Speaker 1: M m m. You're listening to playback a Variety I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio podcast. I'm your host, Variety of Awards editor
Speaker 1: Chris Tapley. This week, we're in the Big Apple talking
Speaker 1: to a king on these streets, the legendary director Spike Lee.
Speaker 1: We discussed his new film Black Klansman, The World Leader.
Speaker 1: He calls Agent Orange and a whole lot more. So,
Speaker 1: Sit tight, this is playback. Sorry about that game last night, man,
Speaker 1: ye need too, I need to bring up at the top.
Speaker 1: But while you was well, no, no, i'm not, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not, I'm not. I'm just checking, just checking. If anything.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm a bravest fan from my youth. But uh yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a bummer. Sorry. I know you were up there.
Speaker 1: Did you have a good time at least have some
Speaker 1: drinks or something. I don't know, there's nothing good about Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I understand. Well I appreciate you doing this. Man, no problem.
Speaker 1: We're already up and running, so I'm gonna dive in.
Speaker 1: We're here in the People's Republic of Brooklyn. Yes, here
Speaker 1: was Spike Lee in the house. Yes, I'm so. This
Speaker 1: is the coolest production company I've ever been to. Man,
Speaker 1: I love all the stuff you got on the Walls Museum.
Speaker 1: It's great, like I could just hang out here. I'm
Speaker 1: looking around as I'm talking, so it's lovely. Thank you
Speaker 1: for here, No, thank you for coming, they for coming
Speaker 1: to the People's Republic of Brooklyn, New York. I was
Speaker 1: finally able to get out of the city, which was nice.
Speaker 1: I haven't been out of there the whole week. So anyway,
Speaker 1: here we are. Uh, you know, I was. I did
Speaker 1: the math. You're you're incredibly prolific, obviously, and I did
Speaker 1: the math. In the last thirty three years, only nine
Speaker 1: years have we not had a Spike Lee joint, which
Speaker 1: you don't want to feature film, feature film, I mean
Speaker 1: obviously doing all kinds of other stuff, commercials. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: what keeps you going at that rate? That's my first question. Well,
Speaker 1: from the very big thank you to the question every
Speaker 1: beginning that the goal was the bill of a body
Speaker 1: of work. I don't want to not want to be
Speaker 1: one of these flash in the pan where they now
Speaker 1: that type of thing, because I've always felt that to
Speaker 1: really a praise somebody's work, it can't be if they
Speaker 1: only did one album, one film, one play, one novel.
Speaker 1: I want to see you know what they did over
Speaker 1: a span of time. So that's that was the goal
Speaker 1: from the beginning, even in film school. That's that's where
Speaker 1: that that's what that was the mindset. So you think
Speaker 1: in terms of legacy, for sure, I wouldn't use that word.
Speaker 1: I like that you that you may use that word,
Speaker 1: but I see its body of work. Body of work.
Speaker 1: Are there any like did you did you model yourself
Speaker 1: after anything in that way? Was there were there any
Speaker 1: artists filmmakers that you look and you say, wow, that
Speaker 1: the body that that person left behind. Miles Davis, John Coltrane,
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson, Prince, you know, they they I was born
Speaker 1: fifty seven, they were born the eight so they had
Speaker 1: a head start on me. But you know, God blessed
Speaker 1: their souls. But James Brown, Yeah, I mean those are
Speaker 1: the people, you know, James Ball, went, Tony Morrison, those
Speaker 1: you know, those are my pantheon in sports, Jordan Ali,
Speaker 1: Willie Mays. Those that's that's my my, my, my pantheon.
Speaker 1: We can put Spike Lee in there too. I think
Speaker 1: you take vacations though, Man, do you have any down
Speaker 1: I just came from I was in a this this
Speaker 1: past Columbus christiph Columbus terrorists, Holiday Day, Holliday terrorist? What
Speaker 1: was the Mamas venue? So I was in Boston the
Speaker 1: game too, came back. Yes, they barely made it in
Speaker 1: time for for the fiasco last night and I left
Speaker 1: at the bottom, the fifth in it. So I left.
