Monday Morning Podcast - Monday Morning Podcast 2-18-19

Episode Date: February 18, 2019

Bill rambles with director Jason Reitman.

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I wasn't going to call you. Information and information on Proximus.be Proximus. Think possible. For Monday, what would that be? 16th, Monday the 18th, February 18th. And we don't have guests on here too often. Lately more is I've gotten older here, starting to lose my mind.

And I get self-conscious about you guys listening to me going on and on and on. I do have a special guest, someone I got to know last year or maybe a little bit more than a year ago. We did a movie called The Front Runner. Please welcome director extraordinaire Jason Reitman. Now, I have to admit, this is Jason, as a fan of your podcast, that I am disappointed by myself even being here. Because I hate when you have a guest on the podcast. My favorite episodes of the ones are just you and you're talking to yourself and you're your best guest. And you go, oh, really, Bill?

Yeah, and you go back and forth. So I'm frustrated with myself being here on your podcast. Well, don't worry about this thing. My listeners fortunately enjoy movies, music and that type of thing. So when I do have people on, I try not to have just some sort of random person. And I'm having you on, not only because I love the movie you made. I'm also in it for a minute. So this is also like self-serving here.

You're great in the movie. Like, you're genuinely great in the movie and I've gotten a lot of feedback on that. And you're not only in it for a minute. Like, you've run down an alley a couple times. You have one of the best scenes in the film. You have one of the best scenes in the film. And one of the first things that people ever talk about is the beat where you drop the notepad. And they start talking about your scene and your character in it.

And I thought you were fantastic. Oh, I know. And everybody, yeah, that was the one thing that people said. Like, well, let's just let them know what it's about in case, you know, because God knows there's a million things to watch. Jason directed a movie last year called The Front Runner, which was the Gary Hart story, which I didn't know that, up until when he ran for president, that mainstream media, meaning like The New York Times, The LA Times, Chicago Tribune, whatever, like the newspapers that your paper boy delivered, never delved into a political candidate's personal life as far as their affairs or whatever was going on. And even if they knew, even if they knew it, it was considered beneath them, scumbag journalism, like a national inquirer level stuff.

I had no idea, I guess it was something I never really thought about, like whether they, because growing up, I felt like the only person who ever did it was JFK, because that's what you always heard about him. You always heard about him, Marilyn Monroe. Yeah, but you never heard about anybody else. So I just sort of assumed that, oh, he screwed around. There was a couple of legendary guys that screwed around that screwed around so much that everybody kind of knew. So I thought that, so I guess I kind of thought that screwing around was sort of a new thing or whatever. So isn't that how we feel about sex in general?

I mean, you know, as we get older, we realize that, oh, that's right, more people are probably pervs than we thought and more cheat than we thought. And you go back in history, oh yeah, people have probably been doing these things since the dawn of man. I remember when I was really young, I was taking drum lessons from this guy and he was 70 then. And I was like 18 or 19 and I was taking drums. He's an old big band drummer and he would start telling me stories one time. He was like, oh yeah, he goes, I used to have, he goes, I knew this woman, she had green eyes, man. She was crazy. He used to bang her in the park up against the tree and I was like, listen to this shit.

To have a drum lesson. Well, we got to know each other after a while. We'd hang out and stuff. So he didn't give a shit. He told me, because I was fascinated with his life because I wanted to, on some level, it's like, wait, this is what I knew. I wanted a fun job and I knew I loved drums, but I didn't have it. I was like more like dad rock band sort of talent level. But I didn't know that at that point and I was fascinated because he had lived that life.

He went through the whole big band era and all of that and watched that go away and how he dealt with it and all that stuff. But he used to tell me these stories and I remember, I looked, I'm like, you did that? It was like the 1930s, 1940s. I'm like, you did that? And he goes, let me tell you something, kid. He goes, every generation thinks they're the first generation that ever fucked. And I was, and I never forgot that. Well said.

I love the wording on that too. That's perfect. Yeah. But then, of course, you go back and you know, if you, the Romans, Greeks and all that stuff, you realize, it seems like it was like, like nothing happened, like nobody had sex between the Romans and the Greeks. Right. Up until Woodstock. Right.

Is kind of how it goes. So anyway, so what's his face? Gary Hart has an affair with Donna Rice and the Miami Herald decides to cross that line. And ever since then, we now have what we have now where they just, they just delve into everybody's life. And it's forced it now with like social media. I just thought it was just such a, the way you did it, it was just such a great story considering everything that's happening now. You know, like almost like everything's out there now to go back and kind of be like, this was sort of like the first, like, I can't even say leak in the dyke.

This was just the thing that kind of blew it open. Yeah, no. And by the way, I didn't know this stuff either. I'm not exactly a student of history. I'm a student of movies. I like movies and I didn't know the story and I frankly didn't really know who Gary Hart was. You know, I was probably 10 when this happened. Yeah.

And there was a radio lab, not to plug in different podcasts. Sorry. That's all right. I don't care. Radio lab. Listen to Radio Lab, everybody. Did a piece on this story. Matt By had written a book about Gary Hart and that really was my introduction to the story and considering everything that we're going through right now

and considering the way that we've kind of thinned the line between what is a private life and what is a public life, I thought the story was fascinating that there was a moment where, as you just said, his private life was out of bounds. It was considered not only uncouth, but it just wasn't our business. And he was a guy who was actually a great candidate in every other respect. You know, two-term senator and was kind of just not only the presumed nominee, but presumed to win. You know, he was like 10 points ahead of George Bush going into the campaign. Plus we just had eight years of Republicans. So then that's what happens.

And everybody's like, oh, it's the red ties fault. Right. And then you go eight years this way, then eight years that way. So yeah. And this story kind of broke. So basically, yeah, you're right. Other people kind of knew about Gary Hart that I think there was kind of presumptions that perhaps he was a womanizer that perhaps he dated around.

You know, he'd been separated from his wife a couple of times. And so he had kind of just dated traditionally in D.C. And the Miami Herald... What is dated traditionally means? He separated and he was going on dates? I mean, there was a moment where he wasn't married and he was just kind of going on dates. And so people got to feel for what this guy is like as a bachelor. This guy crushes it at work.

He crushes it outside of work. He was a handsome guy. I mean, his best friend was Warren Beatty. I mean, you know... Oh, wow. Yeah, there you go. So the Miami Herald gets one of this and they followed it up. And when a lot of other newspapers said, you know, we're not going to cover this, the Miami Herald did.

And the American public said, yes, give me more of that. And it coincides with just a lot of things happening simultaneously. You know, it was just a few years before that CNN even like went on the air. They started Crossfire. The satellite van was invented. A current affair. The first gossip television show, you know, goes on the air so that, you know, what we think of as, you know, National Enquirer being a print medium, like made it to television.

Right. And now we're filling a 24-hour news cycle. And the American public said, yeah, that matters to us. We want to hear that story. And that was also too. Back then, before the 24-hour news channel, you had time. Right. You were just coming out.

