Happy Sad Confused - Kurt Russell

Episode Date: December 21, 2015

In honor of The Hateful Eight, the great Kurt Russell joins Josh this week to chat about the latest Quentin Tarantino film (which comes out this Christmas) as well his John Carpenter collaborations from Escape from New York to Big Trouble in Little China. Get ready to listen to Kurt embodying Jack Burton as if no time has passed quoting lines from the film in character. Happy Holidays! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get after him or have you shot What do you mean blow up the building From this moment on None of you are safe New episodes every Wednesday Wherever you get your podcasts Hey guys. Welcome to another edition of Happy Second Fused. I'm Josh Horowitz. This is my podcast. And this week is the first of a double lambie. Two weeks of Quentin Tarantino bliss. We're covering the hateful eight in a big way here. This is Quentin Tarantino's eighth film. And this week, it's not Quentin, but it's pretty damn good. This was a highlight. This is, Kurt Russell is the guest on this week's podcast, and yes, I can announce that next week's show will be Quentin Tarantino since we taped it.

Unless my computer explodes, it will run on next week's show. I got yelled at last time for announcing the next one. That voice you hear is Sammy, who was the voice of Doom when we talked about Marion Cotillard being on the show. But no, I'm confident this time because he was here. He sat in that very seat that you're sitting in, Sammy. Quentin was amazing. That's going to be a really fun one that goes up next. week covering, I mean, it's impossible to screw up a conversation with Quentin Tarantino.

So we'll talk about that for next week's show, but suffice to say, it delivers everything you would want out of, you know, arguably the biggest film expert alive. As Kurt Russell says, I talked to Kurt about Quentin's film acumen. I was saying how, you know, like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, who has the upper hand. And he, without, he was like, yeah, Marty, good luck, because Quentin knows literally everything. Wow. Big words. There goes Kurt Russell's chances of ever being in a Martin Scuquezzi movie.

I will say, and I think I said this to you or someone else the other day, that when Kurt Russell came in, this is kind of like last year I had, you know, Michael Keaton was on the awards train. And when I had him in my office for the show, it was arguably like the biggest moment for me of last year because he just embodies, both of these guys embody everything I loved about the movies growing up in the 80s. These were two, like, icons for me. Michael, he didn't obviously more of kind of like that kind of Tom Hanks kind of model. And Kurt is more of like that, you know, he, it was him and Harrison Ford. They were kind of like the two dudes. So I, this conversation just blew my mind. I'm so excited to share it with everybody.

He, uh, we talk about everything you would want. A lot about the John Carbord. No, okay. Maybe not everything you would want. No. Turn it up. And Sammy's off. Shit.

Well, the good news is, no, overboard. We'll say that for part two. No, but we've got to get him back. Get him on the phone. Now I have a reason. No, the stuff I wanted to talk to him about was the John Carpenter collaborations, namely Escape from New York, the Thing, and Big Trouble in Little China, which is one of my favorite movies. And the conversation, he loves it as much as I love it, as much as you love it if you're a lover of that film.

And stay tuned. because you'll listen to Kurt Russell himself, embodying Jack Burton as if no time's past, quoting lines from the film in character. It made my small brain melt. Is that why you were sobbing the rest of the day? I was just soiled my pants. Everything got ugly.

Everyone was like, what happened? He looks like a mess. He smells worse than normal. But it was fun. We actually taped Quentin and Kurt back to back. It was quite an afternoon the other day. There was a traffic jam. outside your office there was so I taped Quentin first and I my office is like you know it's

glass so I can see outside and I saw like the last 10 minutes of my interview with with Quentin I just saw Kurt like shooting the shit in the hallway he seemed fine but I was like it was a little unnerving watching Kurt wait for us to finish I've never seen people walk past your office more than they did people actually seem interested in in my office for once at first it was like who's hot dad is that and then I was like oh wait a second the ultimate hot dad it's literally the ultimate hot day. Everybody loves Kurt Russell. And yeah, you're going to love him after listening to this conversation. Also, worth noting, as if you didn't know, Star Wars guys, that we have, sadly have no podcast guest. We were trying to get JJ. I was hopeful that that was going to work out.

It didn't work out scheduling-wise. But do you really need another interview about Star Wars at this point? It's everywhere. But the good news is, it's a good movie. I've seen it twice as we take this. Two out of four. Josh has two more viewings to go. At least two more viewings. I've tickets purchased for two more viewings this weekend as we tape this. Sam's going to see it soon. I am. It's on you the agenda, right? It's on the agenda. She caught up with the original trilogy very recently.

And, yeah, I don't know. I'm not going to give like a full review or anything, but I mean, I'm sure everybody listening to this has seen it once or twice by now. But, yeah, it's a lot to take. It's a good, it's a good movie. I love JJ and I love a lot in the movie. I have quibbles with it, but I would have quibbles with any Star Wars movie. You have quibbles with everything in your life.

Look at me. I got quibbles. You are a quibble. I'm not a giant quibble. But it's just exciting Star Wars is back. And we're going to. Friend of the show is BBA8. Yes, Ben Schwartz, your former podcast guest, good friend of the show.

Friend of the show. Congratulations to Ben. If you're listening or if you're not listening, we still congratulate you. He and Bill Hader teamed up to you. No, I only congratulate him if he's listening. If he's not listening, I take it back. Fuck you. No.

But yeah, they contributed to BV8. There's a lot of cameos. Have you heard about some of the cameos in the film? Yeah, unfortunately. Well, a lot of them you can't even recognize. Like, for instance, I mean, this is not spoiling, I think. Simon Pegg's in the movie, and I've seen it twice, and only after reviewing it the second time did someone tell me who he plays.

