WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1424 - Kelly Reichardt

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

Kelly Reichardt’s latest movie Showing Up is about the life of artists, but Kelly had no experience with art while growing up in a Miami law enforcement family other than crime scene photos. Kelly t...alks to Marc about the moment that opened her eyes to artistic expression and how a lonely night in Boston watching the snow fall convinced her to start making movies. They also go through all her films and gush over Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller.  Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
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Starting point is 00:00:52 customized business insurance policies starting at just $19 per month. Visit Zensurance today to get a free quote. Zensurance. Mind your business. Lock the gate! all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuck nicks what's happening what's going on out there where are we at man I have to I really have to check myself man I am drifting into zero fuckness I am drifting into uh giving zero fucks and you know it's freeing it's liberating on some level I think it may give me opportunity to to say even more of what I think, but on the other side of that,
Starting point is 00:01:45 a lot of, uh, what I think I might just let go of and live in the zero fuck zone. I mean, I haven't got a dog in this race, man. I, I, I don't, I I'm not carrying any debt. I don't have any children. I don't owe anybody anything. And zero fuck is, it's a nice zen. The zen of zero fuckness. I mean, obviously there are things I care about, but I'm trying to just stay engaged. Stay engaged. But what is the big game?
Starting point is 00:02:20 I got to do some homework, man. I've got to do some homework. How are you? I'm just, I'm a little lit up right now. So today, uh, I talked to Kelly Reichardt. Now I've been talking about Kelly Reichardt for a while. Um, I watched all her films recently and I just saw the new one showing up. I went to a screening of showing up. And look, man, sometimes an artist just hits you somehow.
Starting point is 00:02:58 And I've explained it to you. I'll probably explain it to her. I saw a trailer for her new movie and there was a moment in it where I was just sort of like, that is so precisely hilarious that I want to watch everything this person has ever done. And I found that I'd seen some of them, but I just didn't contextualize it. You i mean i saw i think the first one i saw was wendy and lucy um which was a devastating movie that i re-watched and i know i remember seeing um first cow i believe that came out during the pandemic and everyone was talking
Starting point is 00:03:48 about it and i was like there's something about this movie it it's it's got uh a a hint of mccabe and mrs millerness to it and i being a huge mccabe and mrs mill. I was like, there is just a fine aroma of McCabe and Mrs. Miller to First Cow. But so I watched the trailer for the new one showing up and then I just started. I watched them in order. River of Grass, River of Grass and Old Joy, which had a moment in it that
Starting point is 00:04:26 to me was stunning because of the space in it then i watched wendy and lucy again which was much more heartbreaking than i remembered it then i watched meek's cutoff which is this period piece that ends in really one of the crazy most poetic endings I've ever seen. Then Night Moves, which was about domestic terrorism. And then Certain Women, which was stunning. And then First Cow again. And then Showing Up, the new one. But I take deep dives. You know, like even with music sometimes I'll hear a group that I don't know of and I'll have to have everything they've done.
Starting point is 00:05:04 And with Kelly Reichardt's movies, I movies i was like holy shit who is this person and then i find out that sharpling tom sharpling him and i talked about her on his show he knows her from back in the day and i don't even know what this that means to me kelly reichardt is this person that is a mythological being this like poetic uh creative artist person that doesn't exist in time and place she's a mystery to me and then i i started email with her and then it was then it was real an email makes it real and then we booked the we booked the talk and the weird thing about river of grass her first movie is i'm watching it and the one i And the weird thing about River of Grass, her first movie, is I'm watching it and I know the woman in it from the Lower East Side. I got to talk to her about that. I'm like, I think I, well, I don't want to say too much, but I know that lady. So I talked to her about that.
Starting point is 00:05:59 But just, I mean, I would just go in order. You know, I really would. There's a tone that she creates that she maintains through all her films. I mean, River of Grass is basically, it seemed to me like her learning how to make a movie. But the rest just follow them all the way through. She creates space, man, and her endings are stunning and satisfying and provocative in a way that is antithetical to closure a lot of times. Yeah, live with that. Live with life, man. You think there's a button on situations?
Starting point is 00:06:42 There's only one button. We're all headed for the big button, man. There's only one button to this fucking story, this joke. There's only one tag and it's a long one. So, all right, I'm going to talk to Kelly Reichardt in a few minutes. I'm at Largo, April 14th. Don't know what I'm going to do there, but I'm going to be there. This is what I do. You know, I'm fucking around with about a half hour. Somehow I got to make it an hour.
Starting point is 00:07:14 I don't know where we're going to go. I got some ideas in my head. Let's start it at Largo. But you can go to the link for Largo at WTFpod.com slash tour for the tickets. Okay? You got it. So anyway, I go out on a dinner. I go to dinner tonight, business dinner conversation about a possible film project. I'm that's like the most Hollywood thing I've done in a long time. I met with the writer and a producer about a possible film project at a place so we're talking
Starting point is 00:07:47 I'm telling stories getting laughs talking about the stuff and uh and I'm someone go two women come in and they're once they're sitting at the bar and I'm facing facing the bar, and I kind of lose my mind because sitting at the bar, I think it's that woman who was in the latest season of White Lotus, the woman who played the hotel manager. And I said to one of the guys who I'm eating with, the producer guy, I'm like, is that the woman from White Lotus? And he's like, oh my God, I know her. And he jumps up, starts talking to her. And then I'm sitting there like, holy shit, it's really her. And I'm like, totally flustered, starstruck. She was so good. Her name is Sabrina Impacciatore I think is how you pronounce her last name and I met her and we're talking me and the producer guy and the writer guy and her friend who's uh married to the editor of White Lotus telling stories and I made a joke and I got a big laugh at a Sabrina and it was rewarding that, you know,
Starting point is 00:09:07 sometimes you realize like when you land one, you're like, yeah, that's why I do this. Look at that surprise. Hilarious. But it was such a thrill to meet that woman. And I'm telling you this because I do get starstruck. I was starstruck and I had to sit down. I couldn't even stay in the conversation. Look, I know the world's horrifying and terrible, but I'm currently in a zero fuck groove. It's not a political decision. into zero fuck groove it's not a political decision i'm not stifling anything i'm just i'm just living in the present all right the zen of zero fuck right now
Starting point is 00:09:50 but i do give a fuck and i do care and i do worry and i do panic but the other night middle of the night i hear a sound downstairs and if you're a cat owner or a dog owner, you know when there's chaos in the house, that means there's some sort of wild animal outside or another cat. Something's fucking with my cats downstairs. Now, Charlie is fine. Charlie's not moving. Charlie has taken it upon himself. This is the kitten to sleep with me, which is nice. And then for some reason,
Starting point is 00:10:30 Charlie, who's for the most part, an asshole, like all day long at about four in the morning, just becomes this weird, uh, affectionate, uh,
Starting point is 00:10:41 just love bug of a cat and starts just rubbing. He literally sticks his nose in my mouth. He rubs his nose all over my face. We have an understanding. It's kind of disgusting, but then he's just purrs and he flops around and then he's up pretty early in the morning and immediately becomes an asshole. I guess not unlike me some days. But the other two are downstairs, Fat Sammy and Buster. And there's commotion going on. So I get up in a panic because I don't know what's up. And I go down there in my underwear. And my front door, you can see out of it.
Starting point is 00:11:20 And right outside the front door, like there's a glass part that is sort of exposed, if I have the shade up a little bit, which I do, so the cats can, you know, experience a little bit of the outdoors during the night if they like, and my porch light is on. And standing there really, like literally at the door are two coyotes. Very healthy-looking coyotes, maybe on the young side, but the coats look good. They didn't look mangy or scrawny. They look like two excited, very alive, very focused coyotes, focused on the potential meal of Smushy and Buster.
Starting point is 00:12:06 Smushy and Booster were at the doors fucking around with these coyotes. And I had to bend down. I bent down. I look right at them. I'm like, get out of here. And I start banging on the door. Nothing. They were literally at the door.
Starting point is 00:12:19 Like these four animals were having full exchange through this glass. And it's weird to see coyotes that close, especially ones that don't give a fuck that you're there and aren't going to move. Like, I'm just going to be like, Oh yeah, come on in. Eat my fucking cats. Help me out. You guys want in? Sure. Come on in. There's one upstairs too. You want me to go get them? But like they wouldn't shoo, they wouldn't go away. I pounded on the glass and they were just sort of like no we're pretty focused on the cats and of course i didn't bring
Starting point is 00:12:50 my phone down because so i couldn't record this i want to go up and get the phone i want to get rid of the fucking coyotes driving my cat's crazy i don't know how crazy it's gonna get you know if they're gonna break in i don't think they can, but I don't know. See, I do care. I do give a fuck about my cats. And I get rid of the cats, shoo them off, and I had to open the fucking door and, you know, get in these coyotes' faces
Starting point is 00:13:17 and tell them to get the fuck out of here. And then they went away. But that was exciting at 3.30 in the morning. The coyote event event right at the door like literally could have been scratching to get in i'm waiting for him to come back i will get any coyote footage that happens i'll let you know i'll put on the instagram all right so kelly reichart Reichardt is a real artist, a poetic genius of film. And I was very excited to talk to her. Her new movie showing up opens in theaters tomorrow. And it was very enjoyable. And it actually is probably the happiest ending that she's achieved.
Starting point is 00:14:08 And this is my conversation with Kelly Reichardt. You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs and mozzarella balls, yes, we can deliver that. Uber Eats, get almost, almost anything. Order now. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details.
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Starting point is 00:15:09 So I see a coming attraction for the new one, for a trailer for showing up. And there was a moment in it that I thought was so acute and perceptive that I had to watch every one of your movies because of one moment in the trailer. Now, I had seen Wendy and Lucy when it came out, I think, and I had seen First Cow, but I never put them together as, you know,
Starting point is 00:15:33 I never connected the tissue of you and your work. So that one moment where that guy's digging that hole and showing up, and he says, what is it? It's a big work, an important work. What does he say? He says, it's a piece, a very important piece.
Starting point is 00:15:49 That was it. A very important piece. And then once I realized it was about artists and I dated a painter for years and there was something about that moment that sort of revealed
Starting point is 00:15:59 the kind of delusion that an artist has to have in order to believe that their work is relevant. Right. All of us. That's right. Yeah. But I thought it was so hilarious in that moment without any context.
