WEBVTT - Jonah Hill / "Mid90s" 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:17.279 M m m m. You're listening to playback a Variety 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.880 I Heart Radio podcast. I'm your host, Variety Awards Editor 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:24.640 Chris Tapley. This week, I'm talking to actor Jonah Hill, 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:27.280 but you can add director to that resume. Now we're 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:31.319 discussing his directorial debut mid nineties. A personal story for 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:33.800 Jonah that marks the culmination of all he's put into 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:36.599 the business so far, and a dream come true at that. 0:00:37.479 --> 0:01:01.480 So sit tight. This is playback. I listen. Oh yeah, 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:05.400 I can't fantastic. Honored to be honest, honored to have 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.440 you as a director. Did you watch the film? I did, 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:11.320 okay a couple of weeks back. That's some waterfoo that 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:15.279 would be awesome. I wasn't that screening at the New House? 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:18.640 Oh cool? Oh the one in l A. Yeah, yeah, sorry, 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:22.640 we were like bouncing, bouncing was pretty cool. It was 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:24.959 that the skateboarding was there at the skating one. Yeah, 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:27.640 thank you. Lots of warm beers getting pasted around. That's great. 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:32.920 That awesome. M that's a good context to see it in. Yeah, 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:36.559 for sure, I loved it. Great work man. He's gonna 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:39.119 grab like over the shoulder and then you guys chatting, 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:42.640 how's it. They've been going so far, so good. Yeah. Yeah, 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:44.200 I love being an l I don't live here, so 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:46.600 it's like I treat him. Yeah, if he was like vacation. 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:49.040 I live in New York for the coast, like five 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.680 or six years. Nice, well part of town downtown. I'm 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.760 just gonna bring this back afters on the brist Side 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:58.280 for a year. Yeah, did you like it? I did. 0:01:58.320 --> 0:01:59.880 I like that neighborhood a lot. Yeah, of course they 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:01.920 it in that you know, the queue goes up there 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:04.240 now after I've moved away. That would have been nice. 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.120 When I lived there, we've been very helpful. Yeah, seventy 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:09.520 second Street stop and stuff like that. I was just 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:13.480 up there last week. Actually, it's all pretty different. Yeah, 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:18.280 I I really you know, because benefits to living everywhere 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:24.359 here cool as you get older, it's out here because 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:28.639 it's relaxing. Yeah. For just I was telling somebody, it's 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.080 like you can just step out on your porch and 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:33.720 there's trees and you know, and you're not like in 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:35.880 the middle of life. You're not in the middle of 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:40.880 the community immediately out here, which can be nice. But anyway, 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:45.640 we're up and running, all right, sir, I'm here with 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:49.720 Jonah Hill, the writer and director of mid nineties directorial debut. 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:51.960 In fact, Jonah, thanks for coming on the show. Thank 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:54.320 you for having me. I enjoy the show. Thank you man, 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:58.440 thanks for listening. Uh you know the old adage you 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:02.239 only get one chance to make the first movie, right, so, uh, 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:04.400 you know it was it difficult to decide what would 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:09.640 be the first movie you would direct. I would say yeah, 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:15.840 because uh, you know, yeah, you only get one shot 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:20.680 at it. So you know, I think after the first one, 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.680 if I'm lucky enough to get to make more, it 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:26.440 will be freeing to have made your first one already, right. 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:31.080 And and if I look at my heroes, people who 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.080 started out in comedy who had great filmmaking careers, like 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:36.840 Mike Nichols or Barry Levinson, if you look at their 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:39.360 first films, a lot of the time they are films 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:43.640 that really meant something to them. And I really wanted 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:48.080 to take time and have patience to wait until I 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:53.560 really he was mature enough emotionally be had my own 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:56.840 voice and see how a story that really meant something 0:03:56.880 --> 0:04:00.480 to me, which is mid nineties Yeah, did you have? Uh? 