What about the Daniel Craig thing? Daniel Craig's in the movie. It's not ruining anything because you're not going to, there's no way to notice him, but you can't hear his voice in it. So listen out for that. Again, I would never have noticed it unless I read about it. That James Bond crossover is going to be crazy. Exactly, exactly.

But it's just funny because he was. quoted like a month or two ago when a reporter asked him about the rumor that he was in it there was a rumor going around that Daniel Craig was in it a reporter asked him and he basically gave like a quintessential like it was a very Daniel Craig response it was basically like why the fuck would I want to be in a Star Wars movie like classic and it sounded like oh okay that's Daniel Craig I guess he's not in the movie but he had one on over on us this time always always we'll get you next time you're going down DC but speaking of manly men enough about Daniel Craig. On to the main

event. Enjoy this conversation with Kurt Russell. I should mention the hateful eight comes out Christmas Day in 44 cities, in glorious 70 millimeter. I've seen it twice in this format. Yes, it's over three hours long, but it's a Quentin Tarantino event, and

I really like this movie a lot and Kurt's great in it. Jennifer Jason Lee's amazing in it, Sam Jackson, blah, blah, blah. Channing. That's a little surprise in the credits you'll see Channing Thames in the movie. Yeah, You'll see he's in the movie. So I don't know what kind of family you have,

but if you're the kind of family that wants three hours of a Quentin Tarantino bloody movie, then Hateful Eighth is your bag. Enjoy that and enjoy this conversation. And happy holidays, gang. Stay safe out there. Be good, kids. Be good to yourselves.

Be good. And enjoy Kurt Russell. It's me, Kurt Russell. No, that's still Sammy, unfortunately, for you guys. No, wasn't it? I love that this is, I'm just saying that, I love that this, the selling of these movies takes place in these rooms. I know, how quaint.

You don't know, these little, tiny little kind of weirdo. I know. It's kind of crazy. It's a real pleasure to see you again. Thank you for coming by today. Yeah. Hey. Easy enough.

No, no makeup required. We're sitting in a, no, no. It's a matter of fact, we're going to do a few, a few of these today, which is kind of like, actually nice because you just get a chance to sit down for a few minutes. Yeah, I suppose the fun four-minute junket slot is not necessarily conducive. You know, that's just, it's just a day in hell. That's all there is to it. For everybody, by the way.

There's nothing anybody can do about it. It's really important that it happened. It's strange. I mean, I've talked to so many people about, like, it can't be the right way to sell a movie in this day and age. I guess smarter people than us know better. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know, but I can tell you that back in like, what was it, somewhere around 69 or so, 68 or 69, it was at Disney's.

And we used to get in a plane and go places. And I used to say to the guy there, there's got to be a better way than this. Like, why can't they come, why can't we just like sit in a hotel room and they come to us? Oh, no. So it's your fault. It was your idea. And we started doing that at Disney. I don't know when, I don't know what everybody else was doing, but that's when we started doing it.

It was like, look out, you just might get me out. So now do you miss the plane? You're like, actually, I'll travel. It's okay. We got to do that. We got to do that years later on Toonstone. I was like, I didn't really want to go to Europe and do the thing in Europe. And, and Evanya said, I'll let you fly my G3.

I mean, pilot it. Because I knew the pilots and I knew them and they knew me. And he said, yeah, Kirk can fly. He called him and said, yeah, he can fly this plane. So they gave you the keys to the airplane. It was great. It was like, yeah. Okay.

And so I went to Europe. Amazing. You got to fly the G3. Oh, it was great. It was like, I didn't care. I think I've told you all right. but I'm, needless to say, a huge fan of this one. Every Quentin film, an event.

This guy doesn't get anything wrong. Does he, it kind of feels inevitable. This is obviously the second collaboration between you guys, that you guys would, I mean, you're someone that was pretty much born into this business. And he's somebody that, I don't know, God or some higher power put down to make movies. Yeah. I mean, look, we all have different paths that get you there. And it doesn't really matter.

but what does matter is of what you do when you get there, you know. And I think that I really feel this way about Quentin that certain people find their way to each other. It given long enough. And I did feel, I feel that way about my relationship with Quentin. It's just given enough time, it was going to happen. He's, you know, well known to be short of Martin Scorsese, maybe even surpassed in terms of knowledge of film.

Like he knows. Like he knows. Well, I don't think he may be about it. I'm sorry to say. Yeah. I'd like to see them go toe to toe. would be fascinating. You put my money in.

Okay, okay. I'm trying to win the obscure categories. You know, there's a, there's a, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, I think there may be pleasure on one end and on the other end, there's like, like, like, like, there's, it's like an important, an important, a part of existence. Yes. Exactly. Yeah, you know, does he know, does he know, does he know your early body of work?

Can he knows everything? He knows, no, no, no. He knows talk shows that I've done that I didn't know. Really? And he knew talks shows of other actors had done that he didn't. I mean, I mean, I mean, he knows. Look, you can put different words on it. I think the one that applies probably is savant.

