All About Change - Season 4, Episode 3: Holiday Special Featuring Acclaimed Filmmakers Peter and Bobby Farrelly Part 2

Episode Date: December 15, 2020

Listen to the second part of the All Inclusive with Jay Ruderman holiday special featuring Peter and Bobby Farrelly! Tune in to hear more about what authentic representation in the entertainment industry means to them! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Authentic representation in the entertainment industry of people with disabilities is something that the Ruderman Family Foundation has been involved with for some time now. While there have been some improvements lately, such as at the Sundance Film Festival making Crip Camp, a movie about summer camp for people with disabilities in the 1970s, and the disability rights movement, a major piece of their festival this year, and Zach Godeskin presenting an award at the Oscars in February, Hollywood is still lagging behind when it comes to the inclusion of people with disabilities. All Inclusive, a podcast on inclusion, innovation, and social justice with Jay Ruderman.

I'm Jay Ruderman, host of All Inclusive, and we have with us today two people who have always made inclusion for people with disabilities an important aspect in their movies. Acclaimed filmmakers and Morton E. Ruderman Award in Inclusion honorees Peter and Bobby Farrelly. I'm also excited to announce that we're running a giveaway right now to spread some joy during this season. From December 14th to January 15th,

we're giving away one iPad per week for five weeks. That's five iPads. To enter, you simply go to my Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, at Jay Rudiman. Follow me and comment on the weekly contest post

with the hashtag, allinclusiveipadcontest. To enter to win. We'll draw a random winner each Friday. So enter now. You must be 18 or over and in the United States to participate. You know, one thing Michelle Obama said fairly recently is that most of us get to know people who are not like ourselves through TV and film. And so the medium has tremendous power. But you said it's a business. So, you know, you sort of

have like a chicken and the egg. You know, you want to get actors with disabilities who have some notoriety so they can become more regular in film and TV, but they have to get a shot for it to happen in the first place. So, I mean, I give you guys a lot of credit because you've given a lot of people their start and you know that this is an issue that society needs to be more well aware of. Can you talk a little bit about your influence on other people in the industry now that you're speaking out about this and you've spoken out for a while, but how do you influence others who are making movie and TV? Well, I can't say we've had a huge influence. I think that we've done what we've done and we haven't, you know, we've been involved in media

access. Like I've passed, you know, on like tried to get Canadian people involved. I've done that kind of stuff. We've opened ourselves up to it but from this point forward we were going to do more because time has come and we didn't you know we really didn't get as active as we should have we did what we did but we didn't think about the you know when we weren't making movies and that's why we want to that's why we're doing this thing you with you, because we want to—I hate awards. I don't like getting awards. But this one is an important one because we're drawing attention to something that nobody's talking about, which is people with disabilities not being allowed in the door for not just entertainment jobs, but jobs across the world.

As we've stated before, the unemployment rate's at 4%, in our country right now, 70% for people with disabilities. There's 20% of the population is disabled, and in movies and TV, it's represented at 3%. It's just kind of a moment right now where we think that things are about to change, and we want to be part of that change. We want to help out. Yeah. One of the things, I think I might be part of that change. We want to help out. Yeah. You know, one of the things, I think I might be going a little off base here, but one of the things I've learned along the way is that in order to get more people with disabilities into movies,

you have to consider them for all roles. They don't have to just be the one part where they're that super great friend that you have or like an angelic role. You can consider them for any role. You can consider them for the bad guy, the good guy, the duplicitous person. And if you open up your mind and you think that they could play anything, they don't have to just be portrayed one particular way,

that in itself opens up a lot more opportunity. And honestly, the people that we've met from the disabled community, they love that. They love playing. People love to play a role that it's not always the good person. It's fun to be the villain. And so just considering the people in the disabled community for these roles opens up a lot of doors. So you made many movies, many successful movies. Any of them, you know, your favorites,

