Happy Sad Confused - Paul Feig

Episode Date: September 5, 2018

Not only is Paul Feig the most dapper director to walk into the offices of "Happy Sad Confused" but he always brings the goods too. From "Freaks & Geeks" to "Bridesmaids", he's responsible for some of the most influential comedies of our times. And now Paul is mixing it up with a thriller, "A Simple Favor", starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively! Of course it's no surprise that his latest starts two amazing women since that is clearly the unifying thread of his film work. In this chat, Josh and Paul talk about Feig's journey from actor to writer and director, what drove him to make his latest film, and how he looks back on "Ghostbusters".  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

D.C. high volume, Batman. The Dark Nights definitive DC comic stories adapted directly for audio for the very first time. Fear, I have to make them afraid. He's got a motorcycle. 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. Today on Happy Seged Confused, Paul Feig trades in comedy for a sexy new thriller with a simple favor. Hey guys, welcome back to the show. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Said Confused. I'm Josh. You're you.

Paul Feig is Paul Feig. He's also the director of the new film, A Simple Favor, which might seem like a change of pace in some ways for Paul Feig. This is not bridesmaids. This is not The Heat. This is not Ghostbusters. This is kind of more of Paul Feig does Gone Girl. This is a sexy, twisty thriller starring two of our favorites, Anna Kendrick and Blake lively.

And it is, it'll keep you guessing. It's based on a book. I did not read the book. I knew nothing about it going in. And I was thoroughly entertained. And it does still have a bit of, I think the trailer, like, builds it as, like, from the dark side of Paul Feig or the twisted mind of Paul Feig or something like that. And I think that applies. It's not like he's left his comedic roots entirely behind. There is certainly a dose of, I think, dark comedy in this film. But it's kind of mostly just like a great thriller. So I highly recommend it. It is out next September 14th, Friday, September 14th in this busy fall season that is upon us. so many good movies coming, guys. I'm so excited. So this is the beginning of the season, and this is a good one to start off with.

And so thrilled to have Paul Feig on the show for the first time, actually. First time guest on Happy Say I Confused. He, of course, came dressed in his usual dapper attire, his gorgeous suit. I felt like a heathen, as I normally do, but even more so around the likes of Paul Feig. And we had a great chat about the new film, about his career, about the fact that, I mean, There's a lot of interesting things about Paul Feig when you dig into the career, even prior to freaks and geeks, which I think is where he came to prominence, where most of us sort of came to learn about Paul Feig, that show that he created and it was helped birthed by Judd Apatow. But it was really Paul Feig's story derived from his experiences in high school. But prior to that, Paul Feig was maybe a thriving actor, is too strong a word, but he was a working actor. He was working in many sitcoms and kind of doing fun. and making a living and had directed a film, actually. And then freaks and geeks kind of changed things and elevated him, give him a boost.

And then it took, but then it took another little while, right? It was another decade before bridesmaids. So it hasn't always been, you know, one straight line to the top for Paul Feig. But, hey, it's never a straight line to the top for any of us, right? So, but he's such a brilliant mind, a sharp mind and someone that I really admire for many reasons, not the least of which is the way he's championing so many great actresses out there. You look at his work, obviously, on bridesmaids, which helped boost Melissa McCarthy's career, and then he did the Melissa McCarthy, Sandra Bulk film The Heat and Ghostbusters

and now this. And he's just, he's made no bones about it. He loves writing for women. He loves directing women. He loves championing women. And I think he will continue on that path in the years to come. So anyway, that's the conversation with Paul. Figue. As I mentioned, we are in the fall. Happy fall. Hope you guys had a good labor day. And I am off very soon to a very big film festival, one I've gone to for the last decade, the Toronto International Film Festival. We call it TIF. I'll be seeing a lot of good movies out there. Hopefully, not so many bad movies. This is what I love about TIF. TIF, the percentage of good movies, it's high. Sundance, I've said in years past, you can go

a year or two at Sundance and not see one really good movie. At Toronto, if you're not seeing good movies three quarters of the time, you're doing something wrong because all the good stuff goes there. It is kind of the launching pad for all the big Oscar contenders. And I certainly

will hopefully see the new film from Damien Chazel, First Man, Bradley Cooper's directing debut, a star is born. The list is too long. So if you are excited to follow along with me at the Toronto Film Festival. Simply follow me on Twitter and Instagram. I'll be

detailing all my exploits there. Joshua Horowitz is my handle. And yes, I'll be there with a great crew from MTV talking to a great many people. I think we have like, I don't know, somewhere between 15 and 20 casts already booked. A lot of really high caliber talent that I'm super psyched to talk to. I don't want to jinx anything because you never know, but stay tuned on my Twitter feed, et cetera. I'll send out the links as they come out, or just go to MTV's and MTV News's YouTube page, and we'll be putting all the conversations up there. So that's Tiff. Follow along. If you can't get out to Toronto, follow me. In the meantime, enjoy this conversation with Paul Feig. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe to Happy Say

Confused on iTunes, spread the good word, and enjoy this chat with the darkly comic mind that is Paul Feig's Mr. Paul Feig has entered the office. Hey, Paul. Hi, Josh. How are you? It's good to see you, man. It's great to see you. Congratulations on the new film. We're going to talk a lot about a simple favor.

Coming soon to theater, a theater near you. Yes, many, many theaters near you. Hopefully. Wow, we'll see. No superhero film to compete with. Give this movie some love. Well, Predator. So don't go see Predator. seen that already. Come on. Exactly. How many predators

can you watch? I'm just going to say. That's right. Really. So we were saying, as we take this, we are hours after the insanity that was the MTV Video Music Awards where you're lovely two stars were presenting. I was there.

I got there early and waited for them, so I got, I heard a lot of, sir, you got to move. You guys got to move back. You cannot stand here. I was like, oh, I'm sorry, can I be over here? Sir, you have to move. So, Yeah, how does your sartorial demeanor fit into the VMAs? It buys me nothing.

