Berner Phone - John DiLeo: Hollywood Film Critic & No Small Parts

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

If you're a movie nerd, you're going to love this episode! My Uncle Johnny is a film critic and author of the new book "There Are No Small Parts: 100 Outstanding Film Performances" available on Amazon. We discuss actors such as Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Laura Dern, Matthew McConaughey, and more! Get his amazing book here: https://www.amazon.com/There-Are-Small-Parts-Performances/dp/1943876908/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3NZ31UT11HIKJ&keywords=john+dileo&qid=1647640200&sprefix=john+dileo%2Caps%2C110&sr=8-1 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I kind of miss the 80s. When they talk about the 80s, I have no idea what they're talking about. Did you go to Studio 54? No. Why not? I forgot to go. I forgot to go. Welcome to Burning Hell.

I know I say every episode of Burning in Hell is really special, but I swear to God, this one is super special because we have writer, movie critic, critic in general, and film historian, and my favorite, oh my God, I shouldn't say favorite uncle, because I have two uncles, but one of my favorite uncles. He'll be like, right. Uncle Johnny is here. The John DeLeo has a new book out. and we are talking all movies, mental health, comedy, welcome. It's so fantastic to be here

since I've known you your entire life and I'm finally on the show. I had to wait 30 years to get on the show but I'm happy to be here. You pulled some strings to get on. I did. It's called nepotism. Yay!

Oh my God. Uncle Johnny, I'm so happy to have you here because basically Uncle Johnny knows everything about every movie and my dad will always joke and be like, okay I'm going to get you this time who's the dog in Wizard of Oz and just like mess with him but you've interviewed some of the greatest actors you've watched pretty much everything that's ever been done but I want to know what are you watching now like what should we get into well do you mean like the new

movies what's out there and you mean like Oscar stuff and all that stuff um I've actually been going to the movies I know a lot of people haven't gone back to the movie theaters but since so many people haven't gone back. If you want a social distance, go to a movie. At least where I am, I don't live in the city anymore. I'm out in Pennsylvania, and there's usually a handful of people there. But I've been going, I guess, in the last six months or so, about every two weeks. And I have to say, I'm kind of rooting, I haven't seen everything. Yeah. So there's about, there's 10 best picture nominees. I've seen half of them. Most of the performances, though, I've seen. I'm really into the new West Side story, I have to say.

My mom called and she was obsessed with it. She was obsessed with Angl Anskort. Uh-huh. What's his name? Ansel Elgort. I think we're going to give it to you. And before we continue, I also just have to tell everyone his newest book is out. Is this her ninth book?

No, it's only seven. Oh, thank you for making it too high. So now it looks like I haven't done that much. Only seven. Only seven, not nine. Lazy. There are no small parts, 100 outstanding film performances with screen time of 10 minutes or less by John DeLeo. Where can people get it?

Oh, at all the usual online sites, you know, whatever, you got your Amazon, your Barnes & Noble. Also, you know, a lot of people love to support if they have an independent bookseller somewhere to support those stores. You can go in and say, this is the book I want. Would you get it for me? but I think in most cases people have gotten the habit of the online places and they're you know it should be available on whichever one's your favorite you cover everything from the bride of Frankenstein in 1935 all the way up to like wolf of wall street and once upon a time in Hollywood in 2019 so if you're a film buff you will freak out over this if you want to just delve and learn more about films it's very very very interesting and do you know what main character energy is main character energy no I've never heard that term. So that's a trend that the Gen Zs and the millennials are talking about now. Well, that's why I haven't heard it. But it's funny because this book reminds me of it where people are talking about having main character energy, which is like, you're the star of your life.

Yeah. But I also feel like all of these actors, even though they had small parts, had main character energy. I think that's actually probably true because one of the reasons they stand out and I could write a whole chapter on a small performance is that these people do make such an impact, whether just as a talent, someone who's clearly so talented and showing how talented he or she is, but also having an impact as a

character on the plot of the movie and where it goes. So someone could come in for five minutes, have this scene that makes the main character change his energy. You know, so it's all kinds of ways, but you're right. Anybody in a play, if you're, you know, if you're backstage waiting for your one scene, when you're

out there, you're the main character in that play. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's like everyone I say is like playing their own single player game, but you're a side character in a lot of people's own stories. Sure. But it's just, it's very powerful that these people have something so special that no matter how much time, I always say it's not what you say, it's how you make people feel. And that's probably how these characters are.

Sure, whether you're laughing or crying, is it right? It's usually what stays with you is. an emotion, you know, rather than, yeah, I think mostly we were touched in terms of memory of performances and actors is something, like you said, how they make you feel. Yes. Yeah. So backtracking a little before, because film critic sounds not snobby, but it sounds like you know, like you know shit.

