Paul Feig • Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein #190

films that meant the most of them. Previous guests include Barry Jenkins, Kevin Smith, Jamila Jamil, Sharon Stone, and even said Grambles. But this week it's the amazing mister Paul Fieg. Head over to the Patreon at patreon dot com forward slash Brett Goldstein, where you get an extra fifteen minutes of chat with Paul. We laugh about staff, details, a secret, We talked beginnings and endings of films. There's no video this week, but they're videos for most of the other apps.

You get the whole thing, uncut and ad free. Check it out over at Patreon dot com Forward Slash Break Goals, Team ted Lasso Season two and one is available now on Apple TV Plus. You can watch the whole show. Super Bob and Soulmates can be seen on Amazon Prime in most countries. So Paul Figue, Laddie Hell, come on, Paul Figue. Paul Figue is a writer, director, producer, comedian,

creator everything. He's responsible for so many wonderful things, including most of your favorites, from Freaks and Geeks to Spy to the most repeated film on this podcast, the brilliant Bridesmaids. I was very grateful to meet with Paul over zoom. We had a lovely conversation. I think you're really going to enjoy it. I was very grateful for his time. So that is it for now. I very much hope you enjoy Episode one hundred and ninety of Films to be Buried With. Hello, and welcome to Films to be

Buried With. It is I Brett Goldstein, and I'm joined today by an actor, a comedian, a writer, a director, a producer, an executive producer, a creator, a maker of at least three of your favorite all time things of all time. At least, I can't believe he's here. It's a huge honor to have him. Please welcome to the show. It's the brilliant it's mister poufey Oh Brett, my god, I can't possibly live up to that's too much. It's just too much, my friend. It's all true. It's very

nice to have you here. Thank you for doing this. My pleasure. Thank you for having me. It's such a fun podcast. I'm thrilled to be a part of it. No, I don't embarrass myself terrible. Well, this is good. I've got so many things I want to ask you, if I may. First thing I want to know is were you a stand up? Where you are you a stand up? I was? I was. I made my living as a stand up from about nineteen eighty five to nineteen ninety five years of professionals stand up a long time ago. Yeah, yeah,

And do you ever miss that? I don't, actually, I mean, I mean I I do miss the art form of it. It was. It's really to me, stand up sort of the purest of all art forms because it's literally just a person and a microphone. Um, and so there's something wonderful about that. And you know, and John Appata, who I've worked with a lot in the past. You know, he's doing stand up full time now and he loves it, and I think that's great. I just I don't know. I just for some reason, the club scene, it all

kind of I leave it behind me. I leave it to people who are much more enthusiastic one than I am anymore. That's interesting. And one thing I say up front, I'd say, m Bridesmaids, which you made, comes up on this podcast probably more than any other film. I'd say when asked, well, people's funniest film is that that's probably sixty percent of ads is bridesmaid Wow. Nice, that's wrong with the other forty percent? But I want to tell you no, that's all. That's I love, that's that's a

great honor. I really m Yeah. But you'll you'll. You know, you're very good. You're very good at collaborating and finding and I wonder if you can, you know, with freaks and geeks, which is one of my favorite things ever, Freaks and Geeks, Bridesmaids. You know, you've got an eye for talent, and you know you seem to have discovered a lot of people who have gone on to become

massive things. Do you have any idea what that is or is it just instincts on your pot Yeah, you know what it's I mean, honestly, it's I think all of us know when you see something great, you know, and I think the biggest thing is to just leave yourself and your mind open to it. You know, That's

what casting really is. And you know a lot of times when you're working on like a TV show, like a weekly TV show, the casting sessions, like one casting session and they bring in five people and you go like, oh, okay,

they were the best. But you know, when you're doing casting something bigger, either like a four or four an entire series or for a movie, you know, you take your time and you bring a lot of people in and everybody you see, you know, you're always gonna see somebody good, Like casting directors aren't going to bring somebody bad. So you know, either they're right for the role or they're not. And you know, so you see all these people and you go like, oh they were really good.

Oh they were good. Now I'm always right to list like, oh yeah they could they could be good in this role. They could be good in this role. But then suddenly somebody will come in and he's like boom, and it just like blows everybody else out of the water, and

you're like, that's the person. So you just kind of you really kind of lay in wait for those moments and have to be in tune enough to realize them and also be able to adjust the role if you go, they're not exactly what I had pictured, but they're so good, it's better for me to adjust the role than to go like, well, you were great, but you're not quite like the person I you know, based it on. You know that That's what I think a lot of mistakes

are made in casting. That's really interesting, I think. I mean, I'm sure I've talked about this before, but I think that's very much what happened with Kaylee and Ted Lasses. I think Gina Temple was so good, but she was not quite what we had written, and it was right, Well, let's just make it well because it's fucking bad at Yeah, this is no, that's true. And yeah, like you say, it doesn't mean somebody's not good. It just means they're

you know, there's just not right for the role. You know, when I was an actor, I was an actor for years, um, and it was well, you know this is an actor yourself. You go into these auditions and you're like, oh, I stumbled on a word, and oh I should have you know, uh, you know, been better at that and I blew it. And then now when I'm casting, I just people who can't even get through, like you know, the sides. But you're like, I don't know, there's something interesting about that person.

I want to write for that person and change it around for that person. So you know, you just got to be open. That's really interesting. And in terms of directing, I heard you. I think it was on Mark Marion. I've thought about this a lot since I heard this, but you were talking about that the tragedy of being a comedy director is you can't show off. You have to frame it right and step back and you can't do any like Scorsese s typic guy look at me,

look at me. Yeah, I mean you shouldn't. I mean, you know, I've been I've had that that theory proven and misproven over the years. You know, when I went to film school, it was very much about the director does not put himself, you know, is his you know, does not draw attention to himself. I mean, you know if you're doing like a big crazy shot. Everybody's going like, oh, that's such a cool shot. Now you're not in service of the actors, and you're not in serving with the story.

