Speaker 1: M m m m. You're listening to playback a Variety
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio podcast. I'm your host, Variety Awards Editor
Speaker 1: Chris Tapley. This week, I'm talking to actor Jonah Hill,
Speaker 1: but you can add director to that resume. Now we're
Speaker 1: discussing his directorial debut mid nineties. A personal story for
Speaker 1: Jonah that marks the culmination of all he's put into
Speaker 1: the business so far, and a dream come true at that.
Speaker 1: So sit tight. This is playback. I listen. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't fantastic. Honored to be honest, honored to have
Speaker 1: you as a director. Did you watch the film? I did,
Speaker 1: okay a couple of weeks back. That's some waterfoo that
Speaker 1: would be awesome. I wasn't that screening at the New House?
Speaker 1: Oh cool? Oh the one in l A. Yeah, yeah, sorry,
Speaker 1: we were like bouncing, bouncing was pretty cool. It was
Speaker 1: that the skateboarding was there at the skating one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. Lots of warm beers getting pasted around. That's great.
Speaker 1: That awesome. M that's a good context to see it in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, I loved it. Great work man. He's gonna
Speaker 1: grab like over the shoulder and then you guys chatting,
Speaker 1: how's it. They've been going so far, so good. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love being an l I don't live here, so
Speaker 1: it's like I treat him. Yeah, if he was like vacation.
Speaker 1: I live in New York for the coast, like five
Speaker 1: or six years. Nice, well part of town downtown. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna bring this back afters on the brist Side
Speaker 1: for a year. Yeah, did you like it? I did.
Speaker 1: I like that neighborhood a lot. Yeah, of course they
Speaker 1: it in that you know, the queue goes up there
Speaker 1: now after I've moved away. That would have been nice.
Speaker 1: When I lived there, we've been very helpful. Yeah, seventy
Speaker 1: second Street stop and stuff like that. I was just
Speaker 1: up there last week. Actually, it's all pretty different. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I I really you know, because benefits to living everywhere
Speaker 1: here cool as you get older, it's out here because
Speaker 1: it's relaxing. Yeah. For just I was telling somebody, it's
Speaker 1: like you can just step out on your porch and
Speaker 1: there's trees and you know, and you're not like in
Speaker 1: the middle of life. You're not in the middle of
Speaker 1: the community immediately out here, which can be nice. But anyway,
Speaker 1: we're up and running, all right, sir, I'm here with
Speaker 1: Jonah Hill, the writer and director of mid nineties directorial debut.
Speaker 1: In fact, Jonah, thanks for coming on the show. Thank
Speaker 1: you for having me. I enjoy the show. Thank you man,
Speaker 1: thanks for listening. Uh you know the old adage you
Speaker 1: only get one chance to make the first movie, right, so, uh,
Speaker 1: you know it was it difficult to decide what would
Speaker 1: be the first movie you would direct. I would say yeah,
Speaker 1: because uh, you know, yeah, you only get one shot
Speaker 1: at it. So you know, I think after the first one,
Speaker 1: if I'm lucky enough to get to make more, it
Speaker 1: will be freeing to have made your first one already, right.
Speaker 1: And and if I look at my heroes, people who
Speaker 1: started out in comedy who had great filmmaking careers, like
Speaker 1: Mike Nichols or Barry Levinson, if you look at their
Speaker 1: first films, a lot of the time they are films
Speaker 1: that really meant something to them. And I really wanted
Speaker 1: to take time and have patience to wait until I
Speaker 1: really he was mature enough emotionally be had my own
Speaker 1: voice and see how a story that really meant something
Speaker 1: to me, which is mid nineties Yeah, did you have? Uh?
