(upbeat music)
(laughter) - Welcome to Close Up with The Hollywood
Reporter: The Producers. I'm Matthew Belloni, Editorial Director of The Hollywood Reporter, and I'd like to welcome our guests today. Judd Apatow, Eric Fellner,
Ridley Scott, Seth Rogen, Amy Pascal, and Jason Blum. Alright, so, we live in a
very politically charged time, and we are living in an age
with more media available than anything in the history of the world. I'd like to know if you guys think that film can still have a social impact. And if so, how? We'll start with Judd. - That's a good question. I don't think there's
any way to really know. How I think about it
is, Jon Stewart's work and South Park's work, I
think, has led to a younger generation thinking
about things differently, maybe being more tolerant. You know, if you're a kid and
you've watched Jon Stewart and Trevor Noah make fun of
people who are prejudiced and the people who treat people
bad or just bullshitters, you might begin to form your
way of reading the news. But I don't know if one
movie rocks the world in such a way that people go, "Wait a second, I don't like Trump." (laughter) I don't think that's happening. But I do hope that if
people see The Big Sick, they might think, oh, I
don't know that much about a lot of people who
immigrate to this country and maybe I could tune in a little bit and be more compassionate. - Jason, what do you think about that? Get out, obviously, is one type of movie, but has a message that
may resonate beyond that. - Yeah, I actually, I don't know. I don't think anyone is gonna
change their political party for a movie, but I do
think that The Big Sick is a great example of a movie
that opens your eyes to, you know, different things. I think film is very, very
important in that way. Obviously, I think Get Out is,
but I think everyone's movies at this table, I mean, a movie
about this critical moment in how Churchill was leading the world makes people think about
things differently. I really do think movies are
super relevant and get people to think about social
issues in a different way, and obviously I think that about Get Out. One of my favorite things
that Jordan always says about Get Out is that when
you come into the movie, white people may relate to Alison more and black people might
relate to Daniel more, but by the end of the movie,
everyone is on the same side. That's probably my favorite
thing about the movie. I think that's so important. - How about The Post? Obviously you're dropping
this movie into a very politically divided audience
and there's a lot of discussion of the media and the role of the media. What do you hope to achieve with The Post? - Well, I think the great
thing about The Post is it's about the awakening
of Katharine Graham, a woman who was somebody's
daughter and somebody's wife and somebody's mother, who
never had a job in her life, whose husband kills himself, and all of a sudden she is
now running this newspaper. It's about the moment
where you make a decision and you become a completely
different person. I think that the movie is, hopefully, in a long tradition of
movies that celebrates people that take a risk. Those are all the movies that we loved when we were growing
up, or I was growing up. They made me want to be
who I still want to be. Movies always inspired me,
characters always inspired me. I hope that's still true. - You asked the question
about whether we're relevant in the conversation, and
I think we have to be in relation to all the other
media that's out there, and I think movies, as
these guys have said, can absolutely change
or push a conversation, but only if they're good. And if they're not good, if
we're not all making good movies then people are gonna migrate
away from going to the cinema. - And also, if we don't care about that, if we're not doing that,
then who is going to? - Seth, what inspires you? What causes you to say,
"Yes, I have to do this." (Jason laughs) - Um, a few things. One is some sort of idea
that I heavily relate to in some way, just it takes a long time to work on these things often. So, something that I have
some emotional connection to, something that I would go see, that I'd probably be angry if
I saw that someone else made and I was like, why didn't I make that? That's something that drives
me a lot, (laughs) jealousy. - Jealousy of actors.
- Of my peers. We try to make things that
have some real element of risk to them, and I
think that is, you know, with things like The Big Sick, honestly, one of the things I've heard
the most about it is how it's inspiring to see ideas
that you wouldn't think, you know, are starring the type of person that you would normally see in a movie, or about the type of thing
that you would normally see a movie about, or have
jokes that you couldn't believe you would ever see in
a movie or just content that you wouldn't believe
you would see in a movie. I think those types of things, to me, are honestly some of the
most exciting things, where people, and you feel
it, are in a movie theater and they're kind of looking
at the person beside them being like, "I kind of can't believe "this is even in a movie in some way." That can be an umbrella
thing with the movie or just little moments within the movie, but those are the things
that I get most excited by, when people are watching
something that they're surprised they're seeing and that they're
surprised they're liking it. I think that's the kind
of stuff that makes people want to express
themselves themselves. They see something that they're like, oh, I can talk about that? I can be in movies if I look like this or if I'm from this part of the world? I can succeed even though
everything is telling me I can't? I think that's the kind
of stuff that I like. - Ridley, what inspires you? - I think you guys have said it all. (laughter) I'm a news hound. One of your biggest difficulties,
apart from doing historic films about things in the
past which are inspirational, inspiration tends to
ring a bell on history. I like to feel, and I'm
always looking for something that is now or slightly ahead of the game. You can actually last
through that and maybe, it's a good warning system. It's why I talk about this
little guy in North Korea. What do you do? - I do think it's hard
to have this conversation and not talk about the technical aspect of movies versus TV. I think that windowing,
and I don't really, my opinion about windowing
has changed a million times. But definitely the fact
that it still exists is driving people to television. So, the actual question about-- - When you say windowing,
you mean the fact that movies are in theaters, or-- - The movies are in theaters
for four months before you can see it at home, and people
don't wanna leave their house because their entertainment
systems are so good and so cheap, and it's
a self fulfilling thing, because now the content in
your house has gotten better and better, there's more
money being invested, so it's a self fulfilling prophecy. I have a theory that when,
if windowing collapses, the 90 to 120 minute
format, the movie format, will become more relevant again. - Hmm, interesting. - I don't mean to sound
righteous or anything, but everybody at this table
makes really good movies. I've just started being a producer, but these guys have all made movies-- - [Jason] You've made a lot of movies. (Seth laughs)
It counts, it counts. - Does that count?
- Yes, it does. You've made more movies than anybody here! - It's like when you're
dating someone for a long time and then you get married. - It counts, it counts more.
- No, no. No, I never thought it counted. - Well, it does.
