The Watch - Inside the Making of ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ With Danny McBride, David Gordon Greene, and Jody Hill | The Watch

Episode Date: July 26, 2019

Danny McBride, David Gordon Greene, and Jody Hill, the creators of HBO’s ‘The Righteous Gemstones,’ join the show to talk about their inspirations for the show (7:31), comedy taking on religion (12:56), and what it’s like to work on multiple projects as a group (17:51). Host: Chris Ryan Guests: Danny McBride, David Gordon Greene, and Jody Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Liz Kelly, and welcome to the Ringer Podcast Network. This week, we're debuting a brand new three-part podcast series with Quentin Tarantino and Amy Nicholson called Quentin Tarantino's feature presentation. Here's a quick trailer with more info. If you go to Quentin Tarantino's new Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, you're going to hear that feature presentation song. And when the movie starts, you're going to step in to Quentin Tarantino's brain. If you own a movie, you own a print of a film, it feels like it's your movie. consequently it's like if people really like the movie and they go wow that movie was terrific you know my response was oh thank you very much it was like i took credit for it because well

it was my print so and i put the whole thing together to show it so i actually felt like they were complimenting me this is quentin tarentino's feature presentation a new three-part podcast miniseries hosted by me film critic amy nicholson of unschooled and Halloween unmasked before the release of his new film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Quentin and I sat down to talk about five films that he's programmed at the new Beverly, and we wound up talking about his life, his work, and how this movie crazy kid became a director who defined a generation. Waiting for the lights to go down, and no one knows what to expect. Is this going to be one of those special times? Is it not going to be one of those special times? It's going to be a forgettable

time. The first episode of Quentin Tarantino's feature presentation is out later this week. It is the closest thing to sharing a bucket of popcorn with the man himself, so subscribe. Now wherever you hear podcasts. I need sports to have to clear the room. Stand up and walk now. Hello and welcome to The Watch. My name is Chris Ryan and I am editor at derringer.com. Today on The Watch, I was so happy to be joined by Jody Hill, David Gordon Green, and Danny McBride.

They are the guys behind The Righteous Gemstones, which is coming on HBO in a couple of weeks. They are the guys behind Eastbound and Down. They are the guys behind Observe and Report and the legend. of a whitel deer hunter and vice principals and of course the Halloween reboot that we spent so much time on the ringer covering with Amy Nicholson's pod last year. And it was just like pretty amazing to see these guys. So here's the thing. Danny David and Jody have known each other for most of their lives.

They went to film school together in North Carolina, which is where they met. Danny and Jody moved out to Los Angeles to make it out here as writers and actors and directors and worked, you know, waiter jobs out here, kind of grinding away. And then they wound up going back home to make the foot-fist way, which is, I guess, it's almost like they made it in 2005 or 2006 and finally came out in 2006 after making it, I think, in 2003 or five or whatever. And it was kind of like a legendary, immediately cult classic, I would say. Will Ferrell and Adam McKay caught onto it. They helped promote it. And the legend of sort of, Danny McBride was born from there.

And pretty quickly after that, he wound up going on to be in Tropic Thunder and a bunch of Drillbit Taylor and a bunch of other movies like that. Jody went on to direct Observe and Report with Seth Rogen. I think that came out in 2009. So it's been 10 years since Observe and Report came out. And then sort of parallel to all that, their buddy David Gordon-Green has been one of the most prolific directors in Hollywood for the last 20 years. He started out in 2000 with George Washington, which is this kind of impressionistic

Terence Malick type look at Life in the South. Then he made all the real girls with Zoe Dashnell a couple of years later. And since then, has made movies like Pineapple Express and The Sitter and Stronger with Jake Gyllenhaal and done a bunch of TV and directed the Halloween reboot that came out last year. So David has been kind of constantly working

and that whole time has been working with Danny and Jody. And they've been making television for HBO too. They've made Eastbound and Down, which is one of me and Andy's. longtime favorites. We've talked often about how much how funny we found that that show and how much we treasure it and repeat lines from it. I still to this day say let the boy watch

about pretty much anything. And now they're back with righteous gemstones. So righteous gemstones premieres on HBO on August 18th and it's hilarious. I mean it's actually a little bit different than the stuff that they've done before. It kind of reminds me a little bit of Jackie Brown or kind of like out of sight, the sort of Tarantino, Soderberg, Elmore Leonard stuff from the 90s,

if only because it takes the crime stuff in this show as seriously as it takes the comedy, which I think is the key to a really great show anyway if you're going to do something like that is to sort of treat every part of every genre you're working in with equal respect and equal sincerity. And they did a really good job making a really compelling story while also having Danny McBride, John Goodman,

