0:01

Joe Rogan podcast, check it

0:03

out! The Joe Rogan

0:05

experience! Train by day! Joe

0:07

Rogan podcast by night! All day!

0:10

Oh man! Very, very nice to

0:12

meet you. Incredible to meet you!

0:14

Fucking gigantic fan. Man, I

0:16

appreciate that. I just love

0:19

what you've done, because like...

0:21

Anybody who could start their

0:23

career off and make a

0:25

movie for $7,000 is a

0:27

hero? That's just an incredible

0:29

accomplishment to make a movie

0:31

that people still watch and

0:33

talk about today for seven

0:35

grand. It was an experience

0:38

for sure. I had a

0:40

really good plan and it

0:42

backfired. So I tried to ride

0:44

away when it worked in a different

0:46

way. I wanted to share that experience.

0:48

I wrote a book called Rebel Without

0:50

a Crew that really inspired filmmakers.

0:53

You did the audio for it too. Just

0:55

recently I couldn't believe I hadn't read it

0:57

since I wrote it and I had forgotten

0:59

a lot of the details and now I

1:01

can see why it inspired so many people

1:03

because you know when you're in your early

1:06

20s, six months feels like six years. Right. So

1:08

when you read it now and go, oh my

1:10

god, from inception to making it

1:12

penniless by myself to toast of the town.

1:14

It's like that it's like that. It was unbelievable.

1:17

I couldn't wait to shout from the rooftops

1:19

to all the other filmmakers like me who

1:21

thought they couldn't get in. How I did

1:23

it exactly. I wrote a book about it.

1:25

And I'd read it now and I'd go,

1:27

oh my God, this is an impossible story.

1:30

I keep laughing during the audio book going,

1:32

okay, what you're reading right now never happened

1:34

before. And it never happened again. It was

1:36

like lightning in a bottle. And you would

1:38

see every time I thought something wasn't going

1:40

on my way. And I was really bummed about

1:43

it. And it really taught you that you just got

1:45

to follow your instinct. If you have an idea, go.

1:47

Even if you know no one else has ever done

1:49

this before. And you'll end up someplace

1:51

different. We're not asking about that, because

1:53

I know you end up doing the

1:55

same thing a lot. Where it's not

1:58

manifesting so much in that way. You're

2:00

just kind of following your nose. I'm

2:02

doing something that just sounds ridiculous. Even

2:04

when I try to tell one of

2:06

my teachers when I was going to

2:08

go do that summer, I saw I'm going

2:10

to go try and make a movie.

2:13

He goes, oh yeah, who's going to

2:15

be your director of photography? And I

2:17

said, I didn't want to tell him

2:19

I'm the whole crew. I'm the deep.

2:21

I'm the deep. I'm the whole crew.

2:23

I'm the deep. I'm the deep. I'm

2:26

the whole crew. I'm the deep. I'm

2:28

going to tell him. If you want

2:30

to write screenplays, write three full screenplays,

2:32

throw them away. Your fourth screenplay will

2:34

be it. It's like I have written

2:36

a screenplay. It's very hard to write

2:38

a screenplay. It's hard to write. It's

2:40

like three huge meals that you're just

2:43

going to dump. Why not? OK, write

2:45

the script, throw it away. But why

2:47

you're throwing it away? Why not also

2:49

shoot it and direct it? Light it yourself.

2:51

Do the sound yourself. So that you're training

2:53

yourself on each one. So that you're training

2:55

yourself on each one. like my own film

2:58

school where I get paid to learn. So

3:00

I discovered that there were these straight to

3:02

Spanish movies that are action movies. You go

3:04

to the, you've seen the HGBs around here, there

3:06

used to be a video section to rent movies

3:08

and there was a Spanish section. The Spanish section

3:10

had movies like, there were just action movies that

3:13

had a soap star that were made for it.

3:15

30 grand, 40 grand shot on video, no action,

3:17

but it had a title that looked kind of

3:19

like a US title. Like, Perros and Aviosos, dust,

3:21

like, written like lethal weapon too. And you would

3:23

rent it and be like, just crap, people in

3:25

an apartment talking. It wasn't, so I looked at

3:27

the back of those and I thought, we can

3:29

make a better one, probably for like $5,000, because

3:31

I had made a short film called bedhead,

3:34

by myself with a wind-up camera. It was a windup

3:36

camera. It was eight minutes, and it cost $8

3:38

minutes, and it cost $800, and it cost $800, and

3:40

it cost $800, $800, $800, $800, $800, $800, $800, so

3:42

I thought. Multiply it times 10 I can do

3:44

an 80 minute movie for $8,000 but with dialogue

3:46

and everything I bet I could get it for

3:49

under 8 probably more like 5 or 6 Let's

3:51

go shoot a movie write it shoot it. I'll

3:53

be the whole crew so I learn all the

3:55

jobs and Then we'll sell it to the

3:57

Spanish home video market. No one will know

3:59

it's me because it's Robert Rodriguez, a bunch of

4:01

Robert Rodriguez. I'll make three of those because I was

4:03

so young, I was winning a lot of film festivals

4:06

with short films, but I thought if someone sees one

4:08

of my short films that's winning all these awards, they're not

4:10

going to hire me to do a short film, I'm

4:12

going to hire me to do a feature and I've

4:14

never practiced that. So I need practice. So I'm going

4:16

to practice three films, take the best scenes from them,

4:18

have a demo reel, with the money I make from them,

4:20

with the money I make from them. I don't know

4:22

how much I can sell it for,

4:25

so I've got to make it really

4:27

cheap. Let's just do the first one,

4:29

then we'll know. Then I'll take that

4:31

money and make my first American independent

4:33

film, and that'll be more serious. Because

4:35

I threw it away like that, I

4:37

just thought, well, let me just make

4:39

something fun. I just thought, well, let

4:41

me just make something fun. I guess

4:43

I just thought, well, let me just

4:45

make something fun. I guess I could

4:47

make it about a guy with a

4:49

guitar case full of weapons. But

4:51

I can't. How about I just do

4:53

a Genesis story? So I took out these

4:55

cards and I go, OK, maybe he

4:57

was a guitar player. In fact, that'll

4:59

be a funny title, because I had

5:02

this comedic sense. I thought, I'm going

5:04

to make a movie. That's got so

5:06

much action. And it's actually shot

5:08

on film. But I'll call it

5:10

basically the guitar player, which promises

5:13

no action whatsoever. Put it on

5:15

the shelf. And if someone happens

5:17

to be so desperate to watch

5:19

it, they'll be surprised. Guy, because

5:21

I used to make in short films. Guy

5:24

with a guitar case walks into a bar

5:26

looking for work. They refuse, saying,

5:28

we don't hire people, we use

5:30

a synthesizer now. He leaves. A guy with

5:32

a guitar case full of weapons walks

5:34

in after, shoots the place up, says he's

5:37

going after the guy who owns it because he

5:39

did him wrong. So I put those two cards

5:41

down and I went, okay, that's how a short

5:43

film would start, but shit, this is a feature.

5:45

So let me put, it's gonna need like three

5:47

scenes before. This is how fast you write? Wow.

5:49

I wrote that script because it was, again, I'm

5:51

throwing it away. I'm just gonna make something that

5:54

I wanna see because no one else is gonna

5:56

see. You're getting paid to practice. If I can

5:58

sell it, I'll be paid to practice. So I

6:00

thought, okay, we gotta figure out who this guy

6:02

is. Okay, how about he's a control partner who's

6:04

coming into town? But wait, who's the guy that

6:06

shoots the place of it? Let's start with him

6:09

in jail. I read a story about a guy

6:11

in Mexico who was running his drug business from

6:13

his jail cell. And he used it as protection.

6:15

He could walk out at any time. Someone puts

6:17

a hit on him. tells the bad guy

6:20

I'm coming after you now I'm coming

6:22

to your town and shoot up your

6:24

town he passes the Mariachi on the

6:26

road the Mariachi is a Mariachi the

6:28

guy who just wants to be a

6:30

musician we get to know who he

6:32

is and then he walks in the

6:35

bar and then the guy comes and

6:37

shoots the place up well now he's

6:39

got to leave and go to another

6:41

place so now he's gonna it's a

6:43

it's a you know movie about a

6:45

guitar player he's got to have some

6:47

kind of Because that's going to be

6:49

every movie is going to be like a

6:51

sad song and a songbook. So it kind

6:54

of just broke that fast. I went and

6:56

I shot it. Do it like that with

6:58

the index cards? I do this for everything.

7:00

I do this for everything. For everything. I

7:02

do this talk where I, I, by the

7:04

end of the talk, I say, I keep these in

7:06

my. in my bag. It always makes

7:09

me smile because I know I've made

7:11

a million dollars for this before. And

7:13

that's a tiny little. This is a

7:15

tiny one. You can carry anywhere. I

7:18

gave this to my kids one Christmas.

7:20

For people are just listening. It's closed

7:22

together with rubber bands. I gave this

7:24

in a cool little leather bag for

7:26

my kids one Christmas. I thought

7:28

they would say, once this shit. They loved

7:31

it. I said, you can change your life

7:33

with this thing. A lot of times, you

7:35

go to go to a therapy. terrible

7:37

questions. The therapist asked you questions like

7:39

why do you want to make you

7:41

feel? Why did you do that? And what's going on?

7:43

If we do our own questions, like what's

7:45

next? What goes before this? Your mind comes

7:47

up with the answer if you ask the

7:50

right question. So I've used this for like,

7:52

we usually ask unempowering questions. You know, the

7:54

words we use in ourselves are so important,

7:56

but sort of the questions like, why am

7:58

I such a loser? Well, I can give

8:01

you 10 answers right now. But if I change

8:03

it to what three things could I come up

8:05

with to start this week? That will

8:07

not just change my life, but everyone

8:09

around me. You don't come up with three,

8:11

you come up with like 15. Just keep

8:13

coming out. And as you look at

8:15

them, you go, these kind of go

8:17

together and are actionable. I can actually

8:20

start this right now. I mean, you

8:22

can literally change your life, business ideas,

8:24

movie ideas, stories, just with a deck

8:26

of. By the time I build up

8:28

and show all the examples of it,

8:30

at the end of the talk, I hold

8:32

up one of these with the rubber

8:34

bands to the crowd. And I say,

8:36

who wants to change your life? Everybody's

8:39

hands go up. I toss one

8:41

out and catch it. In fact,

8:43

I remember my nephew about seven

8:45

years ago caught one. And it's

8:47

funny because he's on Broadway now.

8:50

It's just like, lets you map

8:52

out your life. Another friend of

8:54

mine, DJ Katrina, he's an actor.

8:56

And I picked up an old script I hadn't picked up in a while

8:58

and I just cut off the phone for three days and I finished

9:00

it. And I said, you finished the script in three days? I

9:02

like the feedback loop that happens when you inspire somebody. I'm going

9:04

to try that because I got a bunch of half-baked ideas that

9:06

I've never gone in none that with. You did it in three

9:08

days? Yeah, if you shut the phone off, you can do it

9:10

in three days. And now he has that movie he's out. It's

9:12

coming out. It's called Fight or Flight or Flight or Flight with,

9:15

it. It's called, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it's called,

9:17

it, it's called, it's called, it, it's called, it's called, it's called,

9:19

it, it's called, it's called, it, it's called, it's called, it's called,

9:21

it, it's called, it's called, it's called, it's called, it, And I

9:23

get this a lot when I've

9:25

talked to people. It's really inspiring

9:27

to them to hear other people.

9:29

That's why I'll ask you questions

9:31

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oracle.com/Rogan. That's oracle.com/Rogan. Did you develop this approach?

10:28

Like is this something you completely invented yourself?

10:30

Just to map out life on index cards?

10:32

Writers will often put index cards up to

10:34

just kind of block out a scene. It's

10:37

a very, it's a visual way to see

10:39

your story. Like when you lay it out

10:41

and you go, oh, this works, I'm missing

10:43

a section here. But again, like this is

10:46

asking, what can I put there? You'll come

10:48

up with a bunch of ideas. It almost

10:50

gives you like an overview. But I started

10:52

it when I was a cartoonist. So I

10:54

would draw on different cards, different drawings, and

10:57

every day I had to come up with

10:59

a comedic idea and a drawing in a

11:01

story. And it was tough. You'd have to

11:03

draw it out. And you would sometimes make

11:06

two drawings that you really liked and go,

11:08

oh, this kind of is the setup, one,

11:10

two, three payoff of the joke here. And

11:12

they'd come up with it like that. So

11:15

I kind of use it for everything. It's

11:17

kind of a more visual kind of person.

11:19

So it helps you visually see something that's

11:21

normally. like written words and stuff. So it

11:23

started off with cartoons and then worked into

11:26

writing but I haven't seen too many people

11:28

apply it the way you're explaining it like

11:30

you could actually use that to fix your

11:32

life. Oh fix your life completely because there's

11:35

another question it's just questions. Right. And the

11:37

amazing thing is once you start doing stories,

11:39

that's why I like doing a lot of

11:41

original franchises, probably made the most original franchises

11:44

of a film, because I don't usually direct

11:46

other people's stuff, because you realize you're creating

11:48

this story. Like I just made this guy's

11:50

destiny happen, and I can give him a

11:52

good outcome or a bad outcome. It's in

11:55

my control. And you realize you can do

11:57

that with your own life. So you're writing

11:59

the story of your own life of who

12:01

you're going to become, who you're going to

12:04

be. And as a parallel. And you realize

12:06

you've got that power. And when you realize

12:08

you got that power, you can make literally

12:10

anything happen. And it's, you realize art and

12:13

life should be the same. You know, so

12:15

many people, I was telling the story to

12:17

somebody and they said, wow, you're really positive.

12:19

And that kind of makes a lot of

12:22

sense. You know, I have a project that's

12:24

pretty much altogether. Almost the pieces are there.