Yeah. He just is, that's his, that's where he goes. You know, it's just fantastic. That's okay. That's all good and well and good that he knows the things he knows. But I love the way he weaves intricate webs with that knowledge. Yeah. You know, of your past and other actors' past.

with the characters they're playing. He takes all this stuff and just interweeds it for his own pleasure, I think. And that's what makes his stuff, I think, so unique and so different and ultimately so fun to watch. Well, especially in 2015, where we're at, in terms of looking at the film landscape and people that get the tools to play with,

like a decent budget, short of a franchise, a comic book franchise, whatever, he is his own franchise. He is a brand and he can do what he wants and God bless him because we need someone to do that. Here's the thing. He can't just do what he wants. Nobody can. What you're going to do is get the opportunity to do that what you want to do. And he does get that. He does get that opportunity. And that's probably what's so he's earned it and he's given it. The Weinsteins are the ones he seems to always work it out with. But there's not. no question that he's a brand and he and he has created that do you ever have caused to do you ever have major disagreements about lines of dialogue or anything or is it just not major disagreements but um yeah I mean there was one time on death proof where where I said whoa

whoa whoa whoa whoa I it's not that I don't get that it's that I'm going to tell you why I think that is undoable and he listened to me and we didn't do it and so he's not He's not somebody you can't, no, no, he's not, he, he, 99 times out of 100, or maybe 990 times out of a thousand. He's going to be right. I don't know how to kill this. It's all kinds of. I don't know how to kill these things.

You know, I'm going to turn it on. Give me a second here. No worries. So I can turn it off. You just push that thing like long enough. Yeah. And it goes off. This is an iPhone tutorial brought to you by Kurt Russell.

Yeah, I don't know how to do it. So, you know, but that's, that was that, that only thing. And he, I think he, he, he listened and he said, okay, it's not that important. And maybe, maybe you, you know, your point of view. I listened to what you said. It made sense. Right. Boom.

Now, on this one, we had one particular scene around the table that it was, we talked to, I mean, I brought a few things up way, way, way ahead of time because I felt there were points of view here that should be discussed before we just did it. and actually Quentin then it would also talk with Sam Sam and I talked a little bit I talked and as we got closer and closer to it I I had whole things written out where I was you know there was these were in my mind and I wanted and I I'm very careful about how I do that I don't just willy-nilly run into the room and say teacher teacher teacher you know I don't want to do that I don't want to I think this is whatever I don't do that I got I'm pretty

I'm pretty educated myself when it comes to this stuff right so it's like like well let's talk this out and uh and i understood exactly what he was um saying and it's the important thing is is is that it's his to say and i think as actors you always have to realize at the end of the day there's one captain the ship right and you're you're going to go where that captain wants to go i don't care if he wants to take you into a hurricane and you're all going down that's the way it goes you this is what you signed on for this is what you're going to do yeah now when you get into the hurricane because he got you there, it's now your job to do everything possible to help him get you out. But again, you're going to do it his way. Now, if you can avoid the hurricane

because you really don't think he's seeing the hurricane or you think there's a bigger, better hurricane to go into that maybe he has, because apparently you're dead set on going into hurricanes today. I happen to know a good one over here. Oh, really? You know, so I think that it's always your job to present the case. But in this one was really interesting because it was, it was, it was political, it was about something. And he was great. He was really great, very, you know, very thoughtful. And I think that what we did, it's very interesting because the ending of the movie was not what the ending of the movie was until we did this. And then the ending of the movie became. what it became. So I feel wonderfully a part of the process that goes on with Quentin in terms of

what he does. And he has heard stories about me and John Carpenter that I think he actually kind of appreciates. And John and I were very, very close together. And John had the same, I had, you know, he had the same respect from me as I have for Quentin. I respect John Carpenter 1,000 percent. I think he's just a love the way he makes movies, love making movies with him. And all I want to do is try to give you my very best, my very best thoughts. And there's never any question. The great thing about Kirk, from their point of view it, there's never any question. He's not trying to grab the reins.

That's not what he's doing. Right. He's trying to get the most out of this horse that's underneath me. He's trying to get the most out of this horse. thing that can help them, then I'm doing my job. When did that shift from kind of actor for hire to, hey, I have something to collaborate, I have something to contribute beyond? It started on, it started when I was doing Disney movies because there was a man who was

writing the scripts who had a pacemaker, and he'd start slowing down as we were doing them. And the other guy named Mike McGreevee, and I found ourselves in the position of finishing it out. Wow. So we started finishing it out. 20, well, about, started when I was about 21 or two. Amazing. And the director of those welcomed it. Just a really great guy, Bob Butler, just went recently to a tribute to him at UCLA.

And in a weird way, a director that Quentin really enjoys. And so that was when it started. And then for me, it furthered when I. I was doing a western called The Quest, and I worked very closely with the producer on that, who was William Blin, who was a terrific writer, and I started working with the story editor. So it started at Disney, continued with that, and by the time I was about 30 years old, I was pretty confident when I walked into the room, I'd listen to things and say, okay, there's that. let me just show you something that I had in mind and wanted you to look at

and tell me why that's not something we should discuss or why that's not something we should at least consider and then I'd get then from out of that you'd sort of get the I'd get the read on the director this is either a confident guy who's willing to listen or he's he's unconfident and doesn't doesn't want that ever to be seen and then you're you you you suss the situation that you're in and I've always found that if you do it in an unthreatening manner and they know that you're just trying to

make the picture better than they're for it, at least at that stage of the game. And that was why at that time, it was shortly thereafter that, people started talking about credits and stuff. And I said, don't I'm never going to do that. That's not what I'm doing. I'm not looking for credit. I'm looking for a better movie. Well, that's interesting because, I mean, if you, I know we're jumping

around a little bit because I definitely obviously want to talk about the Carpenter collaboration. But Tombstone, which is a film that I love. And, I mean, the lore around some stuff I've read. There's stuff, I know, there's, here's what happened. We were in a very difficult situation. I had gone out and, you know, I only talked so much about that. I had gotten the money for the movie because I went to Andy Vaughnia and he said, yes.