That's what I was taught, and so you know, it was always very functional and what I would shoot. But then you know directors like Spike Lee and all these other people, and now you look at movies, you know, everything's got all these crazy shots and them, but they kind of work and the audiences sort of expect them.

And so if you don't have that and I'm not a believer of just put it in because it's nuts, but like, if it's a great way to illustrate a feeling or an emotion you're trying to get across with the audience, then yeah, why not do it like a shot that's evocative and a little bit showy. The other question I have, but I suspect your answer is going to be the same as for custing, which is you've done so many different types of filmily as well at

different types, then none of them are actually similar. They're quite I mean, they're they're all funny, but they're all wildly different. And I wonder what it is that makes you guys, that's the next project or is it just something comes along that is you can't say now too,

you know what I mean. Yeah, it's either yeah, it's either something comes along with you're like, oh, man, this is a genre I've always wanted to do, or oh this is the kind of story I've always wanted to tell, or if it's something you come up with you on your own, it's just this burning idea that hits you, like I gotta do this. And for me, it's usually based on a genre. I'm really trying to work my

way around. The genre is just because I find them really fun, you know, And I think it's what's great about a genre is it brings a lot of tropes with it that you can either then play with or subvert and have a lot of fun with. And so, you know, like a movie like Spy or The Heat, you know, those are clearly taking two very established genres and sort of flipping them, but also treating them very serious too, Like I don't want to do I never want to do spoofs or parodies or satires. I have

no interest in that. I just want to make a funny version of a real spy movie. Or of a real buddy cop comedy. Yeah, that's great. And the two new things you have coming two new TV shows? Tell me about it? Yeah, they they just came on the air. One is called Welcome the Flatch, which is on Fox here in the US, and then um, we have another show called Minx which is on HBO Max and they both started streaming on the seventeenth. So I'm very excited about that. And what was your part in shows you

create it? I'm an executive producer on both of them. For FLATSH I directed the first three episodes and wrote two episodes, and then from inks I was an executive producer, just watching these amazing people do their thing and trying to trying to protect them from any bad that might happen. This fascinating, fascinating. Oh poor fake, No, I've forgotten to tell you something. Oh yeah, go ahead. I was just talking about what fascinating life you had, and then I've

just remember it. You you've died. You're dead? Over really what happened? You tell me? How did you die? Did I die? Yeah? You're dead? How did you really? Yeah? So sorry, I mean it is a shock. Is it shocked everyone? But yeah, I know well, I in fact, I thought I felt a little bit weird. But uh, but here I am. How did you die? What would be your dream death? My dream death? My dream death would be gosh, um well, I mean that's it's an interesting question. I don't Here's the thing. I don't want

a funny death. That's that's my that's my desire. I don't want to sort of like, oh, you know, and it's always it's usually something terrible, like you stuck something in something and then it's like you remember that kind of thing. So I don't think I want an ironic death. I don't think I would enjoy it. Really, I would have since, yeah, exactly like either very peacefully going or

or you know, something kind of I don't. I don't know if I was gonna say, a spectacular death, but I don't know if I would enjoy that either, because it sounds like it might be kind of a drag. So let me just depends. I don't want to die in public. That I do not, okay, having been a stand up several times in public, just um no, I hate the idea of like you're in a restaurant, was like, oh and you can follow the floor and he's rush around and there you are, and then you're you know,

this body lane there. I'd rather just happen somewhere that you know, nobody, nobody knows, like a cat, like take yourself up quietly like a cat and die in the woods exactly, or an elephant after the after the graveyard and just falling and the people go, oh, he was a nice guy. I like that. I like that. I've always thought it slightly weird, the idea of being surrounded by loved ones. I think I always feel like, don't you want to be alone? Like it's such a weird.

So yeah, I don't know. I mean, well, I don't like the idea of dying and not being found for days. That's not a great thing either, or like the dog eats you. You know, you're like, oh no, because then it's kind of a funny death, tragically funny. I will make sure that whatever happens is very sincere and not humorous. No one will be laughing about how pool fig died. All right, good, thank you, thank you. Even if it was a funny death, please rewrite make it, make it,

make it emotionally tragic but morally uplifting. At the same time. Yeah, you want to play your death that's what you went. Yeah, there you go exactly. Yeah. Do you worry about death pool? Fake? Is it something you think about? Um? I mean there's periods in your life when you think about it, it's weird. It's like I was. I used used to get freaked out at like, you know, birthdays, and especially like, oh

my god, I'm turning thirty. Oh I'm forty or fifty five, you know, and I've hit it, you know, I'm I'm turned sixty this this, I will turn sixty in September. And I now realize I look back at every single time I was like, oh my god, I'm so old and go like, fuck you. You know you're younger than you are now, you know. So I'm kind of like, okay, so I'm not planning for when I'm like, you know, hopefully ninety, And I go like, yeah, I'm not gonna get upset when I turned sixty. One of my best

friends in the world, Delphine Man. She's ninety two years old. She's the most vivacious person ever met. She drives herself the Palm Springs every week. She's still weekends. She's still a realtor and in Beverly Hills. So I go like, you know what, when you're friends or somebody like that, you can't complain about your birthdays, like oh god, I'm six and so old. She's like, hey, screw you. So I was like, okay, So I'm just I'm very cool

about it. As far as dying, you know, you know, it's like, sure, you kind of worry about it, but at the same time you go like, yeah, you know what am I gonna do? It's gonna happen, So that's not wasteful a lot of time worrying about it. What do you think it happens when you die? Do you think there's enough to life? I'm a bit of an atheist, so but I do think there is an I think we are all energy, and I kind of feel like that energy goes somewhere, but not in a religious way.