12:26

But I guess I'm just not ready. It's

12:28

going to be on your tombstone. Here lies

12:30

so-so-and-and-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so. He was never ready. You can't wait

12:33

to go do it. Like life, you don't

12:35

know what's going to happen. You wanted to

12:37

work out today. What happens? Bunch of shit,

12:39

right? Got in the way. Your tire's flat.

12:42

Fires went up. You just got fired. You

12:44

just got fired. You're not ready for life.

12:46

You're like this. But for some reason, people,

12:48

artists, think that they need to be ready

12:51

to create arts. You've got to jump in

12:53

and just start. You just need to start.

12:55

You just need to start. You're not going

12:57

to start. You're not going to start. You're

12:59

not going to start. You're not going to

13:02

start. Really feel ready till you're almost done

13:04

with a project. I didn't feel ready to

13:06

make that $7,000 movie till the last few

13:08

days when I was like okay now I

13:11

wrap my head around it I have to

13:13

figure it out day by day. Yeah, the

13:15

procrastination really cripples people. Yeah, we're thinking that

13:17

they need a no more thinking that they

13:20

need a no more and they need a

13:22

no more and you don't realize the answers

13:24

you get that you're not going to figure

13:26

of the confidence just potentially fail and just

13:28

to just try it just get moving just

13:31

to get you know having way my friend

13:33

Ari on his laptop he has his quote

13:35

top of his keyboard first draft of everything

13:37

is shit yeah and it's Hemingway yeah God

13:40

what a great it's like so important thing

13:42

to know because he knows the process yes

13:44

if you trust the process yes you don't

13:46

have to worry and if you question well

13:49

I don't know you're an artist that's what

13:51

an artist should think but don't let that

13:53

cripple you I call it fear forward like

13:55

you should have some fear going into something

13:57

yes like I might screw up but that's

14:00

good that means you're not wasting your time

14:02

I think it's really important for people to

14:04

hear someone like you who's accomplished so much

14:06

say it that way because they can internalize

14:09

it and go okay this is what it

14:11

is I just have to do something I

14:13

just to actually get moving I just can't

14:15

sit around waiting for the perfect time for

14:18

the perfect I always give people copies of

14:20

the War of Art press fields book. Amazing

14:22

book. It's a great book. But it's all

14:24

about that. That book is, if you're trying

14:26

to figure it out, that book's the guidebook.

14:29

Read that book. It's a short little book,

14:31

super easy to read. And it gives you

14:33

the tools to put in your head like,

14:35

oh, this is resistance. Like this procrastination. This

14:38

is this weird fear of doing it. Because

14:40

it's not like the thing you're doing is

14:42

painful, which is really crazy. Like writing out

14:44

cool plot lines, and that's got to be

14:47

fun. It's really fun. Fun! Now the making

14:49

of it might be very painful. Devious. But

14:51

it's a very short amount of pain, versus

14:53

a long-term pain, if you're not living your

14:56

dream. That's the longest time you can spend.

14:58

That's the longest time in pain. So you

15:00

just rip the band-date and jump in. I

15:02

mean, I'm sure there's a bunch of people

15:04

out there. are in the middle of that

15:07

right now. They're trying to figure out. We

15:09

have to keep reminding ourselves, because we know

15:11

and we got to remind ourselves. Sometimes we

15:13

forget and we don't apply it to other

15:16

areas of life. I'll talk about that. That's

15:18

when I really found success was when I

15:20

took these ideas and moved it to another

15:22

area. But I tried to figure this out

15:25

when I was doing that other method, the

15:27

wrong method when I was cartooning, because it

15:29

would be so hard to come up with

15:31

a cartoon strip each day. But I needed

15:33

the money. And I had a daily cartoon

15:36

strip here at UT. We had the biggest

15:38

comics page in the country. It was really,

15:40

everybody wanted to be the next bird that

15:42

he'd come out of there. He did Bloom

15:45

County. He was a UT student. This college

15:47

art was like national stuff. So we all

15:49

wanted to be him. And so I would

15:51

be him. It's got to be an easier

15:54

process than sitting here and develop a process

15:56

where I sit on my couch and I

15:58

just picture it first. draw it, right? I'd

16:00

be there two hours, three hours, my deadline's

16:02

coming up, shit, it's not working, so that

16:05

I have to go, Fox, start drawing again,

16:07

then be like, okay, this kind of goes

16:09

with that one, oh, oh, here it is,

16:11

and I realize something really profound back at,

16:14

you know, 19, and it's really carried into

16:16

Mariachi, which is, when you pick up the

16:18

pen or the keyboard or the camera and

16:20

you start, it starts doing itself, it's coming

16:23

through you. There's a creative spirit assigned to

16:25

us that needs hands And it's not going

16:27

to reward you if you're doing that because

16:29

they can do that But as soon as

16:31

you pick it up it takes over so

16:34

I realize. Oh, I just have to be

16:36

a conduit or a pipe And if I

16:38

just start I'm gonna be like whoa, and

16:40

you got to keep your ego out of

16:43

it because if you go wow, how did

16:45

I do that? I wonder if I could

16:47

do it again? You just shut it. You

16:49

just shut it right back up because you

16:52

think it's you and it's not you. And

16:54

I know this works because I taught it

16:56

to my kids when they were younger. I

16:58

thought I got to teach it to my

17:00

kids. And since they hadn't learned any bad

17:03

habits, they went, oh, so we don't have

17:05

to do anything. We just have to start

17:07

writing. It's going to come out and go,

17:09

yeah. And they win. They wrote all this

17:12

amazing stuff. And I was like, they don't

17:14

have to be reversed, you. thing and I

17:16

saw when I did another $7,000 movie recently

17:18

I had a TV series based on Rebel

17:21

Without a Crew Where I got independent filmmakers

17:23

so it only made short films and I

17:25

gave him two weeks You gotta do like

17:27

Marietta You can bring one person to be

17:30

either cameraman or your sound guy, but you

17:32

gotta do the whole movie yourself write it,

17:34

direct it, edit it, and be shot in

17:36

two weeks. That's how long it took me

17:38

to shoot Mariachi. And they're all, I don't

17:41

know how we're going to do it. By

17:43

the week they started shooting, they're already talking

17:45

about their next three films. Like they changed

17:47

their idea of what was impossible is just

17:50

dropped out. So I was really curious to

17:52

do mine. I was doing one based on

17:54

my medical experiments. I did one based on

17:56

my medical experiments. I did. I was doing

17:59

one based on my medical experiments. I did

18:01

doing one based on my medical experiments. I

18:03

did. I did doing one based on my

18:05

medical experiments. I did. I did one based

18:07

on my medical experiments. I did to pay

18:10

one based on my medical experiments. I did

18:12

to pay one based on my medical experiments.

18:14

I did. I did. a documentary about it

18:16

and people really loved about how we made

18:19

this movie today for $5,000 and he was

18:21

fumbling around and we're going and I thought

18:23

they're gonna he's gonna hate this you know

18:25

he's got his own interest he doesn't want

18:28

to work on a movie but I need

18:30

him and so he comes to me at

18:32

the end of the day with his brother

18:34

and goes dad actor didn't show up the

18:36

set didn't match the the script at all

18:39

everything was falling apart we asked you how

18:41

we're gonna finish the day and you said

18:43

well I don't know we'll see what happens

18:45

and we thought oh my god is this

18:48

the movie that finally you know he can't

18:50

figure out but by the end of the

18:52

day we figured it out their eyes were

18:54

all wide and I don't realize that's the

18:57

creative process and that's every day in life

18:59

and in work life you don't you don't

19:01

know you're gonna figure it out as you

19:03

go arch be the same way and by

19:05

the end of the two weeks shoot they're

19:08

interviewing him He's all waxing philosophical about the

19:10

creator process like he's been doing it for

19:12

years. He goes, he goes, I never knew

19:14

how my dad did Mariachi. And now I

19:17

know because I just did this project, he

19:19

didn't know either. He just started and he

19:21

figured it out day, buddy. Most people never

19:23

start. I mean, he succinctly encapsulated everything I

19:26

try to say in my book, which was

19:28

you just got to go. And identity is

19:30

key. Identity is the main thing. All these

19:32

people who were out there. I got to

19:34

tell them. or listening and there's something you're

19:37

not getting in your life that you really

19:39

want. It's not a matter of desire. You

19:41

have the desire. There's a missing element that

19:43

I talked about in the book and I'd

19:46

forgotten myself. You know, we forget our own

19:48

good advice. Over the years, people would say,

19:50

hey, in your book it says this. I'd

19:52

go, I wrote that. I was so smart

19:55

back then. What happened? I gotta go re-read

19:57

my own book. But it was this thing

19:59

where I told people, because they would come

20:01

up to me a lot, because I was

20:04

making films. really early on and say I'm

20:06

an aspiring filmmaker you might hear that I'm

20:08

aspiring comic you know I'm an aspiring filmmaker

20:10

I goes stop aspiring you're calling yourself an

20:12

aspiring filmmaker that's now your identity you're always

20:15

going to be aspiring just say you're a

20:17

filmmaker mmm take one of these cards and

20:19

make a business card even if you have

20:21

to handwrite it who you are I'm a

20:24

direct I wrote I did one I had

20:26

a printed up director cinematographer editor editor composer

20:28

I that's who I am now you're going

20:30

to have to have to conform to make

20:33

films I started making these films even for

20:35

Spanish video. And so you have to think

20:37

it for it. And I've forgotten that lesson.

20:39

So, I wanted to use your gym because,

20:41

you know, I like to work out now.

20:44

I never did. You started as a cartoonist.

20:46

I'm surprised. I was always an artist. I

20:48

was really tall, you know, for school. Yeah.

20:50

I started, I was an illustrator when I

20:53

was a kid. I wanted to do comic

20:55

book illustration. Yeah. That was my thing. Yeah.

20:57

Yeah. This episode is brought to you by

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21:46

details. It's fun, right? Love it. Because it's

21:48

just, it's not you. You know, you start

21:51

drawing and then suddenly... When did you learn

21:53

that? I don't think I knew that. I

21:55

think I was doing that, but I didn't

21:57

know it. And until I started reading about

22:00

it, like the concept of the muse, the

22:02

concept of the muse, like that, like you

22:04

just have to sit down and do the

22:06

work and it comes to you. Yeah, well,

22:08

it started when I was... It felt like

22:11

something else, but then it was something else,

22:13

but then it... really hit me later on.

22:15

And I'll get to that one. It really

22:17

hit me later on where I kind of

22:20

put it all together around 2001, 2002, when

22:22

I was doing a movie where I was

22:24

again kind of going back to the way

22:26

I did Mariachi. I was on a big

22:29

movie though. I was the writer, the director,

22:31

the producer, the cinematographer, the editor, the composer,

22:33

I was doing all these things. Plus I

22:35

was doing the production design now. And I

22:38

was taking on more jobs. a lot of

22:40

factory movies are being made. I want people

22:42

just to feel different. I think they'll get

22:44

a feeling from it. They don't get from,

22:46

you know, a McDonald's process. They're still good,

22:49

but, you know, there's something about a home-cooked

22:51

meal. And I didn't even know how to

22:53

read or write music, and I was writing...

22:55

music for a hundred piece of orchestra. And

22:58

I was like, how am I figuring it

23:00

out by notes going, there's only 12 notes,

23:02

you go, even less than a scale. So

23:04

you hit three notes, four notes, that's a

23:07

bad note, okay, that's pleasing to the year.

23:09

And I was just writing a note by

23:11

note, because it was writing a note by

23:13

note, because it was a kid's movie, so

23:15

I figured, it should sound like that. And

23:18

I was writing pretty complex stuff, not knowing

23:20

what I was doing, not knowing when I

23:22

was doing, and I looked up, any book

23:24

that had the word creative or creativity in

23:27

it, I just ordered it, I don't know

23:29

what section it came from, they just arrived,

23:31

and I'm thumbing through them, and one of

23:33

them was really speaking about the creative process,

23:36

how it worked. And I was like, wow,

23:38

that's how it is, that's how it is.

23:40

And then it said gels and mediums, and

23:42

I was like, oh, this is a book

23:44

particularly about painting, but it applies to all

23:47

the other things I'm doing. that creativity is

23:49

90% of any of those endeavors. 90% of

23:51

it is just being creative. The technical part,

23:53

like reading or writing music, and there's a

23:56

lot of great musicians who don't read or

23:58

write music, they're fantastic. The technical part, you

24:00

can fudge that, like how to shoot the

24:02

movie, you can fudge a lot of the

24:05

technical stuff. 90% is created, and if you

24:07

know how to be creative, you can literally

24:09

jump from job to job to job and

24:11

do it really well, because you're coming with

24:13

your own experience, on the set because They've

24:16

never painted before and they're already being creative

24:18

by acting but in between takes will go

24:20

paint a portrait of their character Where I

24:22

take a photo of them in character And

24:25

have them paint a background. I said just

24:27

pick up the paint you can use these

24:29

three methods any color you want the paintbrush

24:31

is going to know where to go Even

24:34

though you've never painted before, it's going to

24:36

know where to go. And they do it,

24:38

and I put a stencil of a line

24:40

drawing of their face over it. I'll show

24:42

you something. You're not going to believe it.

24:45

Josh brought on his way into it. Lady

24:47

Gaga did one. Bruce Wallace did one. And

24:49

it's just like magic, how it comes together.

24:51

And it's to teach them that you don't

24:54

have to know. We always think, I need

24:56

to know this, I need to know that.

24:58

What about the other side? Half of the

25:00

battle is knowing, what about the other half?

25:03

Not knowing, I think, is the more beautiful

25:05

and where the magic is because you don't

25:07

need to know what's going to happen. You

25:09

just need to show up, you just need

25:12

to pick up the pin, you need to

25:14

do the keyboard. Because it just starts coming

25:16

through you and they see it, and they

25:18

see it, and it helps them go back

25:20

to the set and solve any creative problem

25:23

because it was much harder in the faint

25:25

room figuring out, figuring out, and they can

25:27

solve any problemlessly. And you think that they

25:29

are reading a creative mode by acting, but

25:32

it fires off a whole other part of

25:34

your brain to go through something else creative

25:36

at the same time. Remember when they said,

25:38

Josh goes. Is it okay? I'm still thinking

25:41

about the painting? I go, I think so.

