Full Transcript for Doug Ellin: Entourage, The Pitch That Changed Everything & Why He Left LA | AJ Buckley Show

I love following you on Instagram for is you're a food critic. 30 00:02:16.936 --> 00:02:17.256 Yeah. 31 00:02:17.596 --> 00:02:25.040 And you're always – so I was like, I know there's this – I've heard of this New York bagel place in Nashville. 32 00:02:25.080 --> 00:02:27.182 And I was like, I don't know if he's been there yet because you're new to Nashville. 33 00:02:27.202 --> 00:02:30.524 So I took an Uber to this place called H&S Bagels. 34 00:02:31.004 --> 00:02:31.705 Have you been to this place? 35 00:02:31.725 --> 00:02:35.128 You know, it's so funny because yesterday, I haven't had a bagel since I got to Nashville. 36 00:02:35.168 --> 00:02:37.190 Yesterday, I was like, I should go get bagels, but I didn't. 37 00:02:37.410 --> 00:02:38.010 You're the man. 38 00:02:38.030 --> 00:02:39.232 They're not a sponsor of the show. 39 00:02:39.252 --> 00:02:39.912 They're not anything. 40 00:02:39.932 --> 00:02:41.494 They have the best egg bagels. 41 00:02:41.814 --> 00:02:43.135 I appreciate this very much. 42 00:02:43.155 --> 00:02:44.136 I got you half a dozen. 43 00:02:44.156 --> 00:02:47.599 And then the guy told me there's this spread. 44 00:02:47.659 --> 00:02:48.820 It's like this thing. 45 00:02:48.840 --> 00:02:51.002 So I got you half a dozen and these other things. 46 00:02:51.242 --> 00:02:53.645 So for you, I like that. 47 00:02:53.945 --> 00:02:54.325 Thank you. 48 00:02:54.605 --> 00:02:56.307 Very surreal moment because I'm serious. 49 00:02:56.387 --> 00:03:00.008 Yesterday I said, you know what I think I'm going to get tomorrow is I'm going to try a bagel place in there. 50 00:03:00.068 --> 00:03:00.628 I swear to God. 51 00:03:00.728 --> 00:03:02.088 I have not had a bagel. 52 00:03:02.108 --> 00:03:03.729 I've been here about 12 weeks. 53 00:03:03.829 --> 00:03:04.649 I've not had a bagel. 54 00:03:04.669 --> 00:03:05.489 There you go. 55 00:03:05.549 --> 00:03:06.189 I'm in. 56 00:03:06.329 --> 00:03:08.430 I went in and I was like, so I hear it. 57 00:03:08.450 --> 00:03:12.091 And the guy was like, oh, we're like, this is the place for New York. 58 00:03:12.171 --> 00:03:12.871 And I look around. 59 00:03:13.011 --> 00:03:14.511 Everybody's got like a Yankee hat on. 60 00:03:14.531 --> 00:03:15.451 I'm like, there's a bunch. 61 00:03:15.491 --> 00:03:15.872 Where is it? 62 00:03:16.212 --> 00:03:17.412 It's downtown. 63 00:03:17.972 --> 00:03:18.912 I don't know Nashville very well. 64 00:03:18.932 --> 00:03:19.632 I'll get you the address. 65 00:03:19.832 --> 00:03:21.653 H&S Bagels is the name of it. 66 00:03:21.673 --> 00:03:22.253 Thank you. 67 00:03:22.333 --> 00:03:23.053 It felt like... 68 00:03:23.393 --> 00:03:24.053 Felt authentic. 69 00:03:24.213 --> 00:03:24.554 It did. 70 00:03:24.714 --> 00:03:24.974 All right. 71 00:03:25.014 --> 00:03:25.734 I'm excited. 72 00:03:25.854 --> 00:03:29.655 And when the patrons have Yankee hats on, you're like, okay. 73 00:03:29.915 --> 00:03:30.335 I love it. 74 00:03:30.375

--> 00:03:30.735 I love it. 75 00:03:30.855 --> 00:03:36.956 So I don't know where I am in Nashville ever, which is so sad because you put everything in the navigation system and I never have any idea where I am. 76 00:03:36.976 --> 00:03:38.777 But there's this place that they've got two. 77 00:03:38.917 --> 00:03:43.238 And the first one I went to, someone goes, I'm always looking for good Italian food, which... 78 00:03:43.718 --> 00:03:44.739 No offense to Nashville. 79 00:03:44.759 --> 00:03:47.260 It's not the most common greatness here. 80 00:03:47.541 --> 00:03:52.084 So someone's like, yeah, I go to this place, Tutti DiGio, and I drive 45 minutes to a truck stop. 81 00:03:52.164 --> 00:03:52.944 I'm not exaggerating. 82 00:03:53.244 --> 00:03:57.127 To walk into a place like this big where they have like four or five items on the menu. 83 00:03:57.167 --> 00:03:58.388 I get spaghetti and meatballs. 84 00:03:58.808 --> 00:04:04.372 They hand it to me in like a tinfoil thing with like a really cheap plastic fucking fork. 85 00:04:04.872 --> 00:04:06.133 And I ate this and it was great. 86 00:04:06.373 --> 00:04:06.573 Yeah. 87 00:04:06.633 --> 00:04:06.934 Great. 88 00:04:07.014 --> 00:04:09.755 And then I find out they actually have more of a restaurant. 89 00:04:09.895 --> 00:04:10.095 Yeah. 90 00:04:10.256 --> 00:04:12.917 And I believe that's about five minutes from here, I think. 91 00:04:12.977 --> 00:04:14.278 So try that. 92 00:04:14.418 --> 00:04:18.401 I think you would give Dave Portnoy a run for his money as a food critic. 93 00:04:18.961 --> 00:04:21.442 I know I would, but he did it first. 94 00:04:21.502 --> 00:04:22.983 People say it all the time. 95 00:04:23.504 --> 00:04:29.327 But he did it first, but you've been doing it unknowingly like way before he did it. 96 00:04:29.367 --> 00:04:29.687 No joke. 97 00:04:29.787 --> 00:04:30.288 I will be... 98 00:04:32.929 --> 00:04:37.573 on a plane or I'll be somewhere and I'll, your feed will come up and I will crack up your shit. 99 00:04:37.654 --> 00:04:44.420 So even to do this one thing where like your pickleball and you walked into the pickleball place here in Nashville and there's like nobody here. 100 00:04:44.860 --> 00:04:45.241 Yeah. 101 00:04:46.282 --> 00:04:48.304 You're like, yeah. 102 00:04:48.444 --> 00:04:51.367 Saturday at 10 AM and not a single person in like 20 courts. 103 00:04:51.387 --> 00:04:51.647 Yeah. 104 00:04:52.067 --> 00:04:58.213 And it's the crate because you've become like a pickleball fanatic. 105 00:04:58.533 --> 00:05:00.715 I mean, you know, I'm 57. 106 00:05:01.016 --> 00:05:02.117 I need a hip replacement. 107 00:05:02.137 --> 00:05:02.897 I have a hernia. 108 00:05:02.957 --> 00:05:05.440 So I'm not moving quite like I'd like to be moving. 109 00:05:05.480 --> 00:05:08.703 But it's like my mental health, you know. 110 00:05:09.223 --> 00:05:10.885 It frees me of life. 111 00:05:11.325 --> 00:05:14.447 Have you got to go to Kid Rocks? 112

00:05:14.607 --> 00:05:15.467 I have not, no. 113 00:05:15.668 --> 00:05:16.688 Here he's got like an epic. 114 00:05:16.708 --> 00:05:19.050 Yeah, I've seen it, and I have a bunch of friends who've played there. 115 00:05:19.070 --> 00:05:19.410 Yeah, yeah. 116 00:05:19.430 --> 00:05:20.851 I need to play with him at some point for sure. 117 00:05:20.871 --> 00:05:23.372 And you've literally played with some of the top guys. 118 00:05:23.632 --> 00:05:24.132 Yeah, yeah. 119 00:05:24.313 --> 00:05:24.653 Oh, yeah. 120 00:05:24.753 --> 00:05:27.735 I mean, I started playing pickleball with the people who are the best in the world now. 121 00:05:27.755 --> 00:05:30.196 And again, you were kind of ahead of that curve, too. 122 00:05:30.256 --> 00:05:30.776 I was way ahead. 123 00:05:30.876 --> 00:05:31.937 Way ahead. 124 00:05:31.977 --> 00:05:37.460 Yeah, I was posting pickleball videos, and people were laughing at me like, you old loser, why don't you get a real sport? 125 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:39.741 Because when I remember seeing your feed, I was like, oh, what is this thing? 126 00:05:39.781 --> 00:05:40.622 It was like a whole... 127 00:05:41.362 --> 00:05:42.183 A whole new thing. 128 00:05:42.283 --> 00:05:46.505 And I started playing it in South Carolina. 129 00:05:46.525 --> 00:05:50.987 I actually was like three or four years ago. 130 00:05:51.007 --> 00:05:57.690 I was in Texas and I was filming and there was a thing called Pickle. 131 00:05:58.742 --> 00:05:59.423 Chicken and pickle. 132 00:05:59.463 --> 00:05:59.664 Yeah. 133 00:05:59.804 --> 00:06:00.505 They have them all over. 134 00:06:00.745 --> 00:06:03.668 So, and this was like, they hadn't done anything like that. 135 00:06:03.688 --> 00:06:07.473 So I went back to South Carolina and I walked to a couple of buddies of mine. 136 00:06:07.493 --> 00:06:14.121 I'm like, I think we should like open up like a restaurant pickleball thing. 137 00:06:14.442 --> 00:06:15.443 And everyone's like, nah. 138 00:06:16.163 --> 00:06:22.907 This is not a good, I'm like, no, and we, like, one guy, we went and looked at the space, and it was just like, I'm like, all we need is four walls and a roof. 139 00:06:23.027 --> 00:06:23.227 Yeah. 140 00:06:23.287 --> 00:06:23.827 That's all we need. 141 00:06:23.927 --> 00:06:31.851 And then, I'm like, and if we don't want to do the liquor license, we'll get, like, food trucks to, like, come and just be there, and we just rotate the food trucks, because Charleston has amazing food. 142 00:06:32.572 --> 00:06:34.494 And they're like, I don't see. 143 00:06:34.594 --> 00:06:38.639 And within, I'd say, a year, year and a half, they came down and they're everywhere. 144 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:40.462 And they're booked out solid. 145 00:06:40.482 --> 00:06:46.450 Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a tough business either way, but it was definitely the growing thing three, four years ago. 146 00:06:46.530 --> 00:06:47.751 You know, I mean, but they're... 147 00:06:48.452 --> 00:06:51.034 The one here, Pickleball Kingdom, which I don't know. 148 00:06:51.074 --> 00:06:54.137 I don't know who's playing Pickleball out there that doesn't know about it. 149 00:06:54.157 --> 00:06:56.118 But in Hendersonville, I mean, it's empty all the time. 150 00:06:56.138 --> 00:06:59.000 So go play there and find me some good players. 151 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:00.261 So how did you end up in Nashville? 152 00:07:00.281 --> 00:07:03.184 Because I was giving you a hard press for South Carolina. 153 00:07:03.224 --> 00:07:04.264 Yeah, which is not over. 154 00:07:04.385 --> 00:07:05.145 I'm not done. 155 00:07:05.185 --> 00:07:05.906 I don't know what I'm doing. 156 00:07:05.986 --> 00:07:09.469 Yeah, because I introduced you to Caleb, and Caleb is like... Yep, he's awesome. 157 00:07:09.709 --> 00:07:10.770 He's the best guy ever. 158 00:07:11.330 --> 00:07:16.654 And it is... Like, when we moved to South Carolina, it's just... 159 00:07:16.894 --> 00:07:17.575 It's literally... 160 00:07:19.057 --> 00:07:22.161 Like we lived in Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles. 161 00:07:22.282 --> 00:07:25.026 And then when we moved to South Carolina, which was totally surprising. 162 00:07:25.046 --> 00:07:29.952 We came here and we were 0 for 11 on offers. 163 00:07:30.794 --> 00:07:33.197 Everything that we put an offer in, we got outbid 30% over ask. 164 00:07:34.779 --> 00:07:38.062 uh, 14 day close, sight unseen, all cash. 165 00:07:38.102 --> 00:07:41.505 And I'm like, and I was like, I thought my realtor was like screwing with me. 166 00:07:41.545 --> 00:07:43.567 Like they're trying to, and I'm like, I can't play this game. 167 00:07:43.627 --> 00:07:50.012 Like I can't, I'm not like, and it wasn't like we were like, it was crazy amount of money, but they were, they were like, sight unseen. 168 00:07:50.052 --> 00:07:51.553 And we go in there like, there's no offers. 169 00:07:51.593 --> 00:07:52.374 I'm like no offers. 170 00:07:53.035 --> 00:07:56.878 The second we went and looked within an hour of, they're like, someone's coming. 171 00:07:56.898 --> 00:07:57.839 Can you, I'm like, no, no, 172 00:07:58.419 --> 00:08:03.983 But we ended up going to South Carolina to go visit a dear friend and mentor of mine, Dave Robinson. 173 00:08:04.504 --> 00:08:08.347 And while we were there, he's like, hey, man, while you're here, why don't you just go up my realtor? 174 00:08:08.547 --> 00:08:09.848 And I was like, hi, Charleston. 175 00:08:10.248 --> 00:08:11.549 You know, I did a movie there. 176 00:08:11.569 --> 00:08:12.169 I was younger. 177 00:08:12.189 --> 00:08:14.691 I was chasing girls and drinking all the time. 178 00:08:14.751 --> 00:08:16.633 And I was like, this is not a place to raise kids. 179 00:08:16.673 --> 00:08:20.235 He's like, no, downtown Charleston, maybe not so much, but Mount Pleasant, kid heaven. 180 00:08:20.416 --> 00:08:21.276 It's just families. 181 00:08:21.897 --> 00:08:23.158 And we went out. 182

00:08:23.678 --> 00:08:24.339 looked at a house. 183 00:08:24.719 --> 00:08:25.519 We looked at three houses. 184 00:08:25.560 --> 00:08:27.981 The one that we looked at was a pocket listing. 185 00:08:28.001 --> 00:08:32.165 There was, the guy was representing himself, walked in there, and I was like, this is it. 186 00:08:32.185 --> 00:08:35.127 And we removed my mom in at the time because she had Parkinson's. 187 00:08:35.687 --> 00:08:40.671 And so we needed a place to have her, a place for her to live. 188 00:08:40.811 --> 00:08:41.252 Yeah. 189 00:08:41.432 --> 00:08:43.854 And, but also to have our space as well. 190 00:08:44.414 --> 00:08:45.855 And this had it all. 191 00:08:46.095 --> 00:08:47.036 And it was on the water. 192 00:08:47.216 --> 00:08:48.017 Oh, that's amazing. 193 00:08:48.077 --> 00:08:52.520 And it's just like, and our 1,600 square foot condo 194 00:08:53.381 --> 00:08:56.104 was like three times the price of what this was. 195 00:08:56.124 --> 00:08:57.306 And I was like, what? 196 00:08:57.867 --> 00:08:58.407 How much is this? 197 00:08:58.547 --> 00:09:03.894 And it was just before that boom happened down there, before basically all of New York moved down to South Carolina. 198 00:09:04.475 --> 00:09:07.518 And it was great, man. 199 00:09:07.538 --> 00:09:08.499 So how did you end up in Nashville? 200 00:09:08.519 --> 00:09:10.282 So, I mean, you know... 201 00:09:10.782 --> 00:09:24.786 COVID just shifted the whole world besides the fact that, you know, I, I don't know if you know, I own like Jimmy Kahn's old house, Scott, you know, so Scott, who's, you know, one of my close friends and a friend of yours. 202 00:09:26.726 --> 00:09:29.687 I went to look at this house 10 years ago and I was like, 203 00:09:30.307 --> 00:09:31.429 This is just like my house. 204 00:09:31.489 --> 00:09:34.473 Is that the one that was with the pool in the backyard that you redid it? 205 00:09:34.634 --> 00:09:35.154 Yeah. 206 00:09:35.254 --> 00:09:35.495 Yeah. 207 00:09:35.595 --> 00:09:36.777 I redid the whole thing. 208 00:09:37.257 --> 00:09:38.279 Had the drop off or something. 209 00:09:38.299 --> 00:09:40.462 Remember somebody fell down that, remember? 210 00:09:40.762 --> 00:09:42.124 Oh, did you, the workers? 211 00:09:42.224 --> 00:09:42.445 Yeah. 212 00:09:42.485 --> 00:09:42.685 Yeah. 213 00:09:42.805 --> 00:09:44.067 Oh, that was the sickest thing ever. 214 00:09:44.127 --> 00:09:44.387 Yeah. 215 00:09:44.447 --> 00:09:46.831 The entire, what do you call it? 216 00:09:47.992 --> 00:09:50.774 would have fucking collapsed with like four guys on it. 217 00:09:51.094 --> 00:09:52.355 It was absolutely insane. 218 00:09:52.555 --> 00:09:54.336 And it's all on video from the thing. 219 00:09:54.356 --> 00:09:56.057 That was terrifying. 220 00:09:56.117 --> 00:09:57.498 Thank God nobody was hurt. 221 00:09:57.518 --> 00:09:58.319 It was a miracle. 222 00:09:59.039 --> 00:10:00.020 Obviously, scaffolding. 223 00:10:00.060 --> 00:10:01.201 Obviously, I had nothing to do with it. 224 00:10:01.221 --> 00:10:02.001 But anyway, I... 225 00:10:03.163 --> 00:10:04.484 Bought that house 10 years ago. 226 00:10:04.584 --> 00:10:09.546 And I honestly thought if I made $10 billion, I would never leave this house. 227 00:10:09.566 --> 00:10:10.647 That's how much I love the house. 228 00:10:10.747 --> 00:10:11.708 Yeah. 229 00:10:11.728 --> 00:10:13.689 And COVID happens. 230 00:10:13.769 --> 00:10:19.752 And all of a sudden, you know, my house got broken into, which I didn't lock the doors for the first five years I was there. 231 00:10:19.792 --> 00:10:20.873 And LA just started... 232 00:10:22.113 --> 00:10:23.914 changing fast, you know? 233 00:10:24.235 --> 00:10:29.378 And, you know, everyone, like, wants to pretend with the media that it's just the media talking about it. 234 00:10:29.578 --> 00:10:30.579 It's fucking not. 235 00:10:30.719 --> 00:10:31.880 I mean... 236 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:32.600 It got bad. 237 00:10:32.660 --> 00:10:35.643 I mean, almost everyone I know has had their house broken into in the last... 238 00:10:36.498 --> 00:10:37.098 two years. 239 00:10:38.359 --> 00:10:44.363 Worse than that, I know people who were involved in some violent crime that they were victims of, which I never knew in the 30 years I was there. 240 00:10:44.383 --> 00:10:47.264 So it really started getting serious and whatever you're in the city. 241 00:10:47.304 --> 00:10:48.045 I grew up in New York. 242 00:10:48.125 --> 00:10:58.711 I, you know, things, but you, but you, you, you work your ass off to, to get to a place where you can come home and feel like you don't have to lock your doors. 243 00:10:58.731 --> 00:11:01.893 You feel like you can, you've, you've created, you know, 244 00:11:02.173 --> 00:11:05.276 safety in a sense in the world that you've built for yourself. 245 00:11:05.416 --> 00:11:09.640 And then that's just... And then if you call 911, it's 45 minutes. 246 00:11:09.660 --> 00:11:11.201 Well, then that started happening. 247 00:11:11.221 --> 00:11:11.561 And I mean... 248 00:11:11.842 --> 00:11:12.863 But by the way, this was crazy. 249 00:11:12.883 --> 00:11:13.763 I mean, I was in... 250 00:11:14.424 --> 00:11:15.004 I was away. 251 00:11:15.345 --> 00:11:16.866 And, you know, I have my ring cameras and stuff. 252 00:11:16.886 --> 00:11:17.607 And I always get alerts. 253 00:11:17.707 --> 00:11:18.988 Oh, someone's on your balcony, whatever. 254 00:11:19.008 --> 00:11:19.548 And it's actually... 255 00:11:19.628 --> 00:11:21.210 I had eaten a couple of edibles, too. 256 00:11:21.570 --> 00:11:22.071 So I'm like... 257 00:11:22.791 --> 00:11:24.952 I'm like, someone's on your balcony. 258 00:11:24.972 --> 00:11:29.114 I click it, and there's two guys on my balcony kicking in my door with masks on and shit. 259 00:11:29.154 --> 00:11:30.915 It's like kind of, you know, especially your high. 260 00:11:30.975 --> 00:11:34.037 It's like really fucking

surreal, like I'm watching Law & Order, you know? 261 00:11:34.097 --> 00:11:38.119 And there's a mic there that you can talk to them on the mic, too. 262 00:11:38.139 --> 00:11:40.119 So I'm like, I hit the mic. 263 00:11:40.160 --> 00:11:41.500 I go, get the fucking gun. 264 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:42.421 Shoot everybody. 265 00:11:42.441 --> 00:11:44.081 Don't ask any fucking questions, whatever. 266 00:11:44.101 --> 00:11:44.342 They... 267 00:11:45.482 --> 00:11:48.065 They can almost tell that, like, they don't give a shit. 268 00:11:48.085 --> 00:11:49.247 Like, none of this matters. 269 00:11:49.307 --> 00:11:50.688 And they went into my house, whatever. 270 00:11:50.989 --> 00:11:53.351 And it's not, you know, thank God no one was home. 271 00:11:53.972 --> 00:11:54.392 Big deal. 272 00:11:54.412 --> 00:11:54.913 You got robbed. 273 00:11:54.933 --> 00:11:58.257 But it really does give you, it takes away a sense of security. 274 00:11:58.818 --> 00:11:59.438 So that was one. 275 00:12:00.560 --> 00:12:02.342 And then the fires happened. 276 00:12:02.762 --> 00:12:03.683 And, you know, 277 00:12:05.405 --> 00:12:14.268 People just started fleeing and people were leaving in during COVID as you know, because that's why Nashville is so expensive and that's why South Carolina, Florida, Texas are all flying. 278 00:12:14.548 --> 00:12:21.830 It was like my realtor said I was the last house he sold before it went bananas. 279 00:12:21.850 --> 00:12:26.532 Like I got any, he was like, literally you cannot get what we like the 3X like overnight. 280 00:12:26.552 --> 00:12:31.774 Well, congrats to you because I think I'm at about house number 150 here, but 281 00:12:33.474 --> 00:12:34.095 It's crazy. 282 00:12:34.115 --> 00:12:42.139 And, you know, I wrote an episode on Entourage where the guys find out from their account they can spend a million dollars on a house, and they're like, holy shit, we're going to get a million-dollar house. 283 00:12:42.159 --> 00:12:46.482 And then they realize a million-dollar house in L.A. even then, 20 years ago, was like a teardown. 284 00:12:46.622 --> 00:12:49.264 Is that the scene where he's come down the escalator? 285 00:12:49.304 --> 00:12:52.465 His business manager's like, why are you buying the... You know what? 286 00:12:52.606 --> 00:12:53.406 I don't even remember. 287 00:12:54.106 --> 00:12:55.247 I do remember the cut, too. 288 00:12:55.267 --> 00:12:59.490 We got a million dollars, and then the cut is like this house that looks like, you know, Shantytown. 289 00:12:59.530 --> 00:13:01.171 But, you know, Nashville... 290 00:13:02.647 --> 00:13:04.688 You know, it's... 291 00:13:05.729 --> 00:13:09.030 I know we live in a world where you don't want to hear first-word problems anymore. 292 00:13:09.050 --> 00:13:10.771 You sound like a jerk-off when you start talking about it. 293 00:13:10.791 --> 00:13:13.532 But I honestly thought I had enough money to come to Nashville. 294 00:13:13.873 --> 00:13:15.473 And, like, I'm in an estate. 295 00:13:15.613 --> 00:13:17.734 I'm going to have two pickleball courts with lights. 296 00:13:17.835 --> 00:13:19.916 I'm going to have, you know, everything I need. 297 00:13:20.296 --> 00:13:21.496 Nashville's expensive. 298 00:13:21.636 --> 00:13:21.816 Yeah. 299 00:13:21.977 --> 00:13:23.657 Like, this is, you know... 300 00:13:24.978 --> 00:13:27.679 You don't walk around here going, oh, my God, look what you get for this. 301 00:13:27.859 --> 00:13:29.260 It's kind of the same thing now. 302 00:13:29.300 --> 00:13:34.141 And I think one of the problems in the country right now is that everywhere is becoming... 303 00:13:34.881 --> 00:13:35.602 It's so... 304 00:13:35.742 --> 00:13:41.704 It's so... Like, to the square footage... And not only that, to, like, what... 305 00:13:42.680 --> 00:13:43.701 we would... 306 00:13:43.921 --> 00:13:47.305 It cost to, like, renovate the house when we first moved in? 307 00:13:47.465 --> 00:13:47.765 Oh, yeah. 308 00:13:47.946 --> 00:13:48.586 Three times now. 309 00:13:48.726 --> 00:13:48.907 Yeah. 310 00:13:49.027 --> 00:13:49.868 Oh, it's crazy. 311 00:13:50.208 --> 00:13:52.691 And that's why the building here, there's so many builders here. 312 00:13:52.711 --> 00:13:52.891 Yeah. 313 00:13:53.311 --> 00:13:55.093 But they kind of build a lot of shit. 314 00:13:55.253 --> 00:13:55.473 Yeah. 315 00:13:55.574 --> 00:13:57.596 Because it's so expensive to build. 316 00:13:57.696 --> 00:13:58.597 And it's hard for guys... 317 00:13:58.837 --> 00:14:00.419 It's hard for you to get workers to show up. 318 00:14:00.459 --> 00:14:00.579 Yeah. 319 00:14:00.599 --> 00:14:02.541 Like, good workers to consistently... Like, if you're... 320 00:14:02.761 --> 00:14:05.724 Like, we had this, we went through, like, three contractors. 321 00:14:05.765 --> 00:14:06.806 And, again, first rule problems. 322 00:14:07.186 --> 00:14:09.309 But it was the first time I was ever really redoing anything. 323 00:14:09.329 --> 00:14:11.151 And we had, like, knocked down a bunch of walls. 324 00:14:11.171 --> 00:14:12.893 We wanted to have this sort of open floor plan. 325 00:14:14.174 --> 00:14:15.336 But it was a structural thing. 326 00:14:15.656 --> 00:14:19.320 So the engineer that we met with was like, oh, yeah, this is... 327 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:20.741 No problem. 328 00:14:20.941 --> 00:14:21.121 Yeah. 329 00:14:21.622 --> 00:14:23.304 He's like, 30 grand to do the thing. 330 00:14:23.324 --> 00:14:24.205 I'm like, great, perfect. 331 00:14:24.745 --> 00:14:26.547 I get a call in LA filming. 332 00:14:26.587 --> 00:14:28.429 He's like, ah, so slight change. 333 00:14:28.489 --> 00:14:28.690 200. 334 00:14:29.170 --> 00:14:30.071 Yeah. 335 00:14:30.091 --> 00:14:31.873 He's like, we got to bring in like steel beams now. 336 00:14:31.913 --> 00:14:32.194 Yeah. 337 00:14:32.214 --> 00:14:32.914 Because they take it. 338 00:14:32.934 --> 00:14:34.236 I'm like, okay. 339

