Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - David Nutter

Episode Date: April 30, 2019

David Nutter (Game of Thrones, Smallville, Supernatural) aka the pilot whisperer discusses selling sixteen pilots in a row that went to series, the secret behind directing Brad Pitt, George Clooney & ...James Gandolfini, and how he still treats every job like its his first. David opens up about shooting the Red Wedding, directing three of the final six Game of Thrones episodes, and the time Barack Obama told him he kills all his favorite characters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum, Rob, uh, I'm back. Dude, Game of Thrones is back. I'm back. Game of Thrones is back. Have you been watching it? I have been. I've been pretty excited. This, I mean, it's not Sunday yet. Episode 3 has not happened, but it will have by the time this is out. And I don't want to give anything away, but things are building up. So we're not going to give any spoilers here, but I'm just saying things are building up that you know shit's going to go down.
Starting point is 00:00:28 And everybody's got these, you have these dead. pools like who's going to survive the you know who's going to sit on the throne you wouldn't even do it you had answer you had to answer like yeah 40 questions all of them do it no well no no one's died well well well because because you know part of the questions are what episode did they die oh yeah so you're eliminating two of six but you know what I think sansa John snow and um aria might be the final three all right so who do you think is going to sit on the throne at the end i'm gonna have to go with i mean podrick no denarius is gonna is gonna is gonna try and kill john snow and then aria is gonna kill her it's gonna be this weird blood bat and i and i have a
Starting point is 00:01:14 picture i have a feeling of sansa crawling up to the throne bloody and just like and crawling up and she's the last one there anyway it's going to be exciting i can't wait till the final final episodes but our guest today He didn't ask me What I think? Oh yeah, Who do you think is going to be on a throne? Well, it's tough
Starting point is 00:01:35 Because I don't think I don't think it's going to be a happy ending I don't think Tyrion's dying He's dying I don't think the Stark's As a whole Like they're not all going to live
Starting point is 00:01:44 And then have the throne I think DeNaris Getting the throne is Anyway, today We've got a great guest David Nutter He directs He directs three of the last six
Starting point is 00:01:53 Game of the last six One two and four He directed he directed the red wedding he uh you're gonna have get a lot of insight if you're even whether you're a filmmaker or not you're gonna get a lot of insight this guy has directed over 20 pilots have gone to series some of those snuck by i don't know like small bill arrow uh supernatural this guy is a legend david nutter anybody and everybody in the industry knows him if you don't know him and you're out there in the midwest where i grew up just listen because it's gonna
Starting point is 00:02:23 you're gonna find it interesting he's a really interesting guy and such a likable guy Let's get inside, David Nutter. It's my point of view. You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience. This is a real treat for me. Thank you for allowing me to be inside of you, David Nutter. Come right inside.
Starting point is 00:02:55 There's plenty of room. Alan Miles who created Smallville They're excited They said when are you going to have us on You have him on before us But I said hey He's done a lot more work than you guys Exactly
Starting point is 00:03:06 No no that's not true They're great guys And I love them They're going to come on How do we meet? You remember how we met? You have to remind me heavy First of all I'm sitting with a huge
Starting point is 00:03:15 Huge director He's done so much You know I was looking at your resume I didn't know this shit I mean I know you're not somebody Who loves to talk about themselves Like me
Starting point is 00:03:24 But Jack and Bobby without a trace smallville dark angel roswell sleepwalkers millennium above and beyond eastwick mentalist terminator travelers supernatural the doctor arrow the advocates the flash deception these are let me these aren't just episodes of television you directed the pilots for these show correct yes i've done sold about 20 shows you sold 20 shows and at one point you had 16 in a row that you sold that when you shot the pilot it went to series yes do you ever sit look in the mirror and say yeah You're fucking the shit, man. No, no, no.
Starting point is 00:03:59 It's all about just finding the right material and finding something I can fall in love with. Do you fall in love easily? No. You've been with the same woman since, what, 84? 30 years, 30 plus years. It's just, it's crazy to me how, like, someone that has a body of work like this, where are they come from? Like, where you, like, you hear about Spielberg and you hear about these big directors and they studied at USC and they always wanted to be a filmmaker.
Starting point is 00:04:24 And was that you? I wanted to be the next Barry Manilow. How's that sound? Do you know, are you kidding? Are you playing with me right now? I'm a huge Barry Manilow fan. Well, there you go. If I, can you name five Barry Manilow songs? Mandy.
Starting point is 00:04:38 Copa Cavana? Could it be magic? Yeah. A weekend in New England? Sang that one in high school. Back in New England. So you wanted to be the next Barry Manelow. I did want to be the next Barry Manelow.
Starting point is 00:04:51 It was funny. I wanted to see him at the Harvard Bowl a few years ago. And I called the ticket. a scalper. He said, I want the best teacher of a man, and the guy says, don't worry, there will be no problem getting. Were you front row practically? It was fantastic. He was excellent. And he sang everything, right? Oh, he sang it all. He's beautiful. He's got so much energy. He's fantastic. Did he sing, even now? Oh, yeah. When I have, and so you're a singer. Well, I started off as one, yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:16 Do you still sing? Does your wife catch you singing and go, God, you have a voice of an angel? Not anymore. Not anymore. I've kind of fallen out of it and all that stuff. People don't want to. They don't want to hear it. Do you find yourself singing on sets, on pilots? Well, it's crazy. I just was at a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, had Michael McDonald. I was there. Kenny Logan.
Starting point is 00:05:33 I was there. And Chris Christopher Cross. I brought 50 of my friends from my birthday. Of course. I knew every song. Wasn't it amazing? It was fantastic. It was a great concert.
Starting point is 00:05:41 I keep, forget, not in love anymore. Oh, yeah, fantastic. See, I love it because you're around my age. Exactly. Right. I'm old and much older. You're much older? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:49 How old are you? 58. Are you 58? Yeah. You have such a soft, sweet face. soft sweet young face david you do you look so doesn't he look young he doesn't look 58 he just nods i only feel 58 you feel 58 yeah no no what it was it was the fact that uh in high school i sang and it was musicals the whole thing acted and the whole deal i loved doing that so much i went to
Starting point is 00:06:12 college it was a voice major and then when i got into college and first year college and i realized that i'm not going to do what i want be what i want to be i'm not that good then i started right music. I started maybe the business of music and did that, none of that really was something that turned me on. In 1980, I took a filmmaking class because there's no maybe write music for movies. Right. And the roll up your sleeve process of making movies and I wrote music for this little movie I did, I said, maybe I can touch an audience through that. Through music, through score. Through score. Like next John Williams. Well, exactly, with Thomas Newman or something. But then I decided through directing, if I just wrote my seat, because it was more of a blue collar
Starting point is 00:06:51 profession in some respect at that point was just hard that hard work and i was at a film school in which they had a lot of equipment but not a lot of students where was this university of miami florida hard to get into no no it wasn't wasn't much of film school at all try getting into western kentucky university exactly pretty easy yeah good school but uh yeah they up saying santan you for me but i was always too busy too busy making films and so forth it was the kind of thing in which i i just loved making films and i just started into that and i started doing films that way How did you know you were good? I mean, first of all, were you popular in high school?