And so therefore I'm responsible for that $25 million. It's, it's on me for the first time I did that. Yeah. And it was, I had no, you know, it was no hide. anymore. I was always very good at saying, well, it's not my job. I've done what I can do. But that was, so it was, it meant that, and it was going to be distributed through Buena Vista. So these were people that I knew. I had a lot of them at stake. And they stuck their head out. And I stuck my neck out for this director who failed miserably. That's all that happened.

He was a fantastic writer. He deserved the chance. When he got the chance, he just, it was not something that was part of his bag of tricks. It just wasn't. It had to be finished. All I'll say about it is it had to be finished. And it got finished. And it got made.

And like all other movies, it's an effort that everybody's going to be involved in. My involvement was extreme. And we got it done. I mean, I had tremendous actors that were there. And we brought

in a director who I had spoken to other people that I knew about him and felt that under the circumstances, he would perform very well. And under the circumstances, I think that we were able to get the most out of shooting tombstone. And then eventually, with the help of Frank Erestes and a couple of other people, we got close to the best out of the editing process. Unfortunately, I had to go do I had to go do another movie Stargate right away

and I think if I could have been closer to the editing process it would have been smoother going from an earlier time than it was

but you know the thing is this if Sands and Peter Panz you get what you get and and Threathmendez is that Tombstone has tremendous impact it has about 85% of the of the

I think total like the positive reviews or yeah you know and I'm really happy with that but it's taken a lot of years to be satisfied with that because that could have been absolutely hands down spectacularly perfect yeah it had that opportunity and uh it's interesting to hear your perspective of it obviously being so close to it and in such a fraught situation because

yeah I mean there's a lot of love for that I love that there's a lot and it's you know you're talking about people that went to work for half price all those actors just chipped in you know for half price they were all so good they're all so terrific and we did work out uh you know how to get that part of it done um val kilmer was oh my god just just yeah and i and i promised him that his uh i did i promised him and i saw him recently it was great and i love him and i promised him that yeah his the the value of the of the acting that he we knew would bring to this um project would not be lost yeah it would not be sacrificed but you know we had 22 pages to lose that I had to do. And Kevin just refused to cut it. Well, okay, fine. We got

to a point where it had to be cut. But trust had to be maintained. Relationships had to be closely maintained and believed in. Anyway, point being, all things considered doesn't matter. Nobody cares when they're sitting down that movie theater. Who did what? They don't care. They only care about what they're watching, right? I mean, I don't. you? No. I don't care who did. I don't care if the makeup man came up with every great idea in the movie. Fabulous. I just want to get lost in that story. I just want to, yeah, I just show me. You know, curtain opens up. What do you got? What do you got for me? Any, uh, as we sit here, um, uh, one of the big other holiday films is, of course, Star Wars. Any mixed

emotions as you look at that? I've watched your audition tape for Han Solo, uh, way back when. It, no, mixed emotions in what way? Well, just get, you know, seeing obviously what Harrison got to do with that. Oh, no, no, no. Like when that film, when that film came out, were you, like, oh, my God, that's what I was up for? No, I, no, I was, look, this is at a time in my life where I was a young actor, it's 1976, I've already been working since 1961. Yeah. So, these are back in the days where, you know, I was happy to be, I was just starting to get

things that they, especially in television, that they would call for me. Right. And in movies, I was still auditioning and doing, you know, but they'd call for a few, right? It was starting to get kind of there. I don't know. I was 23, 24, something like that. I just finished playing ball. And I just remember going in on this interview.

And I read for Luke Skywalker and I read for Hans Solo. And I don't know what I was saying. I didn't know what a Death Star was from a Millennium, Falcon, whatever. I was just up for it. But anyway, I did. I remember this young director is a really great guy. Had some nice conversations with him. And he was, I could tell he was, you know, he was pretty on top of it.

But there was a point at which, you know, this Western show, The Quest, was going on. I needed to know whether I was maybe going to get this other job. And so I just said, can you tell me if you're going to? And he said, well, I'm looking at these different combinations. I've got, you know, the possibility of you and another guy or another guy and this guy, you know, many different combinations I'm looking at. And I said, okay, I got to give these people an answer. I said, I think I'm just going to go ahead and do it. And I said, unless you tell me, oh, yeah, I'm sure that I'm going to go with you.

he couldn't. And so I don't know if he ever would have hired me for that. I don't know. I can tell you one thing. I didn't turn down Star Wars. Just for the record. You understand. Kurt Russell didn't turn things down at that time. Okay. I didn't, you know, pretty much just did what I just did what came my way. And talking about like the shift into like a film career. I mean, in looking at kind of like the resume at that time, you, oh, and by the way, and looking at it in my life, you got to understand. I wasn't much about sequels. Right. And that happened later on. Now, the other guy, Indiana Jones, that's different. I didn't even want to talk about.

It was like they were very interested in talking to me about. Oh, really? And I said, that's like, they want to, but first of all, you got to understand, there'd be three of them. And I said, not interested. Wow. I just didn't want to do that. That was, you know, I didn't, from the get, I didn't want to do that.

I only did that one time. I did it one time with John and escaped from L.A. You know, there was lots of reasons for that. But, yeah, I didn't want to do that at the time. It was just not what I wanted to do. And I'm, in that regard, completely satisfied with what I got to do over the last, whatever, 35 years. You know, it's like, I would never, I don't think how to got to do that. I just don't think I would have because they want to know what they can sell you in.