00:14:34.797 --> 00:14:36.819 I'm like, what's the price of it? 340 00:14:36.859 --> 00:14:38.180 He's like, you're not going to like this. 341 00:14:38.241 --> 00:14:38.601 I'm like, okay. 342 00:14:39.722 --> 00:14:42.583 I'm like, you've already taken everything out. 343 00:14:42.603 --> 00:14:43.503 You're the engineer. 344 00:14:43.744 --> 00:14:47.205 But yeah, it was like, what was like 100, 120,000 more than what? 345 00:14:47.265 --> 00:14:48.045 I'm like 30 to 100. 346 00:14:48.085 --> 00:14:50.706 How do you miscalculate? 347 00:14:50.726 --> 00:14:52.727 That's why building a house is torture. 348 00:14:52.767 --> 00:14:54.208 But you know, it's like that scene in Vacation. 349 00:14:54.248 --> 00:14:55.128 Remember Vacation? 350 00:14:55.148 --> 00:14:58.509 They take Chevy Chase's car and he's like, give me my old car back. 351 00:14:58.549 --> 00:14:59.930 And they're destroying it already. 352 00:15:00.330 --> 00:15:01.010 And that's what they do. 353 00:15:01.090 --> 00:15:04.191 I mean, it's very easy to demolish in a house and then it's a lot harder. 354 00:15:04.271 --> 00:15:07.613 But, you know, one of the problems with the world right now is that... 355 00:15:08.931 --> 00:15:10.112 Materials are so expensive. 356 00:15:10.172 --> 00:15:10.352 Yeah. 357 00:15:10.472 --> 00:15:12.094 The work is so expensive. 358 00:15:12.254 --> 00:15:13.675 Everything is costing somebody so much. 359 00:15:13.695 --> 00:15:17.038 So it's, it's honestly, I haven't found a house here that I even like. 360 00:15:17.338 --> 00:15:17.518 Yeah. 361 00:15:17.578 --> 00:15:21.642 You know, I'm like, I mean, I don't think South Carolina's cheap. 362 00:15:21.702 --> 00:15:25.285 It's, it's, it's, it's not, but, and it's no shit on Nashville. 363 00:15:25.645 --> 00:15:29.629 I love coming here, but I just, I just, I love, I love South Carolina. 364 00:15:29.709 --> 00:15:29.889 Yeah. 365 00:15:31.034 --> 00:15:32.535 You looking to amp up your ride? 366 00:15:32.815 --> 00:15:34.896 Total Off-Road and more has got you covered. 367 00:15:35.377 --> 00:15:45.642 Whether you're shopping for custom wheels, lighting, or you just need something installed like a spray-on bed liner, they're your one-stop shop for all off-road, performance, and automotive needs. 368 00:15:46.083 --> 00:15:49.144 Find a location near you at TotalOffRoad.com. 369 00:15:49.705 --> 00:15:53.047 Total Off-Road, where every ride becomes an adventure. 370 00:15:58.110 --> 00:16:00.511 I was talking with this with a buddy of mine last night at dinner. 371 00:16:03.025 --> 00:16:03.425 His... 372 00:16:04.385 --> 00:16:05.566 He lost his house in a fire. 373 00:16:05.726 --> 00:16:06.166 In the fire. 374 00:16:06.486 --> 00:16:07.326 That's why he's out here now. 375 00:16:08.467 --> 00:16:10.848 He's in this still... 376 00:16:11.768 --> 00:16:15.569 In this... Like, their insurance was canceled, unbeknownst to them. 377 00:16:15.849 --> 00:16:16.429 Before the fire. 378 00:16:16.930 --> 00:16:20.671 A month before, because they pulled out because... 379 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:31.367 Newsom hadn't done the proper things to make like they were like, we're not going to ensure this because you're actually not you're you're you're creating like like a fire pit here. 380 00:16:31.567 --> 00:16:35.169 You're not maintaining, cutting the grass or doing the things that you need to do or whatever it was. 381 00:16:35.229 --> 00:16:37.411 And and the water thing is not there. 382 00:16:37.451 --> 00:16:38.151 There was all these things. 383 00:16:38.171 --> 00:16:40.533 He's like, you're we're not we can't ensure this. 384 00:16:41.273 --> 00:16:45.496 But half the people didn't know that that this got canceled. 385 00:16:45.656 --> 00:16:47.478 And like they lost everything. 386 00:16:48.058 --> 00:16:53.162 And now there's some... That's why, you know, everybody's got big... You know, there's always someone with bigger problems. 387 00:16:53.242 --> 00:16:56.084 But what I will say is my house in L.A. 388 00:16:56.104 --> 00:16:59.207 The insurance has gone up 500%. 389 00:16:59.347 --> 00:17:01.849 Did you move to the desert then too? 390 00:17:02.069 --> 00:17:02.710 No, I had a... 391 00:17:03.390 --> 00:17:05.592 I had a house in the desert for a little bit. 392 00:17:05.732 --> 00:17:06.253 Yeah, yeah. 393 00:17:06.353 --> 00:17:08.194 And then I realized I've come to the conclusion. 394 00:17:08.214 --> 00:17:13.098 So the big reason I moved to Nashville is because I had a baby, which was an unexpected miracle. 395 00:17:13.579 --> 00:17:15.761 And God bless, it's the best thing that ever happened to me. 396 00:17:15.781 --> 00:17:18.363 But at 55 years old, that was not the game plan. 397 00:17:18.443 --> 00:17:19.744 You're still shooting straight, buddy. 398 00:17:19.804 --> 00:17:21.726 It's all working properly. 399 00:17:21.766 --> 00:17:23.507 But, you know, I'm like... 400 00:17:24.588 --> 00:17:32.373 So part of me was like, I just want this baby to grow up in a different way than my older kids did in L.A., even though they had a great childhood. 401 00:17:32.413 --> 00:17:36.195 But I just, you know, so but I don't know yet where it's going to shake out. 402 00:17:36.255 --> 00:17:36.675 I'm not. 403 00:17:36.755 --> 00:17:36.955 Yeah. 404 00:17:37.095 --> 00:17:42.779 I'm kind of on like a four year plan as she's in preschool with like, let's try some different places and see where we end up. 405 00:17:42.859 --> 00:17:44.920 How has it been, you know, you. 406 00:17:46.328 --> 00:17:48.649 Because obviously I've got a daughter. 407 00:17:48.989 --> 00:17:50.049 And you have a daughter as well. 408 00:17:50.069 --> 00:17:51.630 So you have two daughters and a son, right? 409 00:17:51.650 --> 00:17:51.750 Yep. 410 00:17:52.150 --> 00:17:53.410 And so I've got two. 411 00:17:53.790 --> 00:17:54.930 I've got twin boys and a daughter. 412 00:17:54.950 --> 00:17:57.071 But my daughter was my first. 413

00:17:57.331 --> 00:17:59.852 And I became more emotional. 414 00:18:00.352 --> 00:18:02.853 I cry at like anything that she does. 415 00:18:02.953 --> 00:18:04.693 Even though she's this like little badass. 416 00:18:04.973 --> 00:18:05.393 I just. 417 00:18:06.674 --> 00:18:08.094 She can do no wrong in my eyes. 418 00:18:08.194 --> 00:18:10.635 And it's just like there's just something about. 419 00:18:11.890 --> 00:18:15.892 even though she's older now too, but when I get, like, they lay, like, she's 11. 420 00:18:16.432 --> 00:18:33.880 So, but it's at that age, you know, like, you know, and it's, it's the hardest thing, you know, I was saying this the other day, it was like, I heard somebody say this, it's like you, you, and it breaks me inside, but you raise your kids to get to a point where they don't need you anymore. 421 00:18:34.080 --> 00:18:34.280 Yeah. 422 00:18:34.780 --> 00:18:36.901 And it's horrible, but you got to do it. 423 00:18:36.961 --> 00:18:38.722 It's like, and it's such a, it's, 424 00:18:39.442 --> 00:18:45.406 And in retrospect, too, it's like, man, I said to my wife and she was like, no, she's like, I kind of wish we had more kids. 425 00:18:45.487 --> 00:18:45.747 Yeah. 426 00:18:45.887 --> 00:18:47.048 And she's like, no, we're good. 427 00:18:47.128 --> 00:18:47.988 And what they're expensive. 428 00:18:48.108 --> 00:18:48.989 They're so expensive. 429 00:18:49.630 --> 00:18:58.576 And but it's just the magic of Christmas and like Easter and the tooth fairy and like these things and the way that they see the world and the questions that they ask. 430 00:18:58.616 --> 00:19:00.638 It's like you can be having the worst day. 431 00:19:00.658 --> 00:19:00.938 Yeah. 432 00:19:01.258 --> 00:19:02.259 And then you'll hear, Daddy. 433 00:19:02.279 --> 00:19:04.081 And you're like, ugh. 434 00:19:04.202 --> 00:19:05.663 It's the best thing in the world. 435 00:19:05.843 --> 00:19:07.385 And you have a little partner. 436 00:19:07.425 --> 00:19:08.326 You can go... 437 00:19:08.507 --> 00:19:10.529 Going to get ice cream is so fun. 438 00:19:10.809 --> 00:19:13.833 Because the way they're like, mmm, they see the things. 439 00:19:14.213 --> 00:19:16.175 Or just going to the movies again. 440 00:19:16.576 --> 00:19:17.317 And getting popcorn. 441 00:19:17.337 --> 00:19:18.138 And seeing them like... 442 00:19:18.478 --> 00:19:19.478 They have to reach up. 443 00:19:19.498 --> 00:19:19.938 It's the best. 444 00:19:20.019 --> 00:19:20.499 I can't wait. 445 00:19:20.539 --> 00:19:22.259 Halloween, because Halloween is going to be crazy. 446 00:19:22.379 --> 00:19:24.080 In Nashville here, the place where I live. 447 00:19:24.100 --> 00:19:24.920 Is this your first Halloween? 448 00:19:25.260 --> 00:19:26.020 In Nashville, yeah. 449 00:19:26.100 --> 00:19:29.381 And it's, I mean, where I live, every house is decked out. 450 00:19:29.421 --> 00:19:31.942 And it's supposedly, allegedly, I'm not kidding. 451 00:19:32.382 --> 00:19:39.485 People told me, because I'm renting a house, the landlord told me to expect between 700 and 1,000 kids at my house. 452 00:19:39.765 --> 00:19:45.927 If you saw the amount of candy that I bought, I mean, it's more than my insurance in LA for the candy that I fucking got for this Halloween. 453 00:19:46.027 --> 00:19:47.007 What are you dressing up, guys? 454 00:19:47.627 --> 00:19:49.748 Well, I just do what my baby tells me. 455 00:19:49.808 --> 00:19:53.228 But she's Elsa from Frozen, so I have to be Olaf. 456 00:19:53.568 --> 00:19:54.249 Oh, great. 457 00:19:54.349 --> 00:19:54.989 Yeah. 458 00:19:55.149 --> 00:19:57.109 And that's been like months. 459 00:19:57.249 --> 00:20:05.531 And she practices, by the way, trick or treating, which, by the way, not to like it's weird in Nashville, but she's never eaten candy and she's not going to eat on this Halloween. 460 00:20:05.751 --> 00:20:06.451 I've already told her. 461 00:20:06.651 --> 00:20:08.952 We have this thing, Bella, this amazing thing, this Switch Witch. 462 00:20:08.972 --> 00:20:09.472 Switch Witch Witch. 463 00:20:09.492 --> 00:20:11.672 Take your candy and turn it into a toy. 464 00:20:11.732 --> 00:20:14.233 So I saw it was like on Jimmy Kimmel or one of the things. 465 00:20:14.293 --> 00:20:14.893 Oh, is that where it's from? 466 00:20:15.193 --> 00:20:17.213 Yeah, I saw the thing. 467 00:20:17.313 --> 00:20:32.156 But I'm telling you, so the kids come home, they'll get a couple things, but then they do the switch, which is like you put it out, and then they get – and the first year they're like – but when they woke up in the morning, it was almost like ran down like, oh, my goodness. 468 00:20:32.496 --> 00:20:38.837 It's way better because, you know, one, I'm freaked out with all the – Poison? 469 00:20:39.058 --> 00:20:39.318 Yeah. 470 00:20:39.498 --> 00:20:41.058 It's just – and, again, it's just – 471 00:20:42.266 --> 00:20:45.147 I know my kids eat really well. 472 00:20:45.668 --> 00:20:49.829 And they'll still have, but when they have sugar, they are little demons. 473 00:20:49.889 --> 00:20:50.470 Yeah. 474 00:20:50.550 --> 00:20:52.591 And it just messes with all the other stuff. 475 00:20:52.611 --> 00:21:00.114 And even when it's like, what is it? 476 00:21:00.454 --> 00:21:01.695 Like a sugar-free or something. 477 00:21:01.715 --> 00:21:02.675 It's just whatever. 478 00:21:03.175 --> 00:21:04.416 It still messes them. 479 00:21:04.456 --> 00:21:06.037 I mean, I was a sugar addict growing up. 480 00:21:06.097 --> 00:21:07.998 And I'm ADHD and stuff. 481 00:21:08.058 --> 00:21:08.918 And the fact that like... 482 00:21:10.255 --> 00:21:11.475 We had no thoughts about this. 483 00:21:11.495 --> 00:21:14.516 Because I was getting kicked out of classes every day. 484 00:21:14.536 --> 00:21:18.077 And, you know, my parents just thought I was just a fucking mess of a human being. 485 00:21:18.097 --> 00:21:22.638 And, you know, at camp, I had a record of

the Froot Loops record. 486 00:21:22.658 --> 00:21:25.819 I ate 22 when I was like 11 or 10 years old. 487 00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:28.880 22 boxes, the miniature boxes of Froot Loops at a breakfast. 488 00:21:29.360 --> 00:21:29.940 And you're like... 489 00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:37.828 The fact now, and it is wild to see it here, and I'm absolutely obsessed with the school that my daughter goes to right now. 490 00:21:37.928 --> 00:21:40.891 It's one of the reasons I'm really happy here for the moment. 491 00:21:41.352 --> 00:21:47.278 But they give fucking, they're like, oh, we're giving, what are those, corn candy? 492 00:21:47.318 --> 00:21:47.699 Yeah, yeah. 493 00:21:47.739 --> 00:21:47.959 Candy corn. 494 00:21:47.979 --> 00:21:48.239 Candy corn. 495 00:21:48.259 --> 00:21:48.339 Yes. 496 00:21:50.822 --> 00:21:51.462 three-year-olds. 497 00:21:51.502 --> 00:21:53.203 I'm like, for what purpose? 498 00:21:53.243 --> 00:21:54.884 Like what's the upside to this? 499 00:21:54.904 --> 00:21:55.184 You know? 500 00:21:55.444 --> 00:21:58.485 And again, maybe we'll find out in five years, oh, it's better than broccoli. 501 00:21:58.505 --> 00:22:00.946 Cause I know they changed everything on us. 502 00:22:00.966 --> 00:22:05.527 But right now we're pretty sure that sugar is one of the worst things, you know, you can eat. 503 00:22:05.567 --> 00:22:08.328 And certainly for a young child and certainly for someone in school. 504 00:22:08.368 --> 00:22:09.489 So why, why? 505 00:22:09.509 --> 00:22:10.189 I don't get it. 506 00:22:10.269 --> 00:22:10.629 So, yeah. 507 00:22:10.869 --> 00:22:14.511 So, so you've had this amazing career and 508 00:22:15.611 --> 00:22:22.335 I feel like you're really hard on yourself all the time, which is, I kind of love that about you because it's a great, it makes me laugh. 509 00:22:23.196 --> 00:22:25.077 But take, can you take me back to like, 510 00:22:26.797 --> 00:22:30.679 Like, you as a child, like, let's go to the beginning of Doug. 511 00:22:31.159 --> 00:22:32.560 Obviously, New York. 512 00:22:32.680 --> 00:22:33.661 Yeah, Long Island. 513 00:22:33.721 --> 00:22:36.122 Family, mom, dad, close family. 514 00:22:36.562 --> 00:22:37.763 How was that growing up? 515 00:22:38.083 --> 00:22:38.783 Close family. 516 00:22:38.843 --> 00:22:43.226 My father actually, I based the character on Entourage, more of an accountant, was based on my father. 517 00:22:43.246 --> 00:22:43.486 No way. 518 00:22:43.966 --> 00:22:47.708 You know, who, as you know, he passed away two months ago, three months. 519 00:22:47.728 --> 00:22:49.389 I can't keep track anymore. 520 00:22:49.869 --> 00:22:50.370 How's that been? 521 00:22:51.310 --> 00:22:52.691 It's just life is surreal. 522 00:22:52.731 --> 00:22:56.775 You know, I mean, you know, you have to be, again, we all go through it. 523 00:22:56.795 --> 00:22:58.336 You have to feel very fortunate. 524 00:22:58.416 --> 00:23:03.039 And now that I have a three-year-old, I pray I

can make it to my dad, made it to 93 years old. 525 00:23:03.160 --> 00:23:06.202 But it's weird that you wake up some days and you just forget. 526 00:23:06.222 --> 00:23:08.904 And then I'm like, my mom's been gone 15 years. 527 00:23:08.964 --> 00:23:11.826 And yeah, we were a crazy kind of... 528 00:23:12.829 --> 00:23:17.931 you know, argumentative fighting family all the time, but very close and always together, you know? 529 00:23:18.151 --> 00:23:19.792 So it's very strange. 530 00:23:19.992 --> 00:23:23.934 Yeah, I was super close with my dad. 531 00:23:24.014 --> 00:23:27.596 Like, I was very blessed with the relationship I had with my father. 532 00:23:27.616 --> 00:23:35.379 And again, I don't think it's ever, like, he'll be 12 years gone December 1st. 533 00:23:36.740 --> 00:23:38.841 And I don't think it gets easier. 534 00:23:38.961 --> 00:23:42.244 You just find a way to kind of deal with it. 535 00:23:42.644 --> 00:23:46.406 But I thoroughly look forward to, I see, I meet him in my dreams. 536 00:23:46.446 --> 00:23:47.427 And it took me forever. 537 00:23:47.467 --> 00:23:49.428 Like, first I'd, like, see him in a distance. 538 00:23:49.448 --> 00:23:50.629 And then I, like, try and run. 539 00:23:50.649 --> 00:23:51.469 I could never find him. 540 00:23:51.810 --> 00:23:53.591 It was like, and I'd wake up and I'd be, like, crying. 541 00:23:53.611 --> 00:23:56.593 And then I finally would see him, but I couldn't talk to him. 542 00:23:56.613 --> 00:23:59.154 And then finally one day we had a conversation. 543 00:23:59.575 --> 00:24:01.056 And now randomly... 544 00:24:01.816 --> 00:24:05.499 I'll have these moments where I'll meet him, but we'll always meet at the same place as a bench. 545 00:24:05.559 --> 00:24:08.862 And we sit down and we have a conversation and it's always in these weird and we'll talk. 546 00:24:08.902 --> 00:24:14.927 I don't know how long we'll talk for, but then I wake up and I get so upset that I can't go back to think, but he looks great. 547 00:24:15.007 --> 00:24:19.631 And I feel like missing him and getting emotional about him. 548 00:24:20.031 --> 00:24:21.112 I've been like, it's good. 549 00:24:21.152 --> 00:24:22.113 Cause I'm still, I'm still, 550 00:24:22.493 --> 00:24:23.713 I'm connected to him still. 551 00:24:23.733 --> 00:24:25.174 You know, it's like, and it sucks. 552 00:24:25.294 --> 00:24:25.634 It sucks. 553 00:24:25.874 --> 00:24:31.076 I'm like, I'm always, you know, because he saw me sort of at the beginning of my career. 554 00:24:31.816 --> 00:24:37.398 He saw the Entourage, and it was like right when I got CSI New York, it was right around then, but... 555 00:24:38.138 --> 00:24:39.219 He didn't get to meet my kids. 556 00:24:39.259 --> 00:24:41.642 And I think that's my biggest pride and joy. 557 00:24:41.882 --> 00:24:42.183 You know? 558 00:24:42.363 --> 00:24:43.624 And he got to meet my wife. 559 00:24:44.145 --> 00:24:45.046 Actually, funny story. 560 00:24:46.468 -->