You at least, you know, if it was eight in the morning, like, this fucking story is breaking in 11 hours. We got it. We got it. Oh, whatever. 10 hours. We got to do something here. And now you have, like, forget about the 24-hour cycle. You have social media.

And now also the way people post news, there's no alleged. It's like somebody gets accused of something and then regular people because they're not in journalism. And then I guess there's no libel or anything on the Internet. It's just be, you know, so-and-so accused of this. And then it's like the next, you know, generation of that piece of shit, blah, blah, blah, blah, did this. And, oh, sorry, that's me. Oh, shit. This is literally, this is the part of the podcast that you enjoy when I fucking go onto my phone here.

Yeah. And completely abandoned. 175 pounds, we'll say. There we go. Is this your weigh-in? No. I'm doing Santa Barbara tonight and I'm flying the helicopter up with my instructor. And I thought we were only going to get the two-seater.

Now the four-seater became available, so I'm asking if my buddy can go along. So he just needs to know how many is there going to be and how much he weighs because it's all weight and balance and all that. Wait a second. Anytime you rent a helicopter or take a helicopter, you have to admit your weight. Does that fuck with people? Yeah. You know what? It's funny because especially in this business with entertainers.

Yeah. Because I had a buddy of mine and he goes, and he was sort of fat at the time, fatter than he wanted to be. And he goes, dude, I'll be like 190 by the time we fly. I think he was over two bills and he didn't want to admit it. And I just said, I just said, dude, this is not a time to lie. Oh, he came back. He's like 206, but I'm going to be in the 190s by the time we fly. It's like, great, just don't, you know, don't gain any more weight or whatever.

What they do is they'll just adjust like five pounds up or something like that. I would think and they're moving weight around the helicopter to balance it left for a top bottom. And then how much fuel you can have. Like there was a, there was some kid who was inexperienced or whatever. And he filled up the thing that I was, I'm going to fly the R44. So it's a four passenger. When you have a four passenger, I mean, unless you have kids, you know, I haven't flown this thing much. I'm just repeating what people told me.

You never fill both tanks up full because you just have too much weight and you won't be able to get lift. And I don't even know how you, this guy even got into a harbor, but somehow he did and he took off. And then it just becomes this thing where you're just pulling too much power and you're, you're, uh, you start descending and then your brain tells you pull more. What you actually want to do is try to level out what she probably should have done was something called a running landing, which is sort of sliding into second base, um, which he did not do. And unfortunately it didn't end well that day. So that's why we're asking, he's asking how many more it's only one,

only one is not a big deal. And also he's in, he's like a buck 75. So it won't be a problem, but it will definitely, you know, I would think he wouldn't top off both at this point. But, um, but it's not that long a flight. My DP is a pilot. Um, I set up a pilot, a lot of my camera crew are pilots and on up in the air, uh, which we did with American Airlines. They took the whole camera team down to Dallas at the end of the shoot. And they have, I guess this warehouse where they have a cockpit simulator for every plane they have in their fleet.

And they just start putting them in the planes and these cockpits are real. I mean, they are completely outfitted. They cost millions of dollars and they're so good that if you, if you get certified on the simulator, you are ready to take passengers up in the air. Like there is no in between as soon as you're certified on the simulator. But I don't understand about that is how do they duplicate the feel of whatever you're flying and how do they duplicate like turbulence? And then not, then not only that, you know, no matter what, you're not going to die in that thing.

So you never had to mentally try to keep your shit together. So I would think you, you have to go up with somebody. I don't think they go, all right, buddy. So here's your space invaders fucking certificate. Eric says, my son, Eric, he, he said, he's never sweat more in his life. He said, you forget that it is fake. The moment it is happening because it's all, the whole thing is shaking the whole time. The whole thing can rotate and move and shake.

They got screens all around. So all you see is what you would be normally seeing outside the window. I got to do that. And what they did is they were just fucking with them the whole time. So with each one of the guys on my camera team, they would just throw everything. Michael Burst. You left engines out. You know, a bird just went through your other tornado coming.

They gave everyone the sully route to see if they could have no one, no one to kill. Everyone was just crashing in the river. Oh God. Yeah. Oh, that's in Dallas, huh? Yeah. And then when we were shooting front runner, we were over at Delta and they, because Delta is in Atlanta and I remember on a lunch break, the guys did the same thing.

I missed out. I didn't know this was going down. They came back from lunch and Eric was, his hands were shaking because he said, it's just, it's so real. You forget that you're in a simulator and it's terrible. Is that right? Well, hopefully somebody listens to this and lets me try to do something like that. Because I always, ever since like 9-11 with those, you know, the terrorists taking over

the planes, you have your Steven Seagal fantasy that you would take them all out. But then in my fantasy, the pilots are also taken out. And then that's where it ends. It's like. Can you also fly a plane? No. Oh, okay. And there's a lot of stuff that is involved with it that I don't understand that does

fascinate me as far as their flaps and that type of stuff as far as like, you know, because the weird thing about aviation is you kind of learn through people fucking up. And most of the time those fuckups lead to death. And it's just not something that you want to. It's like, it's, I'd equate it to like riding a motorcycle where if, you know, if you tell the only person you want to talk to about riding a motorcycle, somebody else who rides a motorcycle, cause they'll talk about the fun of it and where to go. Anybody else?

Oh, it's not a matter of, you know, matter of when, right? Same thing with like aviation, which is not a fair comparison because of how safe it is. I mean, there's always obviously an element of danger every time you do it, but like the, just the sheer amount of people that are up there versus down here, there's nobody up there texting and also the level of training and the level of just communication that goes on when you're up there. I mean, that's what always blows my mind after every flight is when I then go down the highway and, you know, out here upwards of six lanes of breast and it's just like, I'm literally

flying in formation right now on the ground with people. I don't know what their flight plan is. I don't know what they're going to do. People are just ignoring the rules like those people who pass you on the right doing like 90 fucking miles an hour and you're trying to get off. And I can't tell you how many times I've landed, got in my car and then got on the highway and seen an accident. That's happened like four times.

I saw the craziest accident the other day. I was on the 10 and two cars try to merge into the same lane. They both notice each other at the same time and they don't touch their cars, never make contact, but they both freak out by how close they are to each other. Overcorrect, yeah. And one overcorrects left, goes into the median. The other one overcorrects right, rolls their car across up into a sign up onto the dirt and I'm just behind them three quarters between both of them and just go right between them.

Wow. It was... Episode of the fall guy. It was like transforms. It was so crazy and they never touched each other. It was the freakiest thing. It was like the hand of God. It spooked me for a while after.

It's just so strange. I remember early in my career, I did a road gig with a comic who had broken his hip in a car accident and he drove like an old lady and I was like, what the fuck? And then I started driving and I could just feel him how nervous he was. And that was the first time that clicked in my head, the physics of what I was doing. This car is going 80, so am I. I'm going 80 miles. You just don't think it.