Speaker 1: Were There are a couple of different ideas that we're
Speaker 1: floating around and we're you zeroing in on this one
Speaker 1: kind of the whole time. Well, actually, originally I was
Speaker 1: writing a play with Spike Jones at the time. We
Speaker 1: were co writing a play together, and we would do
Speaker 1: this exercise where we would talk about the screenplays we
Speaker 1: were writing and walk each other through the story. And
Speaker 1: originally the film was about you know, this is four
Speaker 1: years ago. The film was about something else, and it
Speaker 1: kept flashing back to when the kids were young and
Speaker 1: skateboarding together. The main character was with his friends, and
Speaker 1: Spike wisely pointed out that I was far more exuberant
Speaker 1: about the flashbacks the B story than I was about
Speaker 1: the A story, and so I kind of just made
Speaker 1: it all about that. Yeah, it's kind of obvious. What's
Speaker 1: dragging you, what's pulling you to it? I think it's
Speaker 1: just I think anything that's the first draft of anything
Speaker 1: so bad, you know, I did twenty drafts over three years.
Speaker 1: That uh I was called it's like it's just a
Speaker 1: bunch of trash and hopefully there's a little heartbeat. It's
Speaker 1: almost like an ultrasound, And that was the ultrasound of
Speaker 1: my like initial first thought of a story. I wanted
Speaker 1: to tell and and the little heartbeat came from, you know,
Speaker 1: the group of young kids together when you first started
Speaker 1: out in the business. Was this like an end game
Speaker 1: for you at all? Like, is is directing something you
Speaker 1: expected to come around to eventually or did you just
Speaker 1: naturally end up in a place where you wanted to
Speaker 1: be a filmmaker? Also, my dream, my whole life, is
Speaker 1: to be a filmmaker, writer, director. Um I really accidentally
Speaker 1: fell into this amazing fifteen year acting career, and uh,
Speaker 1: my life went in a really wild other direction. But
Speaker 1: it ended up being incredible, not only because I love acting,
Speaker 1: but because you know, I got this incredible fifteen year
Speaker 1: film school and I got to work with most of
Speaker 1: my heroes. And you know, as an actor, you have
Speaker 1: the ability if you wanted to be in a front
Speaker 1: row seed education to the filmmaking process. So I've also
Speaker 1: had the good fortune of being a lot of bad
Speaker 1: movies as well as good ones. But you can learn
Speaker 1: as much from, you know, as the good ones. And
Speaker 1: and you know, I've had just a lot of incredible
Speaker 1: professors that I've learned a lot from. And at the
Speaker 1: same time, like yourself, I imagine I'm I'm a cinophile.
Speaker 1: I just love I breathe and sleep and eat talking
Speaker 1: about movies, thinking about film, and have very strong distinction
Speaker 1: in my own taste and as an actor, you know,
Speaker 1: your one color and someone else's painting. And I've been
Speaker 1: a decent green for a long time. But ultimately, the
Speaker 1: you know, the painter wants to paint purple over it,
Speaker 1: that's their decision. And so, uh, I was waiting till
Speaker 1: I had, like I said, the I'd say, emotional intelligence
Speaker 1: to be a leader, as well as the confidence in
Speaker 1: my own voice to paint my own painting. What were
Speaker 1: some aesthetic influences early on? I guess if you wanted
Speaker 1: to be a filmmaker and that was like your your goal.
Speaker 1: Uh you mentioned my Nichols and and Levinson and stuff,
Speaker 1: But I'm just curious, like aesthetically, particularly visually visual storytelling,
Speaker 1: like what really spoke to you as a kid and
Speaker 1: made you want to do this aesthetically purely? I mean,
Speaker 1: I think every film is different. So for the film
Speaker 1: and right next, like the aesthetic things that are interesting
Speaker 1: about that relates to it are far different, you know,
Speaker 1: and for me, um, aesthetics serve emotion and people in story.
Speaker 1: So uh, it wasn't like I was really ever, I'm
Speaker 1: not a candy visual filmmaker, even though I've made one
Speaker 1: film or it's not the thing that excites me the most.
Speaker 1: I'll say, um, people, emotions, feelings, characters, stories, you know,
Speaker 1: those are the things that are really incredible to me.
Speaker 1: And then the aesthetics should serve that. And so like
Speaker 1: for this film, you know, Elephant, uh, this is England.