Literally, it's actually worse because I'm wearing a double-breasted suit and tie. So I just look like somebody's douchey lawyer. So there's just like, dude, get out of the way. Do you enjoy, though? I mean, we're talking the uniqueness of MTV's awards in particular, which obviously I'm not a stranger to myself. But do you get a kick out of that kind of scene? Oh, yeah. I mean, anytime everybody like puts on the dog, if I may sound like somebody's grandpa,

You know, and really, like, just gets completely dressed up. I'm fascinated by fashion and style. You know, obviously, I wear three-piece suits and all that. Very, very traditional styling. But I'm just like, I go like, oh, that must be a style now, what that person walked out of the car and that looks insane to me. But I, but I, anytime somebody has a style, that's all I ever ask. I think the biggest sin you can commit is just to have no style.

It's a dress. Yeah, so you don't get arrested walking down the street. Right. Well, Paul did walk in today wearing the meat dress from waiting. Well, you know, it was on sale. It's a little ripe, but I... I was going to say, I think it's turned. Well, it's sun-dried, we call it.

I'm convinced that, I mean, that Anna is destined to host the Oscars. Like, Anna is a... She's a powerhouse. She's a powerhouse. Yeah, it's crazy. And then Blake's this crazy powerhouse. It's nuts. I mean, you know, Anna's just got...

I mean, she's in, you know, she's an egot, you know, waiting to happen. She can just hold every stage and everything. and she's so much fun to work with and she's so funny and she's really acerbic in a way you would not expect if you're an Anna Kendrick fan but it's hilarious and delightful

she can kind of get away with it though right like she can be like the most yes like acerbic cutting remark and then that sweet face just somehow she can sell it so it's with a smile and kind of a laugh and you're like I think you just burn me

but I'm utterly charmed by the burn to the core and yet I'm okay with it did you ever spend time like in your many travels through showbiz doing like the award show like writing gig like did you ever have to do that kind of thing? Of course I avoided that. Jud Abbotow, my old partner, he did tons, tons of it and wrote for comedians and stuff. I'm not a good joke writer. Like I'm a good dialogue joke writer, but like standing in front of a microphone, like here's my, you know, here's a gag. I'm lousy at

it. And, you know, I was a stand-up comedian for years. But my whole gig was kind of complaining about my life and telling stories and stuff like that. Yeah, because that host banter. I mean, or the presenter banter is like that is the most thankless of tasks I can imagine but you know but it's somebody who can write jokes yeah I mean like a Mitch Hedberger way you know where you're just like oh my God like how does your brain think I love that I have lots of friends who are amazing joke writers and I'm always just like hey write me a joke right well it's funny because like you know you were talking about you know appreciating the um the bizarreness and the fact and the amazing fashion on a carpet you strike me as somebody that that appreciates all the trappings of show business

yeah oh yeah how do you know how do you know love showbiz. I mean, it's, maybe it's just because as you get into it later, although I've been, I feel like I've been in it my whole whole life, just not successful. But anybody who gets jaded about showbiz, it's like, you just go, oh, come on, you know, look how lucky we are to be in this. And look, there's plenty of times. Even last night, I was like, oh, God, the VMAs, do I really? But it's more just because I thought I was going to get yelled at and told to move around. But it's, it's cool. And I love the trappings of it. And just, it's, it's, It's glamorous, and I just, I want to kind of bring as much glamour back to showbiz as I can because, you know, there was such, especially comedy tends to be so, we got to be so down to earth and stuff, you know, and look, I love David Spade and, you know, and all those guys. But there was that period, like he and like Sandler and Farley would go on the Tonight Show wearing like literally like a ripped up t-shirt and their baseball caps. Like, fellas, come on. I think you can step it up.

Well, even, and we can apply this when, as we start to get into a simple favor. And in all your direct. directing work, you know, the old adage of like, um, most, um, film, uh, comedic films are shot pretty rudimentor, not much style to it, right? And obviously, a simple favor has a ton of style. Uh, all your films do. And, um, the knock has been, I feel, I feel like the old conventional wisdom was like, don't detract from the joke. Just let the joke play. Yeah. Don't worry about the fancy camera moves. Yeah, it was always, yeah, like brightly lit, flat lit. So this. And I don't, I never buy into that. You know, look, my movies run the gamut between, between, being sort of functional to being

more stylish. It just depends on the genre you're shooting really. But also you know, it's so much about the verbal joke too. And so I you know, a lot of my movies have a lot of improv and ad libs and stuff. So a lot of times you kind of just cross shoot it. It's meeting you're shooting both people the same time. So you don't have a lot there but it's like

whenever we're not doing that, it's like let's try to move the camera. Let's try to have some fun with it and just not make it so flat. Before we move off the awards conversation I'm just curious because you know you went through that obviously in particular with bridesmaids. which was an unexpected, lovely surprise, I would think. Memories of that, I mean, it got the screenplay nomination, Melissa got the nomination.

Was it, I mean, I'm trying to remember back then. Were we up to the 10 nominees at that point? Was there talk that, like, bridesmaids could get into a picture, too? Why do I feel like we, I think it might have been the first year of the 10 nominees. I feel like so, yeah. I mean, my big lesson from that was, you know, look, I went to film school, you know, serious filmmakers, although I made goofy movies in film school anyway. But it's, you know, everybody's like, we want to win awards. And so, and you can go down to the rabbit hole as a

filmmaker going like, well, what could put me an award contention? And, you know, by the time I got to Bridesmaids, it's like, let's just entertain an audience. And that's all we thought. And suddenly we got nominated for two Oscars. There's a lesson there. It was the lesson. It was just like, just make something that you think audiences are going to like. And if the kudos come, they come. And if they don't, who cares? You know, you entertain an audience. Because I always say, You know, so many best picture movies, you'll go, you know, how many times did you watch that versus how many times did you watch some goofy comedy, you know, and you go to that 20 times because it makes you feel happy? I'd rather have the one you watch 20 times and the one you go, yeah, I saw that, but I don't want to watch it again, but it won an award. What's your take on the recent breaking news about this popular film?

