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Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing,

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Speaker 1: My chance to talk with artists, policymakers and performers, to

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Speaker 1: hear their stories. What inspired their creations, what decisions change

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Speaker 1: their careers, what relationships influenced their work. The only thing

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Speaker 1: that mattered to me about becoming a director was longevity.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure that my career would last

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Speaker 1: for decades. I make what to change the world. I

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Speaker 1: think that's any reason to do anything, and getting a

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Speaker 1: group of people in to start a conversation with the

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Speaker 1: community and with the society you live in is going

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Speaker 1: to be the greatest thing you can do Today. I

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Speaker 1: talked with two movie directors who have each had enormous

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Speaker 1: success with very different types of films. Stephen Daldry got

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Speaker 1: his start in theater. He's British, and his transition to

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Speaker 1: filmmaking appeared effortless. His first three films, Billy Elliott, The Hours,

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Speaker 1: and The Reader featured complicated characters and serious topics class struggle,

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Speaker 1: the search for Life's Purpose and war crimes. Each film

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Speaker 1: also earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Director. My

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Speaker 1: first guest, Chris Columbus, has brought to the screen some

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Speaker 1: of the biggest American family films of the last twenty years,

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Speaker 1: Adventures in Babysitting Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire. He also produced

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Speaker 1: and directed the first two Harry Potter films and produced

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Speaker 1: the third as well. I'm a Wizard and a Something

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Speaker 1: Good at Night Wager. Once you trade up a little, No,

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Speaker 1: you've made a mistake. I mean, I can't be a wizard.

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Speaker 1: I mean I'm plus Harry. I've known Chris for a

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Speaker 1: long time. We were in school together at n y U.

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Speaker 1: I lived, started at Weinstein and then um moved to Reuben.

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Speaker 1: You were in Reuben, as in Reuben and I think

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Speaker 1: that's where we met. For Columbus, n y U was

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Speaker 1: more than just a place to learn the craft. He loved.

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Speaker 1: Film school for me was the only It was sort

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Speaker 1: of the only way out, you know. UM. I grew

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Speaker 1: up in a Both of my parents were factory workers

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Speaker 1: in Ohio. UM My future was basically working at either

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Speaker 1: my father's aluminum factory or my mother's automotive factory. Literally

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Speaker 1: didn't own them that. I was just be working and

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Speaker 1: they did. You could own them them. I did. Although

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Speaker 1: I don't think there's much work there. But at the

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Speaker 1: time that was it, you know, and and the only

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Speaker 1: escape really for me. Uh, we're movies And what were

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Speaker 1: movies to you? Then? There was no DVD, there was

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Speaker 1: no Noble television. How did you movies were the either

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Speaker 1: the CBS Late Night movie. I would sneak out of

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Speaker 1: bed and watch the late night movie on CBS and

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Speaker 1: just stay in the movie theaters on the weekend there

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Speaker 1: were only two theaters, and I would watch whatever film

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Speaker 1: came into town over and over. And I remember something

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Speaker 1: clicked when I saw Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid,

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Speaker 1: and I watched it three times and I just was

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Speaker 1: amazed by the movie. And I didn't Nobody knew about

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Speaker 1: film schools. Nobody knew that you could actually go to

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Speaker 1: school and learn how to become I didn't even know

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Speaker 1: what a director was. Um So I put my energy

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Speaker 1: into illustrating and writing comic books. I thought. I still

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Speaker 1: didn't understand the film concept, but I started to draw

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Speaker 1: Spider Man comics, Thor comics, Halt comics. I wanted a

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Speaker 1: job at Marvel in the Marvel that was my goal.

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Speaker 1: I still love movies, but I didn't I didn't understand

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Speaker 1: how to completely. And yeah, and so the comic books

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Speaker 1: and all of the this is very naive of me,

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Speaker 1: but all the comic book superheroes lived in New York City.

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Speaker 1: So this was this magical place for me as a kid,

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Speaker 1: because I'm drawing New York City all the time. Then

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Speaker 1: I saw The Godfather. The Godfather was re released, and

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Speaker 1: then the next movie I saw was Blazing Saddles. I

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Speaker 1: saw those two movies change my life, both ends of

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Speaker 1: the spectrum. I realized with Blazing Saddles, the possibilities of

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Speaker 1: what you could do with film were endless. And Time

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Speaker 1: magazine came out with a one page article about film schools,

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Speaker 1: and I read about Martin Scorsese, and I read about

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Speaker 1: Francis Ford Coppeland. I read about USC and U, C

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Speaker 1: l A and n y U, and I said to

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Speaker 1: my parents, this is what I want to do. What

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Speaker 1: they say. They were extraordinarily supported. They were amazingly supportive.

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Speaker 1: Every other relative in my family was not supportive. I

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Speaker 1: got to New York and I remember my father drove

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Speaker 1: me up to Weinstein and he looked at the city

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Speaker 1: and looked at the dorm, and he said, let's go home.

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Speaker 1: I'll drive you back home now, and I said, no way,

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Speaker 1: no way. I was in I was literally in oz

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Speaker 1: and I knew that I had no choice but to succeed.

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Speaker 1: I had to find a way to succeed or I

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Speaker 1: would be back in the middle of Ohio working in

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Speaker 1: an aluminum factory. So you get there. Had you ever

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Speaker 1: touched any film equipment before? H yeah? Super. My parents

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Speaker 1: did buy me a Super eight sound camera, which enabled

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Speaker 1: me to start to films. Actually, I made a twenty

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Speaker 1: minute film for my theology class because I went to

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Speaker 1: a very strict Catholic school, so it was a theology

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Speaker 1: class that was dealing with social issues. So we made

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Speaker 1: a film about abortion of the sectomes. And I was

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Speaker 1: very inspired at the time by remember SNL just nine

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Speaker 1: seventies six. Sn L had just come. You know, we

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Speaker 1: would spend our Saturday nights watching Saturday Night Live. So

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Speaker 1: I was doing these basically commercial parodies that I had

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Speaker 1: versions that I had seen on sn L, and I

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Speaker 1: screened it for for the class. The class loved it.

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Speaker 1: The priest was horrified, Um, what did your parents say

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Speaker 1: about all your politically incorrect films? Very dark stuff back then?

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Speaker 1: You know? They You know, my my mother went with it.

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Speaker 1: My father didn't really want to have much to do

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Speaker 1: with it. He figured, okay that you know, my father

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Speaker 1: was most most of the time, my father was under

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Speaker 1: a car repairing it, you know, and in the garage

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Speaker 1: when he wasn't working or having a beer. So I um,

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Speaker 1: as long as he's not on the streets, it's exactly

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Speaker 1: my parents, not only not taking drugs, that's true. You know,

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Speaker 1: my mother was very supportive. My mother was probably much

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Speaker 1: more supportive than my father about what I wanted to do.

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Speaker 1: And she had She shared sort of that dark sense

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Speaker 1: of humor that I had as well. I used to

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Speaker 1: watch SNL with her. She loved it. So you you

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Speaker 1: get to Weinstein, you have a super eight sound camera,

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Speaker 1: but you get to Weinstein and what's what are the

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Speaker 1: first recollections you have of that when you get there?

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Speaker 1: To go to n y U? Honestly, n Yu. The

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Speaker 1: night I got there, drinking age was eighteen sponsored a

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Speaker 1: bar tour. Can you imagine them doing that these days?

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Speaker 1: Eight to ten bars in the East Village. They would

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Speaker 1: take a group of freshmen and go to each bar Chumley's,

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Speaker 1: ms o Orley's. And that's where I met my best friends.

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Speaker 1: And that's where I met my future producing partner, Michael Barnathan.

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Speaker 1: We met that first night bart Nights and and uh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you could be. I mean, the lawsuits are ridiculous, and

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Speaker 1: we met. I mean, you know what it what it's like.

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Speaker 1: You go into this community of everyone who shares your

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Speaker 1: deepest love of something like film, and you have someone

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Speaker 1: to talk to about it. I had no one to

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Speaker 1: talk to about it in Ohio, you know. I was

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Speaker 1: this everyone's come there from the aluminum factory. And then

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Speaker 1: when you left n y U, what did you do?

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Speaker 1: I left n y U. I had actually I was

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Speaker 1: lucky enough I had left, but in sight, I had

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Speaker 1: a scholarship. I had this great scholarship that got me

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Speaker 1: through ny U the first year, and my mother would

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Speaker 1: call me. You remember, we had those pay phones at

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Speaker 1: the end of our dorm Hallways's no cell phone. So

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Speaker 1: every Sunday I would go to the payphone a call home,

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Speaker 1: and my mother would say, Chris, don't forget to go

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Speaker 1: to the Burstar's office and sign. I had to sign

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Speaker 1: some papers so I would renew my scholarship and I

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Speaker 1: would say, Mom, no problem. That went on for six weeks.

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Speaker 1: The seventh week I called. She was screaming at me, said,

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Speaker 1: you lost the scholarship. This summer, you're gonna have to

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Speaker 1: work at the aluminum factory. So so I went back.

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Speaker 1: I went back to Ohio, and I was working basically

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Speaker 1: swing shifts. I would work day shifts, afternoon shifts, and

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Speaker 1: night shifts. After your first year, my first year, I

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Speaker 1: realized if I was on the night shift, I could read.

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Speaker 1: So that first year I was just read, you know,

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Speaker 1: novels for eight hours. I had to do it again

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Speaker 1: after my sophomore year. So I went back my sophomore

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Speaker 1: year and I realized if I could get on the

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Speaker 1: night shift for the entire summer, I could write a screenplay.

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Speaker 1: So what I did is I remember these gigantic, hulking

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Speaker 1: cylinders of aluminum, and I would sneak behind the aluminium

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Speaker 1: cores and sit there with a notepad, and I wrote

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Speaker 1: my first screenplay, a screenplay called Jocks about high school football,

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Speaker 1: my experiences with high school football. And I was a

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Speaker 1: terrible football player, but I I you know, it was

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Speaker 1: very very sorry. Yeah, I suited up and I brought

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Speaker 1: that back to my writing teacher, a guy named Jesse Cornbluth,

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Speaker 1: who gave it to his agent, some guy a producers

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Speaker 1: since passed away. Steve Friedman optioned it for five grand.

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Speaker 1: That five grand prevented me from ever having to go

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Speaker 1: back to the liminary factory. And then when I was out,

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Speaker 1: you know, after college, I just, uh, my agents started

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Speaker 1: to get me writing gigs. A friend of mine, Mitch, said,

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Speaker 1: you know, there hasn't since Jaws, there really hasn't been

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Speaker 1: a great movie that's featured. He used the word monster.

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Speaker 1: There has not been a great monster movie made. And

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Speaker 1: I said, that's a good idea. That's interesting. And in

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Speaker 1: the loft I lived in, we had these mice scurring

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Speaker 1: around on the floors and I would sleep with my

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Speaker 1: hand draped over the bed and mice would go by

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Speaker 1: in the middle of the night. I thought, these tiny

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Speaker 1: creatures are frightening. So I spent the next six weeks

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Speaker 1: writing the script called Gremlin's and I sent it to

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Speaker 1: my agent, who um liked the script but felt it

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Speaker 1: was a little dark, and still sent it to about

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Speaker 1: fifty producers and studio executives and everyone passed on it.

