The Fast Times and Long Career of Cameron Crowe

in walks a sixteen year old boy. Cameron Crowe is still probably best known for his personal story the child prodigy who convinced Rolling Stone to let him in bed with rock superstars at age sixteen, as told in his brilliant coming of age movie Almost Famous, for which he received an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. But before he won that, Oscar Cameron Crows spent his high school years on tour with the Legends of Rock. My dream kind of ended with a story on the cover of Rolling Stone.

I was like, that may never happen, and then it happened when I was sixteen, so it was like, okay, let's recalibrate the dream. But when you when you go to make movies, was that inevitable? Did you always say that's what I'm gonna do no no that that happens. That was a bonus thing that was coming from a family that worshiped Mike Nichols in Elaine May and that

stuff was playing. And my mom would take me to see Cardinal Knowledge on opening weekend, argue with the theater owner to like, get me in, I'll take him outside if anything's coming up. Of course she's like, stay, don't leave. She wants me to see it all and um, and so movies were a big part of our world, and Yahn and Ben Functoras kept me doing stories that were inching towards cinema, So I got to kind of blend a little bit. Were you thinking cinema during the time too?

Because um, I loved Sissy SpaceX carry and loved um you know what she was starting to do with Altman and my daughter. Coal Miner's daughter daughter came together while we were on assignment for a cover story for Rolling Stone. It was Anne Leawoods and me and Sissy who said, oh, let's go see Loretta Len. I have to turn her down for this project. She's been trying to get me to do her life story for six months, so I have to go and actually face to face say no,

come with me. So we all go, yeah, cover that. So we road trip to a Loretta Lynn show with Sissy spacek Alec. Loretta Lynn closed Sissy in about ten minutes. It's like as soon as she saw Sissy they got into it. Boom she was going to play that part that won are an Oscar And it was just one of those great moments where I get to be fly on a wall for this stuff and starting to see how films happen. But um, that was a dream that was really far away at that Does it also a

time out? When Yon leaves the West Coast and goes to New York, did it will kind of come together? We're like, you're done with that now that Yahn's you're not going to New York? Can we talk about going to New York? No, I was continuing with them, and you live on the West Coast. I stayed in l A and kind of worked in that office and and stayed independent because I didn't want to be somebody who would be given an assignment and have to do it.

So I was always kind of a freelancer, but I had an editor position, so it was kind of the perfect thing. And then it grew into the idea of telling the story about kids from a kid's point of view. And I had been writing all these stories about like Rod Stewart's and Crosby Stills in Nash and you would hear them talk about the fans, and you would see

the fans follow them through these situations. But at a certain point it was kind of like, let's just let's just turn the observation over to those people who follow Rod Stewart, for example, and and the stories just became endless just interviewing people. And that grew into a desire to capture characters. And the first when you wrote the book fast Times and it wasn't a novel that was a real it's a nonfiction nonfiction do the Truman capody of Rock and Rome. Who tells you you're going to

make that as a movie? How does it become a movie? Um, Art Linson and Irving as Off and a few people that they kind of knew the music world and knew my writing. I liked the book a lot, and Art Linson, I remember, really loved Spicoli the surfer, and that always felt like a great character. If we were able to get the right guy to do it. Sean doesn't necessary somebody comes into nails with the reading. He wasn't necessarily

the guy. Yeah, and uh, And we heard like, oh, there's this guy who's like kind of a young de Niro guy. He's really good. He's from Malibu. Let's let's read him. So he came in. There were three of us in the room and he said, I know how to do this part. We're like, great, do it. No, I'll do it when you hire me, come on, giving you my ship. For some reason, we just decided to hire him without ever seeing him do it. It was kind of like, what the fuck happened? And and he

was stayed in character of the whole movie. He had us call him Jeff and I would try and get him to do parts of the character before it was time to actually film, wouldn't do it. And then he just busted out with the character on the day and we're like, oh my god, this is the guy. It's bicycle. Yeah, it's like a documentary version. Hard to believe that him. You go see other you know, with the other Chameleon things. He did Falcon and the Snowman and things like that.

