On Purpose with Jay Shetty - Bad Boys For Life Directors ON: The Journey From Film School To Big Hollywood Success & Giving Back Along The Way

Episode Date: March 23, 2020

Bad Boys For Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah sat down to talk with Jay Shetty about what it was like to not only work with their childhood heroes, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, but also direct one of the year’s biggest movies. Today you'll hear the inspirational story of how these talented Moroccan directors got their big break and catch their vision for the powerful future of film. Bonus: They’ll be directing Beverly Hills Cop 4 as well! Text Jay Shetty 310-997-4177 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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make progress with their financial goals. You can listen to How to Money on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Eva Longoria and I'm Maite Gomes-Rachon. We're so excited to introduce you to our new podcast, Hungry for History. On every episode, we're exploring some of our favorite dishes, ingredients, beverages from our Mexican culture. We'll share personal memories and family stories, decode, culinary customs, and even provide a recipe or two for you to try at home. Listen to Hungry for History on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

your podcasts. We did this movie, came out in 2015, and it blew up in Toronto Film Festival. It won a prize there, and that's our other doors of Hollywood opened right away and the first producer to see the movie was by chance of God, Jared Brookheimer. And when we thought, it worked. Hey everyone, welcome back to On Purpose, the number one health podcast in the world.

Well we get to dissect stories of people who are living with purpose, people who are living with meaning, people who are living an incredible life based on their passion and transforming lives and the world through it. Now today's guests, if you haven't heard about them, I am so excited for you to learn about them. Not only are they listeners of the podcast, they're dear friends of mine, and they've made an effort to be here in between their crazy schedule of what they've been up to. So I want to tell you a bit about our two incredible guests today, and here I go.

So Adil L. Arby and Belal Fala are the newer set of big budget studio directors you will want to keep tabs on. Moroccans by way of Belgium, they partnered in film school and are known for writing and directing the feature films Image 2014, Black 2015 and Patser 2018. And they are the directors of the smash hit bad boys for life.

If you've not seen it, make sure you go check it out. I saw it twice in the week that I dropped starring, of course, the one and only Will Smith and the awesome Martin Lawrence. LRB says, our movies are for a generation who doesn't have dreams. We want to give them a voice. I can't wait to hear their voices today. Welcome to the show, Adeel and the law. It's so good. I was so excited for your guys energy to come to the podcast because I remember the first time we went out for dinner. And then when we hung out together and then back at the premiere as well, I mean, you guys just, you literally ooze authenticity. Like you just have that

energy and vibe. Like whenever I'm with you, I feel like you're being totally yourself. You're just super down to earth, you're super grounded. And despite all your amazing success that you're having, you're just good human beings, man. So thanks, man. He's a lot of the comes from you, sir. Yeah, I mean it.

I mean it. Such a big honor to be here. Yeah, and a privilege. Well, no, I'm excited to dive into your stories today. You've got a phenomenal story. And I think anyone who's listening and watching today, this is one of those stories that's going to make you dream again. It's one of those stories that helps you realize the value of hard work and the value of what it takes to really chase your dreams. And I think

both of you embodied that. So let's dive straight into it. And I want you to talk about the first thing is I want you to tell me about funny memory that you two shared at film school when you met in St. Lucas. Well, you know, St. Lucas in Brussels was a very artistic school. And he was actually full of white people and we're we're Moroccans. And really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%. And, and you know, I was very shy and not really sociable. And I didn't talk a lot and I also didn't know how to dress well.

So I was like, you my corner and then came somebody that was really loud. I wasn't that loud. Yeah, but it was like the fresh prince came in, you know, fresh prince of Brussels. It was all far. He was talking to everybody and I was like, who's this loud guy? Yeah, but I was like, I only saw like white people. I was like, what's going on? And in the corner, I saw a deal.

And I was like, is that a moroccan? Is that a moroccan? So I went to him and said, yo, you moroccan? I was like, yeah. And then we became brothers. Yeah, I was like, yo. We formed a gang right away. Yeah, that's amazing.

How old were you guys then? I was 18 then. Well, it's been like 14 years, you've probably been friends. Exactly. Yeah, that's a real friendship, man. It's amazing that, did you ever imagine then, when you guys were 18 in your art film school,

you both see each other in the two Moroccans, like, did you ever imagine that you would make movies together one day? Well, yeah, I was thought I was going to be a lonely filmmaker. Yeah, and I was I thought I was going to be like a dictator. My first movies, I was like handling the on camera. My I did everything myself because I couldn't like give it to somebody else. So yeah, you have your like your own vision like that, you know, but that when we

we became friends, we were helping each other out with movies. And step by step, we realized that we had the same ideas, the same vision. Also, when we would read like a script or a story, we in our heads, I would explain to him how I see it visually, and how cut together with what kind of music. And he said, I got the same thing. Yeah, it was like super free. Yeah. it's really phenomenal to have a feeling like that. Like, somebody's seen the same thing. That's like... It's scary at first.

Yes, scary. And first of all, I was thinking, what the fuck? I got a beat this guy. In the beginning, you think, is this person just agreeing with everything? That's amazing. that's very rare. By the way, I just wanted to say, and I'm saying this to everyone watching,

this is the first time that we've ever done a double guest. Oh, and history, yeah, yeah, literally. This is history for the podcast. And you've already raised the bar, the chemistry here right now. Now next time we have double guest, it's gonna be hard work to beat you guys. But how did you learn about yourselves and each other in developing that collaboration?

Because I feel like when you're 18, we have this childlike collaboration of like, oh, we'd love to work together, it would be cool. But now that you're actually doing it as adults and you've made multiple movies together, it's like, what have you learned about collaboration and working together in the process? Well, being a collaborative because I was like a dictator and I wanted then nobody can touch it. I learned to like listen to all the ideas and be open and absorb everything. So, but I was, I was like a perfect, everything, yeah, perfection is

and he learned me mostly of, you have to let it go sometimes. Let it lose. As I'll be working for everyone on one thing. And for me, I was the country. I was at that time really happy to fast. Like, yeah, it's good enough. No, not to put too much effort. It's good.

Nobody's going to see all the mistakes. It's good. And he was like, no, man, you got to like pay attention to the details. So he's crazy perfectionism. Am I lazy? They're not shallons. Just let it happen.

That combination made it work like a very good balance. Yeah. You know, it's so good hearing that because I think there's so many people who are listening and watching right now. And they're either trying to do everything on their own or I know a lot of people who just say to me, Jay, I need to be in a team.

Like I need to work with people around me and energy. And it's fun to see how both of you actually thought you were independent, but you found your complimentary skills. And that's really good to him. I love hearing it. Yeah. Yeah, teamwork is like central in everything we do. It's actually the most important thing.

If we start a project, then it's just like a family, like a team and bring the best out of everyone to bring the best project. Because we're making movies, it is like you're in a, you know, in a a team, and bring the best out of everyone to bring the best project. Because making movies, it is like you're in a football team, basically. You've got to have all your awesome players, like the Red Devils. You've got a Manchester United fans. Well, I'm more a Tottenham fan because, yeah, I know you. Yeah, I'm a Manchester United.

But a Tottenham, because, you know, Yann Vertongue and Tobias Alderwell, they're in my buddies. Well, we used to have Fellini. Yeah. I was just a city man. We had look at it at one point. Wow, the Premier League is practically the Belgian League. It is.

