at the Tribeca Film Festival with director Spike Lee. Your 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.040 films obviously deal with a lot of themes of racial 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.520 injustice and stuff forth and struggle. Are themes that are 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:32.720 in your own films? Are they in Waterfront as well? Yeah? 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:37.320 Amazon Anderson Cooper. When this whole thing was happening, Kaepernick 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:40.800 and I watched on a ward from Again for the 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:44.680 million times and the stuff that Kaepernick was saying with 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:49.240 the same stuff did did. Marlon Brando was saying, I 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:55.280 want my rights. And you can see the mob was 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:57.919 the inn at the owners, because you have when you 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:01.720 have the shape up, had the things that guy was 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:07.560 giving out. And here here's a motherfucker here in the 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:11.480 scene to get under work the guy, the steward, whatever 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:14.960 he has to give you, like a coin. And so 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:21.160 after Marlon Brando, TERRYM. Lloyd testifies against Lee J. Cobb Friendly, 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:25.560 Johnny Friendly, he says, fucking, I'm going back to work. 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:30.399 So he's standing there and they're giving out a coin 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:35.240 to everybody, and then there's nobody there and there's some rummy, 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:42.080 some bump who's has his hands over the fire and 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:45.880 they put in and so I'm saying, the NFL, these 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:51.159 motherfucker's hired motherfucking quarterbacks who are horrible. So what they 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.400 did the term Lloyd, they're doing the Kaepernick. They were 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:56.600 I don't want to say the guy's name. The guy 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:01.640 had retired Chicago Bears quarterback, Go ahead say his name. 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:07.320 They took him my retirement, gave him a ten million 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:11.919 dollar contract. He was horrible. Kaepernick still can't get a 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:18.480 job so it was amazing. I mean, but Schilberg was 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:22.040 a visionary. And when I saw what they were doing 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.000 that Terry malloy, it was the same thing, and that 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:28.800 was doing the Kaepernick. I think that there's a lot 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:31.520 of legend and lore about that film. And you know 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:35.439 these stories of everybody's heard a million times about Brandon 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:39.399 doesn't do the off camera for Snicker and all that crap, 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:40.760 and you know, all that stuff which is not that 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:45.600 important is the movie about Kazan's Mia Colpa for you know, 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:49.200 ratting it. I'm glad what I've done to you, John Friendly, 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:51.159 I'm gonna keep on doing it, he says, you know 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:54.239 you know that that no apologies for that. But for me, 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:57.120 it's like, you know, Brandon was someone who was did 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:00.480 you know Brandon? Yeah, I met Branda time I was 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:04.040 gonna do I was in this wheel of my life 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:07.800 where c you know, CBS was gonna pay people big 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:09.720 money to do these m ow's, the old m o 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:12.040 W we're gonna do. We did. I did street Car 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:15.560 on Broadway, which we wound up doing on a for TV. 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:18.000 No no, no, no, no that, but we do we 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:19.720 do a street car and brought we do on TV. 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:21.160 But that was a waste of time. But they paid 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:23.280 everybody a lot of money. But like, why do it 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:26.080 for TV when it's in the in the movie, his movie? 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:27.560 And so I go see him because they want to 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:29.359 do Canton a hut tin roof and they want him 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:31.240 to play Big Daddy, but they're not going to insure him. 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:33.440 Long story short, as I go to his house, there's 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:35.520 a true story. I go to his house up on 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:38.440 Mulholland and I go there to beg him to do Canton, 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:41.160 notts and roof if they will ultimately insure him, which 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:44.520 they wouldn't, And I mean, I'll do my my my 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:49.199 tepid Brando impersonation. But I said, uh, I said, uh, 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:51.640 you know, I you know, one thing led to another. 