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We filmed in Toronto.
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So yeah, it was loved Toronto.
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Yeah, it was really fun.
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We all stayed in the same building, the same hotel, Set and Place Hotel.
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It was like Adam, me, Farley, David Spade, because they were making Tommy Boy at the same time.
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Gwyneth Petro was there making some movie.
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Like it was just like this hotel filled with like the troupe.
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We're like vaudeville actors or something.
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Like just this troop of crazy people in a hotel.
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Alright, alright, alright.
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So welcome back to DMR.
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Thank you for tuning back in as always.
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Much obliged.
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So the Legends of the Lens series continues.
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And today's guest is Tamara Davis.
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So Tamra has a large list of credentials over many different sectors in Hollywood.
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She started in the 80s directing music videos with the likes of NWA.
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You've also got Sonic Youth and Hansen later in the 90s.
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Then she directed a film in 1992 called Gun Crazy with Drew Barrymore, a thriller, very gritty, and it got Drew a Golden Globe nomination.
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Then have a listen to these very well-known staple comedies that she directed.
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We've got CB4 with Chris Rock.
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Then you had Adam Sandler in Billy Madison, one of the best and well-known comedies to come out of the 90s.
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Then you had Half Baked with Dave Chappelle.
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We've also got Britney Spears in Crossroads in the early 2000s.
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She's also been involved in a fair few TV series and episodes, and she's directed episodes for Grey's Anatomy.
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You've also got shows like Dead to Me, The Politician, and P Valley.
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She's also directed documentaries, and she's got one that's coming out next year called The Best Summer, which is basically found footage from the Somersault alt rock music festival here in Australia in the mid-90s, and she was being evacuated from the Malibu fires last year, and as she's frantically trying to get out of the area, she comes across this box of tapes, and it's the music festival tapes.
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Now I haven't seen the documentary comes out early next year, but just some amazing stories that Tamara has throughout her career from the 80s right up until today.
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She's got some great advice for people looking to get into the industry, especially with directing and whatnot.
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So buckle up, it's a cracker of an episode.
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You're going to enjoy this.
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Welcome to DMR's movie reviews.
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Enjoy the show.
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Welcome back to DMR.
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Thank you for tuning back in as always.
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And today or tonight, we've got a very special guest, Tamara Davis.
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Welcome to DMR.
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Thank you.
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I'm so excited to be here and talk to you.
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I know, I know.
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I've been looking forward to this for a very long time.
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You're in a very nice little backdrop there in LA.
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It's summer over there at the moment.
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How is it in LA this time of year?
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It's beautiful.
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It's summer here, and there's also waves.
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So there's a swell right now.
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So I'm really excited because, yeah, my kids are surfers, so it's nice.
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A good time.
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Yeah, one of them almost tried to leave to go to Australia because you guys just got some waves.
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So I was like, no, stay here.
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We did, yeah.
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I actually, whilst I'm not a surfer, I'm actually a uh I haven't told you this yet, but I'm a drone operator, a drone pilot.
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So at the moment we are smack bang in the middle of humpback whale migration.
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And the best way I can describe filming these animals, these amazing aquatic beasts, is it's like it's like Jurassic Park.
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Yeah, I'm sure you see them when they're oh my god, how fun.
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Yeah, it's amazing.
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And they get here, they get as close as 50 meters offshore, and you can actually hear their blowholes when they're going past with their young calves.
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So it's amazing, it's very, very cool.
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It's amazing.
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That's so beautiful.
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So you spend a lot of time by the ocean by sounds like with your kids, and so do I.
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Yeah, yeah, right here on the ocean.
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It's so nice.
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And yeah, Sydney's so beautiful.
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I I haven't been there in a while, and I just like when you fly over Sydney and you just see how it just is like all the all those beautiful waterways and how big it is, but it's just like hugs the coast.
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It's just stunning.
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I just thought it was the most beautiful city.
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Yeah, it's very cool.
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Thank you.
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It's very cool.
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Like, I've got a corporate job, and my main office tower overlooks all of Sydney Harbour.
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So I'm in there twice a week.
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Yeah, it's it's it's an amazing place.
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So thank you again for coming on.
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So today we're gonna be doing a bit of a deep dive, called it Legends of the Lens.
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So when I came across your profile, obviously you've got some very big cult classic films that we'll talk about shortly.
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But I wanted to rewind the clock and discuss like how you got obviously into the movie industry, but before that, where you started, where you grew up, what you studied, how you got into the entertainment industry.
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Wow, well, I'm excited to talk about that because I actually just wrote a book kind of trying to describe it.
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I know I'm excited about it, but it's mostly that because you know, the way anybody starts, everybody's path is so different.
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And then I just was like, yeah, being a girl, it's a very different trajectory.
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But I grew up in Hollywood.
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I grew up in Hollywood, California, and um I wanted to be an actress at first, and then I became an then I decided that I wanted to have more control, so I became a director.
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And um I went to film school at LA City College, which was just super cool as like the local college here.
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Um and then I I thought like I was gonna make a feature film, but instead I was only like 23, 24, but I felt like guys are doing that, you know.
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And I basically like got laughed at when I went into like my big meeting.
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And but the good news was I I had made a music video for a band, and it was right at the beginning time of like when music videos and MTV was just like crushing it.
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And so all of a sudden out of nowhere, I became like a music video director, and they didn't care that I was a girl, and it was like I had a cool style, and I just had the best time in the world, and I did music videos.
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So that was kind of how I started.
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How cool is that?
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So, how long were you at film school for?
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You know, I think it was probably like a two-year program, but it probably took me more like three or four years because I was like working, you know, going to school.
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But yeah, it was a it was really nice though, because it was kind of a film program where it was the LA City College, so it wasn't just like all people who had money who could pay for it who thought they were like already privileged or something.
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It was really like local people, and um, and so there's something nice about that because when you made films, it felt like you showed them to the people that are at the movie theaters, not just critics.
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And so it really made me understand that like that people are going to the movie, you know, you're trying to have all different kinds of people enjoy your films, not just like the whatever that group of cool critical people.
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Like it's films are equal, you know, they're they're very you should appeal to the Armenian woman and the two black kids and the punk rock girl and the old guy, you know.
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So I kind of really saw that going to a community college.
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Um, and then yeah, so I feel I don't know.
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So that was I think that that was like a good, a good background.
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Yeah, okay.
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So MTV, like that came out, was it the early or mid-80s when it came out?
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So I'm an 85 baby, so I kind of grew up in the early to mid-90s.
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So when did like MTV like they came really I think like they came out in the 80s or like towards the they were really getting popular more in the late 80s?
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Yeah.
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And then I guess I started trying to think, like I met, yeah, because I met Mike in 1988, and that was like by then I was kind of like a a pretty not established, but I was doing like a bunch of rap videos at the time.
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So I probably started doing videos around 86 or something like that.
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Okay, yeah.
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Do you remember when it was like and at the time, like the difference was was like when MTV started, it was all these like slick kind of big hair bands, or like it looked really kind of a big lighting and all that kind of stuff.
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And what I did is I had filmed a band with my Super 8 camera from the checkout from the film school, and it had this, and I was like in the pit getting bumped or on the side of the, you know, it was like just handheld look grainy, black and white.
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Yeah, and um and that nobody'd really seen something shot like that, other than like their old home videos or something.
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So to put it in a way uh for a rock feel, it kind of made it feel really cool and edgy.
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And so I think like that was kind of what was cool about MTV is that they let people who had like a new style and just yeah, yeah, and it kind of shook it up a little bit.
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And I think that that was a fun, a fun entry.
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And I got to do all these cool alternative bands at the time, so that was really neat.
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Nice.
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So you work with some of the people like the groups like NWA Sonic Youth back then.
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So what was it like during that time?
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Because like in the like mid 80s, rap was basically exploding, and then it kind of shifted a bit to like a different style, like in the 90s, I suppose, with all that gangster rap and all that kind of stuff.
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So what was it, what was it like back then, especially like in Hollywood, LA, with all that genre of music?
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Well, I had I was coming from it from like a couple different places.
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One, I grew up in LA, so I knew LA culture, but also like my early films, one of my early films was called Via Loca, which was about gangs in the San Fernando Valley.
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And then one of my first TV shows was like about yeah, so I I'd like grown up and filmed gang stuff, gang activity.
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And so I kind of knew about I knew about the world a bit.
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Yeah, and then um and then I worked, I'd been doing like rap music, like I did tone Loke Wild thing and bust a move, and like kind of like, but that was kind of like it it was like blending black and white worlds together because that was the music that I was listening to when we went to clubs.
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Those song, those songs were produced by this guy, Matt Dyke, who was my best friend, and he had a club called Power Tools.
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And um, and so like we were all dancing to like black songs, and uh, and so when Matt made that song and I made the video, I we like really blended the crowd.
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So we wanted it to show like this is what was going on in the club scene, but on MTV, it was just like black videos, like it wasn't like a crossover at all.
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Like you were either a black artist or you're a white artist, yeah.
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And so, like when I made the tone look wild thing video to have this black guy like humping up against these white girls, it was definitely we did it for I made it for$400.
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It was like super low budget, like we were having fun, and it became the biggest music video on MTV, whatever it was gigantic and sold so many records.
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So, you know, and then Bust a Move was like me also, you know, blending that culture.
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That was like what was going on at LA at the time.
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So I so that was super fun, but you know, like Tone Lok was from that world, like he he was rap, you know, he was definitely he lived, he lived in that world.
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Um yeah, that's a that's a gang name.
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I didn't we didn't know what it meant.
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We just thought tone like local crazy.
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I don't we didn't know what it meant, but he he was it's a gang name, but um and yeah, and then when I worked with NWA, that was just really fun.
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Like, yeah, I met with Easy because I had done those videos and they made they were gigantic videos, and he wanted to hire the person that made those videos.
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And so then I started working with him, and um, yeah, and his world was for real, like it was for real.
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Like those guys were they were definitely from yeah, from Compton and had probably just been you know doing their thing like a year or two earlier.
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Like, you know, it wasn't like they were it was pr it was pretty, it was pretty rough.
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But I don't know, I felt I I got along really well with Easy.
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He wanted to make movies, he really loved Hollywood, he liked that I wanted to be in the film business, and we made a short film and yeah, we just did a lot of music videos together and it was great.
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And I felt like I could I I had a style that I wanted to do with him, and I and I liked that he backed me so that when I worked with all those guys that were all just like complete like the yes, you could call it NWA, but you could also call them their, you know, it was their it was their that group of the guys, it was a gang.
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But um yeah, I felt they I felt protected, I felt fine, but and I think like I don't know, maybe there was something about instead of being like a white dude with a baseball hat coming up to these guys and telling them what to do, the fact that I was just this big blonde girl, you know, that was smilingly coming up and telling them what to do.
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I think maybe I was able to get performances out of all these guys that normally would be very intimidating.
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I just weren't fun.
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I I like saw it as fun and I laughed and I got along well with those guys.
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How cool.
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So with the with shooting and directing the music videos, like might be a bit of an odd question or a you know question that's might not be easy to answer, but how long does that usually take to film a video?
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Because like they go for what an average song is a couple of minutes, like three to four minutes.
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Like, how long would you be working on site with uh with music videos back in the day?
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I mean, I feel like we would do one-day videos or two-day videos, and they're you they used to have like really bad reputations that people would go all hours or would like go forever.
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And I wasn't ever that director.
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I was like really very efficient, I had shot lists, I was like really planned, and I I wanted everybody to have fun and I wanted to get good performances out of the band, and I just didn't, I didn't feel like people were doing their best work at hour 13, 14, 15.
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So me either.
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So I just feel like I yeah, usually take like one or two days.
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A lot of that would depend on how much money you had.
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Um, yeah.
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In a weird way, I feel like because I like right now, people make music videos, but now they make videos for nothing.
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Like that's the thing that I'm in shock about now is like we had money to make music videos and they were on the air and they were like they were part of like uh the media empire, but now it's kind of like bands still need music videos.
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There's no like major place to play them, so there's no MTV, but bands still need them, but now they only pay like five, six, seven thousand dollars for video on most bands, yeah.
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And then it's all it's up to like all these kind of creative young people who I guess now that you put a camera in everybody's hand and you give them all an editing system, everybody thinks they can make a film.
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And some people can, but I just am more like, damn, they're asking these young directors, which I can't believe how much what I learned.
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I learned so much from directing music videos and what an incredible opportunity to work with a crew and work with, you know, like lighting equipment and dollies and cameras and moving a crew from one location to another, all that stuff were all things that, you know, taught me how to make features and taught me how to move on to that.
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Whereas I feel like now, but maybe that's the way features are going.
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It's all it's the very few videos are these big, huge videos, like, you know, or even videos that were low budget, they just it's just a different scenario.
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But I really felt we were so lucky, you know, we got to do all these videos and we had budgets, but it also created this amazing time for filmmakers.
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I mean, that's where Spike Jones came out of, that's where David Fincher came out of, Michelle Gondry, like all these cool directors came out of that training ground.
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And um, it was because there was a there was a need for it, you know, there was MTV, it supported this huge industry and created all this talent.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And as I mentioned, like I I grew up in the early 90s, so this is where you come into play with your films, some of the big films that you worked on, cult classics as well.
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So I over the last week and a half I've been doing a bit of a movie marathon with your films, ones that I had seen that it was a long time ago.
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Billy Madison, I don't need to re-watch because that's a staple comedy.
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But stuff like CB4, Half Baked, and also Gun Crazy.
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Now, Gun Crazy I hadn't seen, and I only just watched it yesterday, and I absolutely loved it.
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Such an awesome film.
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Very, very cool film, and it kind of gave me vibes of like Bonnie and Clyde a little bit, and like Romeo and Juliet, which I was the the modern version came out a few years later, I think in the mid-90s.
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But I hadn't seen that side of Drew Barrymore before in such a gritty film.
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So talk to me about that.
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Like, how did how did you get onto that film and you should just run me through the whole thing?
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Because she got uh a nomination, I think it was a Golden Globe nomination off the film.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I know I'm so happy.
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Yeah, talk about that.
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I love that movie.
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That was my first movie, and to what it takes to try to get your first movie made is always like a Herculean feat because yeah, it's hard, it's so hard to get a first film up.
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Yeah.
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Um, on that one, that that actually was the script that I presented when I was 23, 24, yeah, and got laughed at.
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Like, and but they took that script and they optioned it out from underneath me.
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And so I lost that script.
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And then it took me seven or eight years of doing music videos.
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And then somehow the writer called me and he's like, Hey, that script's available again.
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I was like, what?
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And so I got the script back, and then I just found people that um were able to like put up money for, you know, and like sell foreign rights and pre-sales.
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And I made it for$800,000.
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Yeah, so under a million dollars.
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Yeah, and it was my first film I got to work with my DP Lisa Rinsler, who I'd done all these music videos with.
00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:40.400
So she and I had like this great working relationship, and I think that's really important.
00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:51.200
Like having, if you're trying to be a you know, a director to have like a tight crew that you work with, like people that you kind of grow up with and you have a secondhand language.
00:19:51.599 --> 00:20:00.240
And then it was super cool working with Drew, you know, like I don't know, like she was uh I knew her as like a club kid in LA.
00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:01.200
Yeah.
00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:04.720
And she read the script and she wanted to come in.
00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:12.960
And I was like, nah, she she's just I don't know, I did I didn't really take her seriously, but then she demanded to come and see me.
00:20:13.279 --> 00:20:20.960
And I met with her and she told me her whole story, and I just fell in love with her and I believed in her, and she's like, nobody believes in me anymore.
00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:23.200
And I was like, I do, I will, I will.
00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:26.240
Yeah, so I because I just thought she was so I just believed in her.
00:20:26.319 --> 00:20:31.839
I liked her and I knew I knew how hard it is, you know, and I knew I'd read her book, Little Girl Lost.
00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:33.519
I knew what a tough life she had.
00:20:34.079 --> 00:20:36.559
And I wanted to be somebody that believed in her.
00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:40.799
So yeah, so I cast her and she moved in with Mike and I.
00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:45.680
And yeah, we made gun crazy and shot in 23 days.
00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:47.839
And it just was a great experience.
00:20:48.000 --> 00:21:01.599
It was really, I felt like all even though I didn't get my first my film made right out of film school, I feel like by the time I got to make it seven years later, and I don't know how many whatever 50, 60 music videos later, I was a director.
00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:02.880
Like I knew what I was doing.
00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:07.519
I knew I had a vision, I knew what I wanted, I knew how to move the camera, I knew how to create.
00:21:07.599 --> 00:21:12.240
Yeah, so I felt like thank God in a way that I didn't get that first film.
00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:18.319
I, you know, because I feel like I made such a better film uh by having a lot more experience.
00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:21.039
Yeah, she she now how old was she in there?
00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:23.680
She was only what 16, 17 by the look of it.
00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:25.039
She's a kid.
00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:26.640
Yeah, she's 15.
00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:28.000
Wow.
00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:30.160
Yeah, she's a baby.
00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:31.759
Yeah, yeah, very much so.
00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:33.920
Very such a gripping tale as well.
00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:35.680
Yeah, I think she's 15.
00:21:35.920 --> 00:21:40.240
Maybe she turned 16 while we were shooting it, because remember she's driving.
00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:42.319
Yeah, she's a baby.
00:21:42.559 --> 00:21:44.000
She was a little baby girl.
00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:57.200
This film gun crazy, it kind of for me looking back, like what I came up with obviously in the early nines, as I mentioned, so video stores before they became extinct, and obviously going to movies was my kind of home, right?
00:21:57.279 --> 00:21:58.960
I've been a movie buff since I was five.
00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:23.119
But the Something about nineties thrillers that kind of hit different Th they kinda hit different st films like this one that pretty gritty film it did have that impact on me but films like Cape Fear and you've also got what's the other one as well the movie called Fear itself with Mark Warburg in it.
00:22:23.839 --> 00:22:24.480
Have you seen that one?
00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:28.000
Fear with uh who else is in it?
00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:29.599
Reese Witherspoon.
00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:30.720
It came out in the mid-90s.
00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:34.160
Great film, brilliant film.
00:22:34.480 --> 00:22:44.880
But there's kind of yeah, so the that kind of that that mid-90s or early to mid-90s feel of the thrillers, they just kind of hit a bit differently.
00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:45.680
What's the other one?
00:22:45.759 --> 00:22:46.880
Basic Instinct as well.
00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:48.799
That that kind of feel, do you know what I mean?
00:22:50.880 --> 00:23:06.480
Obviously, there's thrillers up from then up until now, but there's there was something about that era where the filmmaking was just different, and like films that are on like streaming, like basic instinct and all that, whenever they come on, I always flick them on because they always kind of they hit home.
00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:07.200
There's something about it.
00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:13.759
Can you tell me what what was what was it about the 90s with thrillers and stuff like that that kind of make them like stand out?
00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:14.880
Is it the grittiness?
00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:17.200
I don't know, I can't put my finger on it.
00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:18.480
I don't know.
00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:24.720
I mean, I feel like one, we were still shooting on film, so you know, crazy shot on 35mm film.
00:23:24.880 --> 00:23:31.759
So that first of all, the colors, the way that looks is gonna, you know, have that rich quality.
00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:40.799
Um, I feel like you know, you're influenced by the things that you know what came before you and you know, whatever.
00:23:40.880 --> 00:23:46.319
So you're always watching, you know, to me, I was watching, I was watching Bonnie and Clyde, I was watching Badlands.
00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:58.240
I was, you know, so you're watching those films that have that kind of the the noir couple on the run, you know, evoking the feel of a road movie.
00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:09.680
Um yeah, so I just feel like there's you're you know, I'm you're being influenced at that at your time by the things that just that that happened the decade or whatever, the few years before you.
00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:10.319
Yep.
00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:14.240
So yeah, so I feel like I don't know, the 90s had a good reference point.
00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:16.000
Like that was made in early 90s.
00:24:16.079 --> 00:24:27.759
So I was, you know, just came out of the 80s and I knew that like there was a cheesy part of the 80s that I didn't like, but there was a great part of like the 70s cinema, you know, that you really kind of thought was super cool.
00:24:27.920 --> 00:24:31.839
So I think like there's maybe a I don't know, yeah.
00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:48.480
So I I I've and I feel like it was also the 90s, there was this whole indie filmmaking thing that was like blooming that I got, thank God, like came into, and it was, you know, the rain, you know, it was like started where indie filmmaking was, you know, prominent and back.
00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:53.599
And so I just feel like that part was super cool to be part of that wave.
00:24:53.839 --> 00:25:01.279
And yeah, that's the thing with filmmaking is if you want to be a filmmaker, you gotta like figure out what the wave is and try to catch that wave.