I just think you kind of I don't know, I mean beyond that, I don't have any real deep thoughts on it. When I was in my teens and twenties, I could have gone on for for hours about this, as all teens and twenties and year olds can do. But now I'm like, yeah, I think, you know, I don't like to believe that's just that's it. And then there's just you know, then you're gone. But any conscious being can't possibly, uh, you know, conceive of the idea

of being nothing. You know, it's just not a natural state. Think about. Well, you're absolutely right, because there is a heaven, so it doesn't end. Yeah, you're You're welcome inside it as well. Everyone's a big fan that really have to see you. It's filled with your favorite thing. What's your favorite thing? It would be a martinis. Okay, it's absolutely made of martinis. The seats. The seats are like those cocktail glasses that they used to advertise Earth guys are

easy or whatever. You know what I mean. That's sort of that sort of look. And everyone carries martinis around everyone. It's very erudite. Actually, this this heaven and delighted to see you. The cocktails are perfect. Everyone wants to talk about you, and they want to talk about your life, but they want to talk about your life through film. And the first thing they ask you is what is the first film you remember seeing? Paul fi The first film I saw was a double feature. Actually I was

very very young. I was probably five or six, I think, and it was a double old bill of Winnie the Pooh and Robin in the Seven Hoods, which was a red and yeah. So I my mother took me. And I was known as being a very chicken kid. I was very afraid of loud noises and thunder and anything. I would cry the drop of a hat. It was just terrified of the world. And so she takes me to see Winnie the Pooh and that's so much fun,

you know, and oh yeah, I loved it. And then on comes Robin in the Seven Hoods, which is this sort of you know, Prohibition era comedy musical, and it starts with this big scene and a speakeasy and Sammy Davis Junior starts his dance number with a with a Tommy gun or a machine gun and all over the place, and I burst into tears and I have to be taken out of the theater screaming crun So there you go, entranced and traumatized by the movies in one single setting.

That's not a bad stuff. Where was this? Where in the world was this? This was in Michigan, in Mount Clemens, Michigan, where I grew up right about twenty minutes outside of the Detroit Neimes. Yes. I was an only child, so that's how you get away with being such a cry baby. That's really interesting, I say, yeah, exactly. It's like, oh, little Lord Fauntleroy's not happy. Let's yeah, let's get him out of here. Did you guys to cinema a lot

with your with your mom? Yeah? Well, yes and no occasionally because I she had to drive me usually unless says there was there's a theater like down the block from us. I could walk up too, called the Parkway, but they didn't show the greatest movie is there that you always had to go, like to see Star Wars or something, you had to drive to Dearborn to the

American to see it. But I had a very traumatic experience with my mother once because she took me to see Nashville, Robert Altman's Nashville, because she was like, oh, they're supposed to be so great, but it's the first time I'd ever seen nudity and sex in the movie. And I'm sitting there with my mother and just absolutely horrified.

And she was uncomfortable too, So everybody was uncomfortable, and at some point somebody get I forget it was Geraldine chat Wait one of the chaplains is in that, I think, and she gets out of bed and like in her naked butt is exposed. From minute my mother goes like oh and she was all like angry about it, and I was like, oh God, please let this movie in, please God. And then yeah, that ends with somebody getting shot.

It's the weirdest ending, like somebody gets shot at a concert and then the concert immediately starts up again, which I was like, is that how life works? I can get kid, but also I grow up. You know. I was a kid in the sixties where everybody's getting assassinated, and so it's why, you know, I had moments of wanting to go into politics when I was younger. I was like, no, if you go into politics, you get assassinated, because that's just what everybody did in the sixties. Apparently, Yeah,

did you really want to go into politics. I had moments of it, Yeah, you know, I mean, because you know, but before I kind of discovered I could could do

okay in show biz. You know, what was what was they what they say in Washington politics is just Hollywood for ugly people, and and so I qualified definitely on that that regard I thought be kind of cool, But then I'm so glad I didn't, because I don't know what I deal with, just dealing with with like people on the internet and rolls and you're like, okay, that must be politics times a thousand if you're in charge of something. God. What is the film that made you

cry the most? We already know you cry? Yes, um, it was actually a more recent film within the last number of years called The Butterfly and the Diving Bell. I love that film. I literally talking about it yesterday. I think it's fucking beautiful, that film. Yeah, genuinely, I think I think it's yeah going please you said no, no, please, no,

But with you it's it's a gorgeous film. And my father had Parkinson's and he was blind from diabetes, so so I really kind of it just hit me in that way, especially towards the end, just at the end, I just kind of fell apart because this guy trapped in his body, you know, and it was just like and it's just it's so beautifully done, and even just the end credits with the ice falling into the water, just I don't know, I would just absolute wreck my wife was kind of looking at me like it's like,

I don't know, just reminding me a dad for some reason. So yeah, that one was very effective. The reason I love that film is is like I put off seeing it for years because it just sounded so depressing for the listener if you haven't seen it. It's a true story of a man who had locked in syndrome and he could only move one eyelid. Basically, he could only see out of one eye and move that to communicate.

And it sounds horrendous, and obviously it is horrendous, but what's It's a really kind of sensual film and the camera is his eye for the first half an hour, and the way that everyone treats him is so loving, and it's just that thing of like humanity that if someone was that vulnerable, people that are lovely, Like I just found it really weirdly kind of beautiful in because of that, because it's just this amount of love that's been kind of poured into the camera, you know what

I mean, Oh totally. I mean, I mean, you know, the nurses had getting them. You know, he can only communicate by blinking, and they have an old code and they teach it to but yeah, you're just so in his head and it's you know, I just I love all my movies are really kind of point of view movies.

I call them like they're all happened from the lead character's point of view, so you don't you know, there's exceptions to the rule in some of my movies, but you don't tend to go away like and now let's go to the bad guy's layer and hear what they're planning them. Oh, our hero doesn't know about it, so you know, we kind of like to stay away from that. But um, yeah, I just think that's a it's a great way to tell a story. Yeah, really good onset. Well,

is the film that scared you the nice? Do you like being scared? I did not used to like being scared? And only honestly, I gotta say in literally like the last two or three years have I gotten into more

scary movies and horror movies. And you know, because because I sold this movie to a universal that I wanted to direct, called A Dark Army, which was a monster movie based on you know, the old James Whale, you know, Frankenstein, Draga, that feel of movie, and it's so in writing that it's like I gotta really, you know, get into into scary movies because I was terrified the scary movies as a kid, and I when I would get taken to one, I would be so angry at the movie that it

scared me so much. And the two movies that scared me the most, I have to have to take two. There's two that traumatized me. One was Jaws, which just because I, again I wasn't used to scary things. I avoided that kind of thing. But it was a big blockbuster in my neighbor, who was, you know, Mike Sampson, who's my film buddy. We were sci fi nerds and film nerds. He's like, I gotta go see this movie.