00:24:49.291 So, when we were... 561 00:24:49.311 --> 00:24:50.873 I was dating my wife. 562 00:24:51.133 --> 00:24:52.275 We just started dating. 563 00:24:52.475 --> 00:24:53.977 My birthday always falls around Super Bowl. 564 00:24:54.597 --> 00:24:55.639 And my wife's a nurse. 565 00:24:55.959 --> 00:24:56.159 And... 566 00:24:56.940 --> 00:25:02.184 When my mom and dad came down and met her, it was my birthday weekend and Super Bowl was on and I was hungover. 567 00:25:02.224 --> 00:25:10.811 We'd had a party night before and my wife, I got something for a surprise and she goes, gets a broom and like sticks it between the couch. 568 00:25:11.232 --> 00:25:18.597 And she comes out with like an IV bag and like hangs it on the broom and like sticks an IV in and does this thing and goes in the bathroom. 569 00:25:18.617 --> 00:25:19.258 And my dad's like... 570 00:25:21.355 --> 00:25:23.337 She's just put an IV in you because you're hungover? 571 00:25:23.357 --> 00:25:25.319 He goes, you better fucking marry that woman. 572 00:25:25.559 --> 00:25:26.761 I was like, I don't even know. 573 00:25:26.801 --> 00:25:31.325 And then she came up, put her own IV in, sat down beside me, handed me a Corona, and she's like, happy birthday. 574 00:25:31.405 --> 00:25:33.628 I'm like, I cannot fuck this up. 575 00:25:34.128 --> 00:25:36.190 It was like, but it's a crazy... 576 00:25:38.012 --> 00:25:47.475 Being with your parents, like my mom lives with us now, and like I said, she's got Parkinson's, and there's that reversal of the child becomes the parent. 577 00:25:48.576 --> 00:25:57.659 And again, I feel fortunate, and I know you feel the same way, as much as the ups and downs of the family, but to have that, it was so tight. 578 00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:01.380 And I only hope that I can have, like my kids can... 579 00:26:02.560 --> 00:26:06.901 look back at the way I look at my father and be like, man, like he did his best. 580 00:26:07.121 --> 00:26:07.321 Yeah. 581 00:26:07.341 --> 00:26:09.121 That's, that's, that's the thing I think about. 582 00:26:09.141 --> 00:26:15.522 And it's, it's tough, you know, to think that my daughter is not going to grow up with her grandparents is tough, you know? 583 00:26:15.562 --> 00:26:15.843 Yeah. 584 00:26:16.383 --> 00:26:20.543 And, and they, they got to meet her or my older kids. 585 00:26:20.583 --> 00:26:24.124 I mean, they knew my mother a little bit, but she died when they were pretty young. 586 00:26:24.164 --> 00:26:27.905 But, uh, my baby met my father, um, a couple of times. 587 00:26:27.965 --> 00:26:29.485 So she's never going to remember that. 588 00:26:29.705 --> 00:26:30.025 Yeah. 589 00:26:30.245 --> 00:26:37.288 Pictures, you know, but like my son's never, my kids never met him, but my son Ranger, it's the craziest thing. 590 00:26:37.488 --> 00:26:39.509 He one day, like, cause I have pictures everywhere. 591 00:26:39.529 --> 00:26:43.610 I say Papa Joe and, and pictures that I talk about, he's your guardian angel. 592 00:26:43.730 --> 00:26:48.652 And I always say when I feel like a breeze or something, it's like, Oh, it's, you know, it's, that's Papa Joe. 593 00:26:48.712 --> 00:26:51.033 Or I just, when I think about him, I'll always acknowledge him. 594 00:26:51.073 --> 00:26:52.253 I'm like, Hey dad, I feel like he's there. 595 00:26:53.134 --> 00:26:56.875 But Ranger one day he goes to me, he's like, he's like, he's like, he's like, 596 00:26:56.975 --> 00:26:58.897 He's like, Dad, you know that I met Papa Joe? 597 00:26:58.917 --> 00:26:59.758 And I was like, you did? 598 00:26:59.798 --> 00:27:00.618 He goes, yeah, in heaven. 599 00:27:00.939 --> 00:27:01.619 I was like, you did? 600 00:27:02.120 --> 00:27:04.002 And this is like he was like four years old. 601 00:27:04.062 --> 00:27:06.744 And he's like, yeah, he told me I was coming to this family. 602 00:27:07.665 --> 00:27:09.687 And I've not ever said this to him before. 603 00:27:09.707 --> 00:27:10.568 Like, this wasn't a prompt. 604 00:27:10.608 --> 00:27:11.429 He's out of nowhere. 605 00:27:11.509 --> 00:27:12.610 And I'm like, and he had this big smile. 606 00:27:12.630 --> 00:27:13.070 He's like, yeah. 607 00:27:13.090 --> 00:27:13.811 I'm like, what do you look like? 608 00:27:13.851 --> 00:27:15.392 He's like, he was so funny. 609 00:27:15.532 --> 00:27:16.333 And I was like, oh, yeah. 610 00:27:16.353 --> 00:27:16.894 And then he kind of. 611 00:27:17.354 --> 00:27:20.435 You know, he has this, he's created this story and this thing. 612 00:27:20.835 --> 00:27:26.757 But I'm like, and whether or not that is true or whatever, it's like he's got this connection to somebody. 613 00:27:26.877 --> 00:27:29.017 And every night we say our prayers and go to bed. 614 00:27:29.097 --> 00:27:30.698 He said, we say goodnight to Papa Joe. 615 00:27:31.118 --> 00:27:34.179 And then sometimes he asks, he'll ask, he's like, how come I never got to... 616 00:27:34.759 --> 00:27:46.404 To me, or like, how come he, like here at this house, like at Christmas, he's like, how come Papa, and I'm like, well, you know, and then your child realizes for the first time what death is. 617 00:27:47.405 --> 00:27:52.247 And then that's that weird thing for them because with your child, you don't think about those things. 618 00:27:52.267 --> 00:27:55.989 But then it's like there's a, and I think as kids... 619 00:27:56.989 --> 00:28:01.532 we lived in this world of where it felt slow because we didn't know there was an end. 620 00:28:01.752 --> 00:28:02.032 Yeah. 621 00:28:02.512 --> 00:28:07.635 But then when we know there's an end, it goes, seems to go, like, it just seems, doesn't it feel like it's going quicker? 622 00:28:07.815 --> 00:28:08.176 Oh, yeah. 623 00:28:08.716 --> 00:28:09.496 Right? 624 00:28:09.536 --> 00:28:11.157 And I always try to figure out why that is. 625 00:28:11.197 --> 00:28:11.898 I think, you know... 626 00:28:12.618 --> 00:28:14.679 It's all such new

experiences when you're young. 627 00:28:14.980 --> 00:28:15.240 Yeah. 628 00:28:15.500 --> 00:28:17.481 And then, you know, a lot of it's the same shit over and over. 629 00:28:17.501 --> 00:28:18.662 That's where you get so excited. 630 00:28:18.682 --> 00:28:24.346 You, like, pull back into that, like, wonder of, like, oh, my gosh, this is such a wonderful, wonderful thing. 631 00:28:25.406 --> 00:28:29.849 So then from New York, then when did this... 632 00:28:29.909 --> 00:28:32.631 I just heard before we started rolling, you got into stand-up? 633 00:28:32.771 --> 00:28:33.371 Yeah, I mean, I was... 634 00:28:33.391 --> 00:28:37.194 Which I'm not surprised, I mean... Yeah, I was at Tulane in New Orleans. 635 00:28:37.394 --> 00:28:37.934 Oh, that's right. 636 00:28:38.235 --> 00:28:41.837 And I was, like, supposed to go to law school based on, you know, just... 637 00:28:42.437 --> 00:28:45.738 my family's pressure and I didn't really know what else to do. 638 00:28:45.818 --> 00:28:49.979 And, uh, um, I always loved movies, but I'd never done anything. 639 00:28:49.999 --> 00:28:54.140 I mean, I wasn't involved in the theater department or, you know, any of that stuff. 640 00:28:54.681 --> 00:29:02.363 And, uh, you know, I always was pretty critical, you know, harsh on myself, but we, we went to like a standup show with a bunch of my friends. 641 00:29:02.383 --> 00:29:03.763 And I was like, this guy sucks. 642 00:29:03.803 --> 00:29:04.423 This guy sucks. 643 00:29:04.463 --> 00:29:08.904 And one of my friends signed me up for an amateur standup night, you know, and I did it. 644 00:29:09.405 --> 00:29:10.205 I mean, in the last year, 645 00:29:10.845 --> 00:29:19.869 In the last month of college, I wrote my first screenplay, having no idea how to write a screenplay, sitting on the bench at the UC, and I did that. 646 00:29:19.889 --> 00:29:21.950 Were you on a typewriter or were you on a... No. 647 00:29:22.570 --> 00:29:24.671 There's no... You know, I'm 57. 648 00:29:24.691 --> 00:29:32.915 I mean, the laptop, the computer that I came to, which was like one of the first portable computers, was 50 pounds. 649 00:29:33.215 --> 00:29:33.575 Oh, wow. 650 00:29:33.635 --> 00:29:34.996 A compact that my brother... 651 00:29:35.256 --> 00:29:36.256 They gave me my brother. 652 00:29:36.276 --> 00:29:37.457 So, no, there was no... 653 00:29:38.311 --> 00:29:40.452 No, it was not like a laptop computer. 654 00:29:40.492 --> 00:29:41.013 It was sitting there. 655 00:29:41.033 --> 00:29:44.374 I was like writing it in a notebook, which I have the worst handwriting in history. 656 00:29:44.414 --> 00:29:57.522 But I wrote my first screenplay sitting on a UC bench and I did an amateur stand-up night and I went home to New York after graduation and I was there for three days and I told my parents I'm moving to LA to do stand-up comedy. 657 00:29:57.622 --> 00:30:02.545 Now, was your stand-up, were you like a storyteller like Pryor or like a Jerry Seinfeld type guy? 658 00:30:02.645 --> 00:30:02.825 I've... 659 00:30:02.905 --> 00:30:04.786 I think Price Seinfeld, Dennis Miller type. 660 00:30:04.826 --> 00:30:06.407 I don't even want to say I got to this type. 661 00:30:06.687 --> 00:30:07.908 Dennis Miller was one of my... 662 00:30:08.528 --> 00:30:13.771 When Dennis Miller was back in the day, anyone watched the White Album was beyond genius. 663 00:30:13.851 --> 00:30:17.674 And I think most stand-ups, when they start, you kind of imitate people that you love. 664 00:30:17.714 --> 00:30:23.517 But the people that inspired me were Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Woody Allen, Alvin Brooks, Seinfeld. 665 00:30:23.997 --> 00:30:24.478 But... 666 00:30:25.423 --> 00:30:26.584 You know, I just... 667 00:30:27.024 --> 00:30:27.865 I hated that life. 668 00:30:28.365 --> 00:30:28.665 You know? 669 00:30:28.906 --> 00:30:30.847 Like, I hated being up late at night. 670 00:30:30.887 --> 00:30:31.368 I hate... 671 00:30:31.568 --> 00:30:32.869 I hate stand-ups, by the way. 672 00:30:32.889 --> 00:30:38.313 And I don't mean, like, great ones, but, like, you know, the amateur stand-ups, when you're fucking with them all day, they're always on. 673 00:30:38.333 --> 00:30:39.093 They never stop. 674 00:30:39.153 --> 00:30:39.954 And it's just, like... 675 00:30:40.034 --> 00:30:40.655 It's a tough life. 676 00:30:40.875 --> 00:30:41.055 Yeah. 677 00:30:41.115 --> 00:30:43.137 But I did a... 678 00:30:44.063 --> 00:30:50.146 I was doing stand-up for about a year, and I did a UCLA extension class, screenwriting. 679 00:30:50.626 --> 00:30:54.828 And the first day, the teacher said, everybody pitch your movie idea, you know? 680 00:30:54.909 --> 00:31:01.952 And I was working in the mailroom at New Line Cinema, and everybody pitched their movie ideas, and these movie ideas were so fucking terrible, I kind of was like, oh. 681 00:31:02.092 --> 00:31:04.433 So I said, I'm going to make a short film. 682 00:31:04.513 --> 00:31:06.374 I'd never been on a movie set in my life, never. 683 00:31:06.755 --> 00:31:07.995 I said, I'm going to make a short film. 684 00:31:08.215 --> 00:31:11.057 And this other kid in the mailroom with me who... 685 00:31:11.677 --> 00:31:12.918 became a successful director. 686 00:31:13.058 --> 00:31:13.178 Yeah. 687 00:31:13.198 --> 00:31:14.259 This kid, Tommy O'Haver. 688 00:31:14.319 --> 00:31:16.121 We like, we're in the mailroom. 689 00:31:16.141 --> 00:31:18.743 We're like, let's write this fucking thing and like, you know, we'll make it. 690 00:31:19.163 --> 00:31:24.707 So we wrote this little short and then I handed out at New Line, like flyers to come see me do stand up to give us money. 691 00:31:25.288 --> 00:31:27.910 And Mike DeLuca, who was the VP of New Line, mm-hmm, 692 00:31:28.150 --> 00:31:29.151 This is actually a crazy story. 693 00:31:29.171 --> 00:31:30.492 I've told this before, but this is crazy. 694 00:31:30.512 --> 00:31:32.093 But Mike DeLuca comes to

the show. 695 00:31:32.113 --> 00:31:35.496 I don't know if you know Mike, but he's an Oscar-winning... Yeah, of course, yeah. 696 00:31:35.756 --> 00:31:39.178 Mike comes to the show, and I'm 21. 697 00:31:39.198 --> 00:31:42.301 I'm the fucking mailroom kid pushing the mail around during the day. 698 00:31:42.361 --> 00:31:47.505 And he goes, I was going to get a new motorcycle, but here, make this short film. 699 00:31:47.645 --> 00:31:50.147 Gave me $10,000, you know, out of his own pocket. 700 00:31:50.627 --> 00:32:00.569 So I made this short film and I got a bunch of David Schwimmer pre friends and Ernie Hudson and... Ernie Hudson from... From Ghostbusters, from Oz. 701 00:32:00.589 --> 00:32:01.229 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 702 00:32:01.309 --> 00:32:02.549 And amazing Ernie Hudson. 703 00:32:02.809 --> 00:32:07.390 Helen Martin, who's this great older African-American actor who was... 704 00:32:08.071 --> 00:32:12.511 I was... New Line was doing House Party and I like drove her one day and I'm like, I'm doing this short film. 705 00:32:12.531 --> 00:32:13.032 Would you do it? 706 00:32:13.052 --> 00:32:13.632 She's like, yeah. 707 00:32:13.672 --> 00:32:14.612 I mean, she's amazing. 708 00:32:14.712 --> 00:32:18.713 She's been on every television show and I mean, she passed away now, but incredible. 709 00:32:18.753 --> 00:32:20.233 So I did this. 710 00:32:21.834 --> 00:32:26.177 and we sell this short film to Showtime, which is crazy. 711 00:32:26.417 --> 00:32:28.058 I mean, that doesn't even exist anymore. 712 00:32:28.078 --> 00:32:28.978 They played it before the player. 713 00:32:29.018 --> 00:32:30.259 But what also happens is... 714 00:32:30.279 --> 00:32:32.981 This is like when Showtime was like... 715 00:32:33.021 --> 00:32:35.442 They were kind of the new kids on the block too, right? 716 00:32:35.562 --> 00:32:35.783 Yeah. 717 00:32:35.823 --> 00:32:37.364 But the player just came out. 718 00:32:37.384 --> 00:32:38.624 So my movie... Oh, yeah, yeah. 719 00:32:38.644 --> 00:32:41.966 My shirt was a bunch of people pitching bad movie ideas, including me. 720 00:32:42.006 --> 00:32:44.008 I mean, and the... 721 00:32:44.688 --> 00:32:49.171 The player actually, if you steal the trailer for the player, it actually had people pitching movies. 722 00:32:49.491 --> 00:32:53.773 And I remember when I saw it, I'm always like fucking anxious about something. 723 00:32:54.374 --> 00:32:56.535 I'm like, they're going to think I stole this from the player. 724 00:32:56.715 --> 00:33:00.917 And then, crazy enough, Showtime buys it, puts it on before the player. 725 00:33:00.938 --> 00:33:03.139 Johnny Silverman was in it also. 726 00:33:03.739 --> 00:33:06.661 But what happens that's even more insane is... 727 00:33:07.679 --> 00:33:08.999 First of all, this movie was just this. 728 00:33:09.079 --> 00:33:11.500 It was one shot of people pitching to a desk. 729 00:33:11.520 --> 00:33:15.041 So directing, it was not highly directed. 730 00:33:15.061 --> 00:33:17.041 It was more of a writer's actor's piece. 731 00:33:17.662 --> 00:33:22.203 But this producer sees it and is like, you're a genius. 732 00:33:22.283 --> 00:33:22.983 I'm 21. 733 00:33:23.323 --> 00:33:24.864 This is my first movie set. 734 00:33:25.024 --> 00:33:25.724 You're a genius. 735 00:33:25.924 --> 00:33:29.045 I want you to direct this movie that we're making. 736 00:33:29.245 --> 00:33:30.005 The Parent Trap. 737 00:33:30.585 --> 00:33:30.885 Okay? 738 00:33:31.725 --> 00:33:33.806 The Parent Trap is at New Line Cinema. 739 00:33:34.606 --> 00:33:39.670 So I am now by the producer, I'm attached to direct this fucking studio movie. 740 00:33:40.051 --> 00:33:43.693 I was, I just left the mail room maybe six weeks earlier. 741 00:33:44.194 --> 00:33:50.039 And now I'm walking back in to meet with Mike DeLuca, who gave me $10,000 to make my short film. 742 00:33:50.519 --> 00:33:56.083 And I am like, I'm, I mean, I don't even think Quentin exists yet, but I'm like, I'm fucking, you know, I'm Quentin. 743 00:33:56.143 --> 00:33:57.405 I'm this, I'm like, whatever. 744 00:33:58.105 --> 00:33:59.307 But how old are you at this point? 745 00:33:59.527 --> 00:34:01.049 21, 22. 746 00:34:01.169 --> 00:34:01.850 Oh, wow. 747 00:34:02.210 --> 00:34:03.872 No, actually, I graduated college. 748 00:34:03.912 --> 00:34:06.895 22, 23, around there. 749 00:34:08.678 --> 00:34:12.062 And if I could go back in time, I could get this movie. 750 00:34:12.202 --> 00:34:12.362 Yeah. 751 00:34:13.516 --> 00:34:14.917 But I'm such a fucking idiot. 752 00:34:14.957 --> 00:34:16.318 And I'm also like, I don't know. 753 00:34:16.679 --> 00:34:18.200 I don't even know really. 754 00:34:18.380 --> 00:34:19.441 I mean, it sounds crazy. 755 00:34:19.501 --> 00:34:24.045 I'm a movie obsessive guy, TV guy, but I was never like a technical guy. 756 00:34:24.105 --> 00:34:25.946 I don't even know what the director really does. 757 00:34:26.026 --> 00:34:27.808 I mean, I like can think about it. 758 00:34:27.908 --> 00:34:28.108 Yeah. 759 00:34:28.608 --> 00:34:34.973 And I go into this meeting, which I know I could have bullshitted my way through, but I was just a fucking schmuck. 760 00:34:34.993 --> 00:34:36.635 And the thing I always tell young people are... 761 00:34:38.089 --> 00:34:41.591 Don't think of yourself as lying, but sell yourself positively. 762 00:34:41.611 --> 00:34:44.312 Because nobody wants to be in a room with someone who seems unsure. 763 00:34:44.632 --> 00:34:50.215 But Mike DeLuca, who gave me the fucking money and was, like, just primed for what a story this would have been, by the way. 764 00:34:50.235 --> 00:34:51.896 What a great story. 765 00:34:52.316 --> 00:34:54.057 And he's like, so how are you going to shoot this thing? 766 00:34:54.517 --> 00:34:57.358 I don't even know what the fuck that question means. 767 00:34:57.418 --> 00:34:58.999 And I should have, obviously. 768 00:34:59.139 --> 00:35:01.980 But

I'm like, you know, I'm going to make it funny. 769 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:03.601 You know, it's going to be great. 770 00:35:03.641 --> 00:35:05.202 He's like, so what else have you done? 771 00:35:05.282 --> 00:35:07.003 Like, did you make films as a kid? 772 00:35:07.043 --> 00:35:07.703 I'm like, no. 773 00:35:09.064 --> 00:35:11.185 I just like, I watched movies all the time. 774 00:35:11.265 --> 00:35:11.906 I know it or whatever. 775 00:35:12.046 --> 00:35:13.707 Anyway, Mike took me to lunch after that. 776 00:35:13.767 --> 00:35:14.348 I mean, I just. 777 00:35:14.888 --> 00:35:15.809 You didn't know what you don't know. 778 00:35:16.309 --> 00:35:22.533 Oh, and I, by the way, this lawyer that I made fun of on Entourage, I won't even mention his name, but I hope he's suffering greatly. 779 00:35:23.574 --> 00:35:24.114 I love you. 780 00:35:24.135 --> 00:35:28.297 This lawyer gets like a wind of this whole fucking thing, takes me to like the top. 781 00:35:28.538 --> 00:35:29.718 Again, I'm 22. 782 00:35:29.738 --> 00:35:34.182 I don't know anyone in Hollywood when I got there, by the way, besides my wife-to-be. 783 00:35:34.202 --> 00:35:35.763 I don't know anybody. 784 00:35:35.983 --> 00:35:36.163 Mm-hmm. 785 00:35:36.343 --> 00:35:42.546 So I have somehow like circumvented the entire system by making this like six minute short film. 786 00:35:42.886 --> 00:35:45.388 And I'm like in this position and this lawyer finds out about it. 787 00:35:45.408 --> 00:35:49.610 And he's like, takes me because we're going to be together for the next 30 years. 788 00:35:50.110 --> 00:35:55.653 Like you and I are going to grow from this like Spielberg and this like this and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 789 00:35:56.472 --> 00:35:59.153 I come out of that meeting, and again, I'm like, just a fucking idiot. 790 00:35:59.173 --> 00:36:05.136 I don't realize how awful most people are and how really they're all just opportunistic scumbags. 791 00:36:05.156 --> 00:36:06.496 And I'm just like being myself. 792 00:36:06.556 --> 00:36:07.737 And I'm like, I call him up. 793 00:36:07.757 --> 00:36:08.357 He's like, how'd it go? 794 00:36:08.377 --> 00:36:09.838 I'm like, it was fucking horrible. 795 00:36:09.878 --> 00:36:12.199 I just didn't know what I was doing. 796 00:36:12.219 --> 00:36:15.040 And I wish I was – I should have been more confident. 797 00:36:15.060 --> 00:36:15.600 I should have been this. 798 00:36:15.700 --> 00:36:19.042 And I swear on my life, this piece of trash is like – 799 00:36:20.077 --> 00:36:20.858 Okay, no worries. 800 00:36:20.878 --> 00:36:21.198 Don't worry. 801 00:36:21.218 --> 00:36:21.919 Let me call you back. 802 00:36:22.059 --> 00:36:23.119 And I never heard from him again. 803 00:36:23.820 --> 00:36:24.000 Ever. 804 00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:25.541 Okay, I never spoke to this guy again. 805 00:36:25.621 --> 00:36:28.384 It was going to be my lawyer of 30 years because my meeting did not go well. 806 00:36:28.404 --> 00:36:30.085 So I based a character on this guy. 807 00:36:30.525 --> 00:36:32.787 And I reversed his name, but he knows what it is. 808 00:36:32.847 --> 00:36:34.288 And I'm not going to mention his name now. 809 00:36:34.308 --> 00:36:39.112 But I trashed him on the show 15, 10, 15 years later. 810 00:36:39.192 --> 00:36:45.978 But, you know, that was where I got the experiences of that would come and form entourage from learning what Hollywood is. 811 00:36:46.018 --> 00:36:48.459 And it hasn't changed, by the way, even though it's now... 812 00:36:49.220 --> 00:37:01.689 increasingly difficult to get work and LA is, you know, not just the crime and stuff, but Hollywood business is just in a, in a bad spot, but the people are still the same awful pieces of trash. 813 00:37:01.729 --> 00:37:04.231 And, and, and I don't think that's just Hollywood. 814 00:37:04.271 --> 00:37:07.413 I think that's wherever there's power and money, those things tend to happen, but. 815 00:37:07.413 --> 00:37:07.633 Yeah. 816 00:37:07.813 --> 00:37:14.517 So after you go through this thing, like what was your, cause it wasn't, it was like the, you did like the waitress movie. 817 00:37:14.537 --> 00:37:17.599 I did another short film with Schwimmer, which also, you know. 818 00:37:17.619 --> 00:37:21.482 Cause I remember I watched that, the, what was that one that you did? 819 00:37:21.502 --> 00:37:21.902 The waiter? 820 00:37:21.962 --> 00:37:22.302 Yeah. 821 00:37:22.322 --> 00:37:22.602 The waiter. 822 00:37:22.622 --> 00:37:22.762 Yeah. 823 00:37:22.782 --> 00:37:23.022 The waiter. 824 00:37:23.042 --> 00:37:23.163 Yeah. 825 00:37:23.183 --> 00:37:23.623 It was great. 826 00:37:24.003 --> 00:37:24.564 Yeah, the waiters. 827 00:37:25.004 --> 00:37:26.165 So I went to... 828 00:37:26.245 --> 00:37:32.170 So after that short film, Mike took me to lunch, said, you're going to have a career, but you got to, like, learn something. 829 00:37:32.190 --> 00:37:33.091 Maybe go to film school. 830 00:37:33.211 --> 00:37:33.451 Yeah. 831 00:37:33.651 --> 00:37:34.472 Like, okay. 832 00:37:34.792 --> 00:37:36.934 An hour ago, I thought I was, like, doing a $30 million movie. 833 00:37:36.974 --> 00:37:37.975 Now I'm going to film school. 834 00:37:37.995 --> 00:37:40.657 But I ended up getting into AFI, the American Film Institute. 835 00:37:41.117 --> 00:37:44.100 And when I came out, I was like, okay, I'm going to make another short film. 836 00:37:44.220 --> 00:37:47.302 So... And, again, I wanted to be... 837 00:37:48.043 --> 00:37:49.704 Woody Allen or Albert Brooks. 838 00:37:49.804 --> 00:37:52.805 So I was going to write, star, and direct in this short film. 839 00:37:53.645 --> 00:37:56.206 And I wrote this thing again. 840 00:37:56.346 --> 00:38:00.107 I don't know how these things happen because they're not easy, but somehow they happen. 841 00:38:00.127 --> 00:38:04.689 But anyway, I write this script, and David Schwimmer is now on Friends and is one of my