25:43

I think it's all right. Let's see. Let's

25:45

see. That's something you would say to you.

25:47

That's so funny. That's like a Miyamoto Masashi

25:49

quote from the Book of Five Rings. Right.

25:52

Once you know the way broadly, you could

25:54

see it in all things. Yeah. You start

25:56

seeing, so that's where I started piecing together

25:58

that it was something, because I really wanted

26:01

to look it up, because it would feel

26:03

like when I would go to write the

26:05

music. I don't have to write very many

26:07

notes before. It feels like I'm being pulled

26:10

by the hand. Like, I didn't make that.

26:12

I didn't make that. I didn't do that.

26:14

And I didn't do that. A lot is

26:16

it. And so I shouldn't say that. And

26:18

a lot of comedians say that, too. Well,

26:21

if you ask all the disciplines, I ask

26:23

Jimmy Vaughn, how did you play that? That

26:25

solo was amazing. You have that worked out.

26:27

It was kind of like tuning in a

26:30

radio. You know, you get it just right.

26:32

you can't even believe what's coming through. You

26:34

know, you always hear everyone's version of that.

26:36

And so I called it something. I thought,

26:39

I'm going to call it the creative spirit.

26:41

Like there's a creative spirit, imagine the creative

26:43

spirit that's assigned to you and if you're

26:45

someone who's just like, I don't think I

26:47

can do I don't think I can do

26:50

this or that, and they don't and they

26:52

don't pick up the pen. They don't, they

26:54

don't actually start, how frustrated this spirit is

26:56

hovering over and going, oh my god, well

26:59

you just, it's not you, you, you just

27:01

let me through, it, you just let me

27:03

through. And it's crazy that concept has been

27:05

around forever, it's been around forever. It's been

27:08

around forever. this concept of the muse but

27:10

yet still I never heard like that where

27:12

it's like takes it still feels like you

27:14

have to do a lot about it you

27:16

just go I wish we need to be

27:19

a pipe yeah a clean pipe a conduit

27:21

so more stuff comes through and that means

27:23

take your ego out of it I mean

27:25

just just do the work just show up

27:28

and start yeah press field literally thinks that

27:30

it's like like an angel or like some

27:32

sort of a divine that presents, I think,

27:34

I think there's something to it, man. And

27:37

it sounds so kooky, but if something is

27:39

super successful for amazing people, and they're all

27:41

telling you the same thing, like, why do

27:43

you have to? Nah, man, I'm not stupid.

27:46

I'm not gonna believe in the concept that

27:48

whatever the fuck it is There's something that

27:50

happens when you're creative Where you feel like

27:52

an antenna you feel like you just take

27:54

these ideas are coming to you They're entering

27:57

into your mind. It's not physical effort It's

27:59

not like you're picking up bricks and stacking

28:01

them on the wall like something is happening

28:03

to you. Yeah, you're tapped into I had

28:06

a friend, Tim Ferris was over at my

28:08

house and I was telling him about some,

28:10

it's a very creative house, really, because that's

28:12

where I do a lot of my creative

28:15

work and a lot of creatives like coming

28:17

to this place. So you have to come

28:19

check it out, so you can see the

28:21

frazetas I have. Oh, you have original frazetas?

28:23

Oh my God. We'll get to that. Oh

28:26

my God. But it's just totally, totally, totally.

28:28

You have so much favor for that. It's

28:30

totally a creative place. And I like people

28:32

to come there, but it's just inspiring to

28:35

be in an environment where everything around you

28:37

is about creativity because then you get in

28:39

that head space and you're able to do

28:41

more because you're able to do more because

28:44

you're able to do more because you realize

28:46

it's not you. It's just coming through you

28:48

and you just have to witness it. And

28:50

it just takes a lot of the load

28:52

off of you. A lot of people can

28:55

start easier if they know it doesn't have

28:57

to be. Yeah, it's something that everyone should

28:59

learn with anything in life, anything that you're

29:01

doing in life, is just to take action

29:04

and trust this process that happens. But you

29:06

have to do things. You can't just sit

29:08

and wonder. And it's that procrastination and the

29:10

anxiety about starting. It's like crippling for people.

29:13

It keeps them from getting off the ground.

29:15

And they're doing that to themselves. You're literally

29:17

doing this to yourself. So when you say,

29:19

well, I don't know if I just chopped

29:21

chopped off your leg. Right at the beginning

29:24

of the race. Right, right, right. There you

29:26

go, well I tried it once before, you

29:28

just cut the other one. I mean, you're

29:30

literally doing your own worst enemy. I have

29:33

this one gal and fear failure. This is

29:35

the best thing. One gal, one of the

29:37

talks, she said, okay, you're real positive. But

29:39

what do I tell myself when I just

29:42

spent a year and a half doing something

29:44

and didn't work out? I said, well, that's

29:46

a very negative way to ask that. Can

29:48

you rephrase the question first? Then I'll attempt.

29:50

And she went, I learned a good lesson,

29:53

the hard way. And it didn't work out.

29:55

It doesn't mean you're wrong. Sometimes the only

29:57

way across the river is to slip on

29:59

the first two rocks. It's the only way.

30:02

And if you just stay there, you're not

30:04

going to go. So you have to embrace

30:06

the failure. Because if you're going on instinct,

30:08

I mean, you're doing it literally on instinct.

30:11

Not like someone said, hey, go over there

30:13

is a money making scheme. Go do that.

30:15

Literally had the instinct. My best example is

30:17

four rooms. A movie I did with Quinn.

30:20

Because if you study the ashes of your

30:22

failure, you'll find a key to your next

30:24

success. That was the movie where there was

30:26

four different stories playing simultaneously. Four different movies,

30:28

four different stories, four different stories, and I

30:31

love short stories, because I had made a

30:33

bunch of short films, I thought, I want

30:35

to do that. I made a bunch of

30:37

short films, I thought, oh, I want to

30:40

do that. So I wanted a bunch of

30:42

short films, I thought, I made a bunch

30:44

of short films, I thought, I made a

30:46

bunch of short films, I made a bunch

30:49

of short films, I made a bunch of

30:51

short films, I made a bunch of short

30:53

films, I made a bunch of short films,

30:55

I made a bunch of new years. Was

30:57

I wrong to just go by instinct or

31:00

should I study it a little bit? Nobody

31:02

really knows the answer. What would you say?

31:04

What would you say? Are you more students?

31:06

Are you more instinctual? 100%? I'm primarily instinctual.

31:09

I figure because that's why you're here right

31:11

now. Because we're not that smart. I'm not

31:13

that smart. I couldn't have figured this shit

31:15

out. It's because I was just at an

31:18

instinct to go that way when everyone else

31:20

was going that way. And you're going to

31:22

stumble, you're going to fall. but you're gonna

31:24

stumble upon. You're gonna stumble upon ideas no

31:26

one thought of because you're going the way

31:29

that's not picked clean already. So I would

31:31

just like four rooms, I said yeah. Now

31:33

if I had just studied a little bit,

31:35

I would have seen that anthologies like that.

31:38

never work. Like even when it's Corsasey, you

31:40

know, Woody Allen and Copla, they did one.

31:42

Nobody goes to see, because I don't know

31:44

how to wrap their head around. What is

31:47

it? Three movies, anthology, it doesn't work. If

31:49

I'd studied first, should I have changed my

31:51

answer? Nobody knows that answer. Well, I'm going

31:53

to go on Instinct. I'm going to say,

31:55

I say Instinct anyway. Movie bombs doesn't do

31:58

well at all. Now I could be really...

32:00

I've said about that and go like, wow,

32:02

I've got to be really careful now going

32:04

forward. I have to tiptoe around as an

32:07

artist. Well, that's not the state of mind

32:09

I was when I won Sundance. I was

32:11

throwing stuff out. Can I offer a counter

32:13

to that? Sure. I only bombed financially. Okay,

32:16

no, no, no, I'm not done with this

32:18

story. No, the lesson is a very good

32:20

movie. There's a lot of great stuff in

32:22

it, but it was even better than that.

32:24

My whole thing is examine the ashes of

32:27

your failure. directly from that experience. So my

32:29

instinct was right, but again, sometimes the only

32:31

way across the river is slipping on the

32:33

first two rocks. I was on the set.

32:36

It had to be New Year, so I

32:38

dressed everybody up in tuxedos. And Antonio had

32:40

just done Desperado. The next week he came

32:42

and appeared in there. The little boy from

32:45

Desperado, he had a little brother, so I

32:47

hired him. And then I just found the

32:49

best little actress, who's a half-agentian girl, Asian-American,

32:51

Asian-American, so I cast an Asian-American, so I

32:54

cast an Asian-American, so I cast an Asian-American,

32:56

cast an Asian-American, so I cast an Asian-American,

32:58

all dressed up to denines. I went, wow,

33:00

they look like a really cool international spy

33:02

couple. What if they were spies and the

33:05

two little kids that can barely tie their

33:07

shoes don't know it? They get captured and

33:09

the kids have to go see them. So

33:11

spy kids, there's five of those now. The

33:14

other key to success that I got on

33:16

that set was, I love doing short films.

33:18

That's why I signed up for it. It

33:20

didn't work. But I'm going to try it

33:23

again. Not four stories, three stories, three stories,

33:25

like a three stories, three stories, like a

33:27

three-a three-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a I'm going to try it. Why

33:29

on earth would I try it again? Except

33:31

that I had just done one and I

33:34

figured out there might be a different approach.

33:36

That's Sin City. So Sin City and Spy

33:38

Kids directly came from that thing you would

33:40

call a failure. If you focused on the

33:43

failure. So go back and look tell everybody

33:45

go back and look at something that you

33:47

had a real instinct for That you did

33:49

and it didn't work and sift through the

33:52

ashes of it And you're gonna find either

33:54

that you've already had the success from it

33:56

and you didn't realize it What you really

33:58

need is a boost of confidence in your

34:00

instinct or you will find something That will

34:03

be the key to your success Well, that's

34:05

also the magical part of the creative process

34:07

is that it's not always going to work.

34:09

And that's actually good. That means when it

34:12

does work, it could be even more rewarding.

34:14

Yeah, I mean, Mariachi didn't work. This episode

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is brought to you by Better Help. It's

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35:25

I failed at that. I was going to

35:28

sell that to the Spanish film video. This

35:30

one's blown me away about rereading the book.

35:32

I went, oh my God, I was so

35:34

bummed. I finished making that movie. And you

35:36

see in the book, clearly I'm a penniless,

35:39

clueless filmmaker. Making this movie, I think by

35:41

myself, I think it's going to work, I

35:43

don't know, a borrowed camera, I didn't even

35:45

know how to use it. I call a

35:48

place in Dallas that rents that rents this

35:50

equipment, I go, I got an Airy 16S,

35:52

I got an Airy 16S, you know, and

35:54

on the phone, and on the phone, and

35:57

on the phone, It has two motor-looking things.

35:59

One has one number and one's got many.

36:01

Oh, that's a variable speed motor. It means,

36:03

oh, can I do slow motion with it?

36:05

You know, I was literally learned like that.

36:08

And then I went and shot the whole

36:10

movie. And I had to shoot the whole

36:12

movie in two weeks. and I couldn't develop

36:14

the film till I got back. So I

36:17

shot blind, not knowing if that camera was

36:19

even working. Is it true that you invented

36:21

the walk away with the explosion behind you?

36:23

Yeah, that was accident. Yeah, yeah, if you

36:26

could look at all the compilations, it starts

36:28

with Desperado. Wow. Because it was an accident.

36:30

I didn't think, you know, this is what

36:32

happens on, Desperado. In the script, it says

36:34

he. throw some grenades over the side of

36:37

this building to blow up the bad guys

36:39

and him and Salma walk away. It was

36:41

just supposed to see some body parts fly.

36:43

It was just a grenade, you know, it

36:46

was supposed to be a nuclear explosion. Just

36:48

some body parts, some shrapnel, some smoke. But

36:50

it's two stories up and we get there,

36:52

we're shooting so fast. I went to my

36:55

poor effects guy who was just, you know,

36:57

so busy just having done a big shootout.

36:59

I went. Mandy, I know you don't have

37:01

body parts because we didn't ask for it,

37:03

but do you have anything we can just

37:06

throw? It's so high up, is there anything

37:08

you can launch up there? He goes, oh

37:10

no, I don't have anything. So I need

37:12

something to come up because I wanted some

37:15

shit to fly up behind him. He goes,

37:17

I give you a fireball. Is it a

37:19

fireball? Like, what, it'll go up 60 feet,

37:21

but it's propane, so it's gonna burn off

37:24

like that. How fast is a burn off?

37:26

Like that. So, okay, I'll shoot slow motion.

37:28

Okay, well shoot as you shoot slow motion,

37:30

and tell all the actors, just keep walking,

37:33

don't turn around, because it's supposed to be

37:35

pretty big, and it might be really high.

37:37

I want you to send your eyebrows. Just

37:39

walk fast. Walk fast and determine, but I'm

37:41

going to shoot, it's going to feel funny,

37:44

but when I shoot it in a slow

37:46

motion, it'll look like you're just walking normal

37:48

speed, and it'll slow down the explosion. Well.

37:50

It looks fantastic. I remember what I showed.

37:53

Yeah, it looks fit. See, they're just walking.

37:55

They don't know. Look at, Tony was just

37:57

like, look at her. She's just like so

37:59

calm. But if you play that, if you

38:02

sped that up and played it in normal

38:04

motion, it goes by like that. It's crazy

38:06

because that scene has been copied so many

38:08

times. It became an action like. Stapel like

38:10

so they've used it for fear factor. Yeah,

38:13

now that I'm thinking about it We use

38:15

it for one of the ads for fear

38:17

factor is me Walking away and they blew

38:19

some shit up behind me because it's just

38:22

like it's this cool attitude and yeah, I

38:24

thought it was the dumbest shit ever when

38:26

I first saw it was a TV show

38:28

Oh no, but it's like a little bit.