00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:10.559
So like I was lucky, but I was a hustler, but you have to be like, oh, the MTV wave, and then it was like, oh, the movie wave, you know, indies and comedies, you know.
00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:21.440
So you just have to see like where the work is coming from and try to put yourself in the right position, especially when you're somebody that's in a you know more diverse or you know, like myself at the time.
00:25:21.680 --> 00:25:27.119
And even now, I can't even say at the time because it's the numbers are even worse now for women directors.
00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:31.440
So it's not like oh, yeah, I know that's terrible.
00:25:32.240 --> 00:25:32.799
You're right.
00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:35.200
Most most of the directors these days are male.
00:25:35.359 --> 00:25:37.599
Yeah, that's a bit of a sad thing.
00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:38.799
Yep.
00:25:39.039 --> 00:25:44.319
Yeah, it's imagine if um only 7% of all the books we read were written by women.
00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:45.680
It'd be terrible.
00:25:46.880 --> 00:25:48.319
Yeah, hopefully that will change.
00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:50.079
So that was 92, great film.
00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:56.559
So 92, that next year I think it was 93, so CB4 is what you did next, is that correct?
00:25:56.799 --> 00:25:59.359
Yeah, with Chris Rock, and all these all these stars.
00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:01.920
You look at them in your films and they're all babies.
00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:05.039
So I watched CB4 the other day.
00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:10.079
I had seen it a long, long time ago, but it was a good refresh, a very funny film, very funny film.
00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:25.279
So, and you can tell, like, you with the way you shot that directed it, like you've got that music video influence because it's about you know gangster rappers or wannabe gangster rappers who steal a guy's name was Augusto, I think it was Charlie Murphy.
00:26:25.519 --> 00:26:29.759
And um yeah, so talk talk to me about CB4.
00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:33.279
How did you get on that like off the back of Gun Crazy?
00:26:35.119 --> 00:26:46.559
Um, I I knew Chris, I'd done a video with him and a PSA with him, and um, and I also I was like really well known as a rap video director.
00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:57.359
I'd done all these videos, so I knew that world, and I just had to position myself to be the perfect person for that job because otherwise you might be like, how does this girl get that job?
00:26:57.680 --> 00:27:04.319
But yeah, I just the work that I had done and I had a really good pitch, and I went in and sold the guys at Universal.
00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:07.039
And Chris and I just had the best time together.
00:27:07.119 --> 00:27:08.400
I loved making him laugh.
00:27:08.559 --> 00:27:16.240
I'd loved, I was very professional with him, knowing like when when you work with comedians, you you know, they you don't want to keep them waiting around all day.
00:27:16.319 --> 00:27:21.119
You want to be fast, you want to be ready for them, you want to make them feel like they're having a great time.
00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:25.039
Everybody's light on the set, everyone wants to laugh on your set.
00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:27.440
So I think like we had worked together.
00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:29.599
So he saw how I worked like that.
00:27:29.680 --> 00:27:34.960
And we just had the best, and I knew Nelson George, his uh producing partner and writing partner.
00:27:35.839 --> 00:27:38.720
And uh yeah, we just had the best time in the world.
00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:43.119
We we had so much fun, we got to work with so many talented people.
00:27:43.680 --> 00:27:54.400
And he really like taught me the thing of like looking for a joke and not leaving a scene until you've figured out like if you've gotten every joke out of that scene that you could possibly get out of it.
00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:58.799
If there was a joke under the table, we'd be like, okay, let's find, let's go under the table.
00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:02.960
You know, so just really having fun and being creative, working together.
00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:07.680
And and uh yeah, we just had we had so much fun making that film.
00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:08.480
It was awesome.
00:28:08.799 --> 00:28:09.440
Very funny film.
00:28:09.519 --> 00:28:15.119
And this there's a set at the end where they have their concert and it's a jail cell.
00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:16.079
That was very, very cool.
00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:17.599
I love the look of that.
00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:22.079
So what was it like filming that scene with them at the concert?
00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:29.279
You know, it's funny because you're trying to make a big concert, but you know, you're filming, so you're not really booking out a whole stadium.
00:28:29.359 --> 00:28:38.000
And I feel like, and I thank God I had done so many music videos, so I knew how to create like a lighting design and make things feel big and how to shoot videos.
00:28:38.240 --> 00:28:41.119
So I shot a lot of you know big live things.
00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:45.440
And I feel like all that part, like that part was really fun.
00:28:45.519 --> 00:28:48.640
So I used my skills and I got to do that.
00:28:48.720 --> 00:28:56.880
And then I just also laugh about how a lot of the times we thought what we were filming was so funny and like so this is crazy.
00:28:57.359 --> 00:29:12.559
You know, now I just feel like, oh my god, the some of the song like we thought sweat of my balls was like so crazy, but you know, you got Megan the stallion singing W A P and you're just like, oh my God, we were just and they're that's serious, you know.
00:29:12.640 --> 00:29:15.759
So I just feel like it's so funny how things have really changed.
00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:19.200
Where at that time the comedy was in the extreme.
00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:21.200
Uh yeah, we had fun.
00:29:21.359 --> 00:29:23.599
Like, I think like that was I yeah.
00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:36.400
I think just having like enjoying yourself while you do it, even though it's a challenge and you know, so hard to pull stuff like that off because you have so many elements happening, but yeah, you just plan it.
00:29:36.559 --> 00:29:36.960
I don't know.
00:29:37.039 --> 00:29:41.200
I'm a really good planner, I'm a really good person of like coming up with a plan.
00:29:44.160 --> 00:29:44.799
Yeah.
00:29:46.079 --> 00:29:47.359
Great film, good stuff.
00:29:47.599 --> 00:29:52.960
And moving on to the mid-90s, so we've got 95 with Adam Sandler and and Billy Madison.
00:29:53.279 --> 00:30:02.160
So obviously, it's as I said before, it's such a brilliant staple comedy that you can always just throw on and laugh at.
00:30:02.480 --> 00:30:06.319
So, what was it like working with Sandler on that one?
00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:08.000
And where was that, where was that taking place?
00:30:08.079 --> 00:30:09.119
That where was that shot at?
00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:10.559
Where was that filmed at?
00:30:11.119 --> 00:30:15.599
We filmed in Toronto, so yeah, it was yeah, loved Toronto.
00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:16.960
Yeah, it was really fun.
00:30:17.920 --> 00:30:22.480
We all stayed in the same building, the same hotel, Satin Place Hotel.
00:30:22.640 --> 00:30:29.440
It was like Adam, me, Farley, David Spade, because they were making Tommy Boy at the same time.
00:30:29.599 --> 00:30:32.240
Yeah, Gwyneth Paltrow was there making some movie.
00:30:32.400 --> 00:30:36.240
Like it was just like this hotel filled with like the troupe.
00:30:36.319 --> 00:30:41.279
We were like vaudeville actors or something, like just this troop of crazy people in a hotel.
00:30:41.920 --> 00:30:49.920
And um, I don't know, like it was again, like we I had to, I came on that film.
00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:53.200
I was originally Universal after doing CB4.
00:30:53.440 --> 00:31:00.960
They brought me out to meet Adam, and Adam and I met, but then he decided to work with the one of his friends to direct it.
00:31:01.039 --> 00:31:03.759
And then unfortunately that didn't work out.
00:31:04.079 --> 00:31:06.079
And then I got brought back.
00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:11.839
So it was kind of another situation where I thought I had a movie and then I got and I didn't get the movie, and then the movie came back.
00:31:12.079 --> 00:31:23.839
So it was kind of like they yeah, they brought me back in, and um yeah, so that but it was also really crucial that Adam and I nail it, you know.
00:31:24.079 --> 00:31:33.119
He like he this was his first film, you know, he had done like a couple little, you know, side things, but he hadn't led a film before.
00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:35.680
And so it was really important that we get it right.
00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:45.519
And and I had to listen to he had this writing partner, he I think they still work together, Tim Hurlihy, and just listening to how they would work.
00:31:45.680 --> 00:31:50.160
Like Tim would write a joke, but it wouldn't really be that funny, it wouldn't look that funny on a piece of paper.
00:31:50.319 --> 00:31:52.799
But then Adam would say it, it would be hilarious.
00:31:52.880 --> 00:32:07.519
So it would just be like trying to figure out like how to work the best with Adam, how to get the best performance out of Adam, and um make him, yeah, just like have fun while you're making this movie so that he gets a career out of it.
00:32:07.599 --> 00:32:27.839
Because I always felt like whether it was a music video or an acting job or whatever, like if you can give that actor or that performer, that artist that's putting themselves in front of the camera and being vulnerable, if you can put them in a situation where they actually enjoy what they're doing and they're having a good time and they're enjoying it, you can get a career out of that person.
00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:37.119
But if they come up and do it and they might have been great, but they hated it and they never want to do it again, it's like it was torture and they they they hated it, then it's what a fail.
00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:42.720
And so it was always I felt like I because a lot of times I did people's first things.
00:32:42.799 --> 00:32:47.440
That's what I would get, you know, is whatever I didn't get like all the big, big jobs.
00:32:47.519 --> 00:32:56.319
I got the little, I got the unknown thing, and then I had to make the best thing out of, you know, it was a miracle that I got to at least choose those things.
00:32:56.400 --> 00:32:58.240
So I got to choose the things that I liked.
00:32:58.559 --> 00:33:17.920
And I was like, So, but I a lot of times I did people's first things, but I felt like if I did their first thing and I gave them a really great experience or made them feel confident or made them feel like they had could have a career in this, and um and yeah, that you could you could help somebody really move, you know, continue in that path.
00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:19.119
And I I really like that.
00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:26.480
So yeah, Adam and I had the best time ever making Billy Madison every day was hilarious, hilarious.
00:33:26.640 --> 00:33:26.880
Yeah.
00:33:27.119 --> 00:33:30.880
And when it came out, when it came out in '95, did it blow up?
00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:32.000
How did it go back then?
00:33:32.160 --> 00:33:35.039
Like, was it like just how did it be?
00:33:35.200 --> 00:33:48.000
It's happened to me a few times where I do it, where like, you know, you do movies like this and they test it to freaking hell at the studios, like five, six, seven times in theaters, you know, 400 kids watching it, grading you.
00:33:48.559 --> 00:33:55.279
They like give every kid a sheet of paper, they have to fill it out, then they film everybody, then they ask everybody what they thought about it.
00:33:55.359 --> 00:34:00.319
Then they it's torture what they put you through on these test screenings.
00:34:00.880 --> 00:34:03.039
They're nowadays, it's even worse.
00:34:03.200 --> 00:34:09.119
I've been to test screenings where they wire people so they're reading their brain waves, telling you how it is.
00:34:09.440 --> 00:34:15.519
The last one I did, they filming you while you're watching it, watching your eyeballs where it's going when your attention.
00:34:15.760 --> 00:34:18.000
It's freaking crazy what you they put you through.
00:34:18.079 --> 00:34:18.320
It's insane.
00:34:19.599 --> 00:34:20.559
It's insane.
00:34:20.800 --> 00:34:29.280
So I like the old days where even though it was hard as hell to sit in a theater with people and then interview that they have like focus groups afterwards.
00:34:29.440 --> 00:34:30.559
It's painful.
00:34:30.800 --> 00:34:35.840
Um, but Billy Madison, they the audience loved it when we screened it.
00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:38.400
Adams fans, they loved it.
00:34:38.480 --> 00:34:43.920
Like, you know, just a theater filled with like 400 kids and thousand oaks, totally amazing.
00:34:44.159 --> 00:34:46.960
But when the movie came out, it came out well.
00:34:47.039 --> 00:34:54.480
I think it either both CB4 and uh Billy Madison, they either opened one or two, like the number one movie or the number two movies.
00:34:54.559 --> 00:34:58.079
So box office-wise, they did amazing, and they were made for like nothing.
00:34:58.239 --> 00:35:09.440
They were like made as like little side projects for Universal and for like$10 million because they were they were little teeny movies, and then they had like a backhand distribution deal.
00:35:09.679 --> 00:35:12.000
Um, but then the critics were really awful.
00:35:12.159 --> 00:35:35.039
The critics were so mean on Billy Madison, they didn't like Adam Sandler, and it was just like broke my heart because I loved Adam and I just was like, and I knew all his fans loved him, and his audience loved him, and just like it's so it made me so mad that critics like didn't understand this new voice in comedy, somebody that was like relating to the kids, it was kids' age.
00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:37.840
It was like, yeah, they just didn't get it.
00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:43.360
And so and then I got like kind of more rebellious in a way, and I was just like, you know, mad.
00:35:43.599 --> 00:35:47.119
I was like, you know, that's like when you play punk rock music and your parents don't like it.
00:35:47.199 --> 00:35:55.840
And it's like, and you just realize like if you if you played your music to your parents and they don't like it, like you're happy, you're like, yeah, it's not for you.
00:35:56.000 --> 00:35:56.480
Yeah, you know.
00:35:56.880 --> 00:36:03.760
So I kind of like came out with this other rebellious attitude towards Adam and just like he stopped talking to critics after that.
00:36:03.920 --> 00:36:07.599
Like, I don't think he did an interview until like maybe the three years ago.
00:36:07.679 --> 00:36:09.119
I think he did his first interview.
00:36:09.519 --> 00:36:11.840
But he like, they were so mean, yeah.
00:36:11.920 --> 00:36:19.440
And it just was like, and if you talk, yeah, Adam, we knew what we had, like we liked it, Adam liked it.
00:36:19.760 --> 00:36:25.119
And um, yeah, and I think like now, of course, everybody's okay with it, but that's how that happens, you know.
00:36:25.199 --> 00:36:42.000
Sometimes you release something and the audience isn't there yet, or the critics think it's something and they try to control the media, but then you know, the audience finds it, or the audience, you know, is like, no, that's that was for us, you know, wasn't for them, wasn't for Roger Ebert.
00:36:42.480 --> 00:37:00.960
It's amazing how some films can come out and then as you just said, the critics like slam it, but they only really take off like years later, then become cult classics, because you'll you've got multiple cult classics, you've got multiple actors that have come to you right at the start of their careers and you've shot them to start them.
00:37:01.039 --> 00:37:04.159
So you should be extremely proud with the work that you've done.
00:37:04.639 --> 00:37:08.159
Like, for instance, I I heard the other day, was it Ed Norton?
00:37:08.239 --> 00:37:10.719
Like my favourite film is Fight Club, right?
00:37:11.280 --> 00:37:26.639
So I believe when that came out it didn't do well at all, but it's only like years later where it's got a massive cult following, and I don't think they should ever remake that film.
00:37:26.719 --> 00:37:33.519
I think there's it was a book, I've read the f the actual first book, there's a second novel, haven't read that one, but uh hopefully they don't remake it.
00:37:33.599 --> 00:37:40.320
The only thing with that film is that what would have been cool to see in Fight Club is the social media side of things.
00:37:40.400 --> 00:37:42.400
That would have been quite funny to add into it.
00:37:42.480 --> 00:37:42.719
Yeah, yeah.
00:37:42.960 --> 00:37:44.079
Rather than that, we shouldn't touch it.
00:37:44.159 --> 00:37:47.440
But yeah, it's just another example of like a film that didn't do great.
00:37:47.760 --> 00:37:53.760
Yes, and then it comes out and people yeah, and it's like now Fight Club is like it's legendary, yeah.
00:37:53.920 --> 00:37:55.599
It's such a great film.
00:37:55.840 --> 00:37:56.719
Did you see the other day?
00:37:56.800 --> 00:38:06.880
I think when uh Brad Pitt and Ed Norton were at the soccer together and it's it had the meme saying you've got Brad Pitt talking to him, or Ed Norton talking to himself, and like Gen Z would not get that.
00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:12.159
So it was very, very funny.
00:38:14.320 --> 00:38:18.719
Yeah, so moving forward, then you 98 Dave Chappelle in Half Bake.
00:38:18.880 --> 00:38:20.239
Again, very, very funny film.
00:38:20.320 --> 00:38:22.960
I laughed my ass off the other day when I watched it again.
00:38:23.199 --> 00:38:26.719
So he was he was just starting his career in that one as well.
00:38:26.800 --> 00:38:27.679
Is that right?
00:38:28.880 --> 00:38:41.199
Yeah, like I had done Bill, I had done Billy Madison and my producer was Robert Simons, Bob Simons, and uh he called me and he's like, Oh, I got a script I want to send you.
00:38:41.440 --> 00:38:42.960
We want to shoot in five weeks.
00:38:43.119 --> 00:38:48.559
We're already, we're already like Perry, our product, you know, production designer, he's already up there building the sets.
00:38:48.800 --> 00:38:50.639
Like, you're shooting in five weeks?
00:38:50.880 --> 00:38:53.679
He's like, Yeah, yeah, I'm sending you the script right now.
00:38:53.840 --> 00:39:01.840
And so he sent me the script, and I I've read the first scene of that 7-Eleven thing, and I called Bob and I was like, Bob, this is hilarious.
00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:03.199
I was like, Who are these guys?
00:39:03.440 --> 00:39:07.760
Neil, Brennan, Dave Chappelle, and he's like, Yeah, Dave's a comedian.
00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:12.000
He's gonna, you know, he had just he'd only done one thing I could find.
00:39:12.159 --> 00:39:19.199
He'd played like a like a little teeny part in Nutty Professor, where he roasts uh Eddie Murphy at a comedy club.
00:39:19.360 --> 00:39:20.079
Yes, he can do something.
00:39:21.119 --> 00:39:22.480
He throws him into the piano.
00:39:22.559 --> 00:39:22.960
That's right.
00:39:23.119 --> 00:39:25.440
He's got the dreadlocks, the crappy dreadlocks.
00:39:26.159 --> 00:39:31.760
I just remember he like is on the stage and he's looking crazy, and uh that was the only thing I could find on him.
00:39:31.920 --> 00:39:37.679
Yeah, and I I um I immediately said, I you know, I'd love to I want to meet on it.
00:39:37.760 --> 00:39:39.039
I think he's pretty funny.
00:39:39.199 --> 00:39:43.679
And so I met him in person, him and Neil, and we all fell madly in love with each other.
00:39:43.760 --> 00:39:51.039
I just thought I thought those two were the funniest guys that they were an incredible pair together, great writing partnership.
00:39:51.199 --> 00:39:53.760
Dave, I just thought was he was 23.
00:39:54.320 --> 00:39:56.559
Uh yeah, they were both 23 years old.
00:39:56.719 --> 00:40:00.639
So it was like, and yeah, and then we were shooting in five weeks.
00:40:00.719 --> 00:40:02.239
It was like, okay, go.
00:40:02.480 --> 00:40:06.400
And it was just trying to like capture lightning in a bottle, you know.
00:40:06.480 --> 00:40:23.119
I just felt like my job was just to, you know, enable Dave and enable Neil and support them and you know, you know, whatever, get them, give them the structure that they need to get the shots and get the scenes and get it done.
00:40:23.440 --> 00:40:28.800
And in the meantime, um just like let them explore, let them have fun.
00:40:28.960 --> 00:40:43.280
Because you always like you have a scene on a page and it's written, and then there's dialogue, and maybe you've read it once or twice, rarely, and then you have your sets, and then you just see what a comedian does when they, you know, play it, and then you're working with really talented people.
00:40:43.519 --> 00:40:52.719
Everybody brings their A game and everybody adds something, and you it's hard to really know what's gonna happen until everybody is there at that moment.
00:40:52.960 --> 00:40:54.719
So you kind of have to be ready for it.
00:40:54.880 --> 00:41:05.519
It's it's really like creating something live, and you want to keep that energy and keep the fun and encourage it, and encourage the the um the genius, you know.
00:41:05.599 --> 00:41:08.960
Dave, Dave's a genius, and so that was just for me.
00:41:09.119 --> 00:41:21.920
We were just having fun, you know, he's making a movie, and yeah, it's like it's yeah, we we just had a great time making it and having fun and just doing something that seemed silly and just going with it.
00:41:22.960 --> 00:41:39.119
What I like about Dave when he obviously he did the Chappelle show, I think it might have been a couple of seasons, and then he turned his back on Hollywood and he yeah, he went dark for a very long time and went rogue for a very long time, and then he's only just kind of popped back up recently.
00:41:39.199 --> 00:41:52.320
And I've heard heard some stories about him, like he'd go randomly, he'd show up at like comedy clubs, or he'd he'd go into a park and just jump up on a bench and start doing stand-up comedies to people in a crowd.
00:41:52.400 --> 00:41:53.519
It's just it's just wild stuff.
00:41:53.599 --> 00:41:54.400
The guy's amazing.