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:02.280 Were There are a couple of different ideas that we're 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:04.400 floating around and we're you zeroing in on this one 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:09.240 kind of the whole time. Well, actually, originally I was 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:11.320 writing a play with Spike Jones at the time. We 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:15.520 were co writing a play together, and we would do 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:17.880 this exercise where we would talk about the screenplays we 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.520 were writing and walk each other through the story. And 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:24.280 originally the film was about you know, this is four 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:27.560 years ago. The film was about something else, and it 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:29.800 kept flashing back to when the kids were young and 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:33.200 skateboarding together. The main character was with his friends, and 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:38.320 Spike wisely pointed out that I was far more exuberant 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.600 about the flashbacks the B story than I was about 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.159 the A story, and so I kind of just made 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:46.560 it all about that. Yeah, it's kind of obvious. What's 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:49.000 dragging you, what's pulling you to it? I think it's 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:51.840 just I think anything that's the first draft of anything 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:54.520 so bad, you know, I did twenty drafts over three years. 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.320 That uh I was called it's like it's just a 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:00.840 bunch of trash and hopefully there's a little heartbeat. It's 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:04.159 almost like an ultrasound, And that was the ultrasound of 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:07.080 my like initial first thought of a story. I wanted 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:10.839 to tell and and the little heartbeat came from, you know, 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:14.239 the group of young kids together when you first started 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:16.120 out in the business. Was this like an end game 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.159 for you at all? Like, is is directing something you 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:21.600 expected to come around to eventually or did you just 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:23.960 naturally end up in a place where you wanted to 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:26.600 be a filmmaker? Also, my dream, my whole life, is 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:31.120 to be a filmmaker, writer, director. Um I really accidentally 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:36.440 fell into this amazing fifteen year acting career, and uh, 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:40.120 my life went in a really wild other direction. But 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:43.000 it ended up being incredible, not only because I love acting, 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:47.120 but because you know, I got this incredible fifteen year 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:49.479 film school and I got to work with most of 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:53.760 my heroes. And you know, as an actor, you have 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:56.400 the ability if you wanted to be in a front 0:05:56.480 --> 0:06:00.800 row seed education to the filmmaking process. So I've also 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:02.159 had the good fortune of being a lot of bad 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:04.000 movies as well as good ones. But you can learn 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:06.839 as much from, you know, as the good ones. And 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:09.719 and you know, I've had just a lot of incredible 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:11.919 professors that I've learned a lot from. And at the 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:15.560 same time, like yourself, I imagine I'm I'm a cinophile. 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:20.360 I just love I breathe and sleep and eat talking 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:24.360 about movies, thinking about film, and have very strong distinction 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.640 in my own taste and as an actor, you know, 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:32.440 your one color and someone else's painting. And I've been 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.680 a decent green for a long time. But ultimately, the 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:37.919 you know, the painter wants to paint purple over it, 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:41.840 that's their decision. And so, uh, I was waiting till 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:45.600 I had, like I said, the I'd say, emotional intelligence 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:49.200 to be a leader, as well as the confidence in 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:52.400 my own voice to paint my own painting. What were 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.800 some aesthetic influences early on? I guess if you wanted 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:57.159 to be a filmmaker and that was like your your goal. 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:01.000 Uh you mentioned my Nichols and and Levinson and stuff, 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:04.440 But I'm just curious, like aesthetically, particularly visually visual storytelling, 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:07.880 like what really spoke to you as a kid and 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:12.000 made you want to do this aesthetically purely? I mean, 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:14.720 I think every film is different. So for the film 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.960 and right next, like the aesthetic things that are interesting 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:20.520 about that relates to it are far different, you know, 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:29.600 and for me, um, aesthetics serve emotion and people in story. 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:34.040 So uh, it wasn't like I was really ever, I'm 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:37.280 not a candy visual filmmaker, even though I've made one 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.480 film or it's not the thing that excites me the most. 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:46.800 I'll say, um, people, emotions, feelings, characters, stories, you know, 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:50.440 those are the things that are really incredible to me. 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.400 And then the aesthetics should serve that. And so like 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:58.240 for this film, you know, Elephant, uh, this is England. 