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on with Mario Lopez. What's

0:32

up, you're on, Mario Lopez?

0:34

Join me right now on

0:36

Zoom, actor and filmmaker, Mr.

0:38

Matthew, what's going on, Matthew?

0:40

How you doing, brother? It's

0:42

good to be with you.

0:44

Always good to see you, my man.

0:47

Always good to see you, my man.

0:49

Always good to see you. So this

0:51

month, I want to get right to

0:53

it, because you know it's one of

0:55

my favorites, the 40th anniversary. dare

0:58

I say one of

1:00

the most underrated soundtracks

1:02

of all time the

1:04

soundtrack is awesome. Awesome. What

1:06

do you remember most about

1:08

that time film in that

1:10

movie? You know, was that

1:13

magical time, you know, we have

1:15

a desire to be an actor,

1:17

you know, it's insane. The idea

1:19

of pursuing the profession of being

1:22

an actor. I mean, I go

1:24

to NBA games and I think

1:26

about... how few people are able

1:29

to make it to that level

1:31

of athleticism and brilliance to be

1:34

a member of the NBA. It's

1:36

a small club. And when you

1:38

think about this profession that we're

1:41

in, being an actor, the chances

1:43

are probably one in a million

1:45

that you find success in this

1:47

profession. And there I was. You

1:49

know, it's 22 years old coming

1:51

from Imperial Beach, California. moving to

1:53

New York City because I wanted

1:55

to get as far away from

1:57

all my friends who were saying

2:00

You can't do that, you're never

2:02

going to make it. And

2:04

you want to get away from

2:06

all those naysayers and figure out

2:08

how to do it. So

2:10

I had done, at that point,

2:12

I did Baby It's You

2:14

with Rosanna Arquette, Streamers with David

2:16

Allen Greer, Michael Wright, and

2:19

Mitchell Lichtenstein, Guy Boyd, George Zanza,

2:21

incredible cast. And then I

2:23

did Private School with Phoebe Cates,

2:25

and then all of a

2:27

sudden I got my first starring

2:29

role in a Harold Becker

2:31

movie called Vision Quest. It was,

2:33

I mean, you know, there's

2:35

a great line in that movie, Broadcast

2:38

News. Albert Brooks is talking to

2:40

William Hurt, and William Hurt says something

2:42

like, what do you do when

2:44

your life exceeds your dreams? And Albert

2:46

Brooks says, you keep your mouth

2:48

shut. And my

2:50

life was exceeding my dreams at that

2:52

point, you know. Yeah, that's awesome.

2:54

What a poignant line, too. I love

2:56

that. In that film, of course,

2:58

Madonna made her big screen debut. What

3:00

was it like being on set

3:02

with her? Did you get to interact

3:04

or hang out at all? We

3:06

had one of those two bangers, you

3:09

know, we were in a small trailer

3:11

and she was just a few inches

3:13

from me through that thin wall. And

3:15

she was dating a guy named Jelly

3:17

Bean Benitez, a really, really famous record

3:19

producer. And apparently she wanted to marry

3:21

him and she was she was really

3:24

angry. And there was a lot of

3:26

noise about her. Wow.

3:28

To get about marriage. And and then

3:30

she I don't think she was on set

3:32

for more than six hours. And I'd

3:34

love to find this out. But I think

3:36

that Warner Brothers had this kind of

3:38

unspoken rule that if you were a

3:40

Warner Brothers artist, you had to do

3:42

some like being a movie being,

3:45

you know, to promote your music. So

3:47

she was the band that they

3:49

put in the movie. And and there's

3:51

a scene that was written, especially

3:53

for her to be able to come

3:55

in. And she sang gambler and

3:57

she had that Boy George vibe. dressed

4:00

in those days and and then she

4:02

sang crazy for you and and we

4:05

went oh wow she's got some chops

4:07

she can sing and that that was

4:09

a really sweet romantic song and when

4:12

the film opened overseas they changed the

4:14

title from Vision Quest to Crazy for

4:16

you really because Madonna blew up you

4:18

know like The Virgin came out and

4:21

The rest is history. Wow, that's

4:23

a fun fact. Yeah, journey was

4:25

on that. Only the, yeah, such

4:27

a great sound. Yeah, Red Rider.

4:29

Yeah, exactly, Red Rider. Yep. And

4:31

in March, you're doing a screening on

4:34

the film in Spokane where you all

4:36

shot. Are you going to be there

4:38

for? Oh, yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. The

4:40

ship, could be Dana White, the U.F.

4:42

Yeah, it's my buddy of mine.

4:45

Yeah. He says that he built his

4:47

empire. kind of on the on the

4:49

principles of loud and swaying's work ethic

4:51

and I love that I'm about to

4:54

tell of that I was talking about

4:56

that I think he said on Joe

4:58

Rogan Sean McDermott from the

5:00

Buffalo Bills yeah he says he

5:02

plays it for the the football

5:05

players a couple times a year

5:07

to get him fired up and

5:09

ready for a game it's so

5:11

it's it's wonderful I think that

5:13

Mario because you know I'm older than

5:15

you but you were around in the 80s

5:17

that I think part of the

5:19

success of stranger things is

5:21

that it predates social media,

5:24

cell phones, internet, computers.