38:31

It's just an accident again the accidents that

38:33

you stumble upon there it All right. That's

38:35

where I came from. So that came out

38:37

in August of 2095. Just six months later

38:39

dust-told on came out and I made that

38:42

I I enjoyed it so much love that

38:44

movie. Oh, thanks I love that I showed

38:46

this explosion shot, you know the movie to

38:48

Jim Cameron He was watching it. I was

38:51

waiting for his for xeno He was doing

38:53

it. I was waiting for his first you

38:55

know, he was doing for his first you

38:57

know, he was doing for his first you

39:00

know He was doing for his first you

39:02

know, he was doing for his first you

39:04

know, he was doing he was waiting for

39:06

his first you know he's for his first

39:08

you know he's for cuz you know he's

39:11

for his first you know he's for he's

39:13

he's he's he's he's he's for he's he's

39:15

he's he's he's he's he's he's doing he's

39:17

doing he's doing he's doing he's doing he's

39:20

doing he's doing he's doing he's doing he's

39:22

doing he's doing he's doing he's doing he's

39:24

doing he's doing he's doing he's doing he's

39:26

doing he's So within two, within six months,

39:29

you saw two versions of that. So people

39:31

just started doing it. You see it in

39:33

Man and Fire, you see, you see like

39:35

whole compilations of it. But it's an accident.

39:37

That's gotta be weird for you. Like you're

39:40

like, bitch, that's mine. No, no. Because it

39:42

wasn't mine. Again, it came, it came, if

39:44

I had engineered it, yeah, I'd be really

39:46

smart. But again, is it, I'm not that

39:49

smart. Sometimes, I'm not that smart. Sometimes, I'm

39:51

not that smart. Who knew? Quint and Tarantito

39:53

would play such a good fucking psychopath. Who

39:55

knew? It was so fun is, he's in

39:58

Desperado. Now, I met him on the film

40:00

festival circuit, so in 1990... were both had

40:02

movies with guys in black and violent movies.

40:04

In fact, I met him at the Toronto

40:07

Film Festival for Reservoir Dogs, had Mariachi, because

40:09

they put us on a panel together to

40:11

discuss violence in the movies in the 90s,

40:13

even though it was only 92. And so

40:15

we met there, we became friends, and he

40:18

said, I'm Maddox movies and pulp fiction. And

40:20

I just thought, it's a crazy guy, he's

40:22

so funny. And he said, I'm going to

40:24

write him into this brado. It was before

40:27

he did pulp pulp pulp pulp pulp fiction

40:29

or any of pulp fiction or anything. By

40:31

the time Desperado came out, pulp fiction was

40:33

a phenomenon, and then people cheer when he

40:36

walks on state, on set. But when we

40:38

were doing that four rooms, here's another thing

40:40

that came from four rooms. If I hadn't

40:42

done four rooms, it'd be no dust till

40:44

dawn. When we're doing four rooms, he takes

40:47

me into a room and he starts reading

40:49

me, and I put it out, him reading

40:51

me, the first scene of Kill Bill Bill.

40:53

This was in, you know, eight years before

40:56

he made the movie. My very first script

40:58

I wrote and I didn't get paid shit

41:00

for like 1500 bucks was dust-tilled on and

41:02

now because of the success of Pulp Fiction

41:05

they want to make all my old stuff

41:07

and these producers have it I didn't get

41:09

paid dick so I'll do a rewrite and

41:11

you and I will go in together you

41:13

should be the director because it takes place

41:16

Mexico and you're Mexican. So I was like

41:18

all right. That's the second time he read

41:20

to me the scene in 2001. There's one

41:22

video where he's even younger in four rooms

41:25

reading me a second version of it. So

41:27

over the years he would read, we had

41:29

an office next to each other when I

41:31

was writing Desperado and he was writing Pulp

41:34

Fiction. So he'd read out scenes, there he

41:36

is, and I would read out, you know,

41:38

show him scenes from Desperado. We just became

41:40

friends there. We just, we just, we just

41:42

became friends there. He was originally going to

41:45

make Pulp Fiction, and then they passed on

41:47

it, it's weird. Because I knew he liked

41:49

acting and I just knew him as a

41:51

person. Like a lot of times I'll cast

41:54

somebody just by meeting them. I'm going to

41:56

cast you in order. Because you realize you

41:58

can, there's something about them that captures you

42:00

that's going to just be. magnified when you

42:03

put a 50 feet on screen. That's why

42:05

I've discovered a lot of talent that way.

42:07

That's how I found Salma. I just knew

42:09

she was going to be it. But he

42:11

was so great and I thought this is

42:14

a really fun character. I bet he could,

42:16

he likes act, I can get a performance

42:18

out of him and he'll come in with

42:20

a take on it. So I said I'll

42:23

do this till Dawn. Would you be interested

42:25

in playing Ritchie? I'd love to play Ritchie.

42:27

I'd love to play Ritchie. I'd love to

42:29

play Ritchie. I love to play Ritchie. He's

42:32

really great. He's really scary. He got all

42:34

into character. He was terrified. I kind of

42:36

had this really cool haircut. I showed him

42:38

a picture of... Burt Reynolds in Deliverance said,

42:41

dude, you got the haircut of Deliverance. That

42:43

was really cool. He was like, oh, wow,

42:45

you know, he just really slipped into it.

42:47

It was always intense on the set. It

42:49

was really fun to see him get to

42:52

do that. He really enjoyed that. He really

42:54

enjoyed that performance. I mean, dude, you're so

42:56

good in this movie. Anyone talks shit, they're

42:58

just talking shit. They're just talking shit. Shut

43:01

up. Oh, he nailed it. He scared the

43:03

fuck out of me. Well, when you get

43:05

a lot of success, people would tend to,

43:07

you know, connect you with Target, you know.

43:10

Of course. So they would say stuff about

43:12

him and being in a way, he shouldn't

43:14

be acting in his movie. You know, it's

43:16

supposed to like this, like, dude, this will

43:18

shut, they'll shut him up, and if it

43:21

doesn't, it's just bullshit, because you're really great

43:23

in the movie. Yeah, how do you get

43:25

the noise? Don't read that shit. Don't engage.

43:27

Like sometimes people send me things. I'm like,

43:30

don't send me that man. I don't want

43:32

to read it. I'm not going to read

43:34

it anyway. Friends. I don't know any better.

43:36

My sister might send me something. Yeah, it's

43:39

just I just go to sleep me out

43:41

of it. I got some really good advice

43:43

early on like to share people. I share

43:45

this with my actors because they get a

43:47

lot of shit sometimes. I was

43:50

afraid to even do like a bigger movie

43:52

because I was flying under the radar with

43:54

you know Mariachi Desperado and then Spielberg sees

43:56

Desperado wants to do Zoro with Antonio and

43:59

me directing, right? I'm

44:01

working with Spielberg and it's like, oh shit,

44:03

I'm working with Spielberg. You probably remember this

44:05

time, because we were about the same age.

44:07

Remember the 80s and 90s? People would just

44:10

throw shit on him all the time. All

44:12

the time. There's no respect for this guy.

44:14

They were so jealous. Yes, public, everything. He

44:16

was like, he couldn't catch a break and

44:18

he was making like the cools, ah, drastic

44:21

practice sucks. I was unbelievable. So I thought,

44:23

oh shit, that's because he's got his headway

44:25

way his headway up. His headway up. Maybe

44:27

I should fly into the radar and not

44:29

go make it. If I can make a

44:32

movie with him, what chance do I have?

44:34

I went back and re-watched, you know, like

44:36

Temple of Doom, which people say, that's not

44:38

as good as Raiders, I'll watch it and

44:40

go, if I can make a movie that's

44:43

an eighth of that, I'd be lucky. So

44:45

I'd be lucky. So I'd call it. So

44:47

I'd be lucky. So I'd be lucky. So

44:49

I'd call them. So I'd call them. It

44:51

comes with the territory. Temple of Doom, I

44:53

don't know, I'm going to make this movie

44:56

for you. He goes, oh, don't worry about

44:58

that. Just make a great movie. So then

45:00

I go to him and I say, I'm

45:02

afraid that if I make a movie at

45:04

the bigger level, I'm just going to be

45:07

a target like him. I mean, he's the

45:09

best filmmaker and he's getting shit kicked out

45:11

of him. How do you do it? You

45:13

just rock's thrown at you all day long?

45:15

He goes, oh, oh, Robert, you just don't

45:18

blink. I was like, wow, it's not like

45:20

a Clint Eastwood line. I go, wow, that's

45:22

how he did it all his time. It's

45:24

just like, du, du, just don't blink. Commit

45:26

to making a body of work. Try to

45:29

tell filmmakers sometimes that they have a success

45:31

for the first one. They get really afraid

45:33

of the second one because they think, oh

45:35

shit, now I might fail, right? The fear

45:37

failure cripples a lot of people. If you

45:40

commit to just making a body of work,

45:42

a body of work. Like he did. He

45:44

just made any movie he wanted. Some hit,

45:46

some don't, some overperform, some underperform. A movie

45:48

like Mariachi that was not supposed to go

45:51

anywhere. Way overperforms. And you can't tell what's

45:53

going to be the one. So just commit

45:55

to a body work. And now no one

45:57

gives him any shit. Now he gets all

45:59

strong. or to recognize that the people that

46:02

are tossing shit your way, they're doing it

46:04

to distract themselves in the fact that they're

46:06

not contributing anything. It's almost always the case

46:08

of that. That's what the critic is. The

46:10

critic would not be a critic if they

46:12

had something to contribute. So they see other

46:15

people that are taking that chance and going

46:17

out there, and they're acting on their instincts,

46:19

and they're putting something together, and they try

46:21

to attack all those things as being garbage.

46:23

because really they're not contributing. And so they're-

46:26

And they may very well want to. It's

46:28

very easy to attack. And they may very

46:30

well want to, but they're getting hurt by

46:32

the fear. The same instincts that make them

46:34

want to attack successful people are the same

46:37

things that hold them back from being creative.

46:39

Talk about closing that pipe. Yeah, I mean

46:41

doing it to yourself. And by doing that

46:43

to the people. If they were just- Commit

46:45

to a bodywork, don't blink, and just keep

46:48

making shit, don't get somewhere. That's great advice,

46:50

commit to a body of work. Body of

46:52

work. Like, look at, someone, I mentioned this

46:54

and a friend of my businessman called me

46:56

and said, wow, I really, I really spoke

46:59

to me, you know, I tend to look

47:01

at all the different businesses that I've created

47:03

that failed, instead of looking at the whole

47:05

body of work. And I fixate on the

47:07

ones that didn't work. Maybe that one that

47:10

didn't work is your four rooms. And you

47:12

get two other great ideas out of it.

47:14

I've forgotten that Dustle Dawn came out of

47:16

that as well. So that's the third one

47:18

out of that four rooms. That thing gave

47:21

and gave and gave. Dustle Dawn was so

47:23

fun because it was two different movies. It

47:25

was like this crime. That's why I couldn't

47:27

get made. So when he first wrote it,

47:29

he couldn't get made. Because this is what

47:31

happened. The effects company hires him. Showcase our

47:34

effects in this vampire bar. It's about two

47:36

brothers to go to vampire bar. Quinton starts

47:38

riding, and he starts riding, quinton style. He

47:40

gets way into the brothers. So much into

47:42

the brothers, and it turns into like a

47:45

desperate hours type movie. For half the movie.

47:47

He waits half the movie to get to

47:49

the bar. So now, for financiers, it's now

47:51

like a mixed bag. It's like two movies

47:53

in one, right? But it was a negative

47:56

then. It was like, this movie's all wrong.

47:58

It's like suddenly there, it's one thing and

48:00

then suddenly it turns into a vampire bar.

48:02

We can't make this. But then Pulp Fiction

48:04

comes out. And now everybody wants to make

48:07

it. Oh, it's two movies in one. It's

48:09

great. You know, a whole different perspective change.

48:11

Well, a little success will do. Let's make

48:13

it right now because we made it our

48:15

next movie right after four rooms. So Desperado

48:18

four rooms. So Desperado came out in August

48:20

1995. Four rooms in December. Dustle Dawn was

48:22

in January. That's how fast those came out.

48:24

We're working that fast back then. So let's

48:26

make this right now because you're starting to

48:29

steal from the script. That's Ezekiel speech that...

48:31

Sam Jackson says in Pulp Fiction that's from

48:33

the original Dustle Dawn script really just took

48:35

it he was he was pulling stuff out

48:37

of it because it was just not going

48:40

to get me an old car before there's

48:42

before it gets picked clean let's go make

48:44

of this thing and we'll shoot it now

48:46

we'll shoot it right now we'll shoot it

48:48

right now and it was so fun it

48:50

was so fun it's she's just so great

48:53

you know we did a table read with

48:55

your actors you only have your main actors

48:57

there so sometimes you go ahead and take,

48:59

he played the main guy at the end,

49:01

but go ahead and read for the, oh

49:04

no, he made the guy who gives the

49:06

speech in front, he was playing that character.

49:08

Read for the border guard and for the

49:10

guy who comes at the end, Carlos, who

49:12

always gonna get like, you know, Eric Estrada

49:15

or something. So he starts, he starts, and

49:17

he does like, Eric Estrada or something. So

49:19

he starts reading and he does, he, you

49:21

know, Eric Estrada or something, he's, he's going

49:23

to get like, like, like, like, like, you

49:26

know, he's, he's, he's, you know, he's, he's,

49:28

he's, he's, you know, he's, he's, he's, he's,

49:30

he's, you know, you know, he's, you know,

49:32

he's, he's, you know, you know, he's, you

49:34

know, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, you know

49:37

She's just freaking hilarious. And you go, hey

49:39

man, you're gonna play all three characters. Do

49:41

I get paid three times? This is why

49:43

I love having comedians on the set, you

49:45

know, because We're out there shooting that desert

49:48

scene, you know, at the end, when the

49:50

Cheech comes and the whole place is burned

49:52

down. It's 125 degrees in the shade. We're

49:54

in barstone, a dry lake bed. So freaking

49:56

hot, we're all just like, not moving. Someone

49:59

had to go get something, or I'll just,

50:01

Cheech, like this, and a suit with a

50:03

hat. He goes, here are, can I, this

50:05

is gonna be a walk, can I go

50:07

to my trailer? Okay, high school dreams, air

50:09

conditioning. It lines up the whole set out.

