John Cusack, Brian Wilson and Bill Pohlad Discuss "Love & Mercy"

ah excuse me can I help you today I'd like to buy a car hi I'm dr. Eugene Landy do you know this man is Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys in California for the brothers here Dennis Brian to my brothers every doll Sam listen to me I'm going on on about you Matt why don't you have a butcher you broke my heart I shouldn't have done that are you the new Beatles we can't let them get ahead of us got all kinds of new ideas themselves new instruments do you think we could get a horse in here Sinatra Elvis you blown our models if you want to continue to see him you should know Brian is a very very sick man voices doesn't tell you don't want to scare you away the talking in your head that's part of the song that's part of the music Brian time for your pills come on I need you to report to me your thoughts your feelings he's thoughts his feelings I'm giving you unprecedented access she's medicating will not be able to see you anymore you can't do that Dean yes I can I have to say to myself five times a day I love you I don't know sometimes I wish had somebody else to say it I be I do not want to be one more person who wants something from you so I'm gonna walk away for the same reason man that you cannot be with anybody I'm gonna beat this and I'm gonna beat ya need to get back to your life we're gonna walk out of here right now and everything ladies and gentlemen John Cusack director Bill poet and Brian Wilson hello not that you no one cares but I got to see the movie it's it's absolutely incredible you should all run out and see it as soon as possible let's start with Bill bill when did this start for you when did you start developing this when did you start working on it well actually there was a script going around they were trying to get made for awhile called heroes and villains and they brought it there River Road John Wells company brought it to River Road and and me to see if we wanted a partner on it and read it and had some thoughts on how it might change but we ultimately kind of joined forces and started with a new idea about it something more intimate and kind of a deeper portrait of Brian so that's how it kind of started anyway and now you you've been producing for a while you directed something in 1990 but this is really your first time getting back into the director's chair what was it about this project that made you decide now is the time well I've always been a big music fan and the opportunity to you obviously work with this man's life and try to explore it a little bit as well as try to explore the making in the creative process of all those great all that great music it's hard to turn down you know it's a great carrot so Brian they come to you they're gonna be making this movie what are your first thoughts did you have thoughts about what you wanted to see in the movie what parts of your life I was just concerned that it would be factual and not you know fictional factual to the portrayal of me by John and Paul John you you you met with Brian right to get some ideas as to how you would portray him yeah well the the the period of beachboys career and Brian's life with that paul dano did was so well documented it was like the Beatles they were making albums every you know two albums a year and they were touring and doing all those things and there's a period when he sort of removed himself from public life because of other reasons that the film talks about and that was a more mysterious period so there wasn't that much known about it so I wanted to know from Brian you know what was it like for you what did it feel like and what was your relationships like and and and I was so happy to come to his house and meet him because I walked in and there were dogs running around and there's kids and his wife was in the kitchen Melinda and she was like Oh Brian's upstairs just go on up and I was like wow this doesn't sound like it was this doesn't sound like a you know it was too it wasn't too intense it seemed like a very happy home so I really had to ask him questions about his past in that period where he had he wasn't in the public as much no when it comes to the Beach Boys especially when it comes to Brian and and the art of Brian Wilson I think a lot of people would use the words innocence purity especially when it comes to Pet Sounds and and and and smile and I think I think you capture that a little bit in your performance you capture some of those feelings about who Brian Wilson is there's a certain amount of innocence to your performance was that something that you noticed and Brian was that something that you took from the music well with with the when you meet with Brian you could see he's obviously a very sensitive guy and a very with with a huge heart and a great genius as a as a creative person and you know when you sit across from a minute in a room he just sort of feels you out and he's listening to you but he can also there's some antenna that he has where he's you know checking you out from his heart and but that's all evidence evident and the music as well I mean any anything I wanted to know about Brian were I didn't want to ask him a question I could always go back to his music or I could ask his wife Melinda or the people around him and anyone who can write God Only Knows in 45 minutes as clearly has an antenna in tune with something no none of us really have Brian what was it like for you watching these scenes with paul dano in the recording studio being created recreating I'm so factual that it you know I was like very amazed by how factual and how closely they portrayed my personality and the way I produced records and okay do you still produce records the way that that you produce Pet Sounds no we use Pro Tools now it's changed a little bit to pro tools and computers and we take a little longer to record you take longer good vibrations itself though took in a very long time to record right six weeks yeah six weeks and we did it in four different recording