I'm torn on that because it's funny. I've actually had met with the Academy a few years ago about trying to get a best comedy. category because you know because I thought you know the way the Golden Globes does it but then then I would like oh wait no it what happens is there's no real criteria for it and so like the Golden Globes

you know spy got beat by the Martian great movie I love the Martian not exactly the funniest movie in the world but what happens is then anybody can go like oh we had a joke in there so now we're a comedy and I think with the popular movie they all swarm towards the one they think is going to be easier to win so I just don't know how they're going to

how they're going to designate what a popular movie is. It's also, I mean, it is, you know, you're well aware of this. I know, but, like, if you look back at, like, we talk about sort of certain kind of genres that are relegated to kind of the side for, for awards consideration, especially Oscars. And we talk about genre films like sci-fi or fantasy, please, comedies are, like, way behind that. We, you know, we've got in, like, you know, War of the Rings, et cetera, in there. But, like, if you really look back, and I looked back yesterday, best picture winners, yeah outside of like if you go maybe like cone brothers comedies yeah sure yeah but like for

kind of a traditional comedy i mean it was any hall yeah any hall and some people will say shakespeare in love which was light entertainment it wasn't that comedy comedy really i do love that movie but um no it's just well here's why here's why joe let uncle paul tell you um if you do comedy right comedy looks really easy right because it's It has to be effortless. If it's not, it's what we call sweaty, and that's bad comedy. But with dramas and all these other things, you know, you just pile on the cool shots and the thing and everybody's emoting and this and that. And you can really go for it in a very showy way.

Look, it has to be affecting. And obviously, we're very affected by those movies, too. But we're affected by comedies. It's when I sum it up this way. Steve Correll never won an Emmy for the office. Right. Never. Because he made it look easy.

I've got people go like, well, yeah, he doesn't deserve it. He just shows up in acts goofy, and you're like, are you kidding me? You know how hard this guy worked to make that character, which is nothing like him in real life? But, again, you know, I'd rather have a comedy that looked easy and everybody has fun than that's some sweaty comedy that people go, wow, look how hard they worked. Right. People want to know about, and with all due respect to Daniel Day Lewis, that, wait, he cobbled for a year or two, learn how to be the shoe guy? Exactly. Like, I mean, I love him, but, like, you know, there's room for everything to be acknowledged.

let's talk about your delightful new film and delightful is maybe the wrong adjective but it is I mean I really enjoyed it and it's I think many people think it's probably unexpected given your resume but then again you dig into your resume for those that don't know

like it's actually kind of all over the place in the best possible way I would say like this movie like by the end you'll go like oh yeah that's one of his movies yeah so this one like and I remember when I saw you guys back in Vegas for cinema con whatever and the early trailers. I think the gift and the challenge of something like this clearly is its uniqueness

and where it fits in the box of a genre, clearly. And I'm sure those are conversations that went back, I assume, too, like your very first conversations about the film. Well, I mean, for me, if you look at my movies, they're all genre movies, you know, wedding movie, buddy cop comedy, spy, you know, sci-fi. And so I just love playing in genres. That's all I kind of care about because I like to have a set of rules. and tropes that everybody knows and then you can play with them right and you can subvert them and sometimes it's just by you know how you cast sometimes it's by the twists and turns you put in and that's how we can make it funny but you know I love the thriller genre kind of is my sort of my

favorite thing to watch as all I watch I all I read are like Patricia Highsmith novels and that so I love that stuff and so I always want to make sure that I am first and foremost in service of the genre itself You know, spy. I want to make sure I had a real spy movie with a real spy plot. But then we put extreme characters in it and have fun with how they deal with the serious way we're taking the story. Right. And that's what this is, too. It's also for what it's worth, it's also how the original Ghostbusters and your Ghostbusters worked.

Yeah, yeah. You were in kind of like, it played just as well in some ways as a great kind of fantasy action movie. Yeah. You have to plot everything out like it's a draw. I always say my movies are dramas that are funny. Right. You know, because that's how you, you know, if you don't have the stakes and the movement that way and the investment in the characters and their emotional arcs to pay stuff off, you don't have a movie.

You know, one of the great comedies of all time was Mr. Hulot's Holiday. And the very thing, it comes up, the Jacques-Tati movie, and it comes up at the beginning and says, there is no story to this movie. It's just, and even though I think it's brilliant, it feels like the longest movie you've ever watched in your life. And I think it's like an hour and 15 minutes long, but it's just all gags. brilliant gags, but it's like, that was the moment I'd go like, oh, God, you've got to have a story, too. And, you know, so when this one came to my office, it was basically, it was sent to us by Fox 2000 to produce. Because it was a book, you know, Simple Favor was a book that had a big bidding war for it.

And Fox got it. And then they hired Jessica Scharzer, great writer Jessica Scharzer, to take it and adapt it. So when it came to me, I hadn't read the book. It was just the script. Right. So they said, yeah, they sent it us and said, like, this is crazy. It's a comedy. Is it a drama?

We don't know what it is. You produce it and figure it out. So I read it and it's like, I love it so much because this is the thriller I've been looking for. I'll direct it. And, you know, and so, but what I saw in it was the potential for it to be to have funny elements. And it's all because of the characters. Right. And it was really Anna's character.

Page one, here's this earnest little mom who has a sad little vlog, mommy vlog, that she does that has like, you know, 200 followers and she's, you know, giving advice her heart out doing this and all the other parents think she's a nerd and don't like her. They think she's too, trying too hard. And I was just like, that's the lead character of every one of my movies.

You know, it's some nerdy person who's undervalued and doesn't know their place in the world and they've lost their confidence. And then here comes this, you know, great adventure for her to, you know, repair herself with. It's also maybe, maybe, correct and find out,

probably the first of your films that could have the adjective of sexy, associated to it. Yeah, I usually steer away because I hate shooting sex scenes. I was going to say, so like as like a self-proclaimed kind of late bloomer in the sexual realm, how did it, how is it to direct a sex scene in a film? I don't enjoy it. When I was a TV director, I had a few that I had to do, especially on weeds, I had to shoot like porno scenes. And I was just like, oh my God. So I literally said to Jenji Cohen, I said, like, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to hire porn actors. You're not going to make me hire some poor actress and, like, make her pretend like she's a porn star, you know.

So it was the greatest thing, though, because, like, these, you know, three porn stars showed up and they acted and they were fine. And then it came time we had to shoot like this, you know, simulation, quote, unquote, of a porn scene. And I said, guys, I've never been less comfortable in my life. Please tell me how you do it. Oh, sure, well, should she get behind me? And then I'd be down on my knees. I was like, awesome. And roll.