Like you've, you are like that guy who's seen everything and knows what's good, bad. I guess when I, I mean, I've, I've never. ever been a daily critic, like I've never had a position where I, every Friday, I tell you what's coming out in the theaters and whether you should see it or not. But I mean, in terms of my books, there, it's all, as I said, as a historian, from that sort of point of view, but also as a critic in that, I'm giving you my opinions. So that's criticism, but criticism isn't a dirty word, you know, it's just... I just envision, like, New York Times food critics. Like, you sit down and you're like, disgust. And they're like, oh, no, he's trying the dumplings. No, but, no, but

But it's really just sort of giving your perceptions so that the reader can either say, oh, I agree with that, but maybe I couldn't put it as clearly because I didn't sit down to write a book about it. And you also have so many different data points that you can compare everything to. Right, exactly. And also when you're when you're doing a book, even one like this, where obviously the 100 performances I happen to love or I wouldn't have put them in the book, but it doesn't mean I love all the movies that those performances are in.

So there's a variety, too. It can be a little annoying if you're just going to go. gosh, for 300 and something pages. Yeah. Like, he likes everything. I can't stand this. Well, I did notice you said something. You also critique the actor, too.

Like, you know, this person had not been doing exciting roles until this one. Like, you do give a really fun, unique perspective when I was reading some chapters. I also noticed you have Meryl Monroe on here. And if anyone knows, actually, I should have said it in the beginning, but the way you guys know Johnny is his mom is Vera de Leo, Nana still got it. the Instagram superstar. And she loves Marilyn Monroe more than anything.

What role did you pick for Marilyn? Marilyn's an interesting character because she didn't, you know, she wasn't an overnight star. She had to kick around first in doing little teeny things in B pictures and then getting better parts

in bigger movies, but there's still small parts. They're supporting roles. And so she's in movies a good five years or so before she breaks out in 19, as a full-blown movie star that everybody's talking about and everyone wants to go see. So in All About Eve, which is a movie from 1950, most of the audience wouldn't have known who she was.

So here she is in this pretty great movie that won the best picture Oscar that year. And she's in it for three minutes. And she's got, I guess it breaks down to three small scenes. Now, of course, when we see it now, everyone knows it's Marilyn Monroe, so we make a big thing of it. But she's still very funny. and you could see how she would stand out, even in a cast with Betty Davis as the star. You've got this amazing script,

and she's basically a kind of bombshell who's trying to become a serious actress, although it doesn't look like that's going to happen. And it's funny. So it's sort of a cliche of what she would perfect so well as the sort of cliche dumb blonde character, but it's an early glimpse of that. And she gets to be funny, and you're like,

who is that girl? And of course, we know who she is because... People don't talk about how great her sense of humor is. I feel like enough. Yeah. Well, I think she proved, exactly. And you can see, and certainly in like gentlemen prefer blondes and how to marry a millionaire and some like that hot.

She's hilarious. Hilarious. But in all about even those few minutes, if you saw it in 1950 and didn't know who she was, you'd be like, she's got something and you'd be right. Yeah. Well, it's interesting too because she really in real life wanted to be respected as a more serious actions, right? Wasn't that kind of almost.

Yeah. At the height of her, well, it was only a couple of years as a major star, but she already felt she was being treated a little bit as a joke. And she left Hollywood to come to New York and study at the actor's studio just in classes with unknown people. And then she goes back and makes a movie called Bus Stop and shows what she learned, and she's sensational in it. And so, but she was always fighting it.

And they didn't even nominate it for an Oscar for that, even though she was amazing in it. um so she did fight that to the end of her life about uh trying to be respected have you heard about the pam and tommy documentary that's out i don't only in past i don't really know so it's about pamela and tommy lee jones and set rogans in it and it's on hulu and it's about it's a dope documentary and it's about when they how the sex tape was leaked and how they fell in love and how that affected their lives. But it shows Pamela Anderson. She's at like the height of her fame. She's on Baywatch. Yeah. And how she just wants to be like like, oh, but like she said

that her, she loves Jane Fonda. Like she wants to be like Jane Fonda where she's like, you're an activist. You can be a serious actress. You could, you could start a fitness line. Right. Right. Right. And she's like, but I'm a people please. They're stuck in a box right now. And it shows that she has this big monologue in Baywatch she was going to do and she shows up to set and they're like, we think it would be better if you just like ran into the ocean with your boobs bouncing a lot. And she's like, are you fucking kidding me? So it's, it really, it's funny how it's years later, but women were still finding themselves when they looked a type of way to be typecast.

Well, I think that's why Marilyn speaks to so many women too about almost as often as a cautionary tale about all, even though she made it to the top, but she's still, uh, a victim in so many ways that people see. It's like if only I could have rescued her. If only she'd come at a later time. And, you know, that a lot of what or what Pamela Anderson would be dealing with was the same stuff Maryland dealt with, but it was still going on. And what can you learn from her story?