Very strange quay I met him. I don't remember when I met him, but I remember first seeing him there and thinking he was like this, uh, you know, crazy comic genius. He was like a Peter Sellers to me almost. He just completely occupied the character, you know, and all the classic lines. And I want to bore everybody with But people who are not familiar with the movie, you know, people on lud should not have all that suff We

all were gagging laughing. We watched everybody watches fast times you watched the movie for Sean Penn's performance, and we would just be gagging, laughing. And there was some really and in the middle of the laughing and in the middle of the kind of madness of it, and and and Ray Walston and ordering the pizza and everything is is Jennifer Jason Lee story. And I made a movie with her, and I know who's there's nobody deeper than her, the deepest actress has ever worked with him. Very real. Yeah,

she's cool. She was ready for the movie to be even more raw and real. I mean there was some conversation in the movie first came out like this is a hard are this is really more than we want to see from our young kids today, and She was the first one to say, like, I wish it was ex there was there was nudity on me that they cut out that I wish they'd kept in, which which was like super bold and like you know, visionary knew

where she was headed. The thing though, was Tann and all those guys coming this movie is like, we're gonna be listening to theaters. This is a piece of crap where we don't we shouldn't be making movies like that. We we snuck it through. And when they started to see it, they realized that Amy Heckerling had gone for the raw truth, you know, of like what Jennifer Jason Lee's character had gone through, gotten pregnant and an abortion. Amy had this brilliant kind of take on it, which was,

let's just show it. How was it for you when you saw it? Okay, it was like this, let's shoot that. So she had this very naturalistic, funny approach that when people saw it they laughed. The thing though, was Bicoli was our magic. That was our bit of magic, And and the studio and the people involved in the movie. Maybe Art Arlenson knew the potential there, but everybody who made those plans, like on opening weekend. We're gonna drive around.

We're gonna get together. We'll pick you up. We'll pick you up, we'll come and get you we'll all go together. We'll get like two cars will caravan. As it gets closer to the to the weekend that the movie comes out, it's like, I'm gonna be out of town. Um, are you gonna go? I can it make it? So? It turned out nobody would go and do like a victory tour of the theaters for Fast Time. So I got in a car and drove to Arizona to to go to my friend's wedding that didn't think I would be

able to go to. Oh was I available to go to his wedding? And I went with a buddy And we start to get close to Phoenix, Tucson where we're going, and and we're like, let's go to the theater. Let's just see the empty theater showing Fast Times. We go in. It's packed. There's already kids who have gotten the checkerboard vans, gone to the mall and gotten them and come back to see the movie. And I'm Coli drives them into

the theater and and and saves the movie. Really, they never caught up because they cut our theaters the last minute. They were like, nobody in the East Coast is gonna go see this movie, and then like those theaters ended up being packed. You've never written a screen play before. I had not. You wrote the book The People, even though it's a small movie. You've done this research alc. You're like the busy this guy, and how did they get you to do that? I mean, how did you

get them guy available? It's like they bought the book and they were like, let him write it. Let him write it twelve dollars and maybe he'll pay us fifty? Was Amy on board? Then? Were you did? Script was done? Script was done? And Tom Mount again, the guy at Universal was kind of our secret patron, you know, helping us out and everything. I said, I got this great idea. Who could direct it? He's done this film eraser Head. He's really a talented guy. David Lynch is his name,

and uh I saw a racer Head. Of course, racor Head's amazing. I'm like, you know, if he'll read the script, absolutely, so I give him the script and he was really great about and David Lynch like drove back a couple days later in a I believe it was a white VW bug and very politely said, fun story, not really what I think I'm going to be doing. It's a bad David Lynch, but he he appreciated it enough so

that they kept looking. And then Amy had done this short called Getting It Over With about a young girl losing a virginity. It was fantastic, and so we're like, let's let's go Gorilla lo fi and make it what do you right after Fast Times? We did, But when you wrote the screenplay, the film comes out and eventually becomes this kind of this called classic comedy. So are you like fully smitten then? And you're like, I'm going

down that road now far less? Rolling Stone essays that kind of writer, I always feel like it's been journalism all the time. But it was kind of, you know, a morphous trying to get to what the story would be. I was trying to tell other people's stories. But the more almost famous became utterly personal, the more it became the movie it should be. Wasn't there something before? Almost amass between many but it's like that was the first thing that I went to. I want to get into