Exactly. Exactly. Oh, yeah, I got into my hazard last year. Oh, yeah. Yeah. How's that? Yeah, you got an amazing team. But, uh, OK, move away from football.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going back to more serious stuff. But it's interesting. I don't know if you read Bob Iger's book. So in Bob Iger's book, he talks about how like, at one point, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, George Lucas, they would all get together and watch each other's movies and give each other feedback.

Yeah. Like it's amazing to hear that. Like I mean, do you feel that now that you're in a lane, you're spending more time here? Like, who do you guys go to for mentorship and feedback? And who are you learning from? Well, obviously working with Will and that's like for us, that's like a mentor.

You grew up with him as an actor, but also a great filmmaker with so many ideas and being with Jerry Brookheimer, or the iconic producer, one of the most famous producers in the world. So those people that we work with, that was already like our first circle. But now that we're here, there's so many directors

that we'd love to meet that we don't be a big fans of Scorsese, if we could meet them one day or Tarantino or, you know, also newer generations, you know, if you're... If they're in Shazels, here's us. generations, you know, you've been, you know, if they mentioned, if they mentioned, here's us, oh Barry Jenkins, we'd love to be your boy. So, so this, we did that in Belgium,

where there's also a new generation of filmmakers that are starting to break out also internationally in television. And, and we all friends, and we all watch these, it's all the stuff and it's great to see that we are basically all coming together in Hollywood now. So on the Belgian fronts, you already have that.

Yeah. OK, this is awesome. Before we dive into the main part of what I want to talk about today, I want to hear the one thing that annoys you the most about the other person. One and the one thing that you love about the other person. We'll start with the annoying. The annoying. But there's a lot of things.

Yeah. There's a lot of things. Yeah, yeah. I know it's difficult to choose one. But you know, I mean, there's like lot of things. Yeah, there's a lot of things. Yeah, yeah, I know it's difficult to choose one, but you know, I mean, there's like a small thing. It is, you know, for some reason, you always like slurps out. I mean, like, you know, sucks on his food.

Yeah, even when it's not a soup. Yeah, and Eee always like, like, when he eats, he always mouth open. And that sound is so annoying. It is like, it's like, there's only one sound and there's a, so that makes me nervous like there's only one sound and there's a So that makes me nervous. That's really sorry that say that. So you can't even do it together.

No, no, it's difficult. I mean, you don't just you're in your zone. We do a headset and we don't talk to each other. So that's what I love. What do you guys love about each other? Well, one of the things that could annoy me, but actually, his awesome is the fact that he's besides the movie or where his perfection is,

he's really like, live and let live. Really like, you know, he's a good guy. He's really chill, he's really, sometimes you know, I get worked out, I'm talk about the small thing, I talk to him, I'll say, yeah, I'm so angry. And he's like, come on man, just take it easy, be grateful, be chill.

I mean, don't worry about it. And I'm like, I wish I was like you. But it comes me down, you know, and the fact that he's really very calm and chill and serene. Well, the funny thing is I like when, actually when you're mad, because then he has his driving force

that takes me, gives me a lot of power to go and that mad, or when you're mad, you put it always in work. Positive, yeah. Canalyze it in some positive thing, positive energy. So that's why it's good that we have this dynamic thing because it's, you know, when I'm too stressed out. It's a really like opposite, it's old.

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Yeah, well, no, it's good. You can tell that you guys are great friends, man. And, and, and I want to dive into it now. We want to talk about serious filmmaking stuff because you guys are incredible filmmakers. You're innovative. You know, when I saw bad boys for life and I remember you sent me your Belgian movies to, which I'd seen. So when I, when I watched them, I was blown away by whenever you see sequels being made now of movies,

it's always quite, it gets harder and harder and harder. Yeah. And usually the quality of the movie goes lower and lower and lower and lower. And obviously I knew you guys before I watched the movie and so my hope was that you were going to bring something amazing to it and you did it. Like I think everyone who watched it genuinely believed that the storytelling was incredible, the videography was did. Like I think everyone who watched it genuinely believed that the story telling was incredible, the videography was awesome. Like it was fresh, it was new, but it still kept the same like roots and grounding of what we all grew up watching bad boys.

But let's tell me that journey and we'll do the bad boys journey and then we'll go backwards on everything you did in Belgium. Tell me the journey of YouTube being at film school together, watching things like fresh prints growing up and Martin after school and then you get this call that changes your life that that brings you into this world like tell us about that journey. Well, yeah, for us, when you're in an art school, mostly they train you to make a very author cinema, which is good. It's a good thing, but it's mostly like art house movies, movies that you go to film festivals and stuff like that. So Hollywood is not really a good word there.

Yeah. Is that Hollywood is like, no, you're not in the right school. Hollywood is not cool. No, it's not cool at all. And we, as you know, we would secretly say, like action movies, it's like, yeah, yeah. Do you like J.E. Brickham movies? Yeah, yeah. You like bad boys? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, well, if one day, if they don't make it, when, when are they going to make a third bad boys

movie, that was when we were starting to say and film school. Yeah. And year after year, we say, hey, they don't make a bad boys movie. We're going to make that because back then we were 100% sure we're going to do film school. And there we go. We make one movie in Belgium. And right away, we in Hollywood and we make bad boys three. So that was all the time the thing that we would talk about is bad boys three. Specifically, we were even saying that we were like the bad boys of cinema back then. Like we related so much to Mike and Marcus. Yeah, we were always. Wow. I have a little bit of mickey me, but also Marcus. Yeah, it depends. You know, sometimes I'm mic. Yeah, I'm mostly Marcus, you know. But sometimes we're ever going to be better.

I'm mic. But everybody wants to be like, mic laughing. Yeah, but everybody's mostly Marcus. Yeah, funny and sweet and warm and good guy. We tell us about that process then. So you've had this dream you're talking about it, you're thinking about which, which, when you first told me that, that blew my mind.

Because I was just like, it's so cool when you've talked about it, you're thinking about which, which when you first told me that, that blew my mind. Because I was just like, it's so cool when you've talked about something. And it's not like, it's not like, it's quite a rare thing to pull off. It's like, first of all, they've got to be ready to make another movie. Second of all, you've got to be the guys who get picked. Tell us about the process of being picked,

chosen, selected, getting the job. How did it work? I just wanted to tell another little story. So when I was 12 years old, I grew up. I was like small and then I grew really tall and I became really skinny. And at school, I was like a nerd and everybody laughed with me. So I was like a big nerd.

And after school, I always saw the Fresh Prince of Belair. And the Fresh Prince of Belair has started to think like, you have to be like that guy, you know, have to be like open and and and just like. So because of Fresh Prince, I started to think like, I can't be a movie maker. I can do this. I can be cool. Be cool. And and yeah, basically because he was silly Billy, like, silly Willie. Yeah. And we'll smooth save this life. Yeah, basically because of of him I started to open my mind to whatever I can be whatever I want to Yeah, and to have to make a movie first Hollywood movie with Will Smith

It's just like yeah big-down life And it basically it all started when we made each other there was a book which was called black which was about Gangs in Brussels and it was a Romeo and Juliet story between a Congolese girl 15-year-old girl that falls in love with a Moroccan guy from a rival gang. And it was a very hard, very shocking story based on true events. And when we read that book right away, we knew, okay, this is going to be our Do the Right Thing, our Latin, our, you know, mean streets. This is this movie. This movie is going to be our ticket to Hollywood, no matter what. But we were in the first year of film school and we had funk that first year.