And, you know, it was Tommy Lee, though, right? Yeah. You said Tommy Lee Jones. Did I say Tommy Lee Jones? You did. That's the other guy. Well, I'm not. I didn't know they were a thing.

Part of dope documentaries is I don't know names or any. facts about anything but we're with a real film historian who is here to tell me the right things to test me I think yeah for sure it just flows off the tongue when you go Tommy Lee Jones wait so what's Tommy Lee's last name oh I think he was just Tommy Lee you know he's Greek originally I barely remember him yeah I know he was motley crew was that not your thing back in the day but I also think people forget too Maryland Monroe has so many beautiful quotes yeah but then you remember like this bitch was struggling yeah and she had was battling a lot of inner demons but it's really cool that you write about this movie in 1950 which is like before yeah

she was so commercialized yeah well it's as I said with the book it's fun some of the people like maryland are very famous stars at the beginning sometimes it's very famous stars doing cameos where everyone in the audience recognizes them because they're very famous sometimes it's character actors you don't know the name but oh your father will like like this one because he loves it's a wonderful life he probably doesn't know the name of the actor h b warner but he's mr gower the druggist and he's only in it for a few minutes so the chapter's about him so so it's fun to highlight people who nobody nobody remembers their names anymore in some cases and then like i said the last one's alpuccino and once upon a time in hollywood so it's also great to see these big

names to know like that they had these small roles yeah and they still were able to light up the whole entire We're like, I mean, you have Alec Baldwin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, you have Jane Lynch. I'm trying to say people that, you know, even the Gen Ziers would know Matthew McConaughey, oh, I love Laura Dern. Yeah, Viola Davis, Al Pacino. Philip Seymour Hoffman. Yeah. And the talented Mr. Ripley. He's another one who has like a devastating story at the end.

Sure. What is this connection between these incredible performers and like mental health? that is a heavy question no that's a that's a that's a whole like a month long conversation I get more but but you know the there is a certain intensity with you know with being creative and especially in acting if you're going to go to dark places I think especially in film because when you're on the stage you're much more aware of the unreality of the situation of backstage and putting on your makeup but film on often real play in real places and real situations, physical surroundings, I think people are more prone to going that extra mile.

And I think if you're a very sensitive soul, there's a lot of wear and tear. And sort of the people who make it into their, you know, get to be elderly and who've had long careers playing all kinds of things have just such a sense of self that's separate from what they do. And like I said, like with Marilyn or some of these people, they had really rough childhoods that they're always sort of searching for something that can't they can never really have you can't fix that you know that kind of thing so i don't i don't really actually knows hoffman's uh background in that regard and i don't know anything about them really personally i'm just saying so many there are so many sensitive souls and and um just the career aspect of things too can be you know never mind the actual creative

process that's actually probably the best part yeah you know well and it's also a certain type of person that chases the limelight yeah like i um i do think even breakfast at tiffany's yeah what's her name audrey hepburn thank you i recently watched a documentary about her and she just talks about how she never thought she was pretty right right and like she always just wanted to try to find like that love for herself through these roles when all of the world was like you are the most incredible looking human and you're so gorgeous in so many ways and she's like i just wish i was like blonde and blue-eyed. Well, she had a tough time of malnutrition during World War II, and so she probably

always felt too skinny, and then she was too tall to continue her ballet career, and then she probably felt awkward. Like I said, the world is seeing someone who's, like, who's completely unique. Yeah, she's not perfect, but she's like no one else on the planet. And all she's seeing was my nose is too big. Because she's trying to fit into other boxes, but she doesn't realize she created a box, But now other girls are trying to fit him towards her. And she's one of the few people that no one's that can be allowed in that box.

There's one person in it and it's hers. So, you know. And I mean, now everyone wants her eyebrows. But I also want to talk about Matthew McConaughey because I read a little bit of the chapter. And you're interesting how you talked about kind of the differences in his careers where he does like real shitty rom-coms. But then also like you like did a little poke on him. Well, I guess because by the time, because he does Wolf of Wall Street and Dowell.

Dallas Byers Club in the same year that was 2013 and he you know he'd come on the scene sort of taken seriously he's going to be the next Paul Newman blah blah blah and then he kind of got sidetracked with a lot of rom-coms that I never I think I saw it was a guy in 10 days I don't think I saw any of them because it wasn't my kind of thing but how sometimes you know people have to really take charge and say I am going to turn this around and he really did and so I was kind of knocked out by how good he could be, even though I could, as remember I said, I don't love all the movies in the book.

