WEBVTT - Rian Johnson 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.680 You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair. 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:07.320 My friend Glenn Close brought Ryan Johnson to the River 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:10.880 Cafe where they were filming Wake Up Dead Men, the 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:13.640 third Knives Out movie, and for the rest of the 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:17.599 summer he was what we call a regular yesterday sending 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:21.680 me photos of her new grandson. These were her words, Ruthie. 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:25.200 Working with Ryan is a highlight of my career. He 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:28.840 wrote a great script, cast an amazing stable of actors, 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:32.879 and set us on a sublime adventure together. Ryan is 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:37.440 a master storyteller who makes work both serious and wildly fun. 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:40.680 I am honored to call him a friend. Well, if 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:43.280 a friend of mine says that about a friend of hers, 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:47.120 I do believe her. Family is crucial to Ryan. He 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:50.839 talks movingly about his father's influence on his career. His 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:53.920 earliest film memory being put in the car by him 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:55.920 to go see Star Wars Age five. 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:58.280 Yeah must have been yeah, maybe. 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:01.279 Yeah. We're here together at the River Cafe to talk 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:05.480 about family and friends, movies and food. It's going to 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:10.360 be serious and hopefully wildly fun. Thank you for coming. 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:12.959 Thank you for that beautiful introduction. I owe Glenn a 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:13.520 big hug. 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:15.800 I think the first time you came came with Glynn, 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:16.800 did we might? 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:18.399 I think I might have been here a few times, 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:20.520 but that's one of the first times we really connected. 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:23.480 Yeah. Yeah, when we had Sunday lunch and we kept 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:27.480 trying to have other times, watched the World Cup together. 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:30.160 I'm all right and family family. 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:32.400 Yeah, and you're here now with your family. Tell you, 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:33.680 tell me what you're doing in London. 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.280 So we finished shooting and cutting together the movie Wake 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:38.399 Up deed mannon right now. 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:39.800 We're recording the score. 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:42.800 So we're at Abbey Road and my cousin Nathan, who's 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.040 my composer, and we've been making movies together since we 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:46.920 were ten years old. 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.240 He's here because we're at Abbey Road, and because. 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:54.520 I'm really close to my extended family, including my aunts 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:58.480 and uncles and two of my uncles who really kind 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:01.160 of gave Nathan and I sort of a real love 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.720 of music growing up. I brought them out with us. 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:06.840 The music that I keep coming back to in my 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:09.520 life is mostly stuff that they were playing, you know, 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:11.079 when I was when I was a kid, it was 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:13.600 mostly kind of like the folk crock era of like 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:15.520 you know, a lot of Jonny Mitchell, a lot of 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:18.960 Neil Young lot. It was kind of that era of 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:22.480 sort of of post hippie sort of sort of full crock. 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:25.600 But yeah, and my dad also, that was a big 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:26.320 connecting point. 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:28.280 I think that music stays with you for the rest 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:31.120 of your life. Somebody said that buying music, you mostly 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:34.200 buy your music between the ages of seventeen and say 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.400 twenty two, and that's the music that stays with you. 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:39.240 It imprints. I think so. 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:41.359 And there's I think there's an argument to me made 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:45.320 that everything that most of kind of the major taste 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:47.799 things in your life end up getting set kind of 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:51.000 you know, before you're fifteen. I think that early stuff 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:53.240 that sitting in the back of the car with your 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:56.560 dad and with whatever song was on that that you know, 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:58.320 the forms, forms, the grooves. 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.160 I think, could you've recorded them anywhere or was it 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:02.920 important to you to come back to London. 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:05.399 Well, we've done the past few movies at Abbey Road 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:08.040 and it's just it's a really special place for a 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:10.520 lot of reasons, but also a lot of the people 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.240 that Nathan works with are out here and we just 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:15.720 know the musicians are so good and it's also it's 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:17.680 a it's you know, it's a treat. 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:27.119 Yes, that's why I'm here. Really, the podcasts score while 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:28.239 we're here, while we're here. 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.120 It is amazing. It's so exciting to see how many 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.280 movies are being made in England at the moment. 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:38.040 And the cruise are so wonderful British Cruis. 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:38.600 Is that true? 