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:00.840 There there were just certain films that I think aesthetically 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.680 serve the tone and the emotions of these people in 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:09.000 this time that we're right for that That gets in 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:10.360 the my next question I was gonna ask, you know, 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.040 what did you discover about the process of directing that 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:17.320 that like excited you most? Was was was was you 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:19.080 know your favorite part of the process. And I was 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:21.440 gonna say, was it you know, working with you blah 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.360 Velt and figuring out the the visual schematic, or was 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.040 it you know, working with the actors and and that element. 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:28.760 You know what, what part of it ultimately did you 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:32.280 take away was your favorite part? It's all of it. 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:35.200 You know, as an actor, you're you're you're parachuted into 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:38.760 someone else's world. So you know, the director hires, all 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:41.760 the people, all the artists, all the department heads, all 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:44.800 the you know people year around. So to me, this 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:48.440 was a culmination of fifteen years of people I had 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:53.120 admired and grown close with, to higher as the family 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:56.920 of artists creating this thing together and so just getting 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:00.199 your hands dirty finally as really yeah, you just you're 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:02.440 just watching. And I kind of waited till I couldn't 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:06.080 take it anymore, and it was time to sort of 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.120 curate not only the artists that you love, but the 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:11.880 people you're spending your life around, which is such a luxury, 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:14.720 such a joy. That's why it's like the reward of 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:16.319 all this would get to be to do it again, 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:19.640 you know, so bloud belts like my brother, you know, 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.040 Nick Whoe, my editor, same thing. It's like those are 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:26.960 the two closest people probably collaborators, um Scott ruden Eli 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:31.560 Bush and and and uh Scott Robertson my first A 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.000 D who I had done Super Bad and and Moneyball with, 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:37.000 and you know, he had done everything from like the 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.280 Revenant to his Fox Catcher. He's just a brilliant guy. 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.760 And he was one of the first people I called, 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:46.040 you know, first a D. Definitely helps make a film 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:49.839 or break a film, right general. Yeah, He's he's the man, 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.800 you know, he's amazing. And Heidi Bibbins my costume designer, 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:54.880 and you know, there's just so many people I knew 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.360 I had hired three years before we even started shooting, 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:01.080 you know, and I get to me, it just was 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:06.640 curating a community that was making something together, you know, 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:10.960 and singularly, the most moving thing is uh, you know, 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:14.840 having something that means something really deep to you emotionally 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:17.560 and then having these actors connect to it, these young 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.640 kids who had an acted before then bring it to life, 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:22.680 and then showing you to an audience and having people 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:27.560 laugh or cry or you know both. And I don't know, 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.760 just the fact to me that the movie holds so 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:34.160 many different emotions is very moving to me. I was 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:36.360 just hanging out with Scott and Eli and New York 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:39.960 last week. Actually, uh, you know, speaking of Blah Belt, 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:43.480 you know you mentioned Elephant and and and uh, what's 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.080 the other one? This is England? Um, you know great 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:48.480 DP came up under Harris A. Vitas, the Great, the 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:53.320 late Great. This is a conversation I'm so grateful to have. Yeah, 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:56.199 because you know, not many people care that deeply about 0:10:56.240 --> 0:11:00.880 like blah Belt's background. To me, it's incredibly important, you know, yeah, absolutely, 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:03.360 well just talk about that and and and zeroing in 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:06.160 on what the visual language of this movie was gonna be. Well, 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:08.080 first of all, you know, blah Bel Kay did come 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:10.520 up under Harris Abides, who was my favorite DP ever. 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:15.040 He did shoot Elephant and so Blaha even operated on Elephant, right, so, um, 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:17.120 he was an operator on Speed, to which I love. 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:20.480 He's I mean, his family also is uh, you know, 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:24.720 the blow Belts are like lifelong um camera people. You know, 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:29.160 they are craftsmen with a family of craftsmen and crafts people. 