We read the book. So anyone was like, four years ago as a student. So we were like, okay, we need to make this movie by any means necessary. Because this is going to be the one that's going to bring us to Hollywood. And then once in Hollywood, we're going to ask for bad boys free. So that was like, yeah, the tickets. That was a plan. Yeah, it was really like that. And they were going, they were already planning to make a movie out of that. So we were thinking it's not.

Yeah, in Belgium, game over, we were still students. So we year after, yeah, we started to make better short movies. And every short movie was basically a sort of adaptation of that book up until we started to win a lot of prizes with a movie that was called Brothers. And then we got the opportunity out of nowhere to direct the adaptation of that book, Black. And that's what we did.

Then we did this movie, it came out in 2015, and it blew up in Toronto Film Festival. It won a prize there, and that's our other doors of Hollywood opened right away. And the first producer to see the movie was, by chance of God, Jerry Brookheimer. And when we thought, it worked. This movie is being seen by him, his eyes.

And then they said, well, Smith also watched your movies. Like the eyeballs of well-spotted, it's hard stuff. And that's where we got a meeting to meet Jerry Brookheimer. Like one of the first meetings in Hollywood was at Jerry Brookheimer's office. It was 2015. And then they said, what do you want to do guys? Bad boy three.

And I said, no, it's not available. I love the direct. I love the direct. Which is the same situation as with Black, but we were like, I'm going to steal that project somehow. And year after year, we were always chasing it.

And eventually the director, great guy, Joe Carnahan,, you know, chasing it. And eventually the director, great guy, Joe Carnahan, he dropped out of the project. And then bad boys all of a sudden in the mailbox, the script of bad boys. And like, it's real. And the fact that, you know, when we were like 19, it was, we really wanted it, but he was a dream. And we never thought it was really going to happen. Because when you say, yeah, we're gonna to adapt that book and then that book is going to go to Hollywood and then Will is going to see the movie and then he's going to give us Bad Boys 3.

We say that as 19-year-olds. It's just, we say a lot of stuff. Yeah, a lot of stuff. But when it really happens, you're like, so at the point when we got Bad Boys for Life described in our mailbox, we were preparing a Belgian movie, but the international titles gangster. And we were like two weeks or three weeks from the shoot. So Jerry said, are you available to make bad boys? And then we said, no.

And we turned it down. And we turned it down. I didn't know that was most difficult, no, ever. Because you were already signed up. Yeah. And like the whole crew was ready. All the actors. And were already signed up. Yeah. Like the whole crew was ready. All the actors and it wasn't that. Yeah.

And I could never imagine I could say no to. Yeah. I never believe that we win. Yeah. Like I can't believe we're going to say no to bad boys for life. To Will Smith, to Jeb Brook, to Martin Lawrence. And we did that. And it was just that's just life, man.

It just if it was not written for us, it was not written for us. And eventually in 2018, it came back, you're like, hey, we're gonna do it again. And then we said, yeah, yeah. We're available. Now we're available. That's how it all happens. It's amazing.

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There's a lot of also there is crime. There is you know There's a stigma so so there were no really public figure of or filmmakers or actors that were that looked like us. You know, everybody was white, basically, and also the movie world as well in the TV world. So that's why film school will be only two's. And you read that book and you just know, okay, there's never been a story told like that in Belgium. These stories aren't told. And tell us a bit about the story. Yeah, the story, it was, you know, it was about this, this, this African and Arab community in those poor neighborhoods that we really know

because it's close to us, it's close to our friends, to our families. Even like at school, we made short movies, it was like in that world. So it was, we were making all these little stories in that world and this book is telling. And actually, you heard about the real story of this girl that that basically went in girl is in a gang like that in Belgium. She's just an object, you know, she, she's forced to have

sex with everybody of that gang. And it's a very harsh, hard reality that nobody really talked about. And nobody wanted to see is that because all the victims are gang members, even though they're just 15, 16 years old. And we felt compelled to really tell the story because it's a reality. And, and, and they, they are, these are victims. They are also, they are stories are worth being told to the world. Yeah, it's, and those stories were like, it was in the newspaper just one line. Nobody talked about all that violence that was happening in that world.

So it is, and because all these victims are from that world and it's not like, they don't care. They don't care. So having this story and telling this story from a black girl's perspective was just, we felt like this story has to be told. And at the same time, the casting, there was all the actors never played in a movie before because in acting schools or in the casting agencies, you didn't have the diversity.

And we needed to find them on the streets and some singers, some rappers that eventually got the pardon for the first time. They, you know, people could go to the cinema and watch the diversity on the screen, reflect it. Yeah, I'm just going to explain more about that. Yeah, please. I said, well, while I was at school, I saw this movie city of God and it was dark. Yeah, yeah.

And I saw like everything about them, the making of and all these actors were from the favelas. So it, I had just this personal connection with that movie because it was like, you don't see it Moroccans or black on the TV screen. So we were forced to find actors or people that never acted. And this project, this movie was exactly like City of God. We had to search on the streets. And we knew there is such a big pool of talent

that nobody saw. So we did like three, four months of, six months of intensive casting on the street. We went everywhere. I came for every actor, I can tell you an amazing story. And also, nobody believed like, really, we're gonna play in a movie because it seems something so inaccessible to them.

To me, yeah. And yeah, then we professionalized them. They played in a movie. But the thing is like for each role, there were like so many good options. There was like over too much talent. So it was really difficult to find the best of the best. So what we did at that point, because after we had all the actors, there was so much other talent, we said, we have to start this our own casting agency and put them, you know, giving them the opportunity to do other, you know, give the chance because,

you know, the thing is that these actors that never thought they would play in a movie before, well, will Smith saw their performance and people are Jennifer Lawrence, all their performance, and Margarabi, and their big fans of them. And who can say that, you know, that the biggest stars in the world were in awe of their performance. People that were just on the streets never thinking that it would be part of the movie industry. And that caused like the new generation of dreamers,

basically. Now you have these guys, girls and guys in those neighborhoods of different origins that believe that, okay, you can be an actor or even a director or even a screenwriter. And that was very important to us. Another filmmaker, I was like a big inspiration. I was Spike Lee. And he was like one of the first big black directors.

And he, all these actors like Denzel Washington and Morgan. I was the snipe. It was the snipe. Even even Martin Lawrence, he brought them to the big screen. And when I was young, I saw Spike Lee was such an inspiration. I was thinking like, one day Spike Lee tells them, that's how we basically start. And then with Black, we had the opportunity to do that. And there's so many beautiful messages in your lives, whether you guys see them or not, like there's so many beautiful ones.

Like, first of all, just having a vision, a dream, a plan. Like, it wasn't just like, oh, we want to do this. It's like, you had a plan. We're going to do this and this is going to happen. And this, you know, it's like, you had a plan and you didn't vision it and you'd seen it. Become true, whether you believed it or not at the time,

it was there. And then the fact that you're both so purposeful, when I hear you talk seen it, become true, whether you believed it or not at the time it was there. And then the fact that you're both so purposeful, when I hear you talk about this, it's not like a strategy or a technique or like trend. It's like, you guys really care about telling these stories. Like, you really believe in the fact that there are these people with no voices, there are these people that are marginalized

and you know, not really understood. And you genuinely believe that they deserve a voice. Exactly. And to hear you both do that so purposefully, it's amazing. Tell me about, you said there's loads, tell me about just one of the stories or one of the actors that just blows your mind

or one of the actresses that you worked with that you just like, this person can't believe it because I know what you're saying that if someone came up to you on the street, especially in those streets and said, oh, do you wanna act in my movie? You just laughed at them. Yeah, exactly. And so tell us about some of those fast, just one or a couple of the...