the music. Who started creating that characters and music because it was so fun putting the music on fast times that you could take a song like Somebody's Baby, which like in this part of the movie, it's just kind of nice pop, but if you put it over a kid having premature ejaculation all of a sudden, it's like kind of psychedelic in the in the song you'll never forget as you remember it. And then later you run

into Jackson Brown, He's like, thanks a lot. Thought I was writing you a nice little ballad, and I'm now I'm like a poster boy for jacking off and coming

too fast. It's like it was like, thank you, Jackson, Jackson, thank you, and and uh, and that was kind of like the beginning of Wow, you can use these songs and really make the music character and that became don't you see people that are doing that though when you think that they're not doing that well with Without naming names, Judge, I'm just saying for me, I'll see a movie sometimes and I'll be like, enough enough of you telling I get it. We're in the seventies, I get it, I

get it. Your script is a nimick and you want to bolster it with you know, Knights and white Satin or something. I'll get it. They are great. Music is gonna make your movie great, and they just use it for a minute while somebody's car door opens and then shuts, rather than like let the song play. Of course, as he was always the guy that could give you a fast buzz of like, here's the guy that knows music, and he's gonna give you this Ronnette's record and it's

gonna rip your soul out. You know this because he knows when you're on a cocaine run all of a sudden, indeed, Ray, you and Ray are Jones and yeah, or or you're looking at that helicopter and Nielsen Is has got that track going and you're like, take me there. Cameron Crowe is a master of the moment. The needle drops, the song comes on, and you're there, filled with teenaged longing. Lloyd Dobbler holding up the boom box and say anything.

Jerry McGuire's You had Me at Hello and comic perfection, Sean Penn's puckish Stoner, Jeff Spicoli, just what in the hell do you think you would doing learning about Cuba having some food. Mr Spiccole. You're on dangerous ground here. You're causing a major disturbance on my time. I've been thinking about this, Mr hann If I'm here and you're here, doesn't that make it our time? We certainly did nothing

wrong with a little feast on our time. After the break, Cameron Crowe tells me what John Cusack was like on the set of Say Anything. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the Thing. Yeah, that's Neil Young's Cinnamon Girl, used by Cameron Crowe to give an unsentimental retro rock field to a montage sequence. In two thousand elevens we bought a Zoo. Now more from my conversation with crow about going from screenwriting success to taking full creative control

of his films. What's the first one you directed? Uh, Say Anything? James L. Brooks? He said, like, Okay, we have two other people that we've always talked about, and if if the second one on that list, the second one says no, you really got to think about it. And the second one was in fact Lawrence Caston, who who said, you know, if I was prolific and did a movie a year, I would do this, but I'm doing um Accidental Tourists, and that's going to be my

movie in the next two years. But I'm gonna call the studio and tell him James Brooks is right and you should direct it. So that got me the directing job. Say anything, how did you find that the first time you directed? What was it like for you to direct actress? And how was that change? Scared today? Cusack is their lead Cusack it was. It was a wide shot in a nursing home, and he gave the speech and I kind of turned around to everybody and said, I like it.

It's it's good. I think we have it, and they kind of like, hey, come, come, come over. Here gets some look of water. You have to do a thing called coverage. You have to shoot it from other angles, other angles. Let's go other angles. Everyone terrified. I went to the trailer and and just like was in an

upright fetal position. And Clay Griffith, my good buddy who's been production designer for all the movies lately, Claire Griffith says, you've got to get outside of the trailer and you should go have lunch with the crew and tell the crew just by being there that you're with them and you're all making the movie together. And it was like the greatest advice. I left the trailer obviously never left hanging with the crew. It's the only way to make a movie is to love your crew and to be

with them as actors. I didn't realize until we're halfway through what great partners they could be. Like John Mahoney and Q Sack are like these Chicago brawlers. They're like they just want to tear your seve thirty takes, Like Johnny be like, let me do one where I throw John Mahoney across the table. It's supposed to be kind of like the nonviolent guy. Well let me just do one where I do this, And it's like, yeah, okay, let's do that. Let me make out with him, let

me kiss him in the mouth. Yeah, they do. Through the we we kind of found through collaboration, like how to get a really good language first time director style on that movie, and I fell in love with directing actors. And you worked with him again. Since then, you worked with the one time, tried to a couple of times and we've missed, but I think the times so for you, there is it is there a the notion that you have kind of a battery with them as a director