You're just sitting there cruising along and all you're gauging is what's in front of you. Well, it's clear so it doesn't feel like you're going 80 miles. My body is traveling at a rate that if I was to hit something and stop abruptly, my brain's going to slam against the inside of my skull and I'm going to be dead. That's just not something that... And this happens in aviation too when guys get higher and higher hours. You get that false sense of safety. What I heard in ground school was the most dangerous pilots were the people with very

few hours and then people with a ton of hours because then they would get lazy with their pre-flight because they never had an engine failure. Yeah, yeah, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. Let's go. Fucking load it up. You're fine.

What do you weigh? Fucking $60, $70. Get in the fucking thing. And just doing dumb shit. Why aren't there more... It's funny. When I think about it, there's plenty of stories, horror stories about musicians on the road. So many musicians have died.

Playing crashes, car crashes, you just kind of... In your mind, I say that and you can kind of instantly list like 20 of them. I don't know those stories about comics, but comics are on the road just as much. Because we fly commercial. Most of those guys, I think, that died. A lot of those, they were chartering planes. Like the day the music died. That was the whole thing.

Let's get that. And all that was... Because I remember... I played that room, the surf ballroom, and I flew into that airport. The whole thing, I was like, jeez, you're gonna fly into that airport? People get like, they think it's the airport. It's like, no, what happened was, as far as what I read, was just the technology for de-icing just was not there. So he had the added weight on his wings of the ice.

And then also the ice, just the layer of it changes the shape of the wing, which affects your level of lift. And he had those two devastating combinations. And then the end result of that equation was they all died. So, yeah, I don't know. Leonard Skinner was another one. I think Aerosmith had just chartered that plane or was gonna charter. That was a shit plane. Do you see they found Aerosmith's original tour van?

No. Apparently they found Aerosmith's original tiny tour van with spray painted on the side or something. Like how does that exist for that long? So somebody just doesn't, I would just think that whoever bought it had no idea who Aerosmith was. Right. It says it on the side of the van. Yeah, and just had it in the back and like, I don't know if that was a breadcrumpt company or what. You know, like, dude, is that fucking, that should be in like the rock and roll hall of fame or something. The sets from 2001 sat in a field forever in England.

Like all these old spaceships and spacecraft and things that they built, miniatures, but we're just like enormous managers who apparently were sitting in a field for years in England. That's what I find fascinating about when I was talking to you when we had the time, when we were doing Front Runner, was talking to you about growing up in this business. And when I listened to you talking about movies and movie sets, I was fascinated because you sounded like me the way I talked about sports and football cards and guys who played in old stadiums and that type of stuff. And did your parents ever try to discourage you from getting into this business?

I would say that a lot because I don't think I would do that to my daughter because I just look at it like this is an incredibly fun business. It's really hard and it's very competitive. But so I think if you're going to try to get to the top of any business, you're going to deal with that same thing. It's not like trying to become the greatest oil man or politics or the best lawyer. I would think that all of that becomes cutthroat the higher up you're going up the mountain. So I mean, if you're really into this business, I mean,

plus I also don't think it's as bad as it used to be as far as now with like all of this, the power that the individual has on social media that if somebody is a creep, because that was the big thing, especially if you had a daughter, like you're not getting into this business, casting couch, all of those horror stories of that shit. Now I think it's, I've just declared on my podcast that it's okay now. That's what I did. I just decided, yeah, that's how I do it. I mean, honestly, I think the rejection, the potential for rejection is more dangerous than I guess partying and all that stuff.

I think if my daughter was thinking of going into business, that would be my biggest fear, is just going to a business where decade by decade, you're being told you're worthless, you're told that you're valueless on a daily basis. That's no way to live, but my parents actually... Now do you think that's literally said or that's just something that gets in your head by not booking auditions? Yeah, I mean, unlike any other business where you can kind of see, you know, judge your own wares by how you're doing, this is a business. Yeah, you go to audition after audition or you write something one after the other

and you don't really have a sense of why you're not being picked or why your work's not being made and so you start to second guess and look in the mirror and go, oh, is it this, is it that, you know, is it because I wore this, is it because I'm too heavy, is it, you know, maybe I need to look more like this person or sound more like this person. Oh yeah, I went through all of that. But I think that's the fork in the road where you can really go into a deep depression, which I did, or you can grow from it where you just go like, you know what, fuck this, this is what I do, this is what I look like, and that's how, once I went to that mindset,

this is what I do, this is what I look like, if you want to book me, awesome, if you don't, I understand there's all kinds of beautiful people out there. That's really healthy, but you always, I mean, one thing I've learned from listening to your podcast, though, is that you have, and I'm not sure if this developed earlier or later, but you have a strong sense of self-reflection and you probably don't like me saying this, but I think you're incredibly thoughtful when it comes to that, and really healthy when it comes to that. Easy, these compliments are not allowed on this podcast. Yeah, no, I know, I know, I'm sorry.

I know, I appreciate it. No, I do, I'm, yeah, Nia's telling me I have to get better at doing that, so thank you. I appreciate it, but there was, I went through in the, okay, so when I started, the look was, it was just the post-80s, but that look was still around the sport coat with the Miami Vice Color T-shirt and the sleeves pulled up a little bit, and I remember my mother got me a sport coat to wear on stage, and I knew it would look good, but I didn't think I was good enough to wear it. So I don't know if that's a Catholic guilt or whatever, so I never wore it. She got me that.

That's great. I didn't, I didn't, it's fucking hilarious. I didn't think I was good enough to dress like a hacky fucking road comic, because at that point it was like 93 or 94, so that look was way out and like. Is that jacket like still at your folks house? You know, I'm trying to think where that, I think I might have, that one might, that might be at my parents house or it was, it was given away or something, but then the grunge thing came in, so everybody had to have their shirts untucked, and then the late 90s was a real moose era.

There was a lot of moose in the hair. Oh, got it. And I remember, you know, that was back in the days of the black and white photos, right? So I had booked a little bit of acting work early in my career, and if you're young and you book anything, I booked a commercial or something like that, all of a sudden they're just like, oh Jesus, well, you know, this must be the next young horse we can ride. So they started, I had a little buzz, you know, new guy in New York or whatever, so I would hand out, you know, they handed out my photos, and this is back when I had hair,

and with the moose in the hair, my hair looked brown. So on some lower budget shit, they would bring me in for like the lead or something, and there was sort of an unwritten rule that redheaded males are just, you're not the lead, you're the friend. So I would walk in, you know, prepared like the three scenes or whatever, and they'd come walking in, their face would drop, be like, okay, we're just going to do the first scene, and that happened a million times, and I'd be like, but I, but I prepared all three. Nobody would just, yeah, maybe if you read for his friend or something, and I, it was funny because I never quite got frustrated

because I knew what was going on. I figured it out after a couple of times of that happening, like, oh, I get it. I look like fucking Ron Howard, and they think, you know, I'm not this guy, and I just always had in my head, eventually I'm going to get that part, but my goals were all stand-up related anyways, and I knew that my stand-up was going to lead to me meeting, you know, someone like you and hopefully getting a partner in a movie. So that's what I ended up doing.