I'm not a big Wolf of Wall Street fan. I think it's too exhausting for me. I sort of get the point after 20 minutes, and I don't really need the remaining two and a half hours, but I sort of got it. And but I think- You do cocaine, we get it. But Matthew McConaughey,

who's really only in the first 15 minutes, he's got less than 10 minutes, particularly that scene where he takes Leonardo DiCaprio out to lunch. He is fantastic. And it's sort of like everything I want to know about that world, I get in those, whatever it is, eight minutes with Matthew McConaughey, and I don't actually need the rest of the movie because it doesn't really add anything for me, but that's just me. Did you hear in the scene that it was?

Yeah, supposedly he was doing that pounding thing offset. Then DiCaprio was like, that's so cool. We should use that in the scene. And that's how it got in the movie. Yeah. Yeah. It was almost like they just let it go to see where it was. Yeah, yeah.

And I feel like the audience, you subconsciously feel that when things aren't fully scripted and they just feel the freedom to go. Or when it's something so organic from an actor because, like I said, he was doing it offset or, you know, and when he does it in the movie, it's like that is so much coming from that person. Yes. And he's, but you believe all the crazy things about that character are all coming right out of him. But it's so funny with casting how like obviously you want the best person for each role.

But I feel like sometimes writers must kick themselves and be like, shit, people want more of that guy. Yeah. Like, it would have been great for him to come later in the show. Maybe. I mean, the show, the movie. But so often, you're right, even in the performances in this book, would they be in the book if someone else had played the part? It's not, sometimes a role is surefire. It's like, I got three minutes, they rock, you know.

And it doesn't matter which person you cast, it's so good. You can't mess it up. but you know other times it's so much about what your face looks like and what your expressions are and whatever how you connect with the other person you're talking to and all those variables that make it not a science you know it's what's going to happen what's the chemistry yes and it's very unpredictable delving a little more into you oh my goodness you were an actor i was and you were also kind of were you kind of a character actor well i guess i mean I mean, I'm only 5-5, so I can't be a leading person.

I mean, like a Tom Cruise. Well, okay. I don't do my own stunts here. You're like, I'm not that good at sprinting. Well, you know, it goes back to, I guess, my love of movies as a kid where, you know, my first sort of dream about how that would be a part of my life was to perform, like, the people in the movies. And I went that route.

And it's funny. I gave it up just about the time you were really little. So you just missed seeing me and stuff. Whereas when your dad came into the family, he saw me in a number of plays because, you know. So that was who I was till about age. I think the last play I was in, I was 34. Wow.

Which means you would have been like four. So you didn't come, you didn't see me in anything. I'm allowed to say your age, right? Yeah. They know, right? They know. I bitch about turning 30 all the time.

I thought you did. But I thought, did I just say something? I'm not Nana. Well, no, Nana loves her age now. She's like, I'm a thousand and look how hot I look. So anyway, I was sort of giving up at 34. I think I was getting a little 35 panic, you know, about, I think this isn't going to happen. But then it's weird because you could also then get different kind of rules when you're older, you know.

Something happened to me that I didn't foresee at all. It was like, I thought I would be like, oh, I'm going to act until I'm 80. And I don't care if I ever make a dime because I love the stage and I'll be poor and happy and all that stuff. And suddenly at 35, I remember getting into a panic, like, I don't think I can do this anymore. I'm not seeing it. Like, I can't visualize where this is going in a good way that's different from where it's been going for the 12 or 13 years. I've been doing it out of school. And it kind of was a almost felt like I was getting signs from my subconscious.

not to get to whatever but uh i got i didn't i wasn't i wasn't i was depressed but i was unhappy and i felt like it was a subconscious signal saying we're telling you you're unhappy so you'll do something different and so i listened and and i kind of without even knowing i was doing it i started writing quizzes that were movie oriented matching quizzes i thought i can get a column in a movie magazine when they still kind of had those premier magazine american film And then I've told the story before because it really was a it was a wake-up call or it was kind of a turning point I showed the quizzes to my friend who was older he was in a theater company with me and he looked at them and he said well why don't you just make it a book and I laughed in his face

because I thought I'm just some actor guy trying to do a little something I'm not an author I'm not a writer. Like, that's something grand, something other people. And he was like, basically it was an outside person giving you permission. Yes. To see yourself beyond what you would let yourself because you were a little timid about thinking that way. Not that I became Stephen King. Now I thought big and I'm a superstar, bestseller.