Adam Devine, Edypaston, Edie Patterson, Walton Goggins, a bunch of other people really throwing 100 right off the mound and, like, killing it with just like amazing, amazing comedy sequences. Dermit Moruny's also in it. It's about a family of televangelists named the gemstones. Eli Gemstone, played by John Goodman, is sort of the patriarch. Jesse Gemstone, played by Danny McBride, is the heir apparent. And then his brother and sister are played by Adam Devine from workaholics and a bunch of other stuff. And Edie Patterson, and you might remember from Vice. principles. And that's the family. And then they're moving in on the territory of a character played by Dermott Mulroney. And they also have a brother-in-law, uncle figure, played by Walton Goggins, who plays a character named Baby Billy Freeman, who is essentially like if Rick Flair was a country preacher. It's really amazing. Gemstones is the third show that they've done for HBO. I was curious about whether or not it really was part of this trilogy of Eastbound Vice Principles and Gemstone. So we talked.

a little bit about that. We talked a lot about their friendship and their creative relationship and what it's like to work both with each other in Charleston where David and Danny live and also go out into Hollywood and make Halloween and make Alien Covenant and make Legend of a white tail deer hunter in North Carolina like Jody did and yet still always come back to each other to work together on these incredible projects. They're really distinctive. I mean, I think that in this day and age, it's pretty easy to kind of put a lot of pressure on every single show where you're like, what is this show about? What does this show mean? These shows are just sincerely entertaining. And it's kind of a lost art to just make a very funny, very captivating

television show that keeps you entertained. And these guys have kind of mastered it. So let's get into my conversation with David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, and Jody Hill. On Monday, I'm going to talk to Kate Nibbs a little bit about Charles Manson in relationship to once upon a time in Hollywood. and I'll also be talking about Veronica Mars Season 4, which I've held off on talking about it because I wanted to give people an opportunity to see the entire season before we discussed it on the show. And lots more good stuff.

We'll be doing a mailbag episode soon, so if you have questions, hit us up at the Washpot on Twitter. So let's get into my conversation with Danny, Jody, and David. I'm pretty thrilled to be joined by Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, and Jody Hill, who are the minds behind righteous gemstones, which is coming out in mid-August, then obviously also the guys behind Eastbound and Down.

and Vice Principles and so many other things that The Watch podcast has talked about over the years. It's kind of wild being here with you guys because, so what, George Washington's almost 20. We filmed it 20 years ago. Oh, man, that's crazy. And then All the Real Girls is 03, and then Footfist and Observer Report or what, like 08 and 09.

2005, we actually shot Footfist. Oh, but when it came out a couple years after that? Sunnance, 06. Okay, 06. Wow, so it's been 20 years of you guys. It's crazy. Is it strange? to start thinking about being veterans?

It is. It's like calming, though, because you're like, well, if it all ended now, at least we did something. Or when you're just getting off, you're just thinking at any moment it could all be done, and we didn't even get to do what we wanted to do. Yeah. Do you feel like you guys are getting to do what you want to do now still? Like, do you feel like most of the time, like with an idea like righteous gemstones, that the creative process and also like the development process and getting people to believe in you guys and give you whatever money you need for it, has gotten easier or harder or more complicated. I mean, with Gemstones, because it's with HBO and we've worked with them now for over 10 years,

I do feel like this was like, they've always been good about kind of giving us what we need for the show. But I really felt like this time, they really did step up. I mean, we got the days we needed to shoot it. And they, yeah, they trust us. They let us kind of go at it. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to give stuff away about gemstones, but there is a wave pool in the first episode. So it's just like they came through with the practical effects

it seems like. Let's talk a little bit about this show in particular because I think maybe it's because we're doing Tarantino Week on the site and we've been talking a lot about him so I have him on the brain a little bit. But I felt like when I was watching the first few episodes of gemstones that felt kind of Elmore Leonardy.