Well, one of the stories, like the leader of the Black Yang is characters X. And when I had a phase in my head, you know, every time I read something, I see a phase. And I was just, you know, outside of the place where we were doing the casting, I was just smoking my cigarette outside and I saw a guy pass with that face. And I was like, this is not true. And he stopped and he looked at the paper,

casting black, he looked at it, and he wanted to move on. And I said, wait, stop. I said, come over here. you can do a casting right now. He said, no, no, I have to go to my work. I have to go in five minutes. I said, no, no, just come inside. Just five minutes and then you can, but I'm going to be too late.

I said, come on. So he went inside and he got one of the biggest roles of the movie. Yeah. Yeah. And we were searching for months and every time I saw the actors playing this character, they were always like Yeah, laying it's a violent character yelling and he was the only one that like Was super

Quiet when he told and it was so dangerous The things that the character in the movie is like an ex-child soldiers because a lot of leaders in those gangs are ex-child soldiers and And our actor he was not a child soldier, but he lived the Civil War in Burundi. So the scenes that we shot with him was looking at Civil War's footage on the TV screen. He felt bad. He understood completely the character.

He was very close to the real character. So what a coincidence. It was like a sign. Another story, I was just, you know, just in the center of Brussels, he did my bread. And there is this character, he's like a white guy, but he wants to be like a Moroccan.

You know, street, he wants to be like, he wants to be the most Moroccan of the gang. But he's a white guy. And I was just eating my bread and we were searching also months for that character. And there was this guy next to me with his two friends and he was like talking, he was like, like the character. And I said to him, and he was talking about this girl on the other side of the street.

And I said to him, try to get his number. He said, no problem man, I'm going to get a number. He went there, try to get his number, he came back and I said, you got a number, he said, no. I said, it's a but next time, another girl, I said, okay, you must be an actor. Yeah. And he got the part, so he was crazy to see these characters alive here and they are eventually played in the movie.

And also, the story is about this black girl. And we were, the character that plays the main black girl, she was the only one from the whole casting that found her only way, her way to us. We didn't search her. She came to us. And she was a fan of the book. Huge fan of the book. And this because of that, that she eventually went to the casting because she was such a,

you know, she loved the character ever since, you know, she was a young girl, the Reddit. And and always thought one day you should be a movie about that book. And that's how she became the main actress of the movie. And now she's, you know, she's she's playing in other movies and yeah. It gets her your story about each character. Yeah. I got it. You're, you guys stories, literally sound like magic. And when you're literally because when you're like,

oh this girl, she loved this book and she wanted, you know, it's so beautiful to hear it. Like it really is. Like it sounds like you listen to music speaking to you guys, talk about it because it's, it's like, it is just the imagination of what happens when you dream. But tell me, tell all of us about the days

when it didn't feel like magic. Oh yeah, well. Tell us about the days when it didn't feel like magic. Oh, yeah, well tell us about the days when like you were starting out and And you once the magic like this this magic wasn't there like there was time when money was low or when the production budgets are too low And you're sitting there. I mean we've talked about this. You're sitting there editing for hours and you're stressing out Yeah, tell us about like what kept you committed to your dreams right? It Well, it's when there wasn't a feeling of magic. Yeah, the thing is that you got a lot of fear. You got a lot of... Because there's no guarantee.

The dreams... The dreams are so big and it's so unbelievable. It's like, why would we be with Will Smith making a movie and with Martin Lawrence? I mean, that's for special people. It's for big stars. Especially that you don't have an example of people like us from Belgium at this young age. So there was no precedent to it. And we had no money, and our family are really poor. And my family was okay, but you know, when you start to study,

you live on your own, no money. No money money and my family was really poor and they didn't have any money. And movies is basically a job for either the super rich because you got mom and dad giving you know, it's like funding your hobby or for the super poor because you're ain't gonna get any money for years. And it's not something that you cannot do that on the sides. You gotta do all the way, go all the way for movies.

If that's really your passion, your dream, yeah, you got to spend all your time in it, which means that you don't spend your time earning money. And, and, and, you know, it would, that was, that, but it was also the thing that would make us survive. It's like when you say, it was our purpose, you know, it was really the thing. Okay, we in a difficult situation. It sucks. We're, I'm, I'm sleeping Okay, we in a difficult situation, it sucks. We're, I'm sleeping in his place, which is the place of his parents, almost somewhere in the attic. In the attic, you know, on the matches on the ground,

but at least we are filmmakers. Yeah. And you know that one day, we're gonna laugh about this. Yeah. 10 years, we're gonna laugh about this. Now it's a struggle and it's the dream and that passion and that that makes you feel alive That keeps you going no matter how hard the struggle is and when we speak to young people to students when they ask us Yeah, what's your advice? Our advice always or we say you're gonna you're gonna fall flat on your face and grand

It's gonna hurt but you gotta get up and continue just Just don't be surprised when he's going to hurt. He's going to hurt a lot, but all of that's going to make you stronger. And through all the struggles, through all the, you know, the heart breaks and the pain and all of that, that's why when people say, Hey, how does it feel now that you made bad boys and it's a success, we always say we're relieved. You can see you're happy. Of course you're happy. And you say, we're like, whoo. We went, we went, it was a hell of a ride.

It was dangerous like an action movie. You thought you were going to die. And eventually you survived that ride. And, you know, making bad boys was the hardest year of our lives. So maybe the worst year of my life. Everybody's like, oh, it was such a fun movie. It was probably also really fun to make it. I mean, I went deep, man, I went really deep in darkness, in sadness, and I would ask, well, well, it's, you know, it's like our dreams that come true. I didn't feel, I didn't know it was going to be a nightmare

stuff. And he said, it's always like that. It's a big change, big achievement. And it's going to hurt. It's going to hurt. And, you know, it's, well said that it's like, you know, you're on the mountain really now fast and high. And you cannot breathe because, you know, there's not a lot of oxygen. And you're like, panicking. And the thing is you want to go down quickly. But he said, no, stay there. You stay on that level and get used to it and starts to breathe. No panic. And after a while, you get used to it and the pain and the heartbreak and the doubts, they go away because like, oh, yeah, okay, I'm getting used to it.

And people around you, some people around you will be on the same level and also learn to adapt with you. But some other will like, no, no, go down and pull you down. And they said, no, stay on that level. That's that's what will set to me when I was really drained. And I was crying for an hour of on set and said, whatever's going through your head is going to be all right. I'm going to.

So they helped having him motivate you. Yeah, it was like a godsend. You know, there was be a sign something from the universe of God that from all the stars you could work with, it was like a godsend. You know, there was be a sign something from the universe of God that from all the stars you could work with, it's him. It's motivational speaker will. Yeah. Helping because he was sometimes you would have lunch meetings and I'm talking about

the movie, but he would talk about life and how you know, you know, to heal yourself. And and as around that period that that I got to know you, you know, person very dear to me, talked about you. And she said, you know, person very dear to me, talked about you. And she said, you know, you should listen to Jay Shetty. And I was like, who's that guy? And like, you know, you just got to do your own stuff. Don't listen to all that, that's things. And then I'll start to listen to you.