Starting point is 00:07:26 Well, you know, it was popular in the theater department and that kind of stuff in music. So if you were like, this guy's talent, he could sing. Could you dance? In ninth grade, I just moved to Clearwater, Florida, and I just moved there from a little small town called Venice, Florida, and I had a high-tanner voice. And I had done all state choir and all the kind of stuff
Starting point is 00:07:46 as a young junior high school kid, singing churches and so forth. And they were doing the high school. school uh in high school they were doing the musical music man so the music teacher and his wife his wife was the voice teacher she said well you should be marsall to washburn you know that shepoopoopi kid so and i came up seeing all the other all the young you know high school students the seniors or juniors and all the kind of stuff checking out these other people who they were thinking of the people they were thinking about to play harold hill and i went okay yeah so i did all my rehearsals for morsel's Sportsman and so forth.
Starting point is 00:08:20 Been in the weekends. On the weekend, I rehearsed Harold Hill. And got it down. The whole moves, all the moves, the dance moves, the whole thing, learned it and everything. And I tried for that, tried out for that role. And everyone was like, holy shit. Because they had to give me something because I got it perfectly pretty much prepared to everybody else.
Starting point is 00:08:40 And from that moment on, I realized that if you work hard enough and really focus, dreams can come true. And I just basically at that point, you know, have always taken that adage and really worked very hard to get the stuff I want. I think that's true. I think that a lot of times people, they're missing an element. Like, you can want to be something all you want, but if you don't go out and just get it and focus and really, because you could be distracted easily, you could, you know, a lot of people don't have the talent, but if they work hard at something, you think dreams can be met. Well, I didn't have all the talent myself. I mean, I learned how to direct in directing, you know, in a sense that I directed a series of The Adventures of Superboy for 20 episodes right after out of the film school and after I directed the show and the feature.
Starting point is 00:09:29 Why? Why would they give you that? I mean, right out of school, how good were you that you took a film, a directing class and you were that good? Here's what kind of happened. It was at an early spring, I'll say. In my last year of film school, or what really kind of happened was I took a, it was in the music program. And in the three years in the music program, I decided to take some film classes. So I told my mom, oh, I'm getting a communications degree. But all I was taking was to communicate with film classes.
Starting point is 00:09:56 I wasn't thinking anything else required. So I said to myself, well, this is something better happen here. So there was another fellow student, George Hernandez, who was a Vietnam veteran. Right. And George had written a play called Vietnam Trilogy. And he won basically a video tape display he did and tried to sell at the showtime. And I was, kind of the most successful drive. director there in the school, and he said, why don't you direct it?
Starting point is 00:10:19 It was about three acts of, he was the man of veterans. So the first act was about a group of veterans in the 60s, in the in-country, 70s. And the second act was a group of veterans in a pool hall, angry and bitter. And the third act was a husband-wife talking to a psychiatrist about post-traumatic stress disorder. And in 1983, who knew about PTSD? Nobody talked about that. So I said, George, why don't we take this third act and make a movie out of it? and turn that into something
Starting point is 00:10:45 and utilize sequences in the 60s and 70s and do flashbacks and things like that. He said, okay, let's do it. We came out to Los Angeles. I was kind of reminding myself coming up to your place tonight driving on a Monoan Drive, and we ran a room with the Chathamara Mon. We were auditioning actors and the whole thing.
Starting point is 00:11:01 But there was one actor I wanted to hire that I'd only seen him in one movie. And I'd heard that he was, you know, not working a lot. He had had five-field pilots and NBC. I just got out of, A.A. And I just got into A.A. A.A. and was someone that no one would I thought much of. But I had this feeling. Who was it? His name was Don Johnson. So he came to Miami. We hired him for the movie in 1984, January of 84. In the shooting of that movie, at the end of the shooting of the movie,
Starting point is 00:11:33 I went to his trailer one day, and I saw he had a script in his room called Miami Vice. And I told him to Anthony Yorker, which was a writer and Michael Mann was a producer. And Don didn't know who Michael Mann really was. So I said, Don, all I can tell you, Jericho Miles, the thief, Michael Mann's a tremendous talent. You've got to really take this seriously. This is a tremendous project, I bet. The producer came down, they met Don on our side, we talked to him and so forth, saw that Don was just straight and narrow, working hard.
Starting point is 00:12:03 He became Sonny Crockett. Do you still talk to him? No, not really. We haven't been a lot of touch, I guess. Did he ever call you and say, Dave, you were right? God, thank God you walked into my trailer. No, I doubt that. No.
Starting point is 00:12:17 No, but so then, Don, so then I moved out, so I waited, we waited about the year before we got a distributor. And back in those days, independent films were like, there was us and Heartland, maybe just a few other things. It was really rare to get in the early 19? That was 23. Hmm. And getting a distributor and so forth was difficult. So we finally got a distributor. It moved off the Angeles in 1986, thinking that, oh, this is going to really happen for me now.
Starting point is 00:12:42 because we had great reviews and great responses and so forth. And it was the thing in which, one thing about the movie that was very successful was the fact that we were playing at Vets Centers. In Vetsons were seeing it. The first time Vets were watching this movie, and they were, like, in tears. How powerful is that? It was really quite something. It was the kind of thing in which David Sheehan was a film critic for KNBC out here.
Starting point is 00:13:05 And he basically heard David Sheehan's going to review your picture tonight. So I'm all excited to sit down and watch the TV at 11 o'clock. 1115 he comes on and he says well you know I wouldn't have gone to see him this Thursday night he does a review it's I wouldn't have gone and seen this movie except for Don Johnson of course was on Sunny Clark and I don't want me advice on Friday nights but blah blah blah bum but all I can tell is one thing ceasefire is a major achievement modern day screen dramas I was like wow heart just stopped um and I said well this is going to be something that's going to happen
Starting point is 00:13:42 for me i guess i got an agent i started to take meetings and so forth and and and and and and so on and and so forth and but the problem was i wasn't a writer i didn't have that next project didn't have that like what's that what's next what's the what do next what do you next and i'd say i don't know but i'm ready right so i should have kind of gotten a television because that's kind of where that kind of thing was happening the show i should have gone into but i didn't so i basically i waited a year couldn't get arrested directing traffic i used to play golf when i was in junior high school. I hadn't played golf in high school, didn't buy golf in college. Play golf in L.A.