It kind of like under low-key like it's obviously very funny but the caper aspects and the crime aspects and these people who were kind of screwing each other over over and over again felt like a really fun throwback to some of the good

crime movies we used to get in the 90s and stuff like that. I was just wonder if that might be something you guys were kicking around when you were doing it or did it just really emerge as like the third part of this trilogy of shows

that you've made for HBO. You know, I don't know if that was a direct influence but I mean I definitely when it comes to stuff that involves crime or violence I definitely think there's more comedy in like the inept

grounded version of that, you know, where somebody's not good at committing crimes. I just feel like it's inherently, like, more relatable. Yeah. You know, like, if I was going to go beat someone's ass for money, you know, and I had to align my friends, you know, you would think about stupid stuff of like, let's all use the same weapon or let's all. Do you guys feel that way at all going into it? Like, was there something that you wanted to do differently on this that you felt like,

okay, vice principal is its own thing? Even in terms of like the way you shot it or the way the tones you were looking for? I mean, I think it's always fun to combine different stuff. And I think the longer we've been doing this, the more we are, you know, try to do that and everything. So like, we've always sort of like mixed darkness with her comedy, right? So then anytime we can bring in like more genres, that seems like a cool thing. It's almost like comedy is the thing that gets you to buy your ticket. You know, like you see the trailer and it's, oh, that's funny and stuff. And then when you get in there, you realize, oh, this is. Oh, this is. is like really sad or this is like kind of scary or this is yeah i remember when i saw the pilot the dany directed for the show and i'm trying to wrap my head around how we're going to approach the series my thought is uh it was my reference points were the godfather and the tv show dallas so and so i don't go to you know to funny when i you know i think it's a really funny show but that's casting timing kind of the details and nuances and the jokes within the show but in terms of

a broad canvas. It feels pretty epic. It's a huge family tale. I mean, I look at this and, you know, the hope is it continues over years and it's this family saga. Yeah. One of the things that's really cool about this show is that without divulging too many details about the plot, aside from what's like obviously in the trailer, it seems like you

guys have like a really cool sandbox to play in, like with the shoots. So like the mansions, the malls, like, even just like the suburban kind of like my you guys are working in. So is this shot in Charleston? It is. It's all shot around Charleston. And, you know, the megachurch is the North Charleston Coliseum. And, you know, that's just one of the benefits of, like, you know, positioning ourselves in a place like Charleston.

You know, you see a big location like that coliseum. And you're like, I wonder if we could get that. You know, you actually can where I feel like if we were to shoot that show in Los Angeles, we might get the Staples Center for like three minutes. Yeah. Not two weeks. You could get somebody like walking past the Magic Johnson statue. and then they're like, wrap this.

I wanted to ask you a little bit about Charleston because, Danny, there was something you said to Rolling Stone a few years ago about, he said, being around people that have nothing to do with film gives me ideas, I can walk down the street and get an idea for something that I know is unique to hear. And I was wondering what, for you, for you guys, how gemstones is sort of rooted in that?

Is this because televangelism and megachurches and stuff are just a lot more common down there or at least you're more engaged with them on a day-to-day basis, and religion plays a much bigger part of, like, the community down there. Like, what was it about Charleston that kind of inspired this? You know, I mean, it is, like, coming from, I'd lived here in L.A. for 20 years, so going there, and, you know, turning on the radio station, and, like, every other channel is, you know, down there is, like a religious station, or you could drive outside of the, outside of the

downtown and get into the sticks, and there's nothing out there except a church on every corner. Yeah. And it, yeah, it just kind of reminded me about how, what an important part, religion. does play in a lot of people's lives, even though I didn't see it much here when I was in Los Angeles, that, you know, I think because I went to church when I was a kid and then grew up, I kind of assumed that everyone was on the same wavelength I was, that like, oh, church is something you used to do. And it was like, I opened and it's like, no, church is something that still tons and tons of people still do. And so it may be curious about, like, what is church looked like now

compared to what it was like when I was a kid. And then you start kind of seeing how church is evolved. You know, it's not just sitting in a pew in a, you know, in a one-room church. It's, you know, these things have adapted and adjusted for the times and have tried to be exciting or entertaining to kind of bring in more and more people. Yeah. And so the idea of something like church evolving, just, I don't know, it seemed like an interesting world. It seemed like something was ripe there. And, yeah, sort of just kind of setting the story in that world. So I think Charleston played a part in it in that in the sense that it just, religion is so prevalent there, that it just made me think about religion a little bit more.