00:41:54.480 --> 00:41:56.239
The the comedy that he produces is.
00:41:56.639 --> 00:42:03.599
Yeah, his stand-up is brilliant, he's great, he's an incredible speaker, and I know I love him dearly.
00:42:03.840 --> 00:42:11.679
Yeah, and I feel like that's the thing is you, you know, you work with a lot of these people, and once you have an experience like that, it's like going to summer camp with somebody.
00:42:11.920 --> 00:42:30.000
It's like you've gone through, or you know, yeah, you've gone through something with somebody and these, you know, it's as fun as it is, it is hard to make a movie because you're working together 12, 14 hour days, and you're, you know, there's a lot of pressures, but and every day is like another big problem.
00:42:30.159 --> 00:42:32.480
It's like you can't believe the problems that you have.
00:42:32.639 --> 00:42:37.760
It's always as something's always breaking, something's always it's always like drama.
00:42:37.920 --> 00:42:38.719
It's crazy.
00:42:38.880 --> 00:42:50.800
Yeah, and so when you go through the crazy situation with a group of people, yeah, it's like going to summer camp and you come out of it and you'll have a bond that'll always be there.
00:42:50.960 --> 00:42:52.880
Yeah, I just saw Chris Rock recently.
00:42:53.039 --> 00:42:54.159
We had the best time.
00:42:54.320 --> 00:42:55.280
Yeah, he came, Mike.
00:42:56.559 --> 00:43:01.840
Yeah, he came to one of he actually came to one of my screenings at Tribeca Film Festival.
00:43:02.079 --> 00:43:04.159
He showed up, so that was amazing.
00:43:04.320 --> 00:43:13.199
And then he also he went to one of Mike's shows, and he and I were standing on the side of the stage singing sure shot together, and we just had the best time.
00:43:13.679 --> 00:43:17.039
But yeah, so I don't know, like those guys are just the most.
00:43:17.199 --> 00:43:18.880
I love them all so dearly.
00:43:18.960 --> 00:43:29.199
And I can't even believe that I at a time when they were all three unknown, I did back-to-back films with Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, and Dave Chappelle.
00:43:29.519 --> 00:43:32.639
And just like that was crazy.
00:43:32.880 --> 00:43:36.320
Like those those three comedians are that's our culture.
00:43:36.480 --> 00:43:40.880
That's our those are our gods of American comedy culture.
00:43:41.039 --> 00:43:42.719
They're so important to us.
00:43:43.119 --> 00:43:43.440
To me.
00:43:43.519 --> 00:43:43.920
Yeah, yeah.
00:43:45.280 --> 00:43:47.679
Well, thank you for giving the world those films.
00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:48.719
I mean, it's not me.
00:43:48.800 --> 00:43:53.280
I'm just I can't thank my I thank them for giving me the opportunity to be there.
00:43:53.519 --> 00:43:58.079
I just was so happy that, yeah, I don't know how I how that happened.
00:43:58.239 --> 00:43:59.760
I was that's awesome.
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:00.960
Ah, good stuff.
00:44:01.199 --> 00:44:08.880
So you you'll need to kind of guide me through here because the early 2000s with Crossroads with Britney Spears, like I haven't seen that film.
00:44:08.960 --> 00:44:09.679
So talk to me.
00:44:09.760 --> 00:44:12.000
What was that like working on that one?
00:44:12.239 --> 00:44:13.360
That's amazing.
00:44:13.599 --> 00:44:14.960
Um, you should see it.
00:44:15.039 --> 00:44:15.840
It's a good film.
00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:20.079
That also, yeah, that's a really crazy movie.
00:44:20.400 --> 00:44:22.079
Um, I originally said no.
00:44:22.239 --> 00:44:24.079
I was like, no, it's Britney Spears.
00:44:24.159 --> 00:44:26.960
It was the height of her fame when they asked me to do it.
00:44:27.519 --> 00:44:35.039
And they and Anne Carly, who I knew very well, and she kind of was took care of Britney at the record company.
00:44:35.519 --> 00:44:37.599
She was like, We really want a girl to do this.
00:44:37.760 --> 00:44:41.519
We want her to have, and they knew that I would protect her and be there for her.
00:44:41.679 --> 00:44:46.960
And um, yeah, so yeah, so I I was like, no, and then they're like, We meet her.
00:44:47.119 --> 00:44:49.280
So I got they're like, we go to Vegas and meet her.
00:44:49.360 --> 00:44:51.360
And I was like, Yes, of course.
00:44:51.440 --> 00:44:52.320
That sounds fun.
00:44:52.480 --> 00:44:57.119
So I went and I met her, and we spent the day together, and I just loved her.
00:44:57.199 --> 00:45:01.119
And it was like it was the Britney that we all want right now.
00:45:01.280 --> 00:45:04.159
Like it, like who she was then was amazing.
00:45:04.400 --> 00:45:05.760
That's not who she is right now.
00:45:06.000 --> 00:45:09.280
Who she was then was a bad ass.
00:45:09.519 --> 00:45:18.880
She ran the whole thing, she did it with the southern politeness, but the whole thing, nothing was done without her approval.
00:45:19.199 --> 00:45:25.280
She, when I first saw her, she was just like a she looked like a kind of a southern local girl.
00:45:25.440 --> 00:45:33.760
And by the end of it, she like the day to the night I hung out with her, she became Brittany Spears with makeup and hair and outfit and all that.
00:45:33.840 --> 00:45:36.880
And and just she had like a really strong commitment.
00:45:37.039 --> 00:45:40.800
She really wanted to act, she really wanted to make a movie, she really wanted to change her image.
00:45:40.960 --> 00:45:46.960
She'd hired a new direct a new writer that was like an unknown person named Shonda Rhimes to write the script.
00:45:47.119 --> 00:45:47.280
Yep.
00:45:47.440 --> 00:45:50.960
And so it was like a really cool um girl movie.
00:45:51.280 --> 00:45:53.840
She wanted to do a movie where she wasn't the lead.
00:45:54.000 --> 00:45:57.039
She's it's a it's um an ensemble piece.
00:45:57.199 --> 00:46:00.719
It's her Zoe Saldana and Taryn Manning.
00:46:01.039 --> 00:46:05.280
And so it's really like about these three girls on on a road trip again.
00:46:05.519 --> 00:46:08.639
And Anson Mount is in it as well, it was amazing.
00:46:08.880 --> 00:46:11.119
Yeah, and so it was just a really fun time.
00:46:11.360 --> 00:46:27.760
We had to really isolate her and get to a place where we just like became like this troupe and we rehearsed and we just stayed in this bubble, and yeah, we made a movie together, and it's has super girl film, you know, like themes.
00:46:27.920 --> 00:46:37.280
It's you know, a lot of girl girl talk and girl things that girls deal with, and I and it was an incredible experience making it.
00:46:37.519 --> 00:46:44.880
I loved talking back and forth with Shonda and like you know, all girls were behind the camera, my producer was a girl.
00:46:44.960 --> 00:46:46.559
It was just that was really cool.
00:46:47.360 --> 00:46:52.400
And then when we yeah, it was it was a really good experience making it.
00:46:53.519 --> 00:46:54.880
The finishing part was tough.
00:46:54.960 --> 00:47:01.360
Like I had to get through Paramount, Sherry Lansing, like the whole the release thing.
00:47:01.519 --> 00:47:06.800
But what as always the thing that I always found was my strength was the audience.
00:47:07.119 --> 00:47:10.960
And they test it, they always test these movies.
00:47:11.119 --> 00:47:20.400
And if you get good scores from your audience, that you can like use that to counter some executives' notes because you're always fighting against like somebody.
00:47:20.559 --> 00:47:25.199
That's why it's always good to work with people you love and you not love necessarily, but that you respect.
00:47:25.280 --> 00:47:28.000
Because if somebody gives you a note, you want to respect it.
00:47:28.079 --> 00:47:30.400
You want to know, like, oh, that person did that before.
00:47:30.559 --> 00:47:32.639
So that I really respect their opinion.
00:47:32.800 --> 00:47:40.480
And a lot of times you're working and you're working with executives, you have no idea, you have no idea what they did before, and they're giving you notes and they're to change your material.
00:47:40.800 --> 00:47:42.000
And you just don't know, you know.
00:47:42.079 --> 00:47:47.280
So I'd always be like, Well, the this, you know, I made it for my audience.
00:47:47.519 --> 00:47:48.800
What does the audience think?
00:47:48.880 --> 00:47:52.320
Like, did the does that line up or at least be the same?
00:47:52.559 --> 00:47:55.519
Like, are you giving me a note that lines up with the audience wants?
00:47:55.679 --> 00:47:59.440
Like, are you just saying your personal opinion on something?
00:47:59.679 --> 00:48:11.119
So I just feel like that part's the a tricky part where you're and you have to always be professional as you get through that part because it's the part you always have to get through that if unless you're making it with your own money.
00:48:11.280 --> 00:48:15.519
If you're spending somebody else's money, that money comes with somebody's opinion.
00:48:15.840 --> 00:48:17.760
So you have to do what they say usually.
00:48:19.360 --> 00:48:23.760
Yeah, you have to figure that out and figure out how do you make something and still be creative about it.
00:48:23.840 --> 00:48:33.440
So I feel like what I loved about that specific um with Crossroads, we tested Sherry made us test it like crazy, and we got like the highest scores.
00:48:33.599 --> 00:48:36.400
You got like a 98 among girls and our audience.
00:48:36.559 --> 00:48:37.199
Girls love it.
00:48:37.760 --> 00:48:41.679
And then again, when it came out, we got completely crushed by the critics.
00:48:41.920 --> 00:48:50.400
The critics and boys like were kind of balls in the theater, but yeah, critics were like mean to Britney, and you're just why?
00:48:50.559 --> 00:48:54.320
What the f I I'm so I just don't get it.
00:48:54.400 --> 00:49:08.320
I mean, I also come at it from a different way because I've seen like young people that I've worked with, because I work with so many young talented people, they get crushed by the critics, and like some of them either don't ever work again or they kill like their whatever.
00:49:08.400 --> 00:49:12.000
It's like it really messes with their head and just criticism in general.
00:49:12.079 --> 00:49:22.239
It's like if you don't want to like don't review it then, or don't whatever, don't make your stand by tearing down, thinking it's great to tear down somebody else's artistic endeavor.
00:49:22.480 --> 00:49:27.599
Just like move on, yeah, review fast and furious, it's not for you, you know.
00:49:27.760 --> 00:49:30.159
So you just so you just whatever.
00:49:30.400 --> 00:49:38.480
So I just feel like that's the part where I don't I get really defensive and I just don't understand that aspect of it.
00:49:38.639 --> 00:49:42.639
And or also just like, you know, if you and nobody has to like everything.
00:49:42.719 --> 00:49:44.559
I don't want everybody to like what I do.
00:49:44.719 --> 00:49:46.719
I don't I I enjoy that.
00:49:46.880 --> 00:49:48.480
I hope people don't like what I do.
00:49:48.559 --> 00:49:52.480
I hope people sometimes get mad at what I do or just like complain, whatever.
00:49:52.559 --> 00:50:02.000
Like, I don't I don't want to make something that pleases everybody because then I just whatever, I just make Coca-Cola or like a I don't know, some boring, you know, whatever.
00:50:02.079 --> 00:50:04.320
I want, I want, I don't want to only do so.
00:50:04.400 --> 00:50:11.920
I think that that's just the thing that you have to figure out as a filmmaker, how you get through all those ups and downs, and also as yourself being criticized.
00:50:12.159 --> 00:50:13.280
How do you continue?
00:50:13.360 --> 00:50:19.039
And how do you be like, I made what I wanted to make, and I know I made the writers happy.
00:50:19.199 --> 00:50:25.280
I know I had a great time while I made it, I know I made the thing I said I was gonna make, and that's all you have.
00:50:25.440 --> 00:50:34.079
And then you just let history kind of come to come to its place, and you just enjoy the moment more than the result, you know.
00:50:34.559 --> 00:50:35.440
Yeah, yeah.
00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:38.800
Well, the movies I've seen that you've directed, they're all great.
00:50:38.960 --> 00:50:42.159
So, and I'll review films, so yeah, very good job.
00:50:42.239 --> 00:50:42.880
I love them.
00:50:42.960 --> 00:50:44.239
So they're very good stuff.
00:50:44.400 --> 00:50:47.280
So I'm just a bit conscious of time there and I was getting a bit late over there.
00:50:47.519 --> 00:50:52.239
So I'll fast forward to documentaries the is it the Radiant Child?
00:50:52.320 --> 00:50:53.199
Is that what you've done?
00:50:53.920 --> 00:50:54.800
So talk to me about that.
00:50:54.880 --> 00:50:57.119
I I haven't seen the retrailer for that, I haven't looked at it.
00:50:57.199 --> 00:50:58.480
So, what's that one about?
00:50:59.119 --> 00:51:01.760
Oh, that's one of my favorite movies.
00:51:02.079 --> 00:51:10.400
That one was about when um I made I was best friends with this guy, or really close with this guy named Jean-Michel Basquiat, who's a painter.
00:51:10.639 --> 00:51:18.159
And when he when I was going to film school, I was in my early 20s, he was maybe one or two years older than me.
00:51:18.400 --> 00:51:22.719
He had just come to LA for his first show, and we became really close friends.
00:51:22.960 --> 00:51:29.679
And I was at film school and he was like, Oh, you should make a movie about me because one day I'm gonna be famous, and one day you're gonna be, you know, I'm gonna be a big artist.
00:51:29.840 --> 00:51:31.760
And so we just started filming.
00:51:31.920 --> 00:51:36.480
And over the years that he came in and out of town, I would film him in the studio and that.
00:51:36.719 --> 00:51:40.960
And then he died young because of the critics and whatever, whatever.
00:51:41.119 --> 00:51:44.239
So he died thinking his career was over at 27.
00:51:44.880 --> 00:51:48.960
And um, and then I took the film and I didn't do anything with it.
00:51:49.199 --> 00:51:58.719
And then 20 years later, um, this is now 20 years even from then, um, he was doing a huge, they were doing a huge retrospective at the museum.
00:51:58.800 --> 00:52:03.039
And I told the lady, I knew the lady I was putting it together, I was like, Oh yeah, he was my friend.
00:52:03.119 --> 00:52:04.079
I have all this footage of him.
00:52:04.159 --> 00:52:05.119
And she's like, What?
00:52:05.360 --> 00:52:06.960
Nobody has footage of this guy.
00:52:07.199 --> 00:52:09.920
She's like, You and I was like, Yeah, no, he was my close friend.
00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:10.559
I filmed him.
00:52:10.639 --> 00:52:13.280
He told me to make a movie about him, so I had all this film.
00:52:13.679 --> 00:52:25.440
And um, yeah, so I put a film together and I made a film about him, and I interviewed everybody, and um, it was really good because everybody was still around still, even 20 years later, everybody still had fresh stories.
00:52:25.679 --> 00:52:31.199
And yeah, and so I made a documentary about him, and it was really hard to make because it was very emotional.
00:52:31.440 --> 00:52:34.960
I had I wanted to really represent who he was.
00:52:35.199 --> 00:52:41.760
And at the time he was known, but not very he was well known, but nowhere near where he's at now.
00:52:41.920 --> 00:52:46.239
Now I think his he holds the record of the most expensive art ever sold in America.
00:52:46.559 --> 00:52:46.800
Wow.
00:52:48.159 --> 00:52:53.920
He's the most uh, you know, I think his yeah, I mean you can look up what his last painting sold for.
00:52:56.719 --> 00:52:58.159
I'll have to get back and watch that one.
00:52:58.320 --> 00:52:58.719
Wow, yeah.
00:52:59.599 --> 00:53:02.480
Yeah, he's like the most famous American artist right now.
00:53:02.639 --> 00:53:02.960
Yeah.
00:53:03.199 --> 00:53:03.360
Okay.
00:53:04.159 --> 00:53:04.239
Yeah.
00:53:04.320 --> 00:53:06.079
So do you know what his work looked like?
00:53:07.039 --> 00:53:07.360
No.
00:53:07.760 --> 00:53:09.599
You'll see if you take one look, yeah.
00:53:09.760 --> 00:53:11.199
You'll be like, oh, that guy.
00:53:12.400 --> 00:53:15.679
Yeah, so I made that movie, and that was I'm so proud of it.
00:53:15.760 --> 00:53:20.880
It's a beautiful film, and it really makes me happy that that film is done.
00:53:21.039 --> 00:53:21.280
Yeah.
00:53:21.519 --> 00:53:22.400
Oh, that's very good.
00:53:22.559 --> 00:53:22.880
Awesome.
00:53:23.280 --> 00:53:23.760
Very personal.
00:53:24.079 --> 00:53:24.320
That's good.
00:53:24.400 --> 00:53:26.000
I'll go back and put that on my list to watch.
00:53:26.320 --> 00:53:26.559
Yes.
00:53:26.960 --> 00:53:30.559
So you've got here as well some of my show notes.
00:53:30.719 --> 00:53:32.000
The best summer.
00:53:32.320 --> 00:53:33.599
That's what's just now coming out.
00:53:33.760 --> 00:53:34.079
Is that right?
00:53:34.719 --> 00:53:35.840
Yeah, it's that's the film.
00:53:36.800 --> 00:53:37.679
What's that one about?
00:53:38.320 --> 00:53:40.559
That was just at the Seattle Film Festival.
00:53:40.719 --> 00:53:48.559
It played at the Sydney Opera House, and then I was just at the um, I'm going to Melbourne next, like in a week or two.
00:53:48.880 --> 00:53:56.159
That one is also another one of my treasured gems when I was moving from the Malibu evacuating the Malibu fires.
00:53:56.239 --> 00:53:59.280
I had a box of video tapes, and I'm like, what is in all these tapes?
00:53:59.519 --> 00:54:12.400
And I opened it up and I realized that in 1995, I went with Mike, who he and I had just gotten married, and he was about to go to Australia to do a tour called Somersault, which you may have heard of.
00:54:12.559 --> 00:54:19.599
It was a big Australian tour, kind of an offshoot of, you know, it was like kind of modeled after Big Day Out, but it was this guy, Steve Pav who did it.
00:54:19.920 --> 00:54:27.920
And it was Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Beck, Bikini Kill, Amps, Rancid.
00:54:28.719 --> 00:54:31.440
Um, yeah, it was like the most amazing lineup.
00:54:31.679 --> 00:54:39.679
And yeah, I went on the road with Mike, and I had no idea when I opened up this box, I filmed a whole documentary.
00:54:39.840 --> 00:54:47.280
I filmed all the concert, I filmed all the full songs, and Kathleen Hannah and I were running around.
00:54:47.360 --> 00:54:49.920
We do all these interviews, so I interviewed everybody.
00:54:50.159 --> 00:54:59.039
So it's a whole film from 1995, as if it was it's a found found footage documentary, and it's beautiful.
00:54:59.280 --> 00:55:10.320
I never come back to now, it only stays at that time, and it's just this incredible 90s, like beautiful film of what it was like to be in the 90s.
00:55:10.559 --> 00:55:15.679
And everybody's you're everybody's young and beautiful, and everybody acts like they're your best friend in the movie.
00:55:15.920 --> 00:55:28.239
So you're like, oh, you're just hanging out with Kim Gordon or Dave Grohl or Beck, and because we're all on tour together, and everyone's still so young, and um before everyone got so gigantic.
00:55:28.400 --> 00:55:33.119
Yeah, I mean they were starting to get big, but it was like, yeah, it was very nice.
00:55:33.360 --> 00:55:44.079
So you say it's coming out now, it hasn't been released, or it's at film festivals this year, and then I got a distribution deal in Australia through Mad Men.
00:55:44.159 --> 00:55:48.800
So it'll be coming probably January, February is when it comes out in Australia.
00:55:49.119 --> 00:55:49.920
Oh, that'd be great.
00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:52.559
Because I'm very familiar with what you said about big day out.
00:55:52.719 --> 00:55:54.480
That was my rite of passage when I was.
00:55:57.519 --> 00:55:58.639
It's a different kind of film.
00:55:58.800 --> 00:56:03.599
I got into Sundance, like it's so hard for a film to get it, like a whatever to get into Sundance.
00:56:04.079 --> 00:56:06.559
And so it's interesting, it's a different kind of a film.
00:56:06.639 --> 00:56:15.119
I filmed it all myself, it's all point of view, so it feels like you're the person, and yeah, it's all archival footage found.
00:56:15.280 --> 00:56:18.400
Yeah, so it's and it takes you on this tour.
00:56:18.559 --> 00:56:20.480
Yeah, it's true, it's really crazy.