and an actor. You think I can get movies made with the skuy It's like Scorsese with Leo. Now he's a DeNiro. You thought about that. I love that. That's you know why I'll always call you when you have to say anything, just a quick question. When we were going over movies that we're going to talk about, there were so many like super strong leading man movies like just you know, double fisted, I'm gonna give you the story, I'm gonna I'm gonna hit my mark and give it

to you. Man. It was like, there are not many of those movies made anymore. And I saw them on that list, and I was like, damn, studios used to make movies that we're both personal and universal and and and without a lot of fear, it seemed. And and so now there's these cannon of movies that are that are feeling like they're from the distant past, which is strange because we gotta start making like these movies that

are kind of our version of that today. It's there's a lot of whimsical stories being told, but I just like to like straight up, let's tell you an American story quality. And then there was Woodstock on the list, of course, equally important in every way. It's like I'm obsessed with it too. And Monterey Pop. Monterey Pop is amazing. For the crowd shots. Monterey Pop has the most beautiful crowd shots. They're like comfortable back, Oh my god, they're so great. And they also tell you that thing of

like in nine seven, it wasn't all the sixties. It was still like there were dudes from the fifties still there in the shots. You know, they go to the show too. They just they didn't get the manual for the moon to wear. They're still wearing like, you know, a little skinny black tie. And you see these things in Monterey Pop and just go wow. Somebody was there at the right time with the camera just captured the

generation changing and it was crazy. The end of that the end of that time, we're like, I always get so upset when people say the sixties was for nothing, But I want to get back to something you said, which is about Monterey and what stock, which is I'm on the board of the Hampton's Film Festival, and we have our festival, so we do give me shelter, and we find out that Masals is insect Harbor visiting his daughter who lives there. We bring him into interview him.

It's sold out and everybody comes in and everybody like, no, there's no dope in the room, but you can smell. Everyone gets a contact Hie, this is really true, Like just like the the souvenirs of that era, people are are gravitating to so strongly, Like that's why they showed up for gimming Shelter. I want to see Richie Furey, you know who packed a nice sized theater singing Buffalo Springfield types. It's like that they people are there for the things that moved them in their lives. Shows bring

back Will and Grace. Yeah, But and if and if Will and Grace comes back with the feeling that you got that contact high the first time and they have, You're like, they're in that's a miracle. But but I know that you did reunion with Elton John and u um U a couple of numbers from Leon. I know that you did the reunion with him. Why didn't you make more movies like that, like concert films? Why didn't

you marry? We're doing it? Yeah, it's just the movies have taken me like a long time because they take a long time to write and then I you know, maybe put one aside for a while and start a new one. So it's like, as I've kind of streamlined that process a little bit, there's a room to do music stuff. So we're we're actually, um gonna do a couple of documentaries and a few and a few music things. One thing I guess I can say is, um, we're gonna do a little documentary with David Crosby, who I

first met when I was fifteen. He's, you know, more prolific now that he's been a long time. He's at a point in his life where he's just got a lot to say, and I think with a with a lack of a lot of talking heads and leaving it with him just telling you almost all just a very personal thing. I'm gonna tell you some stuff you'll agree with, some stuff you won't, but it's this between me and you, this is my life. Like I love that tone, that tone.

So we're gonna do that with David Crosby, who's wonderful and you know the music you know, listen, we made almost famous and here's this note that comes to the mail like immediately and from Alec Baldwin. I'm like, fuck, open it up. And it's like, I loved your movie. I love led Zeppelin. I can't believe you put tangerine in the Movie's real that's the way, that's the way, and and and I was like, like Baldwin knows that's the way in Zeppelin. Yeah maybe. And fandom. I never

lose that fandom. And you don't good and you don't. You can't because I just think you have to sign on for the people that you love creatively and personally. Take the ride. Lennon can make mind games. He can make you know. It's one of the in between records. Don't leave him. He's John Lennon. You know. It's like you just have to stay for the ride or you're a fair weather. You get that from your mother for

a little bit, your lack of pretentiousness. Well, you want an Academy Award for screenwriting, as I reminded your children, Yes, thank you for that. I told your children, I said you must rocket roll Hall of Fame and your father won an Oscar. I said, you know, no pressure, but but but but but what you're doing well, by the way, but but you're but you're but but you I think it's super important, and I think you can even make