They want to pigeonhole you. That's just the name of the game. It's what they want to do. So when you're going to tell them flat out loud, I don't want to do, I know you're not going to do that. Right. I realize I have to come up with. the goods to make some director go you know what can't count that guy out of that i think he might be right for me um that was all i wanted to do was have the opportunity to be able to get in the room

and say all right um let me just give me a chance here and and then um and then it worked out i mean it worked out clearly you know can't say it didn't i got to do things i don't think other guys did i mean and in in in the shift from tv to film which i mean the first collaboration with john of course was Elvis, which got a lot of great attention. But I mean, what I'm fascinated by, it seems like getting Snake, getting escape from New York, getting that role, like, how can that happen for someone like you at that point of your career? It feels like that's such a huge leap from anything you had ever done. Your research is right, or your memories it serves correct. You're too young to have been there, so you've looked back and you've read it right.

there was no way anybody else but john carpenter would have done that just no way and john and i had a funny circumstance on Elvis because i was hired before he was so he was saddled with this disney guy to play Elvis i mean there i couldn't have and i think he understood i couldn't have felt more sorry for him i mean because they were having a field day with with with that you know like oh boy here we go this is going to be spectacular I mean, they just couldn't get on it enough. I'm sure you've heard all the jokes at that. Oh, God, they couldn't.

And by the way, I couldn't blame them because I'd be, I mean, okay, hey, guess what? Al Pacino's going to play Elvis. Oh, that's going to work. Yeah, you know, Robert De Niro is Elvis. Who can you come up with it? You wouldn't go, what? Right. I knew that.

They didn't. That was the one thing, you know. So, John was saddled with this guy. And I was just impressed that he, you know, he just went with it. He just went with it. We learned to speak shorthand to each other. And then very quickly, I just love, love, love, love the way he worked. And, you know, it was game on.

And then I went to, actually, something happened. It was a long story once in a time I came back from this trip. And I said, I know what I want to do. And he said, you know what, I've got something like that. And we started talking about it. And he went after it. And boy, there was a, I mean, you know, I think, as I recall, called John saying this once, and he said, you know, I think they wanted, they wanted Charlie

Bronson, who I love and think would have been a great Snake Pliskin 10 years earlier. Yes. It was just luck of the draw of time-wise. Yeah. Snake's not that, you know, he's just not that old a guy. So at that time, I think Charlie was like maybe 44 or something like that, 45, and Snake was, you know, snake's 30, maybe 30, you know. Yeah.

So, John stuck by me. me. Nobody else would have done that at that time. Nobody else. I mean, just nobody else. And John stuck with me and said, I believe in this actor, you guys. I think Kurt's going to act the part. Crazy. And that was what I got. That was an opportunity I got. Of course, as soon as that came out, I read 40 rip-offs of that kind of thing. And I went and did, I think I, well, I'd done used cars. Yep, Zemachus. I'd done used cars, and then I did that. And I was just looking for something to do. And I was actually talking with John about a party who was having a difficult time casting, which was for his remake of the thing, which was off of a book called Who Goes.

He actually said that to me. He said, I want you to do it. And I said, really? We talked about guys, you know, I said, really? He said, yeah, you can do it. Come on. So I said, all right. And I said, what is this now? You know, you really got paying attention. He said, look, I'm not, I'm not doing the, it's going to look like a horror movie is, but I'm really doing a movie about paranoia. Yeah. I said, oh, oh, okay. That sounds great. That I can do.

That I can do. That I can latch on to that. And then we had one of the great times with a great group of guys. But he was, it was like when I talk about Quentin, one of the things I'll take from this, hateful aid, is I got to work with Quentin absolutely in his prime. Yeah. He was in his prime. I don't care what he did before, does that. He was on it. He was on it for this. And we all knew it. And that's the way I felt about John. I loved all the things that I got to do with John. And I would still love to work with John. I'd love for one more big surprise out of Mr. Carpenter.

He needs to get him away from the TV screen. I would just love some great simple story that only he sees a certain way. And you go, oh, yeah, let's just do that little thing, that quiet little thing that everybody goes, oh, that's different. Whoa, I don't know what to make of this, you know. Please. And so that would be awesome. But that was, you know, I've got to say, you know, he was in his prime. It's kind of a perfect movie, the thing. The thing is an elegant, amazing piece of filmmaking. And, I mean, it's so much fun to be there as being up such a, you know, oh, in so many different ways, the experience. But in a motion picture way, talking about the end of the movie and talking about the, you know, all the way through it.

And all the guys, a very similar thing happened on that that happened on Aideful A. We still talk about this screenplay, the actors. We all still kind of talk about it. And we never stopped talking about that screenplay, the thing. We never stopped talking about it. So do you know, you think you know who you are? Right. Or do you think maybe you think you know who you are, but you aren't really who you are?

So how do you respond to people when they ask you to this day about the ending? What's your stuff? I spent a lot of time talking about that, you know. And that's what was arrived at. He was very concerned, and rightfully so. And we've talked about this a lot in the past. on these kinds of shows he was very concerned about

bringing the audience back to square one he said I don't want to I don't want to go through a two hour experience and come back to one and it was kind of

that's kind of what you were that's what it is man yeah that's what it is that's what you're going to do and so the last line is you know everything kind of works its way and then finally

there's really nothing left to do except just let's just sit here and see what happens because you don't know what, you know, the last, you know, they, I think they both, you know, those two guys, it's one of those, it's like Bridge Over the River Kwai. Yeah. Did he fall? Did he mean to? Did he, you know, to me it was, it was perfect that way. It's perfect. You don't know. Is it, uh, correct me if I'm wrong, Quentin screened the thing for you guys as one of the films for this? That's got to be surreal. Did you give running commentary? Did he, what happened? Well, of course, look, it's Quentin style. So to, you know, to have more fun with the night as he would look at it and add more, you know, add, you know, add, heaps and tons of potential embarrassment on me. He went into his archives and found Disney trailers for Disney movies to put, da-da-da-da-dan-dan-dan-dan-dan-tend-da-da.