- Okay. It's a lot harder producing,
I'll tell you that. (laughter) I think that studios are afraid to make certain kind of movies. That stuff ends up on television. Everybody then makes things
that are good for television and commercial for movie theaters. I don't think that we can let that happen. - I think it's a product of
that television and streaming television is a black
hole of need for product. - (laughs) So am I. (laughter) - A lot of these services,
they need so much stuff that they have to get out of the way, and so they're willing to take chances. Something has happened which
I've noticed in TV, you know, just from being in it for
a very long time is that there's now a profit motive in
taking chances in television. - And there isn't in movies. - It used to be lowest common denominator, and now it's like, how far can you go? The movies haven't found a way
to have that profit motive. Your movie is the example
of, oh, we can do this at this price and it
can make this much money and they'd need to place
more bets that way, but their main bets are, does
this work in China and Russia? That knocks out most of
the movies that a lot of us want to make because
a lot of great movies, you know, they're not built for-- (crosstalk) - The thing about that
is, who decides that? Who predecides that and
supersedes the creative instinct? The creative instinct
constantly gets quashed unless you get into a
position where you can argue and say, "I'm gonna do this." But there aren't many like
that, 'cause everyone wants to get this film going
and you're inevitably gonna be watered down by higher up people. - But that's why I think we should all, to your point of making quality movies, I think, this is gonna be,
maybe, slightly controversial, but the way to combat that is to bring the cost of the movie down. - I agree with that. - As soon as you pull the cost down-- - Wait, wait, how does that affect my fee? (laughter) - You'll do very well, you just get paid after
the movie comes out. But if you pull the
price down of the movie, it doesn't matter about writers, it doesn't matter who's in the movie. - You've gotta actually
tackle the union on that one. I'm still very much in
advertising with 60 directors and we're constantly, "Can't shoot here." Like, you can't shoot films in Los Angeles because you can't afford to. - He does. - We made Get Out for four
and a half million dollars. - [Ridley] But you're non-union. - We're all union. We're a union signatory. We make our movies in 21 days. - So how did you manage to do that? - We make our movies in 21 days. We take no producing fee
and edit all above the line. It is zero.
- But what qualifies you to be within union and have-- - He has his own rules. - No, no, no, I don't have my own rules. (crosstalk) It's Tier 1 union. Get Out-- - So, it's the price of the film. - Yep.
- The price of the film. Every movie that we do
is five million bucks. It's great that they're profitable. That's not why we do it. We do it for all the
reasons we're talking about. How do you make edgy, different stuff and not have to cast so and so? Not have to please so and so? - The worst outcome of this
is if Ridley agrees with you. (laughter) - I disagree! - [Judd] And he starts making
five million dollar movies. They'd still be good. - They'd be incredible! Make a movie with us! - I mean, we make movies
exclusively that are the exact type of movies everyone says
they don't make anymore. - Yes, you do. - Those mid budget 20 to
35 million dollar movies that have enough money where
we can do what we need, but essentially work backwards from, like, what's the number where
you'll leave us alone? To us, I think, the budget is as much a creative decision as anything else. - Yeah. - You are setting your own
parameters, and we just know. If it's this much, they'll expect this, and if it's this much,
they'll expect this. And as long as we keep it in this range, we'll be able to do whatever we want and we will have the
resources that we need, and as long as the movies are
good and we are, in some way, able to stay afloat, then
they'll let us keep doing it. - There's only one person at this table who can qualify to answer this question. - Yes. - Because you were head of a studio, and that's the hardest single thing to do 'cause you've gotta read God knows what from Friday to Monday, make
decisions on next week, decide to put your money on black. You can be right or you can be wrong. That's the hardest thing.
- Yes. And you're wrong-- - [Jason] I agree with you. - And you're wrong plenty. But if you are afraid of being wrong and if you're afraid of people saying, "You were wrong, what an
idiot, why did they do that?" Then it's a really rough job. - You can't be afraid of being wrong. - You can't be afraid of being wrong. You can't be afraid of
the public humiliation and everyone saying, "You
don't know what you're doing." You can't, you can't be driven by that. You have to be driven by what
you actually want to see. - [Ridley] Correct. - [Jason] But if the
movies are low budget, it's easier to be wrong. - Yeah.
(laughter) I've been wrong on every level, let me tell you.
- But it is relative. I mean, you've done brilliantly in creating this niche of that number. It's as Seth was saying, it
can be other numbers as well where you can still be
very safe, you know, in the 15 to 20 million range
where you've got something that can do some international business. - Yeah, I agree.
- The TV output deals. There can be levels,
but you're totally right about making sure the costs
are as low as possible. - Seth and I made a
lot of movies together. - You greenlit Superbad. - Yes.
- I did. - And Pineapple Express. - And Pineapple Express
and This is the End. - Sausage Party, actually. - We had a lot of success
for the very reason that Seth is talking about, because people wanted to see
things that were different, and people wanted to see
things that they didn't think they were gonna see in movie theaters. And witness the movies
that are working now. It's the same thing.
- Baby Driver, which you made happen. - All these kinds of movies,
when people get something good and they get something different, I am a believer that they're gonna come. I believe it, I do. I always have. - I wanna talk a little bit
about creative processes. As we said, you greenlit Superbad, and you guys have collaborated on that-- - I've collaborated with
everybody at this table. (laughter)
Happily. - What is the creative
collaboration process like between Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow? - Uh, I mean, at the time,
it was very, you know, we had never written a
movie that had been made. And we were very young and very much in the thing we were trying to write about and admittedly did not
fully have the perspective, I think, required to make
the movie as well rounded as it ultimately was. We for sure used some coaxing
from Judd to really explore the thing that we had
written about, you know? When we first started
working on it together, I was like 19 or 20, and it was about 18 year olds, basically. And me and Evan, my
partner, had just split up, which is what the movie was about. He was in college and I was in LA and we were experiencing the
things the movies were about and so it really took Judd saying, like, you need to lean more into this stuff. To us, it was a little raw, basically. But he was very supportive,
and we were treated the way that writers would want to be treated and we were very happy
with, you know, the dynamic, and it's something that we
think of today, honestly, when we're dealing with writers
and we're producing things that have a strong vision
for what they're doing, we look back and think, like, how did Judd treat us when
we were making Superbad? Like, it was only a helpful process. We felt very nurtured. He pushed us very far and
hard to explore things. But at the same time, I remember, at the end of the day, he was like, "It's your script and you
can do what you want," which was contrary to the TV
show I was working on with you (laughter)
where I remember being, like, do I have to listen to all these notes? And you're like, "Yeah,
you gotta listen to them." And I was like, oh, but it's
different with the movie we're working on because those
are two different dynamics. - Why did you think this
guy was a movie star? (Seth laughs)
- Look at him. - (laughs) Exactly. I put my money on Blum. (laughter) - We all met Seth when
he was 16 years old, so it's amazing to be at the table here with Seth as a producer. - That's nice, 16!