Yeah. David, has Charleston changed your eye at all, like your director's eye? Has it the last couple years living down there impacted you? I've actually never lived in L.A. or New York or where... Oh, okay.

So I've always lived, you know, I moved from... You know, we went to film school together in North Carolina and Winston-Salem. Yeah, we had a really cool piece on your alma mater on the site a couple years ago, yeah. And then moved from there to Savannah, Georgia, then to Louisiana,

and then to Austin, Texas, and now Charleston. So it's not anything radical in that way, just because I think I always just kind of go someplace comfortable to recalibrate after the chaos of a production or something. And it's nice that we can bring work to where we live now, and that's pretty cool.

For you, Jody, you're from the South, but you're living out in L.A., when you go back to work on stuff, whether it's vice principals or working on a movie, because I was, last time I saw a white tail at South Bay. Oh, cool. kind of like still like, man, it was really fucking winter out in North Carolina on the mountain. Do you almost feel like you have like an outsider's perspective on it now?

No, you know, it's just I'm more comfortable around models and cocaine. Sort of what I've grown in a lot out here. They have that Charles to do. What are you talking about? Yeah. No, no, I mean, I still, I go back there all the time. Like everything we've shot has been in. You know, like we used to shoot Eastbound and down and Wilmington, North Carolina.

Then we shoot this in Charleston. So I don't know. I sort of feel like I'm still from there. I just happen to live out here. Yeah. The thing I really like about this show is that the religion is very matter of fact. Like, you're never like, it's not like a show about religion as much as it's a show about these people who are maybe using religion to make themselves better off.

Which is, but it's cool because it's not like an essay about whether or not we should be believers at this time period. Did you guys, was there like any ground rules you guys set for yourselves going into the writing and the production of the show where you're like, let's like make sure we're playing within these lines kind of. Yeah, that was kind of my, I was really looking at like religion, like when comedies have taken on religion before. And I found a lot of them like just didn't have what it takes to be classics.

Like I was like, you know, a lot of them are kind of boring. I feel like the comedy doesn't work at him. And I was kind of wondering why. And the more I watch them, like, oh, it's because they're making fun of people for what they believe in, which just feels. a little obnoxious. What are the, I'm trying to think of like,

what are the classic religion comedies? There's really not many of them. There's like, leave of faith and holy man and all these things. There's a movie that Edmorton directed,

right? Like the Brian. Oh yeah, keeping the faith. Life of Brian is probably, I think, probably the most classic of all religious comics.

Yeah. Yeah. They were saying that when we were being interviewed. They were just like, we've seen this before on screen. I was just like, have we?

Like, have you seen it? I think we've seen a lot of priests, but it's like, it's mostly a, the mission and stuff. It's not like you're like, the mission's a laugh riot. That could be season like four of gemstones, though.

It's like maybe like you guys get the Ennio Morricone food. I wanted to talk a little bit, you know, as we were sort of beginning, the idea of you guys in your creative partnership. And I know for me, like just growing up, it's almost been like kind of really cool to track you guys because it feels like I, like you guys are like me and my friends.

Like, we loved movies. We loved talking about it. They were such a huge point of, like, fascination for us. But I'm always fascinated in a group dynamic. Like, how does, like, creative duties get broken up? Because I think that, like, obviously, you see credits at the end. You're like, well, that guy is the executive producer, so it must have mean he executive produced this. But how does it work?

Like, when you guys write gemstones up on a whiteboard or somebody walks into the office and is like, I think we should do something about megachurches, like, how do you guys start divvying up responsibilities? Is it just free-flowing? You know, I think the way we, you know, I almost feel like in some regards, this like partnership started just from the fact that, you know, we all went to film school in North Carolina. I feel like we all kind of saw ourselves a little bit as like outsiders in this industry. And I think even when we start to find success, there was still this level that we were on the fringe of things here. And so I think because of that, you kind of just end up turning to each other for guidance or counsel. If you had an idea for a script, you'd look internally for thoughts on it.

you know, David made a film right out of school and incorporated all of us in it. And I think it was a good, I don't know, it was a good example of like, oh, this is possible. We can do this. And so in that regards, David, like, kind of provided the example. And Jody and I lived in Los Angeles for a few years, waiting tables and doing shit jobs. And, you know, we had this goal of what we wanted to make. But, you know, people aren't reading your scripts. You don't have the opportunities.