close friends. 842 00:38:05.009 --> 00:38:05.869 And he's going to do it. 843 00:38:06.049 --> 00:38:07.890 Is he as nice as he seems to be? 844 00:38:07.910 --> 00:38:09.170 There's not many nicer people. 845 00:38:09.190 --> 00:38:10.010 He just looks like... 846 00:38:10.110 --> 00:38:13.492 He actually directed a movie that my friend did, Leona Liberato. 847 00:38:13.552 --> 00:38:14.372 It was about the... 848 00:38:15.332 --> 00:38:17.973 the daughter gets catfish. 849 00:38:18.053 --> 00:38:20.154 Oh, that was intense. 850 00:38:20.174 --> 00:38:22.275 Roger Ebert said that was one of the best movies of the year. 851 00:38:22.315 --> 00:38:23.355 I was at Toronto Film Festival. 852 00:38:23.375 --> 00:38:24.275 You got no credit for that. 853 00:38:24.415 --> 00:38:26.416 It was unbelievable. 854 00:38:26.496 --> 00:38:31.438 And they said like the, the way that even how he was with, uh, 855 00:38:32.198 --> 00:38:34.880 like Liana, because it was such, she was so young when she did that. 856 00:38:35.220 --> 00:38:40.564 And how, like, and George, you know, these guys are from Texas, and she was sort of just on the rise. 857 00:38:40.824 --> 00:38:42.706 But this was a really big movie for her. 858 00:38:42.986 --> 00:38:52.813 But it was such a sense of, and George was like, you know, me and Rhonda were worried about Liana doing this movie. 859 00:38:53.694 --> 00:38:56.336 He's like, but this guy, Dave Schwimmer, how... 860 00:38:57.693 --> 00:38:59.214 Gentle and how professional. 861 00:38:59.294 --> 00:39:04.679 And he would communicate to us and communicate to Yana and just made her understand. 862 00:39:05.299 --> 00:39:07.121 Because he's like, I have to put her in. 863 00:39:07.221 --> 00:39:09.903 And he didn't feel great about it, but in order to understand. 864 00:39:10.484 --> 00:39:12.946 And the movie was fucking flawless. 865 00:39:13.246 --> 00:39:16.629 He's very involved with the, I think it's called the Rape Foundation, which is a big charity. 866 00:39:16.789 --> 00:39:21.253 And I've gone to those luncheons and they're extremely difficult to deal with. 867 00:39:21.293 --> 00:39:22.333 But Schwimmer is... 868 00:39:23.394 --> 00:39:25.574 And I don't throw this word around lightly. 869 00:39:25.715 --> 00:39:26.755 He's a genius. 870 00:39:27.115 --> 00:39:31.216 And when I met him for my first short film, he walked into my apartment. 871 00:39:31.376 --> 00:39:33.816 I was trying to cast this thing for my short film. 872 00:39:33.856 --> 00:39:37.617 And he was on The Wonder Years, but Friends was still like a year away. 873 00:39:38.197 --> 00:39:39.417 He sat down at my table. 874 00:39:39.497 --> 00:39:43.638 He did one line of this script that I wrote that I'd seen like 100 people for. 875 00:39:43.658 --> 00:39:46.419 It's funny that you can get 100 people to come audition for your short films, but I did. 876 00:39:46.779 --> 00:39:47.659 And Schwimmer did one line. 877 00:39:47.679 --> 00:39:48.299 I go, done.

878 00:39:48.879 --> 00:39:49.079 Done. 879 00:39:49.199 --> 00:39:58.724 And I told everybody after that, I go, I just found this guy's going to be such a giant superstar, which, you know, he obviously was Friends. 880 00:39:58.805 --> 00:39:59.725 You can't get much bigger. 881 00:39:59.765 --> 00:40:02.246 But if you remember, he's the first Emmy nominee on Friends. 882 00:40:02.487 --> 00:40:08.130 They put him on the cover of Entertainment Weekly as the next Tom Hanks, maybe, whatever. 883 00:40:08.570 --> 00:40:12.112 And then he gets the movie that every young actor in town wanted, which was the pallbearer. 884 00:40:12.792 --> 00:40:17.877 and the pallbearer did not work, unfortunately, and then people turned on him a little bit. 885 00:40:17.998 --> 00:40:21.841 But, I mean, I'm talking, like, incredibly brilliant actors. 886 00:40:21.861 --> 00:40:24.264 So anyway, I'm doing this second short film. 887 00:40:24.384 --> 00:40:30.610 I'm going to star, write, and direct, and this time I'm going to fucking crush it, and this time I'm going to be ready when people see it to go take the meetings. 888 00:40:30.930 --> 00:40:34.273 And the first thing that happens is I get a call, not even me chasing people. 889 00:40:34.313 --> 00:40:36.395 I get a call somehow from John Cryer's agent. 890 00:40:37.016 --> 00:40:39.758 John Cryer read this and wants to fucking do this. 891 00:40:40.158 --> 00:40:40.418 Okay. 892 00:40:40.438 --> 00:40:43.881 John Cryer starred two and a half men and fucking a lot of John Hughes stuff. 893 00:40:43.941 --> 00:40:45.442 Because it was like 16 candles. 894 00:40:45.742 --> 00:40:46.403 He was ducky, right? 895 00:40:46.543 --> 00:40:47.123 He was ducky. 896 00:40:47.163 --> 00:40:48.744 And that's pretty in pink. 897 00:40:48.764 --> 00:40:49.145 Pretty in pink. 898 00:40:49.165 --> 00:40:49.265 Yeah. 899 00:40:49.285 --> 00:40:49.605 Pretty in pink. 900 00:40:50.085 --> 00:40:51.827 So, but I mean, amazing actor. 901 00:40:52.187 --> 00:40:54.268 But I'm like, what do you mean he wants to do my role? 902 00:40:54.588 --> 00:40:56.490 And like, I wrote this and I called Schwimmer. 903 00:40:56.510 --> 00:40:58.972 I'm like, John Cryer wants to fucking do this. 904 00:40:59.052 --> 00:41:00.393 And he's like, let him, let him do it. 905 00:41:00.453 --> 00:41:02.294 You'll like, you'll go behind the scenes. 906 00:41:02.534 --> 00:41:02.674 Yeah. 907 00:41:02.714 --> 00:41:06.097 And that was, I'm not saying I would have been good anyway, but that was the end of my acting career basically. 908 00:41:06.177 --> 00:41:06.697 So, uh, 909 00:41:06.837 --> 00:41:08.638 So, and I did that, and I did that short film. 910 00:41:09.078 --> 00:41:11.300 That short film, again, I've been very fortunate. 911 00:41:11.340 --> 00:41:18.664 It led to, again, now I'm 24 maybe, and some guy calls me up and wants me to direct this feature. 912 00:41:19.544 --> 00:41:27.109 Not like The Parent Trap, but it was called Fat Beach, and

his budget was $100,000, but I was going to get, you know, I think I got paid nine grand. 913 00:41:27.389 --> 00:41:30.531 I was going to get paid to write and direct this fucking movie, and we ended up... 914 00:41:31.131 --> 00:41:33.852 Again, some good things happen, or maybe I'm good. 915 00:41:33.892 --> 00:41:43.356 But, you know, and this is not a movie that, you know, I would highly recommend, but Complex Magazine literally just did a 25 or 30-year retrospective on this movie that cost $100,000. 916 00:41:43.596 --> 00:41:46.097 And, again, this was not my baby. 917 00:41:46.157 --> 00:41:51.239 This was a script that they gave me that I did the best I can, cast, rewrote, whatever. 918 00:41:51.699 --> 00:41:59.122 But we got picked up by live entertainment and released on 400 screens, which is kind of, you know, unheard of. 919 00:41:59.322 --> 00:42:00.823 Isn't it amazing to, like... 920 00:42:02.242 --> 00:42:08.203 When you put yourself in a place where you say yes, as opposed to going, I don't know, I'm too good for that. 921 00:42:08.343 --> 00:42:08.963 Yeah. 922 00:42:08.983 --> 00:42:13.344 The things that happen when you, like, some people might look at it, it's only 100 grand. 923 00:42:13.364 --> 00:42:15.685 It's like, I'm better. 924 00:42:15.765 --> 00:42:28.567 Like, the idea of who you think you are as opposed to just going in and doing the work and getting better and sharpening that ax, then what happens, the ones that you do that for, the good that comes out of that. 925 00:42:28.908 --> 00:42:31.148 If you had to be like, I'm good, and just, you know, 926 00:42:31.488 --> 00:42:33.190 I mean, I didn't think I was anybody. 927 00:42:33.210 --> 00:42:39.757 The fact that anyone was going to even give me a camera and film and let me do, like, where I didn't have to pay for it, you know, or go raise the money, I thought was pretty amazing. 928 00:42:39.777 --> 00:42:45.123 And also, I mean, I got Darren Aronofsky to do second unit on that film before he ever had a paid job in his life. 929 00:42:45.144 --> 00:42:46.145 Probably paid him 200 bucks, but 930 00:42:47.386 --> 00:43:01.300 I think he took it off his resume but I mean it's still that movie's still playing on Showtime by the way if Showtime exists anymore I think it does but you know I think and you know to speak to your point I've said a no a lot which maybe I shouldn't have but once I 931 00:43:02.141 --> 00:43:06.402 started feeling I knew what I was doing, but on the way up, it's, it's, it's important. 932 00:43:06.442 --> 00:43:15.885 But I do think it's, I think it's important to, to work, you know, if you want to keep working, because when you stop working, which I have a little bit, you start vanishing really quickly. 933 00:43:16.025 --> 00:43:20.346 Like it, it couldn't happen to the best of them where all of a sudden you're like, wait, what just happened? 934 00:43:20.486 --> 00:43:23.667 I mean, even like with COVID, I wake up sometimes I'm like, 935 00:43:23.947 --> 00:43:26.168 where did seven years just evaporate? 936 00:43:26.208 --> 00:43:26.548 It did. 937 00:43:26.708 --> 00:43:27.789 Like, I don't know where I am. 938 00:43:29.569 --> 00:43:32.451 So it's, it's a crazy, it's a crazy, it's a crazy thing. 939 00:43:32.491 --> 00:43:43.135 COVID will go down as the most bizarre time suck of thing, because when you take, 940 00:43:44.511 --> 00:43:45.451 the calendar out. 941 00:43:45.471 --> 00:43:52.114 We're so like, oh, we got this appointment, this appointment, this, and then you're just, it's like, it's almost like the world stopped spinning. 942 00:43:52.154 --> 00:43:52.254 Yeah. 943 00:43:52.274 --> 00:43:53.835 And you're just like, what the fuck is going on? 944 00:43:53.855 --> 00:43:57.156 But I think it really did change, I think it changed this country forever. 945 00:43:57.176 --> 00:43:57.496 Ever. 946 00:43:57.556 --> 00:43:59.237 For our lifetime, and, you know. 947 00:43:59.257 --> 00:44:00.137 It fucked up a lot of kids. 948 00:44:00.157 --> 00:44:01.618 It fucked up a lot of kids. 949 00:44:02.598 --> 00:44:03.839 You know, for, for, 950 00:44:05.379 --> 00:44:09.901 rich people, and to be careful, rich people got richer, poor people got poorer. 951 00:44:10.141 --> 00:44:20.065 You know, while the government claims they were out for the working man, they fucking shut down their businesses and somehow stocks kept going up and house prices kept going up. 952 00:44:20.105 --> 00:44:21.046 So if you own things... 953 00:44:22.038 --> 00:44:24.721 you got richer, but you came out of it in a worse society. 954 00:44:24.921 --> 00:44:28.585 And I think that, you know, that's why we're in the problems that we're in right now. 955 00:44:28.625 --> 00:44:36.893 And then Hollywood too, to go from like COVID and then like the writer's strike back to back, I was like, that was the worst thing that could have happened. 956 00:44:36.913 --> 00:44:39.356 I was so anti the writer's strike. 957 00:44:39.436 --> 00:44:41.538 I got so much, I did it post and... 958 00:44:42.998 --> 00:44:46.624 there was a, the, and I'd never gotten involved in anything. 959 00:44:46.644 --> 00:44:50.632 And all I had said was, I don't think we should do the writer's strike. 960 00:44:50.672 --> 00:44:54.339 I was like, let's, I was like, and the stance I took was, 961 00:44:57.581 --> 00:44:58.642 we have crews. 962 00:44:58.842 --> 00:45:03.805 We have crews that are like the dad's a grip, the mom's wardrobe, the daughter's catering. 963 00:45:04.346 --> 00:45:05.526 We've just come out of COVID. 964 00:45:05.567 --> 00:45:07.408 We're just getting back on our feet. 965 00:45:07.868 --> 00:45:11.771 Why don't we punt this a year or two and, and, and negotiate in good faith. 966 00:45:12.211 --> 00:45:12.451 Right. 967 00:45:12.691 --> 00:45:22.097 And, and, and I was like, and the other thing is if you stop the machine, it gives them time to understand really what AI is. 968 00:45:22.117 -->

00:45:22.217 Yeah. 969 00:45:22.818 --> 00:45:23.098 And, and, 970 00:45:24.317 --> 00:45:28.960 They're going to – you're going to give them this moment to go to AI. 971 00:45:29.080 --> 00:45:37.146 And for all – and it wasn't that I was in agreeance of everything that we needed to fight for. 972 00:45:37.527 --> 00:45:39.408 But this was the wrong time to do it. 973 00:45:39.968 --> 00:45:41.990 It's like people are hanging on by a thread. 974 00:45:42.030 --> 00:45:44.352 People were already almost losing their houses. 975 00:45:44.672 --> 00:45:47.054 And this was going to fucking wipe them out. 976 00:45:47.074 --> 00:45:47.814 I'm so with you. 977 00:45:47.894 --> 00:45:48.375 I mean I – 978 00:45:50.475 --> 00:45:52.237 More of my friends are crew than writers. 979 00:45:52.257 --> 00:45:52.757 Yeah, me too. 980 00:45:53.158 --> 00:45:57.281 And the truth is, you know, I do believe two things. 981 00:45:57.441 --> 00:46:01.044 I believe that there is nothing without a good script. 982 00:46:01.665 --> 00:46:07.190 But I also believe there are so many hack writers in L.A. that were getting paid far more than they deserve to be getting paid. 983 00:46:07.710 --> 00:46:14.996 And when I used to look at the fucking attitudes of some of the writers while my crew guys, who honestly... 984 00:46:16.195 --> 00:46:17.596 Might have worked harder than I did. 985 00:46:17.737 --> 00:46:17.957 Yeah. 986 00:46:18.037 --> 00:46:23.882 Like, you know, and I did a pilot after, as you know, with Dylan Connolly, Charlie Sheen, whatever. 987 00:46:24.442 --> 00:46:32.269 I try to, you know, make it so my cinematographer, who I'd done my first short film with and my first feature with, was an owner in it. 988 00:46:32.549 --> 00:46:35.612 And I try to bring in our line producer as an owner in it. 989 00:46:35.632 --> 00:46:36.573 Was Gary first AD? 990 00:46:36.773 --> 00:46:39.815 Gary was first AD and owned a piece of it. 991 00:46:40.076 --> 00:46:41.277 Didn't sell, unfortunately. 992 00:46:41.317 --> 00:46:41.557 Yeah, yeah. 993 00:46:41.837 --> 00:46:46.740 My point was like Gary and Jeremy Alter, my producer, and Dave Perkle, my cinematographer. 994 00:46:47.061 --> 00:46:49.462 These are the people that grind their fucking lives away. 995 00:46:49.602 --> 00:46:56.847 And a lot of times, like the guy in the writer's room who came up with a good line or this and that, who's got a guaranteed contract for this. 996 00:46:56.887 --> 00:46:57.368 And great. 997 00:46:57.528 --> 00:47:00.410 It's great that the writer's union, and I've benefited from it greatly. 998 00:47:00.910 --> 00:47:03.292 But I knew that you were going to destroy... 999 00:47:03.912 --> 00:47:09.054 Other people's lives, you know, and now the truth is I've never seen this in my 35 years in LA. 1000 00:47:09.095 --> 00:47:13.977 Like writers have always, you know, it's hard to get jobs as a writer and whatever. 1001 00:47:14.057 --> 00:47:18.419 But my great crew guys always worked from job to job to job. 1002 00:47:18.459 --> 00:47:19.920 And now they're all out of work right now. 1003 00:47:19.940 --> 00:47:23.481 And a lot of them are thinking about leaving, you know, and not even thinking about it. 1004 00:47:23.501 --> 00:47:24.482 They can't afford it. 1005 00:47:24.682 --> 00:47:26.543 And, you know, when you see the costs. 1006 00:47:27.123 --> 00:47:30.444 still rising and then you're not getting any income, it's a big problem. 1007 00:47:30.484 --> 00:47:38.148 So it was the, and the thing that I, and I did the amount of flack that I got back from certain people, I was blown away. 1008 00:47:38.168 --> 00:47:43.210 They're like, Oh, like how could you, and I, and I, my stance, and it still is this, it's like, 1009 00:47:45.500 --> 00:47:50.023 We, as actors and as writers, we show up at our call time. 1010 00:47:50.583 --> 00:47:53.945 The crew is there two, three hours before. 1011 00:47:53.965 --> 00:47:54.766 Okay? 1012 00:47:55.246 --> 00:47:55.687 I show up. 1013 00:47:55.727 --> 00:47:57.848 There's fucking breakfast made for me. 1014 00:47:57.868 --> 00:47:59.549 I fucking walk in. 1015 00:48:00.229 --> 00:48:03.752 Like, I'm taking... Like, they go out of their way to... 1016 00:48:04.452 --> 00:48:09.333 Fucking take and they've been there three hours and they'll be there three hours after and then the next season we come back. 1017 00:48:09.913 --> 00:48:19.435 They want the same quality show, but for less money and fucking less days and they got to work harder and you're up there in the room and you're just like done and do what they do. 1018 00:48:19.615 --> 00:48:26.177 They fucking do it and they don't and to not like when everybody would get up and give a speech off. 1019 00:48:26.197 --> 00:48:27.037 Thanks to the crew. 1020 00:48:27.357 --> 00:48:27.557 I'm like. 1021 00:48:27.577 --> 00:48:27.677 Yeah. 1022 00:48:28.177 --> 00:48:29.638 Those speeches that you give at these awards. 1023 00:48:29.658 --> 00:48:30.539 Yeah, they're fucking fake. 1024 00:48:30.639 --> 00:48:33.641 You're literally fucking, you're going to wipe these people out. 1025 00:48:33.761 --> 00:48:35.142 And we can punt this. 1026 00:48:35.162 --> 00:48:35.502 Yeah. 1027 00:48:35.763 --> 00:48:38.285 And everyone's like, it's fucking made me crazy. 1028 00:48:38.405 --> 00:48:40.566 And look, a lot of my good friends are actors. 1029 00:48:40.666 --> 00:48:42.167 But I fucking hate most of them. 1030 00:48:42.288 --> 00:48:42.508 Yeah. 1031 00:48:42.608 --> 00:48:45.470 Because the same thing with the writer and the director. 1032 00:48:45.570 --> 00:48:46.250 And I get it. 1033 00:48:46.731 --> 00:48:48.052 The person who originates it. 1034 00:48:48.152 --> 00:48:49.613 And I have benefited. 1035 00:48:49.653 --> 00:48:52.695 I'm not calling to give any of my money away or do anything. 1036 00:48:52.715 --> 00:48:53.136 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 1037 00:48:53.736 --> 00:48:57.318 But I know how fucking hard those crew members

were. 1038 00:48:57.378 --> 00:48:57.718 Yeah, 100%. 1039 00:48:57.758 --> 00:48:58.798 And they get nothing. 1040 00:48:58.958 --> 00:49:05.061 They don't get, you know, it doesn't even help them that they were on the crew of a good show necessarily. 1041 00:49:05.081 --> 00:49:07.822 So they got to keep earning it day after day after day. 1042 00:49:07.862 --> 00:49:13.805 While, again, if you write a script and it becomes a successful thing, 25 years later, you might still be getting money from it. 1043 00:49:13.945 --> 00:49:17.607 Now, obviously, they need stronger unions to get that. 1044 00:49:17.647 --> 00:49:18.247 But I think... 1045 00:49:18.667 --> 00:49:20.949 after COVID, the fact that the writers were willing to do that. 1046 00:49:20.969 --> 00:49:23.911 I have so many friends who own restaurants that were getting absolutely buried. 1047 00:49:24.311 --> 00:49:29.735 And I remember I had a big fight with some people who were, of course, were like, well, you have enough money to deal with it. 1048 00:49:29.795 --> 00:49:32.717 I'm like, first of all, it's not about me having enough money about it. 1049 00:49:32.917 --> 00:49:39.161 I actually believe that this strike, 1 million percent is going to mean less writers work after this. 1050 00:49:39.201 --> 00:49:42.464 Forgetting the restaurants that we're going to kill, forgetting the crews that we're going to kill. 1051 00:49:42.484 --> 00:49:43.164 We'll never recover from it. 1052 00:49:43.184 --> 00:49:44.765 Okay, and we haven't. 1053 00:49:45.186 --> 00:49:47.027 And I think, you know, 1054 00:49:49.365 --> 00:49:53.548 It is a business, and everyone should always realize that as much as we all want to be artists. 1055 00:49:53.568 --> 00:49:55.450 The guy who writes the check holds the power. 1056 00:49:56.010 --> 00:50:00.254 So now with the streamers, now you see Taylor Sheridan is getting a billion-dollar deal. 1057 00:50:00.474 --> 00:50:00.654 Yeah. 1058 00:50:01.555 --> 00:50:08.280 And that's so he can oversee a lot of other people and keep them kind of like not getting those big deals that used to happen. 1059 00:50:08.340 --> 00:50:08.520 Yeah. 1060 00:50:08.960 --> 00:50:14.305 And I think it's just the world is getting far and far more insulated and less and less people are working. 1061 00:50:14.345 --> 00:50:16.406 Well, what would irritate me too is – 1062 00:50:17.267 --> 00:50:25.911 Because I knew there were some big writers that were on the picket lines, but they were still getting paid as a producer in their overall deal. 1063 00:50:25.951 --> 00:50:29.333 I'm like, you guys are being so fake right now. 1064 00:50:29.833 --> 00:50:34.936 You guys are literally marching to continue this nonsense while you're cashing checks. 1065 00:50:35.396 --> 00:50:36.597 And you're not talking about that. 1066 00:50:37.037 --> 00:50:38.298 People are full of shit. 1067 00:50:38.378 --> 00:50:38.938 It makes me nuts. 1068 00:50:38.998 --> 00:50:45.000 And it's like, everything that they were fighting, I 100% stood behind. 1069 00:50:45.020 --> 00:50:47.281 I just was like, this is not the time, guys. 1070 00:50:47.561 --> 00:50:54.164 We could literally collectively go, let's take a beat, let's punt this, and we will figure it out as we go. 1071 00:50:54.504 --> 00:50:57.345 But to stop work, because 2008, we had that strike. 1072 00:50:57.405 --> 00:50:58.345 Did we ever recover from that? 1073 00:50:58.906 --> 00:50:59.086 No. 1074 00:50:59.486 --> 00:51:01.347 Did we make any benefits from that? 1075 00:51:01.867 --> 00:51:02.027 No. 1076 00:51:02.047 --> 00:51:02.107 No. 1077 00:51:03.170 --> 00:51:05.553 The same thing happened on this. 1078 00:51:05.874 --> 00:51:06.915 And we will never recover. 1079 00:51:06.995 --> 00:51:14.766 If anything, you know, and not for nothing, like when you have friend dresser and things are negotiating, people are always like, okay. 1080 00:51:14.786 --> 00:51:15.747 And they kept coming at like – 1081 00:51:16.983 --> 00:51:18.764 I always believe in negotiations. 1082 00:51:19.345 --> 00:51:25.749 You can go into a room, you can sit down, have a beer, talk it out, close the deal and leave. 1083 00:51:26.190 --> 00:51:27.991 It does this back and forth, back and forth. 1084 00:51:28.151 --> 00:51:30.813 When people are saying like, I don't like the way they were talking to me. 1085 00:51:30.873 --> 00:51:33.515 It's like, I don't give a fuck how they're talking to you. 1086 00:51:33.775 --> 00:51:35.577 Just go in a room and finish this. 1087 00:51:35.957 --> 00:51:40.040 The posturing just like, it was all based on emotion. 1088 00:51:40.340 --> 00:51:44.443 You're going to get egos involved and you're going to give people power over a lot of people. 1089 00:51:44.763 --> 00:51:44.963 And... 1090 00:51:45.964 --> 00:51:52.131 at the end of the day, like I said, less writers are working now than were working before the strike, and I don't think that's ever going back. 1091 00:51:52.151 --> 00:51:52.891 Yeah. 1092 00:51:53.072 --> 00:51:55.474 And the truth is, you're not stopping AI. 1093 00:51:55.814 --> 00:51:57.116 I don't know how you're doing it. 1094 00:51:57.396 --> 00:52:03.582 And, you know, one of the things that really pissed me off was when, you know, the Writers Guild was saying we... 1095 00:52:04.403 --> 00:52:06.785 we want to mandate how many writers are hired on a show. 1096 00:52:07.145 --> 00:52:13.530 By the way, when I was doing Entourage, they were like, you have to get such and such writers. 1097 00:52:13.650 --> 00:52:16.052 I'm like, I don't want those writers. 1098 00:52:16.112 --> 00:52:17.273 I would rather spend the money. 1099 00:52:17.293 --> 00:52:19.175 And again, the money's going to go somewhere. 1100 00:52:19.235 --> 00:52:21.937 So it's not like I'm like, no, I'd rather just keep it for myself. 1101 00:52:22.357 --> 00:52:27.501 But to be in a position where you are forced to use things that you don't want, I think is a problem.