Starting point is 00:16:15 Right? Right, right. So then I'm like, oh, my God, who is this person who made this movie? And then I realized, like, okay, I'd seen First Cow when it came out. And even that one, I just went through this thing with First Cow this morning because, like, I'm a McCabe and Mrs. Miller fanatic. Like, I watch it twice a year. Yeah. You?
Starting point is 00:16:34 I love it. Yeah, of course. Yeah. But not of course. It's a comfort, yeah. But people don't, a lot of people don't really know that movie. Really? I feel like it's very beloved, no? Well, a lot of filmmakers love the look of that movie and would like to, not that you today would go through the steps to get the same look of that film. And also it's kind of the beginning of that sort of sound mixing where everybody's sounds are important. Right, the layers of conversation, bits and pieces.
Starting point is 00:17:09 How did you see First Cow? Because, you know, we opened on COVID weekend. I don't know. I saw it when it came out, when it was available for streaming, I would imagine. And then I watched it again. So I watched it again recently. And I watched McCabe again. To the point where I
Starting point is 00:17:25 hallucinated. Well, I know Rene Arj- A Beaujumois. A Beaujumois is obviously in McCabe. He's a huge part of McCabe. And he's sort of a character in First Cow. Not an important one, but his presence means something. Yes. But then I thought I saw another guy from McCabe, but it wasn't him. I wonder who that was. Well, I thought the guy who played the drunk in McCabe was one of the guys online waiting for donuts. But apparently that guy's been dead a while. Yeah. Yeah. Renee was in this other film.
Starting point is 00:17:54 Yeah. We did A Certain Women. That's a great movie. Yeah, I loved him. And when I am teaching, I would play that bar scene in McCabe. Which one? The first one where he first comes to town. Where he says, I hear that's Pudgy McCabe.
Starting point is 00:18:10 Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But with no picture. So the kids are just listening to like, and then they have to say what the season is, what the setting is, what the room is, and they can get it all. Without seeing the visual, just hearing the audience. So I have Rene's voice so much in my head. And I just think he's an amazing, in that filming, I just love his character so much. But I feel that in First Cow, after I watched both of them again fairly closely in time,
Starting point is 00:18:42 that was your homage and interpretation of a similar story even in look yes and i mean they're well we're building a town of uh uh there's a little town that he's in and there's like four residents and he's already feeling like you feel about the leaf blower he's already feeling like crunched in. Yeah, yeah. So. So those have been my experiences. And then when I decide to go back and watch all of your movies, I'm watching River of Grass. And I'm like, oh, my God, I know that woman. What?
Starting point is 00:19:18 That's Lisa Bowman. I used to live on Second Avenue. Oh, my God. On Second Street between A and B. And she worked at Two Boots Pizza. Right. And we kind of went on a date or two. Oh, my God. That's hilarious. I used to live on 2nd Avenue, or on 2nd Street between A and B, and she worked at Two Boots Pizza. Right. And we kind of went on a date or two.
Starting point is 00:19:28 Oh, my God. That's hilarious. And I hadn't seen her in forever. I'm like, what the fuck? When did this happen? I mean, I guess I wouldn't have really known, but it happened years later. I was there 89 to 91. All right.
Starting point is 00:19:39 Yeah, that was 93. Right. So, well, either way, I was sort of like, she wasn't an actress when I knew her. No, she was a waitress at two boots. Yeah, and a painter. An artist. A visual artist. And she runs a gallery out here now.
Starting point is 00:19:52 I know. She got in touch with me when I talked about it. Oh, that's so funny. I slept on her, crashed in her little one-room apartment many, many times. She was very, but yeah, she was a waitress at two boots. And she did the soaps. You remember her art? Oh, that's right. I forgot about those. She used to put words on the-ots. She did the soaps. You remember her art? Oh, that's right. I forgot about those.
Starting point is 00:20:07 She used to put dirty words on the soaps. On the used soaps. I forgot about that. And then she did paintings on latex. That's right. Yeah, I had one of those. That's so funny. It didn't age well.
Starting point is 00:20:17 It got stuck and disintegrated. The materials weren't. I forgot about the soaps. Yeah, the soaps were kind of clever. Yeah, she was kind of a character. Yeah, she was great. Yeah. And so, yeah, the real actress felt like bailed when I was on the drive down to Florida to make the movie.
Starting point is 00:20:37 And I pulled over to a rest stop and I called Lisa Bowman from a pay phone and said, could you get two weeks off work and come down here? She's like, I don't know. I got to check. From two boots. From two boots. And then she did and she came. Wild. Yeah. So when you teach a class, do you still teach like every semester? No, one semester a year. And what's the class called? I teach two classes. One's called Gesture, Light and Motion. And one's called script to screen. And in that class, the students remake a feature film. Like they each get 10 minutes of it. And they do it their own way.
Starting point is 00:21:13 And then we Frankenstein it together at the end of the semester. Is it all from the same film? It's different every semester. But it's one film? But it's all one film. Yeah, it's one film. Oh, wow. Wild.
Starting point is 00:21:22 So that's a fun class. Is that your conception? Yeah. So you take a feature film and each student gets a piece of it? Ten minutes. And then they cast it however they want and shoot it however they want. And then we put the whole thing together. Oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:21:36 And you watch it? And we watch it on the last day. But so where do you come from? Where do you start to desire to make films? I come from Miami, Florida. Really? Yeah. From a cop family.
Starting point is 00:21:52 Cops? Law enforcement. Law enforcement. How was that? How many sibs you got? I got a full sister who's two years older, lives in Rhode Island. And my dad is Jerry and my older sister's Terry. And my sister that's 15 years younger than me, that's a half sister, is Carrie.
Starting point is 00:22:13 And I have a stepbrother. Is everyone still around? Everyone is still around, yeah. Wow. Yeah, I mean. In Florida? No, my mother and my stepfather live in the villages in Florida. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:35 And my dad. It's like its own city. It is. I think it's what turned Florida from purple to red. Was the villages. Yeah, it's what turned Florida from purple to red. Was the villages. Yeah, it's huge. Yeah. But, and my dear old dad is in Colorado.
Starting point is 00:22:53 And, yeah, randomly retired. And they were both cops? My mother was an undercover narcotics agent. Wow. My stepfather was an FBI agent. My dad was a crime scene detective. And so anyway, I, you know, I don't know how people know, you know, I was trying to think about this, how, you know, when you just have an idea that you're like, the main goal is like, just get out of Florida. Like just just a sense like something is going on
Starting point is 00:23:26 somewhere else yeah and i think um my sister had a boyfriend whose sister used to come visit and she was from new york yeah and so there was that little the older sister my older sister yeah and so uh she seemed different than other people, this woman, girl from New York. Yeah. And then from Mars, this girl came to our high school, Annika Anderson, and she started going out with my friend Aristotle Pakanakis. From Mars? Well, she was from Sweden. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:02 But, you know, she was from Mars to me. Like, she turned me on to David Bowie. Yeah. And she was clearly just going to be in Miami for a minute, and then she was going to New York. Right. So I sort of followed. And she worked on, when Christo came to wrap the islands in the Bay, she volunteered for that and worked on it. And so she took me to the wrap party for that. To the wrap of the wrap? Yes. volunteered for that and worked on it. And so she took me to the rap party for that. And I.
Starting point is 00:24:27 To the rap of the rap? Yes. And I, and those people are all from, and I was like, oh, I knew it. Something else is going on. And, you know. That's pretty extreme. Something else is going on for it to be like Christo's rapping of the island. But if you're in Miami. It's amazing.
Starting point is 00:24:42 Mind blowing. You have no, I had no access to art at all. I mean, I remember Thurston Moore's mom lived in Coral Gables, and he told me he remembered seeing an ad in the Miami Herald that said, if anybody has heard of The Clash, please call me. So, you know, it was very. But I like that it's Christo because that's so extreme and so profound. It's provocative, but it's massive. And it's like, and there is no explanation for it. So as a young mind, it is profoundly art and profoundly huge. But, you know, you have to decide your own meaning and effect. Totally. But it wasn't even that, to me, the thing.
Starting point is 00:25:25 I didn't know what to think about the thing. Yeah. I mean, I thought it was beautiful, but there was a lot of talk about how bad it was for the birds and the fish. But it was that those people at the party. First of all, I can remember I went there and I sat on a couch. I was shy. I must have been 16 at this time, already on the way out of high school. I didn't make it to the end.
Starting point is 00:25:49 And I didn't understand about the brownies being hash brownies. And that probably added to the feeling of like, I'm just sitting there going, this is just totally different. But it was that they were all in on something. It was happening. And as opposed to Miami in the early 80s, which was just like. Wow. A real shit show, drug wise. Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:26:17 In terms of your household, given the nature of the law enforcement, was there menace? Yeah. It was chaos. Yeah, we were quite a... Yeah. But, yeah, that's... None of the kids graduated. From high school?
Starting point is 00:26:36 Put it this way. Yeah, we all got out early. It wasn't... I mean, it got out of the house very early. Yeah. And so I thought I'd, you know, just got to go to New York.
Starting point is 00:26:47 You got David Bowie from the, Annika. Annika. From Mars, and then the Christo experience. Yeah. And so,
Starting point is 00:26:54 then I. And you said, oh, your sister's friend from New York. Yeah. Yeah. So,
Starting point is 00:26:58 I. All it takes is a few. A few people. Cool older people. Yeah. To be like, I got to go. And then I went to New York.
Starting point is 00:27:06 Yeah. And Aristotle Pakinakis, he had a- A guy with the best name in the world. Yeah. He was squatting. This is my first view of New York. He was squatting on Avenue C. Oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:27:17 And what? This is 1982? Yeah. And I spent one night there and I was like, there was no windows. There was like a junkie in the, I sleep on the floor and a rat ran across me. And I was like, I can't handle New York. Yeah. It's too much.
Starting point is 00:27:34 And I ended up in Boston just because I knew there was an empty apartment there. Why? How was that? A girl I worked at the clog shop with in Miami. The clog shop? Clog. Clog. Eskils Clogs.