And you kind of turn to each other for that guidance. And I think as success came, that name. nature just started to, just organically continued of like looking to each other for guidance or counsel. And I think it's just because like we don't really put any rules on it. Like there is when these guys, you know, I, you know, running the writer's room and then these guys come on to direct it and I never, it's never like I sit them down and say, these are the rules of the show. You got to do this and you're going to do this. It's like I just ultimately like the alchemy of it all. And like what each of these guys want to bring to it, I feel like that's just what the show ends up becoming. I like the idea of

of I trust their instincts enough. I like the idea of giving them something and then letting them put their spin on it, letting them visualize it how they want to and just go for it. And I think the idea of keeping it going this long is just really because we're not really setting out to do that. It just almost just happens organically.

You work on other projects, and then suddenly you get this opportunity to work with some of your best friends and it just seems like fun to keep doing it. What's it like going out, working on something like stronger or, you know, doing work for other companies or with other groups of people

and then coming back to this kind of home base almost. That's an interesting example because Stronger was the first and only time I said, I want to not work with anyone I know. Okay. So that was a deliberate choice to, I don't know, kind of recalibrate everything and to see what I could learn from other cinematographers and production designers. And the only person I brought was my production sound mixer. Okay.

And other than that, everybody was new. And it was interesting because I did learn a lot of new perspectives, new approaches, new techniques. I find great value in that. And I do like to step away. And, you know, I just did a, there's a new series coming out on Apple about Emily Dickinson. Yeah. And it was kind of a for hire job, but a lovely group of creative people.

And I was walking into their world and their show, and I'd never done anything like that before. And again, it's just an opportunity to learn and see that the world's bigger than necessarily our insular bubble. But we always have that safety net, that place to go, that creative place to go back to when, you know, it's nice to step. boy and it's nice to come home. And Jody, when you're like, are you sitting around and like you start looking at scripts or you start seeing ideas and you're like, can I play Levi or like, can I get in this? Can I play rhythm guitar in the megachurch band? No.

Danny asked me to do that. That was, it was fun. That was a fun thing to do. I mean, usually I feel like a lot of times with us, it's sort of whoever's baby it is. Like this one is definitely Danny's baby. He's running the writer's room, so David and me will come in and sort of support. But that happens with movies that we all do. You know, like if David comes up with a movie and wants, you know, everybody to kind of chip in in some way.

You know, it sort of becomes like there's one of those is sort of like maybe the guy who's baby it is and the rest sort of like all come along. Yeah, yeah. Uncle's. I'm the uncle on this one. God damn it. So I was curious because like when I ever. read stuff about you guys meeting at film school and sort of seeking each other out.

It seems like obviously movies were a huge part of like the common language that you guys found between the three of you. And I was curious about how your relationship to movies have changed over the years, especially now that like, I'm sure some of them veneer is gone because like you make them and stuff like that.

But like are you still like huge movie fans in that same way? Or is there something that gets lost over the years when you're like constantly working on it? And you just, do you just ever want to, like, unplug from that stuff and just watch CSI and not, not think about the mechanics of a Ridley Scott movie or something? Personally, I'm still a big fan. I go to see movies all the time. And I think that it's weird.

I, like, went through a phase in film school where the first year or so, once you, once I started learning, like, oh, that's how they do that, that's, I'm being manipulated when that happens. Yeah. Where then there was, like, a year or two where I kind of was like, I don't, you know what I mean? I wasn't super into all the movies. or there were like maybe my taste just changed. Yeah. But ever since I sort of like, I don't know, I just sort of gave up on that. And now I watch like dumb genre movies, anything really.

And I don't know. I kind of can appreciate them for whatever they are trying to be. So I don't know. I still watch movies all the time. Dave, you're so prolific. I mean, like, are you also still like the movie fan you were in the late 90s? I am. You know, I just bought my tickets for the 7 a.m. Saturday morning,

sit around a dome once upon a time in Hollywood. 70 millimeter. 7 a.m. You know, so, you know. Carbo load before that, because it's 240 runtime. I know. Well, I get up early and I fall asleep in movies I see later in the day now. Okay.