Speaker 1: There there were just certain films that I think aesthetically
Speaker 1: serve the tone and the emotions of these people in
Speaker 1: this time that we're right for that That gets in
Speaker 1: the my next question I was gonna ask, you know,
Speaker 1: what did you discover about the process of directing that
Speaker 1: that like excited you most? Was was was was you
Speaker 1: know your favorite part of the process. And I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, was it you know, working with you blah
Speaker 1: Velt and figuring out the the visual schematic, or was
Speaker 1: it you know, working with the actors and and that element.
Speaker 1: You know what, what part of it ultimately did you
Speaker 1: take away was your favorite part? It's all of it.
Speaker 1: You know, as an actor, you're you're you're parachuted into
Speaker 1: someone else's world. So you know, the director hires, all
Speaker 1: the people, all the artists, all the department heads, all
Speaker 1: the you know people year around. So to me, this
Speaker 1: was a culmination of fifteen years of people I had
Speaker 1: admired and grown close with, to higher as the family
Speaker 1: of artists creating this thing together and so just getting
Speaker 1: your hands dirty finally as really yeah, you just you're
Speaker 1: just watching. And I kind of waited till I couldn't
Speaker 1: take it anymore, and it was time to sort of
Speaker 1: curate not only the artists that you love, but the
Speaker 1: people you're spending your life around, which is such a luxury,
Speaker 1: such a joy. That's why it's like the reward of
Speaker 1: all this would get to be to do it again,
Speaker 1: you know, so bloud belts like my brother, you know,
Speaker 1: Nick Whoe, my editor, same thing. It's like those are
Speaker 1: the two closest people probably collaborators, um Scott ruden Eli
Speaker 1: Bush and and and uh Scott Robertson my first A
Speaker 1: D who I had done Super Bad and and Moneyball with,
Speaker 1: and you know, he had done everything from like the
Speaker 1: Revenant to his Fox Catcher. He's just a brilliant guy.
Speaker 1: And he was one of the first people I called,
Speaker 1: you know, first a D. Definitely helps make a film
Speaker 1: or break a film, right general. Yeah, He's he's the man,
Speaker 1: you know, he's amazing. And Heidi Bibbins my costume designer,
Speaker 1: and you know, there's just so many people I knew
Speaker 1: I had hired three years before we even started shooting,
Speaker 1: you know, and I get to me, it just was
Speaker 1: curating a community that was making something together, you know,
Speaker 1: and singularly, the most moving thing is uh, you know,
Speaker 1: having something that means something really deep to you emotionally
Speaker 1: and then having these actors connect to it, these young
Speaker 1: kids who had an acted before then bring it to life,
Speaker 1: and then showing you to an audience and having people
Speaker 1: laugh or cry or you know both. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: just the fact to me that the movie holds so
Speaker 1: many different emotions is very moving to me. I was
Speaker 1: just hanging out with Scott and Eli and New York
Speaker 1: last week. Actually, uh, you know, speaking of Blah Belt,
Speaker 1: you know you mentioned Elephant and and and uh, what's
Speaker 1: the other one? This is England? Um, you know great
Speaker 1: DP came up under Harris A. Vitas, the Great, the
Speaker 1: late Great. This is a conversation I'm so grateful to have. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you know, not many people care that deeply about
Speaker 1: like blah Belt's background. To me, it's incredibly important, you know, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: well just talk about that and and and zeroing in
Speaker 1: on what the visual language of this movie was gonna be. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, you know, blah Bel Kay did come
Speaker 1: up under Harris Abides, who was my favorite DP ever.
Speaker 1: He did shoot Elephant and so Blaha even operated on Elephant, right, so, um,
Speaker 1: he was an operator on Speed, to which I love.
Speaker 1: He's I mean, his family also is uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the blow Belts are like lifelong um camera people. You know,
Speaker 1: they are craftsmen with a family of craftsmen and crafts people.