Starting point is 00:27:48 Yeah. She was going to be in Florida for a break and she was going to BU. So she said, you could come stay in my apartment for two weeks. And I went to Boston. Life changer. Yeah. I had never seen snow before. It was Christmas break. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:28:04 I had no clothes for snow. And this was like 82? Yeah. I had never seen snow before. It was Christmas break. I had no clothes for snow. And this was like 82? Yeah. At this point, maybe it's 83. I can't remember. It's around there. I was there. And so this is my first night of my new life. I'm sitting there in this apartment. It's snowing and I'm looking out the window and I say, wow, you know, I really want to be a filmmaker. I wonder how you start a new, how do you do this? And, um, you decided filmmaker that day. I was really into photography and I wanted to, I don't know what the influence was at all. Yeah. I was like, you were the school photographer taking photography classes. Had you appreciated photography as art? Did you have people you were fans of at that point?
Starting point is 00:28:46 I didn't know any art at all, period. My dad took a lot of crime scene photos. And he used to give me the film as soon as it was. So did you grow up looking at crime scene photos? Totally. Yeah, from a very young age. Oh, no. But he, as soon as the film was expired, he would give me the film.
Starting point is 00:29:03 And so I had my Pentax K1000. Yeah. And I had gone to, took a class at Miami Dade Community College. Yeah. And took a class at Bob Rich Photo Studios slash Porn Shop. Yeah. In Miami. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:19 Anyway, so I was. So you were processing your own stuff? Yeah. And I was thinking, well, it'd be cool to, I don't know where the idea of movies came from, actually. But it would be cool to have this stuff moving and, you know, like I had a Super 8 camera. So this would be. And did you like, where are all these photographs? Do you still have them?
Starting point is 00:29:38 Have you shown them? Do you show them? I destroyed them out of, so when I got to Boston, I'm sitting there in my snow night, first night of my new life. Yeah. And someone comes to the door and I answer the door and there's like these two people there. I can't make out who they are. Like shaved heads. And I mean, I never had no punk reference.
Starting point is 00:29:57 Oh, it wasn't the creationists? No, it was like the army boots and. Yeah, Doc Martin. Yeah, and the Salvation Army dresses. Their freezer was broken. They were keeping some meat in the fridge here at this girl's house. And they invited me over to come eat spaghetti with them. So I go over to their house.
Starting point is 00:30:16 There's a bunch of other people who look just like them. And they're having this spaghetti dinner because they want to make an art project for an art party that's happening in May. Yeah. And they all want to make films and none of them know how to make films. And they're having this meeting tonight to figure out how they could make this film project. Yeah. And so they just started picking me up every night and taking me to shows and stuff. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:39 And I ended up moving in with them to make these films for them. On Super 8? On Super 8. So I signed up to night class at MassArt so I could get the camera. Right. And then I ended up using those films to go, I ended up at the museum school. I just followed some guy to the museum school, which is more of a painting school. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:59 From the films I had made. But I saw all these Fassbender films. I saw all this, Sajid Ray. I saw all this Sajit Ray. Yeah. The birds. Took me forever. And then there was The Brattle. So then I got to ride my bike to The Brattle.
Starting point is 00:31:13 Over in Cambridge. And that was my film education. I'd go to drive my bike to. It's a good one though. It was great. They would have a different double feature like every other night. You could just. At The Brattle.
Starting point is 00:31:24 At The Brattle. At the Brattle. Yeah. I went back to Boston for like the last, with First Cow and walked out. It's not the same. I didn't recognize. I had no memory. I had no feeling of- I couldn't find my, locate anything.
Starting point is 00:31:37 It's not there anymore. Like Kenmore's not what it was. Yeah. You know, Kenmore Square was, you know, it had a thing and it's all erased. And Harvard Square had a thing. It's all erased. And Harvard Square had a thing. It's all erased. I couldn't locate anything. But that's not you.
Starting point is 00:31:50 It's not like because of you. Okay. It's literally the geography has shifted entirely. And there's none of the kind of grit that was, you know, Harvard Square had a bit. But like, you know, the Tasty's gone. The garage is gone. Like all these places. T.T. the Bears. That's gone. The garage is gone. Like all these places. T.T. the Bears.
Starting point is 00:32:06 That's gone. The Rat. The Rat's long gone. That was in Kenmore. Right. I think Middle East is still in Central Square. Right. That was, yeah, my friend booked that place.
Starting point is 00:32:17 Yeah. The Middle East. Yeah. I think that might still be there. But like, I don't know what's happening anymore in the world, but it seems like people our age, it was sort of generationally the end of that kind of rock, that kind of art, that kind of grit is just kind of – and I'm not being nostalgic or old man-y. It's just not around. It's not there. But it's also that when I think back now how people do things that – obviously, I, so four years later I came to New York and I'd met enough people through the music scene to go to New York and know more people there.
Starting point is 00:32:54 But just that, that you could say, I'm going to go to a city I know nothing about and meet people. And I mean, I got lucky that people showed up at my door. I mean, that's unheard of, but that you could go to the copy shop and find out what was going on and then go to clubs and you not knowing anything that you could just say, I'm going to go to this city and start making films and meet people that are different and that could happen. Well, you collect a skill set and you have a sense of the community that defines you, right? So then you kind of find yourself in them one way or the other through people. Right.
Starting point is 00:33:36 I mean, at that point, I don't even think I knew what I – I just knew what I wanted to get away from more than I knew what I wanted to – Right, but you were also hanging out with cool people, and you made a few movies, and you knew the music scene in Boston by virtue of this weird coincidence. And, you know, it kind of like, it seems like, I don't know who you followed to the museum school, but you had a, it seemed to be more than just escaping because you had interest. I had interest, yeah. More than just escaping because you had interests.
Starting point is 00:34:03 I had interests, yeah. And I made some, that was the beginning of, that was in the day when MTV was desperate for stuff. So I would make some Super 8 music videos of my friends and they played on MTV. What for? Who? Oh, these bands. I don't know. Dumb Truck.
Starting point is 00:34:22 Yeah, sure. Okay. Yeah. And Miracle Legion. Oh, I love Mark sure. Okay. Yeah. And Miracle Legion. Oh, I love Mark Mulcahy. Yeah, those guys. Mulcahy's the best. I haven't seen him in 30 years. And Dump Truck, I just met the bass player of Dump Truck, Velasquez, I think his name is.
Starting point is 00:34:36 They've had many bass players. Yeah. Oh, they have? Because their bass player at a time then became, was for for a moment Yola Tango's bass player. Okay. Yeah. It's all pretty. Christmas, the band Christmas.
Starting point is 00:34:50 I don't know them. They were great. Yeah. They were my roommates. Yeah. They were? Yeah. So you're in that Boston rock scene.
Starting point is 00:34:57 I was. Yeah. Fell into it. And then we had a friend who booked all the bands. Yeah. Bob Lawton. I don't know that guy. He booked Sonic.
Starting point is 00:35:06 Then he went to New York and booked Sonic Youth and a bunch of bands. And I worked for him for a while. It was all a good introduction to stuff. Anyway, that's my story. When do you put together, how do you conceive of the first film, the first feature? I went back to Florida and just wrote it. I worked on a bunch of indie films. In New York?
Starting point is 00:35:33 Yeah. Like what year indie are we talking? Indie, Hal Hartley, Nick Gomez. But the one that I was really into is I worked on Poison. Oh, that's great. Todd Hayes? Yeah. And so then I became good friends with Todd's then partner, editor Jim Lyons.
Starting point is 00:35:51 Poison was a life changer for me. It was a real life changer for me. That was one of that different parts, right? There was a horror part and then there was like three parts. The video part, the kid goes out the window. Yeah. And then there's the third part is the Janae. Right. Oh, that's right. The prison. Yeah. And then there's the third part is the Janae. Right.
Starting point is 00:36:06 Oh, that's right. The prison. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I worked in the art department, and that was super, and met a lot of people, and we all, that was the first thing we worked on.
Starting point is 00:36:18 We were just like, oh, we're making something that matters, and is great, and Todd's our leader um so that was the brain changer that was a big brain changer and i was like oh then i worked on some ones i didn't care about so much i was like this is a lot of work why don't i do work towards my own thing yeah um and so i went down and uh to miami and uh yeah and and yeah with a boyfriend at the time and we wrote and we tried to write and we ended up in nashville for some reason and then got back to new york and decided to do our own
Starting point is 00:36:54 things and i yeah i wrote this script and for river of grass yeah and that was i mean that was my learning experience of um of River of Grass. I mean, River of Grass was made on every level. Well, I realized when I watched it next to Old Joy, I'm like, oh, she's figuring this out. I hadn't even, I mean, I'd been watching a lot of films at that point. Right. But I hadn't made a film. I didn't really know my lenses. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:20 And I had no idea really what, i i learned about sexism you did totally well i mean it's like the movie is a take on the road movie yeah the murder road movie right with a sort of sense of humor and until the end to to agree and it's still a funny ending but it's a surprising ending that was a changed ending. That ending was like, it wasn't supposed to end that way. That ending was like me, like shooting the dudes on my crew.
Starting point is 00:37:53 Really? Yeah. So like what happened? How'd you learn about sexism? It was just the DP, the whole, like, you know. You couldn't lead? Correct.
Starting point is 00:38:02 Right. It was, It was just, yeah, it was impossible to claim the power. And I learned a lot of lessons like, oh, you can't go onto a film set and not know your lenses. Right. I knew what homework I needed to do when I left that film. what homework I needed to do when I left that film. And then Larry Fezzenden cut it. We cut it in his apartment on,
Starting point is 00:38:33 I mean, it was a one-to-one take on everything. And we, Larry and Lisa were the saving grace in that film for me because they were so awesome. And, okay, we did a one light transfer to three quarter inch video without time code yeah so every time what does that mean meaning like you couldn't look anything up by a number so every time you wanted to go you'd go through all the footage which would be like back in the day going through the steam back and then larry i was learning how to edit he was basically teaching me about sound design yeah and this is before avids so oh yeah this is a three-quarter inch old video machine so every time you make a change you kind of have to keep re-outputting you're losing a generation like all the time it's falling apart
Starting point is 00:39:16 and falling apart yeah and then we ended up sending that to Sundance incredibly. And we were, Go Fish, Rose Trusche and I were the two women out of the 16 films that got in. And then Larry matched the video cut back by eye to the film. I mean, it was so, and then we took a train out to Sundance because we couldn't afford to fly out there. And then that was brutal. I mean, Sundance was, it wasn't Sundance's fault. It was just a, the indie world was not friendly. It wasn't a world yet, right? It was a world and it was a boy's world.