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Speaker 1: And Spielberg Steven Spielberg was leaving his office on a

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Speaker 1: Friday and passed his secretary's desk, and it was sitting there.

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Speaker 1: That's why so much of this business is luck. He

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Speaker 1: passed the script and saw the title and said that

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Speaker 1: looks interesting, picked it up, read it that weekend, and

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Speaker 1: decided he wanted to option the movie. Now I didn't

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Speaker 1: know this. I gotta call up my loft bar. Nathan

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Speaker 1: answers the phone and says, as someone on air says,

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Speaker 1: that's Steven Spielberg. Remember I get I get the phone.

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Speaker 1: He goes, Chris, it's Steven Spielberg. I was stunned. And

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Speaker 1: I lived in l A for nine months at that point,

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Speaker 1: So what happens in that nine months? He's giving you

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Speaker 1: notes or there's creative people. He would give me notes.

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Speaker 1: Now Gremlins was sort of off and running, and someone

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Speaker 1: else was even rewriting it. As I was working on

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Speaker 1: another script for Stephen. For some strange reason, I had

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Speaker 1: sort of carte blanche. I could go into his office.

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Speaker 1: He would be sitting there with Richard Gere or or

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Speaker 1: uh or Warren Beatty. One time he's like, Chris, come

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Speaker 1: on in, would he and I would start to talk

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Speaker 1: to him about ideas. One day he's looking through these

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Speaker 1: old ec comic books, and he says, look at this title, Chris,

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Speaker 1: the goon Children. And I said, the goon Children, that's

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Speaker 1: a cool title. And we came up with this story

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Speaker 1: to other about these kids who find a treasure map,

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Speaker 1: and it was the Goonies. I would write three pages

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Speaker 1: of Goonies, run to Steven's office, give it to him.

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Speaker 1: He would make some notes. I would run back to

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Speaker 1: my office and make the changes. Then I wrote Young

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Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes with him, kind of in the same way.

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Speaker 1: What did you learn from Spielberg? Spielberg was like graduate

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Speaker 1: school of filmmaking. For me. Spielberg was like, UM, I

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Speaker 1: learned shortcuts. Basically, it was a Billy Wilder quote that Stephen,

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Speaker 1: you know, nailed into my head every day, which was,

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Speaker 1: don't tell the audience something more than once. I learned

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Speaker 1: how to edit material, I learned how to write better dialogue,

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Speaker 1: and I learned how to be much more visual as

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Speaker 1: a writer from Stephen. So it was a great relationship,

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Speaker 1: you know, um, and still is a great relationship to

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Speaker 1: this day. We have the opportunity to work together a

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Speaker 1: couple of years ago, so I really loved that time.

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Speaker 1: But at the same time, I needed to get back

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Speaker 1: to Manhattan. Why. I don't know. I just felt like

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Speaker 1: I missed I missed it. I mean it was it's

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Speaker 1: very simple. But did you have a sense, because I

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Speaker 1: find other people have the same thing, it's better for

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Speaker 1: me to stay here for my career. You didn't think

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Speaker 1: of long those lines, No, I I don't think at

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Speaker 1: the time, I was able to articulate it. You know,

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Speaker 1: twenty thirty years down the road, now I can look

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Speaker 1: back and and understand why I did it. Because I

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Speaker 1: was seeing the beginning of people losing touch with reality.

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Speaker 1: Why do directors not have long careers. They don't have

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Speaker 1: long careers because they become extremely successful. They move into

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Speaker 1: these huge mansions and live an isolated life. They watch

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Speaker 1: movies in their screening room. They don't do their own

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Speaker 1: grocery shopping, they don't pump their own gas, they don't

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Speaker 1: get out there on the street. At the end of

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Speaker 1: all that, you've lost connection to real people. What are

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Speaker 1: you making movies about? I realized the reason I went

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Speaker 1: back to New York was to connect with everyone again.

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Speaker 1: So I could go to the corner superrette and buy

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Speaker 1: a carton of orangees for forty dollars. That hasn't changed

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Speaker 1: to this day. I have not changed. You know, I

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Speaker 1: have a great housekeeper now in San Francisco. But for

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Speaker 1: the most part, again because I'm a director and nobody

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Speaker 1: really knows what the hell I look like, I'm anonymous. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but you've yeah, you've kept this very low profile. The

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Speaker 1: only thing that mattered to me about becoming a director

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Speaker 1: was longevity. I wanted to make sure that my career

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Speaker 1: would last for decades, no matter what I was doing,

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Speaker 1: and I felt that part of that has been this

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Speaker 1: ability to sort of hide in plain sight in a

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Speaker 1: weird way. Now I understand it. So you're a writer

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Speaker 1: and you do Gremlin's, and you do Goonies and you

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Speaker 1: do Young Sherlock Holmes. Is the notion of you directing

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Speaker 1: a film? Is it starting to percolate? Do you go

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Speaker 1: to Spielberg and say, I want to direct this one? Now?

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Speaker 1: It came. It started with Jesse corn Blooth. Jesse Cornbluth

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Speaker 1: put into my head at n y U, the only

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Speaker 1: way you're gonna get to become a director is by

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Speaker 1: writing a few successful screenplays. After Young Sherlock Holmes, then

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Speaker 1: I realized Gooneys and Gramlin had been successful enough that

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Speaker 1: maybe I could get a directing gig. My agent sent

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Speaker 1: me a copy of the script called Adventures in Babysitting

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth with Elizabeth Shoe and Anthony Rapp. I love this.

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Speaker 1: I love the script. I thought this is something I

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Speaker 1: could do, and I had great producers, Linda Oaps and

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Speaker 1: Deborah Hill, who were very supportive of me as the

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Speaker 1: first time director. The first day on the set was

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Speaker 1: a little little horrifying. It was my dream to be

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Speaker 1: directing a film, Yet at the same time I realized

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Speaker 1: I had to go hunt of the set and face

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Speaker 1: two fifty people and tell them what to do, and

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Speaker 1: you've never done it before. I got over my fear

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Speaker 1: pretty quickly because I had to. It's like jumping off.

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Speaker 1: Do you still have an apprehension about that now? When

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Speaker 1: it's first day of school and I mean shooting. It's

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Speaker 1: not Chris who was drawing his Marvel comics, Chris that

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Speaker 1: was hiding behind the aluminum spools, writing scripts and everything one.

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Speaker 1: Everybody else has taken a nap at the aluminum factory.

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Speaker 1: It's not Chris alone. There's the writer director who has

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Speaker 1: this kind of nastic process. Then there's the guy that's

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Speaker 1: got to go out and be the captain of the

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Speaker 1: ship on the deck of the ship with two or

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Speaker 1: three people there. So that's a skill you had to develop, correct,

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Speaker 1: I think so, But I again, because well, definitely. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, I was terrifying the first couple of days,

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Speaker 1: but then I realized, Yeah, I realized that a lot

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Speaker 1: of these crew guys, we're like beaten animals because directors.

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Speaker 1: There are so many directors who are such assholes. They're

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Speaker 1: so kind of cruel and angry, and they're working something

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Speaker 1: out on the set of the film. Yeah, and I

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Speaker 1: thought that won't work for me. And I realized after

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Speaker 1: three or four weeks that people were responding just to

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Speaker 1: the fact that I was not grumpy in the morning,

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Speaker 1: that I wasn't piste off all the time, the fact

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Speaker 1: that I was genuinely a pretty happy guy and I

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Speaker 1: really valued what everybody was doing, and if somebody made

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Speaker 1: a mistake, I wasn't ready to rip their head off.

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Speaker 1: I just I understood it. So you're there, you make

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Speaker 1: the film, and what happens. The film opened to like

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Speaker 1: seven million dollars back then, which was perceived disaster. So

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Speaker 1: I'm thinking I'm never gonna work again. What happened is

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Speaker 1: the second weekend. It did something that no film some

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Speaker 1: certain films do, A few films do, which is a

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Speaker 1: shot up in attendance. So we did better the second weekend.

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Speaker 1: I was able to go off and make another film.

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Speaker 1: Then what do you go do? I pitched a film

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Speaker 1: to Jeffrey Katzenberg, and I went off and wrote something

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Speaker 1: else instead, a movie called Heartbreak Hotel about my own

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Speaker 1: obsession with Elvis Presley. The movie opens on a Friday.

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Speaker 1: I read Roger Ebert's review calling it one of the

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Speaker 1: worst films here. Um, once again, I'm thinking it's over.

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Speaker 1: I'll go back to writing. At the time, my first child, Eleanor,

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Speaker 1: was born and I got a script from John Hughes.

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Speaker 1: We both had the same agent, and he said, do

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Speaker 1: you want to do the third Christmas Vacation movie. I

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Speaker 1: was like, that's not really I didn't dream of becoming

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Speaker 1: a filmmaker to do that particular movie. But I thought

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Speaker 1: I needed the gig and John muses supporting me, so

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Speaker 1: I started to do that movie. I shot Second Unit,

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Speaker 1: and I had such a disastrous relationship with the star

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Speaker 1: Chevy Chase, who you know, he has no shortage of enemies.

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Speaker 1: It was so disastrous and so humiliating for me, just

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Speaker 1: based on three meetings that I quit. I said that John,

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Speaker 1: I can't do this, I cannot make He's like, you know,

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Speaker 1: Chevy's a complicated guy, He's a rich food. I said,

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Speaker 1: let me tell you something. He treats. He when I

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Speaker 1: first walked in, he thought I was an assistant. So

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Speaker 1: I'm like, I can't really work this way I and

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Speaker 1: so I quit. And then I was really I thought

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Speaker 1: I was really in trouble. And John and I got

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Speaker 1: along great. So John sent me the script for Home

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Speaker 1: Alone again luck and I fell in love with the script.

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Speaker 1: I thought it was a great script. I think he

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Speaker 1: wrote it in two days. I loved him, loved him,

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Speaker 1: I mean his life and how he went and how

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Speaker 1: he kind of left and you know, get up and

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Speaker 1: moved back to Chicago. Not gave up, but he kind

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Speaker 1: of kind of walked away from It. Was always so

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Speaker 1: sad to me because I thought, God, I mean, I

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Speaker 1: was hoping I could become the next John Candy in

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Speaker 1: his career and the grown leading crazy uncle Buck of

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Speaker 1: the next barage of films of his I loved working

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Speaker 1: with him, loved him. What was your experience like it

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Speaker 1: was exactly the same. Um, I walked off of a

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Speaker 1: movie that he had given me for some strange reason.

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Speaker 1: I think he respected that or he understood it, and

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Speaker 1: being chevy, he understood. Yeah, I think so, and he uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, when I read this script, I thought, this

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Speaker 1: is a gift, this script, the script is really really important.