Speaker 1: And even when I met with Martin Scorsese before the film,
Speaker 1: He's like, who's shooting your film? And I was like,
Speaker 1: Christopher blaw Belt and He's like he related to blow
Speaker 1: Belt and he was like yeah, and he's like the
Speaker 1: best operator I had on Raging Bull And I was
Speaker 1: texting blow beout under the table and love. I was
Speaker 1: like crying. You know, um, you know that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff I feel in a new generation, even me shooting
Speaker 1: on film or even having my film released in theaters,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, um, I feel like apprenticeship and
Speaker 1: like that kind of thing is lost and I believe
Speaker 1: in it and the idea that I I did have
Speaker 1: fifteen years of apprenticeship before I went out, or blah
Speaker 1: Belt had twenty years under Harris before you know, he
Speaker 1: started deepeeing his own films with Kelly Reichard and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. And now my film it it means something
Speaker 1: to me, you know, like I I believe in that.
Speaker 1: It's emotional to me. It's he you know, speaks of
Speaker 1: Harris how someone would speak of a god or father
Speaker 1: or mentor you know, and it's like blah blah and
Speaker 1: I designed and ethic that we didn't break. You know.
Speaker 1: The camera wasn't going to move unless it necessary absolutely
Speaker 1: had to, and it was for a deep purpose. You know.
Speaker 1: It wasn't too show how fancy we are, you know,
Speaker 1: it was mostly still um. We stayed wide a lot.
Speaker 1: It just it just were things that you design an ethic.
Speaker 1: And the best compliment blah Belt gave me was that he's,
Speaker 1: like most directors, we designed this ethic and they break
Speaker 1: it out of fear, and we didn't break it. And
Speaker 1: that's something I'm proud of, proud of him and myself
Speaker 1: and everybody. Uh, did you have any Scotty I wanted
Speaker 1: more coverage than I got, but he was cool. I mean,
Speaker 1: like like I love Scott the most protective artist, friendly
Speaker 1: producers I could ever imagine. But to me, it's like
Speaker 1: I want to be the I want. I would tell
Speaker 1: the actors I'm shooting this in one shot, so like you,
Speaker 1: you know, Luke, I would tell Lucas and Sonny like
Speaker 1: that scene with the two brothers on the couch. We
Speaker 1: ended up cutting it up just to shorten the scene,
Speaker 1: but I had them do it in one take, you know,
Speaker 1: And I was just like, this is about the two
Speaker 1: of you in the frame together. It's not to show
Speaker 1: how cool I am. It's too show all of your
Speaker 1: body language and you're the way you both behave with
Speaker 1: one another in one frame. So you guys better be
Speaker 1: ready to do it in one take, you know. And
Speaker 1: they did and they were amazing. Did you guys have
Speaker 1: any like Were there any reference points in the world
Speaker 1: of photography at all? I mean, not not necessarily movies
Speaker 1: you mentioned elephant and stuff, but just outside of the
Speaker 1: realm of movies. Were there any actually to like for me?
Speaker 1: Decline of Western Civilization one, the Penelope Spheres documentary that
Speaker 1: covered early punk was something that photography wise, Chris and
Speaker 1: I talked a lot about street Wise Mary land Mark film. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we knew we were shooting Super sixteen always
Speaker 1: so still Super sixteen. I always assumed we were shooting
Speaker 1: four by three, but it was a battle to get
Speaker 1: their aspect ratio. Um. But yeah, and also just scape
Speaker 1: videos from that time period and really trying to really
Speaker 1: be honorable to that which is always really butchered on film.
Speaker 1: You know why I go with that ratio by the way, Well, again,
Speaker 1: not to just be cool, right, anything like we couldn't
Speaker 1: the worst thing. I think you can get accused of
Speaker 1: just trying to do it because it's cool, right. I
Speaker 1: think it has to have a purpose, And to me
Speaker 1: two reasons. One, with kids, I wanted to show their
Speaker 1: body language more than their faces and so and how
Speaker 1: their body language spoke to who they were at that
Speaker 1: point in their lives. And for four by three, it's
Speaker 1: it's less of wide screen and the background and it's
Speaker 1: more square so you see really their whole bodies, you know.
