Drama Queens - BONUS: Austin Nichols

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Old pals Austin and Sophia keep the conversation going for an exclusive bonus chat. Learn what they were doing between takes while shooting "One Tree Hill" and the three-word rule the cast and crew lived by. Plus, Austin reveals some creative workarounds he implemented to successfully direct his first feature film and the surprises behind the songs on soundtrack."The Long Shot" is available to stream on Amazon, Apple and Fandango now.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hi, everyone. It's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Friends, we're back with our favorite Austin Nichols talking about his wonderful movie The Long Shot. If you've been living under a rock this week, crawl out, catch up. The movies available on Amazon, Apple, and Fandango now.

Austin, I'm really curious. And you know, you talked about this a little bit, but you've spent so long on set. You know, it's decades of work, training, and doing all sorts of crazy shit as an actor. But this is the first feature that you've directed. Obviously, you know, you've directed on television before. But I'm curious the difference, because I know the chasm between directing an episode of TV and directing a whole feature is a wide one. Yeah. So on the other side of it, when you reflect, what's something you thought you knew about directing films that either turned out to be completely wrong or something that surprised you?

That's a great question. I was led to believe that, you know, making TV and film was really different. And when your boots on the ground on the day shooting, it doesn't feel that different. to me. No. There might be, if you're making a feature film that's a drama that's, you know, really heavy or really big subject matter, there's probably, it's probably going to be slower.

You're probably going to look for more moments of silence. You know, and TV's pretty quick. It most shows, you know, there's a few shows out there that are more cinematic, but most shows are pretty quick. The dialogue's pretty snappy and, and you have to shoot quickly. but other than the day after tomorrow and maybe, you know, Wimbledon and Glory Road, I haven't worked on too many movies that move slow. I mean, every job, every job I've really ever been on, you know, everyone's fighting the clock and let's go, go, go, go, go, go. It's always,

I don't care if you have a $2 million, $200 million Avengers movie. I mean, time is money. Yeah. And, you know, things need to move. So that was one thing. that I always, you know, I found to be curious about, people would always talk about the difference between TV and film. And, well, I'm like, when we're shooting it, it's not that different. Mm-hmm. That's, yeah, it's really interesting. You're right, because at the end of the day, no matter what, every day you've got a shot list, you have a call sheet, those are the scenes you're going to shoot. I guess one of the things I'm curious about having directed some television, but not a feature, is, do you find it?

harder to track the arc because essentially the roller coaster tracks twice as long. You know, it's 42 minutes or it's like an hour 20 or because you spend so much more time prepping a feature, does tracking the arc of it actually feel easier? Yeah, I would say the latter because I just had more time for the feature. That script was in my head for longer. It was just in me. And I had way, way longer to prep. And I mean soft prep. Like hard prep is when the whole crew's in and everybody's working. But soft prep, just me alone, you know, at my computer at my desk, at a piece of paper

with a pencil sketching storyboards or writing down ideas, you know, writing down my shot list. But, you know, I just had more time. So when I got to set for the movie, I just felt so prepared. I just, it was just there. It was there. I didn't really have to look at my notes as much. much. In TV, God, I need my notes. Like, I need my, I need like you had the best binder. I need my binder. Yeah. My notes and I need to look at it a lot because it just hasn't been in my head

for very long. Yeah. Well, because especially in TV, you know, something our friends at home might not know, you typically get your script the week before you're shooting it. It's crazy. So you get a week to prep a whole episode. Thank God we started directing on a show. show we knew so well. It was that made it so much easier. Like we knew that show inside and out. The crew knew it in, knew it inside and out. Yeah. That definitely it makes a difference. But you're right. Like to give a director a script a week or two weeks in advance seems like lunacy. It just seems crazy. Yeah. It kind of is. And they, we do it all the time. But it works. That's the interesting thing. And I think I think, you know, you touched on something.

that our last chat about how when you really understand how a whole film set, a whole television set functions, it makes you a better leader, right? Like you know what every department does. You really understand how the whole puzzle comes together. I'm really curious, you know, how all of that experience, as you said, you're glad you didn't direct a feature until this point in your career. How do you think that impacted the kind of set that? that you had on this adventure for yourself, but also for the whole cast and crew that you put together? Oh, it's immeasurable.