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Speaker 1: And the only concern I had was I had a

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Speaker 1: you know, I had a newborn at the time. And

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Speaker 1: John liked to work from about tenant when he was

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Speaker 1: right when he was a producer in writing. You know,

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Speaker 1: he wrote all night long. So we would be doing

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Speaker 1: pre production during the day on Home Alone, and then

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Speaker 1: for story meetings, I'd go to his house in Like

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Speaker 1: Forest and we'd work from ten to about five in

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Speaker 1: the mornings. I was getting during the pre production hours

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Speaker 1: of Home Alone, I was getting about two hours sleep,

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Speaker 1: and John told these great stories. So he would tell

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Speaker 1: stories you probably remember, and smoke and these stories would

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Speaker 1: go on for three hours before we ever got into

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Speaker 1: the movie. The fact that we were making a movie.

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Speaker 1: Who cast McCauley, Well, John put him an uncle Buck

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Speaker 1: and John said you should see this kid. But John

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Speaker 1: never said cast him. So McCauley came up to my

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Speaker 1: New York apartment. He and his father the first kid

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Speaker 1: I met, and he was incredibly charming, terrific. But I

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Speaker 1: said to John, just because I felt like I wanted

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Speaker 1: to be responsible, I said I should meet some other kids.

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Speaker 1: So I met about three hundred other kids and then

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Speaker 1: came back around a mccaully. Let me get back. I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna be three kids, and I had to do my job.

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Speaker 1: But McCauley was the first one you saw, you know,

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Speaker 1: it was. It was an interesting situation, kind of like

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Speaker 1: the kids in in Harry Potter a little bit. McAuley

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Speaker 1: had only done one or two movies, so he would

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Speaker 1: do a line, one line, maybe two lines, and then

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Speaker 1: get distracted. So a lot of that film is cut

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Speaker 1: into pieces just so we could get his performance together.

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Speaker 1: But what happened on screen, it was amazingly charming. And

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Speaker 1: you had Heard is the father? John heard yeah, and

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Speaker 1: Catherine is the mother, and I heard thought he was

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Speaker 1: making heard who I love? But I loved him in

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Speaker 1: Cutter his Way, remember cut his Way one of the

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Speaker 1: great performances. But while he was making Home Alone, he

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Speaker 1: thought he was making the biggest piece of ship in

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Speaker 1: the world and he was. He was a pain in

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Speaker 1: the ass, a little fit. He comes back on home

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Speaker 1: alone too, and the first day he's shooting, I yell action.

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Speaker 1: He breaks character and he said, I just would like

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Speaker 1: to say to Chris and the crew, I owe you

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Speaker 1: a big apology. Made a great movie the first time,

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Speaker 1: and I'm here to support you. Wow, we have it

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Speaker 1: in dailies. I still have a tape for that. And

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Speaker 1: I got to work with John Candy for the first time.

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Speaker 1: And John Candy came in for one day of shooting.

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Speaker 1: We had it for one day and he has like

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Speaker 1: six scenes in the movie. So we shot for twenty

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Speaker 1: four hours, twenty four hours straight and he kept going.

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Speaker 1: He just would continue to improvise, and it was my

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Speaker 1: first sort of foray into improvisation. John would do a

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Speaker 1: script to take and then he would start to play

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Speaker 1: Blinky Polka King of the Midwest. And he loved improvising.

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Speaker 1: He was he was brilliant at it. I had a

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Speaker 1: few hits a few years ago. That's why you know.

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Speaker 1: Just Polka, Polca, Polca, Old Folca, No in Twin Lakes, Polka, do'mahugie, Polka,

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Speaker 1: kiss Me Polca, polka twist. In a minute, Chris Columbus

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Speaker 1: talks about working with another brilliant improviser, Robin Williams. We've

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Speaker 1: come to this planet looking for intelligent life. Would happened

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Speaker 1: to be in America. Don't ask for the dream cap.

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Speaker 1: I want you on the lost wile. Well, it's just

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Speaker 1: suddenly a rough meeting and it's not going very well

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Speaker 1: for me. I'll tell you that this is Alec Baldwin.

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Speaker 1: Here's the thing. Take a listen to our archive where

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Speaker 1: you can hear more interviews with artists, dollars and performers.

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Speaker 1: Turns out Chris Columbus isn't the only one with a

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Speaker 1: mother who was a die hard SNL fan. My mom

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Speaker 1: really loved Saturday Night Live. She loved it. She I

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Speaker 1: remember her talking about Chevy Chase and she would say like, oh,

426
00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:19,080
Speaker 1: Chevy Chase, he's so funny. You just look at his face.

427
00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:22,040
Speaker 1: And you want to listen to my interview with comedian

428
00:22:22,119 --> 00:22:31,399
Speaker 1: Fred Armison And here's the thing, Dot Org, I'm Alec

429
00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:35,000
Speaker 1: Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. Chris Columbus

430
00:22:35,040 --> 00:22:37,680
Speaker 1: says he wanted to work with Robin Williams ever since

431
00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:42,680
Speaker 1: he saw him in Good Morning, Vietnam. Five years later,

432
00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:45,240
Speaker 1: Columbus got his chance. I feel like I've known you

433
00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:49,280
Speaker 1: for years, maybe we knew each other in another life.

434
00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:54,879
Speaker 1: I would love for you to come and work with us.

435
00:22:56,320 --> 00:23:02,280
Speaker 1: Who would I great, would be an honor to us,

436
00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:09,359
Speaker 1: to us start for business relationship. Mrs Doubtfire, a film

437
00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:13,159
Speaker 1: about a divorced father who dresses as a Scottish nanny

438
00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:16,040
Speaker 1: to trick his ex wife into hiring him to care

439
00:23:16,119 --> 00:23:19,360
Speaker 1: for their kids, won a Golden Globe for Best Comedy.

440
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:23,480
Speaker 1: Robin Williams won a Globe for Best Actor. But before

441
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:26,639
Speaker 1: all that would happen, Before the filming even began, Chris

442
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:30,040
Speaker 1: Columbus had to meet Williams for lunch, and I was terrified.

443
00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:32,920
Speaker 1: I had worked with guys like Passy who I admired,

444
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:36,280
Speaker 1: and Dan Stern, but Robin was a true superstar at

445
00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:39,160
Speaker 1: the time, and I was I was nervous about how

446
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:42,000
Speaker 1: it would go. And we just we hit it off immediately,

447
00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:45,399
Speaker 1: you know, we wanted to. We really connected. Much of

448
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:49,080
Speaker 1: Mrs doubt Fire was shot in San Francisco, and Columbus

449
00:23:49,160 --> 00:23:52,720
Speaker 1: took the opportunity to move his growing family out west.

450
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:55,119
Speaker 1: It's a great place to raise a family, and I

451
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:58,280
Speaker 1: felt Manhattan would be a little difficult. I was walking

452
00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:00,720
Speaker 1: down the street man and with my addler, and I

453
00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 1: couldn't hear what she was saying to me. I couldn't

454
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:04,840
Speaker 1: you know she's telling And I thought, I gotta I've

455
00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:07,840
Speaker 1: gotta be in a calmer place. And I also fell

456
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:09,720
Speaker 1: in love with the city. San Francisco is a great city,

457
00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:13,120
Speaker 1: and I had in the relationship with Robin was still

458
00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:15,679
Speaker 1: is terrific. Had a great relationship with Robin. And with

459
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:20,679
Speaker 1: Robin again, it's like it's like a steroid version of

460
00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:24,720
Speaker 1: John Candy, where you John liked to improvise, but Robin

461
00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:28,720
Speaker 1: lives to improvise. So it was almost like seeing a

462
00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:31,880
Speaker 1: Springsteen concert where he has to exhaust himself after four

463
00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:34,480
Speaker 1: and a half hours of playing before you can go

464
00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:36,280
Speaker 1: to sleep at night. With Robin, it was the same thing.

465
00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:40,480
Speaker 1: We would shoot anywhere from twelve to fifteen takes for

466
00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:45,160
Speaker 1: each scene, and we would start with a very structured

467
00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:47,960
Speaker 1: script to take and then move off of the script

468
00:24:48,680 --> 00:24:52,159
Speaker 1: and change everything. And that's why that picture had to

469
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:54,600
Speaker 1: be shot with two or three cameras, because do the exectit.

470
00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:56,600
Speaker 1: Fox know that when you're going in to make a

471
00:24:56,600 --> 00:24:59,920
Speaker 1: film and you have someone who's is varied and who's

472
00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:04,320
Speaker 1: is uh, who says uh, what's the word? You know,

473
00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:07,000
Speaker 1: as spontaneous as he is. Did you call them up

474
00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:08,760
Speaker 1: after the first week of shooting and say, fellas, just

475
00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:10,680
Speaker 1: tear up the budget. We gotta start all over again.

476
00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:13,359
Speaker 1: Now we stayed under We stayed not under budget, but

477
00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:15,399
Speaker 1: we stayed on budget. Maybe we went over one or

478
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:19,000
Speaker 1: two days because he is fast, He's lightening fast, and

479
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:21,159
Speaker 1: we shot with two or three cameras. We understood the

480
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:25,359
Speaker 1: cost benefit analysis of his improvisations. He wasn't somebody who

481
00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:29,080
Speaker 1: was over the indulgence. No, And you had actors. You

482
00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:33,840
Speaker 1: had Sally Field and Pierce Brosnan acting across from this guy,

483
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:35,560
Speaker 1: not knowing what he was going to say on take

484
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:37,879
Speaker 1: number five or six. So we had to have a

485
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:41,320
Speaker 1: camera on them because he's I mean, the word genius

486
00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:43,480
Speaker 1: has used a lot these days. But he he comes

487
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:46,119
Speaker 1: up with these things so quickly. He doesn't remember that

488
00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:49,199
Speaker 1: he said them in the next take. It's just he's possessed.

489
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:51,920
Speaker 1: I sometimes tell people shooting Mr Stuff I was like

490
00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:54,080
Speaker 1: shooting a documentary. And by the time we got to

491
00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:56,600
Speaker 1: the editing room, with millions of feet of film. At

492
00:25:56,600 --> 00:26:00,239
Speaker 1: the time, we weren't shooting digitally yet. We had or

493
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:02,840
Speaker 1: five different versions of the film. We had the PG version,

494
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:05,359
Speaker 1: the PG thirteen, the R in the n C seventeen.

495
00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:09,000
Speaker 1: I showed Marcia, who was the producer, because the film

496
00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:11,879
Speaker 1: needed to be PG thirteen, so we knew we couldn't

497
00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:13,560
Speaker 1: have an R rated version of Mrs Do Fire. I

498
00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:16,120
Speaker 1: showed Marcia cut of the film, and then Robin wanted

499
00:26:16,119 --> 00:26:18,320
Speaker 1: to see it with an audience, and that was the

500
00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:20,760
Speaker 1: sort of the thing that sealed the deal, because the

501
00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 1: audience really responded. It was like it really was a

502
00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:26,720
Speaker 1: huge He wasn't then intrusive about cutting the film, and

503
00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:28,560
Speaker 1: he just as long as the film worked in front

504
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:31,960
Speaker 1: of an audience, he was happy. He left. That was it.