So on this one, though. So on this one, yes. So couldn't hire porn stuff No, no this, but again I know I've, my whole life when I go to a movie And there's a sex scene If I don't realize If I don't understand why it's in

Then I'm like, oh, why am I watching this? That takes you out of it Because you're thinking about everything else like Yeah, I feel bad for the actors I think there's like a guy in short standing Like I'm you know foot away holding a boom pole Staring you know and they're like Get off the set everybody else

So it makes me go Okay if we're going to do a sex scene it has to be for a reason. It has to be a dramatic reason for it. And so that kind of gets me through it. You will notice when you see my movies, my sex scenes are always almost basically one shot that starts wide in the side. And as things start to happen, I'm slowly, slowly push in on my actor's face and that it ends on the actor's face. And that's literally how I shoot all my sex thing. Classic feats sexy. So when you, when it starts, just know that camera's going to be pushing in. Does, um, we were talking about, you know, our mutual love for, I mean, both

Blake and Anna, but it strikes me in particular with like Anna, like she seems so right for your sensibilities. Had you ever discussed working with her before? I had just always wanted to work with her, but just the opportunity never arose or the project never felt right. But I mean, honestly, when I read this one, it's just like, oh, God, this could be the, you know, this could be for her. And then my producing partner, Jesse Henderson, you know, said like, Anna, you've got to get Anna for this. So it just, it all, it was finally like, oh, thank God, because it's a really hard role, but she's got to be funny and nerdy, but then

like kind of cool, but you always have to have, you know, you have to be invested in her and have empathy for her. And she just, I mean, she's so deft at doing that. And what's so fun about her is she's a great physical comedian. You know, because we, this is not a movie

where we did tons of improv because the script was so tight. But we were still able to play a little bit. What we were able to really play with is just like, try it a little more uncomfortable that's try him. Try her where she's really, you know, like, she can't breathe in the dress. Try it. And my editor always says, like, she's all elbows. And it's the funniest thing. Like, the way she kind of flaps her arms around of this character, it just cracks me up. I would think, I mean,

you kind of alluding to something that I was, I was think of, like, when I think of the thriller genre, it's one of the genres that, like, I would imagine as a director, like, you never feel like more of a director than when you're directing, like, a thriller, or maybe a horror film. You know what I mean? Like, those films where, like, those films where, like, Where you set up the shot, where are you cut, that you are telling the audience how to feel, how to build suspense. You know, you think of our greatest filmmakers.

You think of, you know, you think about the Hitchcocks and the Spielbergs and all those guys that could know how to play an audience in a good way, hopefully. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's, you know, my, when I was in film school, I went to USC film school,

my one teacher, I forget which one it was, kind of summed up the best. He said literally because of the way that you, you know, with the focal lengths and all this stuff, You're literally kind of grabbing the back of the audience's head and just going, look at this, look at this, look at this. And that's, you know, when you rack focus, that's literally me manipulating you into looking at something whether you wanted to look at it or not. And that's what's so fun. And then, yeah, on top of it, the camera angles and how we move the camera.

And then I was, you know, I was really lucky because, you know, I always work with Bob Yoman, who shoots all of Wes Anderson's movies, who I love. And we just have such a great partnership, but he wasn't available for this. and John Schwartzman, who shot all of Michael Bay's early movies and shot like Spider-Man and all these things. We went to film school together, like I said, and he was available. So he came in and shot it. And we were able to just kind of play

with a different style, and it was a blast. You know, and it's also, yeah, it's just, it's, then you, yeah, you really do feel like a filmmaker. I don't know, I feel like a filmmaker, whenever I'm making a movie, but this, it was extra fun. I felt a little like Hitchcock. So, and needless to say,

this also continues something that you always seem to gravitate towards, which is explorations of female friendships. And from what I gather, and you've, you know, you've talked about this at length. You know, I mean, growing up, like, were you surrounded more by women and friend groups, etc., than men, you felt more comfortable in that? Yeah, I was an only child, and it was close with my mom. The family next door to me were eight kids, six of them were girls. They were all my pals. And then in school, I had a lot of bullies, so I would hang out with girls or my other fellow nerds. And just that was always my group. And I've just always felt more comfortable. with women because I'm not in the sports and I'm not into like, you know, name calling and punching all that other stuff that guys seem to like to do. So how did, how did them like the comedy world treat you? Because that is, you know, the stereotype of that is it's a predominantly male and an aggressively male often skewing world. Yeah. I was a stand-up for five years from

85 to 90 and I enjoyed it, but I had a real hard time. It was basically being on the road is what drove me out of stand-up because what happens is you know you get hired by a club for a week at a time and they fly you into whatever city and there's an opener a middle and a headliner of you know three acts on the on the bill and what they would always do is they have what they called the comedy condo which was like they owned a condo the club and they put you in there so you're in there with two other dudes you know in your you have your own rooms but basically you have the common area of the kitchen and the living room and so one week it would be the greatest thing ever. You'd be out with a bunch of nerdy comics and you just

having so much fun. And then the next week you'd be out with two guys who all they want to do is get laid, bring waitresses back to the park. And you're just like, oh, it was such a nightmare. And I just, I couldn't do it. It was like literally spin the wheel on, is your next week going to be fun or a nightmare? And more and more nightmares started happening. And I was just like, forget it. No, you're like flashing me back to my own childhood because I think we relate in this level too. Like I think back to like going to sleepaway camp. Oh, hunks of God. It was just like not what my constitution was made for. I ruled in Cub Scouts because my mom was the dead mother, so I loved that.

That was really fun. And then I joined Boy Scouts. And I went to a Boy Scout jamboree, the first thing I did. And I got hazed so many times that I quit Boy Scouts. I woke up once my sleeping bag was soaked. And there was a dude standing over. He just peed on my sleeping bag. He's like, that's not even hazing.