I mean, the one thing that I don't really understand how I do it, but I know how to keep a set moving. I know how to keep everyone energized and headed towards a common goal. And I don't, that's probably just because I've watched a lot of great directors do it. And I just let it, you know, sink in by osmosis. a lot of it is most of it is communication a lot of it is just

excitement and energy a lot of it is compliments a lot of it is really actually caring that all these people are busting their buff for you yeah and if they're feeling that and they're feeling appreciated and they feel like they're also in on the creative

and they're not just like being told what to do that they will do anything for you totally so I want to set where everybody feels like they're making they're creating something and their input is valuable. Yes. Because one thing we learned from Greg Prange on One Tree Hill was best idea wins. Best idea wins.

And like no ego. Like that guy over there who's like running cable has the best idea. We're doing that idea. Yep. It doesn't matter where it comes from. And yeah, the other thing that I actually wanted to mention, it might be an answer to your earlier question was I was I was always taught that. a director needs to really have this vision and execute it. But I find, especially on the long shot, that we showed up and we started rehearsing and

shooting. And it's a living, breathing organism that actually changed. Yes. And it wasn't exactly what we thought it was going to be. And we decided to lean into that. Instead of go, oh, no, no, no, we thought we were going to shoot everything handheld. we actually were on more dollies and on sticks and we were more stationary than we thought we were going to be.

And Peter, the DP, looks at me and he goes, this feels right. And I was like, yeah. And we kind of switched gears on day one. And we were like, okay, it's not all handheld. But like I said, it is, it's a living, breathing organism and you have to listen to it. Because it's going to change. It's going to change. It's not going to be, it's not going to be this thing that you like muscle into existence.

you have to kind of like finesse it. Yeah. I totally agree with that, you know. And I think that takes a wisdom as a creative person to do the work. And then when you get to work, kind of let it go and see what happens. That's where that I think is where the magic is. If you hold it too tight, you kind of crush it. And I really learned that lesson years ago.

I worked with a phenomenal actor on, you know, similarly. like an indie movie that took forever to put together. And, you know, I think we had 21 days. And I'll be very careful to, you know, protect everybody because people are allowed to have their moments. But the director, like, kind of had a meltdown on the third day. Sure. And it was alarming to me. And this, that my co-star was so incredible.

And he pulled the guy aside. And I think part of the reason he'd been alarmed is because the director blew up, like, specifically at a couple of women. in and it was like none of us knew each other well enough to know what was going on. Oh, yeah. And my co-star pulled him aside and was like, man, you have to remember like, this is your ship, but you filled it with a crew. You chose all these people because they're brilliant. Let them be brilliant.

And when you give them room to do what they're good at, all they're going to do is make you look more brilliant. Absolutely. And it was this incredibly generous moment where I saw, you know, a guy. I be the kind of guy that you have always been on set, that Peter Kowalski is on set, that, you know, so many wonderful men I've worked with over the years know how to be, which is like a good champion.

And I watched it kind of dawn on this guy because it was his first feature. And I was like, whoa! You know, it was such a cool thing to observe. And so I love hearing you say that because I actually think that takes like a kind of self-referral confidence and a willingness to not let your love of something turn into ego. Absolutely.

You know, does that make sense what I'm saying? Yes. Yes. And like as men, as young boys, we are taught to like have the answer and to be the shoulders that carry and like and not buckle. And you know, and it's look, I understand why we teach boys that. But also let's teach them the other side too. Let's teach them that like we need.

people. We need help. We need community. We like, let's bring in everybody and we can't do this alone. Not one person can make a movie. It's impossible. Yes. I mean, could you imagine? No. And now a word from our sponsors

who make this show possible. I'm Cynthia Lois. And I'm Josie Dye. And we're done pretending we have it all figured out. Each week we laugh, cry and talk our way through life's messiest moments. The things you think about but would never say out loud. The questions you are all always too shy to ask. Relationships, regrets, awkward moments, and the stuff no one warns you about.

It's honest, it's funny, and sometimes it gets a little uncomfortable. But that's kind of the point. This is Cynthia and Josie's Unmentionables. Listen on the free IHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. I think reminding people over and over again, whether it's filmmaking or living on earth or as we talked about in the other one, like taking care of your community, your neighborhood, your green spaces. Like everything really is a community project. Yes.

And filmmaking certainly is. And I think indie filmmaking is the biggest kind of community project because nobody has enough time, nobody has enough money. Everybody's showing up because they love it, not because it's easy. Yeah. You know, how did your community,

your relationships make this film possible. Obviously, you've worked with Peter now for 20 years, but how else did your world help you get this thing over the finish line? I could not have made this the way we did without directing Walker. I came, the Walker was the TV show with Jared Pettilecki that was the reboot of Walker, Texas Ranger. And I moved back to Austin, and they asked me to play the villain of season one. And I'm playing the villain and I go to the bosses and I kind of go like, hey, can I shadow one of the directors?