505
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:34,320
Speaker 1: It's just every day he we developed this sense of

506
00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:36,960
Speaker 1: trust after a couple of weeks, and I would it

507
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:40,760
Speaker 1: was incredibly exhausting shoot, working fourteen hours a day, and

508
00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:42,840
Speaker 1: I'd get home at night and just poured myself a

509
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:44,399
Speaker 1: glass of wine and the phone to ring. It was

510
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:46,840
Speaker 1: Robin Howard Daily's how how was I in? Daily? So

511
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:50,960
Speaker 1: he was he was very very obsessive in terms of

512
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:54,920
Speaker 1: his own performance and dot Fire sort of received mixed reviews.

513
00:26:55,119 --> 00:26:58,720
Speaker 1: So for me, I because because of my love of

514
00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 1: film history and because of my love of certain films,

515
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:04,600
Speaker 1: there was a level of keeping it very real by

516
00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:06,439
Speaker 1: reading what some of these people were saying. Now, some

517
00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:09,240
Speaker 1: I should probably be have a tougher skin and say,

518
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 1: I don't give us what they're saying. So with doubt Fire,

519
00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:14,600
Speaker 1: there was a sense that we had created a movie

520
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:17,480
Speaker 1: that was very successful a lot of people fell in

521
00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:21,359
Speaker 1: love with, but it didn't for me personally. I didn't

522
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:23,119
Speaker 1: get to that point where I wanted. You know, I

523
00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:26,479
Speaker 1: always wanted to have that level of critical success and

524
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:29,439
Speaker 1: commercial success as well. I just wasn't there yet. So

525
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:31,800
Speaker 1: I managed to stay hungry. I mean, there was a

526
00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:34,480
Speaker 1: feeling of me that I needed to accomplish a lot more,

527
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:37,680
Speaker 1: and I really still feel that way. I still felt

528
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:39,560
Speaker 1: that there's a long way to go there. Back on

529
00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:42,440
Speaker 1: doubt Fire, felt that there was a long way to go. Mrs.

530
00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:46,440
Speaker 1: Doubt Fire grossed over four hundred and forty million dollars worldwide.

531
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:50,200
Speaker 1: The Harry Potter films did even better. Two years ago,

532
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:53,840
Speaker 1: Chris Columbus produced The Help, a much smaller film which

533
00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:58,200
Speaker 1: earned a Best Picture Oscar nomination. Clearly Chris is skilled

534
00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:01,080
Speaker 1: at selecting the right material to work with, or maybe

535
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:05,919
Speaker 1: he just surrounds himself with the right people who greeky you,

536
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:11,240
Speaker 1: Harry Potter. I'm Marti Granger. So when these books one

537
00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:15,320
Speaker 1: of these juggernauts come, who first comes to you and

538
00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:17,960
Speaker 1: says you're going to direct those as a film? It

539
00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:20,359
Speaker 1: was my daughter, because she was the one who tried

540
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:22,240
Speaker 1: to convince me for about a year and a half

541
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:25,080
Speaker 1: to read the Harry Potter books. And finally when I

542
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:27,120
Speaker 1: did and I realized I wanted to make the movie.

543
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:30,600
Speaker 1: There were twenty five other directors who were in line.

544
00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:34,000
Speaker 1: They called it at Warner Brothers a bake off. So

545
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:36,480
Speaker 1: I was in line because Spielberg had dropped out. Steven

546
00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:37,960
Speaker 1: Spielberg had dropped He was the one that was going

547
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 1: to direct. He was going to direct the film. I

548
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:41,440
Speaker 1: think he wanted to combine the two books, add some

549
00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:44,880
Speaker 1: cheerleaders and stuff, and I think that she wasn't you know,

550
00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:48,840
Speaker 1: Joe Rolling was not up for that. So I had

551
00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:51,680
Speaker 1: the last meeting because I wanted to rewrite the script

552
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:55,080
Speaker 1: for the studio um And when I went in to

553
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:56,680
Speaker 1: meet with Warner Brothers, and they said, why do you

554
00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:58,520
Speaker 1: want to make this movie? And I said, because I've

555
00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:01,720
Speaker 1: rewritten it for you for free. Now, no one ever

556
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:05,480
Speaker 1: does anything on Hollywood, so it took it. Still took

557
00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:07,040
Speaker 1: them a few weeks to say yes, but I did

558
00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:09,520
Speaker 1: get the gig. There was still one obstacle. I had

559
00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:12,120
Speaker 1: to fly to Scotland to meet with j K. Rowling.

560
00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:14,760
Speaker 1: So I flew to Scotland met with Joe, who I

561
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:17,240
Speaker 1: was expecting. I hadn't seen many photographs of her at

562
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:19,800
Speaker 1: that point. I was expecting Miss Marple. I was expecting

563
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:23,720
Speaker 1: some sixty year old, heavy set woman in a floral dress.

564
00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:28,240
Speaker 1: And it was She's she's younger than we are. She's very,

565
00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:30,800
Speaker 1: very funny, one of the funniest people I've ever met,

566
00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:33,760
Speaker 1: sharp as attack and we hit it off immediately. We

567
00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:36,560
Speaker 1: spent three she spent three hours listening to me. I

568
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:38,479
Speaker 1: had diarrhea of the mouth because I was telling her

569
00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:40,720
Speaker 1: the kind of movie I wanted to make. At the

570
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:42,400
Speaker 1: end of it, she said, that's exactly the kind of

571
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:44,680
Speaker 1: film I want to make, and I knew I got

572
00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:47,280
Speaker 1: the job. Once I knew I got the job, I

573
00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:50,560
Speaker 1: was scared out of my wits. Everyone was obsessed about

574
00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:51,920
Speaker 1: who was going to be cast in the movie, how

575
00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:54,000
Speaker 1: we were going to design Hogwarts, what was Quidditch going

576
00:29:54,040 --> 00:29:56,320
Speaker 1: to be like? And I thought, the only way to

577
00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:58,920
Speaker 1: get through this so I'm not standing in a corner

578
00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:01,640
Speaker 1: unable to face my crew, was to just sort of

579
00:30:01,720 --> 00:30:04,320
Speaker 1: bury my head and start to work and again. And

580
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:07,960
Speaker 1: she was around during the screenwriting process or around the

581
00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:10,239
Speaker 1: shooting as well. Now she only came out for one

582
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:12,920
Speaker 1: day during the shooting, just to visit. She wasn't that

583
00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:16,120
Speaker 1: interested in the shooting, as you can if you're a

584
00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:18,120
Speaker 1: visitor at a set, it's not that exciting. After about

585
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:20,800
Speaker 1: two hours. She came out when we were shooting diagon Alley.

586
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:25,040
Speaker 1: But during the screenwriting, during the rewriting process, and during

587
00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:27,520
Speaker 1: some of the design work, you know, I would take

588
00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:30,120
Speaker 1: her through the Harry Potter Factory, I called it. We

589
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:32,520
Speaker 1: would walk through the art department and I would show

590
00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:35,120
Speaker 1: her what I was thinking of for diagon Alley, or

591
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 1: green Gots or Hogwarts of the Wizarding Robes, and she

592
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:41,959
Speaker 1: just was always very collaborative. She'd say, oh, like the

593
00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:45,840
Speaker 1: wand Harry's wand couldn't have any specific design to it

594
00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:49,040
Speaker 1: because it was from an old tree that wouldn't it

595
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:51,080
Speaker 1: was just a little crooked and you And it was

596
00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:54,400
Speaker 1: that kind of specific comments that really sort of helped

597
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:56,280
Speaker 1: me find where I was going. I never was off

598
00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:59,040
Speaker 1: the rails though, because we did we did share a

599
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:01,800
Speaker 1: similar I think, vision for what we wanted the movie

600
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:03,960
Speaker 1: to be. And I know she would give us also

601
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:05,959
Speaker 1: indications that the films we're gonna get the books there

602
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:07,640
Speaker 1: were only three books at the time. Remember, we're gonna

603
00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:10,080
Speaker 1: get progressively darker, and this had to be sort of

604
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 1: the first one was sort of like the storybook version

605
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:15,320
Speaker 1: of Harry Potter. It's his origin story. It's still a

606
00:31:15,320 --> 00:31:18,360
Speaker 1: little darker, and Hogwarts had to feel like the most

607
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:21,240
Speaker 1: welcoming place in the world. And then we get little

608
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:23,200
Speaker 1: indications that it's going to start to fall apart as

609
00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:26,320
Speaker 1: we move forward. We set that all into motion that

610
00:31:26,360 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 1: the movies would get darker and darker and darker. Did

611
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:32,400
Speaker 1: you did you have a sense did you say, I

612
00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 1: think I've got this film version of these books, I've

613
00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:39,960
Speaker 1: got the recipe. Unfortunately, not not until we were finished.

614
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:43,680
Speaker 1: We knew we were We knew things were going well.

615
00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:45,880
Speaker 1: So even though the kids had not had a lot

616
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:49,719
Speaker 1: of experience and acting. They were amazingly charming on screen,

617
00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:53,520
Speaker 1: and they felt like those characters. I think the first

618
00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 1: day that we really felt that we were on the

619
00:31:56,240 --> 00:31:59,200
Speaker 1: right track as we shot the the opening of the

620
00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 1: Great Hall and we're on this huge crane and the

621
00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:06,479
Speaker 1: kids are walking in and are her. Visual effects guy

622
00:32:06,560 --> 00:32:11,440
Speaker 1: John Richardson attached four hundred and fifty candles to strings.

623
00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:13,880
Speaker 1: Everyone had to light all these candles, and I remember

624
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:16,800
Speaker 1: sitting in Daily's and seeing the shot where the camera

625
00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:20,520
Speaker 1: cranes up through the floating candles, and realizing, Oh, I

626
00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 1: think we're onto something. Uh, And so that all felt good.

627
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:27,120
Speaker 1: We still had no Yeah, it was fun. That's cool.

628
00:32:27,560 --> 00:32:33,640
Speaker 1: The last film you directed was Percy Jackson. Percy Jackson, Yeah,

629
00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:37,120
Speaker 1: the feature. Yeah. So if that was released in ten,

630
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:40,200
Speaker 1: you shot that in two thousand nine. So you haven't

631
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:44,360
Speaker 1: directed a feature in four years. No, And part of

632
00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:46,960
Speaker 1: that was because of the of the help. There was

633
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:50,360
Speaker 1: a writer director named Take Taylor, sort of a director

634
00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:52,000
Speaker 1: that I had supported over the years. He did a

635
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:53,800
Speaker 1: lot of short films, was an actor in l A.

636
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:55,760
Speaker 1: When he come to San Francisco, he'd sit down and

637
00:32:55,800 --> 00:32:57,240
Speaker 1: meet with me and show me what he was working

638
00:32:57,240 --> 00:32:58,800
Speaker 1: and he came into my office one day and said,

639
00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:00,440
Speaker 1: this is my first feature that I want to make.

640
00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:03,360
Speaker 1: My best friend wrote this book, The Help. I read

641
00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:05,720
Speaker 1: the script and I said, this is a fantastic movie.