That's just like criminal. That's a federal offense. Usually I have to ask folks like, what were you like in high school? Luckily, we have like 18 hours of television that basically sums up, I guess, what you were like. I mean, do you feel like that does stand as a good marker of at least a good approximation of what you went through in high school? Yeah, I mean, that's why I'm so proud of that show. And that's why, you know, so many people kind of want, you know, wish there was more or they want us to bring it back. I'm like, you know what?

I kind of said everything I wanted to say about high school with it. And we ended it in a nice positive way where, like, everybody goes off in a different, direction and all that. But yeah, I mean, honestly, one of the many motivations for doing that show is I kind of wanted to like have something you could hand to a kid about to go to high school and go like, here's what to expect. Don't get upset. Don't try to hurt yourself or whatever. It's going to be terrible. You'll find your friends. You'll come out stronger. And the people that are mean to you will hopefully all, you know, go on to much lesser things. Although sometimes they win, I guess. Well, it's interesting too. I mean, that show, I watched that documentary recently,

by the way, which is amazing. Yeah, Brent Hodge, shout out to him. He did a great job. Truly. I'm sure it's available somewhere. This really, like 90-minute freaks and geek stock. Yeah. Yeah.

But, I mean, so much striking about that show. I mean, obviously the casting and the launching pad for so many talented actors. Was that something that you and Judd always kind of like had an aptitude in? I mean, I guess this was like a big testing round for you. You would never like that. Yeah, I was as an actor before that, yeah. But like, do you feel, because you know, you're still able to kind of launch careers and have and morphed some careers in your future films like what are you looking for

when you're looking at an unknown actor like what are you is there is there a common denominator yeah i mean you know it depends what we're casting them for you know i i like just finding unexpected people you know i mean if you look at freaks and geeks you know we had everybody was you know we're looking for the various roles that were written but when we did this open casting call up in vancouver lee shepherd stephen lee shepard came in who ended up playing Harris, you know, the geek guru on the show. He was just this, you know, I went into this, we had way too many people showed up. And I was like, everybody's going to read. Like the first 10 people came in. They were terrible. I was like, okay, I got to do some sort of weeding here. So I just went in and I looked around. And I saw this mop of hair in the corner, like reading a book. And I go, hey, do you want to read? Because he just had such a great look. And he's like, yeah, sure. Okay. And he came in. He just took these sides and just kind of read them for a matter of fact. And Judd and I were just like, oh my God. You know, we So we, like, created that character for him, and then I had to write all these letters to the U.S. government about why no actor in all of America could possibly be as good

as this guy. So literally, like, he's like Robert De Niro showed up from Canada, just to get a miss visa. And, you know, but that's the kind of thing I love as far as you go, like, this is just somebody that nobody else would cast, that nobody else would think to use. But then, like, on our new movie, a simple favor, Henry Golding, you know. A lot of moments. Clearly. Oh, my God.

And so deserved. But, you know, John Chu gets all the credit for Henry because he discovered him because Henry was like a travel show host. But if you watch the reel of his travel show, he's the most charismatic guy you've ever seen in your life. But for me, you know, it was still, you know, I still had to kind of, you know, talk the studio into, here's a guy who nobody knows and they don't know how crazy Rich Asians is going to come out.

Sure. He came out hugely great. But, you know, but I, like, that's like capnip for me. Because they're like, look at this guy. And he's like, to me, he's like, to me, he's like, Carrie Grant or something, and I met him, and I was so charming and all that. So it's just what, you all, you just have to kind of go, like, I just see this person. And then it's just how hard are you willing to fight to kind of make other people see it?

Well, and then, obviously, in a different way, I mean, established actors that you expose in a different way, you know, Statham. Right. Like, unbelievable, like, uh, where Hemsworth, they're making a guy. Those two stand out, of course. Yeah. Like, did it take convincing to, like, get Jason to kind of commit. to what he needed to for spy?

Well, no, it was, it was, he's, first of all, he's the greatest guy in the world. I love that man so much. But he, I, I, a huge, my wife and I are just giant stay with him fans. We watch every single one of his movies, including the Owey Bowl one. Like, I'm committed. We are down. Wait, that was like dragon siege or one of those, something of the kings. Oh, yeah, yeah, I know exactly.

Oh, yeah, I know exactly about me. Oh, yeah, that's hilarious. And so one of the perks of, like, when you, your career's going okay is you can have general meetings. with stars. And so one day I was just like, I wonder if I could meet Jason Statham. So I was like set up a meeting with Jason Statham.

But then I was completely nervous because like, what if Jason, the real Jason Statham shows up and like, and he punches you? Like, you know, the transporter throws me, blows a hole in my glass pool and I fall. Peas all over your sleeping bag. Wait, we're back to him.

It was really, Jason Statham, I can't believe it. But he came in and I just loved him. He was so charming. and funny and all this. And so I was, it said, Jason, I want to put you in something. I want, I'm going to put you in a movie. I swear, as God is my witness.

He's like, yeah, okay, sure, sure, sure. So then when I was writing spy, it's just like, wait, this is it. This is because I was writing this role of this rival spy. And everybody assumed when they read the script, they were like, oh, so, oh, Will Ferrell's going to play this? I said, no, no, no, I want Jason Statham to play this role.

So I contact, I sent it to his agent, and the agent called him and said, like, look, he's nervous about this because he doesn't, you know, it's taking a big swing. He said, but everybody always tells him they're going to write a part for him and they never do. And he really appreciates that you did that. And so he's thinking about it.

So I talked to him a bunch and then he, yeah, he was in. He agreed to do it. And he came to my office. I always do like a few months out. I'll have the actors come and we'll kind of read the script separately just to see what they, you know, I want to see what their take is on him. And he, I remember he sat down and Melissa was there and he had a script. And he goes like, so should I try to be funny?

I said, no, Jason. I said, play this like it's one of your most serious movies ever. And he read through the script. And literally, everything he read, we were dying. He finished reading it. Looked to me. I said, like, go home. Don't look at the script again.

Just do that again. Yes, exactly. Anything. And then he showed up, and he was killer. I know you're asked about this all the time about, like, sequels to all the films. But what is the obstacle for the spin-off or sequel for that character? For spy? It's just the studio doesn't want to do it.