Speaker 1: It was ten one, so I went to bed, I
Speaker 1: had to beer, went to bed. And then when I
Speaker 1: woke up this morning, I saw the final score was six?
Speaker 1: Can we cursing us one? What the fuck? I didn't
Speaker 1: know that was happening. Man. I got home and I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I know Spike was at the game.
Speaker 1: I'll meet you. Oh man, he's not gonna be happy tomorrow.
Speaker 1: That was That was brutal then and then and it
Speaker 1: happened against the Red Sox makes even worse. So tonight's
Speaker 1: do would die? You would die in the Bronx? Good luck? Man.
Speaker 1: I have a bunch of questions, but let's dive into
Speaker 1: Black Clansman first. And I took this film to can
Speaker 1: You want the Grand Prix there? And I just want
Speaker 1: to know what your experience was like over there? And
Speaker 1: can Oh what was amazing. I've always had a good,
Speaker 1: a great time in can and and and even what
Speaker 1: happened in nine do the right thing that was on
Speaker 1: the jury that was not on my I mean the jury,
Speaker 1: the reception there, the way that people received the film.
Speaker 1: So I've always had exquisite time and can congratulations on
Speaker 1: that prize. Man, that was great. We're pulling for you.
Speaker 1: You uh you know late last year you signed on
Speaker 1: to this project and went into production. It was in
Speaker 1: the wake of the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally I believe,
Speaker 1: which was August, and then we reported it in September. Anyway,
Speaker 1: you were already on I guess see what happened was
Speaker 1: it gave me the timeline and elation of the reception.
Speaker 1: I got everything out of whack, and it is my
Speaker 1: fault because I got it mixed up. We didn't start
Speaker 1: shooting until after Charlottesville. That was August twelve. We didn't
Speaker 1: start to miss September, and can I got I said,
Speaker 1: I made a mistake that said that, uh we started
Speaker 1: shooting before August twelve, that that was wrong? Right? Well,
Speaker 1: did had you signed on to the project after Charlotte?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we're in pre production. Okay, when four we
Speaker 1: have pre production? Because what I wanted to ask was
Speaker 1: if that spurred you to want to do this project.
Speaker 1: But I guess no, no, no, no, we preproduction when
Speaker 1: I happened, well when that fact, that was a month
Speaker 1: venue when that happened. Yeah, but when that obviously the
Speaker 1: film builds to an epilogue centered on that a little bit. Um,
Speaker 1: just when that happened in the middle of the pre production,
Speaker 1: how did that kind of shift you're thinking about this project?
Speaker 1: I knew I had ended. Yeah, I knew that David Duke,
Speaker 1: Agent Orange, all right, the Clan Neil motherfucking Nazis had
Speaker 1: written me ending. But again at the expense of a
Speaker 1: human life. Yeah, the air its just went on eighty
Speaker 1: degrees here in New York. Um global the global warming,
Speaker 1: which ahe Oren says is a hoax, It's a myth.
Speaker 1: That motherfucker. You read the story in the New York Times.
Speaker 1: I guess then the other day about how what happened,
Speaker 1: we're pretty much done. Oh yeah, we got what eight
Speaker 1: is or something, and saying there is no joke. This
Speaker 1: is this is we're talking about the planet. This is
Speaker 1: God's planet as we know it, and this is no joke.
Speaker 1: I mean, scientists from all over the world has said this.
Speaker 1: I think he might have put up by a you
Speaker 1: in and that's it's not b s. It's not a hoax,
Speaker 1: it's not fake. We're in perible. Yeah, and this motherfucker says,
Speaker 1: there's notice such thing as global warming. That's the kind
Speaker 1: of is that the kind of thing that's ever like
Speaker 1: you ever thought about putting something about that into your work,
Speaker 1: Never really seen anything like that. Really, you're talking about
Speaker 1: global warm and do the right thing? Well true in
Speaker 1: a way that everybody's hot. They that's true, that's true.