50:12

Okay, this guy's gonna be in every movie.

50:14

He's even in 10 movies of mine, because

50:16

there's that attitude. You like that attitude of

50:18

somebody who can find levity and torture. Movies

50:20

can be torturous sometimes. So having people like

50:23

that that are really on your team that

50:25

can really lighten up a set is just

50:27

the best. You've done so many different kinds

50:29

of movies. It's so interesting because you never

50:31

got, you know, you know, Quentin essentially does

50:34

these wild chaos, wild chaos. action movies that

50:36

just blow you away. You do everything. You're

50:38

doing like kids movies. There's a similar animated

50:40

movies. Yeah, there's a similarity to them. I'm

50:42

still that cartoonist. So what they all have

50:45

is they're all comedic. Like even the action

50:47

movies are kind of just fun. I mean

50:49

think of Desperado. It's like a James Bond

50:51

movie, he's got a guitar case that fires

50:53

missiles, he's got this one that's got weapons,

50:56

he's like, spy kids is very much the

50:58

same thing. It's just summer for big kids

51:00

and summer for little kids. Even Sin City.

51:02

Yeah, even Sin City is very playful. The

51:04

Sin City one was so dark. I remember

51:07

the first book, the one that Marv, that

51:09

Mickey, that Mickey work plays, it was going

51:11

on, like, oh my God, it's going to

51:13

be dark. I have to add some levity

51:15

some levity to this, some levity to this,

51:18

and Mickey will bring some levity to this,

51:20

and Mickey will bring humor to this, and

51:22

Mickey will bring humor to it, humor to

51:24

it, humor to it, humor to it, humor

51:26

to it, and Mickey will, humor to it,

51:28

and Mickey will, and Mickey will, and Mickey

51:31

will, humor to it, and it, and Mickey

51:33

will, and it, and Mickey will, humor to

51:35

it, humor to it, and it, and But

51:37

he's in the book, it's just like, oh

51:39

my God, he's just killing everybody. But you're

51:42

really with him because of the way he

51:44

portrayed it. We didn't change very much. We

51:46

just added, you know, some humor to it.

51:48

And the gallows humor, you know, really looks.

51:50

Yeah. Like when the yellow guy gets shot

51:53

in the dick. Oh, that's the, yeah. That

51:55

was a good one. That was a really

51:57

good use of color. That by the way

51:59

was one of the fucking creepiest characters ever

52:01

in a film. And it looks like that

52:04

in the drawing and I just wanted to,

52:06

my whole idea was, because I'm so respectful

52:08

of someone's artwork, you read Sin City. And

52:10

you realize that art is half of it.

52:12

If anyone else in Hollywood were to make

52:15

that into a movie, they would just make

52:17

it like a gritty crime thriller. And take

52:19

out the whole visual element, which is that

52:21

stark black and white where people's eyes glow

52:23

in the dark. And it has all these

52:26

layers of unreality. And I went to Frank

52:28

Miller and said, I want to just make

52:30

this move. This is like the coolest movie

52:32

never made. And he actually wrote it because

52:34

he had been in Hollywood writing a couple

52:37

of screen plays and he got shit on

52:39

and screwed around the whole Hollywood thing. Jamie

52:41

can you show me this scene with Mickey

52:43

Rourke and the yellow guy? Oh this Bruce

52:45

Wallace and the yellow guy. Oh excuse me

52:47

Bruce Wells three stories. I just want to

52:50

like while you're talking about this I want

52:52

to look at it. And yeah so he

52:54

he went and made this comic because he

52:56

said it fucked Hollywood. I'm going to go

52:58

make a comic that could never be made

53:01

into a movie because it so dark. Sexy

53:03

and so everything and I'd call them up.

53:05

Man, it's make a great movie. God, it

53:07

was so interesting. Bruce loved this. I can

53:09

tell you this is the fastest I think

53:12

any Hollywood movies ever gotten made. Really? Yeah,

53:14

I'll show you the process. It's kind of

53:16

like this cards thing. You're gonna it's gonna

53:18

blow your mind. What is it now? It's

53:20

April? Okay, so imagine. This is this is

53:23

2000. If this is 2004. April. Last year

53:25

I had two movies out. In the summer

53:27

was Spy Kids 3D. It was the number

53:29

one movie. A couple months later, Once Upon

53:31

a Time, Mexico. Another number one movie, but

53:34

also both of them ended a trilogy that

53:36

I had started. So I was looking for

53:38

my next thing. I opened up my Sin

53:40

Cities again. I was like, oh shit, I

53:42

know how to do this now. I just

53:45

did a whole movie on green screen, which

53:47

was really new back then for Spy Kids

53:49

3. because I wanted it in 3D. It

53:51

was the first digital 3D movie. Because when

53:53

you're in Austin, you just innovate a lot.

53:56

You know, George Lucas told me that it's

53:58

a good thing you're in Austin. That's why

54:00

I'm in Marin County. When you live outside

54:02

of that box, you think outside of that

54:04

box. Automatically, you're sure. Stumble upon innovations. So

54:06

I thought, I'm going to go take this

54:09

process and utilize it to make Sin City.

54:11

So I did a little test of it.

54:13

I'm going to work. I showed him my

54:15

laptop. It looks like his art, but then

54:17

it starts moving. It's an actor. And he's

54:20

like, wow. And he gets all into it,

54:22

right? It's November. And he goes, oh no.

54:24

But then we have to write a script.

54:26

And the studio's going to have notes. And

54:28

that's not how it's not how it works.

54:31

I got my own studio. I'll write the

54:33

script. It's going to be unremarkable. I'm going

54:35

to copy right out of your book. I'm

54:37

going to edit through the stories through the

54:39

stories together. And then in January, we'll get

54:42

a couple of actor friends, and we're going

54:44

to shoot the opening scene as a test.

54:46

You don't give me the rights yet. Because

54:48

I understand this is your baby. You've never

54:50

given up the rights. I know what it's

54:53

like for an artist to make something. Let

54:55

me take all the risk. I'll go ahead

54:57

and write the script. We'll shoot the opening

54:59

scene. You come and fly you down. So

55:01

you can watch. We brought Josh Harnett, Marley

55:04

Shelton. That opening scene in Cincinnati. That was

55:06

our test. Ten-hour shoot day. Ten-hour shoot day.

55:08

Mark Shelton comes up to me and says,

55:10

why did I hire this guy to kill

55:12

me? Well, I don't know, let's go ask

55:15

Frank. He should know, it's not in the

55:17

book, but I'm curious myself. So Frank answered

55:19

her question and said, I want to do

55:21

this movie. And then, we had a whole

55:23

process. And said, I want to do this

55:26

movie. And then we had a whole process.

55:28

I'm going to shoot the opening. I'm going

55:30

to cut in fake titles. Then we're going

55:32

to watch it. And if you like what

55:34

you like what you like what you like

55:36

what you like what you like what you

55:39

like what you like what you like what

55:41

you like what you like. and you're still

55:43

on the fence about it just keep it

55:45

as a short film keep keep the gift

55:47

so we committed to the process we make

55:50

the opening sequence he loves it he wants

55:52

to do it I take it to Bruce

55:54

Willis first which was cool about doing it

55:56

that way which is unheard of when I

55:58

went to his uh His agent, his agent

56:01

was like, wait. He leans forward very

56:03

dramatically. You brought actors down. Oh, because I

56:05

told him, this is Frank Miller, he's one of

56:07

our greatest artists. He wrote in Hollywood, he

56:09

got screwed around, and he goes, welcome to

56:12

Hollywood, he got screwed around, you know, welcome

56:14

to Hollywood. You know, like, welcome, I just

56:16

respect the artist, so I just thought,

56:18

hey, you'll be a partner, you're gonna

56:21

co-direct, you're gonna co-direct, you're gonna co-direct

56:23

this, you're gonna co-you're gonna co- you're

56:25

gonna co- you're gonna co- you're gonna

56:28

co- you're gonna co-a, But then he

56:30

can see how it gets translated. And

56:32

that guy gets very dramatic.

56:34

He goes, wait, you brought the

56:37

actors down. You shot this. You

56:39

did the effects for it. And

56:41

you didn't have the rights? And

56:44

I leaned in. I went, welcome

56:46

to Texas. All these little monkeys

56:48

spit out water. Frank was dying.

56:50

It was super annoyed. It was

56:53

super annoyed. They said, OK, you can

56:55

go meet me with Frank. And then. fake

56:57

titles come up, his names in the titles.

56:59

And I go, look, you have to be

57:01

in the movie, your names in the titles.

57:03

And he's like, I'm in. So he was

57:05

in and we were shooting the finish, we

57:07

were shooting the actual movie by March. Wow.

57:09

So by April we're already done with it.

57:11

We're filming the second story by April. It

57:13

was out the next year. I mean, that's

57:16

as fast the movies ever gone into production.

57:18

All these actors jumped on right away once

57:20

we had Bruce. And he loved, he loved

57:22

doing this film no art type thing. And

57:24

we're doing something very experimental, which is green

57:26

screen. Nobody knew what green screen back then

57:28

was. And what I told him was, well,

57:30

it's kind of like theater. But instead of

57:32

being in front of a black curtain, you're

57:34

in front of a green curtain. You'll still

57:37

have some props. You might have a steering

57:39

wheel. But just mainly you and the actors.

57:41

And everything else goes away. And I'll fill

57:43

in the red. So what's cool is their performances

57:45

are so focused on each other because there's

57:47

no other stimulus around that you got these

57:49

great performances. We only built the bar. Hey

57:52

Frank, we'll build the bar so that you

57:54

have a place to hang out with and

57:56

do our story meetings. But everything else will

57:58

just be on the same. You're going to

58:00

come see the screen screen when you come

58:02

visit my studio. The whole movie was shot in

58:05

an area smaller than this room by the time

58:07

you bring your lights in, where the actors actually

58:09

had the playground. It's unbelievable.

58:11

Wow. That's incredible. And it was so

58:14

inspiring, too. That movie was so, because when

58:16

I left the theater, I remember thinking, I've

58:18

never seen anything like that before. It was

58:20

like the comic, because the comic was that

58:23

way. It was so different. And it just

58:25

like, like, when someone does something that really

58:27

just steps up, just steps up, just steps

58:29

up, enters into like kind of just a

58:31

new area of art because that's what it felt

58:33

like. It felt like a real legitimate comic book

58:36

art movie and this is before 300. Yeah 300

58:38

actually. 300 kind of took that as well. Oh

58:40

yeah, that call. How did you do that movie?

58:42

I just put out a DVD. I put all

58:44

the I put all the secrets on there and

58:47

they went and they shot the same way. It

58:49

was such a good movie and it was it

58:51

was so fun. It was also Frank Miller. The

58:53

thing about the yeah, yeah, right? Same thing. But

58:55

the thing about those kind of films where someone

58:58

like does something new, it's like when you see

59:00

something new and I felt this way

59:02

about pulp fiction too, you like wow,

59:04

you leave the theater like everything's different,

59:06

you know, like the world's different, like

59:08

that got made, like this, like now

59:10

I know. And the thing about people

59:12

today, like young people today that don't

59:15

know like how revolutionary pulp fiction was

59:17

when it came out. When it came

59:19

out, it was like... such a different

59:22

kind of feeling that you got after

59:24

you saw the movie. It was there's

59:26

so many what-the-fok scenes that you left

59:29

that theater like Jesus Christ! It's like

59:31

the world was different. The world was

59:33

different. Quinn Tarantino changed the world with

59:36

pulp fiction. That's how profound it

59:38

was. And I'm not exaggerating. It changed

59:40

what was possible in film after that.

59:42

No, I was there during it. I

59:44

remember the studios were just like... We

59:47

don't understand why this movie's big head.

59:49

We don't have anything like this coming

59:51

out except except your movie, Desperado maybe,

59:53

because Clinton was in us. I was

59:55

like, yeah, yeah, we got our pulse

59:57

on the, on what people want. It's

59:59

like. We don't know. We don't know. So

1:00:01

I got to tell you early, two things.

1:00:04

First of all, George Lucas told me that.

1:00:06

And he's like, I showed him the Cincinnati

1:00:08

thing, because we'd both been early adopters of

1:00:10

digital and DP's, directors of photography, and didn't

1:00:13

want to even look at digital. They were

1:00:15

like, like that. They already spent all their

1:00:17

time learning film. By sticking your head in

1:00:19

the sand and not seeing where the times

1:00:21

are going. To the detriment now the cameras

1:00:24

are designed and they don't look as good

1:00:26

as it could look But they weren't a

1:00:28

part of the conversation where I was shooting

1:00:30

my own movies I wasn't gonna let Some

1:00:33

DP who didn't want to get in digital

1:00:35

keep me from making You know since any

1:00:37

so I just shot it myself I figured

1:00:39

out myself so I showed it to Lucas.