So I thought that's a good way to stay awake. But, and I revisit movies all the time. Actually, in kind of excitement for that, I'd just rewatch Jackie Brown for the first time since it was in the theater the other day and blown away by all the things that I don't remember about that movie. It's also weird to watch it with some age, and you see like the little things that maybe when you were younger,

like you were like, well, this is cool, but it's not quite like Pulp Fiction, like high energy and stuff. Oh, it's totally different, but for my taste. That's what I thought then. And now I think this is a really mature movie about a middle-aged couple. What a weird choice. How incredible. And so, yeah, I'm always watching movies.

And I find at this age, I strangely go more to kind of popcorn movies and schlocky movies for entertainment because I think work life can be so overwhelming, and I've got kids now, and that can be, you know, finding that balance is really difficult. So I do like to go to the enjoyment of a fun, easy to watch movie more than I used to. So you got that 7 a.m. Hobbs and Shaw tickets to. I definitely would be, but so I think, you know, whereas in my 20s, I would be making fun of me now because of the popcorn movies I just, I just enjoy.

You guys are kind of outliers. Like, I mean, you know, Eastbound and Vice Principals were shot two seasons together, right? Eastbound almost felt like one long movie to me anyway. And it remains to be seen like Gemstones. I hope you guys get to make a lot of this. But where's your head out like on the TV streaming content title wave that we're swimming in? Because it's just like I think that it's at once it's like so fun because there's never not something to watch. But that's also weird that there's never not something to watch because you're just, you're like you always feel behind or you always feel like you're missing out on something.

Like are you guys pretty big TV watchers as well? I mean, whatever quote unquote TV is now. You know, I don't really watch much TV. I mean, I usually will use TV as something just to kind of have noise on the background. And a lot of times it'll just end up being like reality TV or just something kind of mindless so that I can like tune out. But I, you know, I do like what TV is now. I like the idea that people are biting off these bigger stories and they can tell them in chapters. And, you know, I was feeling for a while just a little pinned in by the structure of feature films.

Yeah. And especially by the structure of feature films that are like, you know, studio movies that, you know, where you have a test audience and things have to, like, hit certain marks and people have to be at a certain place at a certain point in the middle of the movie. It just felt, especially with comedy, that it was hard to make a story that was sort of unique without having to hit all the generic beats. And I like that television has opened that up, that, like, you know, to tackle a five-hour comedy story, it just, you can go in so many other crazy areas. is that you could never accomplish in an hour and a half comedy. And I like that. I feel like it's kind of, from a writing standpoint, it's definitely, I think, more appealing than just writing a straight script.

Sure. Do you guys find that having families and stuff changes, like, the TV that's on at the house a lot? Like, I mean, obviously you're probably not watching. You just have to get up earlier, but you'd be surprised what I show my kids. Are you, are they, like, seen Halloween and stuff? You know what?

They haven't, but they tell, my son is seven. He tells his friends that he's seen Halloween. He's always talking about it. What's his version of the plot? Yeah. He was, for a while, he was going to dress up as mini-Michaels, Halloween. Yeah, that was like his costume.

It was going to be like, a miniature version of Halloween, Michael Myers. But, yeah, I mean, we just, you know, he, you know what's crazy is they'll watch, like, YouTube videos of people talking about these movies. And he'll act like he knows what the movie's all about. We're counting on that here.

I'm like, don't tell me what Halloween's about. I wrote that. Dad, did you see this explainer? You got it all wrong. What about you? I mean, you've been, you've flitted it in and out. You've done, like, you know, like Red Oaks. You've talked about this, the Dickinson pilot.

Or did you work on the pilot or was just the first? The pilot? Yeah. So, I mean, is that, do you feel like there's like a market difference between the way stuff is getting made now than even, like, say, five or six years ago? Absolutely. And, you know, it is the Wild West in some degree. and people are taking great chances with narratives.

It's kind of overwhelming when you see how many platforms there are and what TV is on. I honestly don't like the TV on in my house very much. I look at movie theaters as an experience that I can go step away from my world and check in. If my kids are around, I don't want to watch TV with them. I mean, every now that it's fun to show them the karate kid or something cool. Or we do a movie night. I'll show them high noon or a documentary or something.

something that they wouldn't be, wouldn't necessarily appeal to them, but the fact that they get to, you know, watch TV for a couple hours ago. But I like to just get out of there sometimes and go fishing and, you know, go for a bike ride or jump in the ocean. Sure. Jody, you talked about, like, the different muscle that you were using for doing Whitetail and then, like, you wanted to do something different after vice principles and, like, try and do. What's the major thing that you have to adjust to? Is it just schedule or is it just, like, a certain, like, specificity of, like, storytelling that you have to do when you're kind of switching brains? like that? I don't know. To be honest with you, it's not that different to go between, not as different as I thought

when you go between genres. It's really all in the writing. But in terms of, at least how we do it, I don't know, maybe it's different for other people. But if you're doing like more of a straight drama like that was, you know, versus a comedy, it seems like the preparation is the same with the actors. I don't think they're shot that much differently. You know, I've done things where like, you know, somebody will be like, we don't want to shoot this like a comedy. I've heard that before. Really?