Speaker 1: And also we were going to cut you know, one
Speaker 1: of the characters of shooting height footage. Fourth grade is
Speaker 1: actually shooting during the scenes, and I won't give away
Speaker 1: that I mean, but but we were planning on I
Speaker 1: was planning on perhaps inter cutting the hight footage with
Speaker 1: the film footage throughout the film. And so when we
Speaker 1: did test if you if you shot you know, normal
Speaker 1: aspect ratio and cut with the highan footage, it was
Speaker 1: very jarring. And the four three in the high footage
Speaker 1: cut like butter. So there were just multiple reasons. The
Speaker 1: fight to get there was its own battle, and the
Speaker 1: god bless a twenty four and Scott Rooting for letting
Speaker 1: me fight my way into doing that. Yeah, all the
Speaker 1: needle drops are so great in the movie. I think
Speaker 1: you get one of my favorite songs of all time
Speaker 1: and there which so mischief. Um, I agree. I think
Speaker 1: it's a definitive song of that era at time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I should say I'm like the biggest early
Speaker 1: mid nineties in the world, and just just the whole
Speaker 1: just everything was going on in the culture at the time,
Speaker 1: like you know, the the rise of a new kind
Speaker 1: of politician and Bill Clinton and just what was going
Speaker 1: on with the mishmash of cultures and pop culture and stuff.
Speaker 1: It was just a really interesting time. But regarding the music,
Speaker 1: ELI told me all of these were bear to kind
Speaker 1: of clear naturally, but you gotta have that flavor in there,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean it's like, I mean every song
Speaker 1: in the I was a music supervisor. I am the
Speaker 1: music supervisor and it I had written every song to
Speaker 1: that scene. So every single song we got, every song
Speaker 1: that was written to that's seen years before, and I
Speaker 1: had given the kids iPods, everybody an iPod on the
Speaker 1: crew and cast, and the first song on it was
Speaker 1: ninety three Infinity because I feel that encapsulates um l
Speaker 1: a culture, skate culture, hip hop culture at that time.
Speaker 1: That's the best example to me. UM. But uh yeah,
Speaker 1: we didn't have a big music budget, so we I
Speaker 1: wrote heartfelt letters to all of these artists and UM.
Speaker 1: I went to Morrissey first because I figured he would
Speaker 1: be the most challenging, and he was so generous and
Speaker 1: right away was a good luck with mid nineties and
Speaker 1: it was amazing. I was like to Eli and everybody,
Speaker 1: and Sut was like, I'm friends with Morrisey. He knows
Speaker 1: what mid nineties is so exciting. And then I have
Speaker 1: a personal friendship with cute Tip, who happens to be
Speaker 1: one of my heroes. And so once I got more
Speaker 1: c and Q Tip, I figured most people would be,
Speaker 1: you know, pretty receptive that this was a serious thing
Speaker 1: to be a part of and and actually worthy of
Speaker 1: being a part of because they're such respected artists. But
Speaker 1: a big part of the movie was to the thing
Speaker 1: I wanted to do was to frame hip hop in
Speaker 1: a way that it means to me, which again, like skateboarding,
Speaker 1: is often butchered in films, like it's usually showing someone
Speaker 1: driving through the hood or popping champagne or some stereotype.