1:00:42

He was like this movie will show people

1:00:44

with digital capable of finally more than the

1:00:46

Star Wars movies I'm doing because it's just

1:00:48

so avant-an-garde and so crazy-looking But I only

1:00:51

made it for me. I really wanted to

1:00:53

see it made. I literally didn't think it

1:00:55

would be successful on its theatrical run. In

1:00:57

fact, we didn't even test screen it. They're

1:01:00

like, can we do a test screen? They're

1:01:02

like, can we do a test screen? They're

1:01:04

like, can we do a test screen? Like,

1:01:06

no. What for? Everybody's gonna say, it's black

1:01:09

and white. Why? Why is it black and

1:01:11

white? Why is it? theatrically because you see

1:01:13

the first trailer and go okay black and

1:01:15

white it's not for me it's very counterintuitive

1:01:17

which is most of the things I do

1:01:20

just like always go a different way but

1:01:22

they'll find it on video later and that's

1:01:24

that's good enough for me but then it

1:01:26

was a big hit naturally let me tell

1:01:29

you about public fiction but because groundbreaking doesn't

1:01:31

look groundbreaking to you or anyone around you

1:01:33

necessarily when you're doing it I forgot about

1:01:35

this but I journal and I ran across

1:01:38

an old journal and I brought it up

1:01:40

to Quentin when I I interviewed him for

1:01:42

my director's chair. I have a show called

1:01:44

The Directors Chair, right? Interview, brighter directors. His

1:01:47

was so big we did two episodes. We

1:01:49

talked about all those movies. And I said,

1:01:51

do you remember this time? I found in

1:01:53

my diary. Right down to the hour, we

1:01:56

went out to dinner. I mean, he was

1:01:58

so into Pulp Fiction. Ever since I met

1:02:00

him, my next movie is going to be

1:02:02

Pulp Fiction. I visited the set. He was

1:02:04

into it. He was into it. He finished

1:02:07

the movie and I said, hey, how did,

1:02:09

because I live here in Austin, I get

1:02:11

to hang out with him except when I

1:02:13

go to LA, how did your movie come

1:02:16

out? He goes, yeah, it's not, it's not

1:02:18

the one. It's like, it still feels like

1:02:20

a movie, Quentin would make. I'm like, what,

1:02:22

it's like, still feels like a movie Quentin

1:02:25

would make. I'm like, what, what, it's like,

1:02:27

it still feels like a movie Quentin, a

1:02:29

movie Quentin, Quentin would make. It's like, it's

1:02:31

like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's

1:02:34

like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's

1:02:36

like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's

1:02:38

like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's

1:02:40

like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's

1:02:43

like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's

1:02:45

like, like, And so I went back to

1:02:47

Austin and he had had a screening for

1:02:49

his, all his director friends that I couldn't

1:02:51

be at because I lived in Austin. So

1:02:54

I called one of them. So how was

1:02:56

the screening? He was a little bongod. He

1:02:58

goes, nah, this isn't the one for him.

1:03:00

I was like, really? Yeah, it's just too.

1:03:03

That's just not it. And I asked him

1:03:05

this and he goes, you're right. You know,

1:03:07

he'd forgotten about that moment. He goes, yeah,

1:03:09

yeah, people didn't get it. I want to

1:03:12

sit you down and tell you all the

1:03:14

things that are wrong with this movie. But

1:03:16

I'll wait to get back from Ken. He

1:03:18

goes to Ken. He wins Ken. The friend

1:03:21

left him a message. What the hell do

1:03:23

I know? I've only made one movie. Everyone's

1:03:25

mind was changed. He was surprised by it

1:03:27

too. So that's why people to hear that

1:03:30

because... You're making something groundbreaking. It's not like

1:03:32

you're going, I'm making something groundbreaking. You don't

1:03:34

know that it's going to do that. Sometimes

1:03:36

things overperform. And that's why if you just

1:03:38

commit to a body of work, you're not

1:03:41

going to know which one's going to be

1:03:43

your pulp fiction, which one's going to be

1:03:45

your four rooms. You know, and if you

1:03:47

just do that, because I saw a lot

1:03:50

of people get hurt. You know, like John

1:03:52

Carpenter made the thing. He thought he made

1:03:54

a great movie. It came out the same

1:03:56

weekend, unfortunately, as ET, right? Why did we

1:03:59

call it pornography? Just because it was just

1:04:01

so self-indulgent and gross and nasty. I mean,

1:04:03

they really like reamed him to the point.

1:04:05

So the special effects? Yeah, the special effects.

1:04:08

Really? Yeah. If you don't remember the time,

1:04:10

it was really like that. There was repulsion

1:04:12

towards this movie. Wow. I know you don't

1:04:14

think that now because 10 years later. I

1:04:17

thought it was a hit. No, it was

1:04:19

not. Wow. 10 years later, it was suddenly

1:04:21

considered a classic. Now, if he had committed

1:04:23

to a body of work, he would have

1:04:26

just let that roll off his shoulders and

1:04:28

just don't blink. But it really fucks you

1:04:30

up if you think, I made it, my

1:04:32

instincts must be off. I thought I made

1:04:34

a great movie. It's a great movie. It's

1:04:37

a great fucking movie. But if no one

1:04:39

else is saying that, so I asked Quinn,

1:04:41

who, George Lucas had the same thing, he

1:04:43

showed famously Star Wars to all his director

1:04:46

friends, and they're like, it'll do good. And

1:04:48

so I asked, quit and knew, was there

1:04:50

anybody in that director's group? He goes, yes,

1:04:52

there was one. Catherine Bigelow, she was the

1:04:55

one who was championed and said, this is

1:04:57

something new and different. No one else was

1:04:59

saying that. But it's pretty amazing, right? That's

1:05:01

super amazing. It's really, and I would have

1:05:04

forgotten it, but if I'd not written it

1:05:06

down. There's a lot of films that slipped

1:05:08

through the cracks, for whatever reason, or they

1:05:10

don't get it. For whatever reason. You know

1:05:13

what I saw recently that I saw recently

1:05:15

that I saw recently, that I saw recently

1:05:17

that I fucking loved, the monkey. Did you

1:05:19

see the monkey? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's

1:05:21

a Stephen King book that or maybe it

1:05:24

might be a short story. It was a

1:05:26

short story. It was adapted. It's fucking fun

1:05:28

men. I watched with my youngest daughter loves

1:05:30

horror movies. We watched a lot of horror

1:05:33

movies together and we were, you know, looking

1:05:35

for something the other night. We're like, all

1:05:37

right, let's take a chance on this. Had

1:05:39

no idea what it was. Watch the trailer.

1:05:42

I'm like, you win. She's like, this is

1:05:44

good. fucking chaos. It's such a chaotic, insane,

1:05:46

hyper-violent movie. But funny, and just, you know,

1:05:48

kind of scary, it was really good, man.

1:05:51

It was like a classic, what I really

1:05:53

love about the early... even King work. Like

1:05:55

his early work was like, that's a, here's

1:05:57

one that fell through the cracks. Like, and

1:06:00

I was there at Sony when we were

1:06:02

doing Mariatchi just brought it when this movie

1:06:04

came out. I remember the marketing team said,

1:06:06

we have a really great movie. Unfortunately, no

1:06:08

one's gonna see it because of the title.

1:06:11

So what is it called? Shawshank redemption. And

1:06:13

it bombed. What? Shawshank redemption. Nobody went to

1:06:15

see it and there's a Sony marketing. They

1:06:17

just couldn't get anybody to go see it.

1:06:20

Wow. But history gets rewritten now. Again, you

1:06:22

can be Frank Derbon and be like really

1:06:24

down. But fortunately, he didn't have to wait

1:06:26

10 years. As soon as it got to

1:06:29

video, it became a phenomenon on video. And

1:06:31

now it's considered. If you go on IMDB,

1:06:33

it's always neck and neck with the godfather

1:06:35

is the best movie of all time. Wow.

1:06:38

There's a movie nobody nobody know. Nobody he

1:06:40

saw. So again. So again, look. Don't blink.

1:06:42

Don't blink. Don't blink. Commit to a body

1:06:44

of work. Commit to a body of work.

1:06:47

You may make a classic, it might be

1:06:49

the thing, and you're not gonna hear about

1:06:51

that for 10 years, just keep going. Don't

1:06:53

let it, don't let it make you question

1:06:55

your instincts, because your instincts. I would have

1:06:58

never guessed Shaw Shank was a failure. There's

1:07:00

a lot of movies that are like incredible.

1:07:02

That was a time when people could, um...

1:07:04

Really get a second life on video now

1:07:07

now. It's different look at this opening night

1:07:09

to see the audience to view their film

1:07:11

Derbon and glotser went to the Cinerama dome

1:07:13

and found no one there Oh my god.

1:07:16

Oh my god. Imagine just like I thought

1:07:18

I thought you know as an artist you're

1:07:20

gonna be going I must be wrong. I

1:07:22

must have just don't have that's clearly a

1:07:25

fault of the marketing. No. It's also just

1:07:27

I'm blaming them. Yeah, I think, I mean,

1:07:29

because if anyone showed up, they would have

1:07:31

gone and screamed it to everybody else. Sometimes

1:07:34

it's just, it's just the way it goes.

1:07:36

It's just, it's supposed to go that way.

1:07:38

Now, I'm going to be an alternate one

1:07:40

that, there's a movie called Body Parts with

1:07:43

a guy named Jeff Fayy. I loved that

1:07:45

movie, Body Parts, by Eric Red, he did

1:07:47

the hit her, he did... We would never

1:07:49

hear about it because the timing of it.

1:07:51

And Jeffey, I was a big Jeffey fan.

1:07:54

Remember in the early 90s, I kept going,

1:07:56

I was at my mother-in-law's and across the

1:07:58

street was a dollar theater showing body parts.

1:08:00

I go every night at 7 p.m. I

1:08:03

go for a dollar. It was at the

1:08:05

second p.m. I go for a dollar. It

1:08:07

was at the second run. And it was

1:08:09

at the second run. And watch it was

1:08:12

at the second run and watch it. And

1:08:14

watch it was at the second run and

1:08:16

watch it was at the second run and

1:08:18

watch it. And watch it was at the

1:08:21

second run and watch it was at the

1:08:23

second run and watch it was at the

1:08:25

second run and watch it was at the

1:08:27

second run and watch it was at the

1:08:30

second run and watch it was at the

1:08:32

second run and watch it was at the

1:08:34

second run and watch it was at the

1:08:36

second run and watch it was at the

1:08:38

second run and watch it. It was at

1:08:41

the second run and watch it. It was

1:08:43

at the second run. It was at the

1:08:45

second run. It Suddenly he starts doing things.

1:08:47

Oh, I remember this movie. Okay, so anyway,

1:08:50

that's the same dude that was lawnmower man.

1:08:52

Yeah, he was in lawnmower man. Yes. So

1:08:54

another scene. This should have been something that,

1:08:56

you know, was it for him, but this

1:08:59

week it came out, they just caught Jeffrey

1:09:01

Domer like the week before, so they pulled

1:09:03

back on the marketing completely. It's me. I

1:09:05

saw it. Every night. So when I went

1:09:08

to do grind house, he retired from acting.

1:09:10

He was in Afghanistan. I asked for him

1:09:12

to send a tape. I was working, doing

1:09:14

work out there. What kind of work out?

1:09:17

I'll remember some kind of, you know, like

1:09:19

helping people stuff. He sends me a tape.

1:09:21

And so I hired him. I hired him

1:09:23

to be in it. And because he was

1:09:25

in that movie. In fact, I'd already hired

1:09:28

Michael Bean. And I went, oh shit, Jeff

1:09:30

sent me a thing. God, God, Jeff's great

1:09:32

too. I'll just make him brothers. So they

1:09:34

play brothers in greenhouse. Because he did that

1:09:37

movie, he got lost, that show lost. He

1:09:39

got, he just, his whole career came back.

1:09:41

So we were talking about it. I just

1:09:43

recently was telling him, man, it just came

1:09:46

out on 4K. You gotta come see, you

1:09:48

probably never seen it. You've probably never seen

1:09:50

it. I never seen it. I never seen

1:09:52

it. I never seen it. I never seen

1:09:55

it. You're great. I was showing him some

1:09:57

scenes that was blowing his blowing his mind.

1:09:59

And that's why I hired you and that's

1:10:01

how you got that second career later on.

1:10:04

Because I was there every night. because it

1:10:06

was in the dollar theater so quick. I

1:10:08

wouldn't have been able to afford it. So

1:10:10

that's how weird shit happens, right? It's not

1:10:12

so cool. It makes you see that you

1:10:15

don't, it's just sometimes that's just how the

1:10:17

balls roll, you know. It's just all interconnected.

1:10:19

Yeah, somehow it's interconnected. You just have to

1:10:21

trust the process. I had someone in the

1:10:24

audience recently, I was talking about brass knuckle

1:10:26

films and getting everybody all straight up about

1:10:28

it. I was like, I wonder

1:10:30

if it asked that question before. So

1:10:33

whenever I don't have an answer, I'll

1:10:35

ask them first. What do you guys

1:10:37

think? What do you guys think? How

1:10:39

would you answer that? Do you have

1:10:41

doubts? Do you have human doubts? Everyone

1:10:43

has doubts. It's what you do with

1:10:45

doubts. It's what you do with them.

1:10:47

You'd let your doubts overwhelm you? Or

1:10:49

do you take them into consideration? Like,

1:10:51

are these doubts valid? Do I have

1:10:53

to work harder, or have to be

1:10:55

more objective? Right. You know, you have

1:10:57

to take into consideration, then anything you're

1:10:59

going to do that's going to be

1:11:01

exciting also carries the possibility of risk.

1:11:04

And the risk of failure is a

1:11:06

thing that keeps a lot of people

1:11:08

from acting. So if you're going to

1:11:10

come into a body work and not

1:11:12

blink. You got to be welcoming. You

1:11:14

don't have to worry about that. There's

1:11:16

a jjitsu expression. Well, a lot of

1:11:18

people use it in an MMA as

1:11:20

well. You don't lose. You learn. Yeah.

1:11:22

So if you know that's the process,

1:11:24

this is my answer. I said, no,

1:11:26

I don't have any doubts. Because I

1:11:28

like to be counterintuitive. Yeah, your process

1:11:30

is long. The thing is long. It's

1:11:33

not a sprint. You're not running to

1:11:35

a telephone pole. You're running to the

1:11:37

other side of the world. Right. Yeah.

1:11:39

So I tell the, no, I don't

1:11:41

have any doubts. Just to be counterintuitive.

1:11:43

And I say, why? Because if you

1:11:45

understand the process, why should you have

1:11:47

a doubt? You might fail, but it

1:11:49

might be four rooms. You might. If

1:11:51

you have an instinct to go there,

1:11:53

or you don't know how you're going

1:11:55

to do it, what's half the battle?