Speaker 1: We had the crystop ball on global warm, the cornerment
Speaker 1: on the Three Cornman. I'll bring this up often when
Speaker 1: I go to film festivals. I know I gotta do
Speaker 1: a lot of press m hm. And it's particularly when
Speaker 1: you're an African American. Somehow maybe it's issue. Was a
Speaker 1: spokesperson of for you know, African Americans. And I've never
Speaker 1: ever tried to put myself in that place. Have always
Speaker 1: said any pain, I've said, I'm not speaking to behalf
Speaker 1: anybody but myself. But I knew going to con this
Speaker 1: made the question would come up, what's happening? I mean,
Speaker 1: anytime I go around the world now, people look at me,
Speaker 1: say Spike what's happening in your country, And it's not
Speaker 1: just if we want to break it down, this stuff
Speaker 1: is happening not justly. This guy is running Who's who
Speaker 1: just is going to be in a runoff for Brazil.
Speaker 1: This guy's bad as Agent Orange. And so we've seen
Speaker 1: a rise the right all across this world. So it's
Speaker 1: not just the United States America. But anyway, I knew
Speaker 1: I'll be asked to give my state of whatever they
Speaker 1: might want to call it, and so I took the
Speaker 1: novel approach of you know what, let me come with
Speaker 1: the film title that may be best described, you know
Speaker 1: what I think it is, and and that there much thought.
Speaker 1: I came upon Peter Wells film, Peter Weir's film, Peter
Speaker 1: Weir's film, very good film, The year Living Dangerously. That's
Speaker 1: where we are. I go to bed every night thinking
Speaker 1: about Agent Orange has nuclear code. You guys, you actually
Speaker 1: get to sleep thinking about that. But I keeps you
Speaker 1: awake a little bit. I mean, he has, and I've
Speaker 1: seen the football. I gave my wife an ITALI gave
Speaker 1: over benefit for President Barack Obama the second for his
Speaker 1: second term, and his car was parked in front of
Speaker 1: my house. And I still the guy in the back
Speaker 1: with the football. The football will being act case that president,
Speaker 1: I think, and I don't know what exactly, but it
Speaker 1: has to be very close to when leaves the White House.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't. It was parked in front of my
Speaker 1: house and they let me. I mean, I knew who
Speaker 1: I was. Is it my house? So the guy let
Speaker 1: me go up to the window and I saw that thing.
Speaker 1: So I ad a nightmare that night. And that's even
Speaker 1: with Obama, so you know, so you know, I'm tass
Speaker 1: and turning out and I heard about this this myth
Speaker 1: Oh that's uh. The football is reel as a motherfucker.
Speaker 1: He's right there behind him, right there, and I saw
Speaker 1: my own eyes. So hopefully they gained the wrong code.
Speaker 1: Hopefully game the code one two four. It's like a
Speaker 1: spaceball's briefcase code. Oh my god. So again going back
Speaker 1: to the Peter Wheels, Peter Weir's title, do You Living Dangerly?
Speaker 1: That's where it And then with Cavanaugh, now, oh my god,
Speaker 1: And I forgot who who said? I read it somewhere
Speaker 1: but someone wrote I forgot who was that. The United
Speaker 1: States has not been this divided since the Civil War.
Speaker 1: That's going way back now. You might say the Vietnam War, Yes,
Speaker 1: that that was there was a war. Home to about
Speaker 1: what we're doing in Vietnam. We should not have been there.
Speaker 1: But it's crazy time now, absolutely absolute insanity. We're going
Speaker 1: back to Black Klansman. I wanted to ask you what
Speaker 1: what did you make of the real run star Worth,
Speaker 1: straight up god doing his job, doing what's right. Very dangerous,
Speaker 1: undertaken and you know, we might laugh at the clan
Speaker 1: and their imbecle stuff like that, but there there they did,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, you know they have a history killing people.