I just focused on stand-up and stand-up and stand-up and stand-up, and then eventually I pushed through. And I think I would say Vince Gilligan was the first guy with Breaking Bad. I finally got to play an asshole. That was amazing. That was amazing. Yeah, I got to play an asshole. And I liked, what I liked about playing that asshole was I had hules, so I didn't have to act tough.

Right. Because like, I got this guy. So I just had to be the reason why. Like, come on, man, this guy's going to get upset. Just fucking sign this thing. That's funny that you should say that. I remember actually on set, because there's a dynamic that was in my head, and I think that often happens.

The director has something in their head, but they're not communicating enough to the actors or whoever. And I had this dynamic in my head of what you and Steve's this is, where do we each other? Right. And I remember the moment where you suddenly got what I would, why I thought the two of you would be great together, like why I thought this was an interesting comic pairing

as two people at a newspaper who worked together. Right. And now one guy, your character, who had actually done a lot of undercover work and was kind of more tough as nails, but also maybe talking it up a little too much. And then the other guy who had never been undercover, had never done any type of investigation and what that work would be like together.

But I was a fun guy to be that guy like saying that he did more than he did. Yeah. Because I go the other way. I play underplay. And that's, and I'm telling you, that comes from where I was born in the world, growing up just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, you know, looking the way I did with fucking orange hair and shit.

The move was underplaying self-deprecation, make fun of yourself before it was on you, make the bigger kids who can beat the shit out of you, laugh so they like you. And in that moment when they're going to beat somebody up, they look at you and then move on to the next kid. And that's what it was all about was just getting it off of me. It was like, what was that game? The Wonder Ball.

You know, when you were a kid, the Wonder Ball goes round and round just making sure when that song ended, you weren't holding it. Yeah, you weren't holding the ball. You know what's funny? In my school, the red-headed guy in my class was the tough guy. His name was Paris Cronin. He was the son of the lead singer for Ario Speedwagon.

Oh my God. And he was the tough guy. He's the toughest dude in class. He's probably a sweetheart now, but he was a bully back then. So that was my association with red-headed through elementary school. That's what I love about kids who grew up in Hollywood and LA out here. The people you went to fucking school. That's why I love being out here.

It's not meeting the guy. It's meeting the relatives or something. I went to a Super Bowl party and I met this guy. My father played the guy who was in the bed with the horse head in the Godfather. No, that's amazing. And I was just going, you got to be fucking kidding me. So whenever people like shit on LA going, this is a bunch of phonies and blah, blah. Yeah, it's like everything has, there's a phoniness to every industry,

especially when there's money involved. But when you get out here, there's extremely talented people and creative people. And then you get like great moments like that. I know a comic I started off with in Boston, Tony V. I don't remember this. You remember those old luggage commercials? Was it the tourist or commercials or whatever? And there was the gorilla throwing the luggage around inside the cell.

Oh, a vague memory. Yeah, he played the gorilla. So that was one of my first like cool stories. He told me that was on the road with them. I was like, that was you in the suit? He's like, yeah, that was me. Let's get the fuck out of here. I'm with the fucking, the gorilla suit guy.

Throwing the luggage around. So I was doing a scoring session for a movie and there was a stand-up bass guy. There was two stand-up bass guys, actually. One was younger and was a little bit older and they were doing this one solo piece for me. We were in the mixing stage and the younger guy goes, do you even know who this other guy is? I said, no, I'm sorry. I don't. And the younger guy goes, just show him.

Just show him. And the other guy goes, okay. And he starts going, and he had played the opening bass line for Nancy Sinatra's. These boots were made for walking. Get the fuck out of here. Yeah, it was incredible. That was over at Capitol? That was in Capitol.

This was on a different movie. We were at Warner at the time. And I was like, holy shit. And I was like, where did that come from? He's like, you know, I was just trying different things out. We tried that and it worked. And it's like, that's one of the most iconic bass lines. Yeah.

And you just shook his hand. You shook the hand that played that. And then every time. And he just did it for me. It was great. Yeah. And every time you hear it. As always, I go on tangents on here.

So getting back to the movie. Where can people see this? Because that was the thing. It came on. Because no one saw it. Well, we came out in November. But this is the thing, though. It's not like no one saw it.

It's just, it hasn't been where people are going to see it. And I feel like what I'm starting to realize, as little as I know about this whole movie game, is that people nowadays, like to get them to go out to theaters, it has to be like a big Aquaman marble thing, it seems. Or like a chick flick, like that star is born. Well, it has to be an event of some kind. Yeah.

To get you out. Well, it's expensive. I mean, look, it's going to cost fortune to go to the movies. And you have to have a real reason. You want to want to go with people. And now the size of these freaking flat screen TVs, it's like you really do have like your own movie screen. No one's going to be talking.

You can hit pause. So this movie, The Front Runner, is a great one to sit down and watch without, you know, the distractions of going to the movie theater, I think. And what I love, what I fucking loved about this movie, when I finally saw it, was how you don't do that fucking thing that I hate in movies where you lead people around them. Like you have a point I'm trying to make.

Yeah. And, you know, and I'm going to, you know, if you even have half a brain, you know what the point is as the movie is starting, and then you're going to hit me over the head with it for an hour and a half, two hours. Your thing is just sort of like, hey, this happened. And, you know, you can kind of, it's not, you know,

there's certain people that would have done that and been like, and if he got elected, then there's no, Robert Walker, we're not in Iraq, and all of America works out. And it's just kind of like, no, this fucking happened and ever since then, all this other stuff has happened. And is this, you know, one of the questions that I was left with that is does this type of shit

make qualified, probably better candidates, not run because they have their priorities straight. Like my family's more important than putting them through this shit. And does it more attract just a singularly focused, almost, I don't want to use sociopath, because that's always overused, but like more of a psycho selfish fucking person

where they're going to be like, yeah, fuck. I'm not even thinking about my kids. I want this. If you look at the difference between even like Gary Hart and Bill Clinton, Gary Hart was a guy who said, I'm just not going to dignify these questions with an answer, and Bill Clinton was a fighter.