642
00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:08,280
Speaker 1: I wanted to direct it, and Tait was like, I

643
00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:09,800
Speaker 1: want to direct, and I want you to support me

644
00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:14,120
Speaker 1: so I don't get fired. So Steven Spielberg and I

645
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:16,480
Speaker 1: sort of reunited to do it. Steven and I met

646
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:20,040
Speaker 1: in London. Steven said, as long as you promised that

647
00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:22,400
Speaker 1: you'll be on the set every day. I said, but

648
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:24,040
Speaker 1: when I produce a movie, I like to go for

649
00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:28,520
Speaker 1: the first week and dream Works. Streamworks financed it. We

650
00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:31,200
Speaker 1: shot in Mississippi in the summertime a couple of years ago,

651
00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:33,280
Speaker 1: and you were on the set every day that I

652
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:36,560
Speaker 1: was there every day. It was fantastic. I was gonna say,

653
00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:39,440
Speaker 1: what's that like for you to be the pure producer? Well,

654
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:42,520
Speaker 1: as I said, usually I just if I'm the producer,

655
00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:44,320
Speaker 1: I like to go for a couple of days, make

656
00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:46,760
Speaker 1: sure it's it's all in good hands, and I'd like

657
00:33:46,840 --> 00:33:49,840
Speaker 1: to go off and direct or write. In this situation,

658
00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:51,480
Speaker 1: so I made a promise to Stephen. I was there

659
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:56,160
Speaker 1: the entire time. And the interesting thing was, because of

660
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:59,480
Speaker 1: the level of performances in that film, getting actually just

661
00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:04,320
Speaker 1: being able to watch these actresses perform every day, Viola Davis,

662
00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:09,440
Speaker 1: Bryce Dallas Howard and Emma Stone. It just was an

663
00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:13,480
Speaker 1: amazing front row seat to these these performances. And Tate

664
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:16,239
Speaker 1: was just wonderful with the actresses. He was just he's

665
00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:19,279
Speaker 1: an actor himself. Again, that connection is really helpful. So

666
00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:20,799
Speaker 1: for me it was it was a bit of a

667
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:25,080
Speaker 1: learning experience. It opened up another sort of part of

668
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:27,359
Speaker 1: filmmaking that I want to get. I was going to say,

669
00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:29,040
Speaker 1: do you want to make films like that? Because my

670
00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:32,840
Speaker 1: last question for you is, here's a guy who the

671
00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:35,359
Speaker 1: flame for you that you were drawn to from things

672
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:38,600
Speaker 1: I've read about you were movies like The Godfather, But

673
00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:41,520
Speaker 1: you haven't made a movie like The Godfather, And I'm

674
00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:43,520
Speaker 1: wondering is that a direction you want to go in?

675
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:45,200
Speaker 1: Now you see a movie like The Help, and you

676
00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:47,400
Speaker 1: see do you want to do more? Not even so

677
00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:51,040
Speaker 1: much racially theme, but much more kind of intense drama.

678
00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:55,520
Speaker 1: Here's the thing I'm not particularly uh. I'm not saying

679
00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:57,480
Speaker 1: I'm not happy with the movies I've made, but I

680
00:34:57,520 --> 00:35:00,000
Speaker 1: still have a long way to go. Hopefully I can

681
00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:01,919
Speaker 1: live long enough to get to where I really would

682
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:04,080
Speaker 1: be happy with it. Maybe it won't happen, But what

683
00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:07,239
Speaker 1: I really really want to do, I would like to

684
00:35:07,239 --> 00:35:09,040
Speaker 1: make the kind of movies that you and I grew

685
00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:11,719
Speaker 1: up on, which are the kind of movies. Look Dog

686
00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:16,560
Speaker 1: Day Afternoon, The Godfather, Serpico. All of those movies were

687
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:20,120
Speaker 1: movies that we're not only about something, but but we're

688
00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:22,960
Speaker 1: great dramatic films with an enormous sense of humor. By

689
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:25,000
Speaker 1: the way, all the films I mentioned are very funny

690
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:27,279
Speaker 1: at times, yet at the same time they reached a

691
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:30,240
Speaker 1: huge audience. And to me, that's what it was about.

692
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:32,200
Speaker 1: I didn't want to make a film that was so

693
00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:37,280
Speaker 1: special and Indian tiny that it wouldn't reach a wide audience.

694
00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:40,160
Speaker 1: I always felt that when I was watching movies like

695
00:35:40,160 --> 00:35:42,520
Speaker 1: Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, and I was watching

696
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:46,120
Speaker 1: Dog Day Afternoon, the performances were so amazing and so

697
00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:51,400
Speaker 1: authentic and real, and those movies found an audience. Now, unfortunately,

698
00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:55,080
Speaker 1: most of those types of films are being made for television.

699
00:35:55,400 --> 00:36:01,880
Speaker 1: So yeahs that you've made films now it directed and

700
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:05,400
Speaker 1: produced huge films some of the biggest films of the

701
00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:07,560
Speaker 1: last twenty five years. You've been doing this for twenty

702
00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:09,960
Speaker 1: five years. How has the business changed in the twenty

703
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:14,319
Speaker 1: five years from your standpoint? Well, you know when I

704
00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:16,560
Speaker 1: set harder to get that movie made. You're talking about

705
00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:20,879
Speaker 1: that Sydney lamente esque drama. Yeah, I've spent the better

706
00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:23,400
Speaker 1: part of the last year and a half writing films

707
00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:27,480
Speaker 1: like that, but I can't It's very, very difficult to

708
00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:30,879
Speaker 1: get them made in an environment that really is only

709
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:34,960
Speaker 1: interested in either sequels or superhero films. If you walked

710
00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:39,040
Speaker 1: into a studio executive's office in nineteen seventies eight and

711
00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:43,560
Speaker 1: said you wanted to make Spider Man comic books, oh

712
00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:46,040
Speaker 1: my god, that's the lowest form of entertainment. Well, now

713
00:36:46,120 --> 00:36:50,759
Speaker 1: we're in a situation where that's mostly what's being made,

714
00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:54,480
Speaker 1: so it's difficult to help kind of you know, was

715
00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:57,120
Speaker 1: made because the book was so successful and we made

716
00:36:57,120 --> 00:36:59,560
Speaker 1: it for twenty eight million dollars, which for a period

717
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:04,200
Speaker 1: piece is relatively inexpensive. So if we can find that

718
00:37:04,239 --> 00:37:06,440
Speaker 1: way to do more of those films, I'd love to

719
00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:08,080
Speaker 1: do them. And that's probably one of the reasons I

720
00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:11,080
Speaker 1: haven't directed The Help is really gotten into my head

721
00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:13,359
Speaker 1: in a big way and said, you can make these

722
00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:15,759
Speaker 1: movies and people will go see them. And where I've

723
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:19,439
Speaker 1: gotten into trouble in my career, movies like bi Centennial Man,

724
00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:22,120
Speaker 1: movies like Beth Cooper. Again, when I did them for fun,

725
00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 1: and when I thought, oh, this will be fun, I'll

726
00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:24,839
Speaker 1: just go out and make a movie like We're back

727
00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:29,680
Speaker 1: in film. It's not the case anymore. There's much more responsibility.

728
00:37:31,880 --> 00:37:35,640
Speaker 1: Chris Columbus won't stop making movies, but he has taken

729
00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:39,759
Speaker 1: a slight detour. His first novel, House of Secrets, a

730
00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:43,960
Speaker 1: middle school fantasy adventure, is out this year. Chris sent

731
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:46,960
Speaker 1: an early draft to J. K. Rowling. She said it

732
00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:50,320
Speaker 1: was too fast paced. Slow down. She told him deepen

733
00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:53,959
Speaker 1: the characters and work on the complexity. Chris Columbus says

734
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:57,320
Speaker 1: he and his co author Nid Vezzini took that advice

735
00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:02,720
Speaker 1: to heart. Coming my conversation with theater and film director

736
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:06,920
Speaker 1: Stephen Daldry, He's had three Oscar nominations for Best Director,

737
00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:12,760
Speaker 1: but still fantasizes about other careers town country planning, traffic lights,

738
00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:15,200
Speaker 1: Really interested in traffic lights, subway sist you're an engineer

739
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:30,680
Speaker 1: mass transit systems. This is Alec Baldwin. I'm Alec Baldwin

740
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:34,040
Speaker 1: and you're listening to here's the thing. Stephen Daldry grew

741
00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:38,440
Speaker 1: up in the theater. He began directing plays at age sixteen.

742
00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:41,799
Speaker 1: He went on to run several theaters before spending most

743
00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:44,680
Speaker 1: of the nine nineties at the Royal Court in London.

744
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:48,520
Speaker 1: Since two thousand one, he spent more time making movies.

745
00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:53,000
Speaker 1: His most recent film, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, starred

746
00:38:53,040 --> 00:38:56,960
Speaker 1: Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. But Stephen Doldry still chooses

747
00:38:57,080 --> 00:39:00,360
Speaker 1: projects based on the same criteria he you When he

748
00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:03,120
Speaker 1: was working with fringe theater groups. I didn't know what

749
00:39:03,160 --> 00:39:05,680
Speaker 1: you who you make stuff for? I always make stuff

750
00:39:05,719 --> 00:39:07,840
Speaker 1: for myself and my you know, you make stuff for

751
00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:10,239
Speaker 1: your friends, yourself and see whether it makes any sense

752
00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:14,919
Speaker 1: to you. Your first film was Billy Elliott. Correct, Yeah,

753
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:17,279
Speaker 1: but that was that was a really weeny one to

754
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:20,000
Speaker 1: you know, That's what I mean. So obviously you see

755
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:22,520
Speaker 1: where like that was. That was a small film and

756
00:39:22,560 --> 00:39:25,400
Speaker 1: then you we we made that literally we made it

757
00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:28,400
Speaker 1: for next to nothing. And is there a difference for

758
00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:31,520
Speaker 1: you and making films and producing shows and directing shows

759
00:39:31,520 --> 00:39:34,480
Speaker 1: in the theater. The difference between the two a big difference.

760
00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:36,919
Speaker 1: One is in the theater, everybody's in the same room,

761
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:40,359
Speaker 1: so everybody can see what the beast is. Everyone can

762
00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:42,680
Speaker 1: see what it's made. And you start at the beginning,

763
00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:44,520
Speaker 1: and you finish the people you start with, the people

764
00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:46,600
Speaker 1: you finish with, and the movie is that the people

765
00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:48,680
Speaker 1: you you prep with, the people you shoot with, and

766
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:50,279
Speaker 1: the people you shoot without the people you finish with.