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:42.520 It's so so true. It feels like making a family 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:45.240 movie kind of in the best way. My experiences, including 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:48.240 Star Wars, which was a huge production, but it's still 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.160 everybody in it cared so much. And when I did it, 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:53.720 I kind of chalked that up to, well, is it 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:55.880 because we're making a Star Wars movie and everyone. 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:57.040 Grew up with it? 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:59.960 But then being here again making this movie, I was like, 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:02.200 oh no, this is just everyone's just stoked. 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.120 Did you grow up thinking that food and work, in 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.280 school and life was that part of your family? Was 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:13.839 it all integrated into a home life. Did you sit 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:15.200 down for dinner most nights? 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:16.960 You know, we did, That's one thing. We did, sit 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:19.920 down for dinner every single night. And my mom would 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:25.440 always cook. Her dad was Italian and her mom was 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.279 a really good cook, and most of my childhood kitchen 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:29.239 memories are from. 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:29.840 My mom's mom. 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:31.360 But she wasn't Italian. 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:32.760 No, she wasn't Italian. 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:36.480 She was Oh is she she was? I think mostly yeah, British. 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:40.360 But she would make pies and she would make Yeah, 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:41.960 she was a very good cook. And so most of 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:45.200 my sitting in the sitting in the kitchen memories are 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:48.320 from her. Did she live nearby, No, she lived in Illinois. 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:52.000 So we would go to like Mondaline, Mundoline, Illinois, which 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:54.279 is a little suburb in Illinois. It's also where I 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:58.640 got My uncle had a pizza place called Pizza Toni, 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.840 and that's where I got introduced like thin crust, thin 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.080 crust pizza. Yeah, and it was the most delicious thing 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:06.800 I'd ever taste. 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:08.440 I was just like, oh, that's yeah. 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:10.560 You would come from Maryland or from la. 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:12.360 So I was born in Maryland, but we were only 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:14.000 there for like a year or two. I don't really 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:17.960 have any Maryland memories really. I was a kid in Colorado, Colorado. 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.520 Yeah, it's where my dad's family. You're never in Englewood. 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:26.400 I went to school in Carbondale. 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:28.000 Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:30.800 It was very kind of a school on a ranch. Oh, 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:34.160 kind of one of those very liberal schools where they 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.880 thought education was part of the academic and the restree 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.040 road horses and you know made it was really it 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:40.480 was good. 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:42.760 Yeah I missed that. Do you miss the mountains? 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:45.240 I miss the mountains, Yeah, I do. The summer in 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.039 the mountains I was sometimes, you know, you could keep 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.160 the beach and see the flowers and the mountains. 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:52.720 I do find myself craving. Yeah. 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:54.520 I got to get up to the mountains every once 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:57.000 in a while, even though I don't really ski anymore. 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:00.360 But yeah, I don't know, there's something about it. It's 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.000 growing up there. You do just kind of start craving it. 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:05.279 Yeah, So tell me more about the food. So you 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:07.320 had your grandmother's food when you went to visit her, 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:10.400 to visit her, did your mom work did she have No, 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.400 my mom didn't work. She worked because she had kids. 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.200 But yeah, yeah, yeah she worked a lot. 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:16.719 But how many were there? 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.880 So I'm the oldest, and I have two younger brothers, 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:22.520 and after two younger brothers, a younger half brother and 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:23.520 then a younger sister. 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:26.080 So that's a lot. It's a lot. Well, I have 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:27.240 a big of a big family. 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:31.640 Also, I'm the eldest of like forty cousins, and I'm 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:33.640 as close to some of my cousins as I am 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:38.440 to my brothers and sisters, and we're a very very close. 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:38.800 Big family. 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:42.640 My grandparents on my dad's side would put the effort 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.200 in to get the whole family together for vacations, and 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:48.080 so we'd have these and we would also make movies together. 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:51.200 We'd make family movies together. So I would just not. 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:53.400 Movies of the family, but you'd actually have a plot, 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:54.000 have a plot. 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:56.200 Oh, yeah, we always the director, I will. 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:01.839 Yeah, I would always, yeah. 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:01.080 I would always. 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:03.360 Basically they would the poor kids would spend their whole 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:08.120 vacation being like conscripted into service making making these. 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.560 These stupid little It was fun. It was fun. 