- It's a wonderful thing. Very early we thought, oh,
this is an interesting guy. We auditioned him for Freaks and Geeks. I got a tape and I remember looking at it and just thinking Seth was hilarious. I just thought, "This
is a really weird dude." (laughter) Then when we started working on the show, we realized he was a very
soulful person underneath his gruff exterior and he
was a great improviser. We asked him to write for
the TV Show Undeclared after Freaks and Geeks got canceled. Then, we table read Superbad
years before it was made. - It took a long time to get made. - No one wanted to make it,
and the funniest part about it, which we always talk
about, is that for a while there was a producer working with us. - Yes. - And he said, "Yeah, let
me try to get it made," and he couldn't, and then
he got a job as the head of a studio and we said, "Oh,
I guess we'll make it now," and he said, "No, I'm not gonna make it." (laughter) - It was shocking. - But Amy was the only person in town. It got turned down by every
financier at every budget level. There were people that when we said, "What if we did it for a million dollars?" And they're like, "No." (laughter) I believe after Talladega Nights came out and were in a groove of doing
some great work for Sony, one day Amy said, "Let's
just do Superbad." And then the same for Pineapple Express when no one in town had
any interest at all. - But it's like, Judd and Seth. You just believe in people
that you believe in, and when you meet people who
are good at what they do, you let them do it. That's how it works, that's
how it's supposed to work. But I want to say one more thing just about Judd for one second. I also remember that he called
me into, I don't know where. He ran over to my office and said, "You've gotta see this girl "that we're casting as Jonah's girlfriend. "You've gotta see this
girl, she's something." And it was Emma Stone. He's like, "She's it,
she's gonna be a star." - Wow. - He is one of the best
spotters of talent. - How do you choose? You must be inundated with people that wanna work with you now. - I'm not at all, that's
the funniest part. (laughter) - Really? - I'm always looking and
no one sends me anything. (laughter) I don't need to write
the scripts I direct, nobody sends me anything. (laughter) I'm always shocked at
how little mail I get. - I'm sending you a script this afternoon. (crosstalk) - But there's no answer to it
really, you just see people. When we were doing Superbad,
Seth and I and Evan Goldberg and Mottola, we're looking at people and all of us together are going, "Well, that's the girl who's so cool "who would've been nice
to us in high school "even though we were weird."
(laughter) You just have a feeling. And with McLovin, you know? We just said, "Oh, that kid." Christopher Mintz-Plasse is hilarious. - A great movie.
- There's no way to know why. - My favorite Amy story is,
we made Pineapple Express and we had very little
input from the studio, which was wonderful, and
we were at a test screening for the movie and it was playing
really, really, really well and Amy was sitting beside
me and she leaned over to me five minutes into the movie and she goes, "Now I get this!" (laughter) I was like, "You let us make it!" She's like, "I know, and I'm
glad, because now I get it." I was like, wow, she let us get
this far without getting it. You would never have had any indication that she didn't get it. Like, she just let us do it. - I learned from (mumbling). - Isn't the hardest thing
though running a studio? I always think the hardest thing-- - Oh god, did this become about writers? (laughter)
- No, I'm just curious. - Interesting.
- The hardest thing, I would think, is not saying yes but the amount of times you have to say no and when you spend all
this money in development and have these amazing, creative people and everything is incredible
and then you have to say no. I mean, isn't that
what's the hardest thing? - Yeah, I mean, and I'm
not that good at it. (laughter) I kind of wander around. (laughter) - That's the funniest
part of the Sony hack, is when all my emails went
public, they were all just emails of Amy and Doug
Belgrad saying no to me. (laughter) "You want to tell him no?" Or, "He's crazy." "The sequel to Pineapple
Express for 50 million? "No!" - Oh, that's hilarious. - Having worked together so
much and having such success, what did you guys learn from the hack? About each other and about the world? - We're closer than we've ever been. (laughter) - I learned that there are true
blue people in our business who stick up for you and are
with you through anything. - And what did you learn? - Um, yeah, I mean, a lot. It was a real interesting,
I mean, what did I learn? (laughter) - [Eric] Don't do it again. - Yeah, I wish it had another set piece in the third act, honestly. (laughter) I have some creative thoughts. - Maybe for the sequel. - Yeah (laughs). - You know, I still use fax. Steve Jobs used fax. I still use fax, 'cause a
fax, you just see the piece of paper, I get it, I
write on it, fax it back, and it's entirely confidential. - I love a fax. - Email is everywhere in a
heartbeat, so I never put anything on email I'm
gonna be embarrassed about. - I wish I could say the same. (laughter) - I still get emails
from Amy where I'm like, what are you doing? (laughter) (soft upbeat music) - Ridley, what attracted
you to the Getty story? - Good script. I didn't develop it. There's two good scripts that've landed in my lap over the years. Actually, three. Alien was very good,
and I was fifth choice. They gave it to Robert Altman. (laughter) (crosstalk) The other one was American
Gangster with Steven Zaillian who said, "This thing's been
sitting on the bloody shelf. "Read it, please tell me I'm not crazy." I went, "Wow!" So, we made that. Then, the same thing
happened to me from Scarpa. A great script, great material. (dramatic music) - You used to be a spy. - [Gail] My child is a prisoner. - $17 million, or they will
take his eye, his ear, the hand, and don't tell me you
don't have the money. - Who was it that said
that, was it Hitchcock? It's all about the script, script, script? - Yeah. - It's all about the goddamn script. The thing about writers are, there's a few writers at this table. I can write but I can't
write as well as you guys, so I can afford the people like you guys, so why should I do that? I'd rather make movies. (laughter) But you know, it's all
in the written work. I know within a paragraph when I'm gonna be in good hands or not. By the time I get to page 10,
I'm beginning to perspire. You know, I'm thinking,
"Please don't drop the ball, "please don't drop the ball." Page 30, now beads of perspiration. Holy shit, what are you getting at? Writing is everything, it is everything. Everything else is dressing. - Well, when we did The Big Sick, they worked on that script for three years and no one bought it. They weren't getting paid. We just thought it was a good idea and a very difficult idea to execute well, because a lot of it takes
place in a hospital. There's something kind of dark and sad about a woman in a coma. The immigrant experience in
America wasn't something that you felt like the world was
dying to have a movie about. - So, uh, 9/11. No, I mean, I've always
wanted to have a conversation about it with people. - You've never talked
to people about 9/11? - For three years, they worked really hard to crack all those problems. Like, how do you make this interesting? How do you make this funny? How do you make people care about this? I feel like so many movies are rushed and the one thing I think
that we are pretty good about is just not going into production if we're not feeling
great about the script. - That was true of Get Out too. It was around for a long time. The movies get to us and they go around. At 10 million, we don't look at them. Then they're at eight million. When the budget gets to five,
we start to see the scripts. (laughter) - You know, I wanted to say
something about The Post because I bought this
script that was hand wrote. She got inspired and sat
down at her kitchen table and wrote a script, and
she didn't have an agent, and I was lucky enough to have somebody very enterprising that
worked at my company and stole it out of somebody's
hands and gave it to me. And the movie was there. Whatever else needed
to happen to the movie, the movie was there. To echo what Ridley said, you know immediately if it's a movie. You do. - It's usually from the names
that they call the characters and you immediately go, "Oh, no." It's the names, isn't it? It's the name. The name may never be spoken
during the entire bloody movie but I agonize over the names. Right there, ah, holy shit, okay. You're already at two out of 10. (laughter) - I have a question about Aaron Sorkin, 'cause you worked with him
for many years as a writer. - Yes. - What was the experience like working with him as a director? - The transition from him being a writer to him being a director was seamless. Immediately, you know, Mark
Gordon and I would go visit him on the set of Molly's Game and he'd go, "Hey guys, you don't need to be here." And we didn't. - For what it's worth, if we
went to trial, you would have to hand over the forensic
imaging in discovery. - But that's different than
voluntarily handing it over. - Sure, but it's not
really voluntary anymore when the alternative is prison. And that's what they're
gonna recommend, 42 months. - [Molly] Why do you keep
breaking eye contact with me? - I'm looking right at you. - You think I should do it. - You gotta let me keep you out of prison. - He kind of directs as a writer. (laughter) - He surely does.