767
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:52,520
Speaker 1: And the people think it's more like a relay race

768
00:39:52,880 --> 00:39:55,279
Speaker 1: making a movie. To me, it's more like cooking, you know,

769
00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:57,000
Speaker 1: Like there's a guy that makes the let us out

770
00:39:57,040 --> 00:39:59,680
Speaker 1: in California, there's a guy that grew the tomatoes and Georgia,

771
00:39:59,719 --> 00:40:01,799
Speaker 1: and none of them ever meeting each other or know

772
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:04,080
Speaker 1: each other, they ship at all. And you cut it

773
00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:06,120
Speaker 1: up into a salad and mix it all together. And

774
00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:09,960
Speaker 1: that's why it's it's more lonely because it's so compartmentalized

775
00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:12,239
Speaker 1: that way. Yeah, And I mean I remember the first

776
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:14,160
Speaker 1: day that I ever shot anything on film, and you know,

777
00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:17,160
Speaker 1: suddenly around the camera people are saying these extraordinary things

778
00:40:17,239 --> 00:40:20,120
Speaker 1: to me, like you know, rolling, you know, all these things.

779
00:40:20,120 --> 00:40:22,719
Speaker 1: When was that billion it? And people are going, they're

780
00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:25,040
Speaker 1: saying all these strange words, you know, and then everyone's

781
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:26,840
Speaker 1: looking at me and I'm going, what are they doing?

782
00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:29,840
Speaker 1: And you go, oh, I'm meant to say action? People

783
00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:31,279
Speaker 1: really say that do thing? I thought it was some

784
00:40:31,320 --> 00:40:33,640
Speaker 1: sort of like joke. And since then, I've never really

785
00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:35,279
Speaker 1: liked saying action, which is why I prefer just to

786
00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:37,759
Speaker 1: keep rehearsing and roll the camera while we're rehearsing, and

787
00:40:37,760 --> 00:40:40,239
Speaker 1: then eventually he's into. Some people don't want to say

788
00:40:40,239 --> 00:40:42,520
Speaker 1: the word action. I find a bizarre on myself, and

789
00:40:42,560 --> 00:40:44,919
Speaker 1: when it freaks the actors out, actually do it now,

790
00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:48,120
Speaker 1: turn on Now. It's not very intimate, it's not and

791
00:40:48,200 --> 00:40:51,239
Speaker 1: it's a it's a it's like an assault on the

792
00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:54,520
Speaker 1: outer I directed a film once and I couldn't stand that.

793
00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:57,200
Speaker 1: I really didn't care for it. But I wonder. I've

794
00:40:57,200 --> 00:41:01,960
Speaker 1: always wondered if I had the nation to absorb more

795
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:05,239
Speaker 1: about lighting and cutting and editing, and has that been

796
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:07,120
Speaker 1: a big thing for you. There's that journey of learning

797
00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:09,840
Speaker 1: more about how films are put together. And I love editing.

798
00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:12,000
Speaker 1: You do. It's my favorite bit of a pressure. It is.

799
00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:15,480
Speaker 1: A film is written three times. You write it to

800
00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:18,000
Speaker 1: start it you, then you rewrite it as you make it,

801
00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:20,960
Speaker 1: and then you do the final and proper right as

802
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:22,560
Speaker 1: you put it all together. And it's like a jigsaw

803
00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:25,160
Speaker 1: puzzle if you like jigsaw puzzles, if you love making movies.

804
00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:27,880
Speaker 1: But it's actually putting the pieces together, finding out the rhythms.

805
00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:31,480
Speaker 1: And I would imagine that the experience of editing makes

806
00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:34,120
Speaker 1: anyone a better filmmaker in terms of teaching you what

807
00:41:34,200 --> 00:41:36,759
Speaker 1: you need to have in the Can people say to me,

808
00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:38,440
Speaker 1: you know, what should idea to learn how to make

809
00:41:38,480 --> 00:41:40,480
Speaker 1: a film? Just getting by a final clup prom and

810
00:41:40,520 --> 00:41:42,759
Speaker 1: just start shooting stuff and then just start editing, and

811
00:41:42,760 --> 00:41:44,400
Speaker 1: you'll learn everything you need to know about making a

812
00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:46,920
Speaker 1: movie from editing it. Did you feel that you had

813
00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:50,440
Speaker 1: learned everything that you needed to learn about directing actors

814
00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:52,879
Speaker 1: from your years in the theater in England? In terms

815
00:41:52,880 --> 00:41:55,920
Speaker 1: of directing actress for film, was there a difference? It

816
00:41:56,000 --> 00:42:02,920
Speaker 1: was the same. I think it's the same. Well, let

817
00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:05,080
Speaker 1: it rip. Most of my life, you know, all my

818
00:42:05,120 --> 00:42:06,839
Speaker 1: life has been spent in the theater, you know, and

819
00:42:08,640 --> 00:42:10,880
Speaker 1: all you need to work out with an actor is

820
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:13,160
Speaker 1: how to talk to them. And actors come with their

821
00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:15,080
Speaker 1: own method like you you know, you've come with your

822
00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:18,239
Speaker 1: own methodology of where you've picked up and usually act

823
00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:20,480
Speaker 1: as a lot of actors, particularly American actors, if I

824
00:42:20,560 --> 00:42:25,759
Speaker 1: may dare to say this, come from some notion, some

825
00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:28,399
Speaker 1: they've picked up some ideas of what acting might be

826
00:42:28,600 --> 00:42:32,680
Speaker 1: or what what a methodology might be. It's easier in Europe.

827
00:42:32,719 --> 00:42:34,719
Speaker 1: It's easier in England because usually people have got to

828
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:37,080
Speaker 1: shared methodology and other words, there's a language that people

829
00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:39,280
Speaker 1: sort of understand that you can actually have a conversation

830
00:42:39,320 --> 00:42:42,000
Speaker 1: about what what literally you're meant to be doing at

831
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:45,560
Speaker 1: any one particular time. A lot of American actors got

832
00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:47,960
Speaker 1: lost in this idea of the method or some sort

833
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:50,879
Speaker 1: of notion of character. They keep going on about when

834
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:53,520
Speaker 1: my character this, or and even what are you talking about?

835
00:42:53,880 --> 00:42:56,560
Speaker 1: Where did you get this idea of character from. It's

836
00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:58,640
Speaker 1: easier in Europe because people tend to be more strictly

837
00:42:59,400 --> 00:43:03,040
Speaker 1: come from a a training whereby the common training a

838
00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:05,479
Speaker 1: common training, because there's a lot of training going on here,

839
00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:08,359
Speaker 1: but that training is a different kind of training. It's

840
00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:10,920
Speaker 1: a different sort of training. So the difficulty is just

841
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:13,480
Speaker 1: finding a language to talk to actors so you can

842
00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:15,839
Speaker 1: be honest. I think that. You know. One time I

843
00:43:15,880 --> 00:43:19,440
Speaker 1: was watching a concert and I was watching some famous

844
00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:23,800
Speaker 1: musician like Tom Petty. He was performing at a benefit

845
00:43:23,840 --> 00:43:26,040
Speaker 1: and I turned to a friend of mine and I

846
00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:28,680
Speaker 1: had this chill run up my spine, and I said,

847
00:43:28,680 --> 00:43:31,160
Speaker 1: do you see what these people are doing. They're all

848
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:34,000
Speaker 1: doing the same thing at the same time, and they're

849
00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:36,080
Speaker 1: all of one at the same time. You know, it's

850
00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:38,640
Speaker 1: it doesn't happen in the theater and enacting a lot

851
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:41,399
Speaker 1: of times it does in England. No, No, it's really hard.

852
00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:43,799
Speaker 1: It's the only people. Sometimes people are doing their own thing.

853
00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:45,440
Speaker 1: What is the job of the doctor? The job of

854
00:43:45,480 --> 00:43:48,160
Speaker 1: the doctors. You've got one job is to make sure

855
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:51,040
Speaker 1: everybody's in the same show. And you can have fantastic films,

856
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:54,680
Speaker 1: fantastic fantastic theater. There in one show, he's in another show,

857
00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:56,920
Speaker 1: she's doing something else. They're all being brilliant in their

858
00:43:56,920 --> 00:43:59,240
Speaker 1: own way, but they're on the same space. Getting everybody

859
00:43:59,239 --> 00:44:01,880
Speaker 1: in the same spaces the hardest thing. But what's your methodology?

860
00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:03,920
Speaker 1: Where were you? If I was to ask you what

861
00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:06,520
Speaker 1: you do you define your acting in a particular way? Well,

862
00:44:06,560 --> 00:44:07,920
Speaker 1: it depends. I mean, I try to think of it

863
00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:09,920
Speaker 1: in terms of rhythm, there's a key you play in

864
00:44:10,400 --> 00:44:12,160
Speaker 1: you have you have to pace it up. It has

865
00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:14,319
Speaker 1: to be fast, you have to make the audience catch

866
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:16,920
Speaker 1: up to you don't put a lot of unearned policies.

867
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:18,680
Speaker 1: And there really paces a big part of it. But

868
00:44:18,760 --> 00:44:21,040
Speaker 1: did you train? Yeah? I went to n y U.

869
00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:24,279
Speaker 1: And as I get older, everything is technical. I mean

870
00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:27,920
Speaker 1: I literally mark my minds in the scripts that I

871
00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:32,120
Speaker 1: do now, like a musical score, stop, hard, constant, here, move,

872
00:44:33,160 --> 00:44:36,880
Speaker 1: dip rise, all these things. Emphasis Before that, though, it

873
00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:39,640
Speaker 1: was all about authenticity. I would say that method acting

874
00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:42,040
Speaker 1: was about like if you said to me, which I

875
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:43,600
Speaker 1: want you to do this, I'd say, well, I've got

876
00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:46,359
Speaker 1: to go meet a bunch of surgeons. Let's go find

877
00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:49,680
Speaker 1: that how hard surgeons really behave in the operating room,

878
00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:51,360
Speaker 1: because I don't want to do anything as an authentic

879
00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:53,759
Speaker 1: And then of course there's that famous Walter math on

880
00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:55,480
Speaker 1: line where they said to Walter Math, how do you

881
00:44:55,520 --> 00:45:00,239
Speaker 1: want to go observe some surgery and he said, no,

882
00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:02,200
Speaker 1: I'm a movie actor. No one expects me to know

883
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:04,920
Speaker 1: anything about surgery. So we're just gonna fake it and

884
00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:07,960
Speaker 1: indicate it. And you're absolutly right, about the technical. I

885
00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:09,880
Speaker 1: mean in England we do tend to be more technical.

886
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:13,600
Speaker 1: But I'm connecting, you know even remember you know I

887
00:45:13,600 --> 00:45:15,400
Speaker 1: work with male Streep on a movie, and you know

888
00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:19,560
Speaker 1: a Mail has this extraordinary emotional ability. But she does

889
00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:22,839
Speaker 1: pause before the verb. And I know why you're doing

890
00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:25,080
Speaker 1: it because you think I can't cut away. I can

891
00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:28,000
Speaker 1: absolutely show you I can cut away from you even

892
00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:29,840
Speaker 1: if you pause before the verb. And she knew she

893
00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:33,120
Speaker 1: was pausing before the verb. Well, she she definitely is

894
00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:36,600
Speaker 1: a maestro. She is she's her Nicholson that they know

895
00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:38,359
Speaker 1: every trick there is to force the cut in the

896
00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:41,759
Speaker 1: film or to deny the cut in the film. But

897
00:45:41,840 --> 00:45:45,120
Speaker 1: I think that it is thrilling when you do a

898
00:45:45,120 --> 00:45:48,239
Speaker 1: piece and you have a director who can help you.