No, but to see yourself in a different light and succeeding in a different realm. And the cool thing about what I did actually take. his advice turned it into a book and I first agent I showed it to took it on and the first publisher she showed it to bought it and so after all those years of you know mostly rejection and feeling like oh paying your dues paying your dues it was like I was feeling lucky and was like you know what I'm 35 now 36 37 I think I'm ready for yes rather than no and like ride the wave or go with the don't go upstream you know all that stuff that follow the universe whatever you want to call it it just felt like ever since like these 23 years or whatever it is um uh it's all felt like it was all

leading to this so i don't regret the years i went to acting school or hustled around new york city trying to get a job um it was all part of what it took to get to where i got yeah and you put your heart and soul into it but you said something really powerful when you said I couldn't see it anymore and so much of I think success is you like having that like manifestation of like really believing it like you see your you see the book like you see the books coming out you see people reading it and it's it's funny how your your brain almost tells you like we don't even want to do this anymore right we can't it's like tennis where he's tennis as an example stuff I stopped like seeing the serve going in yeah like it just wasn't part of me

anymore yeah well even like when you said see the book i i can make it even more specific than that like when i every single of these seven books every time i right before i start them before i start them i i visualize the entire book i know what the title page is going to look like i know how many pages each chapter will be and then i just do it but like i don't just go blind they're like well let's see where it goes because i don't do i don't work like that but you also were very very good school my mom always talks about how smart you were and like in terms of reading and and you could you could process information really easily i think what what i am in terms of just generally i'm and sometimes it's it's like a blessing and a curse but it's like i'm very result oriented

like i don't just like which is very difficult for an actor a up-and-coming actor well i mean it's sort of like i so i won't just start a book like i'm not really sure but i'm just going to delve in and see what happens now i got to know you know this is the this is the goal and we're getting there and and that's good because it's productive and you end with a finish an actual finished product of a result which is beautiful thank you um i also i feel like you have because you've had the like in front of the camera experience it helps you with the behind the camera experience what advice do you have for people who like well i notice with you just because you're really good at stuff doesn't always mean it's what you're meant to do and there's other things you're good at

that you might be suppressing just because you were so laser focused on something well that that's exactly my story in the sense that um the movie part of me like you said i would know all the trivia, have all the Oscar nominations memorized, see all the old movies while I was being an actor while I was studying acting. But that was like to me a hobby that I took for granted. Like, oh, it's just like a party trick. And then at 35, when I was thinking, what am I going to do? I can't do this anymore. It's like my first thought, I think I even, I don't think I said it out loud, but I said it inside out loud. Like, what else have I got is what I said to myself? And I was like, well, you know, there's that movie thing that's in me that's like, can,

Can I do something with that? Yeah. And I didn't have any particular writing experience up to that point since college. And I thought, I don't know that I'm a writer per se, but I feel like I have a lot of things I want to say. So I came at it from that angle of learning how to become a better writer with each book because I had so much I want to say, not because I had talent as a writer and was looking for my subject. Yeah. And I feel like it's a thing that you think is just a hobby because you actually just really enjoy it. that's actually, that you've never done

because you don't think you can really make money, maybe. That is actually the thing that you will make the most money with or you'll go the farthest with, the thing that you just like enjoy to do on a day off. Because it's easy to, like I said, take for granted those things that come easily to you. And sometimes I know a lot of people are acting, you feel like you're climbing Mount Everest.

Like I'm going to pay my dues and get a little closer every day. But of course, careers in the arts don't go in one direction. There's zigzag. Oh, for sure. sure there's no ladder you're not just climbing it it doesn't work that way so for we have a lot of creative listeners on burning in hell and a lot of people probably have value that they could write a book i mean i just had gabby bernstein on who's like this kind of like self-help incredible voice who's written a bunch of books and i feel like there's so many niches where you can write what is your process

from start to finish of writing a book and how do you like come up with the idea that and how do you battle the like writers block and stuff like that? The ideas, sometimes it takes a long time. Sometimes it takes a couple of years and you get frustrated, but you have to tell yourself, don't force it.

It'll come and eventually some idea does come because if you're going to write a book, you have to live with that a long time. Yes. It's like a podcast. You can't enjoy talking about it for, you know, three weeks. So you have to live, with this idea and then after it's done the whole process of getting it out there so you have to be

sure and so i think i think i also feel like each each book is different and so i feel like each book teaches you how to write it while you're writing it in the sense i i already told you i map it out so i have it all set and what it's going to look like in terms of the way i'll arrange the chapters how long they'll be so you've chosen the hundred characters no i mean i usually have a list that i make and then I work off of my list and then that one's not going to make it in, I cross that one out, oh, that's good,

or something occurs to me. So it's a living thing, but it's the basic look and idea of how, so I know the shape of it. But let's see, in the process, I think, you know, when you get more confident as you're doing it.