Starting point is 00:39:58 It was, you know, clerks and it was not friendly. I mean, was my take on it. And then whatever. Then it was like a decade before I get the next thing going. Is that true? Yeah, it was like 12 years. Really? So what were you doing in the interim?
Starting point is 00:40:19 Trying to get films made. And River of Grass, did it make an impact at Sundance? Yeah, it got, it didn't sell, but it got some good reviews. And then it got sold for a dollar to Strand Releasing. And the guy from Strand Releasing called me up and said, hey, I just want you to know, I don't really like your movie, but Good Machine would only sell it to me, sell me
Starting point is 00:40:45 a Lodge Kerrigan's film if I bought your film too. So I was like, great. So they made one print. Yeah. It opened, premiered at the public theater in New York. They forgot to send the print on opening night. Yeah. And then, um, uh, just not much hot, like they't it got good it got good it got good press but it was one print that was kicking around and it was getting more and more destroyed at every screening and um and it was just it was hostile you know it was uh you know there was like this book that came out with uh this dude who was a big deal at the time. And him and the clerks got... River of Grouse was an example of like, this is a film that should have never been made, was what they write about in the book.
Starting point is 00:41:36 Really? It looks like it was shot on a postage stamp, they say. I actually think it's a good looking film. It does look good. Silicope recently restored it with a bunch of help from other people which I'm really grateful for. And, but it taught,
Starting point is 00:41:50 so I spent the next, I couldn't get something made after that. What were you doing? Pitching? You had scripts? I never knew how to pitch. I came out to LA,
Starting point is 00:41:57 Jodie Foster was gonna produce something. She had a thing with egg pictures and she was, but I mean in those days like I came out here and you'd go to a meeting and there's no hiding it.
Starting point is 00:42:07 People go, God, we don't do women's films. And it was supposed to star, I wanted Alfre Woodard in the, double negative, like a black woman with a woman, like we just don't do, nobody hid anything. Everybody, everything was like out in the open. They just say that to your face. Totally. We're not, we don't do women's films. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:23 Women, like in terms of thematic or women making? All of it. Yeah. And so it was just a beat down. So I went back to New York. And at this point, you know, I had this feeling like if you give something up, you know, if I put everything into this, give up the apartment, the boyfriend, sell all your records. You know, like I'm all, and I'm just couch hopping at this point. And I know a lot of bands,
Starting point is 00:42:51 so they go on tour and I stay in their place or I stay in the back of this beauty salon or I stay in my friend's furniture shop with all the fumes. Night by night, I'm figuring it out. And I thought, well, this, until I get my film made. And then that went on for five years. And then my friends, the intervention came and were like, you have to get a place to live.
Starting point is 00:43:10 You're becoming a nut. So I heard John McEnroe once on Letterman go like, oh, yeah, if you have an art gallery in New York, all it's good for is people come and eat the food. And we used to like by clockwork, Lisa Bowman and I would wait. Every Wednesday, we'd go to his opening, and we'd just go there to eat. Any opening? Yeah, whatever.
Starting point is 00:43:30 It had nothing to do with the art. It was totally like, they got vegetables. So then I just kept working. I went back to Super 8. Yeah, but how'd you end up in Portland? Todd. Todd Haynes. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:43:43 So I went back to just working in Super 8, and I started teaching, which adjuncting. I started the- Teaching what? Film off of River of Grass, but just to adjunct. This is shortly after your friends told you you got a place to live? Yeah. And I was working on, I worked in like the Keno mail room. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:44:00 Some people let me be part of their office. So I had a place to be during the day and i had a filing cabinet with all my stuff in it but then at night the plate the office was someone else had it at night so i had to find scurry around at night yeah but um but uh yeah so and i was working sometimes for my friend who books bands i was just like patching it together but it wasn't happening so i kept. Is that where you met Tom? Yeah, that's right. That's where I met Tom. So I, yeah, Tom was the only person that who committed, like he was so impressed that I made River of Grass.
Starting point is 00:44:35 So I was like, oh yeah, this guy. He's like. He's a good ally to have. Yeah, totally. So it ended up that I liked teaching. I liked doing this. And so I just went back to Super 8 and I tried my hand at being like a non-narrative filmmaker, which I'm not. Just doing the art film pure?
Starting point is 00:44:55 Yeah. Pure kind of like a. Just I tried to get away from story, but I made some bad films trying. But in the meantime. Did you do any of that kind of like just color? You know, just colors? Not exactly that. Who am I thinking of?
Starting point is 00:45:10 It's not Kenneth Anger. Who was the other big experimental filmmaker who just, there's only a couple. Like who, like Brockage or something? Yeah, Brockage. Well, he's like, you know, he's the man. No, man, I couldn't, I, couldn't. Nothing too embarrassing to talk about. But there was this woman who worked at Post 391 on the west side. And it's an expensive place to cut.
Starting point is 00:45:37 And at night, she would let all the people that couldn't pay in. Like Jim Cohen was in a room and I was in a room and all these. And we would just get out by the morning. Yeah. And, um, so anyway, I just kept working and I learned how to edit. Right. Yeah. And, um, and then really my great aunt passed away and she left me $30,000.
Starting point is 00:45:56 Yeah. So I saw I can make a film. So I, um, uh, I had gone out to visit Todd in Portland because he left New York and went to Portland. I was visiting him and I met John Raymond. He's the guy that has collaborated with you on many movies. A writer. A writer.
Starting point is 00:46:17 And so when I came back, I was doing a cross-country drive with my dog and I was taking Route 50 across the country and i was doing the um it's like the last two-lane highway you could take across the country wow and i i was re i was doing i was going to go retrace the in cold blood this before all the in cold blood movies were made and so and so i went out to kansas and i was reading john's novel on the way and when i got to kansas i was in the motel and I finished his novel. And I said, wow, I really love the way this guy writes.
Starting point is 00:46:50 No, it was a novel. It was called The Half-Life, which eventually became First Cow. Oh, wow. No kidding. Yeah. But I love the way this guy writes about, it's like so open and it's about friendship and just people and how they work in their environment. So I wrote him a letter and I said, do you have any short stories?
Starting point is 00:47:09 Because I'm, you know, I just figured I was just going to make a short, you know. And he sent me, I said, anything that's all outside because I don't have any lights. And so, and he sent me Old Joy. And so I turned, and that was in a, came in a collection of photos of Justine Kerlund's. They were beautiful photos. I know her too. She used to work at Aggie's. Oh, is that, was that on Aggie's?
Starting point is 00:47:35 On Houston. Houston? Yeah. Okay, for like a month, I've been trying to remember the name of that place. Really? And we, I've just asked everybody and no one can remember the place. Yeah. Aggie. I kept thinking Alice. Yeah, remember one can remember the place. Yeah. Aggie.
Starting point is 00:47:45 I kept thinking Alice. Yeah, remember Aggie owned the place. Yeah, she was grouchy. Justine worked there as a waitress and used to ride her bike around the Lower East Side. You know, we became friends for a minute, but it didn't, I don't know, it didn't really end well. But I ran into her not too long ago sitting outside of the Bowery, and I'm like, Justine Curlin. And she kind of remembered me. Such a good photographer.
Starting point is 00:48:05 She's a great photographer. Yeah, I really. And she was a kid when I'm like, Justine Curlin. And she kind of remembered me. Such a good photographer. She's a great photographer. Yeah, I really. And she was a kid when I knew her. We were both kids. I was living on Avenue 2nd between A and B. Yeah. Yeah, and just wandering around. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:14 Yeah, she used to live down on Delancey. She used to do the cross country a lot, too, and we'd both be out at the road at the same time. So her photographs inspired you a bit? I really loved them. Yeah. But the story was, like her photos weren't something I could, you know, but I loved them. Right.
Starting point is 00:48:35 And I liked John's story, and so I made a script out of that. Yeah. And then. Out of old joy. Out of old joy. And I just thought it would be a short, and everyone kind of agreed to give me two weeks. Yeah. So that's how much money I...
Starting point is 00:48:50 In Portland. In Portland. I mean, I scouted hot tubs all over the country. Yeah. And then I ended up writing it for the place John wrote it for, in Bagby. So we'll old them in all... So wait, are you in that movie, Your Voice? What?
Starting point is 00:49:03 Because I put Air America in Old Joy. It's on the radio. No, I don't think so. I forget who it is. It might be Randy. Was it a woman? It wasn't Randy. And it wasn't Al Franken?
Starting point is 00:49:13 It wasn't Al Franken. Was it Mike McGloy? I can't remember who I used to listen to. It wasn't, I don't think it was Sam. I can't remember who it was. Interesting. I used to listen to Air America chronically. Yeah, I don't know that I made it in there.
Starting point is 00:49:24 I would have heard. Yeah. I made it into Six Fe America chronically. Yeah. I don't know that I made it in there. I would have heard. Yeah. I made it into Six Feet Under once. Right. Well, there's Air America and Old Joy. Anyway, yeah, so I made that, and everyone said, oh, I'll give you two weeks. And I thought I had made a 50-minute Super 8 film, and I thought maybe this would be like another. I didn't know if it would be a feature or what it be it was just like an art project yeah and then it ended up going to Sundance
Starting point is 00:49:48 and like sort of opened the door back up for me well yeah but see it seems to me that like coming from like I in watching all the movies that you have a sense of of space you know visually and dialogue wise that is really unique and it's it's hard to hold it. And you do it every time. It's clearly where you come from. You're not trying to do anything else. Yeah. It's sort of a pure expression somehow. And, you know, I talked to, I was talking to Karina Longworth, the film historian, the other day about that scene in Old Joy. And I'm not rethinking it, you know, because, like, I was talking about you, which I have been a lot lately.
Starting point is 00:50:29 Thank you. Yeah, that's nice. People keep texting me. Oh, really? Yeah. I'm like, is it all hearing the same show? Yeah. But I said to her, I said that scene in the hot tub.
Starting point is 00:50:39 And I think that my experience with it and the reason why, you know, after seeing the trailer for the new movie, you know, that I kind of went on this rabbit hole journey with your stuff. You know, after watching Old Joy, is that if you're of a certain age, which we are, you know, the character, Will Oldham's character is not an unusual character. Correct. Yeah. And, you know, it's something that every group of people has that guy. For sure. And it's unique to a time. You know, it's a post-hippie, you know, searching loser that, you know, is not – well, I don't necessarily want to say the word loser, but a lost person.