5:26

And so if people wanted to

5:28

be together, they couldn't use a

5:30

device. They had to go be

5:33

with that person. They had to

5:35

get on their bicycle and ride

5:38

to their friend's house or get

5:40

on a motorcycle, drive a car,

5:42

walk. And so when... young people today

5:44

watch vision quest or watch stranger

5:46

things that that they don't maybe

5:48

consciously understand what it is but

5:50

but they they they feel that

5:52

that the beauty of being with

5:54

your friends and just hanging out

5:56

now you're exactly right my

5:59

son coincidence is really the stranger

6:01

things right now and he's just

6:03

he's 11 so I think I

6:05

think he's about ready I think

6:07

to see Vision Quest and he'll appreciate

6:09

it now too so I can't I

6:11

can't wait to watch it and watch

6:14

it with him and in a couple

6:16

years it's gonna be the

6:18

40th anniversary of full metal jacket

6:20

how how was it how how

6:22

was that experience with Kubrick I've

6:25

worked with you know I like

6:27

to say they all make love

6:29

They all do it a little

6:31

bit differently. Cubric, we were together

6:33

for two years, so I can't

6:35

really compare it to other experiences.

6:38

The only other director I worked

6:40

with a lot was Robert Altman,

6:42

which was, you know, streamers and

6:44

shortcuts. and I did a play

6:46

with him in London at the

6:49

old Vic called Resurrection Blues and

6:51

Arthur Miller play. It was

6:53

a gigantic disaster. It was

6:55

fantastically bad. It was wonderful.

6:57

In England, they still talk

6:59

about that terrible play. And

7:01

you know, it wasn't necessarily

7:03

my fault. It was a

7:05

whole, it was, they should

7:07

have been a play about

7:09

them, about us doing the

7:11

play. Not doing the play,

7:13

right. Like noises off. But

7:15

yeah, he, I mean, some of the

7:18

direction that people are

7:20

shocked by that I really

7:22

loved was like, this is

7:24

a really specific direction. You're

7:26

not going to do it that

7:29

way, are you? Wow. I mean, it's

7:31

like, of course not. No, I don't

7:33

know what I was thinking. I'm not

7:35

going to do it that way. Oh,

7:38

that's good. But it's so specific. He

7:40

didn't want to get into the psychology

7:42

of why you're doing something or, you

7:45

know, all the method stuff. He just,

7:47

it was like, that doesn't work. Do

7:49

something different and, or act scared. Right.

7:52

That's very specific. If a

7:54

director tells you, act scared, because

7:56

you're scared, it's going to

7:58

be different than 10 different.

8:00

actually, everybody's gonna do it a

8:02

little bit different. Sure, how you

8:04

interpret being scared, you know. I'm

8:06

gonna use that line because it just,

8:08

I like, you're not gonna do that

8:10

way. You've inspired me to use that.

8:13

You mentioned stranger things, which of course

8:15

is going into a fifth and final

8:17

season. Now, Dr. Brenner appears to have

8:19

died, but then it looks like there's,

8:21

he possibly returns, or is it flashbacks?

8:23

Because on social media, are you allowed

8:25

to discuss it or we have to

8:28

wait and see? No, I'm not allowed to

8:30

discuss it. I'm a troll, you

8:32

know, I love teasing the fans

8:34

of Stranger things because I've never

8:36

had such passionate fans in my

8:38

life. I mean, you always hear

8:40

like... I'm a New York Knicks

8:42

fan. This is my New York

8:44

jacket. Yeah, I see it. The

8:46

players talk about that these are

8:48

the greatest fans ever, but you

8:50

always hear athletes say it. You

8:52

wonder, are the fans in Buffalo

8:54

really the greatest fans? Are the

8:56

fans in Kansas City the greatest

8:58

fans? Philly or New York Yankee

9:00

fans, etc. L.A. Dodgers fans. But I

9:02

really have to say, I think

9:04

that the Stranger Things fan. I've

9:07

never experienced a... globally, you

9:09

know, especially the ones down

9:11

in Brazil. Wow. Yeah, they're

9:13

so passionate. And if you

9:16

like something that on Instagram

9:18

or make a comment or

9:20

wave to somebody in Brazil,

9:22

it's, I, it's, you feel

9:24

them with such joy and happiness and

9:26

love, it's, it's such. you know it's

9:28

what my mom's always just to say

9:31

it doesn't take any time to be

9:33

kind. And so when you when I

9:35

hit on Instagram and say hi to

9:37

people it makes me feel good and

9:39

hopefully it always makes them feel good.

9:41

That's awesome. Well I've always enjoy catching

9:43

up with you and and big fan

9:46

of your work. Matthew and I want

9:48

everyone if you've never seen Vision Quest

9:50

you have to check it out. It

9:52

is a classic true 80s classic and

9:54

if you're in the Spokane Washington area

9:56

on March 9.