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:12.640 Who wrote them? 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:13.400 We didn't. 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:15.760 That was what was fun. Is like, so is really 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:20.559 me and Nathan and we didn't Nathan tonight, He's coming tonight. 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:22.080 Yeah, who's now? Dud does the music. 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:24.760 And we would just have an idea, let's do like 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.960 a James Bond parody or something, and we would write 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:30.480 it as we shot, and we would edit in camera 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.840 and so which I did a lot of shorts in 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:36.640 high school that way, and I think that that's a 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:39.000 great way to learn because it also teaches you editing 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.360 at the same time. It's it just teaches you kind 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:42.680 of storytelling with a camera. 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:44.320 And this is what year, What year? 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:45.400 Boy? 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:49.800 So I was in grade school up through kind of 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:51.360 the mid eighties basically. 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.960 So this is pre digital editing. 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.520 It's pre digital, pre digital editing. 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:00.440 We were shooting with I mean my first my early 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:02.800 movies in junior high I did get a super ereat camera, 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:06.240 but I also had it was right around when compact 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:09.360 video like high eight was like the new format, and 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:13.280 so you could have a camquarder that wasn't huge and 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:16.680 have kind of a mini format, and I mean the 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:20.480 quality was nothing compared to what's in our phones right now, 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:21.800 but it was it was pretty good. 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:23.360 And so I made a lot of movies with that. 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:25.680 We have a Ryan Johnson film Fest. 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:28.680 My god, I went subjective that I went subjected. 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:31.400 When you watch them, do you think they're funny? 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:31.760 Yeah? 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:33.640 I think they're funny because they have my family in them. 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:34.960 But I went and subject you to. 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:39.920 The River Cafe. We could put a big screen outside, 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.520 but the food was part of your Was it important 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:46.640 because it seems important to you know, it seems like 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:49.920 it's important to say the way you eat and the way. 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.600 Yeah, I mean it wasn't. That's the thing. 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:54.720 It's not like I grew up in like a family 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:58.600 where it was all about the food. But my dad 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:02.400 and my dad was a tell me about your dad. 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:06.000 So my dad, who Yeah, he passed away just a 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:08.480 few months before I was offered the Star Wars movie. 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:09.480 So he passed away. 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:13.760 He was too young, he was in his early sixties. Yeah, yeah, oh, 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:16.679 thank you. Really, every experience you have, you do kind 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.800 of filter it through. Boy, what would my dad feel like? 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:19.880 Like? 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:22.480 I imagine if my dad had been around when we 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.640 were making the Star Wars movie, he would have camped 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:27.319 out on said I would have never He would have 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:31.320 been just there every single day. And yeah, he got 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:35.559 to see me kind of become sort of someone who 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:37.560 could make movies for a living. And he got to 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:40.920 see us making Looper, which was kind of my first 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:42.680 like bigger movie. 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:44.520 But he loved. 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:47.360 I think he really wanted to make movies. Honestly, he 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:48.679 was such a ham. I think he wanted to be 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.080 an actor. But I can just like I just think about, Yeah, 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:53.480 what it would have been like if he had been 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:57.320 around for Star Wars or for these murder mysteries. And 0:09:57.320 --> 0:09:59.319 I also think about what parts he would have demanded 0:09:59.320 --> 0:09:59.959 that I write for. 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:02.120 Been in. 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:03.760 It would have been bigger and bigger parts. 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.000 Yeah, I'm sure in Star Wars he would want to 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:08.760 be like on the deck of a star destroyer or something. 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:11.640 Or like yeah, but uh, but I love it. I 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:12.000 don't know. 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:17.040 It's uh, it's something that yeah, anyone who's is yeah, 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.280 lost a parent, you know, so it's a long journey. 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:21.160 It's not something you kind of go through and get 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.079 out of. It's something that just, uh, it's part of 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:25.920 the road for the rest of your life, you know. 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:26.760 It is. 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.720 Food wise, he was a He wasn't a gourmet. He 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:34.199 was a Gormand would he cook. He would cook, Yeah, 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:38.680 and he would cook extravagantly. He would He had a 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:40.960 like if he was making ribs and making like a 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.960 barbecue sauce, he would put every spice that he had. 