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:55.040 I had lunch with her for four hours, and I said, uh, 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:56.920 uh you know, I did street Car on Broadway. Uh. 0:20:57.160 --> 0:20:58.680 You know, like it was like six or seven years 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:02.280 before I heard about that from some friends of mine 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:05.760 that you did that. I heard you were very good 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:08.320 or not yes, And I heard you were very funny. 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:12.320 And I wish I had done more of that because 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:15.280 it's a very funny part and the character of Fanley 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:17.960 is very funny and I wish I had found more 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:20.120 of the humor myself. And there's a pause, and I went, 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:22.359 but it worked out pretty well for you just to 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:26.520 say it. Woun't you say? I mean, I mean, I 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:28.960 mean it went okay. Don't you think for how it 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:31.920 went over, you know, in the for the public, and uh, 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:34.800 but it's uh, I met him just that one time, 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:37.679 and uh, but what you see, he's interesting to me 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:39.840 because there's a couple of guys. I mean, I'm gonna 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:43.480 talk briefly about it from the actor's standpoint, which which 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:45.760 I can't help. But you know, but Gina was obviously 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:48.560 a big beacon for me. And there's those moments. There's 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:52.040 always a moment, uh, you know, John Mandolfice in the 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:54.960 hospital and Serpico has got the bullet hole in his 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:58.479 face and John Mandow puts the gold shield on him 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:01.120 and he doesn't want the gold helped to become a detective, 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:04.160 and finally he gets it in Macino, just he erupts 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:08.520 into this moment, this momentary sob this gasp of agony 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:11.639 for just a moment of his suffering, and I just 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:13.960 thought to myself, this is why I want al maybe 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:15.840 want to be an actor as much as anybody, as 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:19.520 much as anybody, but Gina was the one that maybe 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:22.040 one when he was one of them, you know, Yeah, 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:25.359 dog Day Surprico was one of my favorites. But and 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:29.160 Brando to Brando of course gets into that zone where 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:31.919 he doesn't care. You know, he's a prodigy and he 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:34.160 puts all the pieces together when he's twenty four years old. 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:36.600 Brando did a streetcar and brobery when it was twenty four. 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:40.560 I did it when I was thirty four. He I 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:42.840 never met him. You never did call me up two 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:50.280 o'clock in the morning and uh, I'm not gonna do imitational. 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:53.520 But he wanted me to do a film a Native Americans. 0:22:55.960 --> 0:23:00.560 And I've never heard from after that. Well he yeah, yeah, 0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:02.720 and then I found lady. He would call people late, 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:05.680 but Tidy got my number and I unbelieve it was 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:07.679 him at first. But my favorite line he said to 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:09.920 me was I sit in his house and I'm terrified 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:12.800 with him. I'm terrified, terrified. I meet people who are 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:15.960 my peers, you know, and my generation of actors, and 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:19.320 I admire some of them incredibly, but it's different when 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:21.440 you meet Kirk Douglas or Gregory Peck and some of 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:22.800 these guys I met. I mean, I was like, I 0:23:22.840 --> 0:23:25.480 literally pissed my pants when I met Gregory Peck and 0:23:25.600 --> 0:23:29.320 uh like almost literally and uh um. And then I'll 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:31.119 never forget. I'm in Brando's house and he said to me, 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:33.840 he says, he says, you know, you and I are 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:41.960 like two dogs that are sniffing each other. He said, 0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:46.800 you're sniffing me and I'm sniffing you. And he said, 0:23:47.160 --> 0:23:49.960 and oh god, oh god, I hate that. I hate that. 0:23:50.480 --> 0:23:52.640 He said, So you say whatever you want to say, 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:54.679 and I'll say whatever I want to say. I mean, 0:23:54.680 --> 0:23:58.200 just really, he just didn't want anybody to play him. 0:23:58.200 --> 0:23:59.679 He hated that, you know, I mean, and it was, 0:23:59.720 --> 0:24:01.920 it was. It was an amazing day. I have a 0:24:01.960 --> 0:24:05.760 day I spent with him now. Um So in Waterfront. 0:24:06.280 --> 0:24:07.960 One of the other things I love about this film 0:24:08.000 --> 0:24:10.560