And so often my books are like this where you can read them out of order. You can just jump around and read about an actor you want to read and you don't have to start on page, one. I never write the first one in the first chapter of any of my books first. Because I know I'll be, I will write a better first chapter halfway in the process. So I usually do one in the middle and then, but I always write the last chapter last because then I am actually tying it up or

whatever I'm doing. So, um, but then I, like I said, you, the, the routine of it, it teaches you how long each thing will take. And then by the time you're in the middle, of it you're i wouldn't say you're on a conveyor belt and that it's just uh wrote it's not but but you tend to know when an essay is finished based on well i usually read them this many times and you know that kind of thing and you just feel more secure in the process i don't actually ever have writers block because i choose what i write about so if it were more of an i've never had an assignment i'm not writing a story either where i've gotten into some situation i can't write myself out of so so that luckily for my subject it's either something i want to talk about or it's or it's not in the book

so your job is pretty awesome because you can just watch movies all day and then be like i'm researching i'm working i know every once in a while someone will i'll say oh yeah i was uh from having dinner was like yeah i was watching a movie this afternoon like oh i would never watch a movie during daytime i would feel so guilty you know it's like i'd do it all the time. That's my job. So fuck you. And it's not always

something for the job, but I always do my note cards on everything I watch. So it is in my reference, my own reference system. Ooh, that's beautiful. No, it's like when my dad's like, get off TikTok.

And I'm like, I'm working. I'm working to make money for my cat. I'm a better life for my cat. Okay, we're going to play a game. And I could have prepared you for this, but I didn't because you're very smart and you'll be able to handle it, but it's going to be difficult.

So at the end of, of every show. I listen to your show, Hannah. You think I've never listened to your show? Oh, but I'm twisting it for you. And I just decided. Oh. It's called the Seven Deadly Sins. That I knew. Yes. Seven Deadly Sins. But I want to do it. Oh, my God. With characters from this book. Oh, my God. Or movies in general. But you can also use movies or characters. from anything or there are no small parts the book that you guys need to get on amazon there are no small parts 100 outstanding film performances by john delio are you ready okay well i might

have to cheat and look at the index yes you can all right okay so tell me a movie or a character that where greed was a powerful well we already the obvious one we already got well for Wall Street Matthew McConaughey okay I get 10 points right away no you're killing it but that's that's that all that is what he is he is like a living embodiment of the concept of greed you were in New York City in the 80s was that what it was like you know it's so funny because I was here totally missed all that I was going to auditions at 7 o'clock of the morning to get on the list you didn't go on any dates with finance pros to do to do summer stock in New England and children's theater tours.

I kind of miss the 80s. When they talk about the 80s, I have no idea what they're talking about. Did you go to Studio 54? No. Why not? I forgot to go. I forgot to go.

Were you a partier back then? Was I what? Did you party back then? Oh my God, you're adorable. That's where I get it from. I was with Earl from when I was 21. And I was in the...

city and it was long distance for a long time but i still i was such a i know it's johnny and i do have something in common we both love a zaddy we love what do you know what a zaddy is oh oh is that oh is that des and yeah what is the zaddy part so is that oh my god no i don't know if i could even define it but it's basically like an older man yeah like he's not your dad but he's like older hot has the shit together like makes money um but anyway Johnny was in a long relationship with Earl, who was years your senior. Yeah, 20 years. Since passed away, we love him, dedicated to him.

And I never thought anything of it. I thought you guys were just adorable. And now I'm in a relationship with an older man 15. You know what's the good thing about that? I thought you might ask actually about that because Earl was a theater person as well. But so we were sort of in the same field with the same. same time you're both doing stand-up but there is an advantage when you're when you're both doing the same thing but you're not really in the same generation it's an advantage i think for the younger

person it is because you're not in the same place so there's so much you can learn from him and there's so much he it's just he can be a guide to you but you're not if you were both 30 doing the same thing it would be a completely different thing we are so on the same page because that's how explain it to people they're like oh you're both in comedy like does it get competitive and I'm like we are at different points in our career and I'm not even necessarily saying like oh like he's so successful and I'm not it's more like we are literally in right completely different situations even our comedic voice is so different like oh does he help you write jokes and it's like not at all it's my voice but he'll give me guidance as to like how to put together a set or if he thinks I should do

a certain show but I also help him with like the TikTok and the tech stuff that he wants learn from my generation and then he is he's also just given me confidence because he's done a lot of the stuff that I'm trying to do the only annoying thing is that he's made mistakes so he wants me to not make those same mistakes yeah so he'll be like I I told you you shouldn't do that that's what I did and I'll be like but I need to make the mistakes on my own even though you've lived it already sure but um that makes sense I do think if we were both the same age there could be like buttheading it would be different head budding you know what I meant I did yeah but it's you and Earl, like, were in different situations in your acting careers.

Yes. But you understood what, yeah, like, when I called Des and I'm like, hey, I'm on a podcast, I'm running late. He's like, so am I. And it's just nice. Yeah. Sure. Sure.

Uh-oh. Back to the. Do I wish sometimes that he was more, that he, after I did a show at night, he was like an accountant that was like, oh, that was so impressive. But he gets it. Okay. This is hard, but you're going to be fine. Okay.