1:11:57

Not knowing. That's the magic. I don't

1:11:59

have to know. I'm going to figure

1:12:02

it out when I'm almost done. You

1:12:04

know, all those things come together. Risk

1:12:06

a verse. Early honors. And it becomes

1:12:08

a pattern. And it's very hard to

1:12:10

break out of. And I always tell

1:12:12

them, find something that you can have

1:12:14

success in. Find something that you enjoy

1:12:16

doing. It doesn't have to be a

1:12:18

career. It could be a game that

1:12:20

you enjoy playing. It could be anything.

1:12:22

Painting. all day in school. I'd make

1:12:24

these flip cartoon books in the sides

1:12:26

of the dictionaries, paper dictionaries, flip cartoon

1:12:28

movies. I'd get the dictionary as biggest

1:12:30

and fattest and make these very elaborate

1:12:33

stick figure animations. And everyone in class

1:12:35

loved him and I'd be like, I'm

1:12:37

going to be broke. I used to

1:12:39

do cartoons. I can't pay attention to

1:12:41

class. I used to do cartoons of

1:12:43

the teachers in high school. Yeah, and

1:12:45

everybody loved them. Yeah, I passed them

1:12:47

around the class and I got in

1:12:49

trouble a bunch of times for it.

1:12:51

And one time I had this science

1:12:53

teacher, Mr. Holman, and Mr. Holman, it

1:12:55

was very odd, very eccentric God. And

1:12:57

so I drew a cartoon of him

1:12:59

behind his screen. So he had a

1:13:02

screen that he pulled down where he

1:13:04

could show like films. And then when

1:13:06

he pulls the screen up, he had

1:13:08

no idea that on the chalkboard I

1:13:10

had drawn this cartoon of him and

1:13:12

the whole fucking class starts laughing. The

1:13:14

power of the pen you had back

1:13:16

then. My first introduction to being a

1:13:18

comedian. It's very satisfying. But did you

1:13:20

think you were going to make a

1:13:22

career out of that? No. broke I

1:13:24

can't understand what they're talking about I'm

1:13:26

way behind yes and I'm not the

1:13:28

best artist so it's not like I'm

1:13:31

gonna like I'm some protege or something

1:13:33

some fucked but that's end up being

1:13:35

my career was just doing that stuff

1:13:37

because you love it so I've loved

1:13:39

because you love it so I love

1:13:41

it so much because you love it

1:13:43

so much so I ask people if

1:13:45

you want to find what you're passionate

1:13:47

what is that you run off to

1:13:49

do on the weekend right I was

1:13:51

always actually find success doing it. 100%.

1:13:53

You put stuff together, suddenly opportunities are

1:13:55

going to fall in your lap. And

1:13:57

if that's not it, at least you'll

1:13:59

have learned that you could follow this

1:14:02

process to get good at something or

1:14:04

get really deeply involved in something and

1:14:06

you could apply that to other things.

1:14:08

It might be a new thing that

1:14:10

you get excited about. So this is

1:14:12

what I applied it to, because I've

1:14:14

forgotten this lesson, which was just say

1:14:16

you're this person. Stop aspiring. Right. Our

1:14:18

words we use are so powerful. If

1:14:20

you say, well, you know, I'm probably

1:14:22

not going to be successful. That's your

1:14:24

lot in life. You just, you just

1:14:26

did that to yourself. Self-defying. So I

1:14:28

had a, a friend of mine, I

1:14:31

mean, like, I, I always hated working

1:14:33

out. I didn't follow any sports, didn't

1:14:35

know sports in high school. They go,

1:14:37

we need you, it's a small school,

1:14:39

we need you on the team. You

1:14:41

look at you, you're tall and everything,

1:14:43

you play basketball. I don't know how

1:14:45

to play any of these things, I

1:14:47

hate working out. There's a line in

1:14:49

the faculty that I gave to Elijah

1:14:51

Wood, because that was my line to

1:14:53

teachers when they made me one run,

1:14:55

and go, I don't think a person

1:14:57

should run unless he's being chased, unless

1:15:00

he's being chased, and I don't think

1:15:02

a person should run unless he's being,

1:15:04

unless he's being chased. I'm like, I'm

1:15:06

like, I'm like, I have a, I

1:15:08

have a, I'm like, I have a,

1:15:10

I have a, I have a, I

1:15:12

have a, I have a, I have

1:15:14

a, I have a, I have a,

1:15:16

I have a, I have a, I

1:15:18

have a, I have a, I have

1:15:20

a, a, a, a, a, a, a,

1:15:22

a, a, a, a, a, a, a

1:15:24

Oh wow. What's your excuse? I was

1:15:26

so tall that it was just, it

1:15:29

would throw my back desks. I would

1:15:31

just, disc would go out. And then

1:15:33

when I started filmmaking, every year we'd

1:15:35

just go out like clockworks. I'm operating

1:15:37

the camera, I'm operating the steady cam.

1:15:39

And when I was doing, you know,

1:15:41

spy kids too, I think, with a,

1:15:43

Ricardo Montelban had a bad back that

1:15:45

he got surgery and fuking him up.

1:15:47

He was in a wheelchair, he was

1:15:49

paralyzed. You gotta work out, Robert. He

1:15:51

was always in shape, Ricardo. That chest

1:15:53

and spot, in Star Trek too, that's

1:15:55

his chest. God. I know, and he

1:15:57

was in his late 60s, or his

1:16:00

mid-60s. They fused his spine, is that

1:16:02

what they did? Yeah, they did something.

1:16:04

God damn it. So, um, I got

1:16:06

your story. I thought of my wish

1:16:08

I could talk to that guy before

1:16:10

he did that. I know. And he

1:16:12

went to a good place, but they

1:16:14

just hit something wrong. They fucked him

1:16:16

up. It happens too, so man. So

1:16:18

I go, okay, I don't want that

1:16:20

to happen to me. But I don't

1:16:22

know how to work out. So the

1:16:24

next year I worked with Stallone. So

1:16:26

I still own. I gotta get in

1:16:29

shape because my back keeps going out.

1:16:31

I don't like to work out. Get

1:16:33

the a trainer. Anyone you ever seen

1:16:35

in Hollywood have gotten shaped, they had

1:16:37

a trainer. They had a trainer. I

1:16:39

need a trainer. That's what chance to

1:16:41

us mortal men have so I hired

1:16:43

a trainer and guess what happened? Hated

1:16:45

it. Hated it. Hated it. I hide

1:16:47

from the guy. You'd come to my

1:16:49

house. I'd pay him not to show

1:16:51

up. I'd hate it. I'd hide it.

1:16:53

I'd hide it. I'd be I'd call

1:16:55

him sick and then when he did

1:16:58

get me I'd be like when he

1:17:00

did get me I'd be like when

1:17:02

he did get me I'd be like

1:17:04

when he did get me. It's not

1:17:06

because I have to change their minds.

1:17:08

There's something that goes with it. I

1:17:10

have plenty of desire. I was paying

1:17:12

this guy. I wanted to get in

1:17:14

shape. I didn't want my back going

1:17:16

out anymore. I had the desire. I

1:17:18

was missing another key element that I

1:17:20

figured out. And it's a lesson I

1:17:22

already knew, which was stop aspiring, but

1:17:24

I forgot it. So this woman, a

1:17:26

friend of mine from Mexico, shows up.

1:17:29

She does a production manager. I have

1:17:31

to stop smoking. My doctor said I

1:17:33

have to stop smoking or I'm going

1:17:35

to die. I've been smoking as I

1:17:37

was eight years old. I said, well,

1:17:39

you're going to go back to smoking

1:17:41

because you just told me that's your

1:17:43

identity. You've been doing it since you

1:17:45

were eight. So right now you're a

1:17:47

smoker who's not smoking. Eventually, you're going

1:17:49

to conform to your identity. You have

1:17:51

to change your identity. You have to

1:17:53

say, I'm a non-smoker. I'm a smoker.

1:17:55

I don't know what happened to her,

1:17:58

but I thought... The voice is still...

1:18:00

She really talks like that. So then

1:18:02

I go, wait man, shit, I used

1:18:04

to... I used to apply to filming,

1:18:06

but that's all I was back there.

1:18:08

Where else in my life can I

1:18:10

do a 180? And it's gotta be

1:18:12

a 180. Because if it's just matter

1:18:14

degrees, it's bullshit. It's much easier if

1:18:16

it's just opposite day. So I went,

1:18:18

oh my God, working out. I hate

1:18:20

working out. Of course I hate working

1:18:22

out. Because I tell my trainer and

1:18:24

everyone who'll listen how much I ate

1:18:27

it. I'm an athlete. I'm an athlete.

1:18:29

I'm an athlete. I'm an athlete. The

1:18:31

last thing I would ever call myself,

1:18:33

Mr. Cartoon guy. I'm an athlete. I'm

1:18:35

an athlete. I would ever work out.

1:18:37

There's a donut, not gonna cut it

1:18:39

in half and eat half, that's bullshit.

1:18:41

Those degrees, fuck you up. Opposite day.

1:18:43

There's a donut, no, I'm gonna reach

1:18:45

for an apple. Not only was I

1:18:47

able to work out, this is 14

1:18:49

years ago, I didn't need a trainer

1:18:51

again. Ever, I would just be like

1:18:53

making myself do because I'm an athlete.

1:18:55

That's how powerful the mind is. So

1:18:58

I'm saying if someone says, oh, I

1:19:00

want to go do this thing on

1:19:02

the weekend, you might have the desire,

1:19:04

but you've got to get the identity

1:19:06

too. You've got to say you are

1:19:08

that. Yes. And it sounds a little

1:19:10

awkward. Like I asked somebody, Alex Friedman,

1:19:12

I said, do you consider yourself a

1:19:14

creative person? Anyway, well, you know, you

1:19:16

got to say. And are you technical?

1:19:18

And he goes, yeah, okay, you're technical

1:19:20

and creative. That was the first thing

1:19:22

that's stuck in my ear. It's also

1:19:24

what Jim Cameron is, it's also what,

1:19:27

you know, George Lucas is, technical and

1:19:29

creative. When I first, at my first

1:19:31

job, my dad had a friend who

1:19:33

owned a Photoshop and Mario, and I

1:19:35

had a, my first job, had a

1:19:37

friend who owned a Photoshop, and he

1:19:39

said, go home and take pictures with

1:19:41

this, because I need you know. how

1:19:43

to use that camera so you can

1:19:45

help me sell the cameras. So I

1:19:47

went home and I'm from a family

1:19:49

of nine kids, I mean ten kids,

1:19:51

nine siblings, taking all these pictures of

1:19:53

them, doing cool stuff. Go back, he

1:19:56

looks at the pictures and he goes,

1:19:58

whoa, these are really creative. You're creative.

1:20:00

You've got to now learn how to

1:20:02

be technical because most creative people always

1:20:04

need technicians and technicians always need creative

1:20:06

people. Now it's against your, it's just

1:20:08

a gift you have. They can never

1:20:10

really be creative, they'll just be technical,

1:20:12

but because you have creativity, if you

1:20:14

apply yourself, it's against your nature, but

1:20:16

if you apply yourself and learn the

1:20:18

technical part, you'll be technical and creative

1:20:20

and you'll be impossible and be unstoppable.

1:20:22

And I was like, whoa, because if

1:20:24

you look at all the different... turning

1:20:27

points in your life, there's probably somebody

1:20:29

who sent you in a direction. It

1:20:31

comes through him. Because if I were

1:20:33

to go back and ask that guy,

1:20:35

hey, that advice you gave me, he'd

1:20:37

be like, what? I didn't remember saying

1:20:39

that. Kind of just came through him

1:20:41

at the time. So he pointed me

1:20:43

that way, and that's why I went

1:20:45

and made him already by myself. I

1:20:47

didn't want to take anybody, because I

1:20:49

wanted to learn. I didn't know how

1:20:51

to use that camera, but if you

1:20:53

go ask somebody to do ask somebody

1:20:56

to do it for you to do

1:20:58

it for you to do it for

1:21:00

you. Your I-need list, if you make

1:21:02

a list of all the things you

1:21:04

need before you can make your dream

1:21:06

happen, the longer that list is, the

1:21:08

less that's gonna happen. You gotta reduce

1:21:10

it down to nothing. Me, my hands,

1:21:12

my boot straps, this camera, I'm gonna

1:21:14

figure it out on the day. Be

1:21:16

technical and creative. And I don't blink.

1:21:18

I'm going to create a body of

1:21:20

work. He's like, walks out of there

1:21:22

supercharge. He needs a guy like you

1:21:25

in his life all the time. He's

1:21:27

too self-deprecating. He's such a brilliant guy.

1:21:29

And it's nice to be self-deprecating is

1:21:31

kind of a joke. A little bit.

1:21:33

But the words you're using yourself are

1:21:35

very powerful. The words you use? And

1:21:37

you're doing that to yourself. Yeah. The

1:21:39

guy throwing cabbage is you on stage?