899
00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:51,279
Speaker 1: I've had to do what the modern actress had to do,

900
00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:54,000
Speaker 1: which is to come prepared to be self directing in

901
00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:58,879
Speaker 1: case you didn't have anything from me, agonizing because I'd

902
00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:00,200
Speaker 1: rather come and have you say to me, but of

903
00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:03,200
Speaker 1: course it's this, and I would don't you realize it's this?

904
00:46:03,400 --> 00:46:05,600
Speaker 1: And you have got all fond of information, but I

905
00:46:05,600 --> 00:46:07,640
Speaker 1: would go crazy. But I find it really crazy when

906
00:46:07,640 --> 00:46:10,440
Speaker 1: it is come in self prepared because they've done some

907
00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:13,120
Speaker 1: journey that they get and you go, well, well this

908
00:46:13,160 --> 00:46:14,920
Speaker 1: is and again you get they're showing your photographs of

909
00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:16,759
Speaker 1: a trip they went on without you. Yeah, and then

910
00:46:16,800 --> 00:46:19,120
Speaker 1: they again in this comment you're my character and you're

911
00:46:19,120 --> 00:46:22,000
Speaker 1: don't look, it's not your character. Okay, it's ours, and

912
00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:23,920
Speaker 1: we're going to make it up. Now. Interesting, I've never

913
00:46:23,920 --> 00:46:26,719
Speaker 1: heard that. Every further it's ours, it's ours, it's not

914
00:46:26,760 --> 00:46:29,480
Speaker 1: your character. I'm going to remember that it's ours. Well,

915
00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:31,920
Speaker 1: my character wouldn't do that. Well, let's change the character then,

916
00:46:31,960 --> 00:46:34,640
Speaker 1: because we're going to do that. You know what is

917
00:46:34,680 --> 00:46:36,839
Speaker 1: let's talk about a character they wouldn't do that. That's right,

918
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:39,279
Speaker 1: let's change you. What do you miss about running up

919
00:46:39,280 --> 00:46:41,319
Speaker 1: by side the court which everybody just adores the work

920
00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:43,400
Speaker 1: there and loves the court. You miss it? I miss it,

921
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:45,799
Speaker 1: and I suspect I'm going to run another favor. I mean,

922
00:46:45,840 --> 00:46:48,960
Speaker 1: it's too much fun. It's about community. It's about having

923
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:51,000
Speaker 1: a community of people that you know you're staying with

924
00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:52,640
Speaker 1: for a period of time, the number of years you

925
00:46:52,719 --> 00:46:55,120
Speaker 1: commit yourself to and trying to do something you know,

926
00:46:55,160 --> 00:46:56,840
Speaker 1: I don't know why you make work. I mean I

927
00:46:56,840 --> 00:46:58,480
Speaker 1: make work to change the world. I think that's any

928
00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:01,200
Speaker 1: reason to do anything. And getting a group of people

929
00:47:01,239 --> 00:47:03,680
Speaker 1: in to start a conversation with the community and with

930
00:47:03,719 --> 00:47:05,279
Speaker 1: a society you live in is going to be the

931
00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:07,080
Speaker 1: greatest thing you can do. Can you do both right

932
00:47:07,080 --> 00:47:10,200
Speaker 1: now or now? You certainly can't make movies in mouth here, don't.

933
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:14,080
Speaker 1: Movies are too obsessive. It's it's like it's it's two

934
00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:16,440
Speaker 1: years of your life, just whatever you do, it's two years.

935
00:47:17,560 --> 00:47:20,480
Speaker 1: Two years is fast compared to the years it took

936
00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:23,560
Speaker 1: to turn Billy Elliott into a musical. What does it

937
00:47:23,800 --> 00:47:34,439
Speaker 1: feel like when you're darks hmm, so it feels good.

938
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:37,880
Speaker 1: We made this little film. Nobody was really nobody was

939
00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:40,239
Speaker 1: interested by the way. You know, a kid who wants

940
00:47:40,239 --> 00:47:43,000
Speaker 1: to be a dancer, you know, please. But we took

941
00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:45,880
Speaker 1: it to Can and the first showing in Can, for

942
00:47:45,920 --> 00:47:49,600
Speaker 1: some unknown reason, Elton John was there and the party

943
00:47:49,640 --> 00:47:51,719
Speaker 1: afterwards out and said, you know, this is going to

944
00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:53,359
Speaker 1: be better on stage. I mean, it's a great movie,

945
00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:55,080
Speaker 1: but I want to write the music for this on stage.

946
00:47:55,400 --> 00:47:57,120
Speaker 1: And we went it's out on John and I met

947
00:47:57,160 --> 00:47:58,560
Speaker 1: him before you know, it's like, oh my god, you

948
00:47:58,560 --> 00:48:01,759
Speaker 1: know what, No if but now, and then he kept

949
00:48:01,800 --> 00:48:04,360
Speaker 1: on going for what did you say no? Because we

950
00:48:04,480 --> 00:48:06,680
Speaker 1: just finished the film and you just weren't ready to

951
00:48:06,680 --> 00:48:08,840
Speaker 1: think about this, not even ready for it. But he

952
00:48:08,920 --> 00:48:11,720
Speaker 1: kept he was persistent and carried on, and he would

953
00:48:11,880 --> 00:48:15,200
Speaker 1: literally start writing stuff and write songs, and he'd ring

954
00:48:15,239 --> 00:48:17,600
Speaker 1: me up in my kitchen and I put him on

955
00:48:17,640 --> 00:48:20,680
Speaker 1: speaker phone and he said, look, how about this one?

956
00:48:21,160 --> 00:48:23,960
Speaker 1: And I'd be cooking in my kitchen and then e

957
00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:28,200
Speaker 1: speaker phone, and he really didn't fall into a kind

958
00:48:28,200 --> 00:48:31,120
Speaker 1: of a Lewis Carroll hole there. I think the stage

959
00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:33,160
Speaker 1: show is better than the movie. It's found its natural home.

960
00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:35,840
Speaker 1: Isn't it amazing? How that is a big part of

961
00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:37,799
Speaker 1: this business. How you do fall into a hole one

962
00:48:37,880 --> 00:48:40,400
Speaker 1: day you weren't sitting there. I would imagine at the

963
00:48:40,440 --> 00:48:42,600
Speaker 1: court saying I've got to get out of here and

964
00:48:42,600 --> 00:48:45,040
Speaker 1: make films. You know, it doesn't happen to you every day, though,

965
00:48:45,120 --> 00:48:49,080
Speaker 1: that life changes in the second right, one such turning

966
00:48:49,120 --> 00:48:51,200
Speaker 1: point for you, I think from what I could gather

967
00:48:51,320 --> 00:48:55,000
Speaker 1: from reading, was that you were a clown's apprentice. Correct us.

968
00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:58,360
Speaker 1: I was interested in circus when I was finishing university,

969
00:48:58,440 --> 00:49:02,080
Speaker 1: so I I suppose I sought out this guy called

970
00:49:02,080 --> 00:49:04,959
Speaker 1: Elder Milette. He was in a great Italian clown and

971
00:49:05,000 --> 00:49:07,759
Speaker 1: then I went to work with him in Italy. I

972
00:49:07,760 --> 00:49:13,520
Speaker 1: worked in a year indoor fe It was a hard circus.

973
00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:17,239
Speaker 1: I mean it wasn't What does that mean? I love that.

974
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:19,960
Speaker 1: What does it mean a hard circus? A hard circus

975
00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:24,360
Speaker 1: is it's three shows daily, hard schedule, hard schedule. I

976
00:49:24,440 --> 00:49:26,239
Speaker 1: was in charge of the giraffes as well. I had

977
00:49:26,280 --> 00:49:28,680
Speaker 1: to look after the giraffes and then we would travel

978
00:49:28,680 --> 00:49:30,880
Speaker 1: by train and then I would take the giraffes off

979
00:49:30,920 --> 00:49:34,800
Speaker 1: the train and put them into their little drive, the giraffes.

980
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:37,640
Speaker 1: So it really is like you see in these period

981
00:49:37,680 --> 00:49:40,319
Speaker 1: movies where it's like dumb, like Greatest Show on Earth everything,

982
00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:43,600
Speaker 1: where it's there's everyone's multitasking everyone. You're the clown and

983
00:49:43,640 --> 00:49:47,000
Speaker 1: you're claiming the giraffe pen driving the draft through these Pompeii,

984
00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:50,120
Speaker 1: you know, me the drafts and Pompeii. And people talk about,

985
00:49:50,160 --> 00:49:52,480
Speaker 1: you know, the animals being mistreated, which I you know,

986
00:49:52,520 --> 00:49:56,000
Speaker 1: people have different opinions about, but the people being so mistreated,

987
00:49:56,040 --> 00:49:59,879
Speaker 1: the people who were they mistreated by management, management themselves.

988
00:50:00,080 --> 00:50:05,520
Speaker 1: The hierarchy a lot of drinking, love, very very tough living.

989
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:08,800
Speaker 1: It was a hard life. We were basically going to

990
00:50:08,880 --> 00:50:11,120
Speaker 1: be training in Italy for a year and then we

991
00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:14,480
Speaker 1: were going to go off to Moscow State Circus. When Nicole,

992
00:50:14,560 --> 00:50:16,000
Speaker 1: you know, okay, we're going off to Moscow, and now

993
00:50:16,120 --> 00:50:17,600
Speaker 1: I just went, you know what, I've done this for

994
00:50:17,640 --> 00:50:21,960
Speaker 1: a year. I'm off. You're filmmaking experiences. It sounded a

995
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:24,239
Speaker 1: moment ago when we were talking like they've been relatively

996
00:50:24,719 --> 00:50:27,719
Speaker 1: emotionally secure experiences for you as a filmmaker, and you've

997
00:50:27,760 --> 00:50:31,239
Speaker 1: been very content and happy making films. Filmmaking hasn't been

998
00:50:31,239 --> 00:50:33,880
Speaker 1: another hard circus for you people. I do understand a

999
00:50:33,880 --> 00:50:36,040
Speaker 1: lot of filmmakers have a very hard time making films,

1000
00:50:36,120 --> 00:50:39,040
Speaker 1: and I've been blessed. I mean, I've got friends of

1001
00:50:39,040 --> 00:50:40,840
Speaker 1: mine who have had experience of sitting in the trailer

1002
00:50:40,840 --> 00:50:43,080
Speaker 1: and spending your whole time trying to defend what you're

1003
00:50:43,120 --> 00:50:45,319
Speaker 1: doing and fighting and cutting and and I haven't had

1004
00:50:45,320 --> 00:50:47,320
Speaker 1: that experience. But a lot of that is because of Scott.