And that led to me directing the show. And I did two episodes and we, you know, it turned out great. And when that show ended and my movie was starting to ramp up, I started called Peter. He started calling camera people from Walker. I got Vince Palmo, who's the first AD. for Richard Linkletter. Wow. He came to do my movie.

I mean, I don't know how many people we had from that TV show, but they'd been working together for four years. So I had this team that was so dialed and so comfortable with each other that the second we started on day one, there were no weird get the rust out moments. Right. We were just, we were going. You started day one where most movies get to at the top of week two,

if they're lucky. Absolutely. And that was, oh my God, just luck, having done the TV show, having, and lucky enough to have these people come work for no money. And, you know, because they love the script or, you know, whatever. And, you know, we've all made indies, you know, in 15 days or 20 days of whatever that were kind of didn't turn out great. Oh, yeah.

Because it's hard. It's hard to make a movie that fast with no money and with favors. It's really hard. We were so blessed in that realm to have, you know, just a really, really talented crew. That's so cool. Yeah. I can't even imagine what it would have been like without them. Yeah.

Well, and I would also imagine the fact that so many people were either local or had worked locally. And people, you can't hang out in Austin, Texas and not love it. I mean, the way I cackled when I saw that you guys put chicken chip bingo, in the movie, because I remember making my first movie there, even before you and I knew each other and going with the crew to that bar and being like, this is a real thing. I love it here. You went to Jenny's Little Longhorn? Yeah. Oh, my God. That's so cool. Was that for the, that was for the hitcher? Yeah. Oh, amazing. I mean, you think about like how weird Austin still was in 2005, man. It was. It was way weirder. Oh, it was so dream.

me. I loved it so much. It was so weird. It's less weird now, but it's still weird. The weird is holding on, don't you think? We're hanging on to it. It's trying. It's still there. I think because I've been lucky enough to like, you know, have so much interaction there, whether I've been shooting there or, you know, my God Brothers restaurants there. Like, I know a little bit about the local Austin music scene, you got some major artists in this movie to the point that as I was watching it and listening to their music, I was like remembering from our One Tree Hill days, the music licensing. And I'm going, how did you guys afford all of this music? Or was that also a labor of love for the Austin music scene to show up to help out? It's one of the hardest things, I think, to figure out

when you have very little money and you're a little movie, you know, because big songs have a big price tag and there's no getting around it. Luckily, I know Gary Clark Jr. from when we were super young in Austin and to have him give us a song was magic. And there's a, you know, there's a couple hacks and people know this. It's not like I'm saying anything new, but I wanted a song that had some universal recognition to open the movie. And I started looking on Spotify and I found Take On Me by AHA, but it was a mariachi version. And I just fell in love with it.

And I go, oh, my God, is there a way? Is this going to fit? Like, is this going to go with the cut? And I started playing it against the cut. And I was like, oh, my God, I think this is going to work. And then I remember my editor goes, you're never going to get that. take on me, that's like so expensive. You're never going to get it.

I'm like, yeah, but when you do a cover, it's almost half price. Yeah. Because you pay aha, the publishing, but then you pay Mariachi Entertainment System, much less because they're not a big, famous, huge band. Yeah. And stuff like that. Like, how do you hack this thing? How do you put the pieces together and find ways to find great songs?

I mean, we were so lucky to get a T-Rex song, simply because I don't know why. Maybe they gave us a deal because we're an indie. But like I never thought we could get a T-Rex song. Wow. We got a Charlie Crockett song, which is amazing. So cool. The coolest story of all is Gary P. Nunn.

So Gary P. Nunn is an old Texas country guy. He wrote a very famous song called London Homestick Blues, and I had to have it. So my music supervisor reached out to Gary, and we wanted like three of his songs. Yeah. And he gave us three songs for such bargain basement price. I am forever grateful to this man. He came to one of our film festivals. The cool thing about Gary is that London Homestick Blues was the opening theme song

to the Austin City Limits TV show for 20 seasons. Oh my God, of course. So every time Austin City Limits came on TV, they played his song to open the show. Yes. And it is just, it's one of those songs that not everybody knows it, but when you hear it in the movie, I still get like the tingles. That's so cool. We just had, we had, I guess, you know, we had people who really kind of got the movie. Yeah.

Maybe we're down to like, you know, give us a good deal. But it's so hard. I mean, it's one of those things you really have to dig in. Yes. You could easily just go, oh, yeah, go get some music to your music supervisor. and they do and they stay in budget. But if you really dig in, you know, you can,

it can take your movie from here to here. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. I will never forget doing my first director's cut on One Tree Hill and you do it before the music goes in. Yeah. And I was like, this is horrible. Yeah.