Really? Yeah, it's, you know, you have a treatment to a script or something? Like you had, like, you had like. I have, I have, oh, I'm very excited about how it will start. I have the setup. I have the greatest setup in the world for this movie. But it's, you know, I get, look, they're on the third Kingsman movie. I love the Kingsman movies.

That's the same studio. They made more money than we did, but we did not make money. We made pretty good money. We made $230 or $240 million worldwide. That's pretty good on a $65 million budget, you know. You always wish it was higher, but, but, no, they just didn't want to do it. And now the moment may be passed. I don't know, but I'm very proud of it.

You should be, yeah. So, I mean, the, again, you know, we can dig into kind of like the, I mean, a lot of the early career is, first of all, of course, the acting career, which is, and a successful acting career at that, we should say. I mean, you were a regular on many different shows. Yeah, all got canceled the first year, but I was on them. You were paying the bills. I was a working actor, yes. So, I mean, both you and Judd share this thing where, like, there was a certain epiphany at some point that you clearly had to have, whether it was forced on you or not. where you had to change track.

Yeah. And I'm curious, like, what you remember about that and, like, did it refocus you on writing and directing and making you a little bit more efficient and smarter about those parts of your life when you kind of gave up the dream of acting? Or is that narrative almost too pat? Well, for me, it was always jumbled up

because as a kid, I remember, oh, how old I was, 10 or something, Time magazine had. had a picture of Woody Allen on the cover, and it said, comic genius. I was just like, wait, you can be funny and be called a genius for being comic. So then I started watching his movies and all that, you know, and I was just like, I want to do that. Like, he writes directs and stars in his own movies. So that was always my goal. Yeah. So when I went to USC film school, I went as an actor, but going like, oh, as an actor, now I can learn how to do those other things. And so I'm going to make my own

movies and star on them. And then just, then after film school became a stand-up comic. And then after five years of that quit and then went full time into acting. But when I was acting, even when I was a stand-up, especially when I was acting, I was always writing scripts still. And so whatever show I'd be on, I'd write like a spec episode for it. They don't, the writers would read it and really like it. And they're like, oh, we have another season. Maybe we'll do this. And then we get canceled. So I could. So I was always swirling around it. And as, you know, when I, by time I got to like my fifth TV series that I was a sixth or seventh lead on, I just went like, God, I'm so powerless as an actor because especially when you're an actor, you sign these contracts.

It's a seven-year contract. They own you for at least seven years. But they have it in that contract twice a season. They can fire you and not pay you anything else. So I was like, this is like not a two-way street here. So that coupled with just you feel so out of control. But I was also like, but I'm making money. And it's fun to be an actor.

I show up. They tell me how to dress. And as long as I don't screw up my lines, they like me. and I was on Sabrina the Teenage Witch and it was a hit and so I was like oh good but at the same time I was calling producer friends of mine who had sitcoms and stuff saying like would you ever think about me maybe directing an episode and that'll be like well it's really hard you know so they always kind of shut it down for me as anyone should I was just an actor and then when I finally went I'm just going to make my own movie so I wrote this this little independent feature called Life Sold Separately and I took all the $30,000 as I saved from the first year of Sabrina, put it into it, shot it, started in it, everything. And then when we were in post-production and about to go back to Sabrina, they called me up and said, we're going to write you out of the show.

We don't know how to write for your character anymore. That was the thing that just kicked me out of the nest because it was like, you know what, if you can be on a hit show and still get fired and not have anything. So, you know, so I made that movie and it's never been released. I still have it. I hope one day I will put it out. Yeah, I'm very proud of it, but it also stars me. So that's the downside.

But pendulette's in it, so that's cool. But then, yeah, so then I kind of went into this one-year, terrible, worst year of my career thing. Because I was, said, I'm not going to act anymore. So I was writing scripts. I couldn't sell anything. And I had this movie, and I couldn't get in any festivals or anything. And it was when I finally got into this kind of traveling film festival where you went around the country to colleges and showed your movie. I wrote the spec script for freaks and gigs.

Got it. So by the time I gave up the dream. It was like, goodbye, Dream. Fuck you, Dream. You ruined my life, but you almost ruin my life if I stayed in you. That sounded really dirty. So I think for me, you know, so now if things pop up, you know, like the Joel McHale show. And a lot of people hate me on that show.

Is that true? My Twitter feed is always filled with like, Paul Vig, why do they lend him on? He's the worst part of the show, which just makes everybody want to put me on more. Well, I appreciate that show, especially in RIP. But you've also explained one of my favorites in that, who's done a bunch of sketches with me, Joe Mangonello. Oh, my God, Joe. Joe is so fucking funny.

Joe is amazing. Oh, my God. Is he funny? He's got such a good sense of humor about him. I've done, I think, three or four sketches with him, and I just, he kills it. Oh, yeah. He's amazing. He's funny.

So, interesting, too. Okay, so prior to bridesmaids, okay, so you think you're all set with freaks and geeks, not so much. Like, you know, you landed in this, you know, famed phantom zone that people always talk about, director hell or director um director jail director jail thank you movie jail movie jail exactly um which is a real kind of a thing i guess oh it's a terrible place it's out in the interstate uh food's terrible too so that that occurs i mean do you consider because you're also you had a great period of time where you're doing some fantastic tv work

and you're again probably making decent money and working on these top-not shows office rest of development etc is that when you're also in movie director hell jail, well, it came along because, you know, Freaking and Geeks and got

canceled because low ratings, but it was this critically acclaimed show and very well thought of. But then I developed another show that didn't go

and then what happened, everyone, after you have a show like Freaks of Geeks, everybody's like, we want to make a show with you, we want your voice. So then you kind of

write the thing, go, here it is. And they go like, oh, well, actually not this. They go, well, you want to my voice. And so there's my voice. So I had a really hard time

developing stuff. And at the same time, Our old line producer, Victor Schu, from Freaks and Geeks was, had just started producing Arrested Development. He said, hey, they like you over here. Do you want to come and direct an episode? So I said, sure. So what happens is I just started directing more television.

Right. Which was great because, you know, other than going to film school and directing my little short film and doing the series finale for Freaks and Geeks, I hadn't really. This is a practical experience. You're getting it. Totally. So you go, oh, I'm going to work with a crew.