It's the biggest hit and you get into Place's pack and I was just like just terrified to the point where when I got home that night, I took a bath and I remember being in the bathtub looking around and like completely traumatized, Like I thought there was a shark would be in the bathtub. Like that's how bad I was, you know. But I've never heard a bigger scream out of an audience as when that face appears

in the hole in the bottom of that boat. I have never heard an audience go that crazy before since, And you go, that's the power of film man, and that that's you know, all of us who make movies

feel this way, especially with comedy. That's why I like comedy and horror at the same time, because you didn't have something that scream and then laugh, you know, like we have a scene of The Heat where where McMillan and listen, McCarthy has to put this knife back into Sandra Bullock's leg and the audience just goes crazy because they're just screaming, but they're laughing and they're horrified, but they loved and like to elicit that kind of you know,

emotion of an audience is really exciting. And then the other movie that then absolutely killed me was with Alien, the first Alien, and I have an interesting story and how I ended up at Alien. My friend and I were such sci fi nerds, I mean, just you know, the worst. And I was supposed to go to the homecoming dance and I invited this girl in my class and she was a lovely, lovely person. But then Mike says to me, he goes, Alien is opening on Friday night. We gotta go to see the first show and like

that's the night of the homecoming. Wait, I gotta and I was like, okay, let me get out of it. It's I pulled out that week like it literally like maybe three or four days before the homecoming dance with some lame ass, you know. I was like, oh, we gotta go visit my aunt and we can't get out of it. And this girl's just looking at me like are you kidding me? And just terrible. So then so there I go off. I go with Mike because I'm like, oh, this would be like a fun sci fi movie like

Star Wars. Sit down and this movie starts, and from the very first second, you go, this is the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life. I'm going to have a heart attack. And I was literally sitting there, absolutely numb, numb with fear. I mean, they're going through the thing and they find the eggs and everything, and and it just gets worse and worse because then it pays off in terrible ways, and I'm just going, this

is my punishment for canceling on that girl. Then I found out that and that Monday that the guy she went with now their boyfriend girlfriend and she never looked prettier. And I go like, okay, I'm just fucking loser. That is extraordinary. I mean, that is so interesting. You went on to make freaks and geeks and that that is the like I need version of that story I've ever heard where you turned down to go to go amazing. Yes, and I was not a guy that got a lot

of dates. Let's just say that. So that's amazing. What is the film that you love. It is not critically acclaimed, most people don't like it, but you stand by it to the death. Well I think maybe people might now think it's cool, but it was not thought of its being cool for a long long time. And that is um. Rudy Ray Moore is The Human Tornado, which I think is one of the greatest movies ever made. I don't

know that film. It's that Dolomite. Yeah, yeah, it was the second Help that everybody knows that first Dolomite one, but but not a lot of people know The Human Tornado, which is just bananas and it's kind of a stag film a little bit because and I forgot because I I a few years ago the Austin Film Festival they had me program like a double feature of two movies that I love, and so I showed What's Up, Doc, and then I showed I showed Human Tornado, which people loved.

But there's a big section in the middle that is clearly a stag film of like, you know, this naked woman running around and there's this end let's kind of sex scene. And I was just like, oh no, like I forgot this was in there, and then I felt really shitty. But people kind of took it in, took it in the right right way. But it's it's funny, it's so self aware. The opening credits are the greatest,

the opening credits. He's got. The titles are written on the back of a cape, and he keeps like coming out with his shirt off, preening around on this mountaintop with his cape, and then at one point, like he's being chased by hillbillies and he jumps out of this car and rolls down the hill and he goes like, hey, that's done so great, back it up. I want to

see it again. And so the film backs up and he jumps out again, and it's lots of that kind of madness in it, and there's at one point, there's witches and zombies and it's it's treat yourself, my friends, human tornado making a night. Now on the other end of this, guy, well film did you used to love? But what's recently and you don't like it anymore? It

may be for personal reasons. Yeah, you know, when I was when I was a teenager, nineteen forty one came out Steven Spielberg's big comedy, and we thought it was the funniest thing we've ever seen. We just I mean, it was the level of destruction in it and just cool special effect and just everything blowing up and cool models and airplanes and all this stuff and just you know, they destroy a house at the end. We just thought

it was the greatest thing. But over the years I've watched it and go like, it's okay, it's really I admire it still because it's so nutty and he really goes for it, but it's it's sort of you know, Spielberg's one of my heroes. So I say this with love. It's sort of a freshman effort from somebody who doesn't normally do comedy, and so people who don't normally do comedy go like, make it gigantic and then that's gonna

be funny. And so everything's like it up here and it's just every every performance is just through the roof, you know. But there's still some amazing stuff that some of the miniature work in it is the coolest thing you've ever seen of these these fighter planes going down Hollywood Boulevard, really cool stuff. So so I do I still have a soft spot for it, but it's it doesn't hold up the way that I thought at mine

when I watched it a few years ago. Why it's nice to hear it because people are never nice about that film. At least you did like it. Yeah, I've never really had that. Well, that's the thing. When it came out, I remember we thought and loved it, and then we started reading all these things about like, oh, the guy that you know directed Jaws made this comedy and it's ruined his career and everybody hates it, and we were like, wait, we saw that movie. We thought

it was really funny. But that's the thing growing up in Michigan, before there was internet and before there was a lot of like you know, hyper attention on Hollywood in box office and all that is, you would just watch something like, oh, I really like that. I remember mel Brooks had a TV show called When Things Were Rotten. It was kind of like a Robin Hood comedy, and we thought it was the funniest thing. Every week we