Yeah. What's happening? Oh, my God. And music is, it's the subconscious emotional language of your whole project. And because as viewers were so accustomed to watching film and television with a soundtrack, when you don't have it, it feels like half of the soul is gone. And so I just, I love that you had such a great experience getting the music for this.

It's really cool. Thank you. It's also scary because you hear directors and composers sometimes talk about, well, when we were reading the script or when we were writing the script, we had this idea of these instruments. And I kind of want to call bullshit because, look, you can have as many ideas of what instruments or what it sounds like before. And it's probably really good to like have those conversations with your composer and that's where you start. But man, it is such a scary blind process. And I'm telling you, you don't always know what the music's going to be. And the best accidents happen.

And then somebody plays you something or the composer sends you. something and you go, oh my God, I never would have been able to tell you that's what I wanted, but that's what I wanted. That's it. Yeah. And it's the composer, too. Like, they live in such a separate part of movie world, but one of the most important jobs on a movie.

Yeah. And that I had more meetings with composers than anyone because that really scared me. And I didn't know, I didn't really know what the music was yet. Everybody was kind of going, look, it's acoustic Texas guitar. And I'm like, that's. so obvious. You're like, what does that even mean? Like, I want to have, when Samantha wakes up in the airstream, I want to have an accordion

and I want to feel like she's in Paris. Like, you know, I want it to be weird and have different instruments and that's why Sam Lipman, my composer was, he got it right away and he just nailed it. Oh, it's so cool. That, I think of anything

on a film, the music is, it has to be like falling in love. Like you can't explain it and then you just go, that's it. It clicks. You just hear it and you go, oh my God. Yeah. It's really special.

That's it. One more thing about Sam. I had said like, can we put some accordion somewhere or maybe on that scene? Yeah. And he goes, he's a professor at UT. And he goes, yeah, sure. There's an accordion over at the music room. I'll go like rent it or borrow it.

And I go, you can play the accordion? And he goes, kind of. What a legend. He was literally in his office at UT playing all the instruments, by himself recording them in his office for this movie. And he gave me such a diversity of sounds and instruments that I mean, he's a genius. I don't understand how a human being can do that and be so musically brilliant. It's really incredible.

We'll be back in just a minute. But here's a word from our sponsors. I'm Cynthia Lois. And I'm Josie Dye. And we're done pretending we have it all figured out. Each week we laugh, cry, and talk our way through life's messiest moments. The things you think about but would never say out loud. The questions you are always too shy to ask.

Relationships, regrets, awkward moments, and the stuff no one warns you about. It's honest, it's funny, and sometimes it gets a little uncomfortable. But that's kind of the point. This is Cynthia and Josie's Unmentionables. Listen on the free IHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. We touched on this a little bit in our last conversation, you know, talking about how this was inspired by the real life. clamoring to keep muny. And, you know, not to be like a bummer,

but when you think about those things, when you think about how, as cities grow, some of our green spaces are under threat, you know, not to mention, like, all the craziness with the fact that we're just boiling the planet. And it's like floods and storms and droughts and wildfires, oh my, like everything feels, I think, more precious than ever. you know, these spaces that are the backdrop to our joy and our experiences.

Yeah. What's the status of Muni now? Like, is it safe? Are we good? Do the, do the people listening to this need to sign a petition or like share a go fund me? What's the deal here? I think it's safe for now. Okay. And, you know, they had some big wins and they have a lot of support from Austinites and people are behind it. So I don't think it's going to go away anytime soon, but there's always this weird, feels like it's a threat and it could happen. And, you know, I know, I don't know if there's any silver bullet

to, you know, fix it forever. But I do, this is one thing I always go back to. There was a costume rental shop on South Congress called Lucy in disguise. Yeah. From the Beatles song, Lucy in disguise with diamonds. And Lucy in disguise was in Austin for, I don't even know, 30 plus years. And they had to close their doors because they couldn't afford the rent because, you know, South Congress is really valuable.

Real estate. Yeah. And I always say, if you helped build this community for 30, 40 years. You should be grandfathered in, man. There's got to be a way that you can survive. And, you know, it wasn't that they weren't doing business. it was that their rent had quadrupled in the last 10 years. So that's one thing I always talk about with people.

I'm like, you know, why don't we take care of the institutions that helped build the community? Yeah. I think about that a lot. You know, I mean, you know this about me. And I would imagine the folks at home probably do. Like, you know how much I love architecture and design. And when I look at city planning and I've kind of nerded out on, you know, how cities can plan really well for the people and the planet,

like what Copenhagen does with its water. There's podcasts on it, should you be interested? I love to follow those trails, right? And one of the things I've realized is you've got city planners, you've got, you know, civil and technical engineers. Where's the engineer a vibe for a city? Because that's a role I think is missing. It's like a cultural engineer.