00:56:20.719 --> 00:56:21.199
That's awesome.
00:56:21.280 --> 00:56:24.400
I'm gonna have to look out for that one because yeah, I I know very well about big day out.
00:56:24.719 --> 00:56:26.480
I went to stacks of them when I was still around.
00:56:26.719 --> 00:56:35.119
Yeah, they're the best, and the Australian audience, and it was I call it the best summer, even though we went there, it was the winter for us.
00:56:35.280 --> 00:56:37.920
It was like New Year's Eve and right around that time.
00:56:38.079 --> 00:56:40.719
But in Australia, it was the best summer.
00:56:40.800 --> 00:56:40.960
Yeah.
00:56:41.199 --> 00:56:42.000
Oh, that's cool.
00:56:42.159 --> 00:56:43.119
I'll I'd love to say that.
00:56:43.199 --> 00:56:44.000
That'd be very cool.
00:56:44.239 --> 00:56:45.519
So last couple of points.
00:56:45.599 --> 00:56:48.719
So you've worked with TV series as well.
00:56:48.880 --> 00:56:53.360
What you got here, Grade's Anatomy, Dead to Me, the Politician in Pea Valley, is that right?
00:56:53.679 --> 00:56:54.480
Yeah, some of them.
00:56:54.719 --> 00:56:56.320
Yeah, I probably did like, I don't know, 50.
00:56:56.639 --> 00:56:57.599
I don't know how many shows.
00:56:57.760 --> 00:56:59.599
Yeah, I did a lot of TV as well.
00:56:59.840 --> 00:57:00.639
I love TV.
00:57:00.719 --> 00:57:02.719
So had Yeah.
00:57:03.280 --> 00:57:06.639
What would you prefer, TV or films or music videos?
00:57:06.960 --> 00:57:10.639
Anything, just sitting in the director chair, it doesn't matter what it is.
00:57:11.199 --> 00:57:12.480
I think they're all fun.
00:57:12.639 --> 00:57:14.000
But TV is really great.
00:57:14.159 --> 00:57:18.239
TV I had kids, and the schedule of doing a feature is very difficult.
00:57:18.320 --> 00:57:21.039
If you have kids, you can do it, but it's hard, you know.
00:57:21.119 --> 00:57:24.880
It's um, and so I but TV was perfect, you know.
00:57:25.039 --> 00:57:28.719
You could shoot a TV show in five days or eight days, 10 days.
00:57:28.880 --> 00:57:31.039
Um, and then it's really quick to edit.
00:57:31.199 --> 00:57:34.000
So as a mom, it was really it worked out really well.
00:57:34.079 --> 00:57:35.440
And I and I love TV.
00:57:35.519 --> 00:57:37.199
It was like the height of TV.
00:57:37.440 --> 00:57:39.599
So it was another perfect way.
00:57:39.679 --> 00:57:47.599
And yeah, TV was just the super, it was like doing they were doing so many cool shows, working with amazingly talented people.
00:57:48.000 --> 00:57:50.239
And I had the best, yeah, it was amazing.
00:57:50.719 --> 00:57:52.320
So yeah, that was good.
00:57:52.800 --> 00:57:55.440
Yeah, so I did yeah, all those shows are just so fun.
00:57:55.679 --> 00:58:00.000
Some of them I did a lot of first, you know, first episode, you know, whatever, like early shows.
00:58:00.239 --> 00:58:07.280
And once in a while I got on shows that were a few seasons in, but mostly I did like first season shows, which was great.
00:58:07.360 --> 00:58:13.119
Yeah, again, you're just kind of establishing a new style, a new, a new person, a new act.
00:58:13.199 --> 00:58:13.599
Yeah.
00:58:14.719 --> 00:58:14.960
Yeah.
00:58:15.119 --> 00:58:15.360
Yeah.
00:58:15.440 --> 00:58:22.239
Some of the shows that are around nowadays you're really heavily invested in the drawing in, for instance, like Euphoria.
00:58:22.480 --> 00:58:25.119
My wife and I have just started watching season one of that.
00:58:26.000 --> 00:58:26.639
It's a couple of years out of the world.
00:58:26.800 --> 00:58:27.199
It's so dark.
00:58:28.079 --> 00:58:29.679
It is dark, it's very, very dark.
00:58:29.760 --> 00:58:31.599
But you gotta consider my wife as well.
00:58:31.679 --> 00:58:38.400
Like, we're in our early 40s, and it's like, how many kids are out there these days that would be living very similar lives like this?
00:58:38.559 --> 00:58:44.000
It'd be pretty, I think it'd be it's pretty spot on in terms of like how they can get caught up in that.
00:58:44.719 --> 00:58:54.800
Because I have kids that are that age, and I just feel like it's the darkest side of that age, and that's of course the exploitive side of television, you know, you're not gonna make it about just regular kids.
00:58:54.960 --> 00:59:04.639
So, yes, there's a small percentage of people that are those kids, but I just don't think it's indicative of every kid.
00:59:04.800 --> 00:59:09.119
In fact, I think that after watching that, I think that most kids are like, I'm not gonna be like that.
00:59:09.280 --> 00:59:10.159
Like, that's crazy.
00:59:10.239 --> 00:59:19.360
You don't you don't make it out of there, like that's dark, and then there's exactly and then there's um over on Apple TV, you got uh the series Cape Fear.
00:59:19.599 --> 00:59:20.239
I love the novel.
00:59:20.480 --> 00:59:22.000
Yeah, I've been starting to watch the new one.
00:59:22.079 --> 00:59:23.119
Yeah, I really like it.
00:59:23.360 --> 00:59:24.000
Very good.
00:59:24.159 --> 00:59:24.719
Very, very good.
00:59:25.199 --> 00:59:28.800
Bottoms, he's such he's like he's such the perfect villain.
00:59:29.440 --> 00:59:32.320
Oh, Javier Benjamin, yeah, so good.
00:59:33.360 --> 00:59:34.079
He's awesome.
00:59:34.159 --> 00:59:44.480
There's something about him where he he just it's like looking at a stray dog in everything that's been character Exactly, every character's different as well, different styles of villain.
00:59:44.559 --> 00:59:51.360
But yeah, so getting back to like TV, it's the way that they're shot now, you can be heavily invested in shows for sure.
00:59:51.760 --> 01:00:16.800
So and just wrapping up, Tamara, so we're almost at an hour, but going back into like the late 80s and 90s and into the 2000s, what advice would you give, especially female directors, what advice would you give to them in today's world about how to get into the industry and and make it and make some of the similar films like that you've made in the past?
01:00:17.039 --> 01:00:19.360
How what would you would you say to these people?
01:00:20.639 --> 01:00:32.320
Um, I would say that the only reason I became is because I was incredibly ambitious and I really followed through on I'd made films.
01:00:32.480 --> 01:00:37.280
I picked up a camera, I made films, I edited them, I showed them, I pushed it.
01:00:37.440 --> 01:00:39.679
I I made myself who I was.
01:00:39.840 --> 01:00:42.719
I didn't sit back, nobody's gonna call you, wait for you.
01:00:42.960 --> 01:00:44.639
You have to make everything happen.
01:00:44.880 --> 01:00:48.719
You have to find out what's the new it's all up to you.
01:00:48.880 --> 01:00:49.840
It sounds like so.
01:00:49.920 --> 01:00:55.119
If you want to do this, you you make a movie, you figure out how you're gonna make a movie.
01:00:55.280 --> 01:01:03.599
Like you you go to film school or you just make it yourself, whatever it is, like it you have you, it's all up to you.
01:01:03.840 --> 01:01:15.519
So the I like in the beginning, like so, you know, all that energy, and so you really have to love it because it takes so much time to do all those things, and it's what you have to do.
01:01:15.599 --> 01:01:20.719
Like, that's why the latest film that I made, The Best Summer, is because I don't like to not work.
01:01:20.800 --> 01:01:25.440
And Hollywood's been in this weird slump lately, and I was like, I don't like to not work.
01:01:25.519 --> 01:01:32.960
I'm just gonna I'm gonna pull out footage that I have since you know, whatever, and just like I've got to make a movie, and that's how you are.
01:01:33.119 --> 01:01:39.760
Like, if you're an artist, if you're a painter, if you write, like that's you just those are the that's part of what you do.
01:01:39.840 --> 01:01:46.480
So I think like of course people are gonna say no to you because it's the hardest thing in the world to get into.
01:01:46.800 --> 01:01:48.480
You're gonna get like a billion no's.
01:01:48.559 --> 01:01:51.440
So get used to say hit listening to people say no.
01:01:51.840 --> 01:01:56.079
And instead of like, whatever you don't doesn't mean no.
01:01:56.320 --> 01:01:58.239
That's just for them, it's no.
01:01:58.480 --> 01:02:00.719
The only it doesn't mean no to you.
01:02:00.880 --> 01:02:04.559
Like you have to, if you want to do it, you're still a yes, you know.
01:02:04.800 --> 01:02:08.559
And so I just felt like I just kept pushing always.
01:02:08.800 --> 01:02:12.719
And I was already, and I also felt like I was already at a no.
01:02:12.800 --> 01:02:19.519
So what is it, what what does it matter if I try, you know, like I'm already, yeah, a zero.
01:02:19.679 --> 01:02:23.440
Like, so let me put effort in and let me at least try to make something or do it.
01:02:23.679 --> 01:02:26.960
It's there's no nothing to be lost, you know.
01:02:27.039 --> 01:02:28.320
I'm already at zero.
01:02:28.559 --> 01:02:37.360
So I just feel like that's the thing of like you have to just keep pushing and also look for new if you're trying to get into something new, look for the new way in.
01:02:37.599 --> 01:02:39.280
Like, what are what are they making?
01:02:39.440 --> 01:02:41.679
It's like microdramas.
01:02:41.840 --> 01:02:44.880
Like, if I was a young filmmaker, I'd be like, How do I make a micro drama?
01:02:45.039 --> 01:02:49.280
You know, if I was like, I'd try to figure out what what are people doing?
01:02:49.519 --> 01:02:56.239
What how are people consuming that media and that entertainment and break into the new stuff first?
01:02:56.559 --> 01:02:59.199
Because that's the way, that's the first way in.
01:02:59.280 --> 01:03:01.599
Like, that's how I got in was with MTV.
01:03:02.000 --> 01:03:07.920
You know, when I did features, it was these little low budget indie, you know, whatever, because that was like new.
01:03:08.079 --> 01:03:12.159
They were making these like little teeny movies, finally, little in the indies.
01:03:12.639 --> 01:03:15.280
Um, and then the same thing, like TV was new.
01:03:15.360 --> 01:03:18.960
They were all of a sudden cable was coming, so cable needed TV shows.
01:03:19.039 --> 01:03:24.800
So I got to get in there and make like these cool little cable shows, and that kept getting bigger and bigger.
01:03:24.960 --> 01:03:33.440
Um, and so I just feel like that's what yeah, look for the new thing and uh yeah, and just I don't know, be brave.
01:03:34.800 --> 01:03:43.199
You have to imagine yourself first, like imagine what you want to do, and every step you take, it should lead to that goal.
01:03:43.440 --> 01:03:45.760
And if it doesn't, you're on the wrong path.
01:03:45.920 --> 01:03:52.719
So, you know, even though I took little sidesteps and made other things, they were all towards the goal.
01:03:52.960 --> 01:03:56.719
Yeah, so make a goal and then keep heading towards it.
01:03:57.280 --> 01:04:02.000
Otherwise, that's that's it's it's very good advice, especially for the youth of today.
01:04:02.079 --> 01:04:06.559
Like my background is in commercial real estate and also an auctioneer as well.
01:04:06.639 --> 01:04:10.960
But when I wanted to become an auctioneer, it's the first thing I saw when I was in the in the industry.
01:04:11.119 --> 01:04:12.000
The the first time.
01:04:12.159 --> 01:04:13.119
Can you talk fast like that?
01:04:13.199 --> 01:04:13.599
Can you do that?
01:04:14.079 --> 01:04:15.199
Eventually, yeah.
01:04:15.360 --> 01:04:16.400
Or you don't have to talk about it.
01:04:16.639 --> 01:04:24.880
I'm not trading as an auctioneer at the moment, but yeah, it's kind of like, well, ladies and gentlemen, I think you need to come in today's auction first, second, third, blah, blah, blah.
01:04:25.039 --> 01:04:25.440
You know what I mean?
01:04:25.519 --> 01:04:25.599
Yeah.
01:04:25.760 --> 01:04:27.199
So you do get that thing going.
01:04:28.559 --> 01:04:29.199
Yeah.
01:04:29.599 --> 01:04:30.000
100%.
01:04:31.039 --> 01:04:35.119
And I used to go to different auctioneers, and I'd say, Oh, I want to be an auctioneer.
01:04:35.199 --> 01:04:36.239
It's like, that's great, mate.
01:04:36.320 --> 01:04:37.760
Well, why don't you go and get some experience?
01:04:37.920 --> 01:04:39.760
It's like, okay, how am I going to get experience?
01:04:39.920 --> 01:04:50.559
So, how I actually cracked into the industry and I was doing it part-time for four years, is that I went to three different auctioneers, recorded all of them with a dictaphone back in the day, right?
01:04:50.880 --> 01:05:02.480
Went back and got dialogue from each of those auctioneers that I liked and practiced in the mirror, MM style, over and over and over and over and over.
01:05:02.559 --> 01:05:10.480
And I created this version myself, did some state final, got into some um novice auctioneer competitions, then made it the state final.
01:05:10.800 --> 01:05:15.119
Then one of the judges then had a meeting with me and hired me, and I worked with him for four years.
01:05:15.199 --> 01:05:18.719
But my point is, you put that effort in, listen what you did.
01:05:18.960 --> 01:05:19.519
Yeah.
01:05:19.760 --> 01:05:20.000
Yeah.
01:05:20.239 --> 01:05:20.960
That's impressive.
01:05:21.360 --> 01:05:24.320
Because you counted goal and you thank you.
01:05:24.800 --> 01:05:25.840
That's incredible.
01:05:26.559 --> 01:05:27.039
Yeah.
01:05:27.360 --> 01:05:36.960
And and now that I use my public whilst I'm not trading as an auctioneer at the moment, my movie reviews is you know, public speaking and that we're talking here and there.
01:05:37.119 --> 01:05:38.559
So I can get those skills for life.
01:05:38.719 --> 01:05:45.920
So I'm still utiling Yeah, I'm still utilizing skills, and then I do all my producing with the editing in the background on a Debut Premiere.
01:05:46.239 --> 01:05:47.360
It's all new skill sets.
01:05:47.519 --> 01:05:56.480
So again, as I just said, it's not not taking no for an answer, finding those different avenues, and just yeah, just until you get to that goal, you gotta keep going.
01:05:56.960 --> 01:06:00.079
Yeah, and also this industry is constantly changing.
01:06:00.239 --> 01:06:07.679
It's like the you so you don't you're not gonna get in the industry and become a director and become a director like the people from the past.
01:06:07.920 --> 01:06:11.920
You're gonna you have to be a director from the stuff that's gonna happen in the future.
01:06:12.159 --> 01:06:26.480
So like you can't like that's also important to remember that like you know, here you're doing a podcast, you might not have you might have been like, oh, one day I want to be a in radio, but you're like, oh, radio is just another way of saying a podcast now, you know.
01:06:26.559 --> 01:06:29.760
But you had a goal of like wanting to do something like this.
01:06:29.920 --> 01:06:41.920
So I think like that's the thing is you just have to also be aware that that this industry changes, and you have to just be up on and reflect that, see what that change could be and be that change, you know.
01:06:42.079 --> 01:06:44.000
That's where that's where you come in.
01:06:45.440 --> 01:06:46.960
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
01:06:47.119 --> 01:06:51.039
Well, Tamara, thank you very much for fun.
01:06:51.199 --> 01:06:51.760
Nice talking to you.
01:06:52.559 --> 01:06:53.280
Nice talking to you.
01:06:53.519 --> 01:06:54.239
It's been very good.
01:06:54.320 --> 01:06:57.119
So look, we'll edit this and we'll be coming at it in a couple of weeks' time.
01:06:57.199 --> 01:06:59.280
I'll flick it over to you and we'll go from there.
01:06:59.440 --> 01:07:01.840
But a big thank you for making all those cult classics.
01:07:01.920 --> 01:07:02.639
Keep doing what you're doing.
01:07:02.719 --> 01:07:04.159
I'm looking forward to your thank you.
01:07:04.400 --> 01:07:06.000
Was it the summer, the best summer?
01:07:06.239 --> 01:07:07.440
The best summer, yeah.
01:07:08.159 --> 01:07:08.880
That's for sure.
01:07:09.039 --> 01:07:09.599
No, very good.
01:07:09.840 --> 01:07:12.159
And I give you the word to watch the Radiant Child.
01:07:12.239 --> 01:07:14.239
Okay, okay, I'll I'll get on to that.
01:07:14.320 --> 01:07:14.880
Thank you very much.
01:07:15.360 --> 01:07:15.840
Thank you, babe.
01:07:16.239 --> 01:07:16.639
See you soon.
01:07:16.719 --> 01:07:17.440
Bye bye.
01:07:20.239 --> 01:07:22.480
So there you have it, Tamara Davis.
01:07:22.639 --> 01:07:25.519
Thank you very much, Tamara, for coming on DMR.
01:07:25.679 --> 01:07:27.039
You've got some amazing stories.
01:07:27.199 --> 01:07:33.760
Keep doing what you're doing, and we're very much looking forward to that documentary that's coming out early next year.
01:07:34.000 --> 01:07:39.840
So if you like this episode, please subscribe, like, share it with your friends and family.
01:07:40.000 --> 01:07:44.000
It does help as well, supporting DMR by doing all that jazz.
01:07:44.079 --> 01:07:50.719
And we're very busy canvassing Hollywood talent via PR firms and guests directly.
01:07:50.880 --> 01:07:52.800
We're getting some very positive responses.
01:07:52.880 --> 01:07:55.039
We've got another interview coming up next month.
01:07:55.280 --> 01:07:59.360
We're very psyched about how the momentum is going.
01:07:59.519 --> 01:08:07.599
And the great news is that DMR is being approached by PR firms and guests themselves to come on the show.
01:08:07.760 --> 01:08:09.360
So, very good stuff there.
01:08:09.599 --> 01:08:13.360
Again, thank you for everyone for the support in 2026.
01:08:13.440 --> 01:08:20.319
It's been a wild ride thus far, and as per usual, leaders on the Menji.
01:08:20.960 --> 01:08:28.000
You've just experienced DMR, the red carpet treatment.
01:08:28.479 --> 01:08:31.439
Now, get your ass to the movies.
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.760
We filmed in Toronto.
00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:04.400
So yeah, it was loved Toronto.
00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:05.839
Yeah, it was really fun.
00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:11.359
We all stayed in the same building, the same hotel, Set and Place Hotel.
00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:18.399
It was like Adam, me, Farley, David Spade, because they were making Tommy Boy at the same time.
00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:21.120
Gwyneth Petro was there making some movie.
00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:24.879
Like it was just like this hotel filled with like the troupe.
00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:27.199
We're like vaudeville actors or something.
00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:30.239
Like just this troop of crazy people in a hotel.
00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:34.799
Alright, alright, alright.
00:00:34.880 --> 00:00:36.479
So welcome back to DMR.
00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:38.320
Thank you for tuning back in as always.
00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:39.679
Much obliged.
00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:43.920
So the Legends of the Lens series continues.
00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:47.280
And today's guest is Tamara Davis.
00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:54.640
So Tamra has a large list of credentials over many different sectors in Hollywood.
00:00:54.799 --> 00:01:00.719
She started in the 80s directing music videos with the likes of NWA.
00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:06.079
You've also got Sonic Youth and Hansen later in the 90s.
00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:16.319
Then she directed a film in 1992 called Gun Crazy with Drew Barrymore, a thriller, very gritty, and it got Drew a Golden Globe nomination.
00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:22.079
Then have a listen to these very well-known staple comedies that she directed.
00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:24.959
We've got CB4 with Chris Rock.
00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:34.400
Then you had Adam Sandler in Billy Madison, one of the best and well-known comedies to come out of the 90s.
00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:37.680
Then you had Half Baked with Dave Chappelle.
00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:42.879
We've also got Britney Spears in Crossroads in the early 2000s.
00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:52.959
She's also been involved in a fair few TV series and episodes, and she's directed episodes for Grey's Anatomy.
00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:58.480
You've also got shows like Dead to Me, The Politician, and P Valley.