And that's one of the reasons he became president is because he's a guy who just fought back, whether that's a good or bad quality. But look, I'm not a guy who believes in good or evil. That's not why I make movies. So that's interesting to me. So what is your, because I often think that, you know, where like with religion that I grew up in,

it's like, if you do this, you do this and then do this, you're going to hell unless you confess it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then you have to be sincere to confess it. But I sit there and I like, from my religion, I always think I'm going to hell. But then I look at my friends, and we've all roughly, you know,

your friends are roughly living the same life you do. I look at them and I think all of them are going to heaven. We're all flawed. And look, I love Star Wars as much as the next guy. I love Star Wars and I look forward to every Star Wars films. And those movies are all about good and evil. And I appreciate superhero films. But, you know, so far, the kinds of movies that I've been making

have not been about good and evil. They've been about nuance. They've been about people who live in the middle. And frankly, I think that life is more complex than that. You can't judge any person by one moment. But we are living right now in a time when everyone is judged by one moment. They're judged by one millisecond. And, you know, you say one wrong thing

and the rest of your life is kind of thrown down the drain and we lose qualified people because of that. And then I also love people who then pile on and use that person's fuck-up as a way to show how awesome they are. Yeah, exactly. Like the amount of people that have used these, the victims of sexual assault,

the amount of people who have used that as a platform to show how, I hate to use this word, woke they are and like, look, I'm on the right side of this and I'm an ally. And all that jargon that has come out of that thing. And you said something earlier about how Gary Hart was, I'm not going to dignify that and somebody's personal life is none of their business.

I have felt that my whole life and I still feel that. And there's been times, you know, someone's wanted to show me something. It's just like, dude, that's none of my fucking business. Especially, you know, like texting between two people and somebody like somehow gets that. I always think like the story here is who got that and what a legal way they got that.

Like why did you, or any time... What a shitty friend they are. Yeah, and why does anybody, like, any time anybody gets arrested and the TMZ somehow gets the mug shot, it's like, why isn't there an investigation to find out who's the cop that fucking let that thing out? Well, the mug shots are public.

Oh, it is? Yeah, that's why we have like Frank Sinatra's mug shot. I'm so dumb. No, but that's one of those things that is public, but you're right. There's plenty that is nuanced and more complicated and it kind of gets thrown under the rug. And what's interesting about the heart story

and why we made The Front Runner is it brings up ten different conversations. It's talking about not only the relationship between journalists and politicians and why we vote for certain people. It's bringing up all kinds of gender politics questions that have changed since that moment and what the idea of a whistleblower is

because Donna Rice wasn't a whistleblower. No. Like it's easy to forget that, that there have been whistleblowers who are women who are bravely coming forward and talking about what kind of dirtbags they've dealt with. Donna Rice was a private human being.

It's a good religion. Gary Hart and Donna Rice were two very religious people and very private people who wound up in a very public moment because we all thought it was our business when neither of them to this day have spoken about it. Yeah, I didn't even know that. That's amazing.

Yeah, Donna Rice never sold her story. That's cool. Right there. Then she's all right. She's like a mobster. We never told on the other mobsters and just went to jail. Is that a bad analogy?

Did I fuck up twice in a row? No, no, no, not at all. I mean, she's complex. I mean, it's interesting because I think there's probably a lot of liberals that if they saw Front Runner, they want to kind of take up the torch with Donna Rice and then they find out that she's on the right wing

and she's actually pro-life. That's the greatest. I love when that happens. There's so many. Do you know what blew my mind the other day? There was a story about a guy in New York who killed this pregnant woman and she was early on pregnant.

I forget because of some new abortion law. They couldn't get them on two murders. The whole thing was fucking weird, but the whole gray area in that, I know, I know. I only have half the fucking details here. There was something about it. She was pregnant.

This guy killed her and people were upset because of some new abortion law. If you called it double homicide, you'd be saying that that is life in the womb and if it's life in the womb, then you cannot have an abortion because that would be murder. And then it becomes this whole thing like,

okay, so if she wants to have an abortion, then it's not a life. So it's basically life if the woman decides. I was sitting there like, the amount of mental flip-flop and I was doing going like, so what is going on? It was such like a really,

obviously it's a horrible thing that happened, but it was interesting religiously, legally, and like social media way. How politicized they got in a moment. Well, how the fuck do you navigate that mind field? If you're pro-choice, okay, and you just say, that's just a fetus, that's not a life,

but if a guy comes in and kills somebody, then now, because she wanted to keep it, then it is a life. Then it is the taking of life. Then it becomes like, well, wait a minute. So what are we fucking saying here? Thank God I don't have to figure that kind of thing out for a living.

Can you imagine having to be the person who has to decide that? No, because I'll be honest with you. I have my opinions on abortion, but I always preface them with like, I have no fucking idea what the right answer is here. Because I look at it one way, it's like, well, if it's not the taking of a life,

but if you didn't have that procedure, there would have been another life. Barring a miscarriage or something like that. So something was ended there. But then on the other side, you look at the population control and the way we're polluting the planet and how that's affecting all these other babies that are alive.

There's like a million fucking ways that you can look at it. So I just sort of resign it to, whatever somebody feels is the right thing to do. If they're cool with that, then I'm fine with it. I don't make you pro-choice then.

I mean, that's choice then. Because what you're talking about is choice. Because I wouldn't do it. Yeah, but you're talking about someone's right to choose themself, which I agree with you about. People need personal freedom. I also don't like people telling me what the fuck, but I don't mind.

Some of it I don't mind. Like, you know, I like that there's laws. I don't take it to that level. I believe in murder, Bill. I'm sorry. Hey, if you want to kill somebody and it's not me, say that that guy didn't deserve it. No. All right, taking a little break here.

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But anyway, so now we don't have any mention. Where can people see this fucking amazing movie that you made with Hugh Jackman and Vera Farmiga? The two of them, I was watching the shit going, they're going to get nominated for something. It's a fucking just weird time in this business where a movie like yours can slip through the cracks in cinema. But the great thing though is it can now be on like a Netflix

or something like that. They have a life. And it can explode. So it's not even like, so the jury's still out as far as where it's so fucked. It's available. It's on iTunes. You can get the blue or you can get the DVD. And it's a love letter to 1970 cinema.

If you happen to be a cinephile like me and you dig that stuff and you dig guys like Robert Altman and Michael Ritchie. I mean, this is a love letter to their movies. There's lots of these crazy long, you know, wonners and... I love those shots because I feel, especially with the way people edit now

where they make everything look like the fucking born identity, which works for the born identity. But I have this theory that when you edit really quick like that, it's like you're flipping through channels and it makes your brain reset, reset, reset, and where the long holding shots draws you in. Like I kind of learned that when I first started

doing stand-up specials. I would look at the old ones and be like, why does this look so fucking real? And everything from today looks fake. Now part of it was HD because, you know, HD can get like clearer than real life. Like you have a blue sweater all of a sudden. I'm not even listening to you.

I'm like, God, look how blue his fucking sweater is. But then the other thing was the pacing of it was just bam, bam, especially in the 2000s. It was a really bad time for stand-up specials where there was just a lot of like great comics where I felt that the editing hurt the material where you would just have directors just like just shooting their fucking load of every camera.

I mean, I watched this special, literally like a guy walking out to the microphone. The guy showed every camera he had. We're in front of him. We're behind him. I'm at the top of the theater. I'm swooping in. The jib's my favorite thing ever.