would watch it and just so excited. And then when I got into Hollywood, I found it was like a famous disaster that like, it got no ratings and everybody said it was like one of the worst shows ever. And You're like, okay, but I kind of miss those days when you could just form your own opinion and like something, Yeah, le me say, man, what is the

film that means the mice to you? Not necessarily the film is any good, but because the experience you had around seeing it will always make it special to you. I have a few movies like that, but the one that I think of in this moment is The Conversation. A couple of movie The Conversation, and what it was is I was such a comedy nerd, you know, sci fi nerd, but definitely a comedy guy. And all I want to do is comedy. And I I wasn't in

film school. I was at you. I was at Wayne State University in Detroit, going for like a mass communications degree because they didn't have a film degree there obviously, And I took this film studies class, and again I was just like marsh Brothers movies and just you know, three Stooges and bugs money. That's all I cared about is just that kind of comedy and Monty Python. And then I watched this, you know, the Conversation, and it just transported me in a way because it was so haunting,

it was so the characters are so interesting. But to me, it was the soundtrack. It was this David Scheyer did this just solo piano soundtrack, to me is one of my two top soundtracks of all time because it's so effective and it's so haunting, but it's so beautifully composed. And I just remember just kind of walking out out of that film. Well he was in a classroom, it wasn't even a theater. I'm just almost kind of like a little bit numb of like, oh, this is what

you can do. Like I didn't necessarily go like I'm gonna do drama. I was like, Wow, you can bring these other elements into a film and you know, with like a cool soundtrack and tell like a you know, a deeper story but then I was always like, but maybe you can do it and you know, and still keep the comedy about it, because there's some very funny moments in that in that you know, some of them are kind of misogynistic. I had to say, but but

there's you know, John Kazelle is amazing in that movie. Yeah. Yeah, it's just it's just a killer film. So I'll always have a real soft spot that I always feel like that kind of knocked me out of being a kid and kind of to being an adult a little bit. I watched that film quite like any watched. I think I watched it in lockdown for the first time. I know,

it's fucking brilliant. It really is, Like it's as good as they say, it's really yeah, and it shot so great and it just looks pretty and oh man, it's so good. Yeah. What's the film he mice related to po fake m I think it would be Close Encounters of the third kind. Uh yeah, Because when I was a kid, again, you know, I'm an older guy, so I saw these movies from the opening weekend because again, we were such sci fi nerds, but you know, I

was a bullied kid. I felt like an outsider and then watch this movie and it was like, here's this story of this guy who's you know, he's not really an outsider, but he's kind of a weirdo, you know, Richard Dreyfus's character, and just the idea that something from another world appreciates you so much that they come to get you. Yeah, to me that that wasn't a movie. It was like an aspiration of what I wanted to happen in my life. I didn't kind of under at

that point my life. I didn't understand and movies. I knew what movies were, but you know, living in Michigan, other than making Super eight movies with my next neighbor, like Hollywood, movies were just sort of like things that happened. I don't know, it sounds like a weird thing to say, but like I didn't process it like it was entertainment. Yeah, And so to me, it was just like this is a roadmap for what I wanted to happen in my life.

And so after that, like I would go up on the roof with my telescope and like sit up there every night waiting for an alien to come down and take me away. Like I was certain they wanted me because nobody appreciated me here, and so I really you know, and then when they put out the special edition, which I still I still like the original one, because when they did the special edition, I don't know if you know all this, I can go on and on about close Encountered Go and no, I love this term. I'm

a big, big fan of term. Yeah. Well, they put out the original one and then apparently Spielberg was always upset because they wanted he wanted to go inside the spaceship at the end, and they didn't give him the budget to do it. So they finally went a movie did so well, they let him make the special Edition,

so he shot inside it. But then to do that, for some reason, they cut out they cut out that scene where he goes around like he's going to construct the mountain in his house, so he's like pulling up all the plants and throwing chicken wire and everything through the windows. But that got cut out. Yeah, and so when I started, I was like, wait, where's that scene because that would be one of my favorite scenes. That's such a funny scene. And again that brought the house

down in the theater. But but you know, but when I saw him go inside and there's this moment you know, where he's just like so overcome with emotion and then all the you know, light rains down on him, he turns into an alien or whatever. That again, I'm just like, oh, please let that be me someday. I'm glad it didn't happen. I'd rather not be up with aliens right now. Might have been great. Well, maybe Hollywood was your aliens. Hollywood

was your aliens. Hollywood came got you. If I can ask this, look, I understand everyone's life and career is a very very long journey with lots of things. If you went from not knowing what films were to where you are now as a filmmaker, was there a turning point? Did you start with stand up? Was that what your

first sort of way? Yeah? I started with stand up just because that was you know, available, you could do it, because anybody could do it, really, I mean meaning you know, you didn't need a lot of resources to do it. You just have to have an actor, which you know, I started doing it fifteen and yeah, yeah, I wasn't good by any stretch of imagination. There's tapes to me, and they're terrible but the audience is laughing because clearly they just think it's funny that it is a fifteen

year old kid they're telling dumb, dumb jokes. But yeah, it was you know that that was kind of the eye an eye opener for me to begin to get my own material out there. But I was always writing things like I wrote, got really into writing sketches, like you know, because I was really in the Second City TV and Saturday Night Live, so I'd write sketches that I could never do anywhere. Then I started doing like

I got a tape recorder. I would do radio plays in my room and write these things and you know, read them like old nineteen forties kind of you know, detective plays and all this kind of thing. So I

was always trying to produced stuff in that way. It'll only make our Super eight films, but they always look so junky, sadly, but you know, so that's why I went off to USC Film School because I finally, I mean, there's one I have to credit one movie for this, but it's it's something that I know, the movie that people mentioned on your show all the time, So I'll

blurase through it quickly. But Raiders of The Lost Art because I went to the opening day first show at the man Chinese Theater of Raiders the Lost Art and knew nothing about it. And I have never seen an audience be so affected throughout an entire movie as they were that. I mean, people were up on their feet, jumping out of their seats when that boulder, which now is you know we've seen a gazillion times, came down.