And it's like, so once the humiliation was wonderful and really funny and complete, Sam had a big laugh on that one. Then he did, you know, he did want everybody to understand. what that situation was and what our situation is with, you know, the, yeah, there's a white monster outside. You can't go out there. That'll kill you. So you got to deal with what's inside. Right. And that's going to probably kill you too. So I'd say, which way do you want to go? Yeah, yeah. And at least inside, you think you have a chance, you know. I thought that, you know, N. A. O. Morricone doing the music because he did the music and the thing. And that was the first time

John had ever had anybody do. Sure. He did his own, right? Yeah. Because he did his own. Yeah. John was really good and wanted Anio to do it and so Quentin coming in with Anio on this I thought was it's kind of like a horror score

by the way listening I've seen the film down twice at the road show just hearing the overture it's like chilling did you talk to Quentin right yeah

so did he mention did you guys talk at all about that horror element we actually didn't talk about the horror element because he alluded to a little bit of that

in Paris recently and I found that really interesting but from a personal point of view it was really interesting for me As luck would have it, I did this picture called Bone Tomahawk, which we just happened to do because of the timing of Richard Jenkins, the actor and the other actors that we could do it.

It landed just before Eighth-Fill-Aid. Right. And it came out just before hateful eight. Of course, that didn't have a completely different environment, VOD and all that. But it was referred to as a Western horror. And I said, well, I don't get that when I did a little publicity for it. I'm sorry, I don't get that. I get Western graphic. Yes. It's a graphic Western. And I look at Hadeful Late and say it's a graphic, it's a comedic graphic Western.

I get, we get that. But horror is something that I think of the thing. Now, the fact that Quentin at one point put in, you know, the screen opened over, he goes, mum, boom, bum, bum. I said, wow, it does give it the gravitas. Totally. That's all you need of any film, that little note. But it was, it was, I, I love.

loved what, you know, the music that Ennio Marconi did for this, we got to see him, by the way, last week, conduct the Prague Orchestra and do it live at Abbey Road. So it was a big, listen, I was, and Kent Quentin got the first two vinyl, right? Sure. That's on vinyl. So it's pretty awesome. He came to the States like, like six or seven years ago for the first time to do a live concert. My wife bought me tickets. And it was, it's incredible. He's amazing. His music in Once Upon a Time in the West is my, as they get it. I can't make through the end of them, which he takes the bucket out there at the end of the movie I'm guy it's got it's over I can't I can't what can't watch

the end of the movie I'm an untouchables ena Marconi fan love that one too but anyway um Carpenter we have to discuss of course big trouble in Little China which I'm one of those that I mean it's virtually one of my favorite movies it's it was really you know it was really different we really

did know what we were doing yeah we did it wasn't like it was a mistake at all again if John if John was in his prime on on the thing he was also in his prime on on Big Trouble Little China. Yeah. And I mean, hard to, you know, it's also hard to like say, well, now, wait a minute, what

he did with Escape from New York was kind of like, that was, to me, that was John's, this is the way I make movies. Right. That'd be like, well, Quentin makes pulp, when he made Pulp Fiction, it was like, this is the way I do it. Right. You know, that'd be my first movie and it might, you know, I'm going to make many more after this, but this is, this is, this is my thing.

Yeah. This is the way I do it. So on Big Trouble Little China, that was, you know, that was all about the screenplay. That was all about W.D. Richter. I was to say, what is that first read of that screenplay? Are you like, is it read as? I don't remember any of that. I don't know.

You mean when you read it? When you read it. Like, I'm curious like what first impression is something like that. So that's a good question because I'm trying to remember the history of it. And I'm not remembering it very well. But I, I knew. I don't know why I knew of and had read, Buccaroo Bonsai

Was that before that It was 84 So it was before Yeah It was before us right okay That script Was terrific The movie

Parts of it were That was the way I felt about it Yeah But John I knew the minute John was going to do this I could see what strengths John was going to play to

And then what then what may be something that we go okay well we'll see you know but in that area was a lot of jack burton stuff and that was where i felt john was like saying i'm going to give this to kurt and he'll figure this out he'll know what to do with jack burton and i really i really uh you know kind of went to work in my mind and said okay what what is it i'm getting from this guy as i read about it and and then and then because that's not one of those things you read and it's jack burton as he's played is not that way on the page that's that's fascinating because that's character is he's not really that's doubt so what was the difference was he not he struck me as

funny yeah it just he struck me as funny more more funny than anything else yeah so in talking about it with John, you know, John, it's like Quinn and I would talk about it. John and I have a shorthand. We kind of, there's almost looks that passed and you go, and I'm like, John, is that? And he goes, and he'll like tilt his head and kind of pinch his fingers and go, maybe, you know, I go, okay,

you mean you're talking, when he's coming around the, and he says, yeah, pass when you're getting to the girl. And just as you pass, I go, right, shorten, then take my time, right? So it's like that, you know what I mean? And then, and it's just, we just do that. That's just the way we talk. I, I, I love the way he sees

the thing. Yeah. And he never makes me feel, he never embarrasses me when I feel I'm maybe going to do something here that might be a little embarrassing trying to find this. Right. He would never make me, he would, he would join me in my laughter at myself. Yes. And he'd be there and he would lead the charge. Yeah. And he can see, he has this great laugh and he goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, oh, whoa, buddy, buddy, buddy, buddy. Because that arguably is probably one of your bigger performances in terms of Well, he's, he's, that guy's not on the, that's not on the page. So, I mean, when, that was tough day too, because I, you know, I was really sick. I had a temperature around like 104, 105 degrees.