And he was like a like medicine. And I was like, whoa, what is that? It's like, it's as if I were you all my life, Jay. I needed you all my life. And it opened up a whole world to me of the healing and growing and on the spiritual level, you know, because I was thought when I achieved something and same for you, you achieved something

and then you're gonna be happy. And then you'll be gonna be good. Like, oh yeah, okay, we're struggling. We have no money, but one day we're gonna make our first movie and then you're going to be happy. And then you'll be going to be good. Like, oh, yeah, okay, we're struggling. We have no money, but one day we're going to make our first movie and then we're going to be fulfilled. And then it doesn't happen. We make our movie, but you're not fulfilled. And oh, yeah, we're going to make a better movie.

And then oh, we're going to go to Hollywood and then we're going to make bad boys. And when you make bad boys for life with those two stars and you're on the top of the game and still you're not happy, you're crash. And then you know, you gotta find something else, you're gonna find something deeper. And listening to you, it was so funny that Adil is like, before you, before bad boys, he was like totally not motivational.

He didn't like all the quotes, he didn't like it and all those deep, deep meanings, he was like trash. Like every cat, every time I saw, because I was like it, and all those deep, deep, meany, he was like trash. Like every, every time I saw, because I was like into it on Instagram, and I started to like getting to the podcast. And I was like, and all of a sudden, I see a deal like listening to you,

and I'm like, you listening to Jay Shitty. Well, for me, it was like, that's not a listening to you, it kept to the secrets. So when we met, I didn't tell her, because I was, yeah, I'm gonna say I'm some crazy, you know, and then we saw the picture that that you and I took on Instagram. Yeah. He said, you know, Jay Shitty, you're a fan too. I was like, you can't see you. I'm not telling him because I was going to my right. Yeah, yeah. And it's like it's crazy that we talk about everything, but you were our secrets. That is the best way for me. That is the way to

I love that. Thanks for sharing that. My spirit toality because we're Muslims. Yeah. It's also been a strong force throughout our... throughout the pain and every time when you when you when you don't make it you just accept the fact that God has has a plan for you and and that's something that I always hold on to. Like you want to achieve dream, but imagine I did everything I can. That's the most important thing at the end of my life. I have to know, I have to talk to myself and say, you did everything for your dreams. And if it didn't work out, is this the way? Yeah.

And if you believe in that, you accept everything. You start to accept everything. God's hands are in the universe. Yeah. Yeah, whatever spiritual out you have. I think God's hands are in the universe, haven't they? Yeah, whatever spiritual out you have, I think it's important to have. Yeah, that's beautiful. In the journey to your journey. And you see that in so many incredible people's lives, their faith and belief in God,

or the universe, it's such an important thing for them. Look at the people that made the biggest changes in the world. Yeah, exactly. They all had that. And so you can see how important it is for all of us in the way, because you both the change makers, like your filmmakers, but your change makers, because you're trying to make films that change people's lives. You're not just trying to make films. No, you're not. Like a message is so important. Tell us about. So you talked about the advice that Will was giving you, which is beautiful to hear, because I know the same, Will was so philosophical,

we had that conversation that we were together at, like it was brilliant. But it's like, tell us about the advice that you had to give Will and Martin, tell us about that process. Of when you're sitting with, like, you know, like you respect these guys, like I had to make that trailer with them, right?

Like for me, you and I that day, I needed your help. Like, I had to make that trailer with them, right? Like, for me, you and I there that day, I needed your help. Like, when I got the call to be on that trailer, so it was the production company that Sony was working, whatever, and they were like, we want you to be in this trailer, and we want you to come in, and we want you to be a life coach, or a therapist for Willen Martin,

and it's kind of like couples therapy. And they were very respectful. They were like, you know, like, we don't want to make coaching look bad, or like, are you? And I was like, no, this is great. It's fun. And I was like, hold on the fuck. This is amazing.

I was so excited. And so I want to put the scene in the movie. I know. Like, why was it like that? And I was literally, I was so nervous because, you know, I'm like, and I've spent time with Will before, but I was like, I was so nervous

to like be in an acting scene with him. I was like, what do I know, man? And so I went to acting class for four days in a row. Yeah, two hours. I did it really well, by the way. Yeah, thank you, man. But I went every day to acting class because I was like, I can't go in there

and not feel comfortable and comfortable. Yeah, that's exactly right. And it's just like, I went in there and I was like, wow, this is gonna, you know, it's, it's when you've looked up the same with me. I grew up on Fresh Prince, my favorite show of all time. I'd watch some million times every episode. So I feel everything you guys are saying, how hard is it to then go in there and then have

to give advice, give feedback, give direction as directors. Tell us about that. Well, it's, you know, I was seven years old when the first bad boys was made. And now you got to 25 years later, you're there. And you have Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, you play these characters, you know, everything who know the industry, 30 years in the business, and 30 years, that's our age.

And then it was just too rats from Belgium. Yeah, we don't know. And then you're gonna have to say to Will and Martin, look, you could do this better. And they could easily say, I've been doing this for 30 years, you know, and, and they'd never did that. They never said that because unbelievable how humble they are. Yeah.

They would ask us, well, I'm Martin. So how do you think it is? Is it good? And we in the beginning, like, you will and Martin is not just good. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not going to, you know, say anything. But, but the thing is that they chose us.

They chose us to be their directors. So they want you, they want you to direct them. And yeah, sometimes we'll, you know, the first week we'll test it us. It tested us. It was, it was something you didn't want to do. You didn't want to wear the badge, you know, the cup badge on the chain. For some reason, you didn't, you know, and every time you had a good, it was super cool to have the Miami badge, you know, like, because of the second movie, some reason, he didn't have, every time he had a good argument, I felt

make this argument like a scene, he said no, we're at the bar, we're not on an intervention, so no reason to do it. Okay. And now the scene, he said, yeah, we're just walking here, we're not in an intervention, no reason to do it. All right. And there was only one scene left. If we don't have that, it's never in the movie. And it was an intervention scene. So we go to well, and there was only one scene left. If we don't have that, it's never in the movie. And it was an intervention scene. So we go to well, and it was the first week of shoot. So well, it was your bad shape on the chain. And we're like, oh no, no, we're not gonna do that

because it's because what? It's an intervention scene. And then you say in front of the whole crew, everybody is a, this is so natural. This is so wrong on so many levels. And we're like, and then you know, heartbeat goes fast. You know, he's like, well, he's talking, you know, he's not agreeing with you. Pretty angry. And on this is wrong. This is wrong. And then and then Martin can wear it. Martin, I would wear the badge. Well, he can

wear it. And then it's both, oh, nobody. 45 minutes and after 45 minutes, you get to wear the badge, well, and it's a, okay, I will do it for you, only for you, but know that it's wrong. It's so cool. So cool was looking at us. And I felt so bad. I was like, maybe it doesn't have to wear it.

And then I don't know, maybe we're, we want, we want, let's keep the badge. And we never knew why, but I think it did that to test us. Like really, are you guys, we have fanboys, but are you also going to be directors? Yeah. And that process was the whole time. Even with the script, if we had an idea, he went like,

why and asking so many questions. We had to, normally we think to a certain point, but he pushes us to go all the way. Why as a filmmakers, creative standpoint, do you want to do that? And if you really as a creative, you want to a certain point, but he pushes us to go all the way. Why, as a filmmaker's creative standpoint, do you wanna do that? And if you really, as a creative, you wanna do that, he fights for you. He falls on the sword for your ideas.