Starting point is 00:14:17 In Los Angeles, what else am I going to do? I'm a director, right? I can't do anything else. You know, when you're a director, you're a jack-coball trades master of none. Right. So, I went up on Monday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, went and played golf with two buddies of mine. Some guy joined us. This guy was Patrick Hasberg. He had just created a new show called 21 Jump Street. Eleven years prior to that, he was a ski instructor in Aspen, Colorado. ski instructor yes for michael oberts for mike eisenner and stephen kennel three big uh big wigs
Starting point is 00:14:47 at the time stephen count took him under his wing patrick had created hard castle mccormick which is a hot tv show at the time and patrick started to ask me questions i was kind of bitter at the time i'd been out here a year i didn't think i'd ever work again or what would happen did you tell him about the review the great review i didn't i brought that up first well i'll tell you what happened one year ago yes exactly we had a great round i played a great round the golf show like in 87. I really kicked everybody's ass. It was fantastic. We went to the barfewords, and he says, I'm going to give you a call tomorrow. I said, oh, great, yeah, sure, sure, right, whatever. The next day my agent called me, and he said, they want to hire her to direct an episode
Starting point is 00:15:23 of 20 and jump. Come on. That, that easy? You play golf? You're a personable? Steve Beers, the producer. He called Steve Beers, the producer, and says, Steve, I want you to hire David Nutter to direct an episode. And Steve goes, okay, well, I'll get his movie. We'll take a look at it, and I said, no. Hire him. I was in my fourth day of prep. Vancouver for my episode and Bill Nuss, one of the producers walked in my office and he goes, you didn't go to film school, right? And you're like, yes, but you never direct the TV? No, no, no, no, but I was ready. So I, you know, I was hungry enough. How do you get ready? Has your technique changed since, you know, prepping for 21 Jump Street as it does for Game of Thrones?
Starting point is 00:16:07 You know, it doesn't. I, I often forget. that I know what I know. So I treat it like it's my first job always. There's the fear, there's the sense of dread, there's a sense of, I got to beat myself up to get through this. But I've learned that since in the last couple of years, I have to enjoy it more. But as far as the workload is over,
Starting point is 00:16:29 as far as the work level is concerned, as far as the preparation is concerned. This is a question for me. This is a selfish question. How do you get through? How do you, how are you good to yourself? how do you try to have fun how do you this is a question it should be so easy you're doing what you love it should love it but you were so hard on yourself that you're it sounds like you
Starting point is 00:16:49 aren't enjoying it for a long time because it was so much stress but you just said you you try to enjoy it more now you try to how do you do that or how did you manage to change the way you were thinking well i think what happened was is that i would enjoy it but i wouldn't admit to it I think, some of the, some respects. And also, too, we both, can I refer to some, we both had a connection on as our backs. And I had, you know, a couple years ago, I had terrible back surgery. I had a bad back surgery, had knee surgery and so forth. I had really beat myself up.
Starting point is 00:17:21 And I realized when I finished that, that I didn't know if I'd ever direct again. My confidence was gone. I wasn't sure. I remember when you were on Smallville and you directed this wonderful pilot, which people still talk about, which was changed my life. The show changed my life. You directing that pilot was an integral part of who and where I am now. And I remember the second episode when we got picked up for 22 episodes, you came on set and I noticed that you were having problems with your back.
Starting point is 00:17:48 Yeah. And I could relate because I had had surgeries. At that time, my back was okay, sort of. I hadn't had. I just remember. People don't understand when you're in pain, if you have friends who are in pain or back pain or neck pain or whatever it is. If you don't have it, you cannot understand it.
Starting point is 00:18:03 it is debilitating it is you know it's your backbone it's it's how you move every day and so trying to work and doing something you're passionate about or trying to just be happy and live in the moment is hard when you have this pain oh very much so and it's the kind of thing too you don't want to you don't want to you don't want to medicate and do all those things which can be a real problem and mistake but it's the thing which you realize that you have to take care of yourself and I think that by finally taking care of myself now now I appreciate it a whole lot more Yeah, do you think, I mean, unhappiness or the stress because you were in a lot of pain and you were just trying to get through days? No, no, no.
Starting point is 00:18:40 The pain was really pretty much isolated to that Smallville, the first episode of Smallville where I had a lower back issue and I had epidurals fix that and have surgery. And then I was pretty good for many, many years up until 2015 when my knee went out on me. Did it go out while you were working? It started to hurt me on the end of Game of Thrones. Which episode? Which was episode 509, 510, which was the final two episodes of season 5, where John Snow was killed and Danny saved by the dragons and the walk of shame it occurs and lots of things are going to happen. So you're directing the biggest episodes of the year for the biggest show on television and you can barely get through it? Is that what you're telling me?
Starting point is 00:19:22 No, it wasn't so, so bad. But when I came home after finishing that in December, I had to have a commitment to go direct a pilot. so I went to Atlanta to direct a pilot called the containment about a virus that takes over Atlanta proceeded to the CW, and then it sort of hurt. And it didn't really kill me. I didn't go down until basically I was packing to leave to go back home. I got to the airport, and I realized I couldn't walk to the gate. How long did you end up having surgery?
Starting point is 00:19:54 Yes, I had surgery right away. They said you can't wait any longer. You're going to lose feeling in your leg? I had needed. I had what was the doctor called avascular necrosis, where you have bone on bone. Oh my God. This sounds awful. So I did that.
Starting point is 00:20:08 And then my back kept hurting because I thought it was just walking incorrectly because of the knee. I realized it wasn't that at all. So I went back in. And in October, I had the bone fusion in my lower back. But then the year goes by because that bone fusion didn't hold. The screws weren't big enough. So I had to get bigger screws than next year. Inside of you is brought to you by Rocket Money.
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Starting point is 00:24:06 Free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash inside of you. How do you remain happy because I've had a lot of issues and I'm just like, God, man, sometimes it's just hard to be, you're on set all day, you're talking to people, you're living your life, it's probably got to be a pain in the ass for your wife to be like, oh my God, he's in pain. He's in pain. He's like, I'm sure she feels for you, but she's probably hard on her. Well, being on the other side of it now, it was very difficult. It was pretty much, it wasn't a good thing. Yeah. It was not a good thing at all. But I think that we have to experience the darkness to appreciate the light. I think that's that's wonderful I really do that there is a light sometimes you think there's not yeah and I think that's important to know that hey you're through going through something tough now and that's how I try to look at things
Starting point is 00:24:54 very much so I mean what else are you going to do say oh it's going to be like this forever no you say okay well tomorrow's going to be a better day yeah well what happened was that I did season five of Game of Thrones and I just took season six off and I said I would come back for season seven and that's when my bone shooting didn't hold So what happened was that I had to turn that down, and it broke my heart. And then December of 2016, I just had my second back surgery. I was feeling better. I was feeling better. I wasn't 100% at all.