- He directs from the page. - I was in a movie he
wrote and I was like, the whole time I was like, "Why are you not directing this?" (laughs) You clearly have
a very specific vision-- - And that's what we said to
him when we got the script. He's like, "Well, let's
get the best director." - I think the great writers,
and Eric Roth once said to me, I said, "Why don't you try directing?" He said, "Well, I do." What he's saying, every time
I've written the script, I have actually directed it. 'Cause it all happens in your head. If it doesn't, you ain't got a script. - You can feel it.
- Yeah, it's interesting. - I once read a Terry Southern
quote that it's the job of the director to destroy
the vision of the writer. (laughter) - I have a question for Eric. Between Darkest Hour and Dunkirk, we've seen these big World War II movies. Why do you think these
movies are resonating in this time right now? - I think the design
of them both being made in the same year is purely coincidental. I think that there's a
lot going on politically and socially that people can buy into. - There's literal Nazis
back, so that'd be-- - What'd you say, there's what? - Yeah, it's relevant.
- There's literal Nazis back. - It's relevant all over again. - That's true (laughs). - There's nationalism everywhere, there's hate and bigotry everywhere, and people are starting to
notice and go, "You know what? "We maybe need to stand up." - Yeah.
- Yeah. - That's what Churchill did in 1940. He got a lot of things wrong, but he got the big thing
right, and that was, you've gotta stand up to
this kind of oppression. Hopefully that's what will
resonate today with audiences. - I believe we are to meet regularly. - Once a week, I'm afraid. How is... How are you for Mondays? - I should endeavor to
be available on Mondays. - Four o'clock? - I nap at four. - Is that permissible? - No, but necessary. I work late. - Then perhaps lunchtime. - Lunch? - There's been a lot of talk about whether the creative community is going to respond to the current political
climate, but I'm curious about what you think of audiences
and whether audiences have an altered desire for
certain types of stories in a political environment like this. Do you think that? - I don't know, I go both ways on it because I think, in some
ways, people want a break. They just want to escape
into something else because we're all consuming so much news, and also so much satire, whether
we're watching Samantha Bee or Seth Meyers every night,
we're getting a lot of, I guess you would call it entertainment, but very serious-minded
comedy about what's happening. It takes years for that
to turn into movies and things are happening so fast. I'm not sure how quickly we can catch up to affect what's happening every day. - And also it's gotta be,
I think, for an audience, it's gotta be a great story. If the story is great and you
wanna be with those characters it doesn't matter whether it's
got a social message or not. If it's hidden in there
somewhere, that's great. They'll pick it out when they want it. But I think if you go in over
the top with a message movie, I think you're done. - I completely agree with that. - With the Big Show, Big Show,
I didn't make the Big Show. (laughter) I just stole the first two words of it. You know, The Big Sick
premiered at Sundance the day of the inauguration,
so we weren't thinking about any of this when we were making the movie, and then suddenly the Trump
thing became very real and there was all of this
talk about how Mexicans are rapists and not wanting to
let people into the country, and suddenly the movie felt
like it had some resonance around these issues, but
all we were trying to do was humanize these people
who live in the United States and suddenly that became a
political act of some kind. But it wasn't what we were
thinking about while we made it. - Even just as an audience
member of your movie, it wasn't even necessary. It was just a great story
around human issues, and that's where I came in on it. And then it was like, "Oh my god, it's really
interesting what's going on." - But it's people who are not
presented ever in the culture. Their lives aren't humanized,
so it's weird for people to go "Oh, that's how all of these
people live in our country. "I'm just seeing the Fox News version "that I should be
terrified of these people. "I'm not seeing that they're
just like me and they're just "going about their lives
trying to be happy." - And the Zeitgeist comes out,
and I'm sure with Get Out, you know, it was right in
the zone of what was going on in the world, but when you
started that movie a year ago, you know, you weren't
necessarily thinking about-- - Jordan, I think, I mean-- - [Amy] He probably was. - Jordan was, you know, racism never-- - Racism has been pretty
prevalent for quite a while. (laughter) - But to Eric's point, it's
very different and much worse now than it was two or
three years ago, much worse. Jordan describes Get Out, when
he first conceived the idea, he described it as an African American black man's nightmare,
literally a nightmare of a black man living in America. - Yeah. - What would surprise people about Jordan? - Jordan, in his personality, he comes off as very easygoing. And he's easygoing in that
he was a great partner and terrific to work
with and very amenable. But he definitely has an
incredibly strong point of view. The original trailer that we wanted to do, and when I say we, I say
myself and my partners at Universal, we wanted to have the moment of the dangling keys in the trailer. Jordan is a first time
director, and he now has studio that's about to spend $30 million opening his four and a half million dollar movie. I was completely in alignment
with Josh and Michael saying, "You have to put this moment
with the keys in the trailer." And technically, we could
do whatever we wanted. The first time we said it, you
know, he didn't have a fit. He just said, "Guys, I
think it's a mistake, "but let's go through the process." We tested it with it in,
we tested it without. The results came back saying, you know, we really should leave it in. It went on for four weeks. He let the process happen and
at the end of the process, there was never a contention,
he never raised his voice, and he just said, "Guys, I appreciate all the
thoughtfulness that you've done. "We can't put that moment in the trailer." And we didn't, and he was dead right. And it never happened with a fight. For a first time director
to make a studio change a key piece of marketing
which, by the way, I was on the side of the studio,
he comes at things softly but he has a super, super
serious point of a view and a super strong vision
and he makes it happen without World War III
happening around him, which is incredibly unusual. - Good to see another brother around here. - Hi, yes. Of course it is. Something wrong? - There you are. Do something with this. - Got it, yes, yes. - Oh, hello. I'm Philomena, and you are? - Chris, Rose's boyfriend. - Chris was just telling me how he felt much more comfortable with my being here. - You guys were open about
changing the ending of that film. - Jordan, yeah, we
wanted to change the end but that was a similar
situation where the movie ended initially and the lead
character went to jail. It was just Jordan and
I at that test screening and I didn't hold back. I just said, "You can't,
we can't leave him!" "You can't leave us here,
you can't put him in jail! "We just fell in love with this guy!" And then I felt badly
for saying it like that. - That's how Baby Driver ends. (laughter) - Judd did okay too. - [Eric] We should've come to see you. - But I am curious about that fact and changes that are made to films. I'm curious, Ridley, in your
career, have you changed a film or changed an ending that you-- (mumbling) - Laddie said to me, "Do
the girls really have "to drive off in the car at the end?" (Judd laughs) I said, the thing about this,
I said, it's a continuation. - You're talking about Thelma and Louise. - I froze it mid air. I did the shot, and the
car, of course (mumbling). It was really fucking depressing. (laughter) And then I brought that great
song in and that was it. It's the continuation. She said, "Shall we?" Yes, let's go, and they do that. Laddie, again with Laddie. I've done five films with him. Laddie's very brave. - [Amy] Laddie's very brave. - He always said, "That door
closes, you're out of there. "That's the end of the fucking movie." I said, "No, it's not. "There's a fifth act inside that shuttle. "The motherfucker's in there." And he said, "Really?" I said, "Yeah." He listened and he said, "How much?" So, I had a week to do that extra bit to put the song on the end. - Are there changes that have
been made that you regret? - I don't regret anything, no. - [Amy] Don't ask Seth. - I regret everything. (laughter) - It must be an agonizing process. You get one movie, and there's
five different ways to end it or five different ways to do a scene. You've gotta pick one. - You go back to the script though, 'cause hopefully you've
got it right on paper. But sometimes you don't. - Also you've got the director's cut. All films have gone
out being fundamentally the way it should be, it's always been. I will concede with the studio. If they're right, I'll listen. But you know what, maybe that's right. I don't really listen to, I don't like previews,
what do you call them? - Test audience.