People literally the whole theater jumped up and was screaming and yelling, and it was I mean, I'm just going like, that's what a director can do. If a director can do that to an audience, I want in wow, love that fat What is the sexiest film ever made? Well, I am you can only say, you know for yourself, videosel Yeah, this is it was a hard one to figure this one out, but I think for me it

was risky business. Um right, yeah, because I mean, first of all, Rebecca d mornay was so gorgeous in that film, you know, and it's a wacky film. It kind of it holds up, but it's also you know, some of the some of the morality of that movie is a little little it's a little problematic exactly but but I mean those moments between she and Tom Cruise just I mean especially I was young. I was lonely college student watching that movie, you know, still a virgin, and just like,

oh if I can never you know, have that? Um so yeah, that one, that one, that one really got me and and my that's my other favorite soundtrack of all time is The Risky Business, the Tangerine Dream soundtrack. Oh and what was the first one? It was the Conversation, right, Yeah, there's a subcategory pool fake upside. Sorry, the subcategory question is traveling Biden is worrying? Why don't What's a film

I hate? I mean, I hate myself. It was a film you found arousing that you thought maybe you shouldn't have Well, I don't know, I don't know if I wasn't supposed to think it was arousing, but it just it seemed wrong. Yeah. And it was, oh my god, you're making me choke bro um. It was a Kentucky Fried movie, Brothers first movie. Yeah, yeah, because that one. Yeah, and there's there was a couple of there's the one thing they did this the Catholic high school girls in trouble.

It was it was a it was like a trailer for a fake movie. But it was all just you know, topless women. But they're the way they did it was you know at the time. I was so young at the time, and of course that's the movie you wish you could just take home with you. Thank you, Thank you for answering that question. I appreciate thank you for let me just breeze through that exactly. What is objectively, objectively the greatest film of all time? Maybe not you,

but it's objectively the pinnacles of cinema. Yeah. Well, when you put it that way, to pinnacle of cinema, that makes it much harder for me to say this. Um no, it's it's a It's a wonderful life to me is to me the greatest movie because it does everything a movie is supposed to do, every single thing is supposed to do. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you emotional, it makes you fall in love, it makes you happy, tears of joy makes you angry.

I just you know, I never got out and I didn't see it until I was in film school, just wandered into some other They would show movies in this uh in the big theater, Norris Theater, which is this big, beautiful theater. They would just have them up for different classes to come in, and so I would wander in there, and you know, when I had a free moment and just walk into a film and that one just happened to be up and I'd heard about it, I was like, oh no, I don't know if I want to watch this.

And then it's just you know, a sobbing mess at the end, and h and when and walked out of that theater going like, if I could make a movie like that, that would be I would be so happy. Like that's what I want movies to be. And you know, people would make fun of Frank Capra, you know it's called his stuff, Capricorn and all that, and I was like, you know what, fuck them, Like, I think these this is this is what movies should be. That for me,

that's what I want movies to be. I want to be entertain an audience, make them feel something, send them off feeling better about their lives. And they did when they got in, and you know, just be trying to uplift the world in our own little way. And it's oh, Jake, society, it's fucking profound. It's a wonderful life. It's not it's not a smooth message. It's like that is some deep shit. It's really yeah, oh no, totally done in such a kind of a like a fun, sweet small town way.

But there's you know, and also it's done in the middle of the war, you know, And it was you know, all these you know, filmmakers like Capra started Liberty Films, and it was supposed to be this big, you know, like cool thing. So it wasn't kind of like a Hallmark movie. It was definitely made by people who really loved and respected cinema and wanted to tell this take on a you know, Christmas Carol. Yeah it What is the film that you could well have? What's the mist Iver?

And Iver? Again? Well there's two. Am I allowed to cheat and say what one is a very unexpected I think, which is breakdown everything, breakdown these film? Yes, the Kurt Russell movie exactly. Yes, I have seen that. I love that movie. If I'm flipping around and I come on that come across that movie, it's just like, okay, well game over, I gotta watch the whole thing. Yeah, I have I have a great love of smart guys going up against dumb guys. I find those movies so much fun.

And this one's the ultimate one. I mean, Everybody Encounters was terrible. You know when he's like joking that guy in the car, he's got him tie his neck around the thing and he slams on the brakes and because I got so mean and terrible and just you know, it's my father. When I was growing up, my father loved the Charles Bronson movies, the Death Wish movies for some reason. And he was like, oh my god, it was like, Dad, that's really uncool. It's like the world

could be like that. It's like, Dad, that's not cool to say that at all. But for him, I was you know, he was a business owner and you know, the head to deal with you know, shoplifters and all the time. So to him that was great. But I don't know, just for me, Breakdown it's just really well made. It's such a great it's super fun. I actually got to be at a DJ event with Jonathan Mostole, who directed it years ago, and just I think I freaked him out. I literally cornered him and talked to him

about an hour about Breakdown. He's like, Wow, nobody ever talks about that movie. He's like, well, guess what you met your match? So nice. Well, it's one of them films. It is quite rare, and it because it's very it's a very sort of sleek thriller. It's all quite contained and stunts not kind of cgi no no cities exploding. It's so well the mission it's just human drama, like just I love the huge like human drama, bodies and motion.

You know. That's why I love Dogday Afternoon. I mean that's just like, you know, it just people flying around and emotions are you know, a thousand percent and it's just so great, you know. Um. So there's that one and then the other one that I've watched the million times and I loved the other day I Die is Casino Real the first Daniel Craig James bonb oh oh wow. Bifaction films. Yeah, yeah, I love. I love action films. I love you know, Hong Kong cinema. I like any again.