1:21:41

Look close. That's fucking. It's you You

1:21:43

You're doing that to yourself. You're the

1:21:45

one who's like you do that to

1:21:47

yourself with your words He'll make like

1:21:49

Twitter posts about how down he is

1:21:51

and I want to go over to

1:21:53

his house and fucking shake him like

1:21:56

a baby Yeah, dude, you're gonna you're

1:21:58

down You stay down. I have this

1:22:00

theory called baseline. I talked to my

1:22:02

kids and we just laugh about it

1:22:04

now. I go okay when shit fuck's

1:22:06

up but she's not going right don't

1:22:08

be down about it don't feel like

1:22:10

you're in a slump because now you

1:22:12

just stuck yourself in a grave and

1:22:14

it's gonna be hard to climb out

1:22:16

right when shit isn't going right oh

1:22:18

the tires flat oh I got fired

1:22:20

I call that baseline you're a baseline

1:22:22

mmm anything above baseline like this right

1:22:25

now we're having this great talk this

1:22:27

is way above baseline yeah I'm on

1:22:29

the Joe Rogan show you know so

1:22:31

way above base celebrate that shit yeah

1:22:33

because it's not always there Don't say

1:22:35

that you're going to go down, you're

1:22:37

just going to go to baseline. That's

1:22:39

much easier to accept and then you're

1:22:41

not in a negative position. You're just

1:22:43

kind of at a normal. I'm at

1:22:45

a normal and I'll really appreciate when

1:22:47

anything above baseline happens. My daughter and

1:22:49

I'm about to go play an arena

1:22:51

show. She's going to sing, I'm going

1:22:54

to play with my band. I told

1:22:56

her, way above baseline. Only when things

1:22:58

are really down what you call yourself

1:23:00

low and you don't want to do

1:23:02

that. Why just stay there for a

1:23:04

much longer time? If you're just at

1:23:06

baseline, that's just life. Oh yeah, I

1:23:08

try to go make that movie and

1:23:10

it didn't work. That's such solid advice.

1:23:12

It's really, it's mindset, it's all mind,

1:23:14

it's all stuff you're doing to yourself.

1:23:16

Yes. And these are things I like

1:23:18

to pass on to people because when

1:23:20

they come back and give it back

1:23:23

to me, I don't know if you

1:23:25

give your kids advice as you learn

1:23:27

it, because you give your kids advice,

1:23:29

you learn it, because you learn it,

1:23:31

you've got the best job in the

1:23:33

world, you're learning. It's just like, it's

1:23:35

just like you taught me. They also

1:23:37

learn by watching you do it. Oh

1:23:39

yeah, they've seen you move through the

1:23:41

world. Yeah, if you're the dad and

1:23:43

you're making all these films, you're doing

1:23:45

all this, you're involved, you're, you're, you're,

1:23:47

you have action, you're constantly in motion,

1:23:49

you're doing things, you're creating things, that's

1:23:51

inspiring to them, they like absorb that.

1:23:54

If you're down on yourself all the

1:23:56

time, you know, that's. and be the

1:23:58

opposite. Like I have a friend and

1:24:00

his family was alcoholics. He's never had

1:24:02

a drop of drink in his life

1:24:04

and he's like super disciplined because of

1:24:06

that. I'll tell you my secret, I've

1:24:08

never done drugs. None. None. Nothing? Yeah

1:24:10

you don't even drink coffee you were

1:24:12

saying. I don't even drink coffee. You

1:24:14

would tell that story because it's so

1:24:16

hilarious. A friend of mine was named.

1:24:18

He was working at the Sony when

1:24:20

I first got there for Mariachi and

1:24:23

I was like this kid and there

1:24:25

are people my age where assistance and

1:24:27

he was like... Falling asleep

1:24:29

at his desk, and I'm like why why

1:24:31

are you falling asleep? And he goes, I'm

1:24:33

trying to get off coffee I was like,

1:24:35

oh my god, I'm never gonna get on

1:24:38

coffee. Like I want those guys getting their

1:24:40

hooks in me and then over the years

1:24:42

he's like Starbucks showing up when everybody like

1:24:44

zombies going in there having to get their

1:24:47

coffee's going up when everybody like zombies is

1:24:49

going in there having to get their coffee.

1:24:51

I went to get their coffee showing up.

1:24:53

I just I just did this What's your

1:24:56

favorite workout music? Mine? Utahanklin. I just did

1:24:58

a classic stuff like Van Halen and stuff,

1:25:00

but I did a music video for Wolfgang

1:25:02

Van Halen and we shot it in two

1:25:05

days and I was up two days. And

1:25:07

I was up two days cutting it because

1:25:09

I just wanted to see what was going

1:25:11

to happen next. I was just like, I

1:25:14

want to see what happens next. You don't

1:25:16

even notice. My shoulder is getting all fucked

1:25:18

up and I'm like, what's wrong with my

1:25:20

shoulder? Did I pull my shoulder? Did I

1:25:22

pull a muscle? Did I pull a muscle?

1:25:25

I went back to sit in that chair

1:25:27

and was like, oh, because I've been sitting

1:25:29

like this for two days. Sitting just doing

1:25:31

this. That's insane. But it's really cool. Don't

1:25:34

you have a point of diminishing returns where

1:25:36

it's like you're so tired that you really

1:25:38

will be better off the screen? It's different

1:25:40

with editing. Editing is weird. I was thinking

1:25:43

that as I was doing it. I wish

1:25:45

I could do this with writing, or I

1:25:47

could just write for two days straight. But

1:25:49

your words will knock me out put me

1:25:52

to sleep after a while editing. It's this

1:25:54

visual stimulus and you're so excited I kept

1:25:56

going okay one more hour one more hour

1:25:58

and you just can't stop You just can't

1:26:01

stop because now you're seeing it. It came

1:26:03

out so cool. It's going to drop hours

1:26:05

later. It's going to drop like next week.

1:26:07

It rips your head out. It's a great

1:26:10

workout song for sure, but it's just really

1:26:12

entertaining. That's incredible. He does all the instruments

1:26:14

himself. Really? Yeah, he plays every instrument. He

1:26:16

plays the drums, the bass, the guitar, sings,

1:26:19

writes the songs. When he goes on tour

1:26:21

he takes this really great band with him

1:26:23

because he can't play all the parts, but

1:26:25

the albums, this third album, he's working on

1:26:27

his all the instruments. Wow. Super talented, really,

1:26:30

really fun. But I like working with people

1:26:32

who just do more than... than other people.

1:26:34

They just, they just, they just, at that

1:26:36

level, and it's so inspiring, it inspires you.

1:26:39

It's fuel. Yeah, definitely fuel. Yeah, that's why

1:26:41

I always tell people, if you can surround

1:26:43

yourself with other people that are really getting

1:26:45

after it in life, it will 100% motivate.

1:26:48

Completely. In a different way. Instead of having

1:26:50

that procrastination feeling, you get up excited. You

1:26:52

have to. And it's like, you know, your

1:26:54

parents tell you, be careful, be careful, be

1:26:57

careful, and you're your peers are, And then

1:26:59

I meet Jim Cameron. And then you meet

1:27:01

like George Lucas. It's like, you can't hang

1:27:03

with these guys if you're not accomplishing something.

1:27:06

So then when they say, hey, what are

1:27:08

you up to? Well, I'm down in Texas

1:27:10

and I got my own studio and I'm

1:27:12

pioneering digital filmmaking and green screen technology. I

1:27:15

want to make the first digital 3D movie.

1:27:17

And they go, oh, okay. I've got to

1:27:19

be doing something. That's a great one line.

1:27:21

I was like. But still, compared to what

1:27:24

they're what they're what they're what they're doing.

1:27:26

you're better you know right you want to

1:27:28

be the one that they're swinging higher yes

1:27:30

yes yes so surround yourself with those people

1:27:32

and do something so that they let you

1:27:35

hang with them but you want to learn

1:27:37

like here's the Jim Cameron for instance when

1:27:39

I met him I really wanted to impress

1:27:41

the hell out of him so I said

1:27:44

I'm about to go to Desperado and I

1:27:46

can't afford a steady cam operator so I

1:27:48

took a three day three day city cam

1:27:50

and I'm gonna operate it myself on the

1:27:53

movie I'm gonna operate the steady cam that

1:27:55

big But not to operate it. I'm gonna

1:27:57

take it apart and design a better one.

1:27:59

That's completely who he is. Us mere mortals

1:28:02

are like trying to operate the thing. He's

1:28:04

designing whole new systems. And if you think

1:28:06

of that, that's very consistent with who he

1:28:08

is. That's the person you want to hang

1:28:11

out with. Not someone. The guy had said,

1:28:13

oh, me too. I'm doing the same thing.

1:28:15

Didn't he go to the bottom of the

1:28:17

Mariana trench or something? So he's got a

1:28:20

summary that he designed. It's on his desk.

1:28:22

This green machine. And I was looking at

1:28:24

it going like. Weren't

1:28:27

you afraid? I mean, I've got

1:28:29

kids and wife, you've got kids

1:28:31

and a wife, weren't you afraid

1:28:33

of going down that deep and

1:28:36

something happening? He was like, no.

1:28:38

I said, why not? Oh, I

1:28:40

designed the escape vehicle. So

1:28:43

any other bozo had done it, I'd be

1:28:45

afraid. Because he did it. He had all

1:28:47

the confidence in the world. Talk about Simon

1:28:50

and no doubt. No doubt. Is that hilarious?

1:28:52

That's great though. That's him though. It's like,

1:28:54

yeah, if someone else had designed this escape

1:28:56

vehicle, I'd be afraid. So I did it.

1:28:59

So he had no pause at all. He

1:29:01

designed it. So that's kind of confidence. That's

1:29:03

the people you want to hang out with.

1:29:06

Yeah, that's a legitimate legitimate genius. It changes.

1:29:08

It changes your perception. proximity phenomenon. Like when

1:29:10

you're just near, I took a painting class

1:29:12

with Sebastian Kruer, Ray Painter, and Germany, I

1:29:15

saw this class that he gives for a

1:29:17

week, I went, I'm gonna go do that

1:29:19

class. Not to learn how to paint so

1:29:21

much. I know I'll be a better director

1:29:24

by learning, because it's another director by learning,

1:29:26

another way into creativity. So just do as

1:29:28

many jobs as you can that you're interested

1:29:31

in, because if you just do one job,

1:29:33

you barely know, you barely know, you barely

1:29:35

know, he just paints. I'll show you the

1:29:37

examples before and after just by I thought

1:29:40

for sure I did a pre-painting before we

1:29:42

went out there It looks like crap. I

1:29:44

don't know what brushes he's using and the

1:29:47

kinds of paints It's a different method. I

1:29:49

and he must have some trick I go

1:29:51

and he's painting this amazing Mick Jagger photo

1:29:53

real in front of us and we all

1:29:56

can paint alongside him What paint are you

1:29:58

using? It's regular paint. What brushes are you

1:30:00

using? Regular brushes? How come I can't do

1:30:02

that? I go back and suddenly it's a

1:30:05

different painting. I'm going to try one more.

1:30:07

It's more photo real. When I show it

1:30:09

to you, it's going to blow you away.

1:30:12

It looks like I dropped the brush. I

1:30:14

was like, holy shit. It's because I finally

1:30:16

given myself permission to do it. Because you

1:30:18

have the ability, but you're blocking it because

1:30:21

you go, I don't know. I don't know.

1:30:23

There's something I don't know. So again, you're

1:30:25

just chopping off your own lake. And by

1:30:27

being around somebody who's doing it at that

1:30:30

level, suddenly you can do it too. It's

1:30:32

like breaking the M field. As soon as

1:30:34

I made Mariachi, no one had ever done

1:30:37

anything like that. Suddenly there's 10, 12, 13

1:30:39

movies made very low budget because they go,

1:30:41

oh, it's possible. glean off them without them

1:30:43

teaching you anything just by being around and

1:30:46

seeing how they move through the world and

1:30:48

seeing they have accomplished and that they're regular

1:30:50

people that are just accomplishing at high level.

1:30:53

It just blows your mind. That's really important

1:30:55

in stand-up comedy. I was in this conversation

1:30:57

last night in the Green Room. We were

1:30:59

talking about this area of the country that's

1:31:02

falling apart. And I was like, comedy is

1:31:04

top down, man. You have to have a

1:31:06

bunch of assassins all working together in the

1:31:08

same location. They all feed off each other.

1:31:11

And then all the people coming up below,

1:31:13

they see that. These young guys that are

1:31:15

coming up, they see these people working really

1:31:18

hard and constantly creating new material. And they

1:31:20

get inspired by. And then you see these

1:31:22

guys get Netflix specials and it's all happening

1:31:24

at the club. So this club that we're

1:31:27

doing in Austin is all about that process.

1:31:29

We have specifically designed it to have two

1:31:31

open mic nights, Sunday and Monday. So new

1:31:33

people, no experience, get up there. People from

1:31:36

all across the country moving here, so they

1:31:38

could be a part of the process. But

1:31:40

there's like a real path to success that

1:31:43

you could see. Guys like Ron White are

1:31:45

there guys like Shane Gillis are there Tony

1:31:47

Hinchcliff and and these young guys Derek Post

1:31:49

and all these young guys that are coming

1:31:52

up that are like really exciting, you know

1:31:54

It's like it's really fun. There's like a

1:31:56

vibe of creativity that everybody feeds off. I

1:31:59

love what you've built. You've come here, you

1:32:01

know, in there like four years and you've

1:32:03

already like built this whole community. Well, they

1:32:05

kind of built itself, man. It's the same

1:32:08

thing we were talking about before with instincts.

1:32:10

First of all, I had the instinct to

1:32:12

escape LA. I'm like, this is not going

1:32:14

to change. It's going to get worse. I

1:32:17

got to get the fuck out of here.

1:32:19

And Ron had to get the fuck out

1:32:21

of it. Once my family was interested in

1:32:24

doing it, it was pretty easy. Because I'm

1:32:26

one of those guys like, I just can

1:32:28

just pick up stakes and go. I'm like,

1:32:30

okay, life is different now. Let's live in

1:32:33

Texas. Like I want that. I like change.

1:32:35

I like not having any fucking idea what's

1:32:37

going to happen. I'm excited by that. And

1:32:39

so then once we got out here and

1:32:42

then Ron's like, we got to open up

1:32:44

a club. Okay, we got to open up

1:32:46

a club. And so then I started looking

1:32:49

for locations. That's right. We either had, we

1:32:51

did, I'd been under contract for this one

1:32:53

world theater that was owned by Colt. Oh

1:32:55

right, I remember that one, yeah. that fell

1:32:58

apart. There's a lot of issues. Right. It's

1:33:00

right down there with all the light. Oh,

1:33:02

the rich is the perfect spot. When the

1:33:05

writs was available, it was like, oh my

1:33:07

God, this is it. And then we walked

1:33:09

in and it was still the alamo. So

1:33:11