- Test screenings. - I avoid them like poison,
'cause you're suddenly inviting 22 people to tell you what to do. Are you kidding me? (Amy laughs)
- Oh, I hate that part, but I love screening our
movie with an audience. What happens after is-- - He loves previews when they go well. (laughter) - But don't you like to see
your movies with an audience before you--
- No. - Before you lock the picture. - It's the same as, are you a critic? - I'm not a critic, god no. - So, I was thrashed,
thrashed 35 years ago, personally thrashed, by a
woman called Pauline Kael. Here it comes.
(Seth laughs) It was in the New York Times. New Yorker, very posh. Three and a half pages of destruction. I went, "Wow." - [Eric] Which movie? - Blade Runner. - Blade Runner. - In those days, an important
critic could actually affect and adjust the process. Because of that (mumbling). You know what I learned out of it? I wrote a very polite letter to Miss Kael, copies to the editor, saying, "If you hate something that
much, why waste three and a half "pages of destruction and negativity? "Why not just ignore
me or give me a column "and a half saying I'm terrible?" The problem about journalists,
we can't answer back. You just hit us, and we can't be, I'll meet you in the car park,
but we can't answer back. I think that's what's unfair about it. What you learn, never
read your own press ever. - That's for sure. - You do not subscribe to that. - [Eric] I don't, I don't. - Judd?
- About reading my own press? - You seem to obsess over
it on Twitter sometimes. (laughter)
- I used to, uh, but now there's so many critics. - And you write it. - Everybody in the world is a critic now. There aren't those people
who have that power anymore, and when you get your
number on Rotten Tomatoes, 700 of them are just guys who
live in their mom's basements. There are very few
people with credibility. - 'Cause now you can fight back though. - I don't know, you've made your movie. That's what you've made, and
the critic is then responding to what you've done, so
I'm interested to hear that you would want to respond to them. Also, it shines a light on the negativity. - No, I mean, if you get beaten up-- - It just hurts, man. (laughter) It just really hurts. - It hurts, but that's the
business that we're all in. - Yeah, but it's hard to deal
with that elegantly sometimes. (crosstalk) - It's a bit like being a writer. I was a painter for quite a long time, took it very seriously. Every morning, you're staring at a canvas and you're thinking, "Damn," because you're already getting
into, "I like what I see," or, "I hate what I'm seeing,
I've gotta paint it again." That's the process, okay? Therefore, at the end of
the day, as a creator, you should only be your own critic. - Yeah. - You've gotta let that distill. If you listen to other
people, I don't do that. - [Jason] That's fair, that's fair. - I remember when The Cable Guy came out and Warren Beatty said to me, "You don't know whether or not "you made a good movie for 10 years." In 10 years, you can look
back and go, how did I do? (crosstalk) - My thing is that you
look at the five top grossing movies from 1952,
you don't know any of them. So, the gross, the commercial
viability and the quality of the film have nothing
to do with one another. - Are you guys good at predicting that? Like, from your own movies? I've found, like, I
don't know, I find, like, we test our movies. I used to think that was
indicative of something. Over the years now, some
of the highest testing, now if they test too well, I'm suspicious. I'm like, is it just fucking garbage? Is it like the McDonald's of movies? It's just like, oh, everyone
loves it, it's great. And then I don't know if
it's gonna get good reviews. Those are the two thing
you're tracking the most, I guess, like, is it
critically received well and does it financially do well? Are you guys good at predicting that, do you find, from your movies? 'Cause I'm not (laughs). - I'm better at critical
than commercial, I think. I mean, I feel like I have a better sense of if they're gonna work critically. Commercially, you really never
know in either direction. - For me, in the
international marketplace, it used to be a lot easier. We could get to within
10, 20% in predicting. - Really?
- Yeah. You know, six weeks out, eight weeks out, once we've seen a director's cut. But now, it's impossible. The range is, you know, is it gonna do 10 million or 100 million? (Seth laughs)
- That's the problem. - There's so many films out there. There's too many movies. - Why do you think that? Too many movies being
released theatrically? - You know, no one wants to learn to be a brick layer anymore, or a-- (laughter)
(chatter) What about the normal jobs, you know? It sounds like we have a
very glamorous job and life. Well, actually, we do. - We do.
- But I do 100 hour weeks. That's normal, for years. So, making a movie that I do is, I love it, but is it challenging? Bloody right. That's why we do it. A lot of people think you
just come in (mumbling). It's like a rock and roll band. Half these successful
bands have been playing in the garage since
they were 11 years old. You don't just pick up an instrument at 22 and start playing and get lucky. It's a tough game. - I have a question about Franco. - Yes.
- James Franco. How is he as a director? - He was great. I mean, it was a very interesting process. The movie, we made a movie
called The Disaster Artist about the making of a
movie called The Room. Not Room with Brie Larson, but The Room. (laughter) That would've been an odd choice. (chatter) - The worst movie ever made. - It's known for being the
worst movie of all time, and it was actually while we
were filming The Interview that Franco read the book
about the making of The Room and while we were in Vancouver we went and saw it for the first time. One of the most interesting
ideas about the movie, to us, was that someone makes a piece of art hoping it's received one way. It is actually received for
the exact opposite reasons that you hoped it would, but the
result is actually the same. You become famous, people like you. You have movie stars making movies about. - It made money, it made money. (laughter)
You get paid. - Yeah, you're getting paid. And Franco, as someone who has
done a lot of weird art shit throughout his life,
constantly being misunderstood, misinterpreted, people thinking
that the shit he thought was great was stupid and vice versa, it was incredibly personal
to him in a weird way and he felt this weird
kinship with Tommy Wiseau who's the guy in the movie, so we really wanted to just support him. He had directed a lot of
movies but none that you would really describe was, like, real movies, I guess you would say,
so we got him writers that were incredibly talented,
Neustadter and Weber, who are just great writers, and we really just supported him. He's also the star of the movie, which I know from personal experience of acting and directing, is really hard, to monitor your own
performance and to literally just visually understand
what's happening at all times. We really just tried to support
him and talk to him a lot about what we were trying
to convey and get across and the type of moments we were trying to extract from the scenes. There was a lot of
improvisation in the movie, but it's not necessarily a
comedic movie at all times, so that was also a very
interesting process. And he was in character the whole time, so he would direct the movie
in character as Tommy Wiseau-- - In scene?