1102 00:52:27.841 --> 00:52:30.423 Your job as a showrunner is to, you're given... 1103 00:52:31.325 --> 00:52:32.165 the keys to the kingdom. 1104 00:52:32.266 --> 00:52:36.048 You're given all this money to make a product that the audience is going to tune in and watch. 1105 00:52:36.368 --> 00:52:39.390 And in order to do that, you need to hire the best people for that job. 1106 00:52:41.391 --> 00:52:49.195 And to get the best people at the job, you've been hired to choose the best people for the job to produce the show that they're paying you to make that show. 1107 00:52:49.535 --> 00:52:52.197 But then we're like, no, but we need these other writers. 1108 00:52:52.217 --> 00:52:55.198 And you're like, but they're not, hold on a second. 1109 00:52:55.279 --> 00:52:57.840 And then if the show gets canceled, you're, 1110 00:52:58.258 --> 00:52:58.878 That's on you. 1111 00:52:59.059 --> 00:52:59.259 Yeah. 1112 00:52:59.419 --> 00:53:00.079 But you're not. 1113 00:53:00.460 --> 00:53:01.741 So it's like, what are we trying to do? 1114 00:53:01.781 --> 00:53:04.803 And it's also very tough, I mean, with the writers, especially, which I had a lot of problems with. 1115 00:53:04.843 --> 00:53:08.886 It's like you read a script of something else they wrote, and then you try to bring them onto your particular thing. 1116 00:53:08.946 --> 00:53:09.747 And they don't totally do that. 1117 00:53:09.867 --> 00:53:11.128 And it doesn't work, you know? 1118 00:53:11.188 --> 00:53:13.229 And then you're stuck with them because you have these deals. 1119 00:53:13.589 --> 00:53:17.132 Whereas, you know, similar to like sports deals where an NFL player 1120 00:53:17.292 --> 00:53:20.313 an NBA player has a guaranteed contract for $400 million. 1121 00:53:20.353 --> 00:53:24.633 They could quit the next day and they still get paid where an NFL player can get killed basically. 1122 00:53:25.014 --> 00:53:26.974 And they only get whatever guaranteed money they had. 1123 00:53:27.034 --> 00:53:29.795 So, you know, again, I wish everybody had guarantees. 1124 00:53:29.835 --> 00:53:34.676 I wish everybody made big money and blah, blah, blah, but there is a certain amount of money that exists. 1125 00:53:34.756 --> 00:53:43.117 And I think that you should never be jamming to say that there's has to be a certain amount of this type of person working in a, in a thing, if they're not needed, you know? 1126 00:53:43.237 --> 00:53:43.417 Yeah. 1127 00:53:43.537 --> 00:53:46.718 And then, then it's like two, when you have, um, 1128 00:53:48.019 --> 00:53:51.084 if you're only doing like 10 episodes, but they want 12 writers. 1129 00:53:51.364 --> 00:53:52.967 It's like, you could have four writers. 1130 00:53:53.067 --> 00:53:53.648 Right. 1131 00:53:53.948 --> 00:53:56.432 Yeah, and then you could have one more location that you couldn't get. 1132 00:53:56.512 --> 00:53:59.817 Or you could have one actor that you really wanted that you couldn't get, you know? 1133 00:53:59.837 --> 00:54:01.980 And that's the thing where it's like, if you're able to... 1134 00:54:02.460 --> 00:54:09.766 You're able to put these things, the more that you put it in the back that's not needed, it's taken then off the screen. 1135 00:54:10.226 --> 00:54:14.309 And again, it's one of those things that it's part of the system. 1136 00:54:14.349 --> 00:54:19.893 And I'm a firm believer, everybody should get an opportunity to shine in the moment that they do. 1137 00:54:19.933 --> 00:54:21.194 And there are some people that... 1138 00:54:22.996 --> 00:54:25.378 aren't seen or don't have the moment. 1139 00:54:25.658 --> 00:54:30.022 But if you show up and you get your shot and you shit the bed, it's real world consequences. 1140 00:54:30.502 --> 00:54:35.767 If you don't deliver, you can't then say, oh, well, that's not fair. 1141 00:54:35.927 --> 00:54:37.589 It's like, no, that's real life. 1142 00:54:37.769 --> 00:54:38.389 That's what it is. 1143 00:54:38.429 --> 00:54:38.950 If you look at... 1144 00:54:41.852 --> 00:54:51.014 running a hundred meters and you're in the Olympics and you, you come in last place, you came in last place because you didn't, you weren't fast enough. 1145 00:54:51.314 --> 00:54:53.674 The guy that won gets to go, he was the fastest. 1146 00:54:54.034 --> 00:55:01.836 It's, it's very, and that's like, it's like, I remember even when, uh, when I was in Los Angeles and my daughter was playing soccer. 1147 00:55:01.896 --> 00:55:08.577 And again, this is when she was five, uh, very competitive, uh, soccer at five, the blue dolphins, shout out to the blue dolphins. 1148 00:55:09.257 --> 00:55:09.397 Um, 1149 00:55:10.277 --> 00:55:17.319 But there was an award ceremony where all the kids were getting trophies all the time. 1150 00:55:17.619 --> 00:55:17.819 Yeah. 1151 00:55:18.519 --> 00:55:24.061 And my daughter, I love her death, but, you know, she was chasing butterflies and she wasn't. 1152 00:55:24.261 --> 00:55:24.561 Yeah. 1153 00:55:25.041 --> 00:55:29.183 And there was a couple, like there was two players on the team that like were just awesome. 1154 00:55:29.323 --> 00:55:30.643 They like really understood the game. 1155 00:55:32.121 --> 00:55:37.685 And I wanted her to realize, like, that person gets the trophy because they played really good. 1156 00:55:37.805 --> 00:55:42.528 And I remember having to talk with one of the people there that were handing out the trophies. 1157 00:55:42.548 --> 00:55:45.210 I was like, hey, man, just don't give my daughter a trophy. 1158 00:55:45.650 --> 00:55:46.291 And they're like, why? 1159 00:55:46.431 --> 00:55:47.972 I'm like, she didn't play good. 1160 00:55:48.132 --> 00:55:49.793 She didn't try. 1161 00:55:49.833 --> 00:55:50.413 She didn't do that. 1162 00:55:50.433 --> 00:55:51.774 She was over, which is fine. 1163 00:55:51.794 --> 00:55:54.556 But I want her to see the people that put the effort in. 1164 00:55:55.197 --> 00:55:56.377 Like, that's

what you get. 1165 00:55:56.477 --> 00:55:57.278 Like, you have to. 1166 00:55:57.638 --> 00:55:59.579 And they're like, well, we don't want to feel them left. 1167 00:55:59.599 --> 00:55:59.940 I'm like, okay. 1168 00:56:00.480 --> 00:56:01.901 No, you should feel that. 1169 00:56:02.141 --> 00:56:04.062 That's the whole problem. 1170 00:56:04.122 --> 00:56:05.622 Everything's going to this shit. 1171 00:56:05.903 --> 00:56:10.585 But again, and it's still at the same time, like I said, it's trying to include everybody, but it's not. 1172 00:56:10.785 --> 00:56:15.187 Because like we said, in the film business, the crew people were getting fucked. 1173 00:56:15.527 --> 00:56:17.168 The restaurateurs were getting fucked. 1174 00:56:17.588 --> 00:56:23.751 And, you know, you had a couple of high-end actors making millions, a couple of writers getting billions, whatever it is. 1175 00:56:24.151 --> 00:56:28.373 But I think that, you know, I don't know how you make it fair because I'm not... 1176 00:56:28.833 --> 00:56:33.597 you know, that participation shit is like socialism. 1177 00:56:33.938 --> 00:56:39.823 So I'm not for that, but I am for finding a way that people who really participate in your thing... 1178 00:56:39.843 --> 00:56:41.464 I had people who worked for me for 15 years. 1179 00:56:41.885 --> 00:56:46.829 Like that, you know, they got a paycheck and now they're fucking struggling because, you know, there's no jobs out there. 1180 00:56:46.869 --> 00:56:50.192 So it's... Yeah, if you don't, it's like, you know, the thing you couldn't... 1181 00:56:50.712 --> 00:56:55.175 You teach a man out of fish for whatever, fish men for a day, whatever. 1182 00:56:55.215 --> 00:56:56.836 Yeah, give a man a fish, teach a man a fish. 1183 00:56:56.856 --> 00:57:02.379 Yeah, so it's like, so it's, but it goes back to like the parenting thing we were talking about where you prepare them. 1184 00:57:02.539 --> 00:57:14.926 If I just talk about unicorns and butterflies and leprechauns and all the happy stuff to my kids till they're 18 years old and they walk out the door, they're like, you have to, there has to be cause and effect thinking. 1185 00:57:14.966 --> 00:57:17.547 You have to understand by doing this. 1186 00:57:18.008 --> 00:57:18.248 Yeah. 1187 00:57:18.648 --> 00:57:19.169 You get this. 1188 00:57:19.209 --> 00:57:23.872 My dad always said, he's like, you'll either have pain from discipline or pain from regret. 1189 00:57:23.992 --> 00:57:24.213 Yeah. 1190 00:57:25.594 --> 00:57:26.234 They both suck. 1191 00:57:26.474 --> 00:57:32.019 But he's like, I promise you, regret is going to be way worse in the end. 1192 00:57:32.179 --> 00:57:32.399 Yeah. 1193 00:57:32.579 --> 00:57:36.723 And he's like, in discipline, in your life, that will move everything. 1194 00:57:36.743 --> 00:57:37.043 Yeah. 1195 00:57:37.687 --> 00:57:45.970 And when you can understand what that is in your mind, your body, your spirit, whatever it is, but being able to apply discipline into your everyday. 1196 00:57:46.670 --> 00:57:49.871 That's what and discipline isn't motivation. 1197 00:57:50.571 --> 00:57:51.991 My dad was like, motivation is bullshit. 1198 00:57:52.052 --> 00:57:53.352 But to be disciplined. 1199 00:57:54.132 --> 00:57:56.234 is something that you will chase your entire life. 1200 00:57:57.274 --> 00:58:01.477 But it is something that is needed as a young man to succeed. 1201 00:58:01.557 --> 00:58:07.961 Because if you don't implement that, and kids nowadays, they, you know, and it's so funny, I'm like, kids nowadays. 1202 00:58:08.181 --> 00:58:11.623 But it's like, but it is, there's a lack of, 1203 00:58:12.463 --> 00:58:41.190 of discipline and there's a lack of grit like it's like fuck the hand sanitizer like like let go eat dirt like go play in the backyard get dirty you know get cut get stitches it's okay that's part of we got to take the bubble off a bit you know and and i and it's like i i freak out if my kids get hurt but i was like i've got you know i broke and you know and you know i ate dirt and probably why i'm you know touched a bit but but it's like that's you know that we can't 1204 00:58:42.850 --> 00:58:50.498 Too much of a bubble, I think, in this world is so, and what we think we're doing is right, is only going to hurt in the long run. 1205 00:58:51.019 --> 00:58:51.279 Yeah. 1206 00:58:51.559 --> 00:59:00.168 Being blunt and honest with someone, especially in your line of work, you're only hoping that you're like, hey, go work. 1207 00:59:00.309 --> 00:59:03.212 Like, you've got something, but you're not there yet. 1208 00:59:03.232 --> 00:59:03.332 Yeah. 1209 00:59:03.352 --> 00:59:03.512 Yeah. 1210 00:59:05.280 --> 00:59:07.542 Like, that should be like, okay, I've got to go work harder. 1211 00:59:07.562 --> 00:59:08.423 Yeah. 1212 00:59:08.563 --> 00:59:11.986 As opposed to be like, you know, HR, like, this is bullshit. 1213 00:59:12.006 --> 00:59:12.167 Yeah. 1214 00:59:12.187 --> 00:59:14.729 Like, you know, and then it's a whole fucking, it's a whole thing. 1215 00:59:14.749 --> 00:59:15.950 You can't fire anybody anymore. 1216 00:59:15.970 --> 00:59:18.172 You can't, you get, you can't do anything. 1217 00:59:18.672 --> 00:59:23.096 So, and I think, I think maybe that's in a sense too why there's this sort of, 1218 00:59:24.212 --> 00:59:34.766 everything's sort of stagnant in growth of, of because we're not holding a standard that's high that you have to, it's a mountain you have to climb to get there. 1219 00:59:34.786 --> 00:59:35.427 Everybody's entitled. 1220 00:59:35.667 --> 00:59:35.887 Yeah. 1221 00:59:35.907 --> 00:59:36.448 Everybody's entitled. 1222 00:59:36.508 --> 00:59:38.771 And then the victim mentality bullshit. 1223 00:59:38.791 --> 00:59:41.454 So Patreon, Patreon and I, um, 1224 00:59:43.098 --> 00:59:48.164 I tell them that I have a guest coming on and they get to ask a question. 1225 00:59:48.344 --> 00:59:49.286 Yeah. 1226

00:59:49.306 --> 00:59:50.988 So they were very excited that you were coming on. 1227 00:59:51.128 --> 00:59:51.628 Nice. 1228 00:59:51.809 --> 00:59:54.352 I got more victory on the other thing. 1229 00:59:54.412 --> 00:59:55.173 So, um, 1230 00:59:56.503 --> 01:00:01.846 One of the questions, there was probably like 30 or 40 of them, so I only have one here. 1231 01:00:03.567 --> 01:00:05.488 This is from Mike1. 1232 01:00:06.728 --> 01:00:08.189 Doug, big fan of yours. 1233 01:00:08.229 --> 01:00:10.350 Thank you for entertaining me over the years. 1234 01:00:10.890 --> 01:00:12.912 You've made me laugh when I need it the most. 1235 01:00:13.172 --> 01:00:13.792 Question for you. 1236 01:00:13.952 --> 01:00:15.613 If Andres had ever... 1237 01:00:17.068 --> 01:00:23.232 If Entourage had ever done a Nashville arc, what would that story be? 1238 01:00:23.492 --> 01:00:28.334 You know, it's too early to say, but I'm learning the place. 1239 01:00:28.375 --> 01:00:32.777 And I do want to shoot something here because I really do love it here. 1240 01:00:32.817 --> 01:00:35.038 But Dylan would be funny in Nashville. 1241 01:00:35.198 --> 01:00:37.540 And I think it's funny because people think this is... 1242 01:00:38.918 --> 01:00:41.059 And by the way, I didn't know anything about it when I got here. 1243 01:00:41.279 --> 01:00:42.619 I don't know why I came here. 1244 01:00:42.679 --> 01:00:43.760 Someone said they were moving here. 1245 01:00:43.780 --> 01:00:44.540 I'm like, Nashville. 1246 01:00:44.580 --> 01:00:46.600 I haven't, I was in Nashville in 1990. 1247 01:00:46.660 --> 01:00:47.981 It's a different universe. 1248 01:00:48.001 --> 01:00:49.901 Like this is a, this is a real city. 1249 01:00:50.082 --> 01:00:50.262 Yeah. 1250 01:00:50.362 --> 01:00:51.922 And this is not a hick town. 1251 01:00:52.042 --> 01:00:52.222 No. 1252 01:00:52.322 --> 01:00:56.944 You know, but you can also feel that Southern charm still and that, you know, old cowboy feel. 1253 01:00:56.964 --> 01:01:00.505 So it's got kind of everything aside from the weather, which we're seeing today. 1254 01:01:01.285 --> 01:01:07.129 I don't know off the top of my head what the arc would be, but Dylan would definitely, drama would be funny in Nashville. 1255 01:01:07.149 --> 01:01:08.710 Yeah, cowboys in boots. 1256 01:01:08.791 --> 01:01:11.953 And he'd have his rhinestone. 1257 01:01:11.973 --> 01:01:13.934 His rhinestone cowboy moment. 1258 01:01:14.074 --> 01:01:16.296 Yeah, him doing a Southern accent would be good. 1259 01:01:16.356 --> 01:01:21.339 So Entourage, which obviously changed television. 1260 01:01:21.600 --> 01:01:27.744 It really, for HBO, that whole, it was such a, I mean, it changed my life. 1261 01:01:27.764 --> 01:01:28.324 Yeah. 1262 01:01:30.366 --> 01:01:35.752 take me back to the embryonic moment of Entourage for you. 1263 01:01:35.812 --> 01:01:40.497 Like, was it, I, were you with Lev at the time or were you like, how did that happen? 1264 01:01:40.557 --> 01:01:41.238 Yeah, I was with Lev. 1265 01:01:41.278 --> 01:01:41.518 So, 1266 01:01:43.002 --> 01:01:47.346 It's funny because so much of this is in the show because, you know, everyone thinks it's Wahlberg's life. 1267 01:01:47.366 --> 01:01:50.809 But it was more mine because Wahlberg didn't have any real ups and downs. 1268 01:01:50.849 --> 01:01:53.791 He kind of just gone straight up for 30 years. 1269 01:01:53.871 --> 01:01:57.854 When you're 19 years old wearing Calvin Klein's looking like that, it's like, you're going to be okay. 1270 01:01:57.934 --> 01:02:04.020 But even every movie, I mean, he kind of had one misstep, you know, like maybe plan to the apes for a minute. 1271 01:02:04.160 --> 01:02:04.360 Yeah. 1272 01:02:04.700 --> 01:02:06.524 People are like, oh, maybe he's not a star. 1273 01:02:06.544 --> 01:02:08.928 But I mean, everything he did kind of just worked, you know? 1274 01:02:08.948 --> 01:02:09.890 Yeah. 1275 01:02:09.950 --> 01:02:11.673 Which was one of my issues with the way he started. 1276 01:02:11.693 --> 01:02:16.021 But what happened with me is, you know, I had made this other independent feature with Schwimmer. 1277 01:02:16.722 --> 01:02:16.922 Um... 1278 01:02:18.548 --> 01:02:19.508 A million six. 1279 01:02:20.188 --> 01:02:22.009 Universal picks it up and buys it. 1280 01:02:22.569 --> 01:02:24.470 Releases it on 2,200 screens. 1281 01:02:25.530 --> 01:02:30.471 Jason Lee, before... Way before Almost Famous and My Name is Earl. 1282 01:02:30.731 --> 01:02:33.352 David Schwimmer and an Israeli actress named Milia Avital. 1283 01:02:33.392 --> 01:02:35.653 So there's no one in this fucking movie, you know? 1284 01:02:35.733 --> 01:02:35.893 Yeah. 1285 01:02:36.233 --> 01:02:39.694 And we get 2,200 screens and open up against The Wedding Singer. 1286 01:02:39.814 --> 01:02:39.994 And... 1287 01:02:40.634 --> 01:02:44.436 For real, by the way, the highest exit polls of the weekend. 1288 01:02:44.536 --> 01:02:47.778 Exit polls are when people go, hey, what did you think of the movie? 1289 01:02:47.798 --> 01:02:51.280 So people that went to see the fucking movie liked it, but the reviews were terrible. 1290 01:02:51.741 --> 01:02:59.185 But my point was, this was an independent movie that we made completely on our own, that Universal picked up and released without touching it, exactly what we did. 1291 01:02:59.885 --> 01:03:01.406 And they released it as a studio film. 1292 01:03:01.786 --> 01:03:02.907 And I was getting offers. 1293 01:03:03.347 --> 01:03:07.250 And I was the hot comedy guy for a half a second, like you said about saying no. 1294 01:03:07.270 --> 01:03:08.550 I was like, nah, I don't want to do that. 1295 01:03:08.570 --> 01:03:09.331 I don't want to do that. 1296 01:03:09.351 --> 01:03:09.631 Yeah. 1297 01:03:09.771 --> 01:03:10.851 You know, I want to do my own thing. 1298 01:03:10.891 --> 01:03:16.753 And Schwimmer and I were actually supposed to do the Heartbreak Kid