I like bodies in motion, I like kinetic you know, that kind of thing but with with you know, emotion involved. Yeah. So ye see, it was really great and it was also that thing of right from the beginning, I don't quite even know. You know, I know a lot about film, and yeah, I still can't. It's like classical Hollywood action. It's not first cutting. It's very beautifully shot, and it's clear that there's stunts going on, which is my favorite thing that you feel the suspense of. That's a real

person jumping off a real thing. Totally. It's not all that shaky cam shit, which I hate, which you know, which I can't stand when I can't figure out the geography of stunts or or a fight scene. And I got like, okay, if it's one thing, if you're covering up like an actor, just this lame and can't throw a punch. But I've seen it in movies where I know the people are doing good stunts and they're still jiggling the camera all over the place. It's like, stop

doing that. That's why I love Hong Kong cinema. Like still these long, you know, head to toe takes of these fights and people are doing all these moves. You go, yeah, they are doing it. I don't want to see it manufactured. I want to see it happening. Yeah, I degree. I don't like spe negative pooh fake if you do. But dude, this family. Quick, what's the worst film you ever saw? There's been a few. I mean there's there's something that you watch this because you go, oh, this is so funny.

This is so shitty, you know, you know, like mystery science Theater and those kind of things you want. So that's that's fun. But I credit this is being the worst because we got bamboozled into it because it was right after Star Wars came out and all of us sci fi nerds were just desperate for more stuff like that. They released this Japanese film in America it called Battle

Beyond the Stars. I was thinking, oh my god, god, it's the worst movie ever because it just it's a total rip off of Star Our Wars but so poorly done. And these like weird spaceships that looked like egg beaters

and they're kind of coming. Then they go these weird special effects, and then Robert Vaughan's in the middle of it somehow, just like completely just collecting a paycheck, you know, I mean, just like just since there were this kind of set face like and like he's still staring staring a spaceship and they just keep like turning the camera and he's just staring. You know, It's like, Okay, he didn't want to be there. Nobody wanted to be there.

So we were very upset about that because we really got bamboozled into it thinking it was going to be as good as Star Wars. So that was on us. That was on us clearly. Ooh, fake, you're in comedy. You've made some of the great comedies of all time. What's the film that made you laugh the most. I mean, it's a tough one because there's been a lot of films that have made me laugh over the course of my life. But I think the one I sort of pound for pound laughed the most and like just heartily

was Napoleon Dynamite. Oh well, I just I And it's funny because I didn't see My wife saw it first and she came back and she said, I think I just saw your new favorite movie. Could i'd seen ads for I was like, I don't know, looks kind of weird. She goes, you're going to love this movie, and she goes, I want to go with you just to hear you laugh. And I literally I just laughed from top to bottom

of that film. It just maybe John Heater's performance is so hilarious and it's just so well made, and just that the weird just the weird time that they take to just have him like sigh, you know, and be upset about something and just I just thought it was spectacular. That's great. Can I ask you this when you're making something like Bridesmaid or any of your films, when they're really really funny and you're in the edit and you're editing and editing going over the same bit. I actually

don't know what you're going to answer. Do you stop finding it funny or does it remain if it's really funny? Is it always funny? Or did it then become just a technical excize like well, I mean, you know, again, we're watching things, you know, a thousand times by the time the movie's done, but it will still always kind of make us laugh. I have to say, there are times when you're kind of like, okay, you know, you

just know it's coming, But it depends, you know. What we do is we do a lot of test screenings when we're putting those movies together, so we'll kind of be clinical about it, although we're always trying to fine tune. It'll be funnier like loose two frames. Oh now that's funnier, you know, because the Tony just jumps it or whatever.

But then it's really when we then go and do the test screening because my editor Brent White and I sit in the middle of the audience and so we can be surrounded by the audience to hear them laughing, kind of see them, let's see how they're reacting and all that, and that's when it's super fun because then you're like, then you then you're like watching it for the first time. You know, when it gets laugh When it doesn't get a laugh, it's the worst thing in

the world. And we have plenty of those where you go like this is gonna kill and like, oh wow, that got nothing. Okay, well let's let's replace that. But you know, we get you never. I love my movies all the way up until I'm at the premiere watching them, and then the minute I'm at the premiere is something in my head goes, I'm never going to watch this movie, and I usually don't. Yeah, it's like a release and now you belong to the world. Get off, Get off

my play exactly, Get out of my head. It's amazing. One of a question if I may, you have made three, I believe, three films with the incredible Melissa mccarfey. What is your theory on why she is so fucking funny? Do you have a theory or you just think she is? No? I mean I she's a great actress first and foremost, and so she's able to be hilarious in ways that

you believe. You know, there's some people that are funny because they're big and over the top, and you go, oh, I don't believe that characters real, but I really think they're funny doing you know, it's like Groucho Marx. You know, like, you know, Groucho's hilarious, but you don't go like, oh, that's a really nuanced character. He's just a guy telling jokes, you know, but it's fantastic and you know that kind of thing. But yeah, she's she's a great actress, so

she can make anything feel real. But then she can create these very extreme characters that have their own kind of inner logic that's just funny and twisted. You know, actually even made four movies together. I was just thinking, did Bridesmaids, The Heat Spy and Ghostbusters? And you know, each time she did something different. And you know, for me, it's once I get to know somebody who's funny, I then go, oh, I'm want to show other sides of them,

you know. And we had done we had done Bridesmaids in the Heat, where she played very aggressive characters, and I remember some snarky reviewers, you know, going, oh, it only does one thing, blah blah blah blah blah. And I was like, well, I's screw them. So, you know, because in real life, Melissa's the sweetest person you've ever met.