- With the voice? - With the voice in
full prosthetic makeup. (laughter) And there are scenes in the movie where he's directing a movie,
so that was really weird because he's directing a movie
where he's directing a movie in character directing a movie, but overall, he did a great job. - I hear everything! I have ears everywhere! I hear your whispers in your souls. You're on my planet, okay? - Wait, so you've been spying
on your entire production? - Yeah, that's right. - That's fucking crazy! - That's how it is, so now you know. Next time you make
laughter, ha ha ha ha ha. I don't care who you are,
you're out on street. - What about me, am I still fired? - Alright, I give you one more chance. - It's a very honest, sweet
movie about someone who takes a big risk and who puts
themselves out there and who tries to express
themselves, and does, just in a really (laughs) kind
of, the wrong way, basically. - Oh, it sounds great. - Which is Franco in a lot of ways. - Franco once said to me, he said, "Judd, can you give me all
the dailies to Knocked Up? "I wanna do this art thing "where I just cut a different movie." (laughter) - Yeah, and he did. (upbeat music) - Jason, you've made a lot of
movies with a lot of talent and you get talent to
work for reduced fees and you have a lot of product. What do you think is the
key to managing talent? - Communication. It's the key, and I think
of it how I'm managed, and I think it's communication. I think delivering news
quickly and being direct and telling the truth. There are a lot of things, but I think that's the most
important thing, just that. - What do you respect in a
producer when you're an actor? And how have you translated
that to being a producer? - I mean, as an actor, your
opinion is irrelevant (laughs) when it comes to the producer. I don't act in movies that
I'm not the producer of a lot, and when I do, I would
consider the best producers the ones that I, the actor,
have no contact with. (laughter)
(crosstalk) There is no reason for
the producer to be talking to the actor, probably, you know? As an actor, I have less sympathy, maybe, for the plight of the actor than maybe a lot of people do. I think that, you know,
I really think actors are like a part of the
crew in a lot of ways, and at times, they are the
fifth most important thing that is occurring on the screen. - Oh, I love this. (laughter)
- From an actor. - Exactly. - You know, there's a
moment where the shot is more important than you are 'cause you're that big on the screen. - Exactly.
(laughter) All I'm looking at is
how much smoke there is. - What's my motivation? - Exactly. (mumbling) - We had gotten the
lottery to shoot (mumbling) to shoot Get Out in
California and we lost it two weeks before we
were starting shooting. We lost the, whatever,
there was some complication. We were prepping and we were gonna shoot principal photography
starting in two weeks from the day that we lost it. I called Jordan, it was
Boxing Day, December 26th, and I called Jordan. I found out and I called
Jordan and I said, "We have to shoot the
movie somewhere else," and were two weeks out
from principal photography. - Yikes. - Yeah, it was not a fun call to make, but he totally took it like a
pro and we moved it to Alabama two weeks before we
started shooting the movie. - You filled out your paperwork wrong? (laughter)
(crosstalk) - Talking about talent management
and talent communication, I told him exactly what happened. I won't bore you with it here,
but he was an incredible, he was a trooper about it. But I think-- - But you know, pressure is
a great thing for a director. When you've got too much time to think, there's too much (mumbling) studying. You've gotta make a
decision and go with it. I learned making decisions
through doing commercials, before I even made movies. I was 40 when I made my
first movie, and it was easy. I did that and thought, "That was easy." But it's about making decisions, you know? And that's a hard thing to do. - How do you handle conflict? - Pretty good. (mumbling)
(laughter) - He punches people. - I punch first, you know? And then if they get up, I run like hell. - You know, Ridley, I think that's really
true about just working. The movie, The Post,
you know, the director, Mr Spielberg, called me, I
think it was in March, to say, once Trump actually got in office and all the insanity
started, The Post became a more relevant movie that
nobody was afraid to make. Not Fox, which is great and
I'm thrilled about that. But we were shooting by the end of May, and we were done in July, and
it's coming out in December. I've never seen anybody do that before. It's just because he knows-- - Decision.
- Decision. - Everything's a decision.
- That's great. - Don't ponder. - Yeah.
- If you ponder, go home and ponder. When you hit nine o'clock, don't ponder. (laughter) - You always find a way. - [Amy] Yeah, we do. - There's always a way in the end. - What were the key decisions that had to be made on Baby Driver? - When you have a writer director, it's very easy 'cause you
have the vision right there and my job is to make sure he can do the best possible thing. The only really big decision,
well, not big decision, big challenge, was getting the money. Actually, Amy was partly
responsible for making that happen. - That's very nice. - Were there specific songs in the script? - Yeah, the script was, I don't
know if we sent it to you-- - Yes.
- It was on an iPad. It was quite expensive. In development, we were
sending iPads everywhere. - [Amy] Yeah, you got to listen. - We could make a movie for the cost of sending that script out. (laughter)
(chatter) - You had to listen to the
music as you were reading it. - Oh, so the music would play
as you were reading through? - Yeah, it was awesome. - When you got to the scene, you just tapped the
scene description header and the music played as you were reading-- - That's more complicated
than any movie I've made. (laugher)
- Me too. - At the time I thought,
god, this is brilliant. We're gonna make an app
and we're gonna sell it in the industry, and then I thought, no one else is gonna do this. (laughter) But yeah, all of the
songs Edgar had chosen. Only one changed out of
50 songs in the movie. - Wow. - [Eric] We pre-approved
them all before we started-- - What was the song bill? - The song bill was substantially
less than you would think. I mean, we do a bigger version, not bigger but a more expensive
version of what Jason does. The only reason we've ever
been able to make the amount of films we make and the
varied amount of films we make at Working Title is by
keeping the cost low. I think being based in
London helps that enormously. - Yeah, right. - So, you know, you negotiate through the international rights and all those. We have a brilliant lady
who does all our clearances and it came in at a level
that meant we could do it. - So, you doubt our credentials? - Wall Street, right? - Doc tell you that? - Doc didn't tell me. Just an educated guess
from an uneducated man. - I would be fascinated to hear
your thoughts on the matter. - Tell me if I'm way off, Buddy. You were a stockbroker. Maybe a different wife, maybe kids. You stack your paper,
but you say shit like, "Work hard, play hard," but
you play a little too hard. You rack up debt, the type of debt that'd
make a white man blush. - Ridley, I'm curious about Harrison Ford, working with him on the
original Blade Runner and how-- - He's a replicant. (laughter) - It's solved. - First of all, when
he picks up that piece, the only reason for the origami,
and God bless Eddie Olmos who I love, that's not in
the book, it's origami. This man leaves a trim of origami as a comment on what he thinks. At the very end of the movie, I say, "How am I gonna tell,
subliminally, the audience, "that this guy is a replicant?" Well, in the middle of the
movie when he's plastered, piano playing and he dreams of
green and there's a unicorn, that can all be a private thought. When Harrison walks back
to the elevator, stops, goes back, picks it up
and does that and nods as if in agreement with
what he knows about Eddie. Eddie's seen his file. He's a replicant. Now, the new film, you
better go and see it. - I saw it, it's great. (laughter) - The whole point of the
story of the new film is that he has to be a replicant,
otherwise it didn't work. I'm not gonna tell it. - Don't give it away.