Speaker 1: So you know, I was I was very, very pleased
Speaker 1: to meet him, and he was very instrumental the walking
Speaker 1: John David threw what he did as he became the
Speaker 1: first African American police officer in Colorado Springs. Yeah, had
Speaker 1: David John David on the show a couple of months ago.
Speaker 1: I love that guy. Yeah, I mean, was he the
Speaker 1: guy for the role from the beginning. There was from
Speaker 1: the beginning, there was no audition, no reading. I just
Speaker 1: offer him them part. I knew we could do it
Speaker 1: just because you know the guy, I mean still was
Speaker 1: about them Max. He's one of the kids and says,
Speaker 1: my name is Malcolm Mix. But being that the son
Speaker 1: of Pauletta and Denzel Washington, no one his parents, his family,
Speaker 1: his work, ethic. He went to Morehouse College where I
Speaker 1: went played football there. He And there's another thing is
Speaker 1: that a lot of times you know people talk, well,
Speaker 1: that's cliche, last cliche. The reason why things become cliches
Speaker 1: because it was based on the truth from at the
Speaker 1: very beginning. And so when you when you might say
Speaker 1: that the fruit doesn't fall fall from the tree, that's
Speaker 1: not that's not a cliche with John David Washington, Mr Truth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's going places. Man. I don't know if you've addressed this.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you care to um, But you
Speaker 1: know I asked about Ron because filmmaker Boots Riley had
Speaker 1: some strong nuss You don't want to talk about that
Speaker 1: is there is there's no dialogue to have there at all,
Speaker 1: not for me? No, all right, then I want to
Speaker 1: branch out a little bit um some of the filmography
Speaker 1: like yours. We can sit here all day and just
Speaker 1: just a day and night and stuff. Man, But do
Speaker 1: you look back much? Do you re review your work? Yes?
Speaker 1: This past Friday was eight and the anniversary of Bamboozlo.
Speaker 1: So I'm a tenure professor of filming and y U
Speaker 1: y Went Angley and I are classmates. Angry Earnest Dick
Speaker 1: is not all classmates, lusters class of night two. So
Speaker 1: in class, we're gonna show bamboozl and Ellen Cures, the
Speaker 1: Great DP is going to be our guest speaker. That's great,
Speaker 1: So we'll give out the script. I haven't seen it
Speaker 1: in a while. But one of the blessings of the
Speaker 1: success of IM say this, sir, one of the blessings
Speaker 1: of success of Black Class is that there's been like
Speaker 1: a re evaluation. So I've been, you know, reading stuff
Speaker 1: and people going back and look at films that they
Speaker 1: dismissed or they never saw. One will be Bambooze, will
Speaker 1: be twenty begin on the bus, I'll be It'll be Shyraq,
Speaker 1: will be a miracle, Helenana. So that's that's that's been
Speaker 1: nice for some people to you know, reevaluate their initial Yeah,
Speaker 1: seeing everybody's ranking your films again, Well, what's Spike Lee's
Speaker 1: favorite Spike Lee phone mm hmm is the next one?