Yeah, from like commercials and stuff. They'll say things like that. But then like it really, there's not like a big difference. I mean, unless you're, you know, you're shooting stuff that just sucks. You know what I mean? Oh, okay, well, I'll take the comedy playbook and throw it off. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, put on that serious filter.

Like my ray on. Yeah. So in the stuff we do, it wasn't that. I mean, like, and these guys could probably. probably comment on that with like horror and stuff. But really it's, um, comedy, the writing of it is, is hard, I think, because, you know, you just, it has to be funny. Yeah. That's all subjective and stuff like that. So with action, you know, if something's action-packed, it's, you'll know it, but it doesn't have to like, like, comedy could like tickle somebody differently than it would

another person. And I think that that's like where you can drive yourself crazy looking at the, the jokes and trying to integrate a plot into that. It's like you're engineering it almost too much. Yeah, I think so. So I don't know. I thought it was cool to stretch a little bit. I kind of want to keep doing that. And I think that's like with this show, The Righteous Gemstones, we get an opportunity

to do that where it is funny, but like you said, there's a crime aspect to it. Yeah. There's dramatic aspects to it. So I don't know. That kind of stuff's cool and exciting to me. I always like that when other filmmakers do it too. Sure. Cohen Brothers and stuff.

You know, I like how you can never put them in a specific genre. Or even when you see a trailer and you're like, oh, this movie's going to be like that. Like I remember when I saw the Lewin Davis trailer, I was like, oh, it's going to be. This is exactly what this movie is going to be. And then it's so different than the way I thought it was going to be. It was like closer to serious man or something.

Yeah. It was really cool. So I was wondering, but he mentioned the horror stuff. It seems to me that like the horror and the comedy stuff shares some of the same, like, it works because it feels real. rules? Do you guys even think about that stuff when you're writing in terms of what genre it's in? I don't know. I mean, I feel like in a way, I felt like I could be totally off on this.

You correct me, Dave, but I feel like you're thinking about the audience in both of them. Yeah. And so you're also thinking about like a reaction, a specific reaction that the audience needs to give you in comedy. You know, so you might hold back on a joke here so you can get a bigger laugh, you know, 30 seconds later. And with horror, it kind of felt like that was a similar thing. You're trying to pace the scares. You're trying to make sure that no too much time hasn't gone by without a scare. You think about that with comedy. I felt like writing horror was easier than writing comedy.

And I wasn't involved in the editing much on Halloween. But I felt like the post process of horror to me seemed trickier than the post process of comedy because I feel like you can, in a comedy, I can watch. Eadie or John Goodmer, Adam Devine make a joke, and it will make me laugh every time I see it in the edit room. Yeah. But then once you know where Michael Myers is going to jump out from, it becomes hard to like, will this be scary? Are people going to know that this is here? It seems like it's a little harder to have that fresh perspective on it once you kind of know what's coming.

That's really interesting. Was the post process on Halloween instructive in that way, or was it weird to go through that? Totally weird to go. I mean, just to add a little bit of what Danny said, I think the setup and pay. payoff of comedy in horror is very similar. To have that audience trigger pulled, you know, like to have that reaction that you want to have in mass. I think the setup and payoff is really valuable. And then the production process on a horror movie is far from scary, especially working with all these cool dorks that we hang out.

So you're always just thinking, like, well, I assume when you put scary music on it. John Carpenter shows up, then he's going to do his thing, and it'll be scary. But you don't really know, because as Danny says, you know where. where the surprises are. Right. We've engineered them. We've prepared for all of it. So it's very valuable to show it to one audience and to get it up on its feet and put a, you know,

put a cut together that I like, but I don't really know what's going to startle somebody because it's impossible to not have been aware of it. So it just became great just to get groups. Sometimes it'd be 10 people. Sometimes it'd be a couple hundred people. You'd just get groups of people together and show it and figure out, well, hey, if we, do we want suspense here or do we want a jump scare?