00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:30.080
She's also directed documentaries, and she's got one that's coming out next year called The Best Summer, which is basically found footage from the Somersault alt rock music festival here in Australia in the mid-90s, and she was being evacuated from the Malibu fires last year, and as she's frantically trying to get out of the area, she comes across this box of tapes, and it's the music festival tapes.
00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:40.719
Now I haven't seen the documentary comes out early next year, but just some amazing stories that Tamara has throughout her career from the 80s right up until today.
00:02:40.879 --> 00:02:46.719
She's got some great advice for people looking to get into the industry, especially with directing and whatnot.
00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:50.479
So buckle up, it's a cracker of an episode.
00:02:50.639 --> 00:02:52.080
You're going to enjoy this.
00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:58.479
Welcome to DMR's movie reviews.
00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:07.919
Enjoy the show.
00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:09.919
Welcome back to DMR.
00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:12.719
Thank you for tuning back in as always.
00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:18.319
And today or tonight, we've got a very special guest, Tamara Davis.
00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:19.919
Welcome to DMR.
00:03:20.719 --> 00:03:21.280
Thank you.
00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:23.360
I'm so excited to be here and talk to you.
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I know, I know.
00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:26.560
I've been looking forward to this for a very long time.
00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:29.599
You're in a very nice little backdrop there in LA.
00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:31.520
It's summer over there at the moment.
00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:34.560
How is it in LA this time of year?
00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:35.840
It's beautiful.
00:03:35.919 --> 00:03:38.400
It's summer here, and there's also waves.
00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:39.840
So there's a swell right now.
00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:45.520
So I'm really excited because, yeah, my kids are surfers, so it's nice.
00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:46.479
A good time.
00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:51.919
Yeah, one of them almost tried to leave to go to Australia because you guys just got some waves.
00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:53.919
So I was like, no, stay here.
00:03:54.639 --> 00:03:55.360
We did, yeah.
00:03:55.520 --> 00:04:01.759
I actually, whilst I'm not a surfer, I'm actually a uh I haven't told you this yet, but I'm a drone operator, a drone pilot.
00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:09.199
So at the moment we are smack bang in the middle of humpback whale migration.
00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:19.439
And the best way I can describe filming these animals, these amazing aquatic beasts, is it's like it's like Jurassic Park.
00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:23.600
Yeah, I'm sure you see them when they're oh my god, how fun.
00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:24.720
Yeah, it's amazing.
00:04:24.800 --> 00:04:35.600
And they get here, they get as close as 50 meters offshore, and you can actually hear their blowholes when they're going past with their young calves.
00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:38.800
So it's amazing, it's very, very cool.
00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:39.839
It's amazing.
00:04:40.079 --> 00:04:41.040
That's so beautiful.
00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:45.279
So you spend a lot of time by the ocean by sounds like with your kids, and so do I.
00:04:45.839 --> 00:04:47.519
Yeah, yeah, right here on the ocean.
00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:48.319
It's so nice.
00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:50.560
And yeah, Sydney's so beautiful.
00:04:50.639 --> 00:05:04.319
I I haven't been there in a while, and I just like when you fly over Sydney and you just see how it just is like all the all those beautiful waterways and how big it is, but it's just like hugs the coast.
00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:05.199
It's just stunning.
00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:07.199
I just thought it was the most beautiful city.
00:05:07.439 --> 00:05:08.240
Yeah, it's very cool.
00:05:08.399 --> 00:05:08.560
Thank you.
00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:09.120
It's very cool.
00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:14.079
Like, I've got a corporate job, and my main office tower overlooks all of Sydney Harbour.
00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:15.439
So I'm in there twice a week.
00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:19.040
Yeah, it's it's it's an amazing place.
00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:22.240
So thank you again for coming on.
00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:26.240
So today we're gonna be doing a bit of a deep dive, called it Legends of the Lens.
00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:33.199
So when I came across your profile, obviously you've got some very big cult classic films that we'll talk about shortly.
00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:46.000
But I wanted to rewind the clock and discuss like how you got obviously into the movie industry, but before that, where you started, where you grew up, what you studied, how you got into the entertainment industry.
00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:53.759
Wow, well, I'm excited to talk about that because I actually just wrote a book kind of trying to describe it.
00:05:53.920 --> 00:06:01.360
I know I'm excited about it, but it's mostly that because you know, the way anybody starts, everybody's path is so different.
00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:06.480
And then I just was like, yeah, being a girl, it's a very different trajectory.
00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:08.079
But I grew up in Hollywood.
00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:20.319
I grew up in Hollywood, California, and um I wanted to be an actress at first, and then I became an then I decided that I wanted to have more control, so I became a director.
00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:28.240
And um I went to film school at LA City College, which was just super cool as like the local college here.
00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:40.240
Um and then I I thought like I was gonna make a feature film, but instead I was only like 23, 24, but I felt like guys are doing that, you know.
00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:46.079
And I basically like got laughed at when I went into like my big meeting.
00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:58.560
And but the good news was I I had made a music video for a band, and it was right at the beginning time of like when music videos and MTV was just like crushing it.
00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:10.720
And so all of a sudden out of nowhere, I became like a music video director, and they didn't care that I was a girl, and it was like I had a cool style, and I just had the best time in the world, and I did music videos.
00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:12.079
So that was kind of how I started.
00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:13.360
How cool is that?
00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:15.759
So, how long were you at film school for?
00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:25.120
You know, I think it was probably like a two-year program, but it probably took me more like three or four years because I was like working, you know, going to school.
00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:39.040
But yeah, it was a it was really nice though, because it was kind of a film program where it was the LA City College, so it wasn't just like all people who had money who could pay for it who thought they were like already privileged or something.
00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:50.560
It was really like local people, and um, and so there's something nice about that because when you made films, it felt like you showed them to the people that are at the movie theaters, not just critics.
00:07:50.959 --> 00:08:03.439
And so it really made me understand that like that people are going to the movie, you know, you're trying to have all different kinds of people enjoy your films, not just like the whatever that group of cool critical people.
00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:14.720
Like it's films are equal, you know, they're they're very you should appeal to the Armenian woman and the two black kids and the punk rock girl and the old guy, you know.
00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:18.240
So I kind of really saw that going to a community college.
00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:21.839
Um, and then yeah, so I feel I don't know.
00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:25.199
So that was I think that that was like a good, a good background.
00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:26.399
Yeah, okay.
00:08:26.639 --> 00:08:30.560
So MTV, like that came out, was it the early or mid-80s when it came out?
00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:35.200
So I'm an 85 baby, so I kind of grew up in the early to mid-90s.
00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:43.600
So when did like MTV like they came really I think like they came out in the 80s or like towards the they were really getting popular more in the late 80s?
00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:44.240
Yeah.
00:08:44.480 --> 00:09:01.679
And then I guess I started trying to think, like I met, yeah, because I met Mike in 1988, and that was like by then I was kind of like a a pretty not established, but I was doing like a bunch of rap videos at the time.
00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:06.000
So I probably started doing videos around 86 or something like that.
00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:06.879
Okay, yeah.
00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:19.440
Do you remember when it was like and at the time, like the difference was was like when MTV started, it was all these like slick kind of big hair bands, or like it looked really kind of a big lighting and all that kind of stuff.
00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:36.159
And what I did is I had filmed a band with my Super 8 camera from the checkout from the film school, and it had this, and I was like in the pit getting bumped or on the side of the, you know, it was like just handheld look grainy, black and white.
00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:43.840
Yeah, and um and that nobody'd really seen something shot like that, other than like their old home videos or something.
00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:49.440
So to put it in a way uh for a rock feel, it kind of made it feel really cool and edgy.
00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:59.440
And so I think like that was kind of what was cool about MTV is that they let people who had like a new style and just yeah, yeah, and it kind of shook it up a little bit.
00:09:59.519 --> 00:10:02.639
And I think that that was a fun, a fun entry.
00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:07.679
And I got to do all these cool alternative bands at the time, so that was really neat.
00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:08.720
Nice.
00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:14.320
So you work with some of the people like the groups like NWA Sonic Youth back then.
00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:17.440
So what was it like during that time?
00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:28.720
Because like in the like mid 80s, rap was basically exploding, and then it kind of shifted a bit to like a different style, like in the 90s, I suppose, with all that gangster rap and all that kind of stuff.
00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:34.080
So what was it, what was it like back then, especially like in Hollywood, LA, with all that genre of music?
00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:40.639
Well, I had I was coming from it from like a couple different places.
00:10:40.799 --> 00:10:51.759
One, I grew up in LA, so I knew LA culture, but also like my early films, one of my early films was called Via Loca, which was about gangs in the San Fernando Valley.
00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:59.679
And then one of my first TV shows was like about yeah, so I I'd like grown up and filmed gang stuff, gang activity.
00:10:59.759 --> 00:11:03.279
And so I kind of knew about I knew about the world a bit.
00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:22.399
Yeah, and then um and then I worked, I'd been doing like rap music, like I did tone Loke Wild thing and bust a move, and like kind of like, but that was kind of like it it was like blending black and white worlds together because that was the music that I was listening to when we went to clubs.
00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:28.639
Those song, those songs were produced by this guy, Matt Dyke, who was my best friend, and he had a club called Power Tools.
00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:39.519
And um, and so like we were all dancing to like black songs, and uh, and so when Matt made that song and I made the video, I we like really blended the crowd.
00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:48.000
So we wanted it to show like this is what was going on in the club scene, but on MTV, it was just like black videos, like it wasn't like a crossover at all.
00:11:48.320 --> 00:11:50.960
Like you were either a black artist or you're a white artist, yeah.
00:11:51.120 --> 00:11:59.679
And so, like when I made the tone look wild thing video to have this black guy like humping up against these white girls, it was definitely we did it for I made it for$400.
00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:10.720
It was like super low budget, like we were having fun, and it became the biggest music video on MTV, whatever it was gigantic and sold so many records.
00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:16.320
So, you know, and then Bust a Move was like me also, you know, blending that culture.
00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:18.799
That was like what was going on at LA at the time.
00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:29.039
So I so that was super fun, but you know, like Tone Lok was from that world, like he he was rap, you know, he was definitely he lived, he lived in that world.
00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:32.320
Um yeah, that's a that's a gang name.
00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:34.000
I didn't we didn't know what it meant.
00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:36.639
We just thought tone like local crazy.
00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:45.279
I don't we didn't know what it meant, but he he was it's a gang name, but um and yeah, and then when I worked with NWA, that was just really fun.
00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:54.240
Like, yeah, I met with Easy because I had done those videos and they made they were gigantic videos, and he wanted to hire the person that made those videos.
00:12:54.639 --> 00:13:01.440
And so then I started working with him, and um, yeah, and his world was for real, like it was for real.
00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:12.639
Like those guys were they were definitely from yeah, from Compton and had probably just been you know doing their thing like a year or two earlier.
00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:17.919
Like, you know, it wasn't like they were it was pr it was pretty, it was pretty rough.
00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:22.159
But I don't know, I felt I I got along really well with Easy.
00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:32.799
He wanted to make movies, he really loved Hollywood, he liked that I wanted to be in the film business, and we made a short film and yeah, we just did a lot of music videos together and it was great.
00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:54.960
And I felt like I could I I had a style that I wanted to do with him, and I and I liked that he backed me so that when I worked with all those guys that were all just like complete like the yes, you could call it NWA, but you could also call them their, you know, it was their it was their that group of the guys, it was a gang.
00:13:55.360 --> 00:14:16.080
But um yeah, I felt they I felt protected, I felt fine, but and I think like I don't know, maybe there was something about instead of being like a white dude with a baseball hat coming up to these guys and telling them what to do, the fact that I was just this big blonde girl, you know, that was smilingly coming up and telling them what to do.
00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:21.759
I think maybe I was able to get performances out of all these guys that normally would be very intimidating.
00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:23.840
I just weren't fun.
00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:29.600
I I like saw it as fun and I laughed and I got along well with those guys.
00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:30.559
How cool.
00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:44.559
So with the with shooting and directing the music videos, like might be a bit of an odd question or a you know question that's might not be easy to answer, but how long does that usually take to film a video?
00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:49.039
Because like they go for what an average song is a couple of minutes, like three to four minutes.
00:14:49.120 --> 00:14:54.879
Like, how long would you be working on site with uh with music videos back in the day?
00:14:56.240 --> 00:15:05.360
I mean, I feel like we would do one-day videos or two-day videos, and they're you they used to have like really bad reputations that people would go all hours or would like go forever.
00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:06.879
And I wasn't ever that director.
00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:23.360
I was like really very efficient, I had shot lists, I was like really planned, and I I wanted everybody to have fun and I wanted to get good performances out of the band, and I just didn't, I didn't feel like people were doing their best work at hour 13, 14, 15.
00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:24.960
So me either.
00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:28.480
So I just feel like I yeah, usually take like one or two days.
00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:30.639
A lot of that would depend on how much money you had.
00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:31.759
Um, yeah.
00:15:32.399 --> 00:15:41.279
In a weird way, I feel like because I like right now, people make music videos, but now they make videos for nothing.
00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:55.039
Like that's the thing that I'm in shock about now is like we had money to make music videos and they were on the air and they were like they were part of like uh the media empire, but now it's kind of like bands still need music videos.
00:15:55.759 --> 00:16:07.519
There's no like major place to play them, so there's no MTV, but bands still need them, but now they only pay like five, six, seven thousand dollars for video on most bands, yeah.
00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:18.240
And then it's all it's up to like all these kind of creative young people who I guess now that you put a camera in everybody's hand and you give them all an editing system, everybody thinks they can make a film.
00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:26.559
And some people can, but I just am more like, damn, they're asking these young directors, which I can't believe how much what I learned.
00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:45.759
I learned so much from directing music videos and what an incredible opportunity to work with a crew and work with, you know, like lighting equipment and dollies and cameras and moving a crew from one location to another, all that stuff were all things that, you know, taught me how to make features and taught me how to move on to that.
00:16:45.919 --> 00:16:49.600
Whereas I feel like now, but maybe that's the way features are going.
00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:59.279
It's all it's the very few videos are these big, huge videos, like, you know, or even videos that were low budget, they just it's just a different scenario.
00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:09.039
But I really felt we were so lucky, you know, we got to do all these videos and we had budgets, but it also created this amazing time for filmmakers.
00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:18.000
I mean, that's where Spike Jones came out of, that's where David Fincher came out of, Michelle Gondry, like all these cool directors came out of that training ground.
00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:26.000
And um, it was because there was a there was a need for it, you know, there was MTV, it supported this huge industry and created all this talent.
00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:27.359
Yeah, yeah.
00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:37.599
And as I mentioned, like I I grew up in the early 90s, so this is where you come into play with your films, some of the big films that you worked on, cult classics as well.
00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:46.319
So I over the last week and a half I've been doing a bit of a movie marathon with your films, ones that I had seen that it was a long time ago.
00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:49.839
Billy Madison, I don't need to re-watch because that's a staple comedy.
00:17:50.400 --> 00:17:55.119
But stuff like CB4, Half Baked, and also Gun Crazy.
00:17:55.200 --> 00:18:01.599
Now, Gun Crazy I hadn't seen, and I only just watched it yesterday, and I absolutely loved it.
00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:03.200
Such an awesome film.
00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:18.319
Very, very cool film, and it kind of gave me vibes of like Bonnie and Clyde a little bit, and like Romeo and Juliet, which I was the the modern version came out a few years later, I think in the mid-90s.
00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:24.799
But I hadn't seen that side of Drew Barrymore before in such a gritty film.
00:18:25.599 --> 00:18:26.880
So talk to me about that.
00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:30.319
Like, how did how did you get onto that film and you should just run me through the whole thing?
00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:33.759
Because she got uh a nomination, I think it was a Golden Globe nomination off the film.
00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:34.480
Yeah, yeah.
00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:35.519
I know I'm so happy.
00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:36.559
Yeah, talk about that.
00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:37.759
I love that movie.
00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:48.079
That was my first movie, and to what it takes to try to get your first movie made is always like a Herculean feat because yeah, it's hard, it's so hard to get a first film up.
00:18:48.240 --> 00:18:48.559
Yeah.
00:18:48.880 --> 00:18:56.640
Um, on that one, that that actually was the script that I presented when I was 23, 24, yeah, and got laughed at.
00:18:56.720 --> 00:19:00.640
Like, and but they took that script and they optioned it out from underneath me.
00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:02.799
And so I lost that script.
00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:07.839
And then it took me seven or eight years of doing music videos.
00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:13.119
And then somehow the writer called me and he's like, Hey, that script's available again.
00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:14.160
I was like, what?
00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:24.960
And so I got the script back, and then I just found people that um were able to like put up money for, you know, and like sell foreign rights and pre-sales.
00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:28.000
And I made it for$800,000.
00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:29.920
Yeah, so under a million dollars.
00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:36.000
Yeah, and it was my first film I got to work with my DP Lisa Rinsler, who I'd done all these music videos with.
00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:40.400
So she and I had like this great working relationship, and I think that's really important.
00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:51.200
Like having, if you're trying to be a you know, a director to have like a tight crew that you work with, like people that you kind of grow up with and you have a secondhand language.
00:19:51.599 --> 00:20:00.240
And then it was super cool working with Drew, you know, like I don't know, like she was uh I knew her as like a club kid in LA.
00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:01.200
Yeah.
00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:04.720
And she read the script and she wanted to come in.
00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:12.960
And I was like, nah, she she's just I don't know, I did I didn't really take her seriously, but then she demanded to come and see me.
00:20:13.279 --> 00:20:20.960
And I met with her and she told me her whole story, and I just fell in love with her and I believed in her, and she's like, nobody believes in me anymore.
00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:23.200
And I was like, I do, I will, I will.
00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:26.240
Yeah, so I because I just thought she was so I just believed in her.
00:20:26.319 --> 00:20:31.839
I liked her and I knew I knew how hard it is, you know, and I knew I'd read her book, Little Girl Lost.
00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:33.519
I knew what a tough life she had.
00:20:34.079 --> 00:20:36.559
And I wanted to be somebody that believed in her.
00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:40.799
So yeah, so I cast her and she moved in with Mike and I.
00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:45.680
And yeah, we made gun crazy and shot in 23 days.
00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:47.839
And it just was a great experience.
00:20:48.000 --> 00:21:01.599
It was really, I felt like all even though I didn't get my first my film made right out of film school, I feel like by the time I got to make it seven years later, and I don't know how many whatever 50, 60 music videos later, I was a director.
00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:02.880
Like I knew what I was doing.
00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:07.519
I knew I had a vision, I knew what I wanted, I knew how to move the camera, I knew how to create.
00:21:07.599 --> 00:21:12.240
Yeah, so I felt like thank God in a way that I didn't get that first film.
00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:18.319
I, you know, because I feel like I made such a better film uh by having a lot more experience.
00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:21.039
Yeah, she she now how old was she in there?
00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:23.680
She was only what 16, 17 by the look of it.
00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:25.039
She's a kid.
00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:26.640
Yeah, she's 15.
00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:28.000
Wow.
00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:30.160
Yeah, she's a baby.
00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:31.759
Yeah, yeah, very much so.
00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:33.920
Very such a gripping tale as well.
00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:35.680
Yeah, I think she's 15.
00:21:35.920 --> 00:21:40.240
Maybe she turned 16 while we were shooting it, because remember she's driving.
00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:42.319
Yeah, she's a baby.
00:21:42.559 --> 00:21:44.000
She was a little baby girl.
00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:57.200
This film gun crazy, it kind of for me looking back, like what I came up with obviously in the early nines, as I mentioned, so video stores before they became extinct, and obviously going to movies was my kind of home, right?
00:21:57.279 --> 00:21:58.960
I've been a movie buff since I was five.
00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:23.119
But the Something about nineties thrillers that kind of hit different Th they kinda hit different st films like this one that pretty gritty film it did have that impact on me but films like Cape Fear and you've also got what's the other one as well the movie called Fear itself with Mark Warburg in it.
00:22:23.839 --> 00:22:24.480
Have you seen that one?
00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:28.000
Fear with uh who else is in it?
00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:29.599
Reese Witherspoon.
00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:30.720
It came out in the mid-90s.
00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:34.160
Great film, brilliant film.
00:22:34.480 --> 00:22:44.880
But there's kind of yeah, so the that kind of that that mid-90s or early to mid-90s feel of the thrillers, they just kind of hit a bit differently.
00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:45.680
What's the other one?
00:22:45.759 --> 00:22:46.880
Basic Instinct as well.
00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:48.799
That that kind of feel, do you know what I mean?
00:22:50.880 --> 00:23:06.480
Obviously, there's thrillers up from then up until now, but there's there was something about that era where the filmmaking was just different, and like films that are on like streaming, like basic instinct and all that, whenever they come on, I always flick them on because they always kind of they hit home.