Speaker 1: Probably huh my next one. But we saw Boozled in
Speaker 1: film school would North Carolina School of the Arts Blew
Speaker 1: me Away, Blew me Away. I love that film. Uh.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about aesthetics to particularly the use
Speaker 1: of color. I always talked about use of color when
Speaker 1: I'm speaking to filmmakers. Interesting to me, you started your
Speaker 1: career with black and white, but she's gotta have it,
Speaker 1: and then color became such an important part of the
Speaker 1: palette with your your process. The reason why it was
Speaker 1: black and white because a John Darts film Breathless was
Speaker 1: such a big influence the editing, the sinematography. So that's
Speaker 1: why Ernest tickets and I chose to do that. First
Speaker 1: film with black also was cheaper too, backed into we're shooting,
Speaker 1: you know, reversal films, it was cheaper. What does color
Speaker 1: means to you? And when you when you're embarking on
Speaker 1: a new project pre production, setting out the palette, what
Speaker 1: it means. I don't go and think it just had
Speaker 1: to be colorful. For me, the script tells us everything. So,
Speaker 1: for example, color films that were very important color due
Speaker 1: the right thing. We wanted to show the heat, the
Speaker 1: musical aspects of school days and Malcolm X. You look
Speaker 1: at the old MGM three strips I mean, no was
Speaker 1: the priest, but that type of technicolor. And then if
Speaker 1: we look at the latest film, Ah, we wanted to
Speaker 1: this film look like the other seventy films. I grow
Speaker 1: with French Connection Doll the afternoon. That's why we shot
Speaker 1: it on on the film um. And also you know
Speaker 1: the classic shot, the Spike Lee Dollar shot. I mean,
Speaker 1: when when did that first hit you as an image
Speaker 1: of impact that you would well. We first we did
Speaker 1: on Bamboozel was scene where my character Giant is Ernest Dickerson.
Speaker 1: First I look talk Ernest Dickerson. Ernest Dickerson and I
Speaker 1: entered and YU together and we boughted right away. Because
Speaker 1: he also went to a historically black school. He went
Speaker 1: to Howard University. I went to Morehouse, so they weren't
Speaker 1: that many of us there. We boughted. Ernest was his
Speaker 1: best DP in the school. So ernestow all my films
Speaker 1: and YU then in U in a Row, She's gonna
Speaker 1: have his school days, do the right thing. Mobile of Blues,
Speaker 1: Jungle FEVERA, then Malcolm X, and after Malcolm X, he
Speaker 1: went on to direct Tupac and Juice. So Ernest came
Speaker 1: into film school. I want to be directed, but he
Speaker 1: knew that it was such a good DP. He felt that,
Speaker 1: you know, if I keep that eventually could lead me
Speaker 1: being a DP, you know, being a director. So you know,
Speaker 1: it's this vibe and you know, and and we have
Speaker 1: to service the film. What is the was the music,
Speaker 1: the cinematography, the editing, production design, custom design. Everybody has
Speaker 1: to use their skills. The best service to film that's
Speaker 1: always been, uh, the marching orders? Does that shot? I
Speaker 1: mean you're you repeated obviously? Does it mean something different?
Speaker 1: Do you every time you use? Oh? Yeah, So again
Speaker 1: getting back to your question, when Ernest and I did
Speaker 1: the first time, and also like to say, no way
Speaker 1: in the world did we ever say that we invented
Speaker 1: that shot that's been done before, so as a shot
Speaker 1: where I had to walk down the blog and Ernest
Speaker 1: and Ida, we know, let's have some fun. So the
Speaker 1: early the early uses of that shot was really just
Speaker 1: you know, being film school geeks. But then Ernst and
Speaker 1: I said, decide, you know what, just we really we
Speaker 1: can't make light of this, this shot, the double dollar
Speaker 1: shot we're talking about, so from now on and his
Speaker 1: utilization has to really have impact. So the first term
Speaker 1: weal did that, which is probably one of the best
Speaker 1: uses was in Malcolm X. The backstory the late grade.
Speaker 1: Dr ben sha Bass, Malcolm's went on, told me that
Speaker 1: she felt that Malcolm knew who's going to be assassinated
Speaker 1: and they want to be a martyr. So once Dr
Speaker 1: Sabass told me that, I said, How'm I gonna try
Speaker 1: to show this emotion on his face? Knowing that what
Speaker 1: his widow just told me, He's going his own execution.
Speaker 1: So that's where we came up with that use. And
Speaker 1: another great use is the most is the most recent
Speaker 1: film Black. Yeah, one of the my favorite uses of it. Actually, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that film I wanted to talk about. It's
Speaker 1: considered by many and I agree, yeah, and just particularly
Speaker 1: one of the best films of that decade. Frankly, I
Speaker 1: think it. Yeah, we had no love though at the
Speaker 1: time I was there with you though, man's not appreciate it.