movies that way. You can. You can be loving with the point you're saying to make with a movie and stay open and and be open to your actors too, because generally, not every time, but generally a movie will have your spirit. You know, the movie will have your signature somewhere, even even in movies where like you know, Penny Marshall came in at the last minute and replaced so and so it's it's a Penny Marshall movie. The director's personality seeps in Hallelujah, and and I love playing

with that. I love playing with like the sensibility and the feeling that the movie is going to give you. Music helps the relationship on the set, Like when we've been able to work together, it's it's really been wonderful to have like the environmental version of directing, where where we all are together kind of vibing and there are relationships that are separate and the characters are part of it and we're doing this thing together. I think that

feeling gets into the movie. So Jerry mc would you say that, Jerry McGuire, that blows things open for you. That's a big hit movie. H that's you got number one in the call sheet there. I just came from London shooting with him and no, no, it's a singular experience, number one. When you work with Tomas you can never complain that you're tired. Yeah, and you can never complain

that you're in pain. That it happened once Tom broke his leg in October, like really fucking smashed his legs and he's back to working like nine weeks or wherever the it was. So when you work with him, I love him the best. So you could do the movie that obviously changes everything for you. Yeah. When he said yes that that that change things. But but he said it in a way Alec that like, you know, your friends take your sense, you know. Tom Cruise says, yes,

you lose your power. You can't do a thing. It just becomes a freight train that's out of control. And it's a freight it's a Hollywood freight train. You'll be lucky if you see the back of the caboose and and you get terrified. And then Tom Cruise calls from England, so I read your script. I hope I'm the right guy for you. Let me come out and read it for you. And you're like, wait, you want to come out and read it? Yeah, why why not know if it's right for both of us? Let me read it

for you. See if I'm the guy for you? And he was that guy from the moment he got off the twice and and hope to work with him again. And when you do the movie and the movie becomes a success because you you know, you make small movies and you're like everybody. You start off from one place and then you end up in another place. How does that change once the movie makes a lot of money

and you're directing movies with big movie stars. Do people except back and go whatever you want, Cameron, whatever you want, baby, you do get easier, you do Well, we never knew that Jerry McGuire was going to do that. Well, it's the same old thing you know of. Is it an in between movie? Because it's sports and it's also a romance and sports guys, I don't want to see romance

and romance is confusing people. You're confusing people. So there was a big there's a big issue about you know, is this one of those Robin Williams movies that you know? And you're like, I just remember being in these rooms when everybody said, you don't have a star, what are we gonna do? Now we have one, and they're like,

what are we gonna do? So you know, over Thanksgiving weekend, Bob Cooper cut together, like one of the executives who just arrived, I think, cut together a version that was both and we watched it and it was like, fuck, football can live with Rene Zellweger running through a street and you're feeling love and romance. It's like it can work. And it was a very very interesting thing because like it was the first Tom Cruise movie that had like

not a high want to see. So they were doing testing and they were going like, you know, you're gonna get killed by the Preacher's Wife. It's coming out the same way you're gonna get killed. You know, this is a changing of the guards, this is a new day, and you know it's gonna be Preacher's Wife. Tom was doing the Cooper movie already at that time, came from London to New York and said, boys, I'm gonna do some promotion and he started on a Monday, did Rosie did,

Larry King did everything. By the end of the week, our numbers were way high, was starting to go down and he basically blew us a kiss and went back to England. In the movie opened, it was the brawn of him coming to say, okay, guys, I act for free. This is what you pay me for. I'm gonna give him everything I got for this movie. And then when that movie comes out and that's a huge hit, that's when you decide you want to do well. You feel like that in the back pocket. Now we can Now

we can do like the Labor of Love. And they were great. We did it for DreamWorks and Spielberg said shoot every word, which I've never heard before or since. And uh, we started with all of the casting imperatives. There we no finish, we can say. We started to run. We started to run along and I got a message back, like Stephen says, shoot every other word. For a while, the no, there was no casting imperative. In fact, you will dig this. Um it was gonna be Brad Pitt

as the Billy Crudup character. And um, we we worked on it and it just he started to drift away. I still haven't had the definitive conversation with him on why it didn't work out, but didn't work out, but somewhere I have Brad Pitt and Natalie Portman trying out for Penny Lane, and the portrait of the two of them together is is riveting, but a completely different movie.