Ever in a stand-up special. Why am I swooping in to my shit joke? Right. Nothing else. And nothing makes me feel less like I'm in the audience than I'm flying over the audience. I hate that. Yeah.

Well, we talked about the idea. I think you brought the idea up to me was, you know, could we shoot a comedy special on film, like an old rock talk. Yeah. I mean, I made a short documentary on Rose Battle that they do up in the... Oh, the Ballerinas.

Yeah. That gets crazy up there. And that was fun. We shot it black and white and made it all grainy and made it look punk rock. And that was a lot of fun. Wake up, people. Have you put that out yet?

No. You know, I've kept that one secret. We brought it to Sundance and I played there. And if I know someone, I'll just send them a link so they can watch it because I think it's really cool. But I don't know why I've kept that one. I've kept that one tight. But that's something you'll use.

I don't know. I just... Well, I love the Rose Battle. I love what they do up there. I love that it's one of the few rooms that is just honest anymore. When I go and watch that and it's this tight room, it only holds, you know, less than 100 people. Yeah.

And it's also, it's Tuesday at midnight, so the only reason you're there is if you really need to be there. Yeah. And it's the least prejudice room and most prejudice room I've ever been in my life. Yeah. And I actually actually was there Tuesday night doing it, running my hour,

because I'm going to be doing a tape and a special. And it's just one of those great comedy things where... I forget our name, the woman who was running the show, but she was great, but the crowd was very progressive. Yeah. And that's in quotes, because progressive just means think what we think or we're going to attack you.

Yeah. Which is not progressive. So I went up there and I was doing my shit and oh my God, I was fucking bombing so bad for like the first 10 minutes before I kind of, you know, got out. You know, I was making fun of Michelle Obama doing the arena tour, which is just fucking hilarious to me. And I knew that they were all going to be like,

oh my God, she's the inspiration. So I just had to, so I was trashing her even harder, but it was just one of those things that makes the comedy store great and makes stand-up comedy great where it's just like, like I was up there bombing and I was having the best fucking thing. I was annoying the crowd so bad that there was a woman in the crowd pretending to be asleep on her friend's shoulder. Like that was going to...

That was getting under your skin. Oh my God. And I loved it. And I just kept... I kept talking to her to the point she had to pretend to wake up and then I was critiquing her soap opera acting. I was like, okay, now in this take, let's do it this way. And what's funny is I've been doing this shit for 27 years.

It's like, do you think that's the first fucking time so much... I remember the first time that it happened to me, the old Boston Comedy Club, and there was these two big black women in the front row and one of them just like put her head down on the other one. And but this is the thing, I was bombing during that set too, but I was bombing in a bad way. I was bombing like I'm not funny.

The other night I was bombing like... A political... Well, you're not receptive to my material and I know that so then I'm just going to go even harder. I saw you do this before you and I met. And in a moment we should talk about our first conversation when you got to set because I don't think you knew who I was. I thought you was somebody else.

You thought I was someone. I was kind of amazing. I was so bad. It was amazing. It made me so happy. You have no idea. I thought you were going to be like, why did I hire this guy? What a fucking moron.

I know. It was spectacular. So I saw you. Do you remember Tignataro had a show at Largo and you did that show and it was very similar. I mean, it was Tiggs' crowd and Tiggs' brilliant and her crowd is obviously... No, she's one of my favorites.

She's one of my favorites. Her audience is obviously going to be very left-wing and I watched you do this kind of set where you realized, oh, the audience is just so uncomfortable with anything other than left-wing material and because of that, they don't know if they're allowed to laugh and you just came right at the audience

with fearlessly and with confidence and it was a delight. It was a lot of fun. Well, it takes fans. They're not really violent. So there wasn't really... I didn't have to be too fearless. If I was opening for a couple other comics I can think of,

they have a more aggressive... I wouldn't be fearless in front of a Joe Rogan crowd because I would figure a lot of them know that UFC stuff and I would be afraid to piss somebody off in the crowd because those guys are no joke. Tiggs' audience is going to get a stern letter. Well, they might end your career. They might start a hashtag if you say the wrong thing.

I might get put on the sidelines. I don't know. It's a really weird thing and there's definitely places that I go to now where it's just like, good Lord, one of them is New York City. I swear to God. I mean, if I go in on just a guest spot night, if I go there to do a show,

it's people who know me, they know what they're getting, and then it's actually easy. But if I go in and just pop in and do... I will never, ever get over having a joke being groaned in New York City. I'm just thinking like, what the fuck happened in this place? The whole fucking place,

it's like a giant bedbath and beyond now. It's so nice. It's so much fucking cleaner. I don't know where they put all those people because all of the social ills that created that, they haven't solved. There's still drug addicts. There's still prostitution.

I just don't know what rub they swept them underneath to because I know it exists, but now everybody's walking around in like the fucking Truman Show and you literally stand on stage and what fucking blows my mind is like, I always say, I'm 50 years old. You guys should be shocking me.

You're acting like a bunch of old people on a fucking cruise ship. Like I'll be up there and they're like, oh, but what I love about that is only if it fucks with their politics. Because since the beginning of my career, you can say that a redneck has sex with his own sister and you will get an applause break

and be carried out the fucking room. And right there, there's some sort of incest going on there. That's some sort, there is, right? But that's totally fine because it's those people. You can say whatever the fuck you want about them, but then everybody over here is courageous

and they're a warrior and a fucking, I don't know what else they are. Well, we're missing nuance right now and we're missing conversation and it's absolutely good and evil now. It's absolutely, it's your side or my side and there's no real conversation. There's not enough Patrice O'Neill's

because I gotta be honest with you, like if that guy was still around, he was like sort of the comedy bouncer. Or policeman. And to the point, there was like people who wouldn't work clubs that he was at because, and they would say because he's a bully, he's a fucking asshole.

And he was actually, he was just trying to make you better. And like the whole, like, I mean, I miss that guy, you know, at least once a week something will happen. I'd be like, God, I wish I could hear what Patrice would have said about that. And I can't fucking imagine

what he would be thinking today with some of the shit that, and some of the people that say it, like the level of like, I mean, I hope I'm not coming off as preachy because I would never tell another comic or anybody what they should or shouldn't be saying, you know, if you ask my advice,

I'd be like, listen, this, and I always say, this is how I did it and it worked out for me because with our business, there is no, you start in the mail room and then you get promoted here. It's like, I always picture it's a giant field and everybody's running in every different direction

and you see somebody punch through and everybody's like, oh, that's the direction. Running in this fucking direction, you know? Well, you actually said something that I tell the young filmmakers all the time, writers and directors, and I find that when I meet young writers, directors, and I have to imagine it's the same for comics,

that when you're young, you imitate the people that you admire. Absolutely. You know, my first short films, all you would say is, wow, that guy really wants to be Quentin Tarantino. I get it, you love Tarantino. And then after you imitate

a bunch of the people that you like, you realize that you've been scared of saying something or writing something or directing something in this way that the back of your head is telling you to do it and you're embarrassed of that voice and then every once in a while you start to lean into that voice

and that's your voice. And if you can stop being scared of it and stop imitating the people you like and actually start to grow a little bit of confidence with the way that you just naturally want to say things, that is the only way in. Yeah.