I'm all these different styles. So I loved it. It was like, it was like going back to film school. But I still wanted to do movies. And so after like a couple years after, you know, after Freaks, I took on this movie called I Am David, which I wrote and directed, and it was more of a drama. And that just bombed horror. I mean, like, I think Kevin Spacey had a movie that opened like $618. I think I'm like, hey, that's not bad box office, actually.

It pulled an I am David. Exactly. I mean, especially in Europe, oh, my God. I think our box office was something like $500 or something like that. So, but here's how I knew that movie was going to bomb. Not when I was making it. I was like, who wouldn't want to see this movie about a kid, a young child who's brought up in a communist labor camp?

So right there. Always chasing the dollar. That's B-O-Gold. But we did a test screening of it out in Irvine, California. And screening went great. I mean, like, the audience was cheering. They were clapping, crying, all this stuff. They were just like, we got a hit movie.

So they're walking out, and I see these two people at the door who run the screening and they're handing each person a little white envelope. And they go, what's that? And they go, well, whenever we were trying to recruit the audience and we kind of showed them what it was about, nobody wanted to go, so we had to promise them $5 if they came to see the movie. It's like, well, we're not going to do well. That's not a sustainable business model.

I'm not an expert. That does not work. So that hurts. That kind of started to creak the door to movie jail closed a little bit. But then a couple years later, I was like, well, I want to do a studio film. I've heard studio films are so hard to do, and the politics are terrible. Let's just do it.

Well, when you're a TV director, you kind of have one place you can go, and it's called Family Films. And so that's the only ones you can get because no other directors want them. And there's this one. It was based on a This American Life story, called Unaccompanied Miners, and I thought it was really fun. And, you know, went into it with Augusto and did fun rewrites on it, and it's all, you know, and there's a great second layer story about divorce kids, you know, getting stuck at this

airport on their way between their two families and all that. And it was really touching. We put a lot of second and third layers into it. We get a week into production. And the head of the studio suddenly has some epiphany that he's a divorced dad, that we're being terrible to divorce parents. We have sending this horrible message at divorce parents are terrible, which was not the message at all. So they shut us down. They said, you got to rewrite the script to take all that stuff out. So then all that stuff came out. So then it was just this, you know, I think it's still kind of cute, but like a romp, just a romp. But this is 2006, so we're just a few years after 9-11. It's about kids running amok in an airport and screwing around with TSA and

outwitting the TSA. So just like, my white envelope moment with that was, I put, you know, I help with the marketing like, we got to have a crazy, you know, trailer with all kinds of physical comedy and things and blah, blah, blah. So I, go and sit in it before some Nick Park movie and a full audience and moms and kids and on comes the art trailer. I'm like, oh boy. And it's playing. And at one point halfway through like all these TSA guys like trip and they fall over each other. And this mom behind me goes like, oh my. And I was like, oh my God. We are so dead. And then the second nail on the coffees was I was hanging around the box office opening weekend just to see people buy the tickets. And

And the same weekend we were open, Aragon, the Dragon movie, and Charlotte's Web were opening or we're out. And this mom comes up with all these kids, and she goes, all right, kids, you want to see the movie about the dragons or the talking spider? I was like, well, yeah, so clearly. Or a Disney, bad Disney TV movie with kids running around an airport. So, and that bomb. And then the door to movie jail slammed shut and locked. We're only focusing on the negatives in your career right now, the sad parts of the. No, but I mean, like, and obviously, you know, we say we don't have time to go into everything.

But, of course, then bridesmaids comes and suddenly everything changes and opportunities come around. And, I mean, I guess I want to jump just again, for time constraints. You see the poster. I have it over here. So you know I'm a Ghostbusters fan. Yes, there you, Vigo. Vigo, who Ghostbusters 2 fan. I think it's underrated.

It's very fun. I like it too. And I love yours. I watched it again the other day just so like it was the first time, probably since the year it was release that I saw it and it holds up and it holds up in a way where like you can now appreciate it without all the baggage that was bullshit yeah exactly which was so insane I mean in some ways like it feels like that film predicted I feel like Donald Trump's election we were we were I'm telling we were part and parcel with that I'm kind of serious right I mean like that's serious

2016 was a terrible year for women yeah the misogyny online the trolling everything I would go every time I'd get hammered and I'd get hammered constantly I always on Twitter always go back and see who wrote me something mean. And 99.9% of the time it had mega, had Trump, had something, you know, like that. So it was all, it was all the same dudes. Well, did, you're proud of that film as well as well you should be. I'm hugely proud. I mean, is there anything separating all that stuff out of it about the film itself that, I mean, was it too expensive? Was there an approach thematically or whatever that you feel could have changed the, the outcome, the reception, the box office?

No, honestly, I stand by the film as a film itself. It was an expensive film, but half a, I mean, a lot of that expense was old producing deals, old rights deals. So, I mean, before the cameras rolled, we were in the hole in that way. But no, what I, the things I would change would be how I did some things around it. One is I would never have taken on the trolls, and I didn't do it for a year and a half. And then right after we wrap production, I had a moment of weakness, and I fired it fired out at two of these guys who were just up my ass and so mean to my cast. And they only had 90 followers.

Why didn't I block them? I was like, I like the Democratic. I want to hear everybody's voice. It's stupid. So I shouldn't have done that because then the minute I did that, I was a villain and it was all over the place. And they were, you know, whatever. But then I don't even think we did this.

But somehow then people started kind of making it into a political statement to go see our movie. Meaning like, go support. If you care about women, go see. this movie. And for an audience in the middle of the summer, they're like, I don't want to make a fucking political statement. I just want to go see a movie. I want to see a comedy. And then the downvoting of us, of our trailer, which I never liked that trailer. We fought against that trailer. But, you know, it got downvoted a million times, whatever. So we were the, you know,

the most disliked trailer in YouTube history. The media never said Ghostbusters without, in the very next sentence saying the most dislike trailer in YouTube history. Again, if you're an audience member has got like a few bucks to spend, you go like, oh, Ghostbusters, Oh, wait, that's the movie that everybody hates. It must be terrible. So, I don't, honestly, I don't think I would have done anything much different. I mean, now, they look, as a director, you always go like, oh, I wish we had kind of fix that. But nothing wholesale, not major things.