Speaker 1: But here's here's the thing. It was, it was so
Speaker 1: funked up ab out that because we were in uh
Speaker 1: you know, we were jammed up. The film came out
Speaker 1: during the awards season and limited release and so the
Speaker 1: deal is this, you know, they adn't tried it was.
Speaker 1: It was obvious. You know, they say, look and we
Speaker 1: get we get critical great critical response. If we get
Speaker 1: you know, up best year, I mean best best film
Speaker 1: the year, you know, in a list some nominations, then
Speaker 1: well when't then we'll push it out. But we don't
Speaker 1: get that. It's like Audios Saranaravita thing, and that's what happened.
Speaker 1: And it's a shame. But again there's another one of
Speaker 1: those films that emerged after the film was released, and people, really,
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of people still. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: there's people to stop. I don't even know these what
Speaker 1: people are stopped Miss Street and say they love you know,
Speaker 1: it's not just because I really don't tell me why,
Speaker 1: but they said, you know that they just love, you know,
Speaker 1: love that film. I think for I mean for me,
Speaker 1: it's a definitive depiction of whatever we were all feeling.
Speaker 1: And there's just incredible majesty to it. What I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask you was what did you feel when you
Speaker 1: were making it? I was feeling like most New Yorkers,
Speaker 1: like we have been punched in the stomach, hit overhead
Speaker 1: with with the Wii made Louisville. I think we hold
Speaker 1: wait wait, Louis Willie made use aderondic bats, so I
Speaker 1: thought Louisville slug. But anyway, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: we're down, but we know this is we're motherfucking New Yorkers,
Speaker 1: so they're gonna take more than that that, you know,
Speaker 1: keep us down. So it's very very fighting spirit. Leave
Speaker 1: out Julianni being the motherfucking America's mayor lead. Actually it out,
Speaker 1: but there was I think New Yorkers were unified, and uh,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. A lot of peop don't know. David
Speaker 1: Bennioff wrote the novel. The novel was written before, so
Speaker 1: it was my idea. I suggested to David, look, you
Speaker 1: got to rewrite the script and make a post nine eleven.
Speaker 1: And also that very famous scene, one of the most
Speaker 1: famous scenes in the film were Edward Norton in the mirror.
Speaker 1: That wasn't that scene was in the novel, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't in the script. So I said, when I once
Speaker 1: to read the novel, I said, David, how comes not
Speaker 1: in the script because I don't know, I don't. I'll
Speaker 1: just shoot that said, don't worry about that. That's my problem.
Speaker 1: So that was the performances Edward Norton was Dario Barry
Speaker 1: Pepper killed it. That's the thing. I think people the
Speaker 1: people like me, and I was like, if it's going
Speaker 1: to get a nomination, hopefully that's it. Because he was
Speaker 1: so good. I mean, Brian Cox, even Tony Siragosa, you know,
Speaker 1: it was Philip see the Lake, great Philipsy Hoffman. You know,
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about him, any thoughts that
Speaker 1: come to mind? I mean, for the thing that crushes
Speaker 1: me about that. I always ask people about Hoffman whenever
Speaker 1: that have worked with him on there on the show.
Speaker 1: You know, we lost him in his prime. We had
Speaker 1: so many more performances to get out of him. You know,
Speaker 1: he had so much more to give. He is a
Speaker 1: thing though. I mean, that's a long list for people
Speaker 1: who you know, left way too soon. He was a
Speaker 1: very private person, and uh what I remember a lot
Speaker 1: of bottoms of you know that year we had a
Speaker 1: softball team and we were killing everybody. We will play
Speaker 1: the movies and stuff like that. Barrant Pepper is a
Speaker 1: great athlete baseball, hockey, I mean he I mean, he's
Speaker 1: he could played professional sports. I mean, that's how good
Speaker 1: he is. And we were a kid. You know we
Speaker 1: were kids, Philip, Yeah, so you know, kind of chubby.