Starting point is 00:51:18 Yeah. Like, everyone is sort of – well, even myself, like, would not, like, cow chopping into my whatever through my 30s yeah like my friends like you know it's you know or like if you drink too long sure you know you like you you go from like being the party or two like okay now today you're an alcoholic right you're an alcoholic and also everyone everything has moved on yeah yeah and like because there's that there's that whole hot tub scene. All of it is great. But that moment where he's telling that story about the coincidence of the woman or it was just some story that was completely kind of, you know, a kind of circuitous, you know, like it's beyond coincidence, man.
Starting point is 00:52:00 Will's making that story up, by the way. Yeah. I mean, he just had that experience in Portland. So he's. Right. But it's up, by the way. Yeah. I mean, he just had that experience in Portland. So he's. Right. But it's like it is the way those guys talk. It's this weird world of the mind that they have invested a lot of importance in as being mystical and elevating of themselves. But it's ridiculous.
Starting point is 00:52:18 You know, and in talking about that, that seems to be sort of a through line. Because in the best case scenario, you know, those types are going to end up in showing up. Yeah. Well, they – and also, like, we screened it the other night. Old Joy. Yeah, Old Joy. And someone was pointing out in the audience, like, you can't get lost – like, that film couldn't happen because you can't get lost anymore. Is that true?
Starting point is 00:52:43 Yeah, well, you have your phone. I guess that's true. It will tell you where to go. I guess that's true. Because there's no getting lost. That's true. Yeah. But the whole hot tub scene, like the moment where he goes to massage his friend, I guess that you can put on that whatever you're going to put on that.
Starting point is 00:52:59 There is a moment of menace where you're like, what is happening? But for me, the moment that was really profound was the bliss in the face of that guy, the married guy. And you seem to want to project onto him like he's realizing his responsibility and his place in life and also the beauty of it. Yeah, it's, you know, when Todd first moved out to, and this is a conversation you wouldn't have anymore either. Yeah. But when he first moved out to Portland and he met all these people, this painter, Storm Tharp, who great friends with his work is in, showing up. Yeah. And John Raymond and all these people.
Starting point is 00:53:38 He met all these new people. And he would call back to New York and he just is ecstatic about all these new guys he met. Yeah, yeah. And I'd be like, you know, I don't want to hear about his new great life that wasn't in New York. I wanted him to come back to New York. Yeah. But I'd be like, well, are they straight or are they gay? Like, what are they?
Starting point is 00:53:56 And he'd be like, it's not like that out here. And which is funny thinking back now how much times have changed, you know. Meanwhile, all those guys are, you know part you know john has kids he's married you know whatever um or he's whatever has a partner um so in when i was making old joy in the hot i was trying to get across this i mean this is such an old-fashioned idea already but it's in the moment i was trying to get my head around this idea of what todd was experiencing saying like no it's not like new york like everybody's uh can be who they want to be and in in daniel and will the actors were into that idea though when that moment came in the tub to be physically affectionate with
Starting point is 00:54:47 each other like they were two straight guys you know and um getting like uptight with me like what are we doing here anyway it's freezing we're gonna get sick and all this and i was like okay yeah this isn't about this other thing yeah but um so there's a lot going on in that scene that was coming to it that I wasn't even planning on being there. Well, that's what I like about it. Because, like, I started to realize in that moment about your filmmaking is that you're not – and I've talked to other directors about this – is that it's not your job to answer these questions or even to explain your intent. I mean, to sort of frame it in that they were ultimately uncomfortable with the prospect of intimacy or physicality with each other is that they somehow managed something. Yeah, totally. And in the context of the story, it seemed to be pretty honest to both of their characters. I think so, yeah.
Starting point is 00:55:41 And because there is a moment there where you do think Will's going to kill him. Yeah. Cheating? Too much. Too much, yeah. And the whole time I make that film, I'm like, is anybody going to get what? I'm going to make the sound of it. The guys would be like, is this even about anything? I'd be like, don't worry. There's going to be a stick cracking here in the soundtrack, and that's going to get it. And they're like, okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, right. Yeah, but I think it was before that where he's just laying there, where they're both laying there.
Starting point is 00:56:22 And because of the way you set up the characters, that Will was kind of spinning his own yarn and his dumb stoned head. And it seemed to me that the other guy, what's his name? Mark. Mark was having some sort of revelation about, you know, the beauty of his life. Right. Or just, yes, settling into it and just settling into it. Like, okay, this is a time with my wacky friend.
Starting point is 00:56:47 And I mean, the way. But also like, I'm going to have a kid. Yeah, I'm going to have a kid. Yeah. Like, this isn't my life. Like, this is just for the day. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:56:56 I'm not this anymore. And it's okay. Yeah. Thank God. Yeah. Because the way you end that movie, it was sad and devastating. Yeah. Because the way you end that movie, it was sad and devastating.
Starting point is 00:57:17 But like, you know, it's like you said, it's like there comes a point where those guys, the guys who were the Neal Cassidy's of the crew, you know, just turn out, you know, like Neal Cassidy. Yeah. Wandering on a railroad track, counting, you know, whatever. Yeah. on a railroad track counting, you know, whatever. I wonder what the version of that is today or will be, you know, because there will always be people that can't quite get a grip on it. Sure, but I don't know if the social circles are quite the same as they were. No, they're not. There's a different version of it, I'm sure.
Starting point is 00:57:43 There must be. You know, like the guy that I knew, you know, not in college, but after, like, you know, the guy that I knew, he just, who was that guy, you know, became sort of a very active alcoholic who learned to live with it. He did a commercial. He bought a farm in Nebraska and he married a woman and they're out there, you know, trying to grow vegetables and sell them at the farmer's market. And he's a full-on anti-Semite.
Starting point is 00:58:06 I don't know how it happened. It's something about farming, I guess. I don't know. But that's what happened to that guy. Well, that guy that Will gives money to at the end, that guy was, you know, said he was a basketball player at some time. Yeah. And he had just, you know, was trying to get money to get the rest of his teeth pulled out, you know. Wow.
Starting point is 00:58:30 That was a real guy. That was a real guy, yeah. So, Wendy and Lucy, was that based on your experience driving cross-country with your dog? I would like to say no. I mean, you know, I had this dog that um she was great but she could never be alone so that's how she ended up in old joy and i that was your dog yeah and that's how i ended up always driving cross-country because i and so then we just wrote her apart in uh um wendy and lucy and i was a little afraid you know the road trip road trip again, and I had done River of Grass, but John was feeling, you know, he was confident.
Starting point is 00:59:10 Yeah, he wrote it as a short story first. Wendy and Lucy. ends up being the ending he uses in the short story. But yeah, he was, I had some hesitancy about it, but like I'm not, I'm not windy. I wasn't going to, you know, go work in a, I wasn't going to go to Alaska and work in a factory, fishery. Right, which I've known people that have done that. Many. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:59:45 Those are real people. Yeah. Those are real people. Yeah, those are real people. And then Will shows up in the weird bonfire. That's the other crew, the strange squatters by the railroad. And those kids were like never, that was not a fun night. No. Those kids are all just like. Drug addicts?
Starting point is 00:59:58 Give us the money to, we're here and give us the money. Oh, really? Yeah, that you said you'd give us. Yeah. Sit here for 10 more minutes. So it was a little menacing? Yeah, they were the, those are the kids that, you know, Justine, after she saw the movie, she was like, I'm going to go find kids like that and shoot those kids or whatever.
Starting point is 01:00:14 And she was just like. Yeah. Yeah, she did. And she made some beautiful pictures, but she was like, oh my God, those kids are like, you know. Hard, right? Hard, really hard. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:00:23 Well, I mean, it was interesting again with the, because of the space that you leave and I, and I don't, I don't know how you decide your timing. It's a feeling, right? Yeah. I think everyone just has a clock. Yeah. But you know, towards the end of that movie and then in retrospect, you know, thinking back on Wendy and Lucy, you know, she, you know, there's a sweetness to her character, and it is a sympathetic character, but at some point you realize that she has real problems. Yeah. And that you don't know what the source of those problems are, but it's pretty awful. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:00:55 And then, you know, to end on a train, like, you know, fucking five easy pieces or something, where he just climbs into a lumber truck. Right. You know, like, you're not thinking thinking like, that's going to be okay. No, that's not going to be okay. No. It's good she left the dog behind because it's not going to be okay. It isn't. No.
Starting point is 01:01:16 She's making a lot of not good decisions. Because she can't. But she can't. Yeah. And that was the time in, you know, the conversation in those Bush years was so hostile towards the, you know, you remember those years of just like, you know, the whole pull yourself up from your bootstraps. And if you can't, as if everyone's equipped to do that. Yeah. And everyone's not equipped to do that.
Starting point is 01:01:42 Yeah. And sometimes the version of doing that is horrendous. Yes. Yeah. Right. Well, that. Yeah. And everyone's not equipped to do that. Yeah. And sometimes the version of doing that is horrendous. Yes. Yeah. Right. Well, that's interesting. So you felt that that was a reaction to that? I did.
Starting point is 01:01:52 I mean, not that, I mean, once we're making the movie, we're concentrating on our characters, whatever, but that was the vibe at the time was so like, it was so mean. time was so like it was so mean uh and and and people responded to the film and really um you know i remember one of my uh dad's cop friends that i grew up with said uh good for kelly wendy can go fuck herself and you know misunderstood everything yeah but that was that was a um response yeah i thought it was like, I find the endings. Now, as you're moving through these movies, are you picking up, is it easier for you to finance movies? It was, you know, well, Kino, who I worked in their mailroom, they put out Old Joy, and that was really great. And I mean, every one, I'm just like, okay, this is the last one. We're getting another chance to, you know.
Starting point is 01:02:43 And Wendy and Lucy was made an insanely small budget. I mean, Michelle Williams being in it was crazy. She loved it, though. Yeah. And she came and just, you know, we had nothing for her. She sat on an Apple box on the side of the road. And then it was like, hey, pick up your Apple box. We got to go over here.