00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:07.200
There's something about it.
00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:13.759
Can you tell me what what was what was it about the 90s with thrillers and stuff like that that kind of make them like stand out?
00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:14.880
Is it the grittiness?
00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:17.200
I don't know, I can't put my finger on it.
00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:18.480
I don't know.
00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:24.720
I mean, I feel like one, we were still shooting on film, so you know, crazy shot on 35mm film.
00:23:24.880 --> 00:23:31.759
So that first of all, the colors, the way that looks is gonna, you know, have that rich quality.
00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:40.799
Um, I feel like you know, you're influenced by the things that you know what came before you and you know, whatever.
00:23:40.880 --> 00:23:46.319
So you're always watching, you know, to me, I was watching, I was watching Bonnie and Clyde, I was watching Badlands.
00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:58.240
I was, you know, so you're watching those films that have that kind of the the noir couple on the run, you know, evoking the feel of a road movie.
00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:09.680
Um yeah, so I just feel like there's you're you know, I'm you're being influenced at that at your time by the things that just that that happened the decade or whatever, the few years before you.
00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:10.319
Yep.
00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:14.240
So yeah, so I feel like I don't know, the 90s had a good reference point.
00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:16.000
Like that was made in early 90s.
00:24:16.079 --> 00:24:27.759
So I was, you know, just came out of the 80s and I knew that like there was a cheesy part of the 80s that I didn't like, but there was a great part of like the 70s cinema, you know, that you really kind of thought was super cool.
00:24:27.920 --> 00:24:31.839
So I think like there's maybe a I don't know, yeah.
00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:48.480
So I I I've and I feel like it was also the 90s, there was this whole indie filmmaking thing that was like blooming that I got, thank God, like came into, and it was, you know, the rain, you know, it was like started where indie filmmaking was, you know, prominent and back.
00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:53.599
And so I just feel like that part was super cool to be part of that wave.
00:24:53.839 --> 00:25:01.279
And yeah, that's the thing with filmmaking is if you want to be a filmmaker, you gotta like figure out what the wave is and try to catch that wave.
00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:10.559
So like I was lucky, but I was a hustler, but you have to be like, oh, the MTV wave, and then it was like, oh, the movie wave, you know, indies and comedies, you know.
00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:21.440
So you just have to see like where the work is coming from and try to put yourself in the right position, especially when you're somebody that's in a you know more diverse or you know, like myself at the time.
00:25:21.680 --> 00:25:27.119
And even now, I can't even say at the time because it's the numbers are even worse now for women directors.
00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:31.440
So it's not like oh, yeah, I know that's terrible.
00:25:32.240 --> 00:25:32.799
You're right.
00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:35.200
Most most of the directors these days are male.
00:25:35.359 --> 00:25:37.599
Yeah, that's a bit of a sad thing.
00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:38.799
Yep.
00:25:39.039 --> 00:25:44.319
Yeah, it's imagine if um only 7% of all the books we read were written by women.
00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:45.680
It'd be terrible.
00:25:46.880 --> 00:25:48.319
Yeah, hopefully that will change.
00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:50.079
So that was 92, great film.
00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:56.559
So 92, that next year I think it was 93, so CB4 is what you did next, is that correct?
00:25:56.799 --> 00:25:59.359
Yeah, with Chris Rock, and all these all these stars.
00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:01.920
You look at them in your films and they're all babies.
00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:05.039
So I watched CB4 the other day.
00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:10.079
I had seen it a long, long time ago, but it was a good refresh, a very funny film, very funny film.
00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:25.279
So, and you can tell, like, you with the way you shot that directed it, like you've got that music video influence because it's about you know gangster rappers or wannabe gangster rappers who steal a guy's name was Augusto, I think it was Charlie Murphy.
00:26:25.519 --> 00:26:29.759
And um yeah, so talk talk to me about CB4.
00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:33.279
How did you get on that like off the back of Gun Crazy?
00:26:35.119 --> 00:26:46.559
Um, I I knew Chris, I'd done a video with him and a PSA with him, and um, and I also I was like really well known as a rap video director.
00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:57.359
I'd done all these videos, so I knew that world, and I just had to position myself to be the perfect person for that job because otherwise you might be like, how does this girl get that job?
00:26:57.680 --> 00:27:04.319
But yeah, I just the work that I had done and I had a really good pitch, and I went in and sold the guys at Universal.
00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:07.039
And Chris and I just had the best time together.
00:27:07.119 --> 00:27:08.400
I loved making him laugh.
00:27:08.559 --> 00:27:16.240
I'd loved, I was very professional with him, knowing like when when you work with comedians, you you know, they you don't want to keep them waiting around all day.
00:27:16.319 --> 00:27:21.119
You want to be fast, you want to be ready for them, you want to make them feel like they're having a great time.
00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:25.039
Everybody's light on the set, everyone wants to laugh on your set.
00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:27.440
So I think like we had worked together.
00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:29.599
So he saw how I worked like that.
00:27:29.680 --> 00:27:34.960
And we just had the best, and I knew Nelson George, his uh producing partner and writing partner.
00:27:35.839 --> 00:27:38.720
And uh yeah, we just had the best time in the world.
00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:43.119
We we had so much fun, we got to work with so many talented people.
00:27:43.680 --> 00:27:54.400
And he really like taught me the thing of like looking for a joke and not leaving a scene until you've figured out like if you've gotten every joke out of that scene that you could possibly get out of it.
00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:58.799
If there was a joke under the table, we'd be like, okay, let's find, let's go under the table.
00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:02.960
You know, so just really having fun and being creative, working together.
00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:07.680
And and uh yeah, we just had we had so much fun making that film.
00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:08.480
It was awesome.
00:28:08.799 --> 00:28:09.440
Very funny film.
00:28:09.519 --> 00:28:15.119
And this there's a set at the end where they have their concert and it's a jail cell.
00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:16.079
That was very, very cool.
00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:17.599
I love the look of that.
00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:22.079
So what was it like filming that scene with them at the concert?
00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:29.279
You know, it's funny because you're trying to make a big concert, but you know, you're filming, so you're not really booking out a whole stadium.
00:28:29.359 --> 00:28:38.000
And I feel like, and I thank God I had done so many music videos, so I knew how to create like a lighting design and make things feel big and how to shoot videos.
00:28:38.240 --> 00:28:41.119
So I shot a lot of you know big live things.
00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:45.440
And I feel like all that part, like that part was really fun.
00:28:45.519 --> 00:28:48.640
So I used my skills and I got to do that.
00:28:48.720 --> 00:28:56.880
And then I just also laugh about how a lot of the times we thought what we were filming was so funny and like so this is crazy.
00:28:57.359 --> 00:29:12.559
You know, now I just feel like, oh my god, the some of the song like we thought sweat of my balls was like so crazy, but you know, you got Megan the stallion singing W A P and you're just like, oh my God, we were just and they're that's serious, you know.
00:29:12.640 --> 00:29:15.759
So I just feel like it's so funny how things have really changed.
00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:19.200
Where at that time the comedy was in the extreme.
00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:21.200
Uh yeah, we had fun.
00:29:21.359 --> 00:29:23.599
Like, I think like that was I yeah.
00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:36.400
I think just having like enjoying yourself while you do it, even though it's a challenge and you know, so hard to pull stuff like that off because you have so many elements happening, but yeah, you just plan it.
00:29:36.559 --> 00:29:36.960
I don't know.
00:29:37.039 --> 00:29:41.200
I'm a really good planner, I'm a really good person of like coming up with a plan.
00:29:44.160 --> 00:29:44.799
Yeah.
00:29:46.079 --> 00:29:47.359
Great film, good stuff.
00:29:47.599 --> 00:29:52.960
And moving on to the mid-90s, so we've got 95 with Adam Sandler and and Billy Madison.
00:29:53.279 --> 00:30:02.160
So obviously, it's as I said before, it's such a brilliant staple comedy that you can always just throw on and laugh at.
00:30:02.480 --> 00:30:06.319
So, what was it like working with Sandler on that one?
00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:08.000
And where was that, where was that taking place?
00:30:08.079 --> 00:30:09.119
That where was that shot at?
00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:10.559
Where was that filmed at?
00:30:11.119 --> 00:30:15.599
We filmed in Toronto, so yeah, it was yeah, loved Toronto.
00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:16.960
Yeah, it was really fun.
00:30:17.920 --> 00:30:22.480
We all stayed in the same building, the same hotel, Satin Place Hotel.
00:30:22.640 --> 00:30:29.440
It was like Adam, me, Farley, David Spade, because they were making Tommy Boy at the same time.
00:30:29.599 --> 00:30:32.240
Yeah, Gwyneth Paltrow was there making some movie.
00:30:32.400 --> 00:30:36.240
Like it was just like this hotel filled with like the troupe.
00:30:36.319 --> 00:30:41.279
We were like vaudeville actors or something, like just this troop of crazy people in a hotel.
00:30:41.920 --> 00:30:49.920
And um, I don't know, like it was again, like we I had to, I came on that film.
00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:53.200
I was originally Universal after doing CB4.
00:30:53.440 --> 00:31:00.960
They brought me out to meet Adam, and Adam and I met, but then he decided to work with the one of his friends to direct it.
00:31:01.039 --> 00:31:03.759
And then unfortunately that didn't work out.
00:31:04.079 --> 00:31:06.079
And then I got brought back.
00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:11.839
So it was kind of another situation where I thought I had a movie and then I got and I didn't get the movie, and then the movie came back.
00:31:12.079 --> 00:31:23.839
So it was kind of like they yeah, they brought me back in, and um yeah, so that but it was also really crucial that Adam and I nail it, you know.
00:31:24.079 --> 00:31:33.119
He like he this was his first film, you know, he had done like a couple little, you know, side things, but he hadn't led a film before.
00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:35.680
And so it was really important that we get it right.
00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:45.519
And and I had to listen to he had this writing partner, he I think they still work together, Tim Hurlihy, and just listening to how they would work.
00:31:45.680 --> 00:31:50.160
Like Tim would write a joke, but it wouldn't really be that funny, it wouldn't look that funny on a piece of paper.
00:31:50.319 --> 00:31:52.799
But then Adam would say it, it would be hilarious.
00:31:52.880 --> 00:32:07.519
So it would just be like trying to figure out like how to work the best with Adam, how to get the best performance out of Adam, and um make him, yeah, just like have fun while you're making this movie so that he gets a career out of it.
00:32:07.599 --> 00:32:27.839
Because I always felt like whether it was a music video or an acting job or whatever, like if you can give that actor or that performer, that artist that's putting themselves in front of the camera and being vulnerable, if you can put them in a situation where they actually enjoy what they're doing and they're having a good time and they're enjoying it, you can get a career out of that person.
00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:37.119
But if they come up and do it and they might have been great, but they hated it and they never want to do it again, it's like it was torture and they they they hated it, then it's what a fail.
00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:42.720
And so it was always I felt like I because a lot of times I did people's first things.
00:32:42.799 --> 00:32:47.440
That's what I would get, you know, is whatever I didn't get like all the big, big jobs.
00:32:47.519 --> 00:32:56.319
I got the little, I got the unknown thing, and then I had to make the best thing out of, you know, it was a miracle that I got to at least choose those things.
00:32:56.400 --> 00:32:58.240
So I got to choose the things that I liked.
00:32:58.559 --> 00:33:17.920
And I was like, So, but I a lot of times I did people's first things, but I felt like if I did their first thing and I gave them a really great experience or made them feel confident or made them feel like they had could have a career in this, and um and yeah, that you could you could help somebody really move, you know, continue in that path.
00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:19.119
And I I really like that.
00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:26.480
So yeah, Adam and I had the best time ever making Billy Madison every day was hilarious, hilarious.
00:33:26.640 --> 00:33:26.880
Yeah.
00:33:27.119 --> 00:33:30.880
And when it came out, when it came out in '95, did it blow up?
00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:32.000
How did it go back then?
00:33:32.160 --> 00:33:35.039
Like, was it like just how did it be?
00:33:35.200 --> 00:33:48.000
It's happened to me a few times where I do it, where like, you know, you do movies like this and they test it to freaking hell at the studios, like five, six, seven times in theaters, you know, 400 kids watching it, grading you.
00:33:48.559 --> 00:33:55.279
They like give every kid a sheet of paper, they have to fill it out, then they film everybody, then they ask everybody what they thought about it.
00:33:55.359 --> 00:34:00.319
Then they it's torture what they put you through on these test screenings.
00:34:00.880 --> 00:34:03.039
They're nowadays, it's even worse.
00:34:03.200 --> 00:34:09.119
I've been to test screenings where they wire people so they're reading their brain waves, telling you how it is.
00:34:09.440 --> 00:34:15.519
The last one I did, they filming you while you're watching it, watching your eyeballs where it's going when your attention.
00:34:15.760 --> 00:34:18.000
It's freaking crazy what you they put you through.
00:34:18.079 --> 00:34:18.320
It's insane.
00:34:19.599 --> 00:34:20.559
It's insane.
00:34:20.800 --> 00:34:29.280
So I like the old days where even though it was hard as hell to sit in a theater with people and then interview that they have like focus groups afterwards.
00:34:29.440 --> 00:34:30.559
It's painful.
00:34:30.800 --> 00:34:35.840
Um, but Billy Madison, they the audience loved it when we screened it.
00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:38.400
Adams fans, they loved it.
00:34:38.480 --> 00:34:43.920
Like, you know, just a theater filled with like 400 kids and thousand oaks, totally amazing.
00:34:44.159 --> 00:34:46.960
But when the movie came out, it came out well.
00:34:47.039 --> 00:34:54.480
I think it either both CB4 and uh Billy Madison, they either opened one or two, like the number one movie or the number two movies.
00:34:54.559 --> 00:34:58.079
So box office-wise, they did amazing, and they were made for like nothing.
00:34:58.239 --> 00:35:09.440
They were like made as like little side projects for Universal and for like$10 million because they were they were little teeny movies, and then they had like a backhand distribution deal.
00:35:09.679 --> 00:35:12.000
Um, but then the critics were really awful.
00:35:12.159 --> 00:35:35.039
The critics were so mean on Billy Madison, they didn't like Adam Sandler, and it was just like broke my heart because I loved Adam and I just was like, and I knew all his fans loved him, and his audience loved him, and just like it's so it made me so mad that critics like didn't understand this new voice in comedy, somebody that was like relating to the kids, it was kids' age.
00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:37.840
It was like, yeah, they just didn't get it.
00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:43.360
And so and then I got like kind of more rebellious in a way, and I was just like, you know, mad.
00:35:43.599 --> 00:35:47.119
I was like, you know, that's like when you play punk rock music and your parents don't like it.
00:35:47.199 --> 00:35:55.840
And it's like, and you just realize like if you if you played your music to your parents and they don't like it, like you're happy, you're like, yeah, it's not for you.
00:35:56.000 --> 00:35:56.480
Yeah, you know.
00:35:56.880 --> 00:36:03.760
So I kind of like came out with this other rebellious attitude towards Adam and just like he stopped talking to critics after that.
00:36:03.920 --> 00:36:07.599
Like, I don't think he did an interview until like maybe the three years ago.
00:36:07.679 --> 00:36:09.119
I think he did his first interview.
00:36:09.519 --> 00:36:11.840
But he like, they were so mean, yeah.
00:36:11.920 --> 00:36:19.440
And it just was like, and if you talk, yeah, Adam, we knew what we had, like we liked it, Adam liked it.
00:36:19.760 --> 00:36:25.119
And um, yeah, and I think like now, of course, everybody's okay with it, but that's how that happens, you know.
00:36:25.199 --> 00:36:42.000
Sometimes you release something and the audience isn't there yet, or the critics think it's something and they try to control the media, but then you know, the audience finds it, or the audience, you know, is like, no, that's that was for us, you know, wasn't for them, wasn't for Roger Ebert.
00:36:42.480 --> 00:37:00.960
It's amazing how some films can come out and then as you just said, the critics like slam it, but they only really take off like years later, then become cult classics, because you'll you've got multiple cult classics, you've got multiple actors that have come to you right at the start of their careers and you've shot them to start them.
00:37:01.039 --> 00:37:04.159
So you should be extremely proud with the work that you've done.
00:37:04.639 --> 00:37:08.159
Like, for instance, I I heard the other day, was it Ed Norton?
00:37:08.239 --> 00:37:10.719
Like my favourite film is Fight Club, right?
00:37:11.280 --> 00:37:26.639
So I believe when that came out it didn't do well at all, but it's only like years later where it's got a massive cult following, and I don't think they should ever remake that film.
00:37:26.719 --> 00:37:33.519
I think there's it was a book, I've read the f the actual first book, there's a second novel, haven't read that one, but uh hopefully they don't remake it.
00:37:33.599 --> 00:37:40.320
The only thing with that film is that what would have been cool to see in Fight Club is the social media side of things.
00:37:40.400 --> 00:37:42.400
That would have been quite funny to add into it.
00:37:42.480 --> 00:37:42.719
Yeah, yeah.
00:37:42.960 --> 00:37:44.079
Rather than that, we shouldn't touch it.
00:37:44.159 --> 00:37:47.440
But yeah, it's just another example of like a film that didn't do great.
00:37:47.760 --> 00:37:53.760
Yes, and then it comes out and people yeah, and it's like now Fight Club is like it's legendary, yeah.
00:37:53.920 --> 00:37:55.599
It's such a great film.
00:37:55.840 --> 00:37:56.719
Did you see the other day?
00:37:56.800 --> 00:38:06.880
I think when uh Brad Pitt and Ed Norton were at the soccer together and it's it had the meme saying you've got Brad Pitt talking to him, or Ed Norton talking to himself, and like Gen Z would not get that.
00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:12.159
So it was very, very funny.
00:38:14.320 --> 00:38:18.719
Yeah, so moving forward, then you 98 Dave Chappelle in Half Bake.
00:38:18.880 --> 00:38:20.239
Again, very, very funny film.
00:38:20.320 --> 00:38:22.960
I laughed my ass off the other day when I watched it again.
00:38:23.199 --> 00:38:26.719
So he was he was just starting his career in that one as well.
00:38:26.800 --> 00:38:27.679
Is that right?
00:38:28.880 --> 00:38:41.199
Yeah, like I had done Bill, I had done Billy Madison and my producer was Robert Simons, Bob Simons, and uh he called me and he's like, Oh, I got a script I want to send you.
00:38:41.440 --> 00:38:42.960
We want to shoot in five weeks.
00:38:43.119 --> 00:38:48.559
We're already, we're already like Perry, our product, you know, production designer, he's already up there building the sets.
00:38:48.800 --> 00:38:50.639
Like, you're shooting in five weeks?
00:38:50.880 --> 00:38:53.679
He's like, Yeah, yeah, I'm sending you the script right now.
00:38:53.840 --> 00:39:01.840
And so he sent me the script, and I I've read the first scene of that 7-Eleven thing, and I called Bob and I was like, Bob, this is hilarious.
00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:03.199
I was like, Who are these guys?
00:39:03.440 --> 00:39:07.760
Neil, Brennan, Dave Chappelle, and he's like, Yeah, Dave's a comedian.
00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:12.000
He's gonna, you know, he had just he'd only done one thing I could find.
00:39:12.159 --> 00:39:19.199
He'd played like a like a little teeny part in Nutty Professor, where he roasts uh Eddie Murphy at a comedy club.
00:39:19.360 --> 00:39:20.079
Yes, he can do something.
00:39:21.119 --> 00:39:22.480
He throws him into the piano.
00:39:22.559 --> 00:39:22.960
That's right.
00:39:23.119 --> 00:39:25.440
He's got the dreadlocks, the crappy dreadlocks.
00:39:26.159 --> 00:39:31.760
I just remember he like is on the stage and he's looking crazy, and uh that was the only thing I could find on him.
00:39:31.920 --> 00:39:37.679
Yeah, and I I um I immediately said, I you know, I'd love to I want to meet on it.
00:39:37.760 --> 00:39:39.039
I think he's pretty funny.
00:39:39.199 --> 00:39:43.679
And so I met him in person, him and Neil, and we all fell madly in love with each other.
00:39:43.760 --> 00:39:51.039
I just thought I thought those two were the funniest guys that they were an incredible pair together, great writing partnership.
00:39:51.199 --> 00:39:53.760
Dave, I just thought was he was 23.
00:39:54.320 --> 00:39:56.559
Uh yeah, they were both 23 years old.
00:39:56.719 --> 00:40:00.639
So it was like, and yeah, and then we were shooting in five weeks.
00:40:00.719 --> 00:40:02.239
It was like, okay, go.