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:48.200 And he made a thing called bunny cake, which he 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.960 would basically make a chocolate cake that had all the 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:55.920 chocolate you can imagine it, plus molten Snickers bars. And 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.800 it was just this molten, just heap of semi li 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:04.480 If I congealed chocolate and the motto was nobody likes it, 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.320 but everybody eats it. But that was just anything he did, 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:10.760 he was going to do the most of it and 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.360 and then include food, and then include eating. And it's 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:15.800 not this not not the best and not a refined 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:19.280 version of it. But he loved food though, like my 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:21.839 dad would just pick up from the local rib joints. 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:23.920 It would come home and just like way too much food. 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:28.040 And yeah, but but he could be a really really 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:31.640 fun guy and he was a big guy in every 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:32.440 in every way. 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:32.880 Yeah. 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:34.600 Did you put him in your childhood movie? 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:38.439 I put him in so the one, the one movie that, uh, 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:40.800 this was my dad on the set of Looper in 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:45.160 his costume. I'll send you the picture. Oh yeah, yeah, 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:46.000 well yeah, and. 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.280 He got to get shot in the face by Bruce 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:51.640 Willis in the movie. So it was the highlight of 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:53.680 his of his life. 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:55.839 He was so happy. He was like he was. 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.000 Survived or did he die from shot? 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:00.520 He died? He gets shot on the face. That yeah 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:03.640 was the first. What was your first? 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:07.000 Just tell us the trajectory from going from the Super 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:10.240 eight movies and the editing to your first movie. Well, 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:11.320 did you go to film school? 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:12.360 I did. I went to USC. 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:16.000 I got rejected like six times from USC and became 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:16.880 an English major. 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:19.920 I mean, you got rejected from even going. 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:21.319 There, from the film from the films. 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:23.480 So but there was no place else I wanted to go, 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:27.480 So I went undeclared and kept applying. And I mean 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:29.920 my grades were terrible in high school because I was 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:31.000 just making movie. 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:33.360 Yeah, yeah, Do you think that a film school might 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:34.480 have recognized that? 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:38.840 Maybe, yeah, I guess. I also I also get it though, 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:41.520 because they, I mean USC, you know, they take a 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:42.800 really limited amount of people. 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:44.280 They have so many applicants. 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:46.600 But I did end up getting in and like did 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:51.000 an undergrad program there and then graduated, and I wrote. 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:53.120 I wrote a script for what ended up being my 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:56.679 first movie, which was this weird kind of sort of 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:01.440 the Maltese Falcon style mystery but in an American high school. 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:02.880 Oh it's called Brick. 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:06.280 And I wrote it right out of college and basically 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:10.760 spent my twenties broke in LA hating Los Angeles and 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.080 failing to get my movie made, and just kind of 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:16.000 working day jobs. 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:17.280 And I got I was lucky at. 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:18.440 Some of the day jobs. 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:20.600 I had some market a restaurant, no I never did. 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:21.640 I want that was a dream. 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:25.360 I kept applying and I never got working at a restaurant. 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:26.960 But I had some really good, great day jobs. 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:30.079 Actually I worked at a preschool for deaf kids called 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.640 the John Tracy Clinic that's in LA and I was 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:35.040 kind of their av guy. And I worked at the 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:40.160 Disney Channel producing promos just kind of yeah, really really 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:42.800 good jobs is really with really lovely people. But the 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:45.800 whole time I was just trying to get my first movie. 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:47.480 Made and how did that happen? 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:51.000 So after years and years of it almost coming together 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.920 and falling apart, and I finally I met my producer, 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:59.160 Rom Bergman, who is still my producer today, and he 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:01.800 didn't find the money, but he said, look, you're the 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:03.679 way that most people go about trying to make their 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:07.400 first movie is they get a budget for their script 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:10.040 and someone tells them your movie is going to cost 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:11.880 three million dollars and they think, oh, I need to 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.559 and so then you end up never getting three million dollars. 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.720 And so Rom said, look, this is a very weird script. 