Speaker 1: And to me, it was the emotional backbone of of
Speaker 1: my growing up and so I wanted to make an
Speaker 1: elegant film that framed hip hop in the way that
Speaker 1: tribe call Quest to me were what the Beatles were
Speaker 1: to my parents, and that was really important to me
Speaker 1: and something that it's been enjoyed, and not only show skateboarders,
Speaker 1: not only show you know, everybody, but to show these
Speaker 1: hip hop artists how I view their music and how
Speaker 1: generation views their music. And it's not just like a
Speaker 1: fad or you know, um some gimmicky thing. It's real,
Speaker 1: siminar it's just emotional. Yeah. Well, the you know, regarding music,
Speaker 1: I mean, you got Trent resident Atticas Frost to come
Speaker 1: in and do the score. I mean, what were you
Speaker 1: looking for? And like the interstitial music essentially that would
Speaker 1: would kind of fill out the musical identity of the movie,
Speaker 1: I guess. I mean, well, I never in my wildest
Speaker 1: dreams would I think that my favorite modern composers, you know,
Speaker 1: Trent Resid Natticus Ross, would score my first film, you know,
Speaker 1: and that was luckily. We just showed them a cut
Speaker 1: of the film and they wanted to do it and
Speaker 1: it was amazing. But my idea was, I didn't realize
Speaker 1: how much a filmmaker is responsible. You know, they are
Speaker 1: asking you for direction, and I thought that Trent Natkis
Speaker 1: were gonna send me music and that was going to
Speaker 1: be it. But I didn't realize like you play with
Speaker 1: the stems, you changed things around you, you really formulate
Speaker 1: what it is together and it was an amazing process
Speaker 1: um for me. My My major idea was, you know,
Speaker 1: they're so known for the Social Network's score, that score
Speaker 1: matches that film, which I believe to be about like,
Speaker 1: you know, sort of coldness and beauty and its coldness,
Speaker 1: And to me, I was like, what would it be
Speaker 1: like if Trenton Atticus did Warmth? What would that feel like?
Speaker 1: With their perverse take on warmth? And I'm really happy
Speaker 1: with how the score turned out. The kid's Sonny, Uh,
Speaker 1: your lead is just such a natural. Um, he's amazing
Speaker 1: to watch. You know, what were you looking for out
Speaker 1: of who was going to lead a project like this?
Speaker 1: And was the search exhaustive? I mean talk about that?
Speaker 1: I guess it's one Everything in directing is like the
Speaker 1: preparation is the hard part. So imagining how hard it
Speaker 1: was going to be and preparing to have a nationwide
Speaker 1: search for the kid was more of the preparation than
Speaker 1: actually finding him. Who was right here at the local
Speaker 1: skate park and he I just knew it was him,
Speaker 1: you know, I saw him and I knew because he
Speaker 1: had what I was looking for, which is a kid
Speaker 1: who was very young looking for their age, but was
Speaker 1: small for their age, but was ten feet tall inside.
Speaker 1: And I knew I wasn't going to hire someone who
Speaker 1: was meek and have them learn confidence and portray confidence.
Speaker 1: I knew it was a lot more real to have
Speaker 1: someone who's very confident and verse engineer to the beginning
Speaker 1: of the film and almost try and have them understand meekness.
Speaker 1: And Sunny's just he was eleven when we shot. I'm
Speaker 1: thirty four, had been acting for fifteen years and I've
Speaker 1: never had to strap a film to my back and
Speaker 1: like walk across the field like that. He carries the film,
Speaker 1: you know. So he's just so impressive. There's something in
Speaker 1: his eyes too. I mean, you know, the camera loves
Speaker 1: his face if you will, and you kind of get
Speaker 1: lost in there. Um, he's just I mean, he's just
Speaker 1: a serious, real deal actor and he's only thirteen. I
Speaker 1: just am so interested to see where he goes. All
Speaker 1: the actors are great. These characters, they leap off the
Speaker 1: screen and it feels like they're sitting there in the
Speaker 1: theater watching the movie with you, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that's gotta be a tough quality to pull off
Speaker 1: on set, that real that naturalism, that sense of just
Speaker 1: these guys that know each other so well, and you know,
Speaker 1: and then translating that off the screen to the audience.
Speaker 1: How how do you how do you get it something
Speaker 1: like that? It's just work, Like I said, it's preparations.
Speaker 1: So when you get there, it's not as hard, you know. Um,
Speaker 1: some of them didn't know each other really well in
Speaker 1: real life, which was really helpful. Um. But the amazing
Speaker 1: part was I had worked on the script. I did
Speaker 1: twenty drafts over three years, and I was willing to
Speaker 1: throw it away because I figured these non actress I
Speaker 1: knew I was gonna cast first time actors, and I
Speaker 1: was like, Oh, they're gonna want to improvise. They're not
Speaker 1: going to be able to like become these other people
Speaker 1: and memorize these lines and deliver them honestly and genuinely.