No, no, not at all. The film ended with kind of the post-credits tease was Leslie Jones' character hearing Zool, the name Zool. What was, did you have, like, a plan of, like, what that was going to manifest? Yeah, we had lots of stuff we wanted to do. We were all excited. What was going to happen? Can you tease me anything? Maybe it'll happen still.

I mean, I definitely wanted us to go to another country because when we were doing, especially doing the press tour, the international press tour, every country, the reporters would come with these drawings or, you know, artist renderings of that country's ghosts. And every country has these really wild, like, ghost stories and kind of ghost characters that they scare kids with or, like, keep people in line with or whatever.

And it was like, oh, my God, we got to, like, I really love the idea of, like, the Ghostbusters are going to, like, you know, Asia, you know, somewhere. So, yeah, so there's a lot of fun stuff that we could have done. And I think it's really sad. I mean, I'm really happy that IDW keeps the comics going. You know, they have both the crossed over one where they brought the old team and the new team together in one comic because they had this kind of portal. But then they're also doing the answer to call with just my ladies where they're doing my own team. And so it's nice, short of getting to make more movies about it. It does feel like one of those films, though, even in the couple of years it's been out that is, I feel like starting to, like, people are watching it, again, without the baggage.

And I feel like it's going to hold up. I get great feedback. I mean, people write me all the time. You know, the greatest moment of my career, I have to say, after just getting hammered and hammered for all that time was when Ghostbusters won the Nickelodeon kid's choice for favorite movie over Rogue One and one of the Captain America movies. And so, you know, after three years of white dudes telling me, you know, like, uh, thanks. ruining my childhood, like, oh, I guess actually, look, there's all, you know, we actually helped out with some kids' childhoods. You seem like a perfect candidate, given that you've been able to obviously handle comedy as well as any filmmaker out there and someone that can handle

a big budget and do kind of an effect-related film for, especially in the wake of the Guardians films and Thor Ragnarok of, of handling one of those. Is that something that you have conversations about, that you've, that's, is on the way? I'm open to it My problem is I'm not that I really appreciate superhero movies But I don't I don't love them My problem with them is I can never figure out this

I can't get I can't figure out the stakes Because if a guy gets punched through a building And the building falls on him And he can get up and shake his head Then I'm like I don't know What I'm kind of rooting for with you That's always the problem with someone like Supermanus But those these godly figures that are like

Okay like, you know, the first Iron Man I loved because, like, here's, it's a human guy, and he actually, I know why he had a super power condition. Right, he's like, right, he made a heart for himself, that I can get behind, and then he's so smart, he builds all this other stuff, that I get.

Batman the same way, like, okay, Batman's a rich guy who invents all this cool stuff, that I understand. That's why I love Ghostbusters. I go, these are just scientists who invented this stuff, they're still human. They can still get cut by a knife, you know, they can, but they have all this, they're smarter than we are.

That I respond. So hypothetically, in my hypothetical, Josh Harwood's universe, because I could see you being on a short list or something like this, Guardians 3 needs a filmmaker. I know. Well, I mean, I would never take anything away from another filmmaker, you know. And I mean, you know, you can, you can, whatever, moralize about what James wrote. And look, I don't make those kind of jokes. I don't like those kind of jokes.

But still, you know, that's James's, that's James's franchise. You are, is the next film going to be this one that's this Christmas, kind of thing, co-written by Emma Thompson? Called Last Christmas, yeah, yeah. When Emma Thompson sends you a script, you snap too. What can you say about that one in terms of like what boxes does it check for you? And what's, yeah.

It's lovely. I mean, my favorite movie of all time is, it's a wonderful life, you know. And with Undercompany Miners, you know, we tried to make a Christmas perennial on an occasionally show somewhere. But this one just checks every box for me because it's very, it's funny and it's sweet. And it's got a beautiful message to it. also shoots all in London, so it's like a love letter to London, and I'm a big anglophile, so I get to shoot in London and show off London the way I want to.

So, and it's just another genre. It's like kind of the uplifting Christmas movie, for lack of a better term. So, yeah, so I'm very excited about it. And finally, like, we talked about some of these kind of talents that you've utilized in different ways. I mean, do you think about, when you see an actor on screen, do you kind of put them in, like, the secret Paul Feig Journal of, like, I need to exploit that talent in a different way? Oh, yeah, yeah.

Like the Mangonello, like the Chris Hemsworth, et cetera. Totally. Is there anybody that you're eyeing that you want to put the... Well, nobody can say out loud. No, I mean, there's so many. Honestly, there's so many people because... You know what? It really...

Sometimes it depends on just, oh, I want to take that person and kind of subvert the public's expectation of them. But for me, it's more finding the property or inventing the property and then going like, oh, I know who this would be great for in tailoring it to them that way. But, you know, it's just really fun to take... people who other people don't expect are going to do something and make them do it.

Yeah. Are you still exploiting the general meeting to meet the people that you're... I should be. I know. I should be. This is like your Make a Wish Foundation. You can just do whatever you want. I know, exactly. There's some musicians I actually want to take meetings with. Yeah. Camilla Cabrejo. Oh, yeah. Is your best friend from the VMAs?

Yes, exactly. I just like her. I walk around the city and she has this like Skechers ad that's on all the ball. And it's just, it's so adorable. I'm like, I want to meet her. She seems like she could be actually really lovely on the, you know, in a movie. There you go. Her and Jason Statham in the next. Oh, my God, that's it.

That's it. You've done it. We've made progress here today. Oh, Josh. Will you produce, please? I'm in. I'm in all the way. Yes, excellent.

Congratulations on a wonderful career that has much to come, including a simple favor, which everybody should check out. As I said, it's, it still feels, as you said, like a Paul. Feeke film, which is, I think, a credit to you and your diversity behind the camera. But it's unexpected in some interesting ways, too. So I think you should check it out. It's fun. I call it a friller. It's a fun thriller.

So you'll go, you'll have fun, and you'll check all the boxes. There you go. You're welcome here anytime, man. Good to see you. Thanks, Josh. So fun. And so ends another edition of happy, sad, confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes, or

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