- Don't, no, no, no. - It sounds simple, but it
evolves nicely, doesn't it? - Yes, I loved it. It was mind boggling. All I kept thinking is
how much concept art they must have done. (laughter) Rooms and rooms of concept art. - Concept art is cheaper. You do it with three guys. I work out all my films
way before I get a crew, so everything right down to
the space suits and everything are all designed (mumbling). - And you work on the palette
for all of it before-- - Everything, everything,
shen you hit crew-- - Yeah, they all know. - You fly to Australia, you've distributed it amongst 600 people. - Wow.
- Wow. - And you stay on budget. That's how you do that film
for, say, a pretty tight budget. (laughter) - Only, yeah, 150? - No, no, no, no, but I'm
talking about what I do. - Oh, excuse me, excuse me, right. - My films, science
fiction, never pass 106. - That's amazing.
- That's amazing. - 106, 900.
- Bargain. - Well, Martian was 103, made 600. That's a good deal. - That's a good deal. - How do you decide which films to direct and which to not direct which you produce? You've revisited Alien as a director, but Blade Runner you chose not to direct. - It was a crossfire of too much business. I'm doing a lot of TV and a lot of films. There's six films going out
this year, and one of them was I figured it was a good piece
of business to follow through on Prometheus, which, from
ground zero, had good liftoff. So, we went to Covenant
to perpetuate the idea and re-evolve the universe of the area. I think the beast has
almost run out, personally. (laughter)
(Jason hushes) (crosstalk) You've gotta come in with something else. You've gotta replace that. I was ahead of the game, so
I had to make a decision. Denis was a terrific choice. - [Amy] Yeah. - Judd, I wanna get to
a serious topic with you about Harvey Weinstein
and some of the behavior that's been alleged against him. It shined a light on
the industry in general. What responsibility do
you think the industry has for this type of behavior and the fact that it went on for so long? - You know, it's a difficult question because there's a culture
of paying off people. You know, if you're sexually
inappropriate with somebody and they think, oh, if I speak up, am I suddenly a pain in
the ass to everyone else in show business and
I'll never work again? And then suddenly Harvey is like, "Here's 150 grand and I
won't mention it to anybody." They set up a power dynamic
that is very difficult for people to figure out what to do about. And that's why it lasted for decades, because it's like a perfect system. And then on the side,
you give money to charity and you kind of create, it's like a priest who seems like a great
part of the community so nobody doubts him,
so Cosby gives his money to all these colleges and presents himself as someone we can look up
to to hide their dark side. Then, we all hear these rumors. "Oh, he does this, he does that." But we didn't see it, and so
it's hard to say, you know, "Let's go get him," because
we're not a part of it. It's unfortunately up to the people that are truly aware of it. You know, Bill Cosby had a lot of agents, he had a lot of people that
were writing cheques to women. And I think the same thing
is probably true of Harvey. Someone was writing those cheques. Somebody knew, and those
people on the inside, when they're quiet also, it
goes on for decades and decades. Because it's not hard to not be a creep. You know, we all work in this business. It's very easy not to act like that. I mean, you can respect people, you can respect women, and it's easy. It's demented not to. Hopefully the industry as
a whole is getting fed up. But the truth is, when
you hear about Harvey and you go on Twitter,
you go on social media, nobody speaks up, nobody's mad about it. I mean, if you list which actors, actresses, producers, directors said, "This is awful and I
stand behind these women," same with Cosby and same
in the black community. There's not a lot of
people who stand up and go, "Cosby is an evil man who
hurt people for decades. "I am horrified." If you made the list of people
who spoke in public about it, you'd go, well, why didn't this person ever say it out loud, or this person? When you have, you
know, dozens of victims. The industry has a long way
to go to have the courage to just say, "I'm disgusted, "and I stand behind these accusers." - I'll do that. - Yeah, I think--
- I'll quite happily do it. - People are very, like,
I worked with him once a decade ago and I was
like, this is a bad dude. I'm never gonna work with him ever again. And everyone is just like, "Yeah!" But they still do. I think someone like him, everyone knows. I remember one of the first
stories you heard about him involved inappropriate
sexual misconduct, you know? I think that people, I know
that people would say to me when I would refuse to
work with him, you know, "He's old school," and stuff like that. There is kind of a wink and an acceptance of
that type of behavior. I think a lot of Hollywood
people also like the fact that we work in a business that
doesn't have the same rules as other businesses and
they're kind of, like, free to have varying
personalities and stuff like that and I think that ultimately
also allows people to excuse a lot of horribly inappropriate
behavior that just wouldn't, that shouldn't be acceptable,
you know, for people to work with people like
that, you know what I mean? - Do you think that he's an
outlier, or do you think this-- - No, I don't think that he's an outlier, and I think that's probably why a lot of people haven't spoken up. - He's a what, sorry? - An outlier.
- An outlier. I don't think that you can
throw bricks at glass houses. I think that's some of the problem. I think some of the problem
is that people really believed that they'd get hurt, and I
think it's a tragic situation for our business, and I think
that the women who stood up have to be applauded,
because that's really, really hard to do when
nobody wants to stand up. And the silence is deafening. That's the part that
we're responsible for. - Do you think there's that
culture of fear, Jason, as someone who worked at Miramax? - Of course, I think
there's that culture fear and I agree with Amy
wholeheartedly that hopefully this year, you know,
it's happened repeatedly and I hope that any woman that this has happened to comes forward. - It's hard to come forward for people because they think they're
the ones who are gonna be-- - But I think it's beholden
on, maybe, some of us, what you're saying, for
the leaders in the industry to come out and say,
even if they don't know this is factually correct to say, if this is correct, if there is-- - It's intolerable.
- Right, I agree. - This is unacceptable, and
we will not tolerate it. I'm happy to say it, but I'm
not a leader of the industry. I think that we need to
find some of our peers who really do have a lot
of power here in Hollywood to come out and say that and not protect him or
anybody else who's doing it. - There's just a lot of people who, like, for lack of a better
word, you know are kind of pieces of shit and people
just keep working with them. - Yeah.