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:21.160 I think it's really good, but it's very strange. The 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:23.920 only way this will work is if you have control 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:26.880 over it. So you need to just figure out how 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.040 much money you can get together, and then that's your budget, 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:31.960 and then you'll make figure out how to make the 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.320 movie for that. So that's what we did, and it 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:38.040 was my family kind of because they're in the home 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.720 building business. They had had just a big deal just 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.320 go through, so they had some cash to invest and 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:48.760 they made a very stupid investment. So well, investing independent 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:51.440 film money. It ended up doing well. Yeah, it ended 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.360 up being a very good investment, But investing in that 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:56.720 indie film, I mean, God bless them. 0:14:57.640 --> 0:14:58.200 Yeah. 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.320 Yeah, So I was just going to ask you a question, 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:03.240 how did it relate to them? Because I love the 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:06.760 multie Feltonist movie. Was it the same sort of? 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:07.960 Yeah, it's a genre. 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:12.080 So it's basically taking a dashal Hammet like mystery, hard 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:14.920 boiled mystery, and just setting it in the modern high school. 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:18.120 But all the kids talk like they're in dashal Hammet, 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:20.840 and so they all talk in this weird are the 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.440 sounds insufferable? I think it actually kind of kind of 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:26.840 works on the screen, but it's but yeah, so it's 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:29.360 basically just a straight up like hard boiled mystery, but 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:30.360 set in the high school. 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:33.040 It's a very weird hybrid, but it kind of works. 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:33.400 I think. 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:34.960 Does you film it in black and white? 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:37.120 No, we filmed it in color, but a lot of 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:39.480 people who like saw it when it came out will 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:41.280 come up to me and say how much they loved 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:44.080 the black and white cinematography. So people remember it in 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:45.640 black and white sometimes when they've seen it. 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:48.680 Yeah, Dashal Hammett. We were talking about him the other night. 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:53.120 Oh yeah, yeah, she went to jail. Not name me names, 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:53.440 didn't he? 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.000 I think he was blacklisted, so on the whole thing. 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:57.760 I know that he was a Pinkerton detective. 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:02.440 I know, the McCarthy era when they yeah, people you know, 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.320 had to testify before the House and American Activities. 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:06.880 Yeah, he refused. 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:07.680 I think he was. 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.320 He was on the refuse he was. I mean, he 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:14.480 was fascinating. His writing, Oh my god. I love his 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:15.920 right and his right. 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.720 I think people kind of confuse him with Wish Chandler 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:20.640 and with sort of I love Chandler too, but Chandler 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.280 has those kind of long metaphors and kind of like 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:26.360 descriptive passages and Hamlets like him away. He's sparse and 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:28.960 just like hard cut, and I love his writing. 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:29.160 Man. 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:31.440 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:32.720 Yeah, But I made that movie, and then because I 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.600 had connected with Rom, we just kind of kept making 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:39.800 movies together. And some of them, some of them didn't 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:41.720 do good, some of them did good, but we were 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.520 able to keep piecing them together and uh, and we 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:46.440 were able to keep creative control. 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:46.760 I was. 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:51.280 I was able to just to always write the next 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:53.760 movie I wanted to make, and then make it pretty 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:55.640 much how I wanted to make it. I've been really, 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:56.920 really lucky in that regard. 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.480 Imagine a state bottled olive oil chosen and bottled for 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:10.400 The River Cafe, arriving at your door every month. Our 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:14.440 subscription is available for six or twelve months, with each 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:18.000 oil chosen personally by our head chefs and varying with 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:21.320 each delivery. It's a perfect way to bring some River 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.639 Cafe flavor into your home or to show someone you 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:28.240 really care for them with the gift. Visit our website 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:32.240 shop the Rivercafe dot co dot uk to place your order. 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:39.879 Now, I've never really been in a situation where I've 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:41.840 been told what to cut and what not to cut 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:44.000 in a movie. But then the reality is you get 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:46.399 to the end of the process, you've lost all perspective 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:49.399 on it, and you're just driving yourself insane, not knowing 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.160 what to what to cut. So you do it, I mean, 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.280 getting some kind of friction. It's never good to have 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:58.760 your hand forced, but getting your go to I have 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.320 a lot of good filmmaker friends who I show it too, 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:04.560