1005
00:50:47,360 --> 00:50:52,120
Speaker 1: Ridden for me has always been a huge filmmaker support,

1006
00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:54,320
Speaker 1: fighting for me in the right way. Do you find

1007
00:50:54,400 --> 00:50:56,920
Speaker 1: something out about yourself every film you make? Is there

1008
00:50:56,920 --> 00:50:58,799
Speaker 1: a part of you that you lay bare, that you

1009
00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:03,320
Speaker 1: weren't aware of. When you make a m everything's therapy,

1010
00:51:03,480 --> 00:51:07,640
Speaker 1: don't you find it is every piece of work you make.

1011
00:51:07,719 --> 00:51:10,000
Speaker 1: You you have to explore yourself, the Reader? What was

1012
00:51:10,040 --> 00:51:11,759
Speaker 1: the therapy for which I love that film? By the way,

1013
00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:13,440
Speaker 1: I was just I was completely spend with him. I

1014
00:51:13,480 --> 00:51:16,080
Speaker 1: worship her, Okay, I worship her. I can't go I'm

1015
00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:18,719
Speaker 1: unabashed about him. I am completely immune to all the

1016
00:51:18,800 --> 00:51:21,120
Speaker 1: charms of all movie actresses except her. I saw her

1017
00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:23,200
Speaker 1: in a war show and I gradually swallowed my time.

1018
00:51:24,440 --> 00:51:28,400
Speaker 1: She's fantastic, um, the Reader. I spent a lot of

1019
00:51:28,400 --> 00:51:30,680
Speaker 1: time in Germany as a kid. I spent you know,

1020
00:51:30,960 --> 00:51:33,160
Speaker 1: learned German and spent a lot of time there. And

1021
00:51:33,239 --> 00:51:38,440
Speaker 1: the idea of a country crippled for many generations by

1022
00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:41,960
Speaker 1: something that happened, and how it was still coming to

1023
00:51:42,080 --> 00:51:43,600
Speaker 1: terms with what it went through and where I went

1024
00:51:43,640 --> 00:51:47,960
Speaker 1: through it and collective guilt. So for me it was

1025
00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:52,440
Speaker 1: an expiration of my school days in Germany. And what

1026
00:51:52,520 --> 00:51:57,120
Speaker 1: about The Hours? Well, The Hours is a complicated film

1027
00:51:57,160 --> 00:51:59,320
Speaker 1: about the one thing that that all the films that

1028
00:51:59,360 --> 00:52:01,279
Speaker 1: I may tend to having common is they're all about

1029
00:52:01,280 --> 00:52:03,720
Speaker 1: loss in one way or another and what the nature

1030
00:52:03,719 --> 00:52:06,520
Speaker 1: of loss is. Everybody has it at some point in

1031
00:52:06,520 --> 00:52:10,279
Speaker 1: their lives, and that was a studying three women who

1032
00:52:10,280 --> 00:52:15,080
Speaker 1: are going through a profound sense of loss. Loss is

1033
00:52:15,440 --> 00:52:20,680
Speaker 1: really my subject. Your two women when the oscar coming

1034
00:52:20,680 --> 00:52:23,799
Speaker 1: out of your how did you feel about that? It's

1035
00:52:23,800 --> 00:52:26,960
Speaker 1: been enormously gratified enormously. I mean, it's always fantastic when

1036
00:52:26,960 --> 00:52:29,440
Speaker 1: your actors do well, isn't it. Did you find that

1037
00:52:29,560 --> 00:52:32,520
Speaker 1: Kate and Nicole Kidman in the hours who won the

1038
00:52:32,520 --> 00:52:34,239
Speaker 1: oscar for that film, did you find that they came

1039
00:52:34,280 --> 00:52:37,640
Speaker 1: to the party with that British sense of working in

1040
00:52:37,680 --> 00:52:40,359
Speaker 1: the shared experience with you? Were they more in line

1041
00:52:40,400 --> 00:52:43,760
Speaker 1: with that? They are? They were and up for rehearsal.

1042
00:52:45,040 --> 00:52:49,040
Speaker 1: I love rehearsing, and Nicole rehearse forever. Kate rehearsed forever

1043
00:52:49,280 --> 00:52:52,439
Speaker 1: on this film. We rehearse forever. You know, it's part

1044
00:52:52,440 --> 00:52:57,600
Speaker 1: of the process. And do you rehearse well. I've done

1045
00:52:57,640 --> 00:53:00,680
Speaker 1: films where we did some rehearsal, and remember one time

1046
00:53:00,760 --> 00:53:03,960
Speaker 1: they had a very formalized rehearsal process, but it was

1047
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:06,920
Speaker 1: constantly interrupted by the department heads coming in and summoning

1048
00:53:06,960 --> 00:53:08,920
Speaker 1: the director to go and look at something and he

1049
00:53:09,120 --> 00:53:11,840
Speaker 1: run out, so we know we had his attention, you know, fleetingly.

1050
00:53:11,920 --> 00:53:15,480
Speaker 1: But I've I've done films where we had I would

1051
00:53:15,560 --> 00:53:19,160
Speaker 1: crave that, I'd love that. You don't have to answer

1052
00:53:19,160 --> 00:53:22,120
Speaker 1: this question because they's going to embarrass you. But open

1053
00:53:22,160 --> 00:53:24,920
Speaker 1: I'll just tee up this boat. You're a very charismatic man.

1054
00:53:25,560 --> 00:53:28,560
Speaker 1: You're very charming, and you're very seductive. You have a

1055
00:53:28,640 --> 00:53:31,720
Speaker 1: kind of a very seductive veneer to you, And I'm wondering,

1056
00:53:31,840 --> 00:53:33,640
Speaker 1: do you think that that helps you with what you do?

1057
00:53:33,719 --> 00:53:35,480
Speaker 1: Because when the guy walks in the room or the woman,

1058
00:53:35,480 --> 00:53:37,440
Speaker 1: because I worked with a woman directors, but this mostly men,

1059
00:53:37,520 --> 00:53:39,160
Speaker 1: let's face it. And when that guy walks in the

1060
00:53:39,239 --> 00:53:41,040
Speaker 1: room and he looks like a high school shop teacher

1061
00:53:41,640 --> 00:53:43,239
Speaker 1: with a bunch of pen sticking out of his pocket,

1062
00:53:43,239 --> 00:53:44,640
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe if it doesn't have any kind

1063
00:53:44,680 --> 00:53:48,200
Speaker 1: of cheat to him at all. You're a very seductive

1064
00:53:48,239 --> 00:53:51,279
Speaker 1: guy and you're a very very kind of appealing guy.

1065
00:53:51,480 --> 00:53:53,160
Speaker 1: Do you find that that works for you? Do you

1066
00:53:53,239 --> 00:53:55,640
Speaker 1: use that to your advantage when you're directing? Don't smirk

1067
00:53:55,680 --> 00:54:00,520
Speaker 1: at me, do you? I didn't I consciously, you don't

1068
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:02,680
Speaker 1: consciously try to seduce the people you work with. It's

1069
00:54:02,680 --> 00:54:04,320
Speaker 1: always going to be a love affair with your actors.

1070
00:54:04,320 --> 00:54:05,680
Speaker 1: If you're not in love with him, it's not going

1071
00:54:05,760 --> 00:54:07,959
Speaker 1: to pan out. You literally have to fall in love

1072
00:54:08,719 --> 00:54:10,480
Speaker 1: and they with you, and they with you, and then

1073
00:54:10,520 --> 00:54:12,279
Speaker 1: you can do. Your actors fall in love with you.

1074
00:54:12,719 --> 00:54:15,160
Speaker 1: I try to make them. You do, don't you. I

1075
00:54:15,239 --> 00:54:17,920
Speaker 1: bet you they do, because it's so intimate. It's such

1076
00:54:17,960 --> 00:54:21,240
Speaker 1: a pride in such a and it requires such honesty.

1077
00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:24,080
Speaker 1: But one day, I'd love to talk to you about

1078
00:54:24,080 --> 00:54:25,960
Speaker 1: a play. Should we do one? I'd love to do

1079
00:54:25,960 --> 00:54:27,600
Speaker 1: a play. I don't know if you're gonna have time.

1080
00:54:27,640 --> 00:54:29,000
Speaker 1: You're not gonna be any time to a play with me?

1081
00:54:29,120 --> 00:54:31,160
Speaker 1: Good God. Now we're gonna do one of the public

1082
00:54:31,200 --> 00:54:34,160
Speaker 1: I'm sure they'll love it. Let's see the hours the

1083
00:54:34,200 --> 00:54:37,919
Speaker 1: reader extremely close with Tom Hanks and sound a book,

1084
00:54:37,920 --> 00:54:39,400
Speaker 1: and you're gonna stop all that to go to a

1085
00:54:39,400 --> 00:54:40,800
Speaker 1: play with me? I don't think so. I think I

1086
00:54:40,840 --> 00:54:43,359
Speaker 1: can hear your publicist really screaming. Now she's calling your

1087
00:54:43,400 --> 00:54:53,880
Speaker 1: agent right now. Stephen Daldry has yet to call, but

1088
00:54:54,200 --> 00:54:58,359
Speaker 1: I'll give him time. He's currently directing the film adaptation

1089
00:54:58,400 --> 00:55:02,319
Speaker 1: of the children's novel Trash, starring Martin Sheen and Rooney Mara,

1090
00:55:02,520 --> 00:55:06,680
Speaker 1: to be released next year. I'm Alec Baldwin and Here's

1091
00:55:06,719 --> 00:55:10,160
Speaker 1: the Thing. Take a listen to our archive more in

1092
00:55:10,239 --> 00:55:14,520
Speaker 1: depth and honest conversations with artists, policy makers, and performers

1093
00:55:14,840 --> 00:55:18,760
Speaker 1: like Kathleen Turner. So I did cata lot to move honestly.

1094
00:55:19,160 --> 00:55:21,520
Speaker 1: Michael Douglas was calling me up, and Jack Nickoson was

1095
00:55:21,520 --> 00:55:23,439
Speaker 1: calling me up. Warm Baby was calling up and saying,

1096
00:55:23,480 --> 00:55:25,480
Speaker 1: don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. You

1097
00:55:25,480 --> 00:55:28,120
Speaker 1: know they'll just kill you. Yeah, And I said, you know,

1098
00:55:28,239 --> 00:55:32,680
Speaker 1: you don't understand. I'm better on stage, and I think

1099
00:55:32,719 --> 00:55:36,200
Speaker 1: I am. Go to Here's the Thing dot org to

1100
00:55:36,400 --> 00:55:41,760
Speaker 1: hear more. Here's the Thing is produced by Emily Botine

1101
00:55:41,800 --> 00:55:46,080
Speaker 1: and Kathy Russo with Chris Bannon, Jim Briggs, ed Herbstman,

1102
00:55:46,400 --> 00:55:51,560
Speaker 1: Melanie Hoops, Monica Hopkins, Trey k Sharon Machee and Lou Okowski.

1103
00:55:52,080 --> 00:55:58,000
Speaker 1: Thanks to Larry Josephson and the Radio Foundation. I'm Alec

1104
00:55:58,040 --> 00:56:00,239
Speaker 1: Baldwin and you're listening to here's the Name.