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:33.160 And even when I met with Martin Scorsese before the film, 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:34.839 He's like, who's shooting your film? And I was like, 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:37.160 Christopher blaw Belt and He's like he related to blow 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:38.880 Belt and he was like yeah, and he's like the 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:40.800 best operator I had on Raging Bull And I was 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:42.800 texting blow beout under the table and love. I was 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:46.520 like crying. You know, um, you know that kind of 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:50.200 stuff I feel in a new generation, even me shooting 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:52.640 on film or even having my film released in theaters, 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:57.559 you know, it's like, um, I feel like apprenticeship and 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:00.720 like that kind of thing is lost and I believe 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.080 in it and the idea that I I did have 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.439 fifteen years of apprenticeship before I went out, or blah 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:09.440 Belt had twenty years under Harris before you know, he 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.400 started deepeeing his own films with Kelly Reichard and stuff 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.760 like that. And now my film it it means something 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:19.719 to me, you know, like I I believe in that. 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:23.360 It's emotional to me. It's he you know, speaks of 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:26.480 Harris how someone would speak of a god or father 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:29.800 or mentor you know, and it's like blah blah and 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.240 I designed and ethic that we didn't break. You know. 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:35.439 The camera wasn't going to move unless it necessary absolutely 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:38.800 had to, and it was for a deep purpose. You know. 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:43.880 It wasn't too show how fancy we are, you know, 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:48.680 it was mostly still um. We stayed wide a lot. 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:52.400 It just it just were things that you design an ethic. 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:55.400 And the best compliment blah Belt gave me was that he's, 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.840 like most directors, we designed this ethic and they break 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:00.120 it out of fear, and we didn't break it. And 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:03.640 that's something I'm proud of, proud of him and myself 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:07.240 and everybody. Uh, did you have any Scotty I wanted 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:12.719 more coverage than I got, but he was cool. I mean, 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:19.600 like like I love Scott the most protective artist, friendly 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:24.520 producers I could ever imagine. But to me, it's like 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:28.120 I want to be the I want. I would tell 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:30.680 the actors I'm shooting this in one shot, so like you, 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:32.360 you know, Luke, I would tell Lucas and Sonny like 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:34.559 that scene with the two brothers on the couch. We 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:36.720 ended up cutting it up just to shorten the scene, 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:39.720 but I had them do it in one take, you know, 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:41.880 And I was just like, this is about the two 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:43.880 of you in the frame together. It's not to show 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:47.679 how cool I am. It's too show all of your 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:49.960 body language and you're the way you both behave with 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:52.800 one another in one frame. So you guys better be 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:55.320 ready to do it in one take, you know. And 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.160 they did and they were amazing. Did you guys have 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:00.920 any like Were there any reference points in the world 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:04.000 of photography at all? I mean, not not necessarily movies 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:06.840 you mentioned elephant and stuff, but just outside of the 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:10.600 realm of movies. Were there any actually to like for me? 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:14.600 Decline of Western Civilization one, the Penelope Spheres documentary that 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:19.320 covered early punk was something that photography wise, Chris and 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:23.600 I talked a lot about street Wise Mary land Mark film. Um, 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.080 you know, we knew we were shooting Super sixteen always 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:32.160 so still Super sixteen. I always assumed we were shooting 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:34.080 four by three, but it was a battle to get 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:40.200 their aspect ratio. Um. But yeah, and also just scape 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:43.880 videos from that time period and really trying to really 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:50.000 be honorable to that which is always really butchered on film. 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:53.640 You know why I go with that ratio by the way, Well, again, 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:56.880 not to just be cool, right, anything like we couldn't 0:14:57.760 --> 0:14:59.520 the worst thing. I think you can get accused of 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.320 just trying to do it because it's cool, right. I 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:04.880 think it has to have a purpose, And to me 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:10.520 two reasons. One, with kids, I wanted to show their 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:14.160 body language more than their faces and so and how 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:16.760 their body language spoke to who they were at that 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:19.680 point in their lives. And for four by three, it's 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:23.600 it's less of wide screen and the background and it's 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:26.720 more square so you see really their whole bodies, you know. 