Starting point is 00:25:25 And we had talked about, oh, come back for season 18, come back, come back, come back. And I said, yeah, yeah, but they have to see me. So at Christmas time, my wife and I went to Australia where she's from to see her family. And I said, well, if we're going to do that, I need to stop. and see my family too. And they were in Spain shooting. So we stopped in Spain and they hooked me up
Starting point is 00:25:50 and I got to the set, the Game of Thrones set. I met my Game of Thrones family, I guess is what I meant to say. Yeah. But I knew what you meant. I know. But what happened was they got there on a Sunday. And I said, well, it's like going on. It was an older, you know, of course,
Starting point is 00:26:03 an ancient city and it had a little courtyard or a little palatia area, of course, and all the little cafes are and so forth and I walked down there, people started to come out of the walls. People sort of came out of the courtyard. People would see me. David Nutter's here. Yeah. They love you. It was really something special. Isn't that something when you're in? And I felt like that because you only directed an episode and a half of Smallville, right? Maybe two episodes. And I remember after the pilot saying, how many's David going to do? And they're like, ah, well, he goes on. He directs pilots. He gets
Starting point is 00:26:37 show started and he's there but he goes off and does all these things to he gives people you know a series a chance to grow he does he does the pilot and then it's done right and it broke it did break my heart because we had such a connection on smallville and i just felt like the way you move the camera and the way you put everyone at ease with the way you directed and to be directed by you is pretty fascinating because a lot of directors come in there and it's just they don't know how to talk to actors or they just say okay you stand there you stand there we're going to do this one of this is be great you you had so much enthusiasm all the time just hey michael here's what we're going to do you're going to be in the luther mansion you're going to be fencing okay and we're going to hear the
Starting point is 00:27:17 sound and the steady cam's going to come around and it's going to find it's going to pick up on this and it's going to find you and you're going to go to the bar and you're going to take your helmet off or whatever in there and then we're going to discover you lex luther for the first time with this big smile or whatever i don't know whatever it was and you just told you explained the scene you had enthusiasm you knew what the character was more than i did i didn't know what the fuck i was doing. Oh, yeah, you did. Well, I just said, you know, I learned my lines. I'm going to hit my mark. I'm in good hands. I got to be in good hands. I thought they were going to fire me. I didn't know. I've never done a serious role on television or a movie like this. And you put my mind at ease.
Starting point is 00:27:51 I felt like I got a chance with this guy. This guy is going to get me to be the best I can be. Well, you know, Michael, you were such an amazing talent and to realize that you were willing to shave your head for this role, which is a pretty massive deal. seriously and willing to get that up for it that I wanted to make sure that you had every opportunity to to shine as I knew you would well you know what what happened with me on as far as the pilots are concerned it was kind of interesting my first pilot I directed was a thing called space above beyond for Morgan and Wong who uh did the 20 jump streets and brought me on the x-files and I did the my first part with those big two-hour shot in australia and um I did that
Starting point is 00:28:34 pilot and then I was going to stay on as producer director and it something didn't work out can crash or something I didn't do that so the next year I started reading it different materials and so forth started to be feature scripts the whole thing and I went back to the exfiles because that's what the best writing was so I went back to the exfiles did that and then I uh after doing that I then hooked up with Chris car and I did the millennium pilot with Lance Hanmixon which was pretty hot and a pretty cool show at the time was he to work with was he easy to work with or was he tough Chris? Lance. Lance. Hendrickson. You know, it was interesting. Lance was, he let me, he was such a pro, and his character was so specific. You know, Chris Carter is always very specific with his writing. And he just, he went out and did it. The, the most interesting part was the fact that when we finished shooting the pilot, because the Frank by character was so, so in a sense, in himself, so in a sense, to dower, so much, so little emotion and so forth
Starting point is 00:29:36 he kind of sitting there by himself and he kind of kept saying I don't know if I did anything you know and one of the examples of that was there was a big scene in which where he's basically explaining to all these cops
Starting point is 00:29:50 and so forth about the Frenchman who's the serial killer you know what he's like and why is it his way he is he starts going to the verse of Prince literature and he had all these various things and so forth he starts telling the story and so forth and he starts to tell him the story and so forth and move his hands and Chris comes over to me and says you know
Starting point is 00:30:04 people who talk like this are trying to sell something with their hands moving people with their hands in the pocket are bored so he should just basically say the words with his hands put that aside and Lance couldn't do that wow because it was very difficult just tell I don't know if I could do that because I talk with my hands like a human being tell an actor put your hands down to your side and just tell everybody that's just impossible Lance did it 20,000 feet later he did it
Starting point is 00:30:27 but what's interesting was this was the fact that Lance so inhabited this role and it was also important that in order to do that we did lots of research I'll go back to Don Johnson and cease fire I spent six months in vet centers going throughout the country sitting in vet centers and talking to guys
Starting point is 00:30:46 I was 23 years old I had no idea what that was all about the movie played in all these theaters and vets were coming out in tears they did the today show episode about that film how it affected veterans and I kept saying well we walked blinding in the fire where we had a firm step
Starting point is 00:31:03 and with that attitude i've always said that's all about the research and the preparation so with um lance did the same thing did a lot of research did a lot of preparation and at the end of the shooting the piety he got said there and said i don't know if i did anything so much and he got nominee for for the old glow i was so excited i mean what is it about like you'd say like your strengths and weaknesses like what's the why so much success why does the biggest show on television ask you to come back and why does the crew walk out when you land in Spain to see you. Why? I know it's your charisma. I know
Starting point is 00:31:38 it's just, but obviously you're incredibly talented. What about your talent differentiates you from other directors that makes, because obviously there's a lot of great directors, but what it is about you? What's your strength? What is it that you know you could bring that other directors aren't that they want you for? Yeah, it's a little maybe a little self-servant because I'm not, I'm not the most talented. No one loves the people he works with more. No one gives a shit about them more.
Starting point is 00:32:04 No one wants to inspire people more. No one wants to be able to get people and make them feel something more than that. I can say that. It's been a thing for my own self is, you know, and you may have been involved in this one, the small-go pilot or whatever, but always at the end of a show when I finish shooting a show, I get really emotional.
Starting point is 00:32:25 You do. I remember you crying. Yeah, I get going because it's really quite something because everyone gives their soul. to a chance and gave me the opportunity to like to trust me and that's something i take very very seriously i take the trust i take that that very very serious with people and i also let them know that matters to me that they matter to me and that's that's what i felt but that but there's even something beyond that i think all that translates on screen because you care so much about them and their characters and their work that maybe that's what the talent is well i think so too i think
Starting point is 00:32:58 it's a situation in which if you're not feeling it when you're shooting it you can't expect the audience to catch it you know it's the type of thing in which when I did the Red Wedding for Game of Thrones the big sequence at the end of the show I shot it in a way that the last
Starting point is 00:33:14 shot of the sequence was Caitlin dying and just before that Rob Stark dying and so what happened was the fact that we shall have build up, shall have built up and order set up in a way and ordered and so forth And he was, of course, he was shot with arrows, and then his wife was stabbed in the stomach.
Starting point is 00:33:32 He went to the ground, and she's bleeding to death, and he was shot with arrows. He crawls over to his wife. And as he's kind of hunched over his wife before he gets his final knife by Ruth Bolton, he starts to look at her and see her blood flowing out of her, and she's dying. And I started to speak to him about love and relationships and all the kind of whatever. And he started to go, get very emotional. And I called cut, we finished, and so forth. And I turned around, all the makeup and hair rolls were in tears.
Starting point is 00:34:02 And I realized at that point, I'd realize that before, I think, too. But I realized that if you're not that far into it, how can the audience be that way? And what was so satisfying to me, it was so nice to feel was when they did all the audience reaction videos, the people seeing the end of the time. Have you seen those, Rob? Have you seen those, Rob? Rob. By the way, this is Rob. Hey, Rob, Rob, how are you, buddy? Rob started young. I'm 46. No kid.