00:40:02.480 --> 00:40:06.400
And it was just trying to like capture lightning in a bottle, you know.
00:40:06.480 --> 00:40:23.119
I just felt like my job was just to, you know, enable Dave and enable Neil and support them and you know, you know, whatever, get them, give them the structure that they need to get the shots and get the scenes and get it done.
00:40:23.440 --> 00:40:28.800
And in the meantime, um just like let them explore, let them have fun.
00:40:28.960 --> 00:40:43.280
Because you always like you have a scene on a page and it's written, and then there's dialogue, and maybe you've read it once or twice, rarely, and then you have your sets, and then you just see what a comedian does when they, you know, play it, and then you're working with really talented people.
00:40:43.519 --> 00:40:52.719
Everybody brings their A game and everybody adds something, and you it's hard to really know what's gonna happen until everybody is there at that moment.
00:40:52.960 --> 00:40:54.719
So you kind of have to be ready for it.
00:40:54.880 --> 00:41:05.519
It's it's really like creating something live, and you want to keep that energy and keep the fun and encourage it, and encourage the the um the genius, you know.
00:41:05.599 --> 00:41:08.960
Dave, Dave's a genius, and so that was just for me.
00:41:09.119 --> 00:41:21.920
We were just having fun, you know, he's making a movie, and yeah, it's like it's yeah, we we just had a great time making it and having fun and just doing something that seemed silly and just going with it.
00:41:22.960 --> 00:41:39.119
What I like about Dave when he obviously he did the Chappelle show, I think it might have been a couple of seasons, and then he turned his back on Hollywood and he yeah, he went dark for a very long time and went rogue for a very long time, and then he's only just kind of popped back up recently.
00:41:39.199 --> 00:41:52.320
And I've heard heard some stories about him, like he'd go randomly, he'd show up at like comedy clubs, or he'd he'd go into a park and just jump up on a bench and start doing stand-up comedies to people in a crowd.
00:41:52.400 --> 00:41:53.519
It's just it's just wild stuff.
00:41:53.599 --> 00:41:54.400
The guy's amazing.
00:41:54.480 --> 00:41:56.239
The the comedy that he produces is.
00:41:56.639 --> 00:42:03.599
Yeah, his stand-up is brilliant, he's great, he's an incredible speaker, and I know I love him dearly.
00:42:03.840 --> 00:42:11.679
Yeah, and I feel like that's the thing is you, you know, you work with a lot of these people, and once you have an experience like that, it's like going to summer camp with somebody.
00:42:11.920 --> 00:42:30.000
It's like you've gone through, or you know, yeah, you've gone through something with somebody and these, you know, it's as fun as it is, it is hard to make a movie because you're working together 12, 14 hour days, and you're, you know, there's a lot of pressures, but and every day is like another big problem.
00:42:30.159 --> 00:42:32.480
It's like you can't believe the problems that you have.
00:42:32.639 --> 00:42:37.760
It's always as something's always breaking, something's always it's always like drama.
00:42:37.920 --> 00:42:38.719
It's crazy.
00:42:38.880 --> 00:42:50.800
Yeah, and so when you go through the crazy situation with a group of people, yeah, it's like going to summer camp and you come out of it and you'll have a bond that'll always be there.
00:42:50.960 --> 00:42:52.880
Yeah, I just saw Chris Rock recently.
00:42:53.039 --> 00:42:54.159
We had the best time.
00:42:54.320 --> 00:42:55.280
Yeah, he came, Mike.
00:42:56.559 --> 00:43:01.840
Yeah, he came to one of he actually came to one of my screenings at Tribeca Film Festival.
00:43:02.079 --> 00:43:04.159
He showed up, so that was amazing.
00:43:04.320 --> 00:43:13.199
And then he also he went to one of Mike's shows, and he and I were standing on the side of the stage singing sure shot together, and we just had the best time.
00:43:13.679 --> 00:43:17.039
But yeah, so I don't know, like those guys are just the most.
00:43:17.199 --> 00:43:18.880
I love them all so dearly.
00:43:18.960 --> 00:43:29.199
And I can't even believe that I at a time when they were all three unknown, I did back-to-back films with Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, and Dave Chappelle.
00:43:29.519 --> 00:43:32.639
And just like that was crazy.
00:43:32.880 --> 00:43:36.320
Like those those three comedians are that's our culture.
00:43:36.480 --> 00:43:40.880
That's our those are our gods of American comedy culture.
00:43:41.039 --> 00:43:42.719
They're so important to us.
00:43:43.119 --> 00:43:43.440
To me.
00:43:43.519 --> 00:43:43.920
Yeah, yeah.
00:43:45.280 --> 00:43:47.679
Well, thank you for giving the world those films.
00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:48.719
I mean, it's not me.
00:43:48.800 --> 00:43:53.280
I'm just I can't thank my I thank them for giving me the opportunity to be there.
00:43:53.519 --> 00:43:58.079
I just was so happy that, yeah, I don't know how I how that happened.
00:43:58.239 --> 00:43:59.760
I was that's awesome.
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:00.960
Ah, good stuff.
00:44:01.199 --> 00:44:08.880
So you you'll need to kind of guide me through here because the early 2000s with Crossroads with Britney Spears, like I haven't seen that film.
00:44:08.960 --> 00:44:09.679
So talk to me.
00:44:09.760 --> 00:44:12.000
What was that like working on that one?
00:44:12.239 --> 00:44:13.360
That's amazing.
00:44:13.599 --> 00:44:14.960
Um, you should see it.
00:44:15.039 --> 00:44:15.840
It's a good film.
00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:20.079
That also, yeah, that's a really crazy movie.
00:44:20.400 --> 00:44:22.079
Um, I originally said no.
00:44:22.239 --> 00:44:24.079
I was like, no, it's Britney Spears.
00:44:24.159 --> 00:44:26.960
It was the height of her fame when they asked me to do it.
00:44:27.519 --> 00:44:35.039
And they and Anne Carly, who I knew very well, and she kind of was took care of Britney at the record company.
00:44:35.519 --> 00:44:37.599
She was like, We really want a girl to do this.
00:44:37.760 --> 00:44:41.519
We want her to have, and they knew that I would protect her and be there for her.
00:44:41.679 --> 00:44:46.960
And um, yeah, so yeah, so I I was like, no, and then they're like, We meet her.
00:44:47.119 --> 00:44:49.280
So I got they're like, we go to Vegas and meet her.
00:44:49.360 --> 00:44:51.360
And I was like, Yes, of course.
00:44:51.440 --> 00:44:52.320
That sounds fun.
00:44:52.480 --> 00:44:57.119
So I went and I met her, and we spent the day together, and I just loved her.
00:44:57.199 --> 00:45:01.119
And it was like it was the Britney that we all want right now.
00:45:01.280 --> 00:45:04.159
Like it, like who she was then was amazing.
00:45:04.400 --> 00:45:05.760
That's not who she is right now.
00:45:06.000 --> 00:45:09.280
Who she was then was a bad ass.
00:45:09.519 --> 00:45:18.880
She ran the whole thing, she did it with the southern politeness, but the whole thing, nothing was done without her approval.
00:45:19.199 --> 00:45:25.280
She, when I first saw her, she was just like a she looked like a kind of a southern local girl.
00:45:25.440 --> 00:45:33.760
And by the end of it, she like the day to the night I hung out with her, she became Brittany Spears with makeup and hair and outfit and all that.
00:45:33.840 --> 00:45:36.880
And and just she had like a really strong commitment.
00:45:37.039 --> 00:45:40.800
She really wanted to act, she really wanted to make a movie, she really wanted to change her image.
00:45:40.960 --> 00:45:46.960
She'd hired a new direct a new writer that was like an unknown person named Shonda Rhimes to write the script.
00:45:47.119 --> 00:45:47.280
Yep.
00:45:47.440 --> 00:45:50.960
And so it was like a really cool um girl movie.
00:45:51.280 --> 00:45:53.840
She wanted to do a movie where she wasn't the lead.
00:45:54.000 --> 00:45:57.039
She's it's a it's um an ensemble piece.
00:45:57.199 --> 00:46:00.719
It's her Zoe Saldana and Taryn Manning.
00:46:01.039 --> 00:46:05.280
And so it's really like about these three girls on on a road trip again.
00:46:05.519 --> 00:46:08.639
And Anson Mount is in it as well, it was amazing.
00:46:08.880 --> 00:46:11.119
Yeah, and so it was just a really fun time.
00:46:11.360 --> 00:46:27.760
We had to really isolate her and get to a place where we just like became like this troupe and we rehearsed and we just stayed in this bubble, and yeah, we made a movie together, and it's has super girl film, you know, like themes.
00:46:27.920 --> 00:46:37.280
It's you know, a lot of girl girl talk and girl things that girls deal with, and I and it was an incredible experience making it.
00:46:37.519 --> 00:46:44.880
I loved talking back and forth with Shonda and like you know, all girls were behind the camera, my producer was a girl.
00:46:44.960 --> 00:46:46.559
It was just that was really cool.
00:46:47.360 --> 00:46:52.400
And then when we yeah, it was it was a really good experience making it.
00:46:53.519 --> 00:46:54.880
The finishing part was tough.
00:46:54.960 --> 00:47:01.360
Like I had to get through Paramount, Sherry Lansing, like the whole the release thing.
00:47:01.519 --> 00:47:06.800
But what as always the thing that I always found was my strength was the audience.
00:47:07.119 --> 00:47:10.960
And they test it, they always test these movies.
00:47:11.119 --> 00:47:20.400
And if you get good scores from your audience, that you can like use that to counter some executives' notes because you're always fighting against like somebody.
00:47:20.559 --> 00:47:25.199
That's why it's always good to work with people you love and you not love necessarily, but that you respect.
00:47:25.280 --> 00:47:28.000
Because if somebody gives you a note, you want to respect it.
00:47:28.079 --> 00:47:30.400
You want to know, like, oh, that person did that before.
00:47:30.559 --> 00:47:32.639
So that I really respect their opinion.
00:47:32.800 --> 00:47:40.480
And a lot of times you're working and you're working with executives, you have no idea, you have no idea what they did before, and they're giving you notes and they're to change your material.
00:47:40.800 --> 00:47:42.000
And you just don't know, you know.
00:47:42.079 --> 00:47:47.280
So I'd always be like, Well, the this, you know, I made it for my audience.
00:47:47.519 --> 00:47:48.800
What does the audience think?
00:47:48.880 --> 00:47:52.320
Like, did the does that line up or at least be the same?
00:47:52.559 --> 00:47:55.519
Like, are you giving me a note that lines up with the audience wants?
00:47:55.679 --> 00:47:59.440
Like, are you just saying your personal opinion on something?
00:47:59.679 --> 00:48:11.119
So I just feel like that part's the a tricky part where you're and you have to always be professional as you get through that part because it's the part you always have to get through that if unless you're making it with your own money.
00:48:11.280 --> 00:48:15.519
If you're spending somebody else's money, that money comes with somebody's opinion.
00:48:15.840 --> 00:48:17.760
So you have to do what they say usually.
00:48:19.360 --> 00:48:23.760
Yeah, you have to figure that out and figure out how do you make something and still be creative about it.
00:48:23.840 --> 00:48:33.440
So I feel like what I loved about that specific um with Crossroads, we tested Sherry made us test it like crazy, and we got like the highest scores.
00:48:33.599 --> 00:48:36.400
You got like a 98 among girls and our audience.
00:48:36.559 --> 00:48:37.199
Girls love it.
00:48:37.760 --> 00:48:41.679
And then again, when it came out, we got completely crushed by the critics.
00:48:41.920 --> 00:48:50.400
The critics and boys like were kind of balls in the theater, but yeah, critics were like mean to Britney, and you're just why?
00:48:50.559 --> 00:48:54.320
What the f I I'm so I just don't get it.
00:48:54.400 --> 00:49:08.320
I mean, I also come at it from a different way because I've seen like young people that I've worked with, because I work with so many young talented people, they get crushed by the critics, and like some of them either don't ever work again or they kill like their whatever.
00:49:08.400 --> 00:49:12.000
It's like it really messes with their head and just criticism in general.
00:49:12.079 --> 00:49:22.239
It's like if you don't want to like don't review it then, or don't whatever, don't make your stand by tearing down, thinking it's great to tear down somebody else's artistic endeavor.
00:49:22.480 --> 00:49:27.599
Just like move on, yeah, review fast and furious, it's not for you, you know.
00:49:27.760 --> 00:49:30.159
So you just so you just whatever.
00:49:30.400 --> 00:49:38.480
So I just feel like that's the part where I don't I get really defensive and I just don't understand that aspect of it.
00:49:38.639 --> 00:49:42.639
And or also just like, you know, if you and nobody has to like everything.
00:49:42.719 --> 00:49:44.559
I don't want everybody to like what I do.
00:49:44.719 --> 00:49:46.719
I don't I I enjoy that.
00:49:46.880 --> 00:49:48.480
I hope people don't like what I do.
00:49:48.559 --> 00:49:52.480
I hope people sometimes get mad at what I do or just like complain, whatever.
00:49:52.559 --> 00:50:02.000
Like, I don't I don't want to make something that pleases everybody because then I just whatever, I just make Coca-Cola or like a I don't know, some boring, you know, whatever.
00:50:02.079 --> 00:50:04.320
I want, I want, I don't want to only do so.
00:50:04.400 --> 00:50:11.920
I think that that's just the thing that you have to figure out as a filmmaker, how you get through all those ups and downs, and also as yourself being criticized.
00:50:12.159 --> 00:50:13.280
How do you continue?
00:50:13.360 --> 00:50:19.039
And how do you be like, I made what I wanted to make, and I know I made the writers happy.
00:50:19.199 --> 00:50:25.280
I know I had a great time while I made it, I know I made the thing I said I was gonna make, and that's all you have.
00:50:25.440 --> 00:50:34.079
And then you just let history kind of come to come to its place, and you just enjoy the moment more than the result, you know.
00:50:34.559 --> 00:50:35.440
Yeah, yeah.
00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:38.800
Well, the movies I've seen that you've directed, they're all great.
00:50:38.960 --> 00:50:42.159
So, and I'll review films, so yeah, very good job.
00:50:42.239 --> 00:50:42.880
I love them.
00:50:42.960 --> 00:50:44.239
So they're very good stuff.
00:50:44.400 --> 00:50:47.280
So I'm just a bit conscious of time there and I was getting a bit late over there.
00:50:47.519 --> 00:50:52.239
So I'll fast forward to documentaries the is it the Radiant Child?
00:50:52.320 --> 00:50:53.199
Is that what you've done?
00:50:53.920 --> 00:50:54.800
So talk to me about that.
00:50:54.880 --> 00:50:57.119
I I haven't seen the retrailer for that, I haven't looked at it.
00:50:57.199 --> 00:50:58.480
So, what's that one about?
00:50:59.119 --> 00:51:01.760
Oh, that's one of my favorite movies.
00:51:02.079 --> 00:51:10.400
That one was about when um I made I was best friends with this guy, or really close with this guy named Jean-Michel Basquiat, who's a painter.
00:51:10.639 --> 00:51:18.159
And when he when I was going to film school, I was in my early 20s, he was maybe one or two years older than me.
00:51:18.400 --> 00:51:22.719
He had just come to LA for his first show, and we became really close friends.
00:51:22.960 --> 00:51:29.679
And I was at film school and he was like, Oh, you should make a movie about me because one day I'm gonna be famous, and one day you're gonna be, you know, I'm gonna be a big artist.
00:51:29.840 --> 00:51:31.760
And so we just started filming.
00:51:31.920 --> 00:51:36.480
And over the years that he came in and out of town, I would film him in the studio and that.
00:51:36.719 --> 00:51:40.960
And then he died young because of the critics and whatever, whatever.
00:51:41.119 --> 00:51:44.239
So he died thinking his career was over at 27.
00:51:44.880 --> 00:51:48.960
And um, and then I took the film and I didn't do anything with it.
00:51:49.199 --> 00:51:58.719
And then 20 years later, um, this is now 20 years even from then, um, he was doing a huge, they were doing a huge retrospective at the museum.
00:51:58.800 --> 00:52:03.039
And I told the lady, I knew the lady I was putting it together, I was like, Oh yeah, he was my friend.
00:52:03.119 --> 00:52:04.079
I have all this footage of him.
00:52:04.159 --> 00:52:05.119
And she's like, What?
00:52:05.360 --> 00:52:06.960
Nobody has footage of this guy.
00:52:07.199 --> 00:52:09.920
She's like, You and I was like, Yeah, no, he was my close friend.
00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:10.559
I filmed him.
00:52:10.639 --> 00:52:13.280
He told me to make a movie about him, so I had all this film.
00:52:13.679 --> 00:52:25.440
And um, yeah, so I put a film together and I made a film about him, and I interviewed everybody, and um, it was really good because everybody was still around still, even 20 years later, everybody still had fresh stories.
00:52:25.679 --> 00:52:31.199
And yeah, and so I made a documentary about him, and it was really hard to make because it was very emotional.
00:52:31.440 --> 00:52:34.960
I had I wanted to really represent who he was.
00:52:35.199 --> 00:52:41.760
And at the time he was known, but not very he was well known, but nowhere near where he's at now.
00:52:41.920 --> 00:52:46.239
Now I think his he holds the record of the most expensive art ever sold in America.
00:52:46.559 --> 00:52:46.800
Wow.
00:52:48.159 --> 00:52:53.920
He's the most uh, you know, I think his yeah, I mean you can look up what his last painting sold for.
00:52:56.719 --> 00:52:58.159
I'll have to get back and watch that one.
00:52:58.320 --> 00:52:58.719
Wow, yeah.
00:52:59.599 --> 00:53:02.480
Yeah, he's like the most famous American artist right now.
00:53:02.639 --> 00:53:02.960
Yeah.
00:53:03.199 --> 00:53:03.360
Okay.
00:53:04.159 --> 00:53:04.239
Yeah.
00:53:04.320 --> 00:53:06.079
So do you know what his work looked like?
00:53:07.039 --> 00:53:07.360
No.
00:53:07.760 --> 00:53:09.599
You'll see if you take one look, yeah.
00:53:09.760 --> 00:53:11.199
You'll be like, oh, that guy.
00:53:12.400 --> 00:53:15.679
Yeah, so I made that movie, and that was I'm so proud of it.
00:53:15.760 --> 00:53:20.880
It's a beautiful film, and it really makes me happy that that film is done.
00:53:21.039 --> 00:53:21.280
Yeah.
00:53:21.519 --> 00:53:22.400
Oh, that's very good.
00:53:22.559 --> 00:53:22.880
Awesome.
00:53:23.280 --> 00:53:23.760
Very personal.
00:53:24.079 --> 00:53:24.320
That's good.
00:53:24.400 --> 00:53:26.000
I'll go back and put that on my list to watch.
00:53:26.320 --> 00:53:26.559
Yes.
00:53:26.960 --> 00:53:30.559
So you've got here as well some of my show notes.
00:53:30.719 --> 00:53:32.000
The best summer.
00:53:32.320 --> 00:53:33.599
That's what's just now coming out.
00:53:33.760 --> 00:53:34.079
Is that right?
00:53:34.719 --> 00:53:35.840
Yeah, it's that's the film.
00:53:36.800 --> 00:53:37.679
What's that one about?
00:53:38.320 --> 00:53:40.559
That was just at the Seattle Film Festival.
00:53:40.719 --> 00:53:48.559
It played at the Sydney Opera House, and then I was just at the um, I'm going to Melbourne next, like in a week or two.
00:53:48.880 --> 00:53:56.159
That one is also another one of my treasured gems when I was moving from the Malibu evacuating the Malibu fires.
00:53:56.239 --> 00:53:59.280
I had a box of video tapes, and I'm like, what is in all these tapes?
00:53:59.519 --> 00:54:12.400
And I opened it up and I realized that in 1995, I went with Mike, who he and I had just gotten married, and he was about to go to Australia to do a tour called Somersault, which you may have heard of.
00:54:12.559 --> 00:54:19.599
It was a big Australian tour, kind of an offshoot of, you know, it was like kind of modeled after Big Day Out, but it was this guy, Steve Pav who did it.
00:54:19.920 --> 00:54:27.920
And it was Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Beck, Bikini Kill, Amps, Rancid.
00:54:28.719 --> 00:54:31.440
Um, yeah, it was like the most amazing lineup.
00:54:31.679 --> 00:54:39.679
And yeah, I went on the road with Mike, and I had no idea when I opened up this box, I filmed a whole documentary.
00:54:39.840 --> 00:54:47.280
I filmed all the concert, I filmed all the full songs, and Kathleen Hannah and I were running around.