So that was really great. Wow, that's awesome, man. That's great to hear. And this is what I love about this conversation that we're having is that people see, like, getting the movie seems like an achievement, but actually the challenge starts there. Yeah.

Because you're now in the big league, you're now working with people that you admire. And on top of all of that, you've got to realize the fact that now you're being judged for real directing and real filmmaking on a high level, which it seems like a high chance. How did you guys prepare yourself to learn how to be open to recognizing

that now the challenge starts and still allow your creativity. Like, you know, when you were doing black, you had a lot of guerrilla filmmaking, you were trying a lot of, taking a lot of risks. You're like, how did you let that energy stay or did you actually have to change energy? Well, we had our cameraman, Robert Havard, great guy who did all our student short movies and all our, he's still working with him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It looks, it looks, it looks, yeah, we basically we said to Sony, okay, we only have one requirement, our, our DLP director

of photography, our cameraman. It's, it's Rob is a guy who did all the Belgian movies without him. We don't do the movie and we were prepared to turn the movie down if we didn't like, we, we ain't gonna do the movie without wrap and all of a sudden this 50-year-old looking guy who never made a big Hollywood movie makes a hundred million dollar movie with these great stars and that was you have to imagine as a studio and Jerry Booker and you have two young guys who never made a like a big Hollywood movie our biggest budget is like 3 million and this is like 100 million. And then the cameraman is also somebody who never did this. Like the, who's in charge for all the image?

Yeah. What was the same guy like us? And but having, having us three basically helped us in, in eventually thinking it's the same as making a movie in Belgium. Because yeah, the first couple of weeks you don't breathe, you don't sleep. You're like, it's like, that's all real life. life it's like it's also weird because it's like a dream you don't it's like, you don't fit, you don't belong there.

You know, it's like you enter the making of or something. And the thing is the eyes of the world on this movie, whereas when you do a Belgian movie, it's only the eyes of some Belgians, you know. If you're, if you're tanked, nobody's gonna know. But there, if you crash, you crash hard. And there's so many fans in the world like who up with that, you don't wanna. I mean, yeah. And the thing is that it's like, as if you crash, you crash hard. And there are so many fans in the world like who up with that, you don't wanna.

I mean, yeah. And the thing is that it's like as if you're, okay, you're in the war or you got to jump in the water. And either you're gonna like sink or you got to swim. Even you think I cannot swim all that ocean. You're gonna have to learn and do that. And it's, and before you know, when you do that, that switch, not thinking too much actually,

not thinking, not overthinking, not overthinking. Not overthinking. But you guys broke through imposter syndrome because that's what so many people struggle with that when you finally made it into what you always wanted and now you're like, well, maybe I'm not actually meant to be at this table. Like maybe we don't deserve to be here.

Like what makes us deserve to be here? What made you trust the process? Like what made you feel like, you were like, no, actually, we've worked for this and we're going to deliver something. Because when you watch the movie, I mean, there are so many great parts in the movie where I'm like, I love the part where you think

it's a funeral, but it's the wedding, right? I love in the beginning where you think it's a car chase, but it ends up being that they're running to the hospital. Like, to me, all those moments are genius and they're brilliant and they're shot so well that. Like to me, like all those moments are genius and they're brilliant and they're shot so well that you completely are in and you think it's something and I'm like, you definitely owned it.

Yeah, yeah, you owned it. Like there was no part of me. If I didn't know you guys, let's say I didn't know you guys and I went and watched the movie, I would not have known that someone who never made a hundred million dollar budget movie made it. Which is never a no. You wouldn't even think of it, right?

But that's why I'm happy I know you guys. Because it just makes me believe even more that Imposta Syndrome is just a belief set. Exactly. It's the thing, you know, I mean, the Imposta Syndrome, which be just once in a while, like we would look at each other and look at the DP and he says, it's weird, are we here, right? Yeah, that's right. You look at each other and look at the DP and he says,

it's weird that we're here, right? You look at the moderner, you have Will and Martin and Jerry, like, whoa, that's some freaky dick. And then it goes away, right away, because you got to work. And the thing is that you got to power through that, but also it's the crew and the cast is around you, the trust that you get from people that become family. And when you feel like you're between friends and between family, that is what really helped us the most

going through that imposter syndrome. Fills feeling safe and feeling the trust and the love of everybody around you. And that's the same thing with you. You know, we were scared of coming to the podcast because we listened, we had big fans, you had fans of your podcast, we listened to that and we're like, whoa, how deep everybody's speaking, how smart and we're like into a lightweight.

But talking now with you is like, we feel like you are broke. Yeah, we're family and that's what helps us going that trust and love and that caring and respect that helps us, you know, just go with the flow basically. Yeah. Yeah. How many days I had doubts, doubts, doubts. Like I was thinking I am totally not good so many times, but it's the people that surround you is like a super important aspect in this process. Yeah. And you guys in natural storytelling is like even when you're telling me the story of the actors,

people behind it, you guys are brilliant. Like that is, you know, it's, I felt your energy when we met and when I wanted you on the podcast is because I wanted people to feel that just, and I love how genuinely vulnerable you are about being excited about what you're excited about. Yeah. Because I think what happens sometimes is sometimes people make you or go somewhere and then they act like all cool about it. Yeah. You know, like, oh yeah, it's just, you know,

it's just meant to be. Yeah, it's just that. I remember, like for me, it was things like, first time I went on, when I went on Ellen, like that for me was just like, I'm just living Ellen, like watch my interview and once I get a component of her, I feel like that's so cool.

And it's so fun to celebrate stuff, yeah, yeah, because I feel like sometimes we get scared of celebrating because we think it makes us look stuff. Yeah, yeah. Because I feel like sometimes we get scared of celebrating because we think it makes us look less. Yeah. But actually, it's just, you're right, we're just kids who just, yeah, I live in these incredible lives and I love feeling like that.

And you know, I listen to the podcast with Jada and I was like, oh my God, it's interviewing Jada. And I'm like, I know, but we know Jada. Yeah. So that's the vibe that we have. But it's a good, I like seeing it with you guys. Yeah, and I want people to experience that too, that you don't ever have to pretend to be someone you're not,

or you never have to lose that excitement and that, you know. Authenticity has always been something very important to us, and we did everything to keep the same authenticity in a Hollywood movie, because we could have done maybe any action movie, but the thing about bad boys is that these two characters, it's us. It's a retold with this movie, a very personal story. What it means to be like the right to get a die together.

What it means sometimes when you know, you're almost on the verge of a breakup, you know, you don't want to do the same thing. You have another vision. Sometimes they were periods where we didn't want to make movies together. Like this is over, man, I got another vision. And in the end, it comes together. And by reading that script of those two characters, we felt like this is us. Yeah, I think every, every human being in the world searches that same connection with

somebody, that friendship that, you know, that, you know, if times go top, that, that you have somebody having your back and, And that friendship that Mike and Mark is so universal and so beautiful. So personal at the same time, it's just, it was a very personal story. It is a $100 million actually. What were the other messages? I think that's important because you've only done, you've focused on making movies that have messages for this.

I felt when I was watching there were a ton of messages like the one you just shared. What are the messages that you were trying to, that maybe we, I need to be able to watch it again and notice that, and what were some of the messages that were big for both of you? Well, I was, you know, working with Will is like the grower,

grower, die message basically. Even though, I mean, when you make all movies as a certain, have a certain message and you don't wanna like message, you know, it becomes cheesy, but you know, it's like the underlying theme and it's, you wanna have an arc where people evolve and this Mike Laurie character, he has like, he's at the start of the movie a certain way.