Okay. next one what is a good character or movie about envy um i guess a pretty good one for envy there's a wonderful um murder mystery from the 40s called laura uh starring beautiful jean tyranny and the great judith anderson plays her aunt and um judith anderson is in love with vincent price who is engaged to Laura and she she wants to she's not going to kill her but she she wants him so much and she knows he really is right for her and she actually gets him at the at the end but it's that envy of if I were younger if I were more beautiful like my niece this wouldn't be so hard because the only way I'm really getting him is because I have the money to buy him kind of he's kind of a

jiggle-o type and so she doesn't do anything terrible but you can see that if only he should be mine I shouldn't have to work this hard I love it and I love also with these movies how the seven deadly sins plays into it because some of these characters could be super likable but everyone has these moments of sin okay how about a movie with gluttony overindulgence I mean I've honestly Wolf of Wall Street is all these things. Yeah, I guess it fits, it probably fits every category, right? I think a good one that everyone will remember that just occurred to me for overindulgence is John Marley and the Godfather.

He's the guy gets the horse's head in his bed. And he is so, you know, he's the big studio head. And he thinks there's no, some mafia guy from New York, that's nothing. I am on top of the world. I'm a movie mogul. I have this expensive horse I have this mansion I have the fountains

and nobody tells me what to do I just take take take take take of course until that moment and he's never seen again after that moment where we've seen him screaming in his bloody bed but that that

and that whole thing about that young actress that's his thing and so he's used to devouring anything he wants until he comes up against the mob almost like Harvey Weinstein Anyway, okay, what is a movie that has a great scene about anger or wrath besides Wolf of Wall Street?

Oh, there's a, this woman, she won the Oscar for this performance that's under 10 minutes long. Ooh, we love an angry lady. An angry lady who is from Network from 1976. Did you ever see that one? No. It has the famous line, I'm Mattis Helen. I'm not going to take this anymore. So she's the wife of a TV executive. This is Beatrice Strait. The husband's played by William Holden.

And he's having an affair with Faye Dunaway and he's going to leave her. And he's sort of explaining it to her at the breakfast table. And at first she's being very calm and taking it all very, you know, I can handle it. And then she just blows up and lets him have it. And she's still, it comes to a conclusion where she calms down and it's just it's a beautiful explosion of emotion

like I've been the perfect wife perfect mother for all these years and now that you're middle age suddenly I'm not good enough anymore and there's something some shiny new object called Fay Dunaway and it's she's got fiery red hair when she cuts loose

it's just she won the Oscar for this like I said it's like an almost a musical aria of anger. Wow. I love that so much. I love that she's taking it in and playing her role of the perfect wife of being understanding and she's like, wait a second, fuck that script. I can't do it anymore because it's not even working. And I don't deserve this.

Give me a movie or character who was a sloth or laziness. This is kind of niche. Well, I guess this wouldn't be like laziness, but I don't know if you know the great actress movie star from Germany Marlene and Dietrich and she does a role that's in the book from an Orson Well's thriller called Touch of Evil and she plays this sort of Mexican Bordello owner and it's not that she's lazy but it's that she's so world weary she can barely work up the energy to speak to you she's so self-possessed so cool you know smoking a little cigar and looking him up and down.

And so I wouldn't say lazy, but so, um, like a loof kind of. Yeah, a lute. And they have a history, but she doesn't really let on about how much she remembers or not. And he's gained a lot of weight. And she says, you might want to stay off some of those candy bars. You know, she's kind of, she's kind of dry.

And I just love that, you know, someone is so in her skin. Yep. Nothing could rattle. Marlena Dietrich in that movie. And he comes back and she's doing the cards and she's like, tell my fortune and it's like, it's all used up, honey. You know, so that kind of, like I said,

and it's not laziness, but that wonderful, like, oh, if I could say things that witty and look so cool, like, nothing. It seems like she's not anxious about anything. She can just be laid back. Yeah, everything is effortless. She doesn't have a care in the world even though there's doesn't seem to be anybody in the Bordella at the moment.

Like, no one's ever walked into that store except for him. No one has any idea how she right um oh this is a good one give me a movie with pride or ego uh very interesting scene this is a an actor that's not very well known named larry gates from a movie that won the best picture Oscar in 1967 called in the heat of the night and the star is sidney potier who recently passed away and larry gates plays a very wealthy powerful uh white southern racist and Sidney Poit is the black homicide detective who's come to interrogate him about this murder and talk about ego he can't believe it takes him a while to even understand that you're

you are actually you're questioning me he doesn't even understand what the visit could possibly be and then once it becomes clear that he's actually questioning him about it does he know anything or is he implicated um Larry Gates the white man slaps Sidney Poitier, who without a beat, like less than a second, Sidney Poitier slaps him right back. And the look on Larry Gates's face is, they say in 1967 when the scene happened,

you could hear the gasps in the theater all across America because they've never seen anything quite like that. Wow. And what's so cool about the scene and the way the actor plays it is that instead of him ranting and raving and getting on the phone and how do you...