- Correct. - Because they're just like,
"Well, it's a necessary evil." - And you can make money. - Yeah, and you can make money. I don't work with those people. There's people, you know, I would never, again, I said 10 years ago
I'd never work with him. I knew nothing about any of this stuff, but it's not surprising at all, you know? I think more people need to do that. It's nice that I'm in a position
where I'm successful enough to say I don't wanna work with someone 'cause a lot of people
aren't in that position also, but I think it is up to those people to not work with those
people and to shun them and to let people know that
it's not acceptable, you know? - Alright, one last question. I want to ask, what's the
best advice that each of you has received about
working in the industry? - Mine was recent, actually. There's this book called Ego is the Enemy. - I disagree with that. (laughter) - It's not written by an actor. - There's this whole chapter in the book which says passion is the enemy. Obviously I don't totally believe that, but it's a funny idea and
it rung very true to me. I was doing a class at USC or something and I was talking about it. When you're asked that, when
we are asked that question, oftentimes the answer is, "If you're passionate and
hold on for dear life." I think there's something
really to the notion, I don't know if it's the best advice ever, but there's something
really to the notion, especially for a producer's
round table, being pragmatic. The first eight movies I produced, I wasn't passionate about the script. I read a script that I
thought I could get made. And now, luckily, we're all in
the position, like you said, where we do things that we love, but I think to those
starting out, I'm gonna say, put passion over here for
a second and be pragmatic. - I'd put that a slightly different way. (laughter)
- Okay, let's hear it. You're allowed. - 'Cause I think being
passionate about something, you can't work on anything
for very long very well-- - [Jason] When you're young, not when you're running a studio. When you're starting,
when you're starting! - I'm very old and I'm still in that way. - No, no, no, I'm saying
for a young person who doesn't have the choice. - Okay, I'm gonna give a
different piece of advice. I think that you-- - You're gonna give him some advice? - Yes.
- I'll take it. - You always have a choice between your ambition and your ego. And it's-- - That's interesting. - You have to be very clear which one you're choosing all the time. - That's good. - It's really hard not to choose your ego, and it doesn't work. - I agree with her now, I change my mind. (Amy laughs) - How about you, Judd? - I remember when we were
making Superbad with Seth, I think my advice was,
"Less jizz, more heart." - Yeah.
(laughter) - Was that on a placard somewhere? - Carved in marble. (chatter) - I like his. I'm going with that one. - Me too, I can change twice. - It's an odd encapsulation of, you know, years working for Garry Shandling, who I'm making a documentary about, and everything for him was
about getting to the truth of people and the core of
people and being authentic. Garry didn't make an enormous
amount of things in his life. He did great standup, a couple of specials and two series that changed television. He just did things that he
really cared deeply about. He wasn't gonna waste
his time with anything that wasn't important to him,
and he wanted to make things that would make the world a
better place, make people think, make people happier,
make people, you know, in some way try to
connect with other people. So, I've always thought
about what Garry would do and how he made decisions. - I think that Stephen Frears gave Judi Dench that exact note. (laughter) - Less jizz, more heart? - Less jizz, more heart. She went with it. - Do you have a piece of
advice you've received? - Yeah, I mean, we're
very lucky 'cause we make, well, maybe everybody does,
but we make two kinds of films. Ideally, they both
always do the same thing, which is art and commerce, you know, straddling that fine
line, but on the films where commerce is really critical, and I think it was
Hitchcock, I don't know. He didn't tell me, but somebody told me and I've really, really focused on it for the last 10, 15 years, is the ending. It's all about the last five, 10 minutes. It's worth so much more
than, and I hate to say it next to you, but just
in terms of audience, the way they go out of the
cinema and talk about the movie and give word of mouth and
perpetuate the success. I'm very focused on that. Whoever it was who did say
it, whether it was Hitchcock or my anonymous friend, I thank them. - Interesting. How about you, Ridley? - Um, I didn't get a shot at
doing anything until I was 40, so my advice is be grateful
and actually just keep trying. - (laughs) That's good advice. - And you get the last word, Seth. - Oh, man.
- Uh oh, pressure's on. - I guess, I started doing
standup when I was in high school but I was a big fan of other
comics like Billy Crystal and Steven Wright and stuff and I would kind of try
to emulate their styles. Then, an older comic named,
well, everyone was older than me 'cause I was 14 (laughs)
but one of the older comics came up to me, his name was
Darryl Lenox, and he was like, "Aren't you out there
trying to get hand jobs "and stuff like that?" And I'm like, "Yeah!" And he's like, "Talk about that! "Nobody else can talk about that. "That's how you can make
it, that you're just in "a completely different
category than everybody else." - He said that to a 14-year-old? - [Seth] He did. - He's currently in jail. - To me, Hollywood is
incredibly competitive and I'm just not a competitive person. I hate feeling like I'm in
competition with other people because I fear I will lose,
and the only way I am able to rationalize that what we
are doing is not actually competing with what anyone
else is doing is by feeling as though it's something
only we could be doing, that it's some story that only
we could kind of be bringing to life in this way, only we
could be ushering in this way, and that's what allows
me to feel always like we are doing something I'm proud of, even though we're not always
the most successful people or the most well received people, we're always doing something
that I feel like perhaps nobody else could be doing, for
better or for worse (laughs). - Hold on a second, man. I'm gonna take issue with
one thing that you said. You said you're not
competitive, but you don't want to compete because you're
afraid you would lose. - Yeah, that's why I try to rationalize-- - Those two don't go together. (laughter)
(crosstalk) - That's why in my head
I have to rationalize that I'm not actually in a competition. - That's a very competitive
thing that you just said. (laughter)
- It is. It's for sure my own weird
rationalization on it. But if you're afraid of losing, it's a good way to deal with Hollywood. (laughter) - Alright, on that note, we will end the producer round table. I'd like to thank our guests. Thank you, thank you. - Ready? - [Man] Okay, quiet on set. - And I look down the lens?
- Yeah. - Let's do it. - Hi, I'm Margot Robbie. - Bryan Cranston. - Robert Pattinson. - John Boyega. - I'm Sam Rockwell. - Willem Dafoe. - Emma Stone. - Allison Janney. - And thank you for watching. - Thank you. - Thank you for watching. - Thanks for watching
The Hollywood Reporter. - The Hollywood Reporter.
- The Hollywood Reporter. - On YouTube.
- On YouTube.
Amy Pascal must have some real dirt on some powerful people in Hollywood.
How the fuck she hasn't been fired and replaced years ago is a constant mystery.
Yeah no Steve Galloway
I loved that jab at making Ridley Scott agree with you. Him trying to wrap his head around a budget of $5 million for Get Out was hilarious.
Fewer people will see this, because it's not the actors or directors, but I think it's one of the best roundtables, yet. The host did really well to let the discussion flow freely. Very interesting and insightful.