ones that you look back on, you're like, I really liked making that, or really, you know, it came out really well. This is a cliche, but every director will always say, you know, they're like, your movies are like your kids, so it's hard to say, you know, pick one over another, but I do have to say, making The Ringer was probably the most fun I ever had in my life and we produced The Ringer with Johnny Knoxville you know and it was you know backed by the Special Olympics about a guy who tries to fix the Special Olympics gets in there he makes a bet and he's going to enter a race and he's bet on himself and he uh but what he doesn't realize is they're good athletes, A, and B, though he can fool the Special Olympic officials,

he can't fool the athletes themselves. And they end up calling him on it, and they all bond, and it's just a really uplifting movie. But what was so great about it is we had 150 kids in that movie with disabilities, most of them with Down syndrome. And as anybody who's been of them with Down syndrome. And as anybody who's been around people with Down syndrome knows, they are the most loving people on the planet.

And every morning you'd get there, you had 20 minutes of hugs before you could start shooting. Oh, Eddie, hey, John, hey, Mary. It was the warmest, most beautiful set. And also we shot it in Austin, Texas, and I just remember how much joy I felt seeing packs of kids with disabilities like 10 Down Syndrome kids together going down the street having a ball and people stopping them and asking for autographs and you guys in the movie you know and it was just they it was I know

I knew watching it it was the happiest times of their lives. And so it was for me too. It was my best time ever making a movie. Yeah, that was a really fun movie. And it's kind of indicative of why a lot of movies like that don't get made is that the studio was thinking, no, you can't make a big comedy with all these disabled people. It'll look like you're making fun of them. And we were like, well, we're't make a big comedy with all these disabled people in it. It'll look like

you're making fun of them. And we were like, well, we're absolutely not making fun of them. The guy who's in the wrong here is the Johnny Knoxville character. He thinks one thing about them, but he learns otherwise. He learns that they're a lot more able-bodied than he thinks they are. So it was only when we talked to Eunice Shriver and the Shrivers and the Special Olympic people and all them that they said, no, we'd love it if you'd make this movie, because nobody's making these kind of movies. And so, you know, the studio grudgingly agreed, but it was a little bit risky, but very proud of it. Well, here's the other thing is that the studio said, how can you do that with 150 kids with disabilities? They're not going to be on time. They're not going to know their lines.

You're going to take forever to shoot stuff. They were the best ones on the set. They all were on time. They all knew their lines. It was the other guys who were like, are you kidding me? Are you joking? You guys, like, Johnny, get your shit together. No, it was, they were the most prepared people on the set. And that's the other myth about people with disabilities, that it is somehow going to cost you more money, slow you down, slow down productivity. It's not true at all. And so, you know, this isn't just for people in the entertainment industry. This is for people everywhere. If you have a company, look around, think about it.

If you don't have people with, you know, some disability or another, you're not being truly fair. And so just get them in the door and interview them. And you're going to find out, you're going to end up hiring a lot of people with disabilities. So our foundation did a study not so long ago about, because you talked about money and this being a business, the marketability of the entertainment business and that people want authenticity. They want to see authenticity. They'll pay for authenticity.

And I think there's a lot of stereotypes out there, including in the entertainment industry, about people not being able to act, which, you know, you've proven is not the case. But I think that, you know, we've reached an age where people want to see people like their friends and their neighbors and their family members, you know, on screen. Yeah. I mean, you think of how hugely impactful it'll be to those people and their family, but just the general population. I mean, I've had the privilege to know business leaders and people, major figures in industry who hire people with disabilities, but they all have a personal connection. So I think the challenge in the country and around the world is to move

beyond the people that have that personal connection to people that don't. Just say, listen, you know, hiring a person with a disability is, you know, they're 20% of the population, it's the right thing to do, and they're good workers, and it'll help improve, you know, the morale and the production of your company. You know there's the one like if you if you've ever seen um hamilton and most people have by now uh it's the all-time you know it's just an amazing play and uh but in it you know thomas jefferson is played by a black man and you know i think george washington too and hamilton the whole thing you that you think about that for 10 seconds and then you're beyond it.