Can I speak to your manager? he kind of shrinks like he he's in such shock that the unbelievable has just happened and then when the people in the room are all gone he starts to cry and he feels sorry for himself and that's so brilliant that his reaction to the changing world and what just happened is feeling sorry for him that his world is ending so talk about pride and ego and he's never seen again in the movie it's just the one scene but it's it sticks it's how some white men are feeling right now um when oh okay oh my give me a good movie about lust oh lust um there's i just looked down and the first one i saw was um there's a really funny but it's also in another movie

that won the best picture oscar the apartment from 1960 it's jack lemon and shirley mclean and it's a comedy drama but um there's a scene where jack lemon is really feeling awful that he's never going to get Shirley McLean and he goes and gets drunk and there's this woman who picks him up in the bar and she just wants to have sex played by a delightful actress called Hope Holiday.

Her husband is, can't get out of Cuba. He's a jockey that's in trouble and they can't get him out of Cuba. So it's Christmas Eve and she's really horny and she's trying to pick him up and he's willing to go. Now, of course, what they don't know is that Shirley McLean has just tried

to kill herself in his apartment and he goes up there and finds her passed out because she took pills, she survives, don't worry. But the woman doesn't know that that's happening. She doesn't even know that there's the other woman in the bedroom. So she doesn't just, she wants like ready for the, this party started. And she's really funny. But what's really funny about the scene is that because she doesn't know the actual plot of the movie, she's still in a comedy and she's still very funny while Jack Lemmon knows that the woman he loves has tried to kill herself. So for the director, writer, Billy Wilder, to have those two things happening

At the same time, you think, that's really hard to do. We're laughing and terrified for the life of this woman that we like. Sounds like an episode of Burning in Hell. So anyway, the woman leaves thinking she suddenly became unattractive and doesn't know why. But so she's... Why did Shirley McLean try to kill herself? Because she's in love with a married man who is never going to leave his wife. And he made her think that he was going to.

but she ends up with Jack Lemmon so don't worry about it oh we love oh my god that was I put you on the spot and you crushed it oh my god you did amazing I definitely could have sent that to you beforehand but that would be no fun so Johnny everyone needs to get this book it is I'm going to repeat it there are no small parts 100 outstanding film performances with screen time of 10 minutes or less it's so fascinating and introduces you to so many great films that you had no idea existed and um to wrap this up one final question just for all the little devils and i ask every single guest what advice do you have and what you do to cope with your hell when you're going through it when it's dark um i i definitely have um oCD tendencies i don't think that would be

surprised to you. I know you love pacing. And I don't mean to minimize anything that anybody's going through, but I try like when I'm feeling OCD or doing something that's irritating myself that I wish I could get past, I try to remind myself that those OCD qualities that annoy me or feel like they're in my way sometimes are the same things that make me able to write a book and do what I do. So sometimes those things we don't like about ourselves have a flip side that's the positive aspect of our personality so like I said if I didn't have OCD tendencies I couldn't have written these seven books that's there's no way because that same thing that can get annoying is also the thing that propels me well it's also very compassionate of you instead of being like oh I hate this about myself

to be like you know what this is a part of you that has so many like positives and negatives and it makes you the unique human that you are. Well, I think at some point I recognize that it was the same, it was the same traits. It's just they do have, like I said, some good things and some not so good. There's light and darkness to everything. There you go.

Johnny, where can people buy the book remind us, which is everywhere? And then where can people follow you? Do you know your Instagram and Twitter? I do. I'm at John DeLeo on Twitter, which is J-O-H-N-D-I-L-E-O on Instagram. I believe I'm J-O-H-N dot D-I-L-E-O-1-2 and guys this is coming from a guy who do you have an iPhone yet I have an android okay well we'll talk about that later but he had a flip phone until very recently so I'm very proud of him follow him and check out um what are some other books that you've written that you would recommend for my my listeners well the one before this was called 10 movies at a time which is sort of it's 350 movies

reviews but it starts in 1930 and goes to 1970 so it's sort of me telling the history of Hollywood through 350 movie reviews in order amazing but this one and some of the other ones go right up to the present day because you know the older I get and the younger the audience gets I don't want to get locked in the past so this book starts in 1935 but as we said it goes to 2019 so you get you know if my heart belongs to say the older stuff at least I'm able to carry it through to the present. And also, I feel like with the newer stuff,

you can explain sometimes, like the trends or like the inspirations behind it. Well, sometimes if people, often, if you say you, you see something you think, wow, they've never done that before. And I probably could tell you that they have in some other way that actually they did do that before. Exactly. And then you understand everything so much deeper. But Uncle Johnny, you are the fucking best. Guys, go on Amazon, get there in no small parts and text me.

I mean, text me, DM me, tell me all your favorite roles, any movies that he's inspired you to watch, message him, he'll love it, and thank you so much for coming to hell. I love you very much. I love you too. Okay. Bye.