He wants to remain strong and young and wants to remain the image of Mike Laurie and forget how to become just himself, the normal Mike Lari, and set the effect that he's growing. He's growing and he's an entomated. And it can be weakness. Weakness is not actually really a weakness. Being able to show weakness,

of vulnerability is a strength. And that is something that he learns. And that is something that we too do when we were, you know, starting because when you're Moroccan, you're very like much your culture. You're mad. You know, after if you keep this like in the kind of cocoon or thing on that thing, like, and you don't let it go, basically,

you break yourself, you crash. And that is something that we learned, you know, during the making of this movie where we all crashed. So it's like, you know, you got to let it go and you got to find ways to grow and to heal yourself and allow yourself to be vulnerable and to be open. And you really changed. Yeah. Yeah. Who wasn't like that before? But that boy's really changed him. Yeah. There's experience as a person. He saw really change during the, yeah.

It's you guys really disrupted, I feel like, you know, just what you're just saying right now, like that's what I know is in the movie, when I was watching it, that you were able to show the weakness of the character, we all grew up admiring a wanting to be like. Yeah, yeah. And showing that it was actually better for him

to be vulnerable to that rather than just continue to pretend. And I thought that was really, it was bold as well. It was a bold move, but it was also very culturally relevant right now to show that in a man and being more vulnerable. But it's very relatable in answer. Very relatable for all of us. And I really feel you guys have disrupted the industry because even when I hear you say

stuff like, oh, we're not gonna do this if it's not our DP, right? Like, if you're not bringing your crew with you. And I'm excited to see, and I don't think you guys are ever gonna change because you're just who you are. Like, I'm excited to see how you continue to represent diversity, how you continue to tell stories of people that are not told enough.

What kind of stories are exciting you right now in general? Not just the ones you can make in movies on, but have you heard any stories recently or read any books or anything like that that you're like, I'm fascinated by this right now? But there's a lot of stories that are, you know, obviously now in this time in culture, it's the great opportunity to tell stories

of people of different ethnicities, different backgrounds. Stories that you didn't usually see that much, on the big screen for us, because it's important we're Muslims, we're Arabs, we're Moroccan, we're Africans, things like that are very important to us. Just as fans, seeing that they're more and more female filmmakers, this year it was a lot of women filmmakers, and it's going to be more and more in every kind of genre, and just seeing that evolution is so exciting and interesting. To be a part of that. Yeah, to be a part of this new generation of filmmakers that's so diverse and... See, parasite in the total, not in English language.

That's history. That's a milestone for cinemas. Just us, we don't want to make movies only in English. You want to tell stories. If it's in China, we want to keep it in Chinese language or in Germany. It has to be in German. So the fact that, yeah, it's very diverse and very exciting. This kind of story, that's what we're looking for now.

And yeah, I mean, we'd love to make movies back in Belgium as well, you know, but our community and alternate that's with American movies. And in a very naive way, we believe that movies can save the world. I'm with you. Yeah. Exactly. For us, there are two reasons. One reason is just as filmmakers, when you are, when we did bad boys, you have 250 people on the crew. And nowadays, we all say that people don't agree anymore. People are polarizing all that. But we got to say there's people don't agree anymore, people are polarizing all that. But we got to say that when you make a movie, you got 250 very different people for different backgrounds, different ethnicity, different history, different

political views, the religion, they're all super different. On the paper they would say they never will get along. Yeah, they're like totally opposite. It would be war. And when our movie they're all together, like a family working for the same goal, working for one vision, and we all friends, and then you see that everybody's so different, but everybody's working together. And it's not what you hear sometimes, you know, that it's like, you know, everybody's like on their own. No, a movie set proves that we are all able to go in the same direction for the same goal. And it's maybe very naive, but I just see it as a proof, it happens.

And in theory, there would be enemies, but on our crew, they are all allies and friends and family and they care about each other. And on the other hand, movies is something very empathetic. You cannot make a movie or watch a movie if you don't have empathy. An empathy is something that you talk a lot about. And it's just crazy that everybody in the world,

no matter where you are, what you are, you have empathy for this character that you don't know. It's a character you don't know. It may be also a fictitious character, a character from another planet, from another era, and you feel for that character. You fall in love maybe for that character. You hope that the character's gonna make it.

You're gonna cry that character dies. And that's crazy that proves that movies make people human and that empathy exists through movies. So that's why in this very childish way, we think movies save the world. No, it's not childish, man. You guys, I feel the same way, the reason why I started in podcasts or media or videos

and all of that was because I felt that media changes are of a vocabulary around an issue, around a theme. Like when you were able to show a man's vulnerability, like now it's like, oh, wait a minute, I think I'm my glory, but he's growing when he's doing that. Oh, maybe I should do that, right? It's like, we mirror what we see in media all the time. And I feel like media is always gonna lead the way

because more people are gonna watch movies than read books. More people are gonna watch movies than come to a course or a workshop or a seminar. It's always gonna be the same way. And therefore, I'm so happy that people like you are making movies because I feel like our faith is in good place. Yeah. You know, we need storytellers who want to tell those stories,

who want to have deeper messages, but in a smart and entertaining way. And I think you guys do it beautifully. So we're going to do what we always do on the podcast. As you know it, because you listen. Yes. We've added another segment recently, which I don't think you would have heard yet,

because it's in the new episode. It's called Fill in the Blanks. Oh, Fill in the Blanks. So I read a sentence, and you both have to fill in the rest of the sentence. So we'll go both of you. Who ever goes first? I don't mind.

You decide who goes first. Okay. Being a director is similar to... Being a captain of a boat. Exactly. And sometimes you can be the Titanic. Yeah. Okay. Oh, exactly. No, you can't say that. No, you can be the Titanic. Okay. Yeah.

Oh, exactly. No, you can't say that. No, you can't say that. Being director is similar to, is pretending you know it. Okay. Good, good answer. A great movie starts with, a great title. Okay.

Oh, I would say, I would say a killer opening scene. Okay. I would say a killer opening scene. Okay. Good. All right. The best way to manage actors is being a psychiatrist, a lawyer, a politician, a diplomat, all the skills. Everything. All right.

There is no film without empathy. Nice. everything. All right. There is no film without empathy. Oh, nice. Camera. All right, good. All right, working with a partner is love. Writing together, dying together. Nice. I like you guys.

All right, the one film I wish I made is Star Wars. Well, there's a lot, but I would say, but you know, Star Wars is such a big universe. Just between us, Star Wars is like, the Greeks had their mythology, we have Star Wars. Yeah. The Greek mythology just between, it became a religion, even though. So I did, yeah.

It came out of one mind. Yeah. And the whole universe, it's created. It's unbelievable. I was, it's infinite. I would say Jurassic Park. Oh, yeah. Good movie. Yeah. Jurassic Park is a good movie. All right. Martin Lawrence and Will Smith are both brothers for life. For life. Nice. When I first started directing, I wish I knew that no matter how big the movie is going to be, that movie is not necessarily going to make you happy or bring you happiness, it's going to be something else.

That's beautiful, man. And no matter how big the budget is, there is never enough money, never enough time. No, that's good answer. These are great. My proudest moment has to be. Ah, that's a answers. This is great. My proudest moment has to be. That's what I think. I think being able to show the movie to my dad, basically, to have him in.