It's the only authentic way in it. I think it kind of, it's not only for any art form, it's kind of any walk of life. There's the moment you stop being scared of who you actually were born. Yeah, your thought. I always said that every comic on an open mic

walks in with their voice and then they get introduced and in that walk they proceed to lose their voice and then try to find it, because you go up there and it's like before you got on stage people ask you questions and you just answer them,

at least amongst your friends and you're totally yourself. But that is such an out-of-body experience taking the mic out of the mic stand and then you're just totally self-conscious and then it disappears and then you'll spend the next seven, eight, fucking 20 years trying to find it again.

How long did it take you? I would say, I would say, I don't, it's a, I don't know, somewhere in the 2000s I started to get it and then I, but I feel like since like 2011, 2012 I've really been me

or maybe it's just, but you also changed, so a lot of times you look back at yourself 10 years ago and you can't relate to yourself, so maybe I was being me, but that's just who I was then. I don't really know, but it was, how many years though,

so are you looking at yourself and you're going, oh, I know who I'm pretending to be? Well, my thing, I started in 92 and my thing was Brian Regan and then David Tell was a huge one, Dave, Dave, Louis, but I thought it was funny.

I didn't really, like there wasn't anything about Louis where, like Louis didn't have like this cadence that got into my head. It was more his presence when he came on to this, I always tell the story, he went on at the Boston

and it was like fucking like, the show was just over. It was like two in the morning, it was fucking over. Nobody had even gotten a laugh in like 45 minutes. Everybody's just going up there bombing and he just walked on stage. He has that booming voice

and he did this exaggerated wave and he just went, hello, I can't even tell how he did it, but it was so ridiculous and exaggerated and silly that he just sort of broke them and they started like laughing and then he just went into his shit

and immediately started murdering and killing so hard, you would have thought we all did a good job like keeping the show going. And I remember seeing him do it, Chappelle do it, David Tell do it, Greer Barnes,

all of these guys and that was the big thing as a comic being so scared of the village in the mid 90s where it was Giuliani had just taken over, just parked that police truck down in the fucking Washington Square Park. But it's like, you know,

it's people like, you know, dealing drugs out front. It was like, you know, the shit that people saw on the way to the show. That's why the groans in New York blows my mind because it used to be like, what the fuck can I do to wake these people up

after what they just saw on the, just getting to this club. But I used to watch those guys and watch them kill after everybody bombed for like an hour and just two in the morning start killing like they were nine o'clock at night in a perfect spot.

And I remember just standing back there going, how the fuck do you do that? Like how do you get to that level? But anyway, I don't want to be sitting here talking about myself because you have, now your next movie, you're gonna be directing the next Ghostbusters.

Yeah. Right? So now you're going from this nuance thing that now you've got to do this franchise move. By the way, congratulations. I mean, that's a huge one. Well, I mean, and it's not just this last movie.

It's the last 20 years of my life. Like any son of any father, I just said, I'm not gonna be you. And I went out and became a Sundance filmmaker. I established myself at Sundance. I played that festival many times in short films. I established myself as an independent filmmaker.

And that's who I really still see myself. And if you would ask me anytime in the last 20 years, you know, are you gonna direct a Ghostbusters movie? My answer would have been, No. I'm an artist. Yeah.

That's just not who I am. That's my dad. You must have me confused, you know, all that garbage. And, and I had an idea. I've had an idea actually for a while. It was just.

Wait, who directed the first one? My father. Your father did. I'm the worst dude. Like all I know is sports. So your dad directed the first one. We start talking sports and all son very ignored. But has that ever happened?

Congratulations on the Super Bowl. I know that. Thank you. I did a hell of a job watching. Yeah. All year. Waiting for my ring to show up. Yeah.

My dad directed the first and second Ghostbusters. So wait a minute. Did you, Wait, and they recently made another. So this is the fourth one. Yeah. My father produced the one that came out a couple of years ago, the one that Paul Feig directed.

Okay. So has there ever been in the history of Hollywood, a dad who directed the beginning of a franchise and then his son comes along later? And directs another one. I don't know. And there's a good question. And I probably should know the answer to this.

And there's only so many kind of fathers and sons. So basically right now, okay, you got Lawrence Kasdan is the guy who wrote Empire Strikes Back, Rage of the Lost Ark, and was actually a neighbor growing up. And he has two sons, both are directors, John and Jake. Jake most famously directed Jumanji John co-wrote the Han Solo movie with his father. So you have that as you got. I saw that one. I saw that on a plane.

I really liked that one. Yeah. And then Lawrence and his son write solo. So you have that father-son thing? Other than that. Wait a minute. That's just going to drive me. Is it Driver?

Adam Driver? Oh, Adam Driver. Adam Driver is in the kind of, is in this edition of the Skywalker trilogy. That's the one I saw. That's the one. Adam Driver is in Force Awakens. Adam Driver is in Last Jedi. And you got, I don't know, you got Carl Reiner and Rob Reiner,

I don't think Rob Reiner ever directed anything that his father established. I don't know, maybe like Sophia Coppola does a Godfather movie. I know, but she was in one. She was in the third one now. Okay. So, but when do you, now when do you, when you're doing something that fucking big, like, I just can't, like how far out do you have to start with, to keep that fucking giant pizza dough in the air?

Honestly, the crazy thing is we have no time. So, I wrote the film in secret with my writing partner, Gil Cannon. We wrote it over the last year while we were finishing up Front Runner. And we turned it in December. And I have to admit, my presumption was it was going to be like any studio film that I had heard about, where they do years of rewrites and they grind it into the ground and it never happens. And I was kind of fully prepared for this year to be a year of maybe taking a little time

off and, you know, doing rewrites on Ghostbusters. And instead this, the studio read the first draft and said, yeah, go make it. Wow. So we're, I mean, with, with a very short runway, we're going to be shooting, you know, this summer. Good Lord. Coming out the following summer. How long will it take you to shoot something like that?

I don't know. I mean, it'll take us a few months and then we'll be in post. And for the first time, I'll have set pieces with visual effects and I'll be working with a visual effects supervisor and, you know, visual effects houses that'll be creating ghosts and things like that. Have you ever, when you got into early on in your career as a director, did you ever get into the edit room and realize you didn't have a shot you needed and then like, what the fuck do I do now?

Oh, I've realized that on every single movie. I mean, you go into every single movie thinking, you know how to do this job and you get to the edit and it is humiliating and depressing. And you, you watch that first cut of your movie and, and I've had, you know, I've had movies that went on to be nominated for best picture. And the first time I saw them, I thought, I will never get hired again. No one will ever let me direct a movie again when they see this. Yeah.