Starting point is 01:02:58 You know, it was like nothing. Yeah. And then in the mix, I really thought, okay, that's the end. Like, you can't even see anybody's face. We're using these big bonnets. But we went all out on it and used oxen and these big, and I was just like, all right, this is really it. But what's interesting is that it was within the possibility of what you could do. I mean, the reason why it was so effective is you didn't have to build a fucking town.
Starting point is 01:03:22 I didn't have to build a town, but we didn't have enough money to make that film safely. Like, we would not do that again. Right. It was, we pushed people too far. It was, first of all, oxen are really dangerous. There's a reason people don't use them. They're bulls. They, like, run through your set all of a sudden.
Starting point is 01:03:38 And they don't move backwards. So you have to always be shooting forward. So was that another John Raymond story? Yeah. always be shooting forward so what was that another john raymond story yeah and he had gotten um some kooky job to go out and um there was going to be a new development in the middle of the desert he got this job where he's supposed to go out and name all the things like the playground and the this and the that yeah yeah and so um a thunder egg golf Course or whatever it was. And so, when he was out there, he found the story of Stephen Meek, which was, you know, a real guy who took 200 wagons into the desert.
Starting point is 01:04:15 And he, and we had. Did they survive? Some of them did. And some of them, we shot right where they were. Like, we found a little gravestone of a little girl out there. She was, I mean, it's, we shot way out in the high desert. We shot right where they were. We found a little gravestone of a little girl out there. I mean, we shot way out in the high desert. With your oxen.
Starting point is 01:04:30 With our oxen. And Paul Dano and Kazan. And yeah, they were fine. But bringing Bruce Greenwood out into the... Some people weren't fine. It was really hard. Greenwood plays meek. Right. It was like 110 degrees until it was freezing.
Starting point is 01:04:46 And it was never anything in between. And it's rattlesnake country. And it's just like. Well, you're saying this like you surprised yourself. I had no idea what it was going to be like. I mean, it was. You made the movie. But what did I know?
Starting point is 01:05:00 I mean, to the last day. You just wanted the bonnets to look right. I wanted that landscape. I had scouted out there. You know, I got introduced to that high desert just driving around looking for Wendy and Lucy. It was in, where is it? No, it's in Eastern Oregon. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:05:15 And I wanted, and that's where the, I mean, we found pieces of barrel and stuff from the original wagon train. Yeah. But, I mean, it's, everything is sharp. Every plant is sharp. Everything, there's rattlesnakes, and then there's little insects that sound like rattlesnakes, so it will make you crazy. But then when the actors get there, they're like, you quit thinking about the rattlesnakes. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:05:39 They're just like, oh my God, this guy's going to kill me. Yeah. Out in the desert. Oh, my God, this guy's going to kill me out in the desert. But it was very, I used up too much time. Well, why that story? I mean, like, you know, it's a Western. Well, we had just gone into Iraq following George Bush into the desert. And so it was a story about a leader and you didn't know if he was full of shit or like they really didn't know.
Starting point is 01:06:05 He was taking these pioneers across the desert. Right. And he found a shortcut. He claimed to know. Yeah. But he was a bullshitter. And people left. There's diaries from the pioneers.
Starting point is 01:06:18 And some people thought he had misread his own map. It was an accident. And other people thought this is just BS. He just has no idea what he's doing. So they were following someone. And then they come across the Indian. And that's the person they want to get help from. But they don't trust him.
Starting point is 01:06:43 And they don't speak the same language as him. They want his help, but they're completely suspicious of him. And they don't speak the same language as him. They want his help, but they're completely suspicious of him. But they don't see that they have a choice. They don't see that they have a choice, but they also don't think anything of him is human. But I think that's the funny thing about the nature of white entitlement in a weird way is that they're putting this, they assume on some level, no matter how much they distrust him, that he's going to be no better than Meek,
Starting point is 01:07:08 who they've grown to believe doesn't know what the fuck is happening. Right. And just by virtue of the fact that they're white and this indigenous person has to know where the water is,
Starting point is 01:07:19 that they, and then the guy just leaves. Yeah. In our mind, too, like, you know, not that this is in the film, but in our mind, he's like, he's lost. You know, he's like out on a dream quest. He seems mentally ill in a way. He's just like out on his trippy way.
Starting point is 01:07:40 Right. So, yeah, he doesn't have the, well, you know, that's like all to be decided upon the viewer. But, yeah, the idea was, you know. Like they're left there after they lose a wagon. And one of them, I think, dies, right? And Meek, what happens to Meek? I can't remember. He kind of throws in the hat.
Starting point is 01:07:58 He throws in the hat. He sort of says it's all, you know, this is written before we got here. It's destiny. It's destiny. And, you know, so he, you know, he doesn't take blame. Yeah. And then they're all standing there and then the indigenous guy just splits. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:08:12 And they, and then, well, the, I mean, yeah, it's, it's, it's, that was a. It's pretty, because it's one of those movies, because I used to do a joke about that, about the type of movie where everyone walks out and says, like, did you understand? What happened at the end? Do you know what happened at the end? Well, you know, like the ending in the script never worked for me. And I was like, John, the ending doesn't work. And he's like, it's fine.
Starting point is 01:08:38 And I'm like, no, listen, I'm out here in the desert and I'm telling you, the ending doesn't work. The ending that's in the movie? Yeah. telling you the ending doesn't work. I'm, and you know, he's home. The ending that's in the movie? Yeah. No, no. In the script. And,
Starting point is 01:08:48 and so, you know, John's like at home with his cat. He's like, it's, you're going to be fine. I'm like, I don't,
Starting point is 01:08:54 so everything built up and there was so much to do and so much to think about. And in my mind, I'm like, does this, what Zoe Kazan's character says, it's not going to work here. And, but then finally,
Starting point is 01:09:05 we saved the last scene to the last day of shooting. Yeah. And I'm losing the actors and the oxen. No one is staying one minute, one hour later than is. And I've got,
Starting point is 01:09:19 how are we going to get this all done in one day? Yeah. But I've got it all timed out, but I have misjudged that the sun, I'm going to lose the sun like an hour earlier because there's a mountain. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:09:29 And I'm like, oh, crap, you know? So I said to myself, well, I just hope Zoe doesn't ask me about these lines because I can't tell her what they mean, but maybe she knows what they mean, you know, against anything you'd ever teach. Sure. And, you know, like breaking all,
Starting point is 01:09:42 so we, it's freezing and Zoe's been in the camper the whole day and she gets out to the spot and she's like, everything, we're working like the crew is killing it. We're just keeping it. Let's go. Zoe's like, I don't know what these lines mean. They don't make any sense to me.
Starting point is 01:09:57 And by this time, like the actors have had it with me in the whole thing, right? And so, you know, the guys who want to kill me anyway, because they haven't been getting any close me in the whole thing right and so um uh you know the guys who want to kill me anyway because they haven't been getting any close-ups the whole movie you know the women are getting all the close-ups and they really want to kill me and so they say you know zoe this is what it's all about just take your time you know and i'm like uh jesus kelly i know you're just looking at the sun you're not even thinking about what I'm saying. And I'm, no, you know, I'm listening.
Starting point is 01:10:25 And, you know, I'm just. And so Paul Dano ends up taking some of the lines. But the discussion of the whole thing. And she was right. It didn't. She wasn't wrong. But this working it out, the sun went down. I lost the sun.
Starting point is 01:10:43 And I went back without the ending of the movie. And I cut the whole film. I didn't have an ending. And I didn't, I'm like, what am I going to do? I'm never getting those animals again. And I've shot part of the scene with the animals, with all these actors. And I, what am I going to do? You know?
Starting point is 01:11:03 And, you know, I could usually count on Todd for some kind of like positive and I show him the guy and I said, like, I really don't. He said, yeah, you don't have an ending. You're screwed. Yeah. And I'm like, I don't know what to tell you. So Michelle and Rod Roddo, who plays the Indian, agree to go back. It's a different season. So I have no animals and two actors yeah and that and i shot the close-up of michelle through the tree and rado walking away and i had to just re it was i cut the whole movie i didn't have an ending so i i went back out and i did it with that ending with the two of them yeah of him walking away and her looking.
Starting point is 01:11:45 So that that was the ending. Yeah. And someone sent the DVD back to oscilloscope with a note and said, this film, my DVD didn't have an ending on it. Well, it was one of those endings where you're like, but but ultimately, to me, what it meant was like the ultimate fuck you. Totally. Or these are the choices. Where the indigenous guy was like, good luck. Or are they going to follow him?
Starting point is 01:12:12 I mean, the thing is, we all know how the story ends, ultimately. The big story of the people going west. Manifest destiny. Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, I liked it. I liked the ending. So then, like, after that movie, because it looks like Night Moves took a little more money.
Starting point is 01:12:29 Yeah. Well, yeah. But Night Moves, that was a hard one. They were also hard. But Night Moves. Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning, Peter Sarsgaard. It came together, and, like, I couldn't get it going. Who wrote that?
Starting point is 01:12:45 Was that John? John and I did. Yeah. And he had some, he and his partner have friends that own this farm in the Applegate Valley, Southern Oregon.
Starting point is 01:12:57 And he would call me from the farm and be like, oh my God, I can't believe what's going on down here. Just like getting caught up in all the small politics of the farm. Environmentalism? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:13:05 Well, it's about eco-terrorists. Yeah. And it's, but there was, you know, the cheese license and all these things going on. And so he brought me down there and started introducing me to the farm. But it was this incredible farm where these people were really trying to live without as tiny a footprint as possible. Yeah. Rainwater gets captured in the reservoir. they grow their own food and they have solar power and don't use cement or metal to build their houses.
Starting point is 01:13:36 It's all. And this year they're selling it because there's no rain. They can't work the farm anymore. It's dried out. Wow. Yeah. Really sad ending to it but anyway that was uh that was a whole excursion well i mean where'd the plot that who did like was it a total fiction
Starting point is 01:13:54 the idea that the plot to blow up the dam yeah we wanted to do a film about a fundamentalist yeah like fundamentalist thinking and it just seemed too easy to do about a right winger yeah so we were um and i've been reading a ton about the elf and just really uh so many interesting stories with those kids getting just and there were people elf the environmental life uh that who were like blowing up the hummers and stuff and all those kids who got, you know, it was after 9-11 and they weren't catching any terrorists. So these kids became the terrorists that they caught. And they were. Blew up a car lot or something.
