Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #617: Quentin Tarentino, Gillian Tett, Yuval Noah Harari

Episode Date: October 29, 2022

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 10/28/22) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-night series, Real Time with Bill Maugh. I get you. Oh, are we on? Oh, oh, here we are. Okay, so Yuval, was it more difficult to write a book for children than for adults? Yes, much more difficult.

Really? You know, when you write for adults and you don't know something, you can use a lot of very difficult words in one sentence, and they think they don't get you, but with kids it doesn't work. You have to really know what you're saying. Really? Otherwise, they don't take it.

Isn't that interesting? I always thought you could fool kids because they're stupid. But also, they haven't heard all the stories that we believe. Ah, right. So they ask more difficult questions. Okay. Gillian, mortgage rates rose above 7% in the U.S. this week. What do you make of the Fed's monetary policy?

Boy. Wow. Okay, I am the financial time. I was just going to say. This is the boring hour where everyone goes, oh. Okay, basically the Fed is in a rock and a hard place in that inflation has been rising. If it doesn't act, it could get a lot worse.

But if acts too quickly, then it's going to end up essentially... Are we going to have a recession? I mean, I see we're already losing a lot of money in the market, right? Yeah, probably yes, unfortunately. And how long will it last? Will it be bad or... A lot depends on what happens. Yeah. Things like, you know, war Ukraine, yeah.

Elsewhere. China, China's slowing down. That's pretty significant for the global economy. It's not looking great. No. One reason we need comedy shows. The traffic is always, and also traffic is always lighter. I'm not saying I'm rooting for one. I'm just saying. There's a plus. There's a plus. They got to have, you know, it's like when you're in Vegas, you know, you get insurance on a hand. Quentin, you wrote a novelization of What's Upon a Time in Hollywood last year? You just published your first film analysis book.

What do you plan on writing next? Or I guess another question with this might be, is this, you know, writing? How does it compare I would want to know to, like, filmmaking? It can't give you the kind of rush you have, but it's probably not as exhausting. Well, it's interesting, especially like in doing something. Well, okay, it's interesting because, One of the things that is just really gratifying about writing a book or something is the idea that I would really invest into writing these scripts that I would do. And I put my whole heart and soul into them.

And they were like these Mount Everest I was climbing. And this one is Kilimanjaro. And the next one is Fuji. And so I'm just going all out there. Then I would invest all this time and all this energy. And then I'm finished with the script. Well, now I have to go and make it. And if I'm happy with the script, then now it's mine to mess up.

in the directing of it. The thing that's really kind of cool about writing a book is like you put all your time and energy into it, and then when the book is done, you're done. I don't have to go and spend nine months, going out and making the movie and all that stuff, and then spending another four, six months selling it all around the world.

I still kind of do that a little bit, but, you know, trying to say. Because usually when I would finish a screenplay, I would sort of like, I would question, should I just publish the screenplay? because I've just put everything I have into it, and no one is ever going to read it other than the actors who are doing the movie.

I know that Spielberg had said at one point that making the movie was kind of drudgery for him because he'd already made it in his head. Okay, I'm not going as far as that because making a movie is like the funnest thing. If you're in a position to make movies, and you can kind of do a lot of what you would like to do. I mean, God, there's just,

It's hardly a better job than that. I mean, it's just really great. Pretty girls. Violence. And if you're able to just like, you know, I've been in a really lucky position. I can just conjure up little interesting stories that I want to tell.

And a cast of characters. I get to... The best. You get to choose them the best actors, the most charismatic people, hang out with them, blow shit up. Yeah, it's a blast. You know, and my sets are known.

My sets are known for being one of the funest sets in Hollywood. I mean, you know, the people in Ayatze want to work on a Quentin movie, all right, because they're going to have a ball. So you'd be hurting a lot of people if you quit. Anyway, will future generations be appalled by some of the current decisions, of course, current decisions are actually

we're making as a society? What are some things we do today that are generally accepted, but will look bad in the future? Well, the animal. Well, you're the guy to answer that. Why? What am I doing? Well, because you poned it out every week. Act like I'm raping Ned Bady in the woods.

But animals, I would say. Animals, yeah. Eating animals. Raising animals. Torturing them. Even if we still eat them, there's no need to torture them while they're alive. I mean, even California now is good for California, has passed the law. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments about it,

whether it can stand in other states. But we passed a law that said you have to, you know, we're not stop someone. bacon, but you have to raise the pigs humanely. I mean, they're smart, sensitive animals. Probably smarter than kids. You can go and adopt a pig.

What else? What do you think else in a hundred years? I mean, off the top in my head, beauty pageants, I think, is probably going to go... Well, that's cutting edge of you. They've been saying that for 40 years. But they don't do it. Antibiotic resistance. The fact that we use

so many antibiotics that, you know, society becoming resistant to it and we could have not so much a pandemic but another big medical disaster from that. That's a slightly different category but yes that's something that's a great worry. I mean we are heading toward the post antibiotic age. I always say

I never want to take an antibiotic but boy am I glad they exist because when you need it I mean people would be dying of a splinter again. I mean that's certainly possible so but anything that we are doing that we are choosing to do that you know choosing strong

men dictators to be our leaders. I mean, I hope that in 100 years, people would look back at it and think this was as lunatic as we look back at some of the political systems back in history. Right. I don't know, monarchs in the grace of God, ruling

the country or something like that. England still has a monarch. But she doesn't rule. He... Sorry. Sorry. I think one of the dumbest things has been taking democracy for granted. It's back to your point about

15% of kids voting. And that is, you know, and treating politics as a reality TV show. That's what you expect from it. You know, there is reality TV. Watch the Kardashians. Don't expect your politicians to act like them and then vote for ones who do. And maybe add to that, that, you know, the expectation for authenticity. I mean, we don't need authentic leaders.

We need responsible leaders. Authenticity, you know, saying the first thing that comes to your mind or tweeting it, it's good in therapy. But politics is a therapist. Right. You need to build a wall between your mind and your mouth. Right. And be very careful about what you let through there.

And yet some politicians love walls very much in all kinds of places except between their mind and their mouth. But you can't outlaw that. You can't outlaw. I mean, in terms of what we tolerate, what we expect. Well, we can expect. You have to tolerate. That's what free speech means.

You have to tolerate things. There's lots of things I don't want to tolerate in the world, but I have to tolerate. I wish I could talk to you all night, but I have to tolerate closing the show. And I must say, you know, with all my cynicism, go vote. Do it anyway. It just might help.

All right. We'll see you next week. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10. Or watch them anytime on HBO on demand. For more information, log on to HBO.com.