before Ben Stiller's years before remake. 1299 01:03:17.573 --> 01:03:21.334 And the movie opens and it doesn't do well and it doesn't. 1300 01:03:22.234 --> 01:03:27.636 This set me back before I ever made a short film. 1301 01:03:27.776 --> 01:03:28.316 I was done. 1302 01:03:28.756 --> 01:03:34.778 I was legitimately like public enemy number one, even though I honestly could have probably done almost anything I wanted 1303 01:03:35.596 --> 01:03:43.211 before this movie opened, which is why I put the line in Entourage later, like, take your next job before your last one comes out, even though I've never followed that advice, but you should. 1304 01:03:43.848 --> 01:03:49.692 If you're actually lucky enough to be offered a job and you do keep fucking working if you can. 1305 01:03:50.652 --> 01:03:54.455 But, um, so I do that and then I'm, I'm dead. 1306 01:03:54.635 --> 01:03:57.597 I had worked for probably eight to 10 years up to that point. 1307 01:03:57.637 --> 01:03:58.277 I bought a house. 1308 01:03:58.337 --> 01:04:00.038 I had a kid, another one on the way. 1309 01:04:00.058 --> 01:04:03.620 And like life was where I was married. 1310 01:04:03.801 --> 01:04:10.865 I'm on my way to having kids, but anyway, I bought a house and I'm like, you know, I'm like thinking I'm, you know, I'm a staple in Hollywood. 1311 01:04:10.885 --> 01:04:12.006 This movie comes out and I'm done. 1312 01:04:12.726 --> 01:04:13.946 I am done, including Levinson. 1313 01:04:13.966 --> 01:04:15.347 I don't hear from him after this. 1314 01:04:15.607 --> 01:04:17.248 Like, who's my friend from college. 1315 01:04:17.268 --> 01:04:18.228 Oh, you were friends with Lev? 1316 01:04:18.528 --> 01:04:19.268 From college. 1317 01:04:19.288 --> 01:04:23.490 He lived in my apartment when he moved to LA, when he worked in the UTA mailroom, you know. 1318 01:04:23.510 --> 01:04:24.130 Wow. 1319 01:04:24.530 --> 01:04:29.752 You know, I made sure he was executive producer on that movie, you know, which was a big fight with the producers, actually. 1320 01:04:30.292 --> 01:04:32.433 But he had, you know, gone. 1321 01:04:32.453 --> 01:04:33.953 I don't hear from him, my manager. 1322 01:04:33.973 --> 01:04:35.054 I don't hear from my agents. 1323 01:04:35.194 --> 01:04:35.634 Nothing. 1324 01:04:35.794 --> 01:04:37.454 I am just, like, almost non-existent. 1325 01:04:38.055 --> 01:04:41.716 And I was with a friend who's like, you got to get into TV. 1326 01:04:42.616 --> 01:04:45.044 And I'm like, I've never done anything in TV. 1327 01:04:45.064 --> 01:04:45.565 What do I do? 1328 01:04:45.585 --> 01:04:47.471 He's like, write a spec script for a show you like. 1329 01:04:47.611 --> 01:04:49.497 And I honestly was driving over the hill. 1330 01:04:50.484 --> 01:04:55.225 And this was something about, you know, Rob Weiss did this movie called Amongst Friends. 1331 01:04:55.245 --> 01:04:56.105 I love Rob. 1332 01:04:56.245 --> 01:04:57.626 I absolutely love Rob Weiss. 1333 01:04:57.766 --> 01:04:58.246 He's the best. 1334 01:04:58.286 --> 01:05:00.466 He's so, he's like, he's just. 1335 01:05:00.526 --> 01:05:01.627 Long Island staple. 1336 01:05:01.647 --> 01:05:02.287 Dude, he is. 1337 01:05:04.227 --> 01:05:06.268 I knew Rob before Entourage. 1338 01:05:06.928 --> 01:05:11.709 And then I, during Entourage, but every time I run into him, he's got the cool sneakers on. 1339 01:05:11.729 --> 01:05:12.249 He's got like. 1340 01:05:12.269 --> 01:05:13.169 He looks like he's 18. 1341 01:05:13.209 --> 01:05:14.250 Yeah, he's just so cool. 1342 01:05:14.310 --> 01:05:16.650 And now his kid, like, he just, he looks happy. 1343 01:05:16.690 --> 01:05:17.210 He's great. 1344 01:05:17.230 --> 01:05:17.650 Yeah, he is. 1345 01:05:21.472 --> 01:05:33.258 for the Amongst Friends, which Rob Weiss made this movie, Amongst Friends, out of Long Island for, you know, became this hot, hot filmmaker in 91, 92, whatever, 93, whatever. 1346 01:05:33.578 --> 01:05:35.979 Anyway, they wouldn't let me switch my flight. 1347 01:05:36.019 --> 01:05:40.101 I said something nasty to the airline lady. 1348 01:05:40.301 --> 01:05:41.722 And my mother was my travel agent. 1349 01:05:41.742 --> 01:05:42.883 They actually called my mother. 1350 01:05:42.923 --> 01:05:44.724 And I had a very, like, conservative, strict mother. 1351 01:05:44.744 --> 01:05:45.744 And, like, she called me up. 1352 01:05:45.764 --> 01:05:47.245 She's like, did you have a fight with the airline? 1353 01:05:47.605 --> 01:05:48.787 I'm like in California. 1354 01:05:49.127 --> 01:05:50.549 I'm like, I'm 23, 24. 1355 01:05:50.569 --> 01:05:51.490 My mother's calling me like this. 1356 01:05:51.530 --> 01:05:51.990 I'm freaking out. 1357 01:05:52.010 --> 01:05:54.012 But anyway, my friend says, you got to write something for TV. 1358 01:05:54.032 --> 01:05:54.833 I'm like, you know what? 1359 01:05:54.873 --> 01:05:55.594 What's your favorite show? 1360 01:05:55.614 --> 01:05:57.015 I'm like, curb. 1361 01:05:57.376 --> 01:05:58.177 So I'm like, you know what? 1362 01:05:58.197 --> 01:06:01.460 I'm going to put that story into Larry David's scope. 1363 01:06:01.520 --> 01:06:02.241 And I write this thing. 1364 01:06:02.261 --> 01:06:05.104 I swear to God, I write this thing in 45 minutes. 1365 01:06:05.184 --> 01:06:05.384 Yeah. 1366 01:06:05.745 --> 01:06:07.086 I send it to Lev, who's, 1367 01:06:08.047 --> 01:06:14.878 Again, my friend for, at this point, you know, 15 years, my manager, who I probably haven't spoken to in legitimately in months. 1368 01:06:15.038 --> 01:06:22.550 And in between this time, I'm like, I'm now nearing 30, I guess, you know, 40. 1369 01:06:23.351 --> 01:06:24.351 maybe even a little older. 1370 01:06:24.371 --> 01:06:25.812 And I'm like, I think I have to go back to law school. 1371 01:06:25.832 --> 01:06:29.853 Like I have a, I have a million dollar house that I can't afford and I'm, nobody's hiring me now. 1372 01:06:29.933 --> 01:06:36.795

I went from like, I always sold the script to, I made a movie that was released on 2200 screens that cost nothing. 1373 01:06:37.435 --> 01:06:43.077 And they're acting like I fucking, you know, made a heaven's gate or something and destroyed a studio. 1374 01:06:43.837 --> 01:06:45.017 And I just couldn't get anything. 1375 01:06:45.077 --> 01:06:46.637 So I write this curb spec. 1376 01:06:46.798 --> 01:06:47.698 I sent it to Lev and, 1377 01:06:49.439 --> 01:06:54.086 you know, I know you said, you know, Amazon didn't read a script for a long time, but Love read it immediately for whatever reason. 1378 01:06:54.107 --> 01:06:56.110 And he's like, we need to meet right now. 1379 01:06:56.610 --> 01:06:58.854 I mean, basically like, because it does happen. 1380 01:06:59.134 --> 01:06:59.334 Yeah. 1381 01:06:59.475 --> 01:07:02.319 Even if it's your close friend, even if it's your own representative, they forget. 1382 01:07:02.579 --> 01:07:02.760 Yeah. 1383 01:07:03.619 --> 01:07:04.239 That you're good. 1384 01:07:04.299 --> 01:07:05.740 They forget you just made a movie. 1385 01:07:05.820 --> 01:07:10.822 So he's like, you know, Mark and I, like, we've been talking about this thing, you know? 1386 01:07:10.882 --> 01:07:13.623 And Mark would follow his friends around with a camera, you know? 1387 01:07:13.663 --> 01:07:17.805 So we want to do this show, Entourage, about Mark and his friends. 1388 01:07:18.485 --> 01:07:22.427 I remember we were at, God, what was that Chinese restaurant on Melrose Place? 1389 01:07:22.527 --> 01:07:24.447 The Manhattan Wondon Factory. 1390 01:07:24.487 --> 01:07:24.948 Great place. 1391 01:07:24.968 --> 01:07:25.268 Yeah, yeah. 1392 01:07:25.908 --> 01:07:28.869 And I was like, that's the stupidest fucking idea I've ever... 1393 01:07:29.450 --> 01:07:33.171 So you're going to have... Because, you know, Mark has all these hanger-ons and shit. 1394 01:07:33.191 --> 01:07:36.853 I'm like, we're going to watch a bunch of fucking losers live off of somebody else? 1395 01:07:37.333 --> 01:07:37.974 That's the show? 1396 01:07:38.834 --> 01:07:39.795 And by the way, I have nothing. 1397 01:07:39.915 --> 01:07:41.235 I'm like thinking about going to law school. 1398 01:07:41.255 --> 01:07:41.956 I have nothing else. 1399 01:07:42.016 --> 01:07:48.899 I mean, I should be just going like... And Lev, to his credit, because he did the same thing on this movie, Kissing a Fool, the one that ended my career. 1400 01:07:49.819 --> 01:07:53.042 I had read the script and I'm like, I'm not fucking doing this. 1401 01:07:53.222 --> 01:07:54.103 I have nothing, by the way. 1402 01:07:54.123 --> 01:07:55.224 I'm like, I'm not doing this piece of shit. 1403 01:07:55.244 --> 01:07:56.064 Love's like, you'll figure it out. 1404 01:07:56.104 --> 01:07:57.345 So he said the same thing about Entourage. 1405 01:07:57.365 --> 01:07:57.886 You'll figure it out. 1406 01:07:58.386 --> 01:08:05.011 I went home and I was like, you know, like, what are my experiences? 1407 01:08:05.051 --> 01:08:05.972 What are my up and down? 1408 01:08:06.012 --> 01:08:10.435 What are my friends like who are a little, you know, not as necessarily as tough as Mark's crew? 1409 01:08:10.455 --> 01:08:10.996 You know what I mean? 1410 01:08:11.016 --> 01:08:12.097 Like, what is that like? 1411 01:08:12.157 --> 01:08:12.477 And whatever. 1412 01:08:12.497 --> 01:08:12.657 Yeah. 1413 01:08:13.929 --> 01:08:15.030 I want to make it New York. 1414 01:08:15.090 --> 01:08:15.810 I want to make it. 1415 01:08:15.871 --> 01:08:18.593 And I was actually, it's funny because we're sitting in Long Island over here. 1416 01:08:18.653 --> 01:08:20.974 But I was going to make that from Long Island. 1417 01:08:20.994 --> 01:08:23.076 But I'm like, everyone's going to think they're so fucking soft. 1418 01:08:23.116 --> 01:08:25.598 And I'm like, and if they're from Brooklyn or the Bronx, they're too tough. 1419 01:08:25.638 --> 01:08:27.720 Like, so Queens is where we, you know, ultimately. 1420 01:08:27.980 --> 01:08:32.083 But I said, you know, to Mark and Lev, I'm like, I need to make it like people I know. 1421 01:08:32.703 --> 01:08:34.145 Can we do New York? 1422 01:08:34.205 --> 01:08:36.847 And I remember Mark was just like, do whatever you want. 1423 01:08:36.867 --> 01:08:37.947 Just don't make me look stupid. 1424 01:08:38.008 --> 01:08:38.368 Yeah. 1425 01:08:38.788 --> 01:08:40.290 And Mark, you know, you know Mark. 1426 01:08:40.310 --> 01:08:45.118 Mark's a fucking scary character when he looks at you like seriously like that. 1427 01:08:45.478 --> 01:08:46.259 But that was it. 1428 01:08:46.359 --> 01:08:47.501 And then that was it. 1429 01:08:47.561 --> 01:08:52.588 I mean, then we went and pitched it to HBO, which at the time, I mean, HBO is... 1430 01:08:53.710 --> 01:09:10.847 There's probably been nothing like it in the history of Hollywood because it is the only place to do something that you think is going to be high quality at the time where you can write real dialogue because how I also sold it was like, I'm like, these are going to be like guys because R-rated comedy was gone. 1431 01:09:10.867 --> 01:09:17.033 You know, Wahlberg always likes to say, which, you know, he says it, not me, but he goes, the hangover owes you a billion dollars because, you know... 1432 01:09:17.473 --> 01:09:18.574 That was not out yet. 1433 01:09:18.614 --> 01:09:18.814 Yeah. 1434 01:09:19.254 --> 01:09:27.079 And, you know, when we did this, I was a big fan of the R-rated comedies growing up, whether it was Animal House, Porky's, et cetera, all of those movies. 1435 01:09:27.800 --> 01:09:28.800 And they disappeared. 1436 01:09:28.920 --> 01:09:29.080 Yeah. 1437 01:09:29.201 --> 01:09:32.062 And everyone thinks, like, the PC shit now is, like, new. 1438 01:09:32.162 --> 01:09:32.803 It's not new. 1439 01:09:32.983 --> 01:09:34.224 It happens every 10, 20 years. 1440 01:09:34.284 --> 01:09:34.984 Yeah, it's a

cycle. 1441 01:09:35.004 --> 01:09:35.665 You know, it's a cycle. 1442 01:09:35.685 --> 01:09:35.785 Yeah. 1443 01:09:36.305 --> 01:09:38.666 But I said, these guys are going to talk like guys talk. 1444 01:09:38.786 --> 01:09:38.986 Yeah. 1445 01:09:39.046 --> 01:09:40.567 Like really how men talk. 1446 01:09:40.587 --> 01:09:41.908 And that was really what the show was. 1447 01:09:41.928 --> 01:09:43.388 But anyway, we walked into HBO. 1448 01:09:44.289 --> 01:09:51.612 I met Ari for the first time, which I turned him into a character after that meeting because he wasn't in my initial thing, even though Jeremy Piven was in my initial pitch. 1449 01:09:51.932 --> 01:09:54.553 But he was playing my agent, a guy named Jeff Jacobs. 1450 01:09:54.573 --> 01:09:57.295 But I met Ari because he was Wahlberg's manager. 1451 01:09:57.355 --> 01:09:58.515 And I was like, this is a character. 1452 01:09:58.595 --> 01:10:00.216 But we sold it in the room. 1453 01:10:01.470 --> 01:10:01.810 Wow. 1454 01:10:01.990 --> 01:10:02.631 We walked out. 1455 01:10:02.691 --> 01:10:06.074 Remember Vanilla Sky when Cruz, like, this is the only person in the city. 1456 01:10:06.134 --> 01:10:09.597 Lev and I walked out of Century City at HBO like we owned Hollywood. 1457 01:10:09.617 --> 01:10:10.258 We're like, you know. 1458 01:10:10.718 --> 01:10:14.081 Meanwhile, that was like, okay, here's $50,000 to me. 1459 01:10:14.322 --> 01:10:15.162 Go write the script. 1460 01:10:15.203 --> 01:10:16.504 It's going to take two fucking years. 1461 01:10:16.524 --> 01:10:17.525 Was this Clev's first show, too? 1462 01:10:18.506 --> 01:10:18.806 Yes. 1463 01:10:19.006 --> 01:10:19.226 Yeah. 1464 01:10:19.326 --> 01:10:19.506 Yeah. 1465 01:10:19.546 --> 01:10:20.187 Yeah. 1466 01:10:20.527 --> 01:10:20.688 Wow. 1467 01:10:20.728 --> 01:10:25.212 I mean, what a moment just that you guys must have had there of... 1468 01:10:26.148 --> 01:10:30.849 That moment felt like we had conquered the universe. 1469 01:10:30.929 --> 01:10:35.210 Like, it felt like I should have felt after that meeting with Mike DeLuca for Parent Trap that I fucked up. 1470 01:10:35.450 --> 01:10:36.591 We killed it. 1471 01:10:37.251 --> 01:10:40.192 Well, maybe that moment happened because you're like, I'll never do that again. 1472 01:10:40.572 --> 01:10:45.293 No, I think this moment happened because Wahlberg was there and Ari was there. 1473 01:10:45.493 --> 01:10:46.053 I honestly do. 1474 01:10:46.113 --> 01:10:47.774 I don't think it had anything to do with anything I said. 1475 01:10:47.794 --> 01:10:49.314 I don't think it had anything to do with the show. 1476 01:10:49.434 --> 01:10:50.594 I don't think they gave a shit. 1477 01:10:50.835 --> 01:10:52.215 And I think HBO was like, well... 1478 01:10:53.095 --> 01:10:54.757 I think they have so much money. 1479 01:10:54.777 --> 01:10:57.960 They're like, we'll buy 450 scripts. 1480 01:10:58.140 --> 01:10:58.720 Yeah. 1481 01:10:58.740 --> 01:10:59.661

And we'll make one of them. 1482 01:10:59.901 --> 01:11:00.142 Yeah. 1483 01:11:00.442 --> 01:11:01.363 But we didn't think that. 1484 01:11:01.563 --> 01:11:03.604 We just thought we just sold HBO. 1485 01:11:03.645 --> 01:11:04.225 We are. 1486 01:11:04.886 --> 01:11:09.650 So what was the timeframe from that 50 grand to, to the pilot? 1487 01:11:09.670 --> 01:11:10.811 Did you go through 20 to 24 months? 1488 01:11:10.831 --> 01:11:11.151 Oh, yeah. 1489 01:11:12.392 --> 01:11:14.253 I mean, like legitimate torture. 1490 01:11:14.273 --> 01:11:16.054 And you want to talk about like calling HR. 1491 01:11:16.374 --> 01:11:21.357 If I would have called the Writers Guild and said, these people want me to do like the 40th fucking draft and they're not paying me any fucking money. 1492 01:11:21.537 --> 01:11:21.717 Yeah. 1493 01:11:21.878 --> 01:11:24.039 Like it would have been a problem, but I would have been over. 1494 01:11:24.239 --> 01:11:25.019 I would have been canceled. 1495 01:11:25.039 --> 01:11:25.920 That would have been the end of it. 1496 01:11:26.020 --> 01:11:28.161 So like HBO would have been, sorry, sorry. 1497 01:11:28.301 --> 01:11:29.682 We are still giving you a chance. 1498 01:11:29.742 --> 01:11:29.942 Yeah. 1499 01:11:30.082 --> 01:11:30.723 But I mean, I... 1500 01:11:31.543 --> 01:11:38.046 legitimately killed myself on that for far less than minimum wage to write that pilot. 1501 01:11:38.566 --> 01:11:45.669 And I remember the first draft that I handed in that I'd actually hired the head of UCLA screenwriting. 1502 01:11:45.709 --> 01:11:49.270 So, I mean, I was in a deficit for how much it cost me to write this script. 1503 01:11:49.530 --> 01:11:50.611 But I'm like, this is HBO. 1504 01:11:50.631 --> 01:11:51.931 This is like once in a life. 1505 01:11:51.951 --> 01:11:53.212 This is Eminem, you know? 1506 01:11:53.252 --> 01:11:53.812 This is it. 1507 01:11:53.872 --> 01:11:54.332 You're shocked. 1508 01:11:56.868 --> 01:11:58.809 I remember the UCLA screenwriter. 1509 01:11:58.829 --> 01:12:00.770 She's like, this is one of the best pilots I've ever read. 1510 01:12:01.350 --> 01:12:03.311 I'm like, wow, that feels great. 1511 01:12:03.331 --> 01:12:04.231 You know, like awesome. 1512 01:12:04.491 --> 01:12:06.072 You know, Lev loves it. 1513 01:12:06.152 --> 01:12:07.173 Wahlberg loves it. 1514 01:12:07.273 --> 01:12:08.873 You know, my agent loves it. 1515 01:12:08.893 --> 01:12:12.895 You know, I will never forget, you know, you know, we're German shepherd guys. 1516 01:12:12.915 --> 01:12:16.777 I got two German shepherds and I'm like sitting in my house with them. 1517 01:12:17.037 --> 01:12:18.038 I'd hand in them the script. 1518 01:12:18.058 --> 01:12:18.638 You want to talk about. 1519 01:12:19.993 --> 01:12:20.753 How long it took? 1520 01:12:20.893 --> 01:12:23.615 Probably seven weeks for them to read this script. 1521 01:12:23.995 --> 01:12:25.415 You know how fast Entourage is. 1522 01:12:25.535 --> 01:12:28.537 You could read it and hate it in less than nine minutes. 1523 01:12:28.557 --> 01:12:29.037 Yeah, yeah. 1524 01:12:30.177 --> 01:12:30.837 I get the call. 1525 01:12:30.857 --> 01:12:33.559 I remember sitting on the bed with Lev, and I'm like waiting. 1526 01:12:33.579 --> 01:12:36.900 As I spoke to HBO, I'm like, I'm never confident, by the way. 1527 01:12:37.140 --> 01:12:40.461 But this script was so fucking foolproof, I thought. 1528 01:12:41.482 --> 01:12:42.682 And he goes, they don't like it. 1529 01:12:43.683 --> 01:12:46.604 And I go, what don't they like about it? 1530 01:12:46.864 --> 01:12:48.806 And he goes, they don't like anything about it. 1531 01:12:48.826 --> 01:12:50.407 I remember it so well. 1532 01:12:50.528 --> 01:12:55.412 And I fucking took my two German shepherds to the park down the block from me. 1533 01:12:55.793 --> 01:12:59.616 I sat, the park was actually like excavated to redo. 1534 01:12:59.997 --> 01:13:01.598 So it's like nothing but brown dirt. 1535 01:13:01.618 --> 01:13:04.121 And there happened to be like a shitty bench there. 1536 01:13:04.141 --> 01:13:05.522 And I sat there with my two dogs. 1537 01:13:05.902 --> 01:13:07.243 And I remember sitting there going, 1538 01:13:07.884 --> 01:13:09.465 my fucking life is over. 1539 01:13:10.185 --> 01:13:10.745 I'm serious. 1540 01:13:10.865 --> 01:13:13.586 I'm like, there is nothing else I can do. 1541 01:13:13.726 --> 01:13:17.988 Everything's moving fast around you and you're just, I'm like the bills don't stop. 1542 01:13:18.068 --> 01:13:18.268 Yeah. 1543 01:13:18.348 --> 01:13:22.109 You know, like I probably bought a house a little earlier than I should have. 1544 01:13:22.129 --> 01:13:26.651 You know, I'm like, I, that's it. 1545 01:13:26.951 --> 01:13:30.412 I don't, I don't know what to do, but love calls me later for whatever. 1546 01:13:30.432 --> 01:13:32.073 He's like, they, they still want to meet. 1547 01:13:33.518 --> 01:13:34.240 they want to meet. 1548 01:13:34.321 --> 01:13:35.284 Like, what's to meet? 1549 01:13:35.344 --> 01:13:36.347 This is like, okay. 1550 01:13:36.387 --> 01:13:39.417 So we meet, and I remember... 1551 01:13:42.008 --> 01:13:47.532 I then go through at least 15 drafts, 20 drafts of like, what do they want? 1552 01:13:47.572 --> 01:13:48.233 What do they want? 1553 01:13:48.253 --> 01:13:49.514 And then there's another meeting. 1554 01:13:49.574 --> 01:13:59.121 And the woman told me, the executive at the time, she's like, these guys need to speak in a language that nobody else understands but them. 1555 01:13:59.922 --> 01:14:00.963 Imagine getting that note. 1556 01:14:00.983 --> 01:14:01.683 Okay. 1557 01:14:01.763 --> 01:14:03.825 They understand each other's shorthands. 1558 01:14:03.925 --> 01:14:04.525 Okay. 1559 01:14:04.565 --> 01:14:05.746 Like, what is his avatar? 1560 01:14:05.926 --> 01:14:06.667 I actually said, what is it? 1561 01:14:06.707 --> 01:14:07.268 Windtalkers. 1562 01:14:07.288

--> 01:14:08.508 You remember Windtalkers? 1563 01:14:08.609 --> 01:14:10.230 I'm like, okay. 1564 01:14:10.370 --> 01:14:10.870 And I... 1565 01:14:12.489 --> 01:14:14.294 I, the middle of August... 1566 01:14:15.671 --> 01:14:20.173 I said to my wife, I said, I'm going to fucking Palm Springs with my computer. 1567 01:14:21.293 --> 01:14:23.374 I'm going to write an entirely new script. 1568 01:14:23.714 --> 01:14:25.515 I don't know what the fuck it's going to be. 1569 01:14:25.595 --> 01:14:26.916 I don't know what it is, but I'm going. 1570 01:14:26.956 --> 01:14:29.817 And I went August in Palm Springs, 120 degrees. 1571 01:14:30.617 --> 01:14:33.678 I mean, I'm talking to some shit hotel. 1572 01:14:33.738 --> 01:14:36.620 Like, I don't even, I couldn't find it if you paid me now. 1573 01:14:37.140 --> 01:14:39.021 And I sat and I wrote a script. 1574 01:14:39.581 --> 01:14:41.902 I swear to God, in like a new dialect. 1575 01:14:41.922 --> 01:14:42.082 Yeah. 1576 01:14:42.482 --> 01:14:49.987 Like where people were saying shit that everything, you could understand what they were saying, but they were talking in some weird fucking thing. 1577 01:14:50.507 --> 01:14:55.550 And I'm reading this and I'm like, this is so fucking stupid. 1578 01:14:55.570 --> 01:14:56.991 What am I doing here? 1579 01:14:57.031 --> 01:14:58.572 And I get it. 1580 01:14:58.612 --> 01:14:59.873 I don't even know if email exists. 1581 01:14:59.913 --> 01:15:00.253 I don't know. 1582 01:15:00.273 --> 01:15:00.914 Maybe email exists. 1583 01:15:01.014 --> 01:15:01.334 I don't know. 1584 01:15:01.354 --> 01:15:01.554 Whatever. 1585 01:15:01.614 --> 01:15:02.374 I get it to Lev. 1586 01:15:02.495 --> 01:15:02.875 He's like... 1587 01:15:04.107 --> 01:15:06.729 This is hilarious, but I don't even know what it is. 1588 01:15:07.029 --> 01:15:07.209 Yeah. 1589 01:15:08.189 --> 01:15:12.292 And we sent it to HBO, and we get They Love It. 1590 01:15:12.572 --> 01:15:12.912 Okay? 1591 01:15:13.132 --> 01:15:19.837 Now I'm telling you, there's not one word of that weird fucking script in the show that we ultimately ended up shooting. 1592 01:15:19.857 --> 01:15:20.537 Yeah. 1593 01:15:20.677 --> 01:15:26.598 But that was the script that got them to start moving forward, which then I don't even realize. 1594 01:15:26.638 --> 01:15:28.118 I've now put two years into this. 1595 01:15:28.138 --> 01:15:28.858 This is mine. 1596 01:15:29.159 --> 01:15:29.479 Okay? 1597 01:15:29.739 --> 01:15:30.799 This is my voice. 1598 01:15:30.839 --> 01:15:32.039 This is my soul. 1599 01:15:32.099 --> 01:15:32.939 This is everything. 1600 01:15:33.259 --> 01:15:34.299 I don't realize now. 1601 01:15:34.940 --> 01:15:37.080 There's no way they're letting me direct this, number one. 1602 01:15:37.740 --> 01:15:39.220 There's no way they're letting me show run it. 1603 01:15:39.880 --> 01:15:43.301 I suddenly have to go hire someone to fucking babysit me. 1604 01:15:43.861 --> 01:15:44.141 Okay?