And Spielberg said, cast anybody wants, as long as he's right, And it came down to Billy and Christian Bale, and they both were great, and it was kind of like, I'm gonna go with Billy, and he learned how to play guitar in six weeks and was the guy of destiny. He was the guy of Destiny and they let me make it, you know, with with all the so called bells and whistles, which really was being being able to shoot up with John Toll and get all the sets,

ride and go back to sand Kid. Yeah, it's told the only person to win the Oscar back to back years. Bart he's great, and I think he worked on Monterey popper Woodstocker un. I mean he actually was there shooting for part of that era, so he knew what real

he knew what authenticity was. And led Zeppelin said yes and let us use the music, which was incredible to go to England and show the movie to led Zeppelin with the editor and sit in a small room on the one day that Jimmy and Robert like spend together going over Zeppelin business. We're in the back row. It's just like five of us. And every time the two heads of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant would come together to talk talking about something, We'd like, what what are

they talking about? What are they talking about? And and um, and then was over. They they were kind of emotional, and Robert Plant said, I have a I have a bottle of queluds I've been saving since nineteen eighty and I'm gonna take one tonight. And then we went across the street talked about the music and Jimmy Page says, I would like one of our acoustic songs, one more of our acoustic songs in there, and I'll let you have it for free, just find a place for it.

And I I was like, damn, you're supposed to be the people that say no music for anyone. And so they said, like, the movie is coming from the right place, and how great is Jeff Buckley, And they just started talking about Jeff Buckley, Page and Plant like fans exactly what we're talking about, like the way you want to hear musicians you love talking about the musicians they love. And it was Jeff Buckley who unfortunately died playing immigrant song I've heard.

I loved all the musicians that helped us on Almost Famous, because they all pitched in, they all gave us like a good price on the music, and loved that we played so much of it. Writer, director, journalist Cameron Crowe After the Break Cameron Crow on what it feels it's like after the success of Jerry McGuire and Almost Famous to have a movie fall flat in the eyes of the outside world, plus the story of his definitive interview with the great Billy Wilder, which became the book Conversations

with Wilder. This song is led Zeppelin's Tangerine, which Crow uses to amp up the nostalgia as the tour bus drives away. At the end of Almost Famous, this is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing you Street. That's led Zeppelin's Misty Mountain Hop, also from Most Famous. Another great use of song capturing the swelling pride of will The Cameron Crowe character when he loses his virginity. Now back to the real Cameron crow on making a movie that is not a hit. Is it painful? Is

it so searching? Do you getting in a minivan and drive cross country and meditate? It's a great What do you do in the wake of the one? We sit there and go, I miscalculated something. You definitely do that. Um, but you also know that sometimes time is the component that's not in play yet, and over time stuff that I've done and movies that I appreciated that other people have done, time adds a little something, sometimes takes it away,

but it adds something. So some of the movies, like Elizabethtown, got a strange reaction when it first came out. I love Elizabethtown. I love what we did, and I love the purpose of elizabeth Town. Not everybody got it. But as it's for my dad, as as almost famous, was very much a kind of portrait of my mom. I wanted to I wanted to say something about my dad. And Um, as time goes on, more and more people

really get that movie, like really get it. Like when people started to say to me, I saw your movie or I read something that you wrote and it kind of changed my life. It took me a long time to to kind of wrap my head around that, and then it became something that I was so proud of. And if you're able to just like touch people in a certain way, they remember you forever. They remember the movie of the line or the character forever. So I

just love the game. It's really they're all going. So the thing is, like Kirsten Dunce's character and Elizabeth Town for example, like understood, less understood, now kind of understood again. It's the acronym the guy came up with to describe her character, Anni Pixie dream Girl. Yeah, well it was Lucille Ball, so you know, totally Mary Tyler more and um and that character was patterned after a real person

and so it's kind of authentic too. But the thing is it's disappointing, but then you never lose the desire to get back on the horse. And just like you know what, stand doing what you're doing, meaning maybe it doesn't perform because it is a business according to plan, would you go right back into it the same way you do it? You don't change the way you're doing. When I first started out, like given the opportunity to