Speaker 1: You know we've seen running around. It was all good
Speaker 1: in spirit, but beautiful soul and men. I I mean
Speaker 1: I didn't know, you know, what was going on. I mean,
Speaker 1: people you know, come to work, do their job and
Speaker 1: when they go home and that's their own personal business.
Speaker 1: But I never saw any nothing like that. There was
Speaker 1: There was no clues. I mean I was shocked. Other
Speaker 1: people knew, you know that a close him, but I
Speaker 1: had no idea. Yeah, and something else about that film
Speaker 1: that I love you closed it with the fuse the
Speaker 1: Springsteen song, which is my favorite song from The Rising. Well,
Speaker 1: here's here's the situation. One of my produced over the
Speaker 1: years is John Killick. We started first working on Do
Speaker 1: the Right Thing and hit John and Bruiser really tight,
Speaker 1: very close, and the US is also my favorite song
Speaker 1: from the album. Again an album that's really about post.
Speaker 1: So I I said, Johnny got this idea. I want
Speaker 1: Terrence Blanchett to write orchestral arrangement to go under Brust's song.
Speaker 1: So John asked Bruce. Bruce said fine, So we recorded
Speaker 1: it full orchestra R and then well, so we need
Speaker 1: to Boost, you know, approval. So John I think he
Speaker 1: flew to Spain. Boost is on tour, and I guess
Speaker 1: during sound check he just put put the headphones on
Speaker 1: Boost putting the headphones and John play did and Bruce
Speaker 1: started nine his head this John Town, this John Tyne.
Speaker 1: What happened? And they said, Springs said great, and that
Speaker 1: was it. That's awesome. I love that you did that.
Speaker 1: I saw that Broadway show just the other night. Aparently
Speaker 1: it was amazing. Uh. And then you know, last year
Speaker 1: he came out with the She's got to have a
Speaker 1: TV show you've been working on Right now, we're downstairs
Speaker 1: doing a finish and finishing touches on editing for the
Speaker 1: second season. I want to know where it's coming out.
Speaker 1: I was curious if there's any other film from your
Speaker 1: filmography that you think could benefit from a deeper, longer
Speaker 1: exploration like that. I tell it's not gonna do the
Speaker 1: right thing. You know why you do it? Serious? Not
Speaker 1: do the right thing is untouchable. I agree. Not not
Speaker 1: working with that, it's that's it. That's where it's gonna
Speaker 1: be forever. And next June three will be the third
Speaker 1: anniversary of people forget this, who do the right thing,
Speaker 1: and Batman came out the same day. The timok the
Speaker 1: same day. Kim Basinger has something to say about it
Speaker 1: at the Oscars. Yes, yes, I love the Kim because
Speaker 1: when she said that, I was shocked because no one
Speaker 1: knew she's gonna, you know, do the adlet. But here
Speaker 1: here's the thing about awards, and and I'm not when
Speaker 1: you're a filmmaker, you know, you grew up. You know,
Speaker 1: first of all, you watched the Cammy Awards, even when
Speaker 1: I would do even before I want to be a filmmak.
Speaker 1: I love film song and mean I watched the Cammy Awards,
Speaker 1: you know, and everybody has there, you know who didn't
Speaker 1: want to win stuff like that. But after what happened,
Speaker 1: do the right thing, I just had to let it
Speaker 1: go and and just be at peace with knowing that
Speaker 1: the good, the great work, it's gonna outlast, you know, awards,
Speaker 1: and you know people, you know, people are still shocked
Speaker 1: this day that that Driving is daisy One best picture
Speaker 1: Driving his Days is not in the Library of Congress,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's who's watching that film now? So
Speaker 1: you know, I'm at peace with that. And so we're
Speaker 1: going back to that thought, though, is there anything else
Speaker 1: that you would you know, obviously not do the right thing,
Speaker 1: but is there any other film that you think what
Speaker 1: you want to do? Is that School Day is gonna
Speaker 1: be a Broadway musical? Well that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: And people tell me that the week he came out back,
Speaker 1: so Vincent and get to at Okay, cool, you'll be
Speaker 1: a school Days will be a Broadway musical. Can you
Speaker 1: talk about night Watch at all? Something you got coming up?