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.440 And also we were going to cut you know, one 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.040 of the characters of shooting height footage. Fourth grade is 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:36.600 actually shooting during the scenes, and I won't give away 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:38.680 that I mean, but but we were planning on I 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:43.000 was planning on perhaps inter cutting the hight footage with 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:45.880 the film footage throughout the film. And so when we 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:48.640 did test if you if you shot you know, normal 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:50.920 aspect ratio and cut with the highan footage, it was 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:54.480 very jarring. And the four three in the high footage 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:57.800 cut like butter. So there were just multiple reasons. The 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:00.040 fight to get there was its own battle, and the 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.640 god bless a twenty four and Scott Rooting for letting 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:07.600 me fight my way into doing that. Yeah, all the 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:09.920 needle drops are so great in the movie. I think 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:11.720 you get one of my favorite songs of all time 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:17.200 and there which so mischief. Um, I agree. I think 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:20.520 it's a definitive song of that era at time. Yeah, 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.360 I mean, I should say I'm like the biggest early 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:26.680 mid nineties in the world, and just just the whole 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:29.200 just everything was going on in the culture at the time, 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:32.160 like you know, the the rise of a new kind 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:34.680 of politician and Bill Clinton and just what was going 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:37.400 on with the mishmash of cultures and pop culture and stuff. 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:40.520 It was just a really interesting time. But regarding the music, 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:43.120 ELI told me all of these were bear to kind 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.280 of clear naturally, but you gotta have that flavor in there, 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:48.560 you know. I mean it's like, I mean every song 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.200 in the I was a music supervisor. I am the 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:55.480 music supervisor and it I had written every song to 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.800 that scene. So every single song we got, every song 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:02.400 that was written to that's seen years before, and I 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:05.439 had given the kids iPods, everybody an iPod on the 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:07.800 crew and cast, and the first song on it was 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:11.879 ninety three Infinity because I feel that encapsulates um l 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:14.440 a culture, skate culture, hip hop culture at that time. 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:18.760 That's the best example to me. UM. But uh yeah, 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:20.959 we didn't have a big music budget, so we I 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:26.159 wrote heartfelt letters to all of these artists and UM. 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:28.600 I went to Morrissey first because I figured he would 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:30.600 be the most challenging, and he was so generous and 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:33.840 right away was a good luck with mid nineties and 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:36.200 it was amazing. I was like to Eli and everybody, 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:38.040 and Sut was like, I'm friends with Morrisey. He knows 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:41.359 what mid nineties is so exciting. And then I have 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:45.199 a personal friendship with cute Tip, who happens to be 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:46.959 one of my heroes. And so once I got more 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:48.920 c and Q Tip, I figured most people would be, 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:52.520 you know, pretty receptive that this was a serious thing 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:54.760 to be a part of and and actually worthy of 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:57.040 being a part of because they're such respected artists. But 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.399 a big part of the movie was to the thing 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:02.600 I wanted to do was to frame hip hop in 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:06.080 a way that it means to me, which again, like skateboarding, 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:09.920 is often butchered in films, like it's usually showing someone 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.320 driving through the hood or popping champagne or some stereotype. 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.520 And to me, it was the emotional backbone of of 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:18.479 my growing up and so I wanted to make an 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.919 elegant film that framed hip hop in the way that 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:25.040 tribe call Quest to me were what the Beatles were 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:27.600 to my parents, and that was really important to me 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:30.280 and something that it's been enjoyed, and not only show skateboarders, 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:33.639 not only show you know, everybody, but to show these 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:37.119 hip hop artists how I view their music and how 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:39.919 generation views their music. And it's not just like a 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:44.480 fad or you know, um some gimmicky thing. It's real, 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:49.200 siminar it's just