He was sitting in the theater next to you. I know. It's not as to me. And he knew also his wife is a big fan of you. So you know, you're a secret fan, you're a secret fan of you, but being able to, he's there. You see the movie and he's the first, maybe also the first time he met Will Smith, because the very first single I got was Miami by Will Smith, and he met him for the first time in Miami. Oh, my proudest moment is that I always kept going and kept going.

That's right. That it's that the movie is made. It's just my proudest thing. I love it, man. All right. These are your final five, your fast five, which you guys know about. So the first question I'm going to ask you is, if someone gave you a $300 million in funding, what movie would you make and who would you cost? No.

Oh, and you star wars. And you star wars. No universe. Not based on any books. It's just like George Lucas, you come up with something new and then you have nerds doing fan fiction and making world jokes.

Making jokes. And it goes on generation to generation to generation. It's just created like a muscle. Like, just because you created a Frankenstein, basically, you know, in the movie world. So that's. I love it. That's a good answer.

OK. Let's do this question. What advice would you give to young filmmakers out there? You got to stay true to yourself and do something with your heart. Yeah. Because if you make something just for the sake of it, so just for the money, you...

Okay, you may earn a lot of money, but you're going to lose a year of mindfulness, of your soul and all that, so it's got to be something true to your soul. Yeah. Something that feels a soul. And be prepared to have a lot of pain. Just you're going to follow a lot. And be prepared to have a lot of pain. Just you want to follow lots. And be prepared to don't be scared to make

mistakes. Don't yeah, because making mistakes, that's when you learn. I love it. It's good answers. All right. Question number three, your favorite movie and why? My favorite JFK by Oliver Stone. Because it's yeah, it was very young. I was nine years old when I saw that and it's a historical movie about something that really happened about conspiracy theories and it makes you think and it's a movie that has an impact also in real life because you know in 92 the congress had to release like check out you know we didn't kill JFK okay but if you can have make a movie that is an impact in society in real life life, that is really, you know,

that's what we wanna do, so JFK. Yeah, for me, it's a French movie called La N, and it's about the Bonne Luse ghetto in France, in Paris, and for me, because I grew up with Hollywood movies, and this was the first time I saw a movie with, you know, Morocco, or Black guy from, like the same world as me. And I, and he was shot in a way, it was like cinema. It was like in a Hollywood way, it was shot. And then I understood that maybe I can do that too. Maybe that made me, maybe believe that I could do a movie. And I think that's

the most beautiful thing you can do as a filmmaker. Any artist, if you can inspire somebody to do it, that's what Lion did for me. Awesome. Question number four, out of five. What's happening with Beverly Hills Cutthor? Adam Sandler, what's happening? I saw the stories. When bad boys, when we didn't get bad boys, we got Beverly Hills Cutthor. So we thought it was going to be the movie we're going to boys, when we didn't get bad boys, we got Beverly Hills Cup 4.

So we thought it was going to be the movie we're going to make in 2016. Didn't happen. Then bad boys came and because bad boys worked out, now we got Beverly Hills Cup 4 and we were working out. And we were working. Eddie Murphy. So the way we look at Will Smith, Will Smith looks the same way at Eddie Murphy. But he was like, it's the Tom.

And making a movie with a legend like that at the next level. And Adam Zadler, he's just a cool guy ever. Sweetest guy ever. And he said, hey, if we find something to work together, let's do it. Yeah. He did in Anka, James was so unbelievable. Yeah. And he has so much to offer.

Yeah. I love it. All right. And final question. All right. So we can stop being in the sauna right now. I love sauna The doctor Daniel Aiman who is on before he told me that this is good for our brain. Okay. So yeah, he said yes That's why I'm using that wisdom. No, no, no, I'm just getting an excuse No, I'm just getting an excuse. Yeah, thank God. It's saying me and you will, okay, fifth and final question. What is the biggest lesson you've learned

in the last 12 months for you? Doesn't have to be professional, whatever. Oh yeah, whoa. When I'm in a meeting or I have some, I have a good idea, somebody says something good or bad or I think it's good or bad, I gotta say, let me think about it. Because I didn't do that enough.

And when you're in Belgium with a small movie, your reaction or your decisions don't have that much consequence as a hundred million dollar movie. And whether I was enthusiastic for something or I hated something, I should've just said first, let me think about it. Yeah. Before I say, yeah, oh no.

So that's what I want to know. Let me think about it. For me, let me say it. Sometimes, I mean, or in a meeting, and I'm thinking something, and I'm like, I think I have to say this, but I'm not going to say it. And that makes a big difference because sometimes it's too late. And then you say, I had to say this, but I'm not gonna say it. And that makes a big difference because sometimes it's too late, and then you say, I have to say it. So don't regret, say it, don't be afraid.

Yeah. So I'm starting to learn that. Don't be afraid of saying what you think. And in the worst meetings that we had is because he didn't say it, and I didn't say let me think about it. And I thought, that we crashed. I love it. I love it.

You guys are the best. Honestly, this is the most fun. But this is so good. I can get in and talk to you guys for hours. I'm genuinely so excited to see the movies you guys are going to create. I want to serve and support in any way that I can. I'm here for you guys if you ever need me. Don't wait to read your book, man. Yeah, yeah.

Thank you. I'll definitely get you guys copies. But yeah, don't literally you guys can message call me anytime I can help either of you with anything and just yeah, so so proud of seeing what you guys are doing. And I know that there are so many people out there who are listening and watching that can be inspired by you guys. And I can only hope that you continue to be the same way because you guys are great just the way you are, man. Thank you for giving me a hug. It's a big love, big love. I just wanted to say, Jay, thank you for being in our lives. Yeah. Amen. You guys are blessed.

Thank you so much. Everyone's been listening and watching. Go and follow these guys on Instagram. Go and find them. We will tag them into all the post-gone. Follow their work, go and support everything they do. They've got so many more amazing stories to tell. They're just getting started.

Please, please, please go and give them all your love and all your support and anything that they said because they're so humble that they don't know it. They drop so many lessons today. They drop so many messages today. They drop so many beautiful insights today. I want you to share those insights. I want you to tag all through us so we can see it.

Mainly so that they can see it, but I want them to realize how many beautiful lessons they're sharing with the world. So thank you for watching on purpose. Thank you Adiland Bala for being here. And we'll see you again soon, guys. Take care. Hi, I'm Brendan Francis Nuneum, I'm a journalist, a wanderer, and a bit of a bond vivant, but mostly a human just trying to figure out what it's all about. And not lost is my new podcast about all those things. It's a travel show where each week I go with a friend to a new place and to really understand

it, I try to get invited to a local's house for. We're kind of trying to get invited to a dinner party. It doesn't always work out. Ooh, I have to get back to you. Listen to Not Lost on the iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Conquer your New Year's resolution to be more productive with the Before Breakfast Podcast. In each bite-sized daily episode, time management and productivity expert, Laura Vandercam teaches you how to make the most of your time, both at work and at home.

These are the practical suggestions you need to get more done with your day. Just as lifting weights keeps our bodies strong as we age, learning new skills is the mental equivalent of pumping iron. Listen to before breakfast on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jay Shetty and on my podcast on purpose, I've had the honor to sit down with some of the most incredible hearts and minds on the planet. Oprah, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Hart, Lewis Hamilton, and many, many more. On this podcast, you get to hear the raw, real-life stories behind their journeys and the tools they used, the books they read, and the people that made a difference in their lives so that they can make a difference in hours.

Listen to on purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Join the journey soon.