I was really sick. And it's the day that we've done something or whatever, but I'm, I'm sitting in a chair. We've, something's happened and I'm going to, this, there's plans being made. And Jack Burton gets up and says, hang on a second. I'm feeling a little like an outsider here. Let's, let's, you know, it was, that was the way it was sort of plan. And it just struck me is that, you know, hang, you know, John. John Wayne, not knowing what the fuck is going on here.

You printed Take 3. It's like you go see the movie, and you printed Take 3 every time when I couldn't get on the horse. And the guy that's a sidekick just hops up there, no problem. And then I pour the beer out, and you do the one where I knock over the, you print the one where I knock the glass over? It just suddenly, all of it struck me like that. And suddenly I was like that, probably because I was sick and kind of. diluted and dazed or whatever. But suddenly, Jack Burton and me was, I knew who he was.

It was like, it was like, hang on a second. Feeling a little like an outsider here. So let's get this thing straight. Okay. You know, it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, really, Jack, okay. I mean, there was a guy, and he, and there was a guy in it, I can't say his name,

but I did a show with him. And it was this one thing that happened. He was kind of one of these guys that said the obvious. Right. But in such a way that was. But in such a way, it was like, yeah, And it was like, one time we were sitting up, it was the end of workday, we were in Ireland. It was, I don't want to get too close.

We were in Ireland. We're looking down this thing, and I'm looking at him, sure enough, about 400 yards down this embankment from the hotel, a couple of cars have a little mashup. It's not a, nobody's been killed. It's just a little, bang, bang. They stop, the lights are flashing. And I start to go down there to look at it. And this guy says, hey, hey, Kurt, I think it's a Volkswagen.

wagon and a truck. And it was like, okay, I'll check that out. I'd say, what do you do with that? And that to me was Jack Burton. I said, oh, he's that guy that points out the obvious sometimes about himself. It doesn't, you know, he's ridiculous. He's just ridiculous. And he's big, ridiculous that way.

So I started having fun with it. And John was, and then we were like down this road. And now we actually got into the last fight. and it was like, what are we going to do? Because you really don't have, we don't really have, what am I going to do here? And I said, yeah, I know. I've been thinking of the thing. I said, we need to get me out of the picture for like two or three minutes here.

Then I need to, like, get taken out for another two or three minutes. We got to hide me here. But it's got to be Jack Burton style. So I said, what about if I just come in and I'm all excited and I hammer the fucking gun goes off. And boom, like, you think he's out. He's knocked out. He said, I like that. That's good.

We'll start there. And then we just do stuff like that. And we just get fine. I got my legs pinned under the big guy. And meanwhile, you know, he's, uh, Dennis is... Yeah, he's the real hero. Oh, yeah, he's doing, he's lying. He's taking 15 people on the one.

That's the secret of the film. when I kissed, uh, Kim, Kim Katrall and came back. And I could, I noticed the crew kind of chuckling and what I was. I could feel them. I finally said, why, wasn't it? And John comes up and he goes, why, he got a lipstick to call. Everybody. And as soon as he said it, we looked at each other, they went, we can't do that. I can't wait. too far and I said well we could do it for a while we could do it and we went to the script we said we could do it from here to here that way it's funny and then we get rid of it right

and we can't do the whole thing is there so then that was we said you know what that's great that's perfect for Jack he doesn't know he doesn't know he's got lipstick color and she doesn't care for a minute and that's what's great about that's what's great about Kim Kim doing that stuff was like

you know she played that stuff all and finally you know come here and she cleaned him off and getting wrong. Now, sadly, of course, it was not the box office thing it deserved to be. They buried that thing. Did you guys ever discuss? I know like environments change and whatever mandates changed. It was it even worth ever discussing doing anything else with that character at some point later on. Did you ever have a serious discussion? You know, it's funny. John, I didn't think in those terms, you know. I mean, you talked earlier about not wanting to

sequels and stuff like that. Yeah, people did. People did, people did talk about that. Yeah. I, I, I, it was, it belongs there for me. Yeah. Um, um, I, I, I, it was, it belongs there for me. Um, um, um, um, It belongs there. I, and I, you know, I just didn't think that way. I just didn't think in that way. Maybe it was a mistake, too. I don't know. I really don't, because maybe you could have done four or five really funny things.

Eventually, you know, you know what? It was so much more fun to think about going on and doing something else, especially, you know, especially with John. And then, you know, we did come back to Snake on, as gay from L.A., which was an interesting set of circumstances. but you have a writing credit on that one yeah worked on that um and that was part of what part of what was uh you know part of what was going on yeah um there's a lot about that movie i like there's a lot about that movie i like i think it's actually you know it's got a lot of

things to say if you can look at the world today um you know all like i wanted to do it all he wants is a cigarette right it's all he wants it's a story of a guy who wants to have a cigarette has to go through all of this to get it right um yeah you know you You know, but it was a, and it was, I, I was a chance to work with John again and all that. I, you know, but I do hope that we, you know, I get one more opportunity. We all do. We all do, definitely. There's talk that you might, talking about big franchises, is it true that you might, James Gunn wants you to be in the gardens of the galaxy thing?

You know, this is one of those things that's really funny. The way the world works today is very different from back in the day when nobody knew about anything. I literally, literally got a phone call two days ago about this. You got to understand something. I've never seen Guardians of the Galaxy. I don't know anything about it. No, you're in it now. You don't understand.