And you're watching a thing, and color doesn't matter, race doesn't matter. Nothing matters except they're telling the story about these people. And that's how we would like the world to, you know, the entertainment world to eventually get to that point where you can have people in wheelchairs and blind people and deaf people and whatever the disability is, people with cerebral palsy and in roles that you would never expect them to be in because you're gonna find that you won't notice it very quickly. So I just want to get back to the movie making process. How do you come up with an idea and how does that whole process go from an idea that you have,

you guys might, you know, work together to becoming a script to getting made into a movie? Sometimes we find a script, like in the case of There's Something About Mary. It was a script written by Ed Dechter and John Strauss, a couple of our buddies. They'd written it a few years earlier. We'd read it. We really liked it. We liked the setup, particularly a guy who, you know, he's in his 30s and he doesn't have a girlfriend. He's, excuse me, never really been in love. And then the guy, you know, we find out there was one girl in high school, but she moved away. And his friend convinces him, we'll track her down, see if she's single. And he hires a private eye, tracks her down. The private eye falls in love with her,

comes back, reports that she's got all sorts of issues and she's got a bunch of kids and she's, you know, all sorts of problems and he still wants to find her. And we thought, there's a great movie there. So we took that and then we wrote what we thought was missing, which was the first act. Like, why does he love her so much? So we hadn't seen that.

That movie had started at him looking for her. So we thought we have to write a first act where, you know. Well, I remember, nothing against the script that we were that they had written but they had been developed at a studio and they were getting a lot of notes from a lot of people and he was supposed to be madly in love with this girl but there wasn't anything about her that that seems so so much that you'd fall head over heels for and remember her for the rest of your life and so we we did work on that.

And really one of the big things that worked for us was that she had a brother who was intellectually challenged, and he was based on a real guy that we know growing up. But her relationship with him was really something that was very endearing. You knew that she was a solid person just because of how much she loved and cared for her brother and how much of a big part of her life he was. So that was something that we had changed and it really helped a lot. And we were able to put a couple of the guys we grew up with, Jimmy Gifford and Warren Tajian in the movie. And yeah, that's when we really started realizing that we have to do more and more and more. And incidentally, there were one or two, it was, that's when we really started realizing that, you know, we have to do more and more and more. And, incidentally, you know, there were one or two, you know, that movie got good reviews, but one or two reviews, not many,

but a couple of them said, you know, they felt uncomfortable watching the brother, Mary's brother, and for whatever reason. But we never got one negative letter ever about that relationship. We always got positive letters. Like we got letters from people saying, hey, you know, I saw Mary, the movie Mary, and I have a sister with an intellectual disability, and I realize I haven't done enough with her, and you've inspired me to do more. We've got a lot of those. So it was really interesting to see the real world response to it

as opposed to some critics who thought it was not appropriate. Well, the casting was amazing. I mean, you guys picked great actors. I have to ask you, who wrote the scene where he has the beans above the frank? Well, Pete and I wrote it. I think he came up with franks and beans, if I wrote it correctly. Pete and I wrote it. Yeah. You know.

I think he came up with Franks and Beans if I wrote it correctly. Our writing is like, we don't really remember who did what, but I do remember that one as we thought something's going to happen on this date and what can happen that's embarrassing. And we thought about it long and hard and drew on some real life experiences that we had that, believe it or not, it was based off stuff that had happened at our house. And right now, by the way, we're developing a musical, something about Mary. Yeah, it's like we've already written a few songs. It's a ball, and it's a whole different thing.

It's a lot of laughs. And the firefighter in that scene right there is a Boston comedian. Yeah, that's Lenny Clark. Yeah, this is Lenny Clark, and Steve Sweeney is the police officer. So, yeah, those two guys are Boston legends. Jackie Flynn was in there. Yeah, Jackie was a cop in that. Not in that scene, but in the later scene.