emotional. Yeah. Well, the you know, regarding music, 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:50.960 I mean, you got Trent resident Atticas Frost to come 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:52.159 in and do the score. I mean, what were you 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:54.960 looking for? And like the interstitial music essentially that would 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:58.640 would kind of fill out the musical identity of the movie, 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:00.919 I guess. I mean, well, I never in my wildest 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:03.919 dreams would I think that my favorite modern composers, you know, 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:06.919 Trent Resid Natticus Ross, would score my first film, you know, 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:09.760 and that was luckily. We just showed them a cut 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:12.480 of the film and they wanted to do it and 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:16.520 it was amazing. But my idea was, I didn't realize 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:20.600 how much a filmmaker is responsible. You know, they are 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:23.119 asking you for direction, and I thought that Trent Natkis 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.520 were gonna send me music and that was going to 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:27.480 be it. But I didn't realize like you play with 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:30.359 the stems, you changed things around you, you really formulate 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:32.840 what it is together and it was an amazing process 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:35.919 um for me. My My major idea was, you know, 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:39.520 they're so known for the Social Network's score, that score 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:41.800 matches that film, which I believe to be about like, 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:47.000 you know, sort of coldness and beauty and its coldness, 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:49.000 And to me, I was like, what would it be 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:52.439 like if Trenton Atticus did Warmth? What would that feel like? 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:56.440 With their perverse take on warmth? And I'm really happy 0:19:56.480 --> 0:20:02.440 with how the score turned out. The kid's Sonny, Uh, 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:05.960 your lead is just such a natural. Um, he's amazing 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:08.400 to watch. You know, what were you looking for out 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:11.560 of who was going to lead a project like this? 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:14.639 And was the search exhaustive? I mean talk about that? 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:20.800 I guess it's one Everything in directing is like the 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:24.280 preparation is the hard part. So imagining how hard it 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:27.200 was going to be and preparing to have a nationwide 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:29.959 search for the kid was more of the preparation than 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:32.439 actually finding him. Who was right here at the local 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:36.000 skate park and he I just knew it was him, 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:38.399 you know, I saw him and I knew because he 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:41.040 had what I was looking for, which is a kid 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:43.560 who was very young looking for their age, but was 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:47.080 small for their age, but was ten feet tall inside. 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:50.920 And I knew I wasn't going to hire someone who 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:55.159 was meek and have them learn confidence and portray confidence. 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:58.399 I knew it was a lot more real to have 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:01.760 someone who's very confident and verse engineer to the beginning 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:05.480 of the film and almost try and have them understand meekness. 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:10.480 And Sunny's just he was eleven when we shot. I'm 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:12.600 thirty four, had been acting for fifteen years and I've 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:14.479 never had to strap a film to my back and 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:17.359 like walk across the field like that. He carries the film, 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:21.719 you know. So he's just so impressive. There's something in 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:23.720 his eyes too. I mean, you know, the camera loves 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:25.960 his face if you will, and you kind of get 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:28.840 lost in there. Um, he's just I mean, he's just 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:33.480 a serious, real deal actor and he's only thirteen. I 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:38.359 just am so interested to see where he goes. All 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:40.960 the actors are great. These characters, they leap off the 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:42.560 screen and it feels like they're sitting there in the 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:44.440 theater watching the movie with you, you know. I mean, 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:46.560 that's that's gotta be a tough quality to pull off 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:50.360 on set, that real that naturalism, that sense of just 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:54.879 these guys that know each other so well, and you know, 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:58.080 and then translating that off the screen to the audience. 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:00.000 How how do you how do you get it something 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:03.240 like that? It's just work, Like I said, it's preparations. 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:06.199 So when you get there, it's not as hard, you know. Um, 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:07.960 some of them didn't know each other really well in 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:11.920 real life, which was really helpful. Um. But the amazing 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:13.919 part was I had worked on the script. I did 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:17.240