Yeah, one of the four idiots who've never seen it, evidently. I tell you what I, many, many times I've heard, oh, that's a really fun movie, really good movie, really great, whatever great character is like, I don't know it. So it's like, I didn't realize that the man had written it and directed it. And so we talked to each other on the phone. And I just had to be honest and say, I got, I got to, you know, I just thank you for considering me. I have to read it and I have to watch the movie I can't bring anything for you

I got nothing to you know I got nothing to offer here and so I'm amazed to get asked about this because everybody knows more about it than I That's a little weird It's sort of the way I felt about Quentin's movie because Quinn just called up one day and said

Hey I wrote this script I want to do a reading of it I said oh great great so we talked for a few minutes and I'll let you know in and then like three weeks later my agent said Oh, they want to do a rehearsal of that. I went, oh, okay. And then I kind of got to think about a rehearsal of a table read.

Okay, wow, okay. So we rehearsed it, and we're rehearsed it all day Thursday. And then we're going to rehearse it again on Friday. And I'm thinking, wow, he must get this in shape for somebody to look at. And then halfway through the day on Friday, I learned that everybody's, and I'm finally, I finally said, hang on a second. Did you say we're going to do this at a theater? That missed one key component here. Is there something that I'm, I know.

And they're all looking at me like, you idiot? Yeah. I mean, we, of course, we're doing this. that. And what is that? It's a 1600 seat theater. It's, we're doing this for charity. I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, okay. So then I heard that this was the script that Quentin got mad that got leaked. And I thought, oh, okay, I got, okay, I'm just working my way up to, you know, Jack burdening it. Yeah, exactly, exactly. That's exactly right. And I said, I, okay, so I guess he just wants to see this thing done once before he puts it to bed. That was it. I thought,

oh, great, okay. And then when we did it, I said, Quentin, do you want this done we were literally getting ready to go and I said by the way do you want us to play this because it's a theater type thing you want to play it for the audience play it to you because which some of it's quiet yeah so you can see it see that um are you kind of a combo and he said yeah kind of a combo so we did it and then it was a couple months later I said he was gonna make the movie and uh I thought okay right I mean I think it would be a great movie I'm I was excited to you know be going about it so yeah it was a little bit like that I just was you know catching up I'm curious like

you know, as we wrap up our time, you know, post-death-proof, it seems like, you know, I don't know if you took like an official kind of break or... I'm in the vineyard. Was that it? I make a really good pinot noir in the same. And I mean, really good. All right. I'll also try that out, definitely.

Yeah, gogee. Okay. It's G-O-G-I. If you like it, you know, it's really, it's really been well-received. I mean, is any of it, though, like in terms of just not getting material you care about or whatever? I mean, if I read things and I just, you know, it's like that. There are lots of reasons to do things. things. I kind of, if it hadn't been for a man named Rick Nacita, I wouldn't have

done Furious 7. I just probably wouldn't have read it. And he said, I think he should read it. I think that he said, you know, these guys are good at what they do, Kurt. And I said, okay, I said, I saw one. It was good. I said, it was, you know, it was, you know, it's well done. And here we, so here's a guy who doesn't like sequels and we're talking about Furious 7. So it's like, yeah, that's going to work. I'm really getting excited about that. But you know what? I read it and then we talked about it and I didn't, you know, and I actually, they were great because I said this character is relatively uninteresting

as far as I can see but what about this? This would be my take on it. They liked that. And they were very easy. They were just very easy to talk to and I started working with the writer and I found very,

Vin excited about it. He was, here's a guy who's doing the seventh one. He missed a couple, I guess, but he's doing a seventh one. Right. And he's very excited about it. Paul was really, you know, genuinely interested in what they're doing.

Those two guys genuinely really got along well. All the people on the show genuinely care about what they're doing. And it was, and I realized, well that's the way when I did television series did 26 shows we were still just as excited about it on the 25th show as we were the seventh show and these guys managed to do that through the years with with with with these and their and their movies instead of television so I thought well you know what's a dick come on it's a different day now it's a different time it's a

different day and and I want to and I actually had a really really fun time and a very sad moment when Paul died, but I thought, you know what? Died doing what he likes doing. I don't know how you beat that. It's tragic. But, you know, and then they were talking about maybe stopping. I thought to myself, man, why don't you honor this guy for this is? He went the way, he was the real deal.

Yeah. And anyway, I thought they did a great job. It did it the right way as best in that. They really did. So, you know, so, you know, sequels, whatever, you know, whatever. And there's no rules. It's like, like you say, we're talking about. about Big Trouble Little China.

They're talking about remaking that with Dwayne Johnson. Hey, I got a corner on the market of who should do what. I think that the director has a lot of a challenge facing what John did in terms of doing new things. But the actor, hey, go do your version of something. Hopefully come up with something good. Hopefully there will be a reason for why you guys did this. I'll go to the movie and go, oh, I'm glad they did. that. It's good. It fits. Everything fits. It was all different, but yet it was all, I got, I see why

they wanted to do it. And if you don't do that, then unfortunately, you have to suffer the wrath of what the word risk means. You're risking something. You're going up against, for some people, you're going up against something that they truly love. I'm one of them. And I'll say, I'll say, Jane has a tough act to follow, but it's been, it's honestly, it's a true pleasure to talk about big trouble and all these great films and all the way up to hatefully which as I said man I'm a big fan of this one in your character and this one John Ruth add to the pantheon of some really fine performances Kurt it's been a pleasure thanks good talking with you thanks buddy okay

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