We always have a lot of friends and local boston people in our movies yeah you're listening to all inclusive with jay ruderman you can learn more view the show notes and transcripts at rudermanfoundation.org all inclusive please remember to subscribe rate and review us wherever you are listening. So tell me about Shallow Hal. I mean, that just, I mean, that's my favorite movie that you guys have made. And I think, you know, the story of disability just intertwined throughout that whole. Well, you know, it's funny you should mention that because we just got, like, in the last couple days,

Gwyneth Paltrow came out and said that's a movie that she's regretting having made. Oh, really? Yeah. But. And why did she say that? I think she was not comfortable with the, you know, the, you know, heaviness of the character or whatever. She's just, I'm not sure why, but I. I think she forgot what it was about it was about not judging people by

how they look and rather look look inside and what kind of a person they are and that's where the beauty is and and and in our story Jack Black had you know bumped into Tony Robbins who sort of put a spell on him and so he could only see inner beauty and he fell in love with this with this girl that other you know other his friends might not have thought she was the prettiest girl, but she was such a beautiful person that all he could see was a luminous beauty. And by the way, just to be clear, we're not saying that if you're heavy, you're not beautiful. It's just he was shallow. In fact, we love, you know, all sizes, all types, you know, honestly. It's

just that he was a shallow guy, so he didn't think that was attractive and had to learn what inner beauty was like. But in any case, Gwyneth was a pleasure to work with. We had a ball with her, so it was disappointing for her to see this. But we have no regrets. We love making it. We had Reen Kirby who was in it. He was born with spina bifida, and he's a guy from Vermont who we met up in Burlington one day,

and he did a phenomenal job in it. And it also, you know, it allowed us to, you know, do a lot of the stuff, you know. He was an important part of that movie for me. Absolutely. You know, the people that I heard saying when we made that movie, if I ever heard anyone saying,

and it wasn't everyone, but if I heard someone saying, oh, they're making fun of fat people, I knew instantly that they hadn't seen the movie. They just thought they knew what it was about. Because if you see it, you'd realize that it's the exact opposite of that. And we actually got that a little from The Ringer. The Ringer, we had an actress, I won't name her, but we offered her a role in The Ringer. The Ringer, we had an actress, I won't name her, but we offered her a

role in The Ringer, and she responded no, but said, added, she passed on the project and added that she was offended by the material. And I knew, well, she obviously only read the opening, where a guy's trying to fix the Special Olympics, because if you read it to the end, you would see it's all about inclusivity and love and acceptance. So it's disappointing when people, and maybe we don't make the, maybe the message doesn't come across all the time the way we intend it. Maybe we're a little at fault. They're like, you know, I could, you know, I'm not saying we do everything perfectly, but it is, we are trying to, we're bringing people in, trying to get people more comfortable with people with disability and more accepting of them.

I remember when you had to meet with the board of the Special Olympics. They were questioning, like, how do we know that you guys aren't going to take this movie and make all the Olympic athletes look silly? I know you're not going to do wrong by them. And I think you said, because I don't want to go to hell, right? I believe there's a God, and I don't want to go to hell. They're like, okay. No, but then the guy said, well, I just want you to know, this board, we do have the authority.

We can send you to hell. I know. Eunice Kennedy Shriver was there. And she's one of the most important people in the world as far as helping, changing people's perceptions of people with disabilities. Well, if you've got the Shrivers behind you and Tim Shriver and Eunice, I think you're in good company. Peace Corps, Special Olympics, Best Buddies, all came from that family. Anthony Shriver started Best Buddies.