Starting point is 00:34:27 look at him over there, 29 with a kid. It's amazing. 30. 30. Yeah, but so, so to me, it's always in a situation in which it's really, that's all I got is that. I showed a girl I was dating that scene. She goes, I don't want to watch Game of Thrones. I don't, I'm not in all that old ancient shit. And I'm like, you have no idea. She goes, no, I'm not watching. I go, you know what? Then I swear to God, may I drop it right? And I go, how about you watch a scene with me? A 10-minute scene. Will you watch that? out of context you're just going to and she sat down and i showed her the red wedding i showed her the red wedding i go i don't care you're going to watch this because i can prove to you what a great show this is that's the scene that came up and i watched that i made her watch it she goes i had never
Starting point is 00:35:09 seen the show i didn't want to see the show i'm not into tv and she was in tears she was in tears just in one scene without knowing anything that's going around who these people are hasn't been invested in these people and that shows you how powerful to me that scene i say to this and i'm not saying this because you're here is not only the best scene probably in tv history okay that's how i feel i feel like game of thrones is the best show in the history of television and and i didn't want to watch it either to be in with i was four seasons back and my friends all said Rosenbaum you have to watch and i was like i don't you know i don't watch let and we all sat down here and they watched me they wanted to watch it with me, rewatch the show so they could see my reaction because they knew
Starting point is 00:35:54 what their reaction was when they first watched it. Sure. So when I watched this, I try to tell people it's like watching a major motion picture, like when Gladiator came out with Russell Crow. Sure. It's like seeing Gladiator every week. So true. That's what it's like, the impact that show has had on millions and millions of people. But for me, it's just like I get, I'm watching You know, the production value, the acting, the story, it's just the best thing. And so, anyway, I don't know where I got with that. No, but such amazing writing and so forth. And, you know, every character wants something.
Starting point is 00:36:26 Every character has their own mission in their own life, has their own agenda, which is fantastic because so much of the time you don't get that kind of depth and degree of difference in characters and uniqueness in the characters and so forth. And their actors are all so spot on. They're fantastic. who is your favorite you can't say because you're going to go back you're going to go back and direct three more right no the seasons it's all over now you're done it's all done but you've done it yeah so you've directed three of the final six episodes of the series i know you can't tell me
Starting point is 00:36:58 anything right because HBO game of throne they'll kill you oh yeah and be dead but can you can i try to get something from you you can try okay is there a moment like the red wedding where I'll be like, oh, fuck. Will the audience be, oh, fucked, at least a couple times and that's six episodes? I promise you, yes. Yeah, yeah, I know.
Starting point is 00:37:20 You looked at me. More than twice. I wish you could see her face. More than twice. Like, who lives? If you had one person, Rob, who would you want to live? Me, I know, the hound. Don't say anything.
Starting point is 00:37:34 But the hound, to me, that's my favorite character. I don't know what it is about him, but he's a fucking badass. I love when he says, you're a cunt, you're a cunt, you're a cunt. Tyrion. I'm talking about? I'll tell you, Tyrion, he's the greatest,
Starting point is 00:37:48 but I'll tell you the story about Roy. Roy was an actor that... Who played the hound. Of course, he's just tremendous. I came on the second season, and it had a little issues with his acting, his performance, and he hadn't done a lot of acting, so they had a great look and hadn't done a whole lot of acting,
Starting point is 00:38:03 and there was a sequence that he was supposed to do when someone else actually did the lines, form and so forth, whatever, And then they said, well, David, you have a big scene with them and we want to, you know, spend some time with them and so forth and get them to, like, you know, hopefully whatever. And I watched all the stuff, and I sat down with him. I looked at him, we talked for a few minutes.
Starting point is 00:38:25 And I said, one thing. So he quit acting. He would just like Clint East would just say the fucking words. And that's what he started to do. He would just say what he wanted to say. from that on they thought I was like a magician or something because you told them to just do nothing
Starting point is 00:38:43 be you yeah I heard crazy shit like he lives in the woods oh yeah yeah he's like a mountain man yeah he is he uh he basically uh he's definitely there's a great story I heard where he and Gerard Butler and uh there's this guy from my son who I worked with once who I thought
Starting point is 00:39:04 he's almost like a uh Arnold Schwarzenger real handsome good looking big muscle guy. Right. Where the three of them went out to go, went out to the wilds of Iceland. And Roy and Yuri, who was the two guys, he wanted to look for fire, would kind of make some fire. As they did that, Gerard Butler left the battery on the car, because he was waiting the car for them, keep warm. And by the time they got back, the battery was dead. So basically they got back, and Roy went off into no man's land for many miles to go get. And Roy had left, just
Starting point is 00:39:37 walked through the woods for miles on end. Yes, then he came back with a wheelbarron and a battery for the car. And that's who he was. That was him, absolutely. I want to meet that guy. He's a fantastic guy. He's a big guy. A very big guy.
Starting point is 00:39:51 Yeah, he's my favorite. I mean, did you, were you intimidated directing Game of Thrones when you first started? I mean, because you've looked, your body work is ridiculous. But, I mean, this is like, did you know what you were getting into? Like, what was their first episode? Well, you know, it was season two. It was one of episodes three or four or five or six or something in the middle of episodes. Were you nervous?
Starting point is 00:40:13 I was, I'm always nervous. But this is even bigger than nervous. This is like... Well, you don't have to tell you. Game of Thrones wasn't Game of Thrones yet, in a sense, season two. It hadn't gone up to that. But it was... I knew how good it was, just from everything I've seen it and so forth.
Starting point is 00:40:31 But I was... I'm always very nervous, you know, no matter of the situation. But, you know, it's a situation you're just going to jump in. And I also realize this is the fact that actors want to be directed. They do, don't they? They want to know from the director that the directors are watching what they're doing. If you don't say anything, it's like, oh, my God, what's going on? Inside of you is brought to you by Rocket Money.
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Starting point is 00:41:27 service thank god so you don't have to um i don't know how many times we talk about this but like know you got it and they helped you in so many ways and with these subscriptions that you think are like oh it's a one month subscription for free and then you pay well we forget we want to watch a show on some streamer and then we forget now we owe $200 by the end of the year yeah they're there to make sure those things don't happen and they will save you money you know rocket rocket money's five million members have saved a total of $500 million and canceled subscriptions with members saving up to $740 a year when they use all of the app's premium features. Get alerts if your bills increase in price, if there's unusual activity in your accounts, if you're close to going over budget, and even when you're doing a good job. How doesn't everybody have Rocket Money?
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Starting point is 00:42:33 Download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from my show. Ever wonder how dark the world can really get? Well, we dive into the twisted, the terrifying, and the true stories behind some of the world's most chilling crimes. Hi, I'm Ben. And I'm Nicole. Together we host Wicked and Grim,
Starting point is 00:42:51 a true crime podcast that unpacks real-life horrors one case at a time. With deep research, dark storytelling, and the occasional drink to take the edge off, we're here to explore the wicked and reveal the grim. We are Wicked and Grim. Follow and listen on your favorite podcast platform. It's interesting. You know, years ago, I did a band of brothers.