Speaker 1: Marvel property, not that that was. It never happened, It's
Speaker 1: not gonna happen. I never said it was. Really. Look,
Speaker 1: I'm not against doing a Marvel Combay, I grew up.
Speaker 1: I didn't like DC commics growing up a little Marvel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I'm not against that. But well, I really don't
Speaker 1: like to talk about stuff that that if maybe because
Speaker 1: I in my history I found that when I talked
Speaker 1: about it, if what happens to work doesn't happen. So
Speaker 1: rather just I hear you. Then let's talk in the
Speaker 1: abstract the superhero genre, which is a genre. Now, Uh,
Speaker 1: what would you want to add to that? If you
Speaker 1: were to be involved with the superhero project, I could
Speaker 1: put my flavor on it. You know, it's what I do.
Speaker 1: So whatever it is that is, you know, that will
Speaker 1: have that flavor on it. He talked about Black Panther
Speaker 1: at Re Rebeca. I wanted to just talk about that
Speaker 1: as well. Uh now as a game changer. Yeah, Willas listen, now,
Speaker 1: is it seven or eight? Domestically It's no, No, all
Speaker 1: time I'm not sure about all time. Domestically is what
Speaker 1: blows my mind? Seven dred million dollars third all time? Like, no,
Speaker 1: what blows my mind is I think what's more importantly
Speaker 1: is international because for years studios have said one one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why black filmmakers not been able to
Speaker 1: get the budgets. Oh yeah, the falsehood because okay, let
Speaker 1: me let me say, let me say one of don't
Speaker 1: one reason why several times not to be able to
Speaker 1: get the budgets I needed because they always go to
Speaker 1: line item foreign and they would say to my face, well,
Speaker 1: you know very you know, they would be diplomatic about it,
Speaker 1: but basically saying black films don't make money overseas. Right,
Speaker 1: So will Denzel sam Jackson put that shi away. It
Speaker 1: became a new one. Well, you have to have a
Speaker 1: black star because that's what that's how they that's how
Speaker 1: they get you. They say, wow, boom bom boom. Foreign.
Speaker 1: So if you have a low number and in the
Speaker 1: form line item that's an affect your overall budget, well
Speaker 1: hopefully that's over now. Well they're still gonna try to say,
Speaker 1: but I will say I was. I want to call
Speaker 1: that bullshit. Bullshit, Yeah, bullshit. That movie is left a
Speaker 1: crater for sure. So yeah, well, what do you want
Speaker 1: to do next? Man? I mean just in general, like
Speaker 1: what what what's unexplored? And you've done? You want to
Speaker 1: do a musical? You don't want to do musical. There's
Speaker 1: just so many things that I like to do. Hopefully
Speaker 1: do we'll do My boys been inspired by longevity of
Speaker 1: filmmakers like Fellini and Chris Sour who still doing great
Speaker 1: work in their eighties. So I just turned sixty one,
Speaker 1: So I got another I got I got good No
Speaker 1: twenty years and you look for you, I mean, God,
Speaker 1: God willing Well. Uh, I love the movie, dude, Thank you,
Speaker 1: and also thank you. I want to appreciate you. You
Speaker 1: have a great show. M hmm. People listen, people dig
Speaker 1: what you're doing. Thank you, Thank you making the trip
Speaker 1: of course, the Republic, and you know this is a pleasure.
Speaker 1: I wanna, I wanna, I wanna walk you around really quick.
Speaker 1: All right, please, all right, let's do it.