1605 01:15:44.401 --> 01:15:46.502 I'm like, I don't even understand what's happening. 1606 01:15:46.682 --> 01:15:47.842 I had to hire a showrunner. 1607 01:15:48.362 --> 01:15:48.682 Okay. 1608 01:15:49.202 --> 01:15:49.822 And a director. 1609 01:15:49.842 --> 01:15:56.604 And by the way, we could not get a single director in town to do this pilot. 1610 01:15:56.644 --> 01:15:58.365 It's an HBO go pilot. 1611 01:15:58.645 --> 01:16:00.906 Every single one of them is passing. 1612 01:16:01.226 --> 01:16:01.466 Yeah. 1613 01:16:01.946 --> 01:16:04.447 Um, I'm just remembering what's his name. 1614 01:16:04.487 --> 01:16:06.607 Who's who did Glenn Gary, who just passed away. 1615 01:16:06.627 --> 01:16:08.768 Oh, um, uh, great director. 1616 01:16:09.028 --> 01:16:09.208 Uh, 1617 01:16:10.923 --> 01:16:12.385 I know what you're talking about. 1618 01:16:12.445 --> 01:16:17.530 Anyway, great director, Glenn Gary, one of the great plays turned into a movie he's ever made. 1619 01:16:17.550 --> 01:16:19.392 But he fucking hated this script so much. 1620 01:16:19.412 --> 01:16:25.879 He told Mark, you know, like every day I'm getting this director passed, this director passed, this director passed, and I keep saying, I can direct this. 1621 01:16:25.919 --> 01:16:27.401 They're like, no, you can't. 1622 01:16:27.601 --> 01:16:27.781 Yeah. 1623 01:16:28.181 --> 01:16:31.865 And it came down to, we had, it's funny, Schwimmer comes into this story. 1624 01:16:31.885 --> 01:16:32.626 It came down to... 1625 01:16:33.727 --> 01:16:34.489 David Frankel. 1626 01:16:34.870 --> 01:16:35.751 You know David Frankel? 1627 01:16:35.831 --> 01:16:35.992 Yeah. 1628 01:16:36.553 --> 01:16:37.394 Is the last shot. 1629 01:16:37.534 --> 01:16:37.695 Yeah. 1630 01:16:37.735 --> 01:16:37.895 Yeah. 1631 01:16:38.276 --> 01:16:42.183 If he does not do this show, HBO is not making this show. 1632 01:16:42.967 --> 01:16:48.631 So I always tell people, and look, there's some people like fucking, we were just talking about Taylor Sheridan. 1633 01:16:48.711 --> 01:16:49.091 Yeah, yeah. 1634 01:16:49.111 --> 01:16:49.792 Okay. 1635 01:16:50.672 --> 01:16:52.794 Taylor Sheridan started writing at 40 years old. 1636 01:16:52.834 --> 01:16:52.974 Yeah. 1637 01:16:53.274 --> 01:16:56.296 His first fucking script, he writes Sicario when he's a failed actor. 1638 01:16:56.477 --> 01:17:02.641 And now he's a prolific human being on a level that is not comprehensible to someone like me. 1639 01:17:02.801 --> 01:17:03.181 Okay. 1640 01:17:03.301 --> 01:17:04.722 I'm like, if this is over. 1641 01:17:04.742 --> 01:17:05.003 Yeah. 1642 01:17:05.023 --> 01:17:05.203 Yeah. 1643 01:17:05.743 --> 01:17:06.243 I'm done. 1644 01:17:06.483 --> 01:17:09.265 It's not like I got Sicario in the back of my fucking hand. 1645 01:17:09.365 --> 01:17:10.185 I'll go write that. 1646 01:17:10.205 --> 01:17:11.686 The next, you know, I got Yellowstone. 1647 01:17:11.706 --> 01:17:13.646 I'm like, I'm done. 1648 01:17:13.666 --> 01:17:14.127 I don't know what. 1649 01:17:14.467 --> 01:17:15.407 I have a line and entourage. 1650 01:17:15.427 --> 01:17:16.728 I'll go work for the phone company. 1651 01:17:16.748 --> 01:17:18.048 That's what I'm going to have to fucking do. 1652 01:17:18.668 --> 01:17:22.250 So I honestly do not know what's going to happen here. 1653 01:17:22.350 --> 01:17:26.252 But anyway, for whatever reason, I'm still like pretending like I have a choice in this. 1654 01:17:26.272 --> 01:17:28.973 But I'm like, oh, David, frankly, did some Band of Brother episodes. 1655 01:17:28.993 --> 01:17:31.234 Let me call Schwimmer, see how he liked him, whatever. 1656 01:17:31.254 --> 01:17:31.974 Yeah. 1657 01:17:32.354 --> 01:17:32.754 Love him. 1658 01:17:32.794 --> 01:17:33.735 Greatest guy. 1659 01:17:33.855 --> 01:17:36.475 But only thing is he's very heavy. 1660 01:17:36.976 --> 01:17:40.777 So, you know, he sometimes looks like, you know, he's got to be careful, like whatever. 1661 01:17:40.837 --> 01:17:42.537 Anyway, this is conversations irrelevant. 1662 01:17:43.238 --> 01:17:44.818 So I call David Frankel. 1663 01:17:44.918 --> 01:17:46.119 I sell him on this. 1664 01:17:46.419 --> 01:17:47.759 I don't even really know what he does. 1665 01:17:47.779 --> 01:17:50.460 He hasn't done his movies yet. 1666 01:17:50.500 --> 01:17:52.381 Marley and Me and Devil Wears Prada. 1667 01:17:52.401 --> 01:17:53.161 He hasn't done those yet. 1668 01:17:53.601 --> 01:17:55.563 But I'm like, David, everybody loves you. 1669 01:17:56.003 --> 01:17:57.444 He passed on the Sex and the City pilot. 1670 01:17:57.464 --> 01:17:59.306 I'm like, you passed on the Sex and the City pilot. 1671 01:17:59.586 --> 01:18:00.467 Don't miss this one. 1672 01:18:00.487 --> 01:18:01.267 I'm like doing the whole cell. 1673 01:18:01.588 --> 01:18:03.469 He's like, I'm coming to L.A. Let's talk about it. 1674 01:18:03.509 --> 01:18:04.750 Anyway, he comes to L.A. 1675 01:18:05.251 --> 01:18:05.991 He walks in. 1676 01:18:06.872 --> 01:18:07.813 David Franklin is not heavy. 1677 01:18:08.393 --> 01:18:10.855 He's a handsome, very fit guy. 1678 01:18:11.235 --> 01:18:12.637 At the second he walks in, 1679 01:18:13.636 --> 01:18:17.958 Schwimmer calls me randomly and I'm like, I'm like, yo, this is so funny. 1680 01:18:18.018 --> 01:18:18.798 David Frankl's here. 1681 01:18:18.838 --> 01:18:19.238 Say hello. 1682 01:18:19.258 --> 01:18:22.279 And I just hand him the phone and David Frankl is like, Hey, Hey. 1683 01:18:22.559 --> 01:18:24.680 And like, I can tell what's happening here. 1684 01:18:24.700 --> 01:18:26.421 These two people do not know each other at all. 1685 01:18:26.801 --> 01:18:32.503 So David Schwimmer has confused him with a different director from, so I'm, I ended up doing this as a story and entourage as well. 1686 01:18:32.543 --> 01:18:41.387 But, but so I have the wrong guy there that now, again, it doesn't matter if he says no, I have no

show anyway, but I'm still would like to think that I liked the director. 1687 01:18:41.427 --> 01:18:41.627 Yeah. 1688 01:18:42.667 --> 01:18:47.070 But anyway, I'm not like, okay, this is just like, this show is fucking cursed. 1689 01:18:47.771 --> 01:18:51.813 But somehow we sit down with Frankel and we can convince him to do it. 1690 01:18:52.154 --> 01:19:00.359 And the best thing that ever happened is Frankel, who's a great writer, he gets onto the show. 1691 01:19:01.480 --> 01:19:03.642 And now it's a greenlit pilot. 1692 01:19:04.062 --> 01:19:06.264 And he goes, basically, there's nothing. 1693 01:19:06.504 --> 01:19:08.646 There's no story in this fucking script. 1694 01:19:08.686 --> 01:19:09.827 There's nothing here. 1695 01:19:09.967 --> 01:19:10.147 Yeah. 1696 01:19:10.387 --> 01:19:13.730 And I go, yeah, I have a script with the story. 1697 01:19:14.370 --> 01:19:16.652 And we basically go back to what you... 1698 01:19:16.672 --> 01:19:21.095 There's nothing in the script that they moved forward with that is in that pilot. 1699 01:19:21.195 --> 01:19:21.616 Zero. 1700 01:19:21.796 --> 01:19:23.017 And almost... 1701 01:19:23.657 --> 01:19:29.801 I would say 75% of it is that first script that they said they didn't like anything about. 1702 01:19:29.921 --> 01:19:30.862 It's crazy how that comes from. 1703 01:19:30.902 --> 01:19:31.322 Crazy. 1704 01:19:31.522 --> 01:19:38.007 And the miracles that have to happen to get something going and for it to work out, including Dylan. 1705 01:19:38.147 --> 01:19:38.347 Yeah. 1706 01:19:38.647 --> 01:19:40.108 They didn't like Dylan. 1707 01:19:40.168 --> 01:19:40.448 Really? 1708 01:19:40.468 --> 01:19:40.748 Yeah. 1709 01:19:40.888 --> 01:19:44.691 And I'm like, we all thought Dylan was one of the funniest human beings we'd ever seen. 1710 01:19:44.851 --> 01:19:45.111 Yeah. 1711 01:19:45.131 --> 01:19:45.972 So when you got... 1712 01:19:46.583 --> 01:19:52.993 these people who've made the Sopranos and Sex and the City and Oz telling you they don't like somebody like, maybe I don't know what I'm doing. 1713 01:19:53.033 --> 01:19:53.233 Yeah. 1714 01:19:53.394 --> 01:19:56.739 You know, but I would like fight for every beat. 1715 01:19:56.839 --> 01:20:01.206 And I, I remember, it's funny you said, I remember, uh, um, 1716 01:20:02.699 --> 01:20:05.060 because David Nutter was... That's right. 1717 01:20:05.080 --> 01:20:05.500 Yeah, I know. 1718 01:20:05.520 --> 01:20:05.960 Yeah, I know. 1719 01:20:06.120 --> 01:20:08.241 And by the way, David Nutter, phenomenal. 1720 01:20:08.521 --> 01:20:08.902 Love him. 1721 01:20:08.982 --> 01:20:09.842 And the greatest guy. 1722 01:20:09.862 --> 01:20:10.562 He is a little heavy. 1723 01:20:10.742 --> 01:20:14.784 Yeah, and he's part of the reason why I'm... 1724 01:20:14.824 --> 01:20:16.665 He's the reason he told me to move to Los Angeles. 1725 01:20:16.685 --> 01:20:17.385 I did a movie with him. 1726 01:20:17.425 --> 01:20:18.185 Oh, really? 1727 01:20:18.205 --> 01:20:19.206 I lived at his house. 1728 01:20:19.666 --> 01:20:20.246 Oh, wow. 1729 01:20:20.266 --> 01:20:20.827 Oh, yeah. 1730 01:20:20.867 --> 01:20:23.007 David and I, he's been like a huge... 1731 01:20:23.028 --> 01:20:23.688 So how funny is that? 1732 01:20:23.708 --> 01:20:24.968 That's what Tror was talking about. 1733 01:20:25.028 --> 01:20:26.209 And Tror was like, he's a genius. 1734 01:20:26.289 --> 01:20:29.530 Yeah, because he banned her, and then Nutter came and did some of your guys' stuff as well. 1735 01:20:29.550 --> 01:20:30.150 Yeah, Nutter was great. 1736 01:20:30.251 --> 01:20:31.351 Nutter, buddy, buddy, buddy, buddy. 1737 01:20:31.571 --> 01:20:33.272 Yeah. 1738 01:20:33.312 --> 01:20:36.393 But, and, but, what was I saying there? 1739 01:20:36.413 --> 01:20:37.373 We were saying. 1740 01:20:37.713 --> 01:20:38.613 He got you to move to LA. 1741 01:20:38.753 --> 01:20:38.993 Not her. 1742 01:20:39.053 --> 01:20:41.374 Oh, what we were saying there was, what were you just talking about before? 1743 01:20:41.394 --> 01:20:43.375 I just had a brain fart. 1744 01:20:43.415 --> 01:20:45.335 David Frankel, the script changing. 1745 01:20:46.656 --> 01:20:48.376 Oh man, I just had a brain fart. 1746 01:20:48.736 --> 01:20:49.657 A brain fart, brain fart. 1747 01:20:50.177 --> 01:20:50.317 Yeah. 1748 01:20:52.115 --> 01:20:53.476 I totally forget. 1749 01:20:53.496 --> 01:20:55.037 You did a movie with Nutter? 1750 01:20:55.757 --> 01:20:56.298 I forget. 1751 01:20:56.518 --> 01:20:57.558 Oh, yes. 1752 01:20:57.738 --> 01:20:59.039 So the studio is not knowing. 1753 01:20:59.339 --> 01:21:02.521 So I remember I was screening. 1754 01:21:02.641 --> 01:21:08.305 David was doing, when I came down to L.A., he was doing, and I was staying at his place, 1755 01:21:09.125 --> 01:21:12.968 He was... His first pilot he was doing was Roswell. 1756 01:21:12.988 --> 01:21:16.490 This is before David went on like the 20 pilots in a row. 1757 01:21:16.510 --> 01:21:16.690 Yeah. 1758 01:21:16.890 --> 01:21:17.911 That all got picked up. 1759 01:21:17.931 --> 01:21:18.692 Yeah. 1760 01:21:18.852 --> 01:21:19.872 Which is a huge feat. 1761 01:21:19.952 --> 01:21:23.054 So I was standing in this pilot and I was screen testing for Roswell. 1762 01:21:23.555 --> 01:21:31.900 And they paired Jason Bear and Brendan Fair as brothers and Heath Ledger and me as brothers. 1763 01:21:32.641 --> 01:21:34.002 And I remember... 1764 01:21:35.005 --> 01:21:42.087 the head of Fox, because I was in David's house, and David was like, Heath Ledger hadn't done anything. 1765 01:21:42.488 --> 01:21:43.588 And they're like, this kid's a star. 1766 01:21:43.628 --> 01:21:45.329 And they're like, I don't know what you see in him. 1767 01:21:45.409 --> 01:21:47.789 He is not, he is not. 1768 01:21:47.869 --> 01:21:58.133 And they went with, and Jason Baird did a good job, but they passed on Heath Ledger, which was the best thing that

happened for Heath, because he went on to be a thing, because he'd just come from Australia, and he did the 10 Things I Hate About You. 1769 01:21:58.733 --> 01:22:01.055 But he was still very, like, green. 1770 01:22:01.215 --> 01:22:08.940 And he was, like, I remember him being in the audition room where he was barefoot and, like, just kind of the long hair and totally free spirit, but, like, super connected. 1771 01:22:10.742 --> 01:22:18.427 And I just remember, like, from that point, when he went on and had the creative, I always just remember the executive, like, 1772 01:22:18.767 --> 01:22:21.609 David, I just don't know what you see in this kid, Heath Ledger. 1773 01:22:21.649 --> 01:22:22.830 He's not a star. 1774 01:22:22.850 --> 01:22:24.792 And David's like, this kid is a star. 1775 01:22:25.172 --> 01:22:26.113 He is the guy. 1776 01:22:26.593 --> 01:22:30.717 And they obviously, you know, Jason Bear, you know, no respect to any of those guys. 1777 01:22:30.737 --> 01:22:32.178 But Heath Ledger's just on another level. 1778 01:22:32.318 --> 01:22:33.279 Like another level. 1779 01:22:33.599 --> 01:22:34.520 And they don't know. 1780 01:22:34.740 --> 01:22:39.183 You know, there's things that just, you know, and for Dylan. 1781 01:22:40.845 --> 01:22:44.608 Like when you write a character... 1782 01:22:46.035 --> 01:22:51.718 Is it when the actor comes in, when they come in and whatever their energy is, you're like, that's the guy. 1783 01:22:52.058 --> 01:22:57.100 And it's like they could just, they just embody it in what you've sort of, these characters that live in your head. 1784 01:22:57.120 --> 01:22:58.541 I mean, I would say, yeah. 1785 01:22:59.341 --> 01:22:59.721 Yeah. 1786 01:22:59.921 --> 01:23:00.822 I mean, like... 1787 01:23:02.252 --> 01:23:05.595 I know what I wrote for Dylan and we saw hundreds of people. 1788 01:23:05.795 --> 01:23:06.015 Yeah. 1789 01:23:06.335 --> 01:23:07.536 When he came in, it was over. 1790 01:23:07.796 --> 01:23:12.980 And I'm like, I remember like saying 11, I'm like, this guy's going to win an Emmy if we get this fucking show in here. 1791 01:23:13.040 --> 01:23:15.222 I mean, like I just, I cannot even believe it. 1792 01:23:15.242 --> 01:23:18.484 By the way, the weirdest thing about it is, is that, you know, I knew his ex-girlfriend. 1793 01:23:18.504 --> 01:23:20.926 She called me and said, he's coming in next day. 1794 01:23:21.006 --> 01:23:25.890 And I still, I knew Kevin from help us and things, but, but still I'm like, yeah, Matt Dillon's brother. 1795 01:23:25.910 --> 01:23:27.291 It's going to be great. 1796 01:23:27.391 --> 01:23:27.591 Yeah. 1797 01:23:27.831 --> 01:23:29.253 And he walked in, by the way, 1798 01:23:29.933 --> 01:23:34.557 His energy, Dylan showed up in golf spikes. 1799 01:23:34.637 --> 01:23:39.001 By the way, not because he thought that was good for the character, because he was going to play golf. 1800 01:23:39.141 --> 01:23:39.301 Yeah. 1801 01:23:39.582

--> 01:23:43.045 And that's everything about his... Yeah, the throwaway. 1802 01:23:43.105 --> 01:23:43.365 Yeah. 1803 01:23:43.905 --> 01:23:45.587 But the energy was what I wanted. 1804 01:23:45.747 --> 01:23:46.227 Yeah. 1805 01:23:46.347 --> 01:23:52.233 But yeah, a lot of times, Connelly, I mean, we saw some great actors for... 1806 01:23:52.773 --> 01:23:53.433 for that part. 1807 01:23:53.553 --> 01:23:54.654 And none of them were it. 1808 01:23:54.734 --> 01:23:55.935 And I had written in the script. 1809 01:23:55.975 --> 01:23:57.696 I'm like, it's a Jack Russell Terrier. 1810 01:23:58.276 --> 01:24:00.477 And you know, like, I'm like, I'm serious. 1811 01:24:00.517 --> 01:24:04.459 I wrote, he's like, he's like a softer, but still ready to go. 1812 01:24:04.759 --> 01:24:10.182 Joe Pesci, you know, like, and people kept telling me Mike Young, you know, Mike, right? 1813 01:24:10.402 --> 01:24:12.463 Like you got to meet this guy, Kevin Connolly. 1814 01:24:12.483 --> 01:24:14.044 They told me he was like, retired from acting. 1815 01:24:14.304 --> 01:24:14.544 Yeah. 1816 01:24:14.744 --> 01:24:15.865 And I'm like, okay. 1817 01:24:15.885 --> 01:24:17.786 He, you know, I kept asking Sheila Jaffe. 1818 01:24:17.806 --> 01:24:19.046 I'm like, call this Kevin Connolly. 1819 01:24:19.066 --> 01:24:19.787 She's like, he's not 1820 01:24:20.347 --> 01:24:21.247 going to do it. 1821 01:24:21.288 --> 01:24:21.748 I'm like, what is he? 1822 01:24:21.768 --> 01:24:22.588 He's not going to do it. 1823 01:24:22.668 --> 01:24:23.669 He's 35 years old. 1824 01:24:23.689 --> 01:24:26.050 He won't come in for an HBO, the lead of an HBO show. 1825 01:24:26.450 --> 01:24:28.431 But Wahlberg called him and said, you got to have dinner with Doug. 1826 01:24:28.631 --> 01:24:31.113 I knew sitting with Kevin at dinner that he was the guy. 1827 01:24:31.153 --> 01:24:32.874 And I'd seen every single person in town. 1828 01:24:32.934 --> 01:24:43.019 And he kind of grew up around, like, because I, we had, I'd done a movie with this one guy, Jay, and Jay was friends with Kevin, but 1829 01:24:43.519 --> 01:24:45.680 they were all hung around with Leo and Toto. 1830 01:24:45.740 --> 01:24:46.300 But that was... 1831 01:24:46.380 --> 01:24:50.162 So he kind of grew up in that... Yeah, but that doesn't even matter. 1832 01:24:50.382 --> 01:24:52.083 He's just... Like, he'll know. 1833 01:24:52.183 --> 01:24:53.083 Long Island Energy. 1834 01:24:53.263 --> 01:24:53.963 Oh, is that what you mean? 1835 01:24:54.003 --> 01:24:54.544 New York Energy. 1836 01:24:54.564 --> 01:24:55.304 He just had that thing. 1837 01:24:55.364 --> 01:24:55.724 It just is. 1838 01:24:55.824 --> 01:24:57.945 Like, these guys would be the guys that I grew up with. 1839 01:24:57.965 --> 01:24:58.665 You know what I mean? 1840 01:24:58.745 --> 01:25:02.167 So, you know, it's like when you see Good Will Hunting. 1841 01:25:02.247 --> 01:25:06.929 It's like those guys are like, you know, you can't not feel their Boston, you know? 1842 01:25:07.029 --> 01:25:10.190 So that was what I was looking for, and it was not easy, which is crazy. 1843 01:25:10.230 --> 01:25:11.290 I mean, and there were no... 1844 01:25:11.731 --> 01:25:12.271 I mean, there were... 1845 01:25:12.811 --> 01:25:19.873 The only like other consideration for these guys, and I had to see everybody because, you know, again, I had a showrunner there. 1846 01:25:19.913 --> 01:25:22.553 It was ultimately going to be up to HBO. 1847 01:25:22.593 --> 01:25:24.374 Everybody's throwing their opinions about this, that. 1848 01:25:24.394 --> 01:25:26.394 But I'm like, I need four authentic New Yorkers, period. 1849 01:25:26.414 --> 01:25:26.934 End of story. 1850 01:25:26.954 --> 01:25:27.514 Forget Piven. 1851 01:25:27.895 --> 01:25:28.895 Like, that's what I need. 1852 01:25:28.935 --> 01:25:31.355 But, you know, they'd be like, oh, this guy's from Chicago. 1853 01:25:31.395 --> 01:25:31.975 He's great. 1854 01:25:31.995 --> 01:25:32.316 He's great. 1855 01:25:32.336 --> 01:25:35.156 I'm like, that's not the show that I'm fucking doing, you know? 1856 01:25:35.196 --> 01:25:37.517 And I don't want a guy from Chicago trying to pretend he's from New York. 1857 01:25:37.577 --> 01:25:38.717 It just, it's not what I want. 1858 01:25:39.137 --> 01:25:41.418 But luckily we got there. 1859 01:25:43.178 --> 01:25:46.480 only other look that we had was like Dominic Lombardozzi. 1860 01:25:46.681 --> 01:25:46.801 Yeah. 1861 01:25:46.821 --> 01:25:47.661 You know Dom, right? 1862 01:25:47.681 --> 01:25:48.102 Yeah, Dom. 1863 01:25:48.442 --> 01:25:49.943 Like... Dom is a great guy. 1864 01:25:50.603 --> 01:25:51.204 I mean, I... 1865 01:25:51.284 --> 01:25:53.625 He's got the best voice and he's just a great guy. 1866 01:25:53.905 --> 01:25:56.707 I mean, and it's funny because God knows what the show would have been. 1867 01:25:56.727 --> 01:25:59.869 But, you know, the crew, we're looking for a Wahlberg, first of all. 1868 01:25:59.889 --> 01:26:00.050 Yeah. 1869 01:26:00.170 --> 01:26:00.930 Which we couldn't find. 1870 01:26:01.070 --> 01:26:01.270 Yeah. 1871 01:26:01.290 --> 01:26:02.651 Because there really aren't a lot of them. 1872 01:26:02.671 --> 01:26:02.851 Yeah. 1873 01:26:02.911 --> 01:26:03.312 You know? 1874 01:26:03.332 --> 01:26:03.492 Yeah. 1875 01:26:03.852 --> 01:26:09.196 And Adrian, perfect, but changed the whole, like, in a positive way. 1876 01:26:09.216 --> 01:26:09.616 But it was... 1877 01:26:10.056 --> 01:26:11.017 Imagine Wahlberg... 1878 01:26:11.898 --> 01:26:13.258 Dom, you know? 1879 01:26:13.278 --> 01:26:13.719 Yeah. 1880 01:26:13.779 --> 01:26:16.999 And, like, HBO sees Dom, and they love him because he's worked with HBO all the time. 1881 01:26:17.040 --> 01:26:18.320 They're like, what is this? 1882 01:26:18.380 --> 01:26:20.200 Fucking, like, Junior Sopranos? 1883 01:26:20.240 --> 01:26:22.521 Like, we, you know, like, whatever. 1884 01:26:23.141