Starting point is 00:43:13 And these young actors are so many of them at the time. They've all, many of them become stars, you know, Michael Fasbender, James McAvoy, all these guys. And what happened was is the fact that they would see these guys shoot a scene and then use your cut and all these young guys like standing around. Okay, what's happening now or whatever, right? So what I started to do was I came in and I directed episode four And I started to do these big scenes with all the actors And after I'd finish the scene It was either a great action sequence or something cool
Starting point is 00:43:43 It happened or whatever I turned to the guys and say butter baby It just came out I don't know what that was just let them know that it was really fantastic Just to let them know at the time that they did a great job Because they weren't getting any of that And that helped probably substantially they liked it for many years after that they look at me and say butter baby
Starting point is 00:44:02 butter baby isn't there some actors that just go let me ask you has ever been an actor who just like i don't need your direction i don't need your approval i know what i'm doing fuck off um yeah but none of those anyways ever said that to me is not much of an actor really so it's never been one of the greats it's never been a great actor who gives you shit it's always the shitty ones you know i'm directed james grand lafini edie falco On Sopranos and, you know, even George Clooney I've worked with, you know, before he was even, before he are, I directed it. Always gentlemen. I directed Brad Pitt before he did.
Starting point is 00:44:40 What you directed with Brad Pitt? What happened was is that, you go back to Patrick Hasper, Stephen Cannel. Patrick Hasberg, not only discovered me, but they discovered a couple of other guys who have much bigger credits, Johnny Depp. Oh, yeah. And George Clooney, he started a George Clooney in a show, too. Brad Pitt had done a series for Patrick Casperger in Vancouver called Glory Days
Starting point is 00:45:01 about young guys in a high school newspaper and they basically did like seven episodes and it tanked and did anything well so Patrick after having directed the torn jumpstick for him he said I'd like you to come over and shoot
Starting point is 00:45:17 like a wrap around of these seven episodes and we're selling internationally so Brad Pitt is going to basically we're going to put in some makeup make him look like he's 40 years old. And this is right when Thelma and Louise was coming out. Right. And he was exploding.
Starting point is 00:45:32 And we'll do a little wrap-round through each of the episodes and you'll direct Brad Pitt. You know, at that point, he was just another young actor getting started. And he was great. He was great to work. It was nice. Just wanted you to talk to you. Absolutely. Absolutely so true.
Starting point is 00:45:46 Do you know, they're all, because it's a situation in which you, you got to find your end sometimes with the actor and so forth. I directed the Jonathan Price on Game of Thrones. Jonathan Price, Tony winner, Emmy winner. Was that intimidating at all? That was very intimidating. But you know what it is? I like to sit down with an actor and spend some time with him prior to. And what I did was I sat down with Jonathan Price,
Starting point is 00:46:11 and I tried to find that thing that I can say to him that no one else has said to him. And I spoke to him, I just want to, I said, Jonathan, I just want to tell you one thing. You're the greatest listener I've ever seen an act. because if you ever watch if you ever watch um glenary glenna ross one of my favorite movies there's a sequence where
Starting point is 00:46:28 Pacino he's in the whole movies he's listening and watching there's a sequence he's going on to him about like this he's like oh yeah in the beginning
Starting point is 00:46:37 yes and John McRice just said to listen to him to speak and it's amazing how what a tremendous actor he is trying to pop and smell vaguely of shit exactly he does that whole thing yeah exactly and but but I think the minute
Starting point is 00:46:50 I said that to him he trusted me and I've also gone up to actors and you know big time guys like him and they may have gotten a phrase wrong or something incorrectly whatever and you got to tell them but also I let them know that I'm there watching what they're doing yeah because a lot of directors are where you've got the big picture they don't think about what's the important part of the middle you know the two eyes yeah so I always want actors to know that that really matters to me and also I spend a lot time with them in the sense where I will, you know, talk to them about, you know, this is important to the scene and so forth, but I want you to know if we get to this moment,
Starting point is 00:47:25 I'll come to you and let you know, are you happy with it. And if you are, then we'll move on to give them. So you're already happy at this point. You just want to know if they're happy. Well, especially if it's something life changing the character, you know, a lot of Game of Thrones episodes in the past, it's been situations where characters, it's their last scene or either their last scene alive or their last scene the actor is going to shoot. Have they ever know, did they ever not know that?
Starting point is 00:47:48 but you knew, like, they weren't, did they always tell the actors on Game of Thrones, like, this next episode, you're going to die? Or did it ever happen where they didn't tell them and they just came on sitting there like, wait a minute, what the fuck? Well, I will tell you a wrap, kind of a story similar to that, but not exactly that. I directed season five, and there was the death of John Snow.
Starting point is 00:48:10 And at the end of that, after we shot the sequence, they said, you know, we need to tell, you know, have kids take about the crew and everybody. going on and said that and so forth with this because I didn't want to know what happened next as an audience member. I didn't want to know what was going to happen in season six. There was someone who told me to tell me I said, I don't hear anything. After we finished season five, I went to a fundraiser for Barack Obama. Had someone's house in Beverly Hills.
Starting point is 00:48:36 And they were excited that I was there because he's a huge Game of Thrones fan. They were all big Jimmy Thrones fans. So you're there for a little cocktail thing, whatever, some lunch or whatever. And then you have your picture taken with the president. Yeah. So I walked up to the president, and Jordan Kaplan, who's head of DNC finance or something, he said, this is David Nutter who directed the, you know, Range Casimir Red Wedding and all that stuff. And then he looked at me and he directed something.
Starting point is 00:49:04 Brock put his left hand on my shoulder and shook my hand. He says, you didn't kill John Snow, did you? And I said, yes, sir, he's deader than dead. Then he turned away and said, you kill all my favorite characters. Barack said that? Yes, yes. So what happened was is that then a year goes by
Starting point is 00:49:23 and I actually told him about the story because I saw him again on another event at ComicCon I said this at Comic-Con people were kind of like freaked but what happened was is the fact that a year later he came back alive of course
Starting point is 00:49:37 and they came out in the newspapers David Nutter had lied to the president David Nutter is a liar I'm going to the Guantanamo Bay That's amazing I mean, to me, the intimidating thing is, like, they just said, hey, direct the actors. Don't worry about all the CGI shit and the giant ships that are going on and the exploit. Like, there's so, like, there's so many people working on this.
Starting point is 00:50:00 Do you feel like you have a lot of help? Like, you could just really focus on a lot of the scenes. Do you have to be part of all that shit? Well, on Game of Thrones, the great thing about it is this is the fact that I can direct. But directing is everything, isn't it? It's not just directing the actors. You're going to the production design and you're talking to them and you're going to location scouts you.
Starting point is 00:50:20 I'm blocking out the actors. I'm figuring out the blocking, the, you know, rudimentary camera moves and so forth and all that and working with it and doing the whole deal. So I think that's my responsibility as a director anyway to be involved in all that stuff. But the great thing is that I don't have to check up on people.
Starting point is 00:50:38 I don't have to go back and, you know, the property guys are shabbles. They all have this shit together very, very much. Have you ever been on set where you're like, we can't do this like it's not working it's just not working we're going to have to reshoot this or something have you ever had to reshoot something a story comes to mine in Palm Springs directing Greg Avigan and Connie Selica this is a guy from BJ in the Baron Connie Selica from hotel for Glenn Larson who was trying to make a resurgence in
Starting point is 00:51:05 television and we're shooting in Palm Springs this crazy show I forget the name of it whatever we they wanted to do this big huge sequence And I said, guys, we're never going to make the day The sun's going to drop. So I said, we should shoot this direction before the sun goes down and then come back and shoot that. And they said, no, no, we'll shoot the reverse.