Oh God. I mean, look, the greatest. No, because I would say as, as like an actor, when I sit there and, you know, when you first start, especially as a comedian, when you exist in real time to 20 minutes and you're done in 20 minutes to then see how long it takes to get 20 minutes of film is something I had to let, I got to get into a completely different mindset. And when I saw like all of the shots, not necessarily on your movie, because I thought I liked the pace you worked at.

There's been a couple of ones that I've worked in where they're shooting so much stuff. I'd finally, I was like, why would they do it? And then I finally just put myself into the director's brain. And I was like, oh, I bet every one of them early in their career, went into the edit room, didn't have the shot and that like fucking haunts them. So I feel like they get in there, they get everything that they want. And then they're like, then they start going, okay, all right, what, where, how could this fuck me?

You know, all right, let's, let's not, now let's do like a tracking thing and all that stuff. So, and ever since I did that, I kind of now it's like, I understand the madness of it. Because I was doing what most people do initially was I was in my own head, looking at my own head, like, why isn't this going the way I would do it? Even though I don't understand what's going on. Like, I just recently did an acting gig and for the first time ever, I finally, I don't know what happened.

It all came together. Like, I got it. I'm like, okay, they're shooting the master, now they're doing this over. Now they're going for a two shot. And I could kind of, and then I started being like an actor going like, they're not going to be on me. I mean, they're on me, but they're not going to use this. So kind of, you know, make sure this one, now this is one that they're going to go to.

So make sure this and that I never had that. I was just always out there, you know, paging Mr. Herman, Mr. Herman, you have a phone call at the front. I would be doing my closeup acting on the fucking wide and throughout the whole fucking thing. And I would be working with these actors going like, this guy doesn't even look like he's fucking trying. And then all of a sudden they'd be over me and all of a sudden I'm like, who the fuck is that guy?

Right? And it's just like, and I was like, what is going on here, man? This guy's like a fucking, he's like a schizo or something. This last one that I just did, it all, it all came together. And I, and I ended up, I got it. And I got, I finally understood what I was supposed to be doing and how I could help the director and everybody else. And I ended up having the best fucking time, even though I bitched about it a little bit,

a cup, not even a little, just every night like, Jesus Christ, 12 hour fucking days, I'm a comedian. I work one hour, one hour days. I found that actors generally break down into two groups and there's actors who are 100% aware of everything that's happening around them. And then there's actors who have no idea what's happening around them. And they're both valuable. Actors who are kind of puppeteering themselves and know where the camera is and know what

the lensing's going to do. And, you know, Clooney's like that Clooney, you know, who's a director himself will literally be like, so you wanted me to bring my right shoulder in and I'm going to look this way. And when I look, I'll, you know, I'll give that one look and you can't, what lens are you on? You're on a 50. Okay, great. I'll look that way.

There's actors who are equally talented, but like if I had an exceptional actress who mid-scene I had to cut and I said, you know, you can't stand there. And she said, why? Are you standing right in front of the camera? I had no idea, literally it was just blocking the lens, just stopped in front of the camera. But there's a brilliance to that because they're so lost in what they're doing. So then you have to adjust if I can capture it. The best scene is when you have one of each.

I find you have one actor who knows everything that's going on and you get the other who's wild and it's like, it's like you have one dance partner who's keeping time and keeping the footwork and the other one who's just pushing them and who's just ethereal and is going to give you stuff you would have never thought of. That's right. I probably don't want to know any more of this because then I'll be in my head the next time I do it. But at some point I want to hang out with you.

You got to explain that lens thing because I've heard a few actors, what are you on a 50? All right. So you're right, right? Like they know like the whole thing. I'm like, I don't. It's oddly so simple. I mean, it really is just one shows a lot and one shows less and one has more in focus

and one has less in focus and they make you feel different things and that's just it. So when you talk about all things that directors think about. Yeah. But there's an art to all of that. Well, you're either someone who is sensitive or not. You're either someone and I think the same goes for a comic. You're either someone who's sensitive enough to know, oh, when I say this, it makes the room feel like this.

It makes them laugh in this way versus that way. And when I use this word, it makes them laugh in this way versus that way. And over time, you get to, you know, I mean, very rarely, but you get to someone as talented as yourself who has an opening. I'll pay you later for that. An idea that they're going to start with. But from there on, you're figuring your way out and you're reading a room and you're sensitive to it.

In the same way, a director is sensitive to, all right, if I light it this way, it'll make the audience feel this way. If I cut it this way or use this music or use this shot all the way down to kind of my new details and your ability to grow as a filmmaker is your sensitivity matched with kind of growing technique. Right. Well, last question I'll ask you. All right.

And thank you so much for coming on. This has been fascinating listening to all how all of this stuff. It's a pleasure to be here. So with the Ghostbuster movie, I would imagine that this whole thing where you have to be loyal to the look, the vibe, and the fans of the previous. And then you also have to want to put like your stamp on it. So is this like a hacky fucking junket question? No, no, not at all.

And this is not good. I'm not making the Juneau of Ghostbusters movies. Once again, I don't know that reference. Was that some super, super bowl of movies that I missed that was that's probably my most famous movie. My obituary will say Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman, director of Ghostbusters, also directed Juneau. That will be my, that's how my obituary starts.

Was that your biggest movie? Yeah. And it was this kind of movie that we made for nothing. It was a movie that we made for like seven million dollars and grossed like 200 million dollars. Oh my God. So you made like 30 grand on that? That's how that works.

No, and I made nothing because it was my second movie and I literally had nothing on it. But the studio. They always get you. They did really well and it was the launching of Alan Page and Diablo Cody who wrote it and really is the reason why I have a career. But anyhow, this is going to be a love letter to Ghostbusters. I love this franchise. I grew up watching it.

I consider myself the first Ghostbusters fan. I was like seven years old when that movie came out and I love it. I want to make a movie for my fellow Ghostbusters fan. So it's in safe hands. Yeah. And we're doing it in the style like we just did this teaser for it that we launched when we announced it. And even in that, we went back to the work files for the sound of the proton pack and

we went back to the stems of Elmer Bernstein's score for just where it says at the end of the teaser, it says like, you know, summer 2020. We went back and found the original like physical vinyl letters that they used to create the Ghostbusters poster in 1984. Oh my God. And then our titles guys reprinted them and we filmed the titles. Not like in a computer, we shot physical titles with a light and smoke effect because that's how they would have done it back in the day.

So we are in every way trying to go back to the original technique and make a and hand the movie back to the fans. That's awesome. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing that and everybody can see the front runner on iTunes. Where else did you say was available? I mean, anywhere you'd normally go, go buy a Blu-ray, go watch iTunes and particularly if you're someone who doesn't like being told what to think, here is kind of a rare movie of nuance.

Yeah, I love it. All right. Jason Reitman, everybody. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Yeah, indeed.