And if you don't know what Best Buddies is, I'm sure most people is, it's basically big brothers with kids with some sort of intellectual disability, not always intellectual, but some sort of a disability, and it's the greatest thing you could ever do. I did it for 20 years until my buddy moved back to Boston. I still see him when I get back there, but it's just the greatest. It's like you go through life, and you're always wondering if you're doing the right thing. Should I be here? Should I be there? Should I be this? Should I be that? But when you're spending the day with your buddy, you know you're exactly the right place at the right time,

and it's just a freeing peace comes over you. And that's the beauty of that program. What's next? Anything exciting on the horizon for you guys? Well, we're doing a really interesting show on Quibi, which is this new network. It's a subscription network like Netflix, but it's meant to be watched on your phone or on your iPad. It's kind of geared towards millennials

who watch a lot of things on their phones and iPads. So it's a subscription service for that, and it's coming out in April. It's called The Now, and it's about a guy who is suicidal, opens with a guy who's suicidal, and through a series of things can't bring himself to kill himself, so realizes he has to find a better way to live. And so he happens upon Eckhart Tolle's book, The Power of Now, which is, you know, about living in the now. Most people fear the future or regret the past. That's how people live. Rarely are you in the now, the moment. That, by the way, that you want to get in the moment, go to Best Buddies, be with your buddy, you're in the moment. And this is a guy who's trying to learn how to live in the now.

And it's a dark comedy because it's not easy to live in the now. You know, you're on your way to a business meeting and somebody flags your car down. They need help and they need a ride, you know, the other direction. But you have a business meeting. What do you do? You know, if you take the guy and you're living in the now, helping the person who needs help right at that moment, you're messing something up that, you up that could hurt you later on. So it's a really interesting story.

Yeah, and we're pretty excited about it because with Quibi, it's real short episodes. The episodes only run from six to 10 minutes long, 10 minute maximum. So it's a much quicker format. We have a show that's got about 14 or 15 episodes, 10-minute maximum, but really good cast. Dave Franco and this kid Jimmy Tatro and O'Shea Jackson, Bill Murray, Daryl Hannah. So really good cast, and we're excited.

Yeah, and they release one episode a day for about two weeks. You get a 10-minute episode. So, you know, you're in the... Wherever you are, you're on the train, on the subway, the subway whatever you just put it on you get 10 minutes it's over you know listen i i hope it doesn't go to 10 minute episodes everywhere but i think that this will catch on because it's like just watching them ourselves these little 10 minute things it's like really fun and it leaves you wanting more you like, you can't wait till the next one. Yeah, this whole idea was dreamed up by Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was a really smart, successful guy out here in Hollywood.

And so this is where he sees the future going. So we'll see if he's right, but he probably is. For those of you that know me, I'm a huge Red Sox fan, and Fever Pitch was a great movie that those of us in Red Sox nation loved. But one final question. Favorite Red Sox player of all time? Yaz. Okay.

Good choice. I think Tony Canigliaro for me. Yeah. Tony C. We've been trying to do what we can to help Tony C. His number should be retired by the Red Sox. He was at that time the youngest guy to have 100 home runs. You know, he would have been probably a Hall of Famer. And he was struck down during a game, in the game, because of the game, not like

off car accident or something. And so it seems to us that he should have that number retired. You know, they haven't, they don't retire a't retire a lot of numbers there, but Tony C. Yeah, it was something about whenever you're struck down, even before your prime, it was really, it was heartbreaking. So I did love Tony C, but I loved Johnny Damon, too. He tarnished himself a little by jumping over the Yankees. But for those moments when he was with us, and particularly when we were making fever pitch, he was the man.

I was tickled to see Yaz's grandson get called up last year and killing it. He was really hitting the hell out of the ball. And that just made me so happy to see Strzemski up on the board again. In 1967, I was 10 years old, and that was the beginning of my, you know, world, you know, lifelong love affair with baseball. Yeah, well, it's been a pleasure talking to you guys. And thank you for your time. And thank you for your leadership. You've done great work and you know, the comedy and everything you've accomplished. I wish you continued success.

And thank you. I appreciate what you're doing. You're changing the world. You really are. I appreciate it. And thank you. I appreciate what you're doing. You're changing the world. You really are. I appreciate it. Thanks, guys. All Inclusive is a production of the Ruderman Family Foundation. Our key mission is the full inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of society. You can find All Inclusive on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher. To view the show notes, transcripts, or to learn more, go to rudermanfoundation.org slash allinclusive. Have an idea for a podcast? Be sure to tweet at Jay Ruderman. Thank you.