And so that's why I wrote. One of the reasons they wrote Spy is like, oh, I want to show off the real Melissa, who's kind of her in the beginning of that movie, Like she's very sweet and kind of alway doesn't want insult anybody and all that, and so like, oh, let's take that person then turn them into a tiger, because they have to have to turn

at tiger they're gonna be killed. So yeah, but she's just her brain works amazingly in a funny way, but always trying to find the real And again, I just think it's the combination of funny and real that really takes a hilarious person and then puts them to the next level. Steve crows the same way. You know, excellent, excellent answer. You've been excellent. I'm wonderful and I really appreciate you. However, when you got to a certain age and you felt a bit like more than Harold and

more do, you thought time's up for me. But I don't want to be in public and whatever happens, I don't want to have a funny death. So you quietly took yourself off to the woods near your house. You just went to the woods and you lay down in the leaves, and you waited until you were consumed by animals for the icy hand of death to come. And it wasn't funny. It was very serious. These animals very seriously ate you. Well, what kind of animal ate me? It could be funny if it was, you know, I

got eaten my mice or something. No, it was a very serious looking like wolves. And but you were very calm about it, and they ate you. And but also as requested, it wasn't long that till people found you. I was walking along with a coffin, you know what I'm like, And I go buy your house and I put it's Paul around and they say no, I went for a walk in the woods, and I go, oh, I think I know what that means. Okay, come with me, guys. We go out to the woods. There's bits of your

corps everywhere, been moved around by animals. Some of its it's a mess. I pick up all the bits I can pick up extra bits. That leaves extra bits of woods. Some tree comes in. I stuff it all in the coffin. Coffin is now full. It's more full than I expected. There is really only enough room to be able to slip one DVD into the side with you to take across to the other side. And on the other side, it's movie night every night. What film are you going to show the people of heaven when it is your

movie night? Pol fake please? I think it would be What's Up? Dog? What a twist the Peter Bangdanovich films. Yes, but the straighten right on? Neil Yeah, Austin Pembleton, Pemberton, Uh yeah, it's it's you know it was. It was um Badanovitch's nod to uh screwball comedies. I at the point when I saw What's Up Dock didn't realize there were screwball comedies. So to me, I was just like, who is this genius who thought of all this hilarious stuff.

But you think once you learned about all the all you know, see other screwball comedies, you go like, oh, it's not as good. It holds up so well. This is the one I screened also on the double bill with The Human Tornado with the Awesome Film Festival, and it destroyed. I mean, it brought the house down, and I was like, I'm so happy that this movie still

completely works because it's nuts. It's big and nutty, you know, but the stakes are really fun and the romance in the middle of it is really cute, and and uh, it's got one of my favorite action scenes of all time. The car chase through through San Francisco is still one of the greatest comedy action sequences ever on film. I will go to my go into that car often where being torn apart by animals, believing that pool fake. Thank

you so much for your time. Tell the people the two things that they should be looking out for, if not more before you Yeah, there's a few things. Um yes, um. Welcome to Flatch is on Fox right now and is also streaming on Hulu. Uh. And then a Minx which is a great show about the first very fictional retelling of the the origins of Playgirl magazine. Super funny and there's lots of nudity too, so enjoy that. Um yeah. Yeah.

And Welcome to Flatch is actually the American version of the great BBC docuseries called This Country, and it's very, very funny. Man Pusey for a minute, just to say, I watched the trailer for Welcome to Flats, which it's very funny, and I was so delighted you had one of my favorite people in it, Chrissy Chulia. You. Yeah, it is fucking funny. So that was a very good choice. Excellent. No, We've got an amazing cast. It's really I'm thrilled. Um yeah,

So there's that. And then also come September, I've got a movie coming out on Netflix called The School for Good and Evil, which is a giant special effects fantasy. It's kind of Princess Bride meets Frozen with a bit of a Harry Potter thrown into it. And I'm very excited about that. It's based on a series of books. And then then I also have a gin out right now UM that you can get in the UK and

the US UM. It's called Artingstalls Gin. Go to Artingstalls gin dot com to find out where you can get it. If you're in the UK, you can get it from the Whiskey Exchange and if you're here in the States, you can get it a lot of places. Go to once again Artingstalls gin dot com. Then you'll find out where to get it. We've won lots of awards for it. It's a beautiful have you ever seen the bottles of the bottle there it is. It's a good looking, beautiful bottle.

Why is it code arting stoves? What does that mean? Forgive my ignorance. That was my mother's maiden name, my mom's maiden who was a Canadian, and then her family is it was British, so it's a London dry and it's got London roots. So there you go. And then then finally, have you got a cocktail book coming out?

A cocktail book coming out in November? There you go, called called Cocktail Time based on the Instagram cocktail show Daily Show that I did during the pandemic, and lots of the one hundred and twenty five recipes, a lot of original recipes, advice on how to throw throw cocktail parties, how to stock your bar, and also lots of really embarrassing funny stories from my life in with the drinks. So there you go. Who wouldn't want fantastic? I won that poo fig. What a pleasure. Thank you so much

for your time. It really means it looks to me, I know it's a big deal. Everyone is very busy. Thank you for giving me all this time my pleasure. This was so much fun. I think what you do here is great, and you're an amazing host who informed that I have died twice during the show, So I like that. It makes me appreciate life. I appreciate you have a wonderful death. Good day to you, sir, Thank you my friend. Excellent. So that was episode one hundred

and ninety. Head over to patreon dot com forward last break gold Steam for the extra fifteen minutes of chat and secrets with Paul. Go to Apple Podcasts. Give us a five star rating. But right about the film that means the most of you and why that's about it, you know the rest of it. Thank you so much for everyone who listens. I hope you're all doing well. Thank you so much to Paul for giving me the time. Thanks to Natasha for sorting it out. Thanks this Crepus

Pip and the Distraction Pieces Network. Thanks to Buddy Peace for producing it. Thanks to ACAS for hosting it. Thanks to Addamschism for the graphics and Lease allowed them for the photography. Come and join me next week. Who's next week? Oh? I tell you what, someone else brilliant in it. It's always someone brilliant. I don't have bad people in this show, any good people, you know what I mean. No deck heads allowed. So whoever it is next week, you're in

for a treat. I hope you're all well. Lots of love to you all. So that is it for now. But in the meantime, have a lovely week, and please, now more than ever, be excellent to each other.