So, for example, we think about South Congress and the way that it's developed. Like some of the new developments on that street that are wildly different, you know, since we were all huddling around there in our 20s. I think if they're going to build the great big new hotel with the great big restaurants and, you know, the big box athletic stores, I think those places should have to contribute to pay into a permanent location for a Lucian disguise. or what like because what people don't realize is sometimes the evolution of a neighborhood like oh the people here are going to make all this money on their property whatever great but then you're going to lose the magic and like what do you want everything to be the pottery barn for no shade to the pottery barn you're lovely but you know what I'm saying no you you lose anything that's unique and that made it a special place in the first place yeah like we got to maintain our

places and that's one of the things I think I find so touching about your movie is that it's a love letter to a city and it's weirdness and why parts of it are important even if they're not profitable because they're important to people and I would love for us to all kind of carry that torch after the credits roll if the film does you know become a it already is a love letter to Austin, but if it kind of becomes a time capsule to what Austin is right now, what do you hope people feel when they're watching it 20 years from now talking about Austin 20 years ago like we are? Oh my God. It would be such a dream. Honestly, I would hope that people would kind of let that sink in, what you and I just spoke about. You know, if a friend of mine just sent me a picture yesterday of walk and roll,

which was a very famous Asian little eatery in Austin. And it was legendary, you know, because it's a music town. The name Walk and Roll is clever. You know, everybody loved it. The food was great. And it couldn't make it, you know. And it really shows like we get a little bit out of whack with our priorities with money and land and how valuable it is in developing the land.

and then making sure that, you know, there's an Hermes store that can pay the rent. And it's like, nobody, nobody's going to Hermes. I'm sorry. Like, Hermes make, like you said, an amazing company that makes amazing things. But no one in Austin on South Congress is going in there. And that's a misstep. I'm sorry, but like all these things that we love that we grew up with that helped build an interesting community. we could do better to take care of those places,

take care of those people. You know, otherwise what we do is we simply just whitewash our history. And what do we have? We just worship money. I mean, there's more to life. There's just more. Well, obviously, I mean, I think the most shining example of that is like, look at Elon.

He's on the verge of becoming the world's first trillionaire and he's fucking miserable and insatiable for more. And it's like, bro, like at this point, you don't even live on earth. Like, I'd rather go to Barton Springs and, like, have a $2 hot dog and spend the afternoon with my friends. I'm telling you, I rode my bike there yesterday. I laid in the sun. I jumped in the water.

And the rest of my day just felt like bliss. Yeah. You know, those moments, yeah, those moments are more valuable. You know, it's just, you know, quality of life and friends and that's it. Well, you made a really, really funny movie that makes that truth so obvious. And I'm, as your friend, I'm just, I'm so amped and I'm so proud of you. It's so cool. Oh, thank you.

I mean, it's huge. Thank you for having me on to talk about it. It's so, so huge. You know, it's, you know how hard it is to have a little movie to try to get the world to find out about it. Totally. You know, you hear these numbers like, you know, this giant $100 million movie also spent $100 million to market the movie around the world. And you go, what? Like, that's crazy.

Well, and by the way, how crazy. Because you'll go, they did what? I never even heard of that. And it's like if they spent $100 million to market this thing that none of us even saw on our FYP, like, are we all screwed? Totally. So this is kind of it. It's like, I mean, we're so lucky to have, you know, 20 years in the trunk already. Of course, like, I'll always show up for you.

I know you'll always show up for me. Like our friend crew is so solid on that note, Justin Chatwin in those fucking sunglasses. I can't. He crushes so hard and we will have a side conversation about the people that you referenced for him because I think I have some hints. but like he's so great but it's like all when all your people are just like right there with you it's meaningful and i and i do think it's you know in the spirit of austin and like weirdness and punk rock like that's how we damn the man you know we show up and and we and we put our butts and seats for our people and so you know that's my little call for all of our friends listening to this like

if you, whether you were a fan of any show or movie either of us has ever done, or you're like, you know, a brilliant as endgame stand. Like, open up Amazon, Apple, or Fandango right now, watch the long shot. And let's really put our little family behind independent art. Because that's how we keep it weird. That's how we keep it weird. Oh, my God. Thank you. You're the greatest. Thank you so much.

I'm so happy for you, pal. I love you. Congratulations. Thank you. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.