Speaker 1: But what I was surprised was they didn't want to improvise,
Speaker 1: and they worked so tirelessly to become good actors that
Speaker 1: that's singularly the most like moving experience in my life
Speaker 1: was watching them just literally learned how to become artists
Speaker 1: and be empowered to become artists and take that opportunity
Speaker 1: and grab the bull by the horns. And by the
Speaker 1: end they were you know, they would be running scenes
Speaker 1: when I got there at the trailers and they'd be
Speaker 1: you know, they'd have them up and running. Yeah. They
Speaker 1: just they just they just were worked harder than I
Speaker 1: ever could have imagined. My wildest dreams. I'm proud of them.
Speaker 1: What do you think what's the big takeaway from the
Speaker 1: entire experience for you? I mean, did did? Was there
Speaker 1: something about the whole thing that truly surprised you that
Speaker 1: that you learned? Or you know what? What? What are
Speaker 1: you really taking away here? The The reward is the process. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I've never been more happy in my life than when
Speaker 1: I'm either writing, shooting or editing a film. And uh,
Speaker 1: the reward solely is that I get to do it again.
Speaker 1: If I get to do it again, I think you
Speaker 1: get another crack at it. Man, your mouth to God's ears.
Speaker 1: That would be great. What are you do? You want
Speaker 1: to phase out acting a bit? You would you rather?
Speaker 1: I don't view it like that. Like I view it
Speaker 1: like I have the next film I want to write,
Speaker 1: So I want the time to write that. You know,
Speaker 1: right now I'm doing this getting the word out about
Speaker 1: our film Midnight Um. But there's no plan to you like,
Speaker 1: do one or the other. It's more like I want
Speaker 1: to do things, you know the first A lot of
Speaker 1: my career has been things that I kind of was
Speaker 1: told I should do or what people thought I was
Speaker 1: And with this film, and even this magazine. I just
Speaker 1: are putting out like it. This is me, like coming
Speaker 1: out as who I am, you know, and I intend
Speaker 1: to do things if I'm lucky enough that just means
Speaker 1: something to me and reflect myself as an artist and
Speaker 1: not what everyone else wants me to be. Before I
Speaker 1: let you go, if we can talk about acting just briefly,
Speaker 1: I'd love to talk about the Beach Bomb, the Harmony, Corinthrum,
Speaker 1: I mean working with Harmony and and just tell me
Speaker 1: but I can't wait to see this movie. I mean,
Speaker 1: I have a tiny cameo like like he does in
Speaker 1: in my film. Um we traded, We traded cameos and um.
Speaker 1: He's just someone who is a close friend and was
Speaker 1: super supportive and gave notes on this film and vice
Speaker 1: first on Beach Fum and Uh. He's just someone I
Speaker 1: admire very much. He's someone who is truly his own artist.
Speaker 1: He really does not care what people want from him
Speaker 1: or want of him. He wants to make things and
Speaker 1: we live in a world where that's less and less,
Speaker 1: and we live in a media, we work in a
Speaker 1: medium where it's harder and harder to make those kinds
Speaker 1: of projects. And I admire his ferocity and fight to
Speaker 1: get the things he wants to get done done, which
Speaker 1: no one ever really wants to seem to help him
Speaker 1: just do. If I was up to films, I'd say
Speaker 1: give Harmony Curran whatever he wants, you know, But um,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I adore him and he's a good
Speaker 1: person and a really really generous with his advice and
Speaker 1: thoughts and and just a talented man. Yeah, awesome, looking
Speaker 1: forward to that. Everybody should go see this. Mid nineties
Speaker 1: is October nineteen is a release date. Check it out.
Speaker 1: Joan is gonna be doing this, I think more and
Speaker 1: more because clearly love so that's very kind. I'm just
Speaker 1: a film a nerd, like like like everybody else that
Speaker 1: I can't believe I get to you know, have even
Speaker 1: made such a meaningful film to me. We'll congrats. Thanks
Speaker 1: Ago for coming on. Yes, it's great. Highlight my day