Starting point is 01:14:34 Blew up a car lot, blew up a library, blew up, let some minks go into the wild. But people, nobody actually got hurt, though they did screw up a few things they did blow up the wrong library and things like that um but they um but they got you know these are like 20 year olds getting life sentences on terrorism yeah um but so we we so we made it about a fundamentalist would be someone that you could relate to the cause. Right. And but that's still, you know, not such a good idea to blow stuff up. But also like, you know, the thinking, the radicalized mind, right? Completely.
Starting point is 01:15:20 With no, just no subtlety and no. Right. And that's Jesse Eisenberg., and that's Jesse Eisenberg. Yes, that's Jesse Eisenberg. And oddly, he's dealing with Skarsgård's kind of like cynical, war-wisened practicality and then the naivete of Dakota Fanning's character. Right. And what they weren't preparing for was conscience in relation to an accidental death and their act of terrorism.
Starting point is 01:15:49 Right. Like the planning has so much, there's so much to think about and so much to do. Yeah. But they didn't really totally think about the aftermath of not, like getting disapproved of by the people in their own community. That they thought they were fighting for. Yeah. Who would say good things about them.
Starting point is 01:16:08 Right. And just the weight of, and they weren't expecting anyone to get hurt. That's right, yeah. And so, well, that film was hard. The environmentalists were not happy with us because, you know, someone did get hurt and they would make the case that, you know, they get enough on their hands.
Starting point is 01:16:30 Oh, then to be characterized like that? Yeah. But again, you know, a question of ending. Yeah. Which is, you know, after, like, I don't want to spoil all these movies because I would assume people would want to see them after we talk about them. But, you know, it's almost like, you know, crime and punishment. It's like Raskolnikov, right? We thought a lot about crime and punishment.
Starting point is 01:16:51 You did? Yeah. Yeah. So that's 2013. So you're doing like one every few years. Yeah. Now I'm trying to make up for lost time. Well, Certain Women, like, is, again, that's 2016.
Starting point is 01:17:01 Now, how are you funding all these movies? These are, I've had the, since Old Joy, I've had the same two producers, partners, Neil Coppin and Yusuf Jani. Actually, and Vincent, the hidden partner who I, he's just, he's like the guy on the phone who does everything. Oh, yeah. And we never really see him. And what are they mostly cost? What's your budget usually? You're not supposed to say. All right, but um he's settled um uh i mean uh
Starting point is 01:17:33 boy i mean uh wendy and lucy was really low budget you know in the hundred thousand dollar range and then um uh i guess meeks was around a million bucks yeah and uh uh night moves i honestly can't remember what it ended up being uh but you know they're small yeah but clearly actors want to work with you yeah actors want to work with me and um and michelle has set a nice uh standard of like you know she'll take the she'll take the lowest and then other people join in. You know, it's so that they're doable. Well, I thought that like in certain women
Starting point is 01:18:11 that, you know, you almost have these three characters, these women. I mean, that was cool. Kristen Stewart coming out and playing that part. It's great.
Starting point is 01:18:19 And Laura Dern and Michelle and the woman from Montana. Where is she from? The other one. Lily Gladstone from Montana. Where is she from, the other woman? Lily Gladstone from Montana. Wow. She's in the new Scorsese movie. Oh, she should be.
Starting point is 01:18:31 Yeah, I know. I'm really happy for her. But that type of, the sense of longing on behalf of all of them. Yeah. I mean, what was the driving force of that? These were stories by the writer Miley Malloy. She had two collections of shorts. And I kind of patched together some from three stories from these different collections.
Starting point is 01:19:00 And like the rancher's a dude dude in in her story and so gladstone character yeah the gladstone character but uh in a lot of ways it was like making three short films together it was uh but they made sense to me as a whole like the way they worked with each other yeah but um they yeah it was well we were talking about actors i guess guess, and that was a nice, and LeGros was there. Oh, you like him. Yeah, I do. I always wonder what happens to him sometimes. Like, you know, since, like, Drugstore Cowboy, I'm like, what's that guy doing?
Starting point is 01:19:33 Then he shows up here and there. Yeah. I mean, he works all the time. He's in a ton of stuff. Yeah. I like him. Yeah, I like him, too. I think he's, he's in Safe.
Starting point is 01:19:43 Yeah. He's really great in Safe. Safe is a confounding movie. It's a great film. I love it. I have no idea what it ultimately is about. Really? Wow.
Starting point is 01:19:54 I mean. I've watched it a few times. I remember the first time I saw it, I'm like, this is the best movie ever made. I don't know what it means. Yeah. Yeah, gosh. What? I didn't understand.
Starting point is 01:20:06 I read the script. I didn't understand the script at all, but I understood the movie. Yeah, really. What does it mean to you? Well, the idea of, you know, projecting, saying that anybody's illness is like caused by themselves to me is like problematic in the first place. And just someone who doesn't really have a total self and is taking more information from the outside, I think, than from the inside. It's a big problem right now in the world. I think that, yeah, that film ages really well because every part of it is still relevant.
Starting point is 01:20:54 Like that the idea of environmental sickness is in your head. That's crazy. But then that the answer is an igloo is also quite. And then just that weird guy who's just wandering. Okay, I never understood that guy. I don't know. Yeah, that's. Yeah. Okay, I never understood that guy. I don't know. Yeah, that's a. Yeah. Well, that's where you end up, man.
Starting point is 01:21:09 Yeah. That's the far side of the spectrum. I guess that is the far side of the spectrum. Yeah. Yeah. So, desire. And there's a lot of stuff in there. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:21:38 About relationship, too, I think. Yeah. And sometimes, you know, aloneness is comforting and great, and sometimes it's lonely. And then, well, you got a lot of animals around. That's good. You like the animals? Yeah. That dog came with that ranch. Yeah, I just love that Gladstone was so amazing when she drives to sit in the parking lot. It's just like— She's great, yeah. And Kristen Stewart played that so well.
Starting point is 01:22:07 That was an insane, that day was so windy and so wild. And they did that scene and Kristen came up to me afterwards and she's like, she's really, like she had to up her, realized she had to up her game. She's like, oh yeah, she was like taken back by Lily. She was like, oh, okay, all right, yeah, had to upper game. She's like, oh yeah, she was, she was like taken back by Lily. She was like, oh, okay.
Starting point is 01:22:26 All right. Yeah. Something going on here. So it was cool. And Kristen was really willing to let all the scenes be Lily's. Yeah. And that was so cool. So,
Starting point is 01:22:37 all right, we talked a little bit about First Cow, which is, you know, a beautiful movie. And Lily Gladstone's in that. And she's the one who, she plays the,'s in that. And she's the one who, she plays the,
Starting point is 01:22:46 she factors wife. And she's the one who really, really got down the language, the Chinook language really down. Yeah. She plays, she has the cat. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:22:59 And she plays his wife. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I just, you know, I got so hung up with McCabe and Mrs. Miller. And then like, you know, the story of those two guys and that actor who was also in Showing Up. I just, like, I really found that, you know, the similarity.
Starting point is 01:23:13 What is it? John McGarrow. Yeah. Yeah. But, like, the similarities in terms of, you know, class and capitalism and, you know, the nature of the prospector. And also the beaver business, you know, versus, you know, hookers and gambling. I mean, it was all part of that story, the beginning of capitalism. Yes, the beginning of capitalism. Right. Yeah. And already before there's even an agreed currency,
Starting point is 01:23:40 like everyone's using different things for currency. Yeah, that's so good. But the hierarchy for who's on top as far as like seems already in place. Like there's a scene like we have a servant who's like from the Sandwich Islands who's, you know, and King Lou. And then you have, so there's different levels of servitude and color and race and coming into play. It kind of goes up the hierarchy because of negotiations made with the natives. Right, right. Right? That, you know, if you're going to cut in the natives and create some sort of detente with the people that, you know, know the land and theoretically own the land, that that's where it starts. Right.
Starting point is 01:24:26 But then where does that leave like Lily Gladstone's servant or someone like King Lou? Like those guys are in them between each other. Or they get pushed out eventually. Yeah, but they're deciding who's on top between the two of them. Right. Like there's a weird scene. So everyone's scrambling for their space.
Starting point is 01:24:43 Yeah. I just thought the relationship between the cook and the other guy was so sweet. Like there's a weird scene. So everyone's scrambling for their space. Yeah. Yeah. I just thought the relationship between the cook and the other guy was so sweet. Yeah. That's, and those characters came from that first novel of John Raymond's that I read, The Half-Life. And in that novel, in the script, well, there's no cow in the novel. Well, there's no cow in the novel.
Starting point is 01:25:10 And the novel goes between, you know, like goes back into 1800s and to contemporary life back and forth. But I think the violence of that story is that, you know, that the price to pay for the milk, you know, in a lawless land would be your life. Yeah. Which is, you know, given this sort of. It's like the dog food, really. Yeah. Like there's no use. Like it's so petty. Yeah. Right is, you know, given this sort of— It's like the dog food, really. Yeah. Like there's no use—like it's so petty. Yeah, right.
Starting point is 01:25:29 Right. But no one was going to stop it. Yeah. And that was the nature of the frontier on some level. But, you know, after you set up this beautiful relationship and these poetic characters and, you know, this sort of sweetness of barter and all this stuff that, you know, the violence is specific and it's heinous. Yeah. Yeah. And that is the beginning of thuggery.
Starting point is 01:25:57 You know, that really grows to define the system we live in. Right? Yeah. Early days. But the roots of. Yeah, for sure. Now, okay, so let's get to the current movie we're not allowed
Starting point is 01:26:06 to talk about that anymore by the way in school yeah in certain schools right you wouldn't be allowed to show this film probably really
Starting point is 01:26:14 well you know the whole thing of getting rid of don't make white people feel guilty oh yeah well you mean oh so the fascist
Starting point is 01:26:23 you wouldn't be able to talk about it in fascist institutions. Yeah, like Florida, Texas. Elementary schools. Yeah, right. Yeah, it's horrendous. But the new movie, to me, it was so beautiful because I, having had the experience of being with somebody who was in the high art world, you start to realize that there's this whole other tier of successful, quote unquote, successful artists that aren't
Starting point is 01:26:52 making the financial cut. They exist in community and in institutions. Yeah. And they get by. They get by. And this is those people. This is those people in the daily. I mean, originally, we were going to do a biopic on this painter, Emily Carr, a Canadian painter that John and I love.