Starting point is 00:51:25 We have to shoot the reverse. I said, okay. It's not going to work. So we shot everything that direction. And they said, well, shoot up against the sand dunes. And everyone was like, what's happening here? And I said, well, the producer wants us to shoot against the sand dunes. So we'll do one take for each shot
Starting point is 00:51:41 and just do it. And I knew they had to come back. Jesus, you know, warned them. I warned them. But there have been other occasions, I think, where something may not just and write or something, but they blocked out of my memory now. I'm going to say a show of all these episodes. I want you to just give a word or a sentence, one sentence of what comes to mind when you hear the show. Okay?
Starting point is 00:52:06 Okay. For instance, if I said Roswell, 1999, you shot the pilot, what would you say about that experience? I directed a movie just before that called Disturban Behavior Uh-huh And they had wanted a director who directed X-Files And I wanted to do it like a step for teenagers And it was the worst experience in my life And I didn't know if I still could direct
Starting point is 00:52:27 So right after that I got run into Fox And he said, we want to like you to direct this Roswell pilot With Jason Katoms And I read this script and I said This is magic This is just what I want to do and I have to say of all the pilots I've done
Starting point is 00:52:45 that's the one that gave me my mojo back I guess because I realized I could direct and it would turn out really, really well and it was a show that was for Fox Fox Network at the time but they had a new president and he didn't like the shows. It only lasted a couple years. Actually lasted three years, but what happened was
Starting point is 00:53:02 that that fact that Fox was going to buy the show for the Fox Network and then apparently they got a copy of the pilot at Warner Brothers and Bob Daley who was the president and one brother saw the pilot and turned around and said this is the best director pilot I've seen in the year we've got to get it so they started negotiating with
Starting point is 00:53:18 the WV, the Fox did it by getting the show I love that show I did too I thought it was some quite special and what happened was they started to negotiate the point you got to the point where it was on we got 22 episodes which has never heard of anymore 22 episodes behind Austin's Creek and it was I was really
Starting point is 00:53:38 that was something really Did you love the actors in that show? Sherey Appleby? Oh, yeah. They were all fantastic. It was the best highest testing pilot in the history of the 20th century of Fox television. Jesus. Dark Angel.
Starting point is 00:53:48 Go back to Dark Angel, 2000. Well, I just done Roswell. I told Jason Kim's, I want to stay on and be a producer director. It was the first time I wanted to do that. But I wasn't a good producer director because there wasn't someone that could actually oversee other directors. I didn't like to do that part. So I got a call from my agent saying Jim Cameron wants to meet you on. James Cameron.
Starting point is 00:54:10 Once you're on Dark Angel. Are you shooting your pants at this point? Oh, yeah. This is right after Titanic. Oh, come on the planet. So I went and had a meeting and they liked what I had to say. And I read the script and off I went to do Dark Angel. The great thing about Dark Angels is the fact that I had an audience of one.
Starting point is 00:54:30 If James Cameron liked it, I'd be happy. That's all the matter to me. And he loved it. It turned out of well, yeah. Did he call you and say, Dave, come direct Titanic 2? No, he didn't go. He didn't do that. How about Avatar 5?
Starting point is 00:54:43 Nothing. Still, maybe. Then came a show Smallville 2001. Was that a good experience for you? That was a fantastic experience because what happened was, is I sat down with Peter Roth, and he was the president of, of course, Warner Brothers Television. He wanted to, like, do the young Superman. He said, we're not going to do Superboy.
Starting point is 00:54:59 We have to do the Young Superman. And I said, what happened? My goal in that, the whole experience was the fact that Superman at that point was not the cool superhero. He wasn't Batman. He was the most iconic classic superhero that was kind of removed from being real or of any kind of sense of believability as a person. I said, but Clark Kent, as a teenager, there's a lot of things that he can't have. He doesn't know where he's throwing. He doesn't know where he's going. He looks in the mirror sometimes he's a monster and sometimes sees an angel and sometimes there's parts of his life that he really has lots of issues with growing up. Every teenager
Starting point is 00:55:31 can relate to that. If I can make the world real, then the way of something special. And by the casting of yourself and and uh and uh and um and tom and everybody it was just it was amazingly turned up great i was very happy with that other great shows you know and we talked about briefly but we were both shocked by the whole alison thing you know we talked about oh yes yes yes sure and that was like you know people always say how was it working with alison she was wonderful right she was fantastic what she was such a pleasure such a treat everyone is a pleasure of work because it was a great working experience yeah that's how i felt supernatural let's go let's I'm passing a couple, but I'm just going to go to Supernatural,
Starting point is 00:56:08 because that has lasted, what is it, 14 seasons? 14 seasons. And people don't understand this. Rob, I don't know if you know this, but when you direct the pilot, you get paid for every episode that airs in the series. I do not know that. Is that correct? Everyone they make, yeah.
Starting point is 00:56:25 Everyone they make. Now, is that negotiable, the price? Well, it can be, yeah, absolutely. So it doesn't have to be like $5,000 per episode. It could be more. Well, the thing about supernatural was this is the fact that supernatural, like a lot of other shows that I've worked on that actually grabs me was the fact that this was a show about two brothers that lost their mother in the opening sequence and were looking for their dad. My dad died in the car accident when it was a year and a half old. So these stories about families that aren't quite together and trying to form and so forth has always been something that has affected me and something that I get to.
Starting point is 00:57:05 on to. I want to do a pilot where the story has to be told. The characters have to be do what they're doing. It's not a choice. So that's something really matters. And to me, this was something, it was a great story. It wasn't about the scary stuff at all. It was about two brothers looking for their dad after losing their mother. That was something that I thought was very special. Wow. And those guys are great. Jared and Jensen are fantastic. He was on Smallville. He did many episodes of Smallville. He didn't. Jensen. Jensen tested for Clark Kent. Yep. And it's also a situation when we did the casting for Jared and Jensen. It was a situation in which Jensen was originally going to play the other character, the Samarrow.
Starting point is 00:57:43 And so Eric Krippkin and I called Jensen and they said, hey, guy, how would you like to do that? He kept kind of referring to Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, and Han Solo. And I said, how would you like to play Han Solo? He said, don't good to me. And of course it turned out beautifully. Wow. Terminator, the Sarah Connor Chronicles. Well, it was interesting.
Starting point is 00:58:03 Jim Cameron was not involved in that, but I remember sitting down with, the writer and the producer and then we sat down at a table for four and I said this empty chair that's James Cameron's chair so this has to be worthy of his of his name on it and that was something very important and it was also the real
Starting point is 00:58:20 special thing was for that was a tremendous script but finding Lee to Haiti was really the for me they said 700 other guys aren't doing this right I'm like what the fuck are they doing wrong there's a lot of better actors than me what's the difference and you never know what the difference is
Starting point is 00:58:35 know if it's something that they whatever is in the creator's minds or the director's mind it's like when you walk in the room i always say before you say anything they know if you're the type right away oh yeah and also too it's interesting the fact that executives don't always get it right you know i i did a pile of once and i can't say what it was but but uh had an actor come in and read for the role and after you read for the role the president of the studio not the network or the studio with the president of the company. He was a huge, he was like the huge, huge Kahuna's second command of this huge company.