00:54:47.360 --> 00:54:49.920
We do all these interviews, so I interviewed everybody.
00:54:50.159 --> 00:54:59.039
So it's a whole film from 1995, as if it was it's a found found footage documentary, and it's beautiful.
00:54:59.280 --> 00:55:10.320
I never come back to now, it only stays at that time, and it's just this incredible 90s, like beautiful film of what it was like to be in the 90s.
00:55:10.559 --> 00:55:15.679
And everybody's you're everybody's young and beautiful, and everybody acts like they're your best friend in the movie.
00:55:15.920 --> 00:55:28.239
So you're like, oh, you're just hanging out with Kim Gordon or Dave Grohl or Beck, and because we're all on tour together, and everyone's still so young, and um before everyone got so gigantic.
00:55:28.400 --> 00:55:33.119
Yeah, I mean they were starting to get big, but it was like, yeah, it was very nice.
00:55:33.360 --> 00:55:44.079
So you say it's coming out now, it hasn't been released, or it's at film festivals this year, and then I got a distribution deal in Australia through Mad Men.
00:55:44.159 --> 00:55:48.800
So it'll be coming probably January, February is when it comes out in Australia.
00:55:49.119 --> 00:55:49.920
Oh, that'd be great.
00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:52.559
Because I'm very familiar with what you said about big day out.
00:55:52.719 --> 00:55:54.480
That was my rite of passage when I was.
00:55:57.519 --> 00:55:58.639
It's a different kind of film.
00:55:58.800 --> 00:56:03.599
I got into Sundance, like it's so hard for a film to get it, like a whatever to get into Sundance.
00:56:04.079 --> 00:56:06.559
And so it's interesting, it's a different kind of a film.
00:56:06.639 --> 00:56:15.119
I filmed it all myself, it's all point of view, so it feels like you're the person, and yeah, it's all archival footage found.
00:56:15.280 --> 00:56:18.400
Yeah, so it's and it takes you on this tour.
00:56:18.559 --> 00:56:20.480
Yeah, it's true, it's really crazy.
00:56:20.719 --> 00:56:21.199
That's awesome.
00:56:21.280 --> 00:56:24.400
I'm gonna have to look out for that one because yeah, I I know very well about big day out.
00:56:24.719 --> 00:56:26.480
I went to stacks of them when I was still around.
00:56:26.719 --> 00:56:35.119
Yeah, they're the best, and the Australian audience, and it was I call it the best summer, even though we went there, it was the winter for us.
00:56:35.280 --> 00:56:37.920
It was like New Year's Eve and right around that time.
00:56:38.079 --> 00:56:40.719
But in Australia, it was the best summer.
00:56:40.800 --> 00:56:40.960
Yeah.
00:56:41.199 --> 00:56:42.000
Oh, that's cool.
00:56:42.159 --> 00:56:43.119
I'll I'd love to say that.
00:56:43.199 --> 00:56:44.000
That'd be very cool.
00:56:44.239 --> 00:56:45.519
So last couple of points.
00:56:45.599 --> 00:56:48.719
So you've worked with TV series as well.
00:56:48.880 --> 00:56:53.360
What you got here, Grade's Anatomy, Dead to Me, the Politician in Pea Valley, is that right?
00:56:53.679 --> 00:56:54.480
Yeah, some of them.
00:56:54.719 --> 00:56:56.320
Yeah, I probably did like, I don't know, 50.
00:56:56.639 --> 00:56:57.599
I don't know how many shows.
00:56:57.760 --> 00:56:59.599
Yeah, I did a lot of TV as well.
00:56:59.840 --> 00:57:00.639
I love TV.
00:57:00.719 --> 00:57:02.719
So had Yeah.
00:57:03.280 --> 00:57:06.639
What would you prefer, TV or films or music videos?
00:57:06.960 --> 00:57:10.639
Anything, just sitting in the director chair, it doesn't matter what it is.
00:57:11.199 --> 00:57:12.480
I think they're all fun.
00:57:12.639 --> 00:57:14.000
But TV is really great.
00:57:14.159 --> 00:57:18.239
TV I had kids, and the schedule of doing a feature is very difficult.
00:57:18.320 --> 00:57:21.039
If you have kids, you can do it, but it's hard, you know.
00:57:21.119 --> 00:57:24.880
It's um, and so I but TV was perfect, you know.
00:57:25.039 --> 00:57:28.719
You could shoot a TV show in five days or eight days, 10 days.
00:57:28.880 --> 00:57:31.039
Um, and then it's really quick to edit.
00:57:31.199 --> 00:57:34.000
So as a mom, it was really it worked out really well.
00:57:34.079 --> 00:57:35.440
And I and I love TV.
00:57:35.519 --> 00:57:37.199
It was like the height of TV.
00:57:37.440 --> 00:57:39.599
So it was another perfect way.
00:57:39.679 --> 00:57:47.599
And yeah, TV was just the super, it was like doing they were doing so many cool shows, working with amazingly talented people.
00:57:48.000 --> 00:57:50.239
And I had the best, yeah, it was amazing.
00:57:50.719 --> 00:57:52.320
So yeah, that was good.
00:57:52.800 --> 00:57:55.440
Yeah, so I did yeah, all those shows are just so fun.
00:57:55.679 --> 00:58:00.000
Some of them I did a lot of first, you know, first episode, you know, whatever, like early shows.
00:58:00.239 --> 00:58:07.280
And once in a while I got on shows that were a few seasons in, but mostly I did like first season shows, which was great.
00:58:07.360 --> 00:58:13.119
Yeah, again, you're just kind of establishing a new style, a new, a new person, a new act.
00:58:13.199 --> 00:58:13.599
Yeah.
00:58:14.719 --> 00:58:14.960
Yeah.
00:58:15.119 --> 00:58:15.360
Yeah.
00:58:15.440 --> 00:58:22.239
Some of the shows that are around nowadays you're really heavily invested in the drawing in, for instance, like Euphoria.
00:58:22.480 --> 00:58:25.119
My wife and I have just started watching season one of that.
00:58:26.000 --> 00:58:26.639
It's a couple of years out of the world.
00:58:26.800 --> 00:58:27.199
It's so dark.
00:58:28.079 --> 00:58:29.679
It is dark, it's very, very dark.
00:58:29.760 --> 00:58:31.599
But you gotta consider my wife as well.
00:58:31.679 --> 00:58:38.400
Like, we're in our early 40s, and it's like, how many kids are out there these days that would be living very similar lives like this?
00:58:38.559 --> 00:58:44.000
It'd be pretty, I think it'd be it's pretty spot on in terms of like how they can get caught up in that.
00:58:44.719 --> 00:58:54.800
Because I have kids that are that age, and I just feel like it's the darkest side of that age, and that's of course the exploitive side of television, you know, you're not gonna make it about just regular kids.
00:58:54.960 --> 00:59:04.639
So, yes, there's a small percentage of people that are those kids, but I just don't think it's indicative of every kid.
00:59:04.800 --> 00:59:09.119
In fact, I think that after watching that, I think that most kids are like, I'm not gonna be like that.
00:59:09.280 --> 00:59:10.159
Like, that's crazy.
00:59:10.239 --> 00:59:19.360
You don't you don't make it out of there, like that's dark, and then there's exactly and then there's um over on Apple TV, you got uh the series Cape Fear.
00:59:19.599 --> 00:59:20.239
I love the novel.
00:59:20.480 --> 00:59:22.000
Yeah, I've been starting to watch the new one.
00:59:22.079 --> 00:59:23.119
Yeah, I really like it.
00:59:23.360 --> 00:59:24.000
Very good.
00:59:24.159 --> 00:59:24.719
Very, very good.
00:59:25.199 --> 00:59:28.800
Bottoms, he's such he's like he's such the perfect villain.
00:59:29.440 --> 00:59:32.320
Oh, Javier Benjamin, yeah, so good.
00:59:33.360 --> 00:59:34.079
He's awesome.
00:59:34.159 --> 00:59:44.480
There's something about him where he he just it's like looking at a stray dog in everything that's been character Exactly, every character's different as well, different styles of villain.
00:59:44.559 --> 00:59:51.360
But yeah, so getting back to like TV, it's the way that they're shot now, you can be heavily invested in shows for sure.
00:59:51.760 --> 01:00:16.800
So and just wrapping up, Tamara, so we're almost at an hour, but going back into like the late 80s and 90s and into the 2000s, what advice would you give, especially female directors, what advice would you give to them in today's world about how to get into the industry and and make it and make some of the similar films like that you've made in the past?
01:00:17.039 --> 01:00:19.360
How what would you would you say to these people?
01:00:20.639 --> 01:00:32.320
Um, I would say that the only reason I became is because I was incredibly ambitious and I really followed through on I'd made films.
01:00:32.480 --> 01:00:37.280
I picked up a camera, I made films, I edited them, I showed them, I pushed it.
01:00:37.440 --> 01:00:39.679
I I made myself who I was.
01:00:39.840 --> 01:00:42.719
I didn't sit back, nobody's gonna call you, wait for you.
01:00:42.960 --> 01:00:44.639
You have to make everything happen.
01:00:44.880 --> 01:00:48.719
You have to find out what's the new it's all up to you.
01:00:48.880 --> 01:00:49.840
It sounds like so.
01:00:49.920 --> 01:00:55.119
If you want to do this, you you make a movie, you figure out how you're gonna make a movie.
01:00:55.280 --> 01:01:03.599
Like you you go to film school or you just make it yourself, whatever it is, like it you have you, it's all up to you.
01:01:03.840 --> 01:01:15.519
So the I like in the beginning, like so, you know, all that energy, and so you really have to love it because it takes so much time to do all those things, and it's what you have to do.
01:01:15.599 --> 01:01:20.719
Like, that's why the latest film that I made, The Best Summer, is because I don't like to not work.
01:01:20.800 --> 01:01:25.440
And Hollywood's been in this weird slump lately, and I was like, I don't like to not work.
01:01:25.519 --> 01:01:32.960
I'm just gonna I'm gonna pull out footage that I have since you know, whatever, and just like I've got to make a movie, and that's how you are.
01:01:33.119 --> 01:01:39.760
Like, if you're an artist, if you're a painter, if you write, like that's you just those are the that's part of what you do.
01:01:39.840 --> 01:01:46.480
So I think like of course people are gonna say no to you because it's the hardest thing in the world to get into.
01:01:46.800 --> 01:01:48.480
You're gonna get like a billion no's.
01:01:48.559 --> 01:01:51.440
So get used to say hit listening to people say no.
01:01:51.840 --> 01:01:56.079
And instead of like, whatever you don't doesn't mean no.
01:01:56.320 --> 01:01:58.239
That's just for them, it's no.
01:01:58.480 --> 01:02:00.719
The only it doesn't mean no to you.
01:02:00.880 --> 01:02:04.559
Like you have to, if you want to do it, you're still a yes, you know.
01:02:04.800 --> 01:02:08.559
And so I just felt like I just kept pushing always.
01:02:08.800 --> 01:02:12.719
And I was already, and I also felt like I was already at a no.
01:02:12.800 --> 01:02:19.519
So what is it, what what does it matter if I try, you know, like I'm already, yeah, a zero.
01:02:19.679 --> 01:02:23.440
Like, so let me put effort in and let me at least try to make something or do it.
01:02:23.679 --> 01:02:26.960
It's there's no nothing to be lost, you know.
01:02:27.039 --> 01:02:28.320
I'm already at zero.
01:02:28.559 --> 01:02:37.360
So I just feel like that's the thing of like you have to just keep pushing and also look for new if you're trying to get into something new, look for the new way in.
01:02:37.599 --> 01:02:39.280
Like, what are what are they making?
01:02:39.440 --> 01:02:41.679
It's like microdramas.
01:02:41.840 --> 01:02:44.880
Like, if I was a young filmmaker, I'd be like, How do I make a micro drama?
01:02:45.039 --> 01:02:49.280
You know, if I was like, I'd try to figure out what what are people doing?
01:02:49.519 --> 01:02:56.239
What how are people consuming that media and that entertainment and break into the new stuff first?
01:02:56.559 --> 01:02:59.199
Because that's the way, that's the first way in.
01:02:59.280 --> 01:03:01.599
Like, that's how I got in was with MTV.
01:03:02.000 --> 01:03:07.920
You know, when I did features, it was these little low budget indie, you know, whatever, because that was like new.
01:03:08.079 --> 01:03:12.159
They were making these like little teeny movies, finally, little in the indies.
01:03:12.639 --> 01:03:15.280
Um, and then the same thing, like TV was new.
01:03:15.360 --> 01:03:18.960
They were all of a sudden cable was coming, so cable needed TV shows.
01:03:19.039 --> 01:03:24.800
So I got to get in there and make like these cool little cable shows, and that kept getting bigger and bigger.
01:03:24.960 --> 01:03:33.440
Um, and so I just feel like that's what yeah, look for the new thing and uh yeah, and just I don't know, be brave.
01:03:34.800 --> 01:03:43.199
You have to imagine yourself first, like imagine what you want to do, and every step you take, it should lead to that goal.
01:03:43.440 --> 01:03:45.760
And if it doesn't, you're on the wrong path.
01:03:45.920 --> 01:03:52.719
So, you know, even though I took little sidesteps and made other things, they were all towards the goal.
01:03:52.960 --> 01:03:56.719
Yeah, so make a goal and then keep heading towards it.
01:03:57.280 --> 01:04:02.000
Otherwise, that's that's it's it's very good advice, especially for the youth of today.
01:04:02.079 --> 01:04:06.559
Like my background is in commercial real estate and also an auctioneer as well.
01:04:06.639 --> 01:04:10.960
But when I wanted to become an auctioneer, it's the first thing I saw when I was in the in the industry.
01:04:11.119 --> 01:04:12.000
The the first time.
01:04:12.159 --> 01:04:13.119
Can you talk fast like that?
01:04:13.199 --> 01:04:13.599
Can you do that?
01:04:14.079 --> 01:04:15.199
Eventually, yeah.
01:04:15.360 --> 01:04:16.400
Or you don't have to talk about it.
01:04:16.639 --> 01:04:24.880
I'm not trading as an auctioneer at the moment, but yeah, it's kind of like, well, ladies and gentlemen, I think you need to come in today's auction first, second, third, blah, blah, blah.
01:04:25.039 --> 01:04:25.440
You know what I mean?
01:04:25.519 --> 01:04:25.599
Yeah.
01:04:25.760 --> 01:04:27.199
So you do get that thing going.
01:04:28.559 --> 01:04:29.199
Yeah.
01:04:29.599 --> 01:04:30.000
100%.
01:04:31.039 --> 01:04:35.119
And I used to go to different auctioneers, and I'd say, Oh, I want to be an auctioneer.
01:04:35.199 --> 01:04:36.239
It's like, that's great, mate.
01:04:36.320 --> 01:04:37.760
Well, why don't you go and get some experience?
01:04:37.920 --> 01:04:39.760
It's like, okay, how am I going to get experience?
01:04:39.920 --> 01:04:50.559
So, how I actually cracked into the industry and I was doing it part-time for four years, is that I went to three different auctioneers, recorded all of them with a dictaphone back in the day, right?
01:04:50.880 --> 01:05:02.480
Went back and got dialogue from each of those auctioneers that I liked and practiced in the mirror, MM style, over and over and over and over and over.
01:05:02.559 --> 01:05:10.480
And I created this version myself, did some state final, got into some um novice auctioneer competitions, then made it the state final.
01:05:10.800 --> 01:05:15.119
Then one of the judges then had a meeting with me and hired me, and I worked with him for four years.
01:05:15.199 --> 01:05:18.719
But my point is, you put that effort in, listen what you did.
01:05:18.960 --> 01:05:19.519
Yeah.
01:05:19.760 --> 01:05:20.000
Yeah.
01:05:20.239 --> 01:05:20.960
That's impressive.
01:05:21.360 --> 01:05:24.320
Because you counted goal and you thank you.
01:05:24.800 --> 01:05:25.840
That's incredible.
01:05:26.559 --> 01:05:27.039
Yeah.
01:05:27.360 --> 01:05:36.960
And and now that I use my public whilst I'm not trading as an auctioneer at the moment, my movie reviews is you know, public speaking and that we're talking here and there.
01:05:37.119 --> 01:05:38.559
So I can get those skills for life.
01:05:38.719 --> 01:05:45.920
So I'm still utiling Yeah, I'm still utilizing skills, and then I do all my producing with the editing in the background on a Debut Premiere.
01:05:46.239 --> 01:05:47.360
It's all new skill sets.
01:05:47.519 --> 01:05:56.480
So again, as I just said, it's not not taking no for an answer, finding those different avenues, and just yeah, just until you get to that goal, you gotta keep going.
01:05:56.960 --> 01:06:00.079
Yeah, and also this industry is constantly changing.
01:06:00.239 --> 01:06:07.679
It's like the you so you don't you're not gonna get in the industry and become a director and become a director like the people from the past.
01:06:07.920 --> 01:06:11.920
You're gonna you have to be a director from the stuff that's gonna happen in the future.
01:06:12.159 --> 01:06:26.480
So like you can't like that's also important to remember that like you know, here you're doing a podcast, you might not have you might have been like, oh, one day I want to be a in radio, but you're like, oh, radio is just another way of saying a podcast now, you know.
01:06:26.559 --> 01:06:29.760
But you had a goal of like wanting to do something like this.
01:06:29.920 --> 01:06:41.920
So I think like that's the thing is you just have to also be aware that that this industry changes, and you have to just be up on and reflect that, see what that change could be and be that change, you know.
01:06:42.079 --> 01:06:44.000
That's where that's where you come in.
01:06:45.440 --> 01:06:46.960
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
01:06:47.119 --> 01:06:51.039
Well, Tamara, thank you very much for fun.
01:06:51.199 --> 01:06:51.760
Nice talking to you.
01:06:52.559 --> 01:06:53.280
Nice talking to you.
01:06:53.519 --> 01:06:54.239
It's been very good.
01:06:54.320 --> 01:06:57.119
So look, we'll edit this and we'll be coming at it in a couple of weeks' time.
01:06:57.199 --> 01:06:59.280
I'll flick it over to you and we'll go from there.
01:06:59.440 --> 01:07:01.840
But a big thank you for making all those cult classics.
01:07:01.920 --> 01:07:02.639
Keep doing what you're doing.
01:07:02.719 --> 01:07:04.159
I'm looking forward to your thank you.
01:07:04.400 --> 01:07:06.000
Was it the summer, the best summer?
01:07:06.239 --> 01:07:07.440
The best summer, yeah.
01:07:08.159 --> 01:07:08.880
That's for sure.
01:07:09.039 --> 01:07:09.599
No, very good.
01:07:09.840 --> 01:07:12.159
And I give you the word to watch the Radiant Child.
01:07:12.239 --> 01:07:14.239
Okay, okay, I'll I'll get on to that.
01:07:14.320 --> 01:07:14.880
Thank you very much.
01:07:15.360 --> 01:07:15.840
Thank you, babe.
01:07:16.239 --> 01:07:16.639
See you soon.
01:07:16.719 --> 01:07:17.440
Bye bye.
01:07:20.239 --> 01:07:22.480
So there you have it, Tamara Davis.
01:07:22.639 --> 01:07:25.519
Thank you very much, Tamara, for coming on DMR.
01:07:25.679 --> 01:07:27.039
You've got some amazing stories.
01:07:27.199 --> 01:07:33.760
Keep doing what you're doing, and we're very much looking forward to that documentary that's coming out early next year.
01:07:34.000 --> 01:07:39.840
So if you like this episode, please subscribe, like, share it with your friends and family.
01:07:40.000 --> 01:07:44.000
It does help as well, supporting DMR by doing all that jazz.
01:07:44.079 --> 01:07:50.719
And we're very busy canvassing Hollywood talent via PR firms and guests directly.
01:07:50.880 --> 01:07:52.800
We're getting some very positive responses.
01:07:52.880 --> 01:07:55.039
We've got another interview coming up next month.
01:07:55.280 --> 01:07:59.360
We're very psyched about how the momentum is going.
01:07:59.519 --> 01:08:07.599
And the great news is that DMR is being approached by PR firms and guests themselves to come on the show.
01:08:07.760 --> 01:08:09.360
So, very good stuff there.
01:08:09.599 --> 01:08:13.360
Again, thank you for everyone for the support in 2026.
01:08:13.440 --> 01:08:20.319
It's been a wild ride thus far, and as per usual, leaders on the Menji.
01:08:20.960 --> 01:08:28.000
You've just experienced DMR, the red carpet treatment.
01:08:28.479 --> 01:08:31.439
Now, get your ass to the movies.