Starting point is 01:27:16 And we went to Vancouver. But we thought she was obscure. And she had a decade of her life where she became a landlord because she thought it would be better than having a day job. Yeah. I'll have more time to paint. Sure. Her tenants were so needy, she couldn't get around to painting. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:27:31 And then we went to Vancouver and we found out she's like hugely worshipped, famous. Oh, really? Yeah. So we were like, okay, that doesn't work. So then we kind of turned it more towards our own world. Yeah. And this school, Oregon College of Arts and Crafts is a- It's a real place?
Starting point is 01:27:45 It's closed, but it was a school for over 100 years and a really important pottery ceramics place for the Pacific Northwest all through the 60s and 70s and up till pretty much everyone we worked with had some connection to that school. That's where you shot? Yeah. And it closed, you know, like so many art schools, it closed. It closed, you know, like so many art schools, it closed. And it was only because it was COVID, because it's going to become something else. It's going to become like a middle school and it's going to be renovated. But because of COVID, they kind of had to divert their funds to online learning. So we got to shoot there.
Starting point is 01:28:17 Wow. Which was, you know, so it was a big empty school and we got to make up a whole school. Well, the thing I loved about the school is, and that, you know, Michelle Williams' character's parents are involved. Her father's a famous potter who is retired. Her mother is running the school. And she obviously grew up in this environment. Right. But, like, just walking down those halls
Starting point is 01:28:36 and seeing what we all saw of our generation in art schools or people we knew, everyone solving the big questions the same way over and over again. Yeah. You know, ad infinitum of, you know, these way the artists, young artists discover themselves. Yeah, yeah. There's a format to it, but they're not aware of it.
Starting point is 01:28:54 Yes. Yeah. And it's sort of the root of the delusion necessary to pursue arts. And the other thing about arts is that no one's going to stop you but you. Right. Yeah, you can. arts. And the other thing about arts is that no one's going to stop you but you. Right. Yeah, you can. It's harder if your art is clay or painting. If you want to make films, films take money. But if you make the room in your life for it, you can make stuff. But pottery, I'm a big pottery fan, and it's a practical art, and it's affordable, fan and it's a practical art and it's affordable and it's usually
Starting point is 01:29:24 priced within a price point that you can afford and it's nice to have. It's beautiful, yeah. It's almost, you know, you don't have to covet it so much. Painting's different and
Starting point is 01:29:39 certainly the work of Hong Chao, her work is completely esoteric. Yeah. And can only exist in installations. That's, yeah, that's Michelle Segre's work. Yeah. And it's designed to be documented.
Starting point is 01:29:54 Yeah. I mean, there's that whole world of like installation where all you're going for is the book. Right. Well, she would not like to be called an installation artist. She's a sculptor. But her things are huge, and they need space. But it's not the kind of
Starting point is 01:30:10 art that you're like, I'm going to buy that for my house. No, you're not. Yeah. It's art for art's sake, in a way. But then Michelle Williams, just that juxtaposition. There's a scene, and did you ever see the New York stories? Scorsese's short in the New York stories. I can't remember it. There was Coppola, Woody Allen, and Scorsese's short in the New York stories.
Starting point is 01:30:25 I can't remember it. There was Coppola, Woody Allen, and Scorsese. Nick Nolte plays an old school New York painter. I can't remember it, yeah. It's such a great scene
Starting point is 01:30:33 where, you know, he's like, Roseanne Arquette, I think, is the woman who's living with him and she's also doing her little paintings
Starting point is 01:30:40 but he's like a massive canvas, you know, old, you know, from the 60s, you know, and she's doing her little canvases and she ends up fucking some guy and, you know, and he's at the house, the guy she fucked and, you know, and, and it's Nick Nolte shows up and I can't remember the situation, you know, but there's a beat where, you know,
Starting point is 01:31:00 Nolte says, I'm like, what do you do? And the guy goes, I'm a graffiti artist. And, and then Nick Nolte goes, I'm a painter. Right. You know, like with the weight of it, you know. But there's something about the sort of preciousness of Michelle Williams' work. And everyone's so kind. And there was something kind of profound about one of them getting fucked up in the kiln.
Starting point is 01:31:22 That, you know, that this was sort of, you know, a chip in the armor. She had to reckon with acceptance and all that. I don't know. I just found that the depiction and then the mentally ill brother. All the, all the, the thing with the piece that was going to be messed up. I mean, the pieces that she's working on, which are made by Cynthia Latte, are not like pristine pieces. The work is already fucked up. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:31:49 And it's, you know, in its original idea of it. But so I kept, we kept trying different things to screw it up. And you would be like, well, is that just part of it? Yeah. You know, you couldn't tell. But you had to burn it. Yeah, we had to burn it. And still, I almost lost half a day of shooting just not being able to decide, like, is that fucked up enough? Or does that look good? Or is that, like, I couldn't, I mean, it made me, I know it seems so stupid now, but the nights of sleep lost over worry, thinking of, you know, being able to judge when it was too much or not enough or you'd be able to tell?
Starting point is 01:32:27 But what was what were your concerns in this movie in terms of themes? I mean, what was your intent? I think we wanted to show like if you have a desire and an impulse to make something the way you, you know, the way you're going to have lunch today, like you need to balance your life, but you don't necessarily have a built in audience and or your audience is maybe the same audience you've had over and over again. And is it you still these people still need to make stuff because that's like how their day goes and it's what makes their life make sense and how they and they have something they want to get out. And so we're trying to put it in a sort of lower stakes world, but that those the anxieties still exist of completion and level of, you know, deciding what's good enough and if you're as good as you should be or you're making it better or is it going to speak to anyone besides you? And also just how do you make time to make it work into your life? And I think how a lot of things in your life, like I worry about people who make art now
Starting point is 01:33:43 because I just think like when we were young young like part of making art is hanging out like you need time to hang out and talk about stuff like john and i hang out a lot and walk around and talk and people always go like how do you work together it's like hanging out and gossiping i guess a lot of it uh right and um but you know rents are so high and everything. Now you, like your whole life is like trying to figure out how to, I don't know,
Starting point is 01:34:09 it's a harder thing. You don't, you can't just go like, I'm just going to go to New York City and find my people because New York City is all the cities.
Starting point is 01:34:16 Portland's too expensive. Sure. Yeah, I talk about that like on stage recently just about how, you know, so it really,
Starting point is 01:34:23 it is a movie about creating art. Yeah. And the lifestyle around that. Right. And the daily process of it. Yeah. I talk about like, I talk about on stage, I'm talking about, you know, shopping.
Starting point is 01:34:36 Sometimes I'll go to three supermarkets to go shopping just because I just decided that. And then I said, what do you think comics do during the day? Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah. You know, I used to, I spent most comics do during the day? Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah. You know, I spent most of my life running errands with other people. Right. Usually my errands.
Starting point is 01:34:51 Like, what are you doing? You want to go take a ride with me today while I go do something I have to do? Yeah. Why not? Yeah, why not? Yeah, you walk. Well, you walk. Sure.
Starting point is 01:34:59 In our neighborhood, in Portland, you, like, walk, and you're going to stop at the store and get some stuff. And, yeah, your backpack's getting filled up along the way. After I did my show at Carnegie Hall, which is a big night, me and Sharpwing walked all the way downtown. That's what the film's about. That's it. The best night that you're, you know, oh, you got into Cannes. You did it. Okay.
Starting point is 01:35:20 You got into Cannes. You did it. Okay. The memory for me of all of that is breaking it down with Chris Blauvelt, the DP, or my producers, or John Raymond. It's the walk home afterwards. It was just me, John, we'll meet up wherever it is, and then we share what anybody said does, the whole thing. You're just breaking down the night, and that's the best part. That's the best part of the night.
Starting point is 01:35:46 Yeah. It was so weird because after I did Carnegie Hall, which wasn't great for me, but my opening act did well. And after the evening, my opening act at that time, I was kind of like addicted to nicotine. So he gave me what was left of his chew, his packets. And there was like four in there. I'm like, oh, this is great. And then I saw Tom and I'm like, what are you doing? Let's just walk. So I'm just
Starting point is 01:36:08 like chewing skull and walking with Tom after I did Cardigan Hall. And that was the best part of the night. Yeah, that is the best part of the night. Yeah, when it's over. Well, I guess that all makes sense now in terms of you create all this tension between all these characters
Starting point is 01:36:23 and their egos. Tell the ending, yeah. I'm not going to. No, all I'm going to say is that this is the happiest ending you've made. Yeah. Great. Yeah, it's the most of an ending ending, probably. It's kind of an ending.
Starting point is 01:36:38 Life goes on. Life goes on. But life goes on, but you don't walk out of this movie going, no, it's not going to go well for you. Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's going to be another day. Right, right. Back to work.
Starting point is 01:36:51 Yeah. Great talking to you. Thanks for having me. Thanks for checking out the movies. Oh, yeah. I really love the work. Yeah, thanks a lot. I did it.
Starting point is 01:37:05 I gave her the Paul Thomas Anderson treatment. We just went movie to movie, baby. Movie to movie. Let's talk it out. Her new one showing up opens in theaters tomorrow. And in a minute, I'll tell you where you can catch all the other movies we've talked about. So hang out. You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So hang out. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence.
Starting point is 01:37:45 Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative.
Starting point is 01:38:38 All right, listen up. Here's where the other Kelly Reichardt movies are streaming right now. River of Grass is streaming for free on Plex. Old Joy is on HBO Max. Wendy and Lucy is on Pluto TV, Tubi, Peacock, and AMC+. Meek's Cutoff is available on Showtime and AMC+. Night Moves is on Peacock and Free V. Certain Women is on Pluto TV, Tubi, and AMC Plus.
Starting point is 01:39:08 And First Cow is on Peacock. There you go. Go watch them. Next week, we have Steven Yoon. On Monday, he's in that new show Beef with Ali Wong, which I enjoyed very much. And on Thursday, Alex Borstein, who has her own comedy special coming out on Prime Video, as well as the new season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. All right? Okay? Here's some guitar. Is that all of it? Are we good? Great. © transcript Emily Beynon Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. boomer lives monkey
Starting point is 01:42:42 lavanda cat angels everywhere. Jesus told me so.

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