Starting point is 00:59:14 Right. Turned to me in a small room with too many people in it. And so, Dave, what did you see in this actor? And I said, well, he was this, this is not, and all these serious things I thought was very special about him. He said, I didn't see any of that. That was Heath Ledger. Wow.
Starting point is 00:59:30 So, yeah, that's what happened. And that guy who made that decision probably had a degree in marketing. Probably so, yes. We can go quickly here, Arrow and Flash. Arrow and Flash were me coming back to my roots of Smallville. Again, do both those shows where shows basically started in the real world. And what happened to these characters changed them? So I love telling origin stories like that.
Starting point is 00:59:53 Like, I couldn't direct, like, the Super Girl Pilot because that feels like a little too already there. Yeah. So to me, if I can render a sense of real world to it or any sense of reliability as far as the real world, concerned, I always jump with that chance and turn in something special. Those are two great experiences. I just had Stephen Amel on. He was the first actor that walked in and read for the role,
Starting point is 01:00:15 and I saw his picture, and I said, that's the guy. He said, David Nutter gave me a thumbs up and said, See you in Vancouver before I had been approved by the WB, the CW and Les Moon Vez. But you did that. Well, that's what happens. You know, it's like my wife, when I was, met my wife at the first time she opened the door
Starting point is 01:00:38 and I fell in love and walked in the editing room or garage of the house. This guy was cutting the movie in and I lay down these film cameras and said it aloud to myself, I'm going to marry that girl. She can be another than my kids. It's love at first sight. You have two kids. And it's really love at first sight. It's one of the things where it's like that charisma is quite special.
Starting point is 01:00:58 What do you, what else can you do? I mean, what else do you want to do? Will you ever retire? You're 58, you said? Yeah. Do you ever see yourself being retiring at a young age? Or there's too much left in the mind? No, I think I need to work because it keeps me young.
Starting point is 01:01:14 It keeps me going, keeps me excited. I need that passion. I had the passion of work. I need that feeling. It's something really means a world to me. That's like a second lover in a way? You got your wife who you love and your work. Very much.
Starting point is 01:01:28 It was a situation with me coming back to Game of Thrones this year. you know i was still kind of getting myself back on my feet and come and do the three episodes i was going to like oh man can i do it can i do it can i do it but the middle i got the script the minute i landed in belfast the middle i got the apartment the minute i walked on set i felt like a million bucks what did you what did you do after you read the first episode in the final season of game and thrones when you read did you read all six i actually not only read all i didn't here's what happened is they had a read through of all six of all the actors read all the same in a private room with a lot of security oh yes yes very
Starting point is 01:02:01 much so like people had to be like make sure there's no uh audio cassette there's no nothing there's i mean how strict is it to come in here to come into a room to do a reading like did you have to go through a security thing it wasn't quite that that bad but it was pretty pretty tight that's for sure what's interesting is the fact that i i was directing it was one two and four so i read one two three four i didn't read because as a fan you didn't want to i want to hear them when they were red so i actually got a chance to watch it that way. Did you... And I'll tell you one secret.
Starting point is 01:02:34 What? Kid Harrington. Yeah. He was reading it. He hadn't read it before. So in the read-through, it was his first time to read some of the sequences that happened. Did any of the actors cry during the readings?
Starting point is 01:02:45 Maybe they've been in tears as other actors perform stuff. Yeah. That's ambiguous, yet really interesting. You fuck. No, but think about it. So you're saying that some people responded to other. actors reading certain things for the first time for the first time yeah did you cry at all in the reading did you get emotional on set i got emotional at the end of like the christmas break i said
Starting point is 01:03:13 you by the crew and they kept all the times yeah what was it the best experience you've had in your life yes they're doing like six spinoffs though right you can do all of those they're doing one one one one one one one spinoff are you going to work on it maybe well we'll see what happens keep our fingers crossed You can't really say too much, can you? Well, I know that I think it's out, Jane Goldman, who wrote Kickass and the Kingsman, The Kingsman, The Kingsman, She wrote the Kingsman, Kickass, she's written, and they're getting, you know,
Starting point is 01:03:44 they're moving along forward to make it happen, I think. How many offers do you get a year? I wish my agent would tell me the truth. I'm not quite sure about that one, but I do have a commitment to Warner Brothers for every year to direct a pilot for them. I've had it for since Smallville. That's 2001.
Starting point is 01:03:59 And so you've had it for 17 years so far. How long does it last? Well, it's kind of re-ups and changed every couple years or whatever. So it's a deal. It's like, hey, and you know how much you're getting paid for this pilot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes. This has been a real treat. Rob, isn't this?
Starting point is 01:04:14 It's so educational and you're an amazing human being, but you're just like such a passionate guy. And I think, you know, I always like, why is David such a great director? And we talked about it. But I think that's, it's your real love, your wife and your work, your family and your work. You know what it is is the fact that there's two things that work in a relationship, vulnerability and trust. And I think that if you show you a vulnerability and people can trust you, I think that they'll follow you. And they also want a pipe piper. They want someone who knows what they're doing.
Starting point is 01:04:46 They want someone who has an idea. A crew will work and actors will work 10 times harder if they know that there's a plan. They don't mind doing something where they have to do. They get time to shoot an extra take. an extra scene and actually a shout or something to make them look better or to get into the shot more as long as they know that there's a plan involved so that's to me something that i'm a big believer in his rehearsal and making sure the actors know that there's a plan do you you you have a say in pilots that you direct always is that part of your deal like i want to help help cast this person uh in casting
Starting point is 01:05:20 yes i like to be involved in the casting very much so that's a big part of it so the next time you're casting something is there a possibility if something is right for me you'll think of me again And think, you know, this guy gave me a good performance. You see how I'm working on angle here? He's working on almost every interview now. Well, why not? He knows my ability. He directly.
Starting point is 01:05:37 He knows what I'm capable of. And he's so much better now after all these years of experience. Oh, my God. A little older, but... Still handsome. You know, relatively. Relatively. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:05:48 You too. You look good. I couldn't believe you're 50. I thought you were like a little older than me, maybe two years. Yeah. Thank you for allowing me to be inside of you, David Nutter. Well, it was a lot of fun. You being there and playing around.
Starting point is 01:05:58 unfortunately there's a lot of room for you that was good did you enjoy it I had a great time I mean this is great I really learned so much yeah Rob was a great audience too yeah Rob thanks for being here today we're going to talk about what if you're going to talk about what if you came across $50,000. What would you do? Put it into a tax advantage retirement account. The mortgage. That's what we do. Make a down payment on a home. Something nice. Buying a vehicle. A separate bucket for this addition that we're adding. $50,000. I'll buy a new podcast. You'll buy new friends. And we're done. Thanks for playing everybody. We're out of here. Stacking Benjamin's follow and listen on your
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