--> 01:26:34.044 So, but initially, I thought, like, Dom was going to be Turtle, you know, which would have had a very different vibe because, you know, Jerry is so soft, sweet, innocent. 1885 01:26:34.064 --> 01:26:36.185 Dom, you know, and then I brought Dom on the show. 1886 01:26:36.425 --> 01:26:36.625 Yeah. 1887 01:26:37.045 --> 01:26:38.926 You know, and to show, because... 1888 01:26:40.622 --> 01:26:41.663 That was the energy I grew up in. 1889 01:26:41.803 --> 01:26:43.824 I grew up in Long Island as like Goodfellas. 1890 01:26:43.864 --> 01:26:46.265 You know, it's like you got the Jewish dentist next to the mobster. 1891 01:26:46.285 --> 01:26:47.265 And that's how I grew up. 1892 01:26:47.465 --> 01:26:49.587 You know, my next door neighbor was John Gotti's heroin dealer. 1893 01:26:49.727 --> 01:26:53.488 You know, I'm like, you know, my friend from kindergarten is in jail for fucking six murders. 1894 01:26:53.508 --> 01:26:59.331 You know, it's like, weirdly enough, people don't understand that Long Island is not just like a bunch of rich Jews. 1895 01:26:59.411 --> 01:27:00.232 Like, it's like... 1896 01:27:00.712 --> 01:27:03.934 a very melting pot of working class people and people on the ups. 1897 01:27:03.994 --> 01:27:06.736 And it's just, you know, got a lot of flavor and characters. 1898 01:27:06.796 --> 01:27:08.737 So when I was writing it, like those are the guys. 1899 01:27:08.757 --> 01:27:13.060 So I brought Dom back is basically like many of the guys I knew from high school. 1900 01:27:13.580 --> 01:27:14.601 And it was crazy to me. 1901 01:27:14.621 --> 01:27:20.305 I don't know if you remember that episode, but Dom came on playing his own name and people were fucking horrified. 1902 01:27:20.345 --> 01:27:23.427 They thought like, like, you know, what is this? 1903 01:27:23.467 --> 01:27:26.629 So if we would have gone with that first initial tone, yeah. 1904 01:27:27.449 --> 01:27:28.672 It may not have worked at all. 1905 01:27:28.692 --> 01:27:31.118 What was it with Jerry Piven? 1906 01:27:31.278 --> 01:27:33.844 Because his entrance on screen, his... 1907 01:27:38.364 --> 01:27:51.157 What that got, it was one of, like, from an acting standpoint, you're like, how in God, that is, like, so locked in and so, like, was his process for finding him, how did you find Piven? 1908 01:27:51.798 --> 01:27:54.961 I mean, I wrote him into my first outline two years before the show ever goes. 1909 01:27:54.981 --> 01:27:56.002 You knew it was going to be Piven? 1910 01:27:56.142 --> 01:27:56.703 Oh, yeah, yeah. 1911 01:27:56.763 --> 01:27:58.625 Yeah, I mean, from Larry Sanders' show, I loved him. 1912 01:27:58.725 --> 01:28:00.987 He was, he did that, um... 1913 01:28:02.088 --> 01:28:06.189 what is the high school with John Cusack? 1914 01:28:06.869 --> 01:28:08.330 I mean, they did a bunch of John Cusack. 1915 01:28:08.350 --> 01:28:10.551 But it was the... Serendipity, old school. 1916 01:28:10.931 --> 01:28:11.551 Ghostbilt Blank. 1917 01:28:12.071 --> 01:28:12.911 Ghostbilt Blank, yeah. 1918 01:28:13.271 --> 01:28:14.712 He was like that, and I remember him from the back. 1919 01:28:14.732 --> 01:28:21.934 But he was just so, like, those scenes, he was just... Would you have those moments behind the screen just being like... 1920 01:28:22.954 --> 01:28:26.495 This is, this is, he captured that energy of, of, of. 1921 01:28:26.635 --> 01:28:31.376 I mean, to be totally honest with you, you know, Jeremy, I had to basically beg him to do it. 1922 01:28:31.677 --> 01:28:34.958 You know, I mean, first of all, they, they, he didn't know who the actors were. 1923 01:28:34.978 --> 01:28:36.278 He wanted tapes of all the actors. 1924 01:28:36.418 --> 01:28:40.979 And I said to him, I go, I mean, I'd seen everything he's done. 1925 01:28:41.139 --> 01:28:45.481 I'm like, the one thing I'm a hundred percent positive is I know how to write for you. 1926 01:28:45.721 --> 01:28:45.941 Yeah. 1927 01:28:46.001 --> 01:28:49.502 So I, you know, I think the most important thing is for a writer to understand. 1928 01:28:49.522 --> 01:28:49.902 Yeah. 1929 01:28:49.922 --> 01:28:50.102 Yeah. 1930 01:28:51.260 --> 01:28:54.342 what their actor has, and that doesn't mean they don't have multiple things. 1931 01:28:54.742 --> 01:28:58.185 But I understood his energy and his cadences, and I knew how to write for him. 1932 01:28:58.245 --> 01:29:01.287 So, no, I wasn't surprised at all. 1933 01:29:01.347 --> 01:29:05.470 Like, I mean, I was surprised, like I said, by Dylan, because I thought I had... 1934 01:29:05.490 --> 01:29:06.811 I didn't have anybody in mind for that. 1935 01:29:06.851 --> 01:29:10.513 I thought I had killed that on the page, and Dylan took it to a whole other level. 1936 01:29:10.833 --> 01:29:16.357 Now, Piven, there's no one on Earth who would have been better than him, but honestly, I just saw that. 1937 01:29:16.497 --> 01:29:17.358 And there's a lot of... 1938 01:29:18.058 --> 01:29:23.040 You know, there's a lot of my life and me, even though I'm not an agent, but his wife was based on mine. 1939 01:29:23.060 --> 01:29:24.140 My son played his son. 1940 01:29:24.160 --> 01:29:30.222 It's just, you know, when I go on some tangents, you know, I can speak like that. 1941 01:29:30.342 --> 01:29:33.843 So I just knew he could, I knew he would kill it. 1942 01:29:33.903 --> 01:29:38.385 And I told him, I said, Jeremy, this is going to work for you if it doesn't work for anybody else. 1943 01:29:38.425 --> 01:29:39.145 I'm just telling you. 1944 01:29:39.385 --> 01:29:41.065 And that's how I sold him up. 1945 01:29:41.086 --> 01:29:44.887 I remember just even the process for me getting, uh, 1946 01:29:45.867 --> 01:29:56.954 on the show and it was because we, I went in and I put myself on tape and I think I told, told you on a prior thing of who I, I'd met somebody that I, I talked like that and I was like, Oh, I'm going to do it. 1947 01:29:56.974 -->

01:29:58.995 Cause it was kind of like, yo dog, like this thing. 1948 01:29:59.016 --> 01:30:03.478 So, and the guy that I, I won't say, but, uh, I'd known. 1949 01:30:03.498 --> 01:30:07.741 And he kind of had this and I was like, Oh, I'm going to play it like that. 1950 01:30:07.841 --> 01:30:11.904 I want, and, and, but again, the word, the show was already this massive hit. 1951 01:30:12.724 --> 01:30:13.565 And, um, 1952 01:30:14.607 --> 01:30:25.658 Em was on the show, and I remember talking to her, and I'm like, I'm like, she's like, just say it as, go in there, make a choice, and make it your own, and they'll respond to that. 1953 01:30:25.678 --> 01:30:26.259 And I was like, all right. 1954 01:30:26.399 --> 01:30:29.262 So I went in there, and I did put it on tape, came back. 1955 01:30:29.282 --> 01:30:30.844 I think I had like three auditions. 1956 01:30:30.884 --> 01:30:35.869 And I came back on the last one, and it was like, first time I met you, Weiss was in there, who I knew. 1957 01:30:35.889 --> 01:30:36.589 It was cool. 1958 01:30:36.609 --> 01:30:36.990 He had a... 1959 01:30:37.270 --> 01:30:38.371 his feet up on the table. 1960 01:30:38.411 --> 01:30:38.771 Of course. 1961 01:30:38.992 --> 01:30:39.332 Yeah. 1962 01:30:39.612 --> 01:30:45.698 And, uh, and I wore a leather vest that ended up being in the show and my flip flops and stuff. 1963 01:30:45.858 --> 01:30:49.061 And I did, uh, the audition with, with Connelly. 1964 01:30:49.081 --> 01:30:51.263 And there was, there was so many guys in the, in the waiting room. 1965 01:30:51.884 --> 01:30:55.347 And, uh, I remember walking out of that thing and I'm like, 1966 01:30:56.507 --> 01:31:01.870 It went good, and I'm like, I had so many things that I got close and that I didn't get. 1967 01:31:02.190 --> 01:31:05.813 So I was in my head that I'm like, that went good, but I'm like, I don't want to get excited about this. 1968 01:31:06.053 --> 01:31:07.113 And I talked to Lum after. 1969 01:31:07.153 --> 01:31:08.134 I was like, she's like, how'd it go? 1970 01:31:08.154 --> 01:31:09.975 And I was like, I'm like, good. 1971 01:31:09.995 --> 01:31:11.996 And she's like, well, you got it. 1972 01:31:12.336 --> 01:31:13.037 And I was like, what? 1973 01:31:13.177 --> 01:31:14.017 And I'm like, that quick? 1974 01:31:14.037 --> 01:31:16.139 Like, I found out, like, within the hour. 1975 01:31:16.199 --> 01:31:23.103 When we, when I, I would say when I, when I knew it was over, it's like once I had the power to say yes, because at the beginning I had a... 1976 01:31:23.423 --> 01:31:24.923 Fucking talk to 400 people. 1977 01:31:25.284 --> 01:31:28.205 But I remember when you came in, I mean, you killed it and it was based by the way. 1978 01:31:28.245 --> 01:31:32.006 I wrote it based on Randy Jackson on American Idol. 1979 01:31:32.246 --> 01:31:32.726 Oh, no way. 1980 01:31:32.746 --> 01:31:35.187 That's if you remember, he just kept saying, yo dog, yo dog. 1981 01:31:35.207 -->

01:31:35.367 No way. 1982 01:31:35.387 --> 01:31:36.107 And you know, I, 1983 01:31:39.348 --> 01:31:41.709 You asked if you like bring in the actor's energy. 1984 01:31:41.729 --> 01:31:49.272 But what happens is to me anyway, when I write something, because I thought that part was so funny and all these actors were coming in and it wasn't funny. 1985 01:31:49.452 --> 01:31:54.134 And I'm like, maybe it's not, it's not written well, you know, like that's how I go. 1986 01:31:54.314 --> 01:31:58.956 And then I remember when you walked in and it was like, what the fuck is this? 1987 01:31:59.176 --> 01:32:02.477 And it's so weird because you don't have that energy at all. 1988 01:32:02.658 --> 01:32:03.478 And you know, there's been so, 1989 01:32:04.854 --> 01:32:10.198 I would say me, the way I work, which sometimes I'm amazed by actors who can go... 1990 01:32:10.218 --> 01:32:13.139 I don't think I could go do The Age of Innocence. 1991 01:32:13.219 --> 01:32:14.861 I need it. 1992 01:32:15.421 --> 01:32:17.202 It's my life in some form. 1993 01:32:17.242 --> 01:32:19.163 It's the world that I know in some form. 1994 01:32:19.203 --> 01:32:24.447 And the people are supposed to be kind of as real, as humanly possible, just simple. 1995 01:32:24.487 --> 01:32:28.109 So if it's a world that I don't understand, I don't even know if I would be able to comprehend that. 1996 01:32:28.129 --> 01:32:33.232 But with this stuff, there were very few actors who came on who were so... 1997 01:32:34.253 --> 01:32:45.336 different than what they brought to the role because usually like, and again, it's not to say that, that Piven is Ari or Conley is this, but their energy is that, but like you and Giovanni Rabisi love. 1998 01:32:45.356 --> 01:32:45.516 Yeah. 1999 01:32:45.916 --> 01:32:46.976 I mean, Giovanni came in. 2000 01:32:47.436 --> 01:32:51.257 I mean, I think he could have done this thing like 400 different ways. 2001 01:32:51.297 --> 01:32:52.578 And I was like, fuck. 2002 01:32:52.718 --> 01:32:56.198 And like, I don't even like, I just see it how I see it. 2003 01:32:56.238 --> 01:32:58.079 And now all of a sudden I'm looking at this or Adam Goldberg. 2004 01:32:58.099 --> 01:32:58.319 Yeah. 2005 01:32:58.859 --> 01:33:00.840 I mean, this guy, have you ever worked with him? 2006 01:33:00.960 --> 01:33:02.060 No, but I'm a big fan of his. 2007 01:33:02.100 --> 01:33:02.380 Huge. 2008 01:33:02.400 --> 01:33:02.580 Yeah. 2009 01:33:02.620 --> 01:33:05.341 I mean, and Adam Goldberg doesn't really talk to anybody. 2010 01:33:05.381 --> 01:33:07.141 So you're just like, what's coming here? 2011 01:33:07.241 --> 01:33:16.363 And then all of a sudden he goes and, and, you know, it's just, it's a different thing for me because, um, you know, I've never been around like a Daniel Day Lewis, you know, method actor. 2012 01:33:16.383 --> 01:33:19.604 So it is interesting to see when someone is so wildly different. 2013 01:33:19.624 --> 01:33:21.324 So, I mean, yeah, you crushed that audition. 2014 01:33:21.344 --> 01:33:27.166 I remember it still, you know, it was, and it was so crazy because, and I, and I, I don't 2015 01:33:28.766 --> 01:33:35.531 Being on that show and when that role came out, one, it was the first time I ever got started getting recognized. 2016 01:33:35.631 --> 01:33:43.977 And I remember the first time I was in Vegas and I'd be going, it happened like four, like the episode just come out and I'm like, yeah. 2017 01:33:44.647 --> 01:33:49.069 I was in Vegas, and every time I would go, somebody would be like, hey, you didn't get me the Coke. 2018 01:33:49.250 --> 01:33:51.551 And I'm like, who did this? 2019 01:33:51.611 --> 01:33:52.952 And they're like, yo, dog. 2020 01:33:52.972 --> 01:33:55.573 And I was like, I wasn't clicking that they were talking to me. 2021 01:33:55.913 --> 01:34:00.816 And then the third person in my buddy was with me, my buddy Jeff from Canada, he's like, I think they're talking to me. 2022 01:34:00.856 --> 01:34:02.397 I'm like, they're talking to me? 2023 01:34:02.457 --> 01:34:04.098 And then I look back, I'm like, you're talking to me? 2024 01:34:04.118 --> 01:34:05.638 He goes, you didn't get me the Coke. 2025 01:34:05.758 --> 01:34:06.939 And I'm like, oh, yeah. 2026 01:34:06.979 --> 01:34:08.580 And I'd never really been recognized before. 2027 01:34:08.600 --> 01:34:09.521 And I was like, holy shit. 2028 01:34:09.861 --> 01:34:11.502 But like, just from... 2029 01:34:12.342 --> 01:34:16.163 Like I ended up getting into rooms that I'd never got in before. 2030 01:34:16.523 --> 01:34:26.865 And I'm really grateful for you casting me and giving me that opportunity because it was a role in my career that things changed. 2031 01:34:27.405 --> 01:34:30.466 Where like someone was like, hey, I got meetings. 2032 01:34:30.506 --> 01:34:34.327 I went and I screen tested for Star Trek because of that. 2033 01:34:34.367 --> 01:34:34.627 Yeah. 2034 01:34:35.207 --> 01:34:35.828 For Scotty. 2035 01:34:36.188 --> 01:34:40.532 And like I had all these different things happen, like CSI New York happened. 2036 01:34:40.552 --> 01:34:42.414 Like it was, it just, I was. 2037 01:34:42.434 --> 01:34:43.194 It's awesome. 2038 01:34:43.615 --> 01:34:46.697 It was, it was at a really, I didn't have any money. 2039 01:34:46.898 --> 01:34:49.800 It was just like things happened and I was in a weird place. 2040 01:34:50.481 --> 01:34:54.204 And then it's crazy how all of a sudden one thing clicks. 2041 01:34:54.544 --> 01:34:54.785 Yeah. 2042 01:34:55.393 --> 01:34:57.294 And then someone goes, oh, I'll give you a shot. 2043 01:34:57.354 --> 01:34:58.515 And you get a shot and then... 2044 01:34:58.535 --> 01:34:59.436 It changes everything. 2045 01:34:59.556 --> 01:35:00.456 It changes everything. 2046 01:35:00.536 --> 01:35:02.097 And I remember getting a call from Lev. 2047 01:35:02.178 --> 01:35:02.938 I was in New York. 2048 01:35:03.378 --> 01:35:05.680 And he's

like, hey, I just saw the episode of Rick. 2049 01:35:05.700 --> 01:35:07.181 He goes, when you come back, I'm going to bring you by. 2050 01:35:07.201 --> 01:35:08.302 And I came by your office. 2051 01:35:08.902 --> 01:35:12.905 And me, Lam, Lev, and we went at your office there and we watched the episode. 2052 01:35:13.385 --> 01:35:14.286 And I was like... 2053 01:35:15.306 --> 01:35:15.726 It was great. 2054 01:35:15.766 --> 01:35:17.488 And you were always so kind to me, Doug. 2055 01:35:17.808 --> 01:35:23.452 And like even like throughout the years... And this business is such a finicky thing, but... 2056 01:35:24.292 --> 01:35:25.153 I just really appreciate... 2057 01:35:25.173 --> 01:35:28.998 I remember when I started a magazine, I called you and, hey, can I interview you for the magazine? 2058 01:35:29.279 --> 01:35:29.839 You said yes. 2059 01:35:30.260 --> 01:35:33.984 I remember when my kid was born, and I posted a picture on... 2060 01:35:34.545 --> 01:35:36.468 I think it was Twitter back then. 2061 01:35:36.888 --> 01:35:37.549 And you sent me a text. 2062 01:35:37.569 --> 01:35:38.250 You're like, hey, congratulations. 2063 01:35:38.270 --> 01:35:38.991 Congratulations. 2064 01:35:39.291 --> 01:35:42.832 You're just one of those guys, and we're not super close. 2065 01:35:42.892 --> 01:35:47.954 I see each other day, but you're just a guy that just shows up for people, and I really appreciate that. 2066 01:35:47.974 --> 01:35:49.035 Long out of energy, man. 2067 01:35:49.155 --> 01:35:50.855 And I really mean it, man. 2068 01:35:51.015 --> 01:35:52.756 You're a really good human being. 2069 01:35:52.776 --> 01:35:53.116 Thank you. 2070 01:35:53.136 --> 01:35:53.676 I appreciate it. 2071 01:35:53.916 --> 01:35:55.117 And you can tell somebody – 2072 01:35:56.197 --> 01:36:02.762 When somebody has a crew of friends that have been their friends for, and they roll the way that you guys roll, you can always tell that. 2073 01:36:03.102 --> 01:36:04.103 You show up for people. 2074 01:36:04.123 --> 01:36:08.025 I consider you a good friend for everything that you've done in my life. 2075 01:36:08.445 --> 01:36:09.846 You've just been great. 2076 01:36:09.866 --> 01:36:10.587 Thank you. 2077 01:36:10.707 --> 01:36:12.728 I appreciate it. 2078 01:36:12.869 --> 01:36:14.570 And I really mean it from the bottom of my heart. 2079 01:36:15.110 --> 01:36:16.672 And I appreciate you just coming on this show. 2080 01:36:16.692 --> 01:36:18.194 My pleasure, man. 2081 01:36:18.254 --> 01:36:19.175 Especially just starting out. 2082 01:36:19.336 --> 01:36:23.481 And, you know, this is episode, this will be episode nine or ten, something around there. 2083 01:36:23.521 --> 01:36:28.688 So I'm just very grateful for your time and do it. 2084 01:36:28.808 --> 01:36:29.529 And, yeah. 2085 01:36:30.550 --> 01:36:36.573 I really think you need to have your own critique food show, the Nashville experience. 2086 01:36:36.713 --> 01:36:41.055 When you come down to South Carolina, I'm looking forward to having over the house and taking out and stuff like that. 2087 01:36:41.135 --> 01:36:42.395 But I have to do that for sure. 2088 01:36:42.435 --> 01:36:42.615 Yeah. 2089 01:36:42.776 --> 01:36:44.997 And, and I'd love for you to come back on the show, man. 2090 01:36:45.157 --> 01:36:45.737 Absolutely. 2091 01:36:45.797 --> 01:36:46.537 Anytime, man. 2092 01:36:46.577 --> 01:36:47.718 Yeah, I do much love. 2093 01:36:47.818 --> 01:36:48.158 Yeah. 2094 01:36:48.198 --> 01:36:49.679 I really appreciate your brother. 2095 01:36:49.779 --> 01:36:50.359 Everybody at home. 2096 01:36:50.439 --> 01:36:55.161 Thank you for watching another episode of real fake seal with me, your host, AJ Buckley. 2097 01:36:55.261 --> 01:36:59.043 Don't forget to like, subscribe, follow, tell a friend, tell your friends, 2098 01:36:59.744 --> 01:37:03.598 Ex-boyfriend, your mom, your dad, your church, God, whoever. 2099 01:37:04.762 --> 01:37:05.886 The more, the merrier. 2100 01:37:06.247 --> 01:37:07.371 You're all welcome at this table. 2101 01:37:07.512 --> 01:37:08.475 Thanks for watching the episode. 2102 01:37:08.495 --> 01:37:08.877 God bless.