do it. My thing was like, I want to make movies about the people that never get movies made about them. And I still believe that, I still like say anything. Was that for me? Like a guy like Lloyd? I mean it was patterned after my next door neighbor, really, who was just a completely unique, soulful guy, lived died at a very young age. Was like a young motivational speaker,

was a you know, fledgling kickboxer. I was trying to figure out the main male character in the script, and this guy knocked on my door and said, I'm from Alabama. I'm here in town. My father is under investigation for income tax, and I'm gonna be doing some kickboxing later tonight. Would you like to come see me? And I'm like, no, I'm busy trying to come up with a creative character. Wait a minute. He come back, Yeah, come back? And

that that guy. Actually I didn't go watch him kickbox, And I said I might and go out to like Sam Bernardino and watch him kickbox. I didn't make it. Next morning, I hear like boom in our apartment place, boom, boom, boom, what's happening? I go downstairs. He's got a bag hanging from the pipes in the in the parking lot, parking crush, and he's working out again. And he turns around and guy's black and blue. He was decimated in his fight. And and I said, I guess I didn't go too well.

And he goes, He goes, I'm back at it next Friday, and I think I'm gonna do well and I want you there and and I was like, this is a warrior for optimism. I love this and this is life. No, I didn't go why But I went and hung with him a lot and we watched a lot together. So he's gonna make it a movie about him. Um in the end. In the end, Lloyd was based on it. Diane was supposed to be the main character. When we first started doing Say Anything, the Ione Sky character was

the main character. Lloyd kind of took over along with Lowell my next door neighbor and um. And that was another thing. It's like, real life is going to deliver you some of the best stories. Like you just sit tight and listen and watch because life is the best writer. Now. Of course, when you love movies, classic films, whether they were in the TCM, Wheelhouse or not. People will say to me, who you know, who do you want to

work with? Who do you want to work with? I said, well, who do you think I want to work I want to work with Bogart, I want to work with John Houston, William Holden. I just wanted to I just watched Bridge on the River Quiet the other day again. And so for you, how does the connection happen? How do you get the hook into Wilder? Meat Wilder? You know, I fell in love with his stuff when we were working

on Jerry McGuire. I just fell in love with this stuff, and and the apartment spoke to me in such amazing way. I got like a vintage poster and I wanted to go visit Billy Wilder and have him sign it. And I did, and he was kind of where at his office, Uh in Beverly Hills. You're an established director who just wants to meet him? Yeah? Yeah, And so there was

a there was an appointment made like two o'clock. So I go to this little office building and uh, and I have like my poster and a tube and everything, and two goes and to thirt e goes, and three goes. Three thirty and uh, I'm getting ready to leave, and like four o'clock here comes Billy Wilder like crossing the street, and I'm like, excuse me, Mr Wilder, Cameron Crow, I'm here. Cia was supposed to call you to tell you that

an appointment I got to a call. I got no call from c A. Why don't they call me for work? Why don't they call me for work? If they call me, they should call me for work. Well, well, okay, who am I signing this post? You want to sign a poster? Want to sign a posters? Caramon, get me a funk and I go up to his office and um, he signs the poster and starts talking to me about carry grant and I'm like, I'm sitting in fucking Billy Well

there's office and he's telling me carry grant stories. Thinks I'm like a p A for somebody at C A A. He hasn't quite put it together. Starts telling about like they should have called me for this and that, and you know Schindler's list was mine at a certain point, and like that was a great go Mr Wilder. I'm making a movie and myself and I would like you to play a part in it. I'm not an actor, Hire an actor, but it's great. It's like it's like

you're a sports agents mentor. Okay, okay, okay, okay, you come and find I come and do it. I do what I do. I come in. I was so happy. I went to get some cigars. I brought him back some cigars. Jerry McGuire comes together. We're in the rehearsals. I haven't been able to get a hold of him. Tom Cruise is standing there and Cruise goes, when do we get to meet Billy Wilder? I go, let me call him. It's like call his office and you know, miracle. He picks up the phone. Mrs Wilder, it's camera crow.