Sure. I remember I was watching one of the, I think this has come up on this podcast like probably at least a hundred times is one of the great YouTube videos is the blooper reel from season one of Eastbound. And it's partially because you guys are fucking

crying through like half of the like the Will Ferrell scenes. You're just like obviously having aneurisms because you're trying to stay straight. But I was curious about what the sets are like for you guys. bringing in an Adam Devine or bringing in a John Goodman who you haven't worked with before, like, what are kind of like – I mean, Adams obviously worked on workaholics.

I feel like that's almost like a weird, like, West Coast mirror of what you guys were doing for a little while. Like, how do you guys like – how do you guys like to play? You know, it's like a lot of the – there's a lot of familiar faces on our set. You know, we use a lot of the same – not only are there key positions like Richard Wright, who's our production designer, Chris Giebert, who does our production sound. Those guys we all went to college with. We're all there.

We all knew each other when we didn't have gray hair. Everybody has known each other for a while. And then because we've shot regionally in North Carolina, South Carolina for a long time now, a lot of the crew that's just there has become like family. So I think it's instantly a vibe of that support. And when we cast, I think it's a big part of what we look for. It's not only are they going to be good,

but do we want to be around them? Do they seem like they would have fun on them? and, you know, and understand what this needs to be in order to make it all work. And so then when you have someone like John Goodman, who's like, you know, you're not going to, you know, sit there and like audition John Goodman. It's either he's in or he's out, you know, and he's a hero of ours. So, you know, you just take a swing and just like you pray for the best. The, I watched the first three episodes so far of Gemstones.

And I will say that one of my favorite things in a TV, season is when like something happens in the middle and not even necessarily plot but it just like really jumps up a notch and when Goggins shows up in this season you're just like oh shit it's like baby Billy is here it's just was that how much of that is

Gagins how much is that as you guys like it's just an amazing Gaggans is a force you know and he's you know he's one of the best people I know he's such a sweet guy and but as an actor I just like love him I love we tend to really enjoy the actors who can like destroy

drama and be funny as fuck as well. It's like that stuff those actors tend to work well with the kind of stories we tell. And so with baby Billy, there was just an image I had of just Walton playing an old man. I thought that there was something about it that would just be funny. But he still kind of looks like Rick Flair.

He does. He does that fun. Everything is about Rick Flair. And so it was just, I mean, you know, I remember when Walton came and we did like a makeup test on him and shit, I just could not stop laughing looking at the pictures of him. So yeah, we just wanted to, you know, he's such a talent, he's so awesome.

We wanted to just, if he was going to show up for us and be in this, we wanted to give him something to do that was going to be pretty fun. Whoever the costume desires on the show deserves like a huge bonus. Like even like Gagons's slacks. Yeah. They're like in like the double-breasted suit with the turtleneck. That's Sarah Tross. She was our costume designer on vice principals as well. She's brilliant.

She's so good. I'll wrap it up here. Talk about gemstones being sort of like the conclusion, I guess, of a trilogy of miscellency. understood Angry Man shows. Like, did you envision this as like a trilogy necessarily? Or was it just like, I want to keep making stuff in this vein? I think when I first said that, I think we were just like, we were just bullshitting trying to make HBO feel like they needed to pick this up.

Like somehow it was part of a conclusion. But I think now that we've made it, I think it honestly transcends the other shows we are making in the sense that the world is so big in this. And our other shows are so centered around usually the character that I play. And this, I just feel like it's centered around this family. I feel like it's just much bigger than what we've done before. And so I think it's like, you know, I guess you could frame it up as the beginning of a trilogy or this could just be a brand new chapter and a whole new, you know, creative realm for us.

But you guys got kind of like, you're like, oh, yeah, it's part of the trilogy. Yeah, that's how we're selling age go like, come on, of course you've got to pick this up. Like this is the end of the man trilogy that we're doing. It's like a small, Martin universe. But it's just like a slowly different spin. Well, look, Jody, David, Danny, thank you so much for coming on the watch, man. I'm such a huge fan,

and people should really check out gemstones when it drops. It's hilarious. Thank you so much. Thanks, so much. Thanks, guys. Yeah, appreciate it.