Who I'm the guy. I'm doing this movie with Tom Cruise. And we talked about a part, and um, I'm I'm just at the rehearsals, so maybe you can come and just be a part of it. You know, I'm going to piss ice water on you right now. I'm not an actor. Hire an actor. You're bothering an old man. I'm I'm going to say goodbye to you now, goodbye. Click and now like Tom Cruise is standing there with Bonnie Hunt like Wendsy counting, and I said, my dad,

I think he's not in a good mood today. And um, you know, I'll try and ate like raining and terrible kind of moody situation. Cruise, who you know it goes, Let's go to him right now, Come on, where's your keys? Let's go. So now I'm driving through the rainy streets with Tom Cruise going please don't let me get an accident because it is Tom Crumble ones in the car and number one in the car traveling. So we get to the office, think goodness, Billy Wilder is still there.

He opens the door. He looks annoyed. Then he looks next to me and sees it's Tom Cruise and suddenly says, come in, come in, Come in, come in, and proceeds to flirt with Tom Cruise the whole time, where they're like perfect, just loving, lashing him with nose like Tom's like, we really want you to play this part. No, no, you must hire an actor. No no, no, no no no. I mean, why wouldn't want to be in a movie with you? You tell me, why why would you make

such a movie? What is the perfect I'm going, Oh fuck, Billy Wilder, do not unravel the movie and rehearsal with Tom Cruise because Tom's like, tell him about the movie. I'm like, it's sports agent, like kind of like tell him a story. And while there's listening, and it's not sparkling with love for this story, and Cruise is looking at him and looking at me, and I'm going, I'm now gonna everything's gonna be shipped because of this. Wilder goes, how will you have sympathy for such a sports age?

How you have sympathy? I got what you know? A little kid tells him to funk off in the beginning, and his heartbreaks, and he I think Lemon should have had more problems with him in the apartment. I think Lemon should have had a limp. So something like a limp would have helped us with the sympathy, and and Cruises looking at me, and I'm going, well, I think Jeremy is a very sympathetic character. And I think you're gonna love it. I think you're gonna love Okay, okay, okay.

It's nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, especially you, he says to Tom, and delighted and we leave and uh, and of course he doesn't play the part. We hire the the business affairs guys guy at try Star who is so not an actor but was fantastic. Movie comes out first week, goes by phone rings, It says Billy Wilder on the on the caller, I d so I'm shipping already. I picked up Hello, Mr Cameron Crow. I enjoyed your picture. Who is this guy who played my part? Well,

he wasn't really not he was good. He was good. I liked him very much. I liked the Billy Bob Thornton movie this year a little bit more than yours. But yours is good. Yours is good. Uh, come and visit me if you'd like to do something for your column. And I go, I don't really have a column, but I'm gonna come visit you. He says, the same place.

I'll be there tomorrow. Yeah. So I went and just started interviewing him for my column which didn't exist Archer and turned into the book which he argued against, like, do do they really care about me? Do they really want a book of me talking to they? Really? Does

this generation really care? And in the course of these interviews, Alec, like you know, Sam Mendis would show up and Curtis Hansen would come along on some of these things, and and and Jerry Moss, her Balbert's partner was was Billy's you know, music friend, and he would come along on stuff. And Billy just started to really get into the idea of this book project. And he he said, one night, and this is like a huge thing. We went out to dinner with his wife and Audrey was amazing, and

Audrey goes to the bathrooms. Now it's just the two of us. I've been interviewing Billy Wilder for about a year and a half and he goes, Okay, is this book really going to come out? And I said, yeah, of course. He said, because if this was all just for you, that's fine. And I realized he was basically telling me, you know, if you if you wanted film

school with Billy Wilder, that's cool, that's cool. But what I sensed was I'd like to read it before I check out, you know, like I'd like the book to come out at a point where I live in the same world, because I'm not the youngest guy in the world. So I threw it into overdrive. We finished the book. He loved the book, Alec it was great Vandy Fair asked him right before he died, asked him what was on his stand, and he said Conversations with the Wild,

A fitting tribute to two incredible talents. In his films, Cameron Crowe has used songs from Simon and Garf, Uncle, Yes, Rod Stewart, Lou Reid, Peter Gabriel, Paul McCartney, and several cuts from another band We Both Love the Who, for example getting in tune in the opening scenes of Jerry McGuire underlining Tom Cruise's intensifying emotions as he writes his mission statement. As an actor who's worked with Cameron Crowe, I can confirm he's the greatest partner you could possibly

have in filmmaking. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing and I'm gonna chi