studios finally wound up at RCA Victor we shot the film in in a lot of the same recording studios that Brian did his historic recordings Western studios and the other ones yeah mostly east-west studios so we were in in the same rooms where Brian had done his great some of his greatest work were you there for any of that you you generally stayed away because the film I mean we should say for those but I know what juxtaposes two periods of Brian's life it's the days when he's recording Pet Sounds and just after that and the days where he's sort of pulling himself away from a kind of sadistic psychotherapist that was his legal guardian throughout the 1980s right no we Paul and I overlapped a bit and then you know there are scenes were Brian future as we call him when went back into the studios because as he sort of came out of a darker period of his life through the love of his wife Melinda you know he returned to music and making his music and so the two the two halves of that person sort of unified a bit so yeah we were in the studio ISM did you see the film is to love stories you have the loves Brian's love story with music which seems to come from a kind of form of heartbreak you even have I think the beach when Michael of saying even the happy songs are sad here and then you have the actual love story of Melinda later on in his life yeah that's a good way of putting it I mean suddenly the creative process you know investigating and exploring the way he put music together I mean it's certainly a love story you know in itself but I did like the idea that it was kind of that process and his you know going through a bit of a tough period right after Pet Sounds juxtaposed with the love story and his Redemption I guess were the two strands that we were trying to intertwine how did you feel about dropping little references throughout the film that I feel like big Beach Boys fans or at least Beach Boys fans would really get you know there's a moment in the pool where Brian says we should make a kid show I think of the music and then he says a Honolulu he sings the the lyrics not from here as in films but from one of the songs off of smile and that's clearly for a Beach Boys fan because you're not playing the actual song there yeah no I mean the goal here was suddenly celebrating the man and his music was certainly a big goal of the film but I think also celebrating the human being you know who Brian is what he's been through and how he's dealt with those things was as as much goal in this film and so yes I didn't want to make it strictly for beach boy fans but we want to throw enough in there that would satisfy beach boy and Brian Wilson fans but also be accessible to a wide audience just to understand the human being the human side of it I was satisfied Brian you know there's there's also the point that you know there's the myth about the Pet Sounds era which is that you guys were competing with the Beatles and there's a moment where Paul Dano as you says we can't let them get ahead of us is that exaggerated at all were you that completely exaggerated to be from my favorite group you know and I heard Rubber Soul and as soon as I heard it I went to my piano start writing Pet Sounds you know which inspired the Beatles to do Sergeant Pepper and then and then didn't the Beatles here some of smile at some point what didn't the Beatles here smile Paul was Pope Paul was there right yeah Paul one of the smile sessions you know John you were listening to what were you listening to the entire time you were playing Brian well everything which was which took up most of the day and most of the night and shooting time because his catalog of music is endless but unbeknownst to me because we we wanted Paul and I Bill's intention was to have two different actors portray Brian and these different parts of his life and hopefully have their very own impressions and interpretations of Brian through his music and hopefully those two voices would harmonize into one one version of Brian but it's such a big life and the catalog is so so enormous that you know you could go on and on but we both seem to listen to smile sessions the box said a lot because that was maybe a peak of his creative apex Pet Sounds and smile sessions and then as he removed himself from public life for a while and when he returned to it he actually played that at the Royal Albert Hall and there was Paul McCartney in the front row crying so smile sessions was to me contained who Brian always was and who he always will be but it sort of helped me understand or navigate more of the troubled water parts of your life Brian I don't know if that makes sense but that's what we did yeah well but both parts of this film are troubled water part Brian when you look back when you watch the film I'm curious which part of your life is sort of harder to watch being dramatized well the part where I was in a program called the dr. Landy program yeah a little rough he had to be medicated so he wouldn't let me talk to my my parents or my family and you know there's a real for period for me yeah John this this this film I mean this is a performance that we we've never seen you give a performance like this I think never been a guy like him that's true that's no question answer that's not talk and I'm sure I'm sure Paul Dana would say the same thing was there did you feel a little more pressure doing this performance than yeah I was scared to death but Brian was so so nice because you know we're talking to Melinda and to Brian and all the people around Brian who loved him so much and if they were if they didn't like what we had done or didn't feel like we had done a heartfelt interpretation the material would have been really I would have been really really sad and you know if you're gonna if you're going to do his story or approach his music you better come with you know your heart wide open give it everything you got otherwise you're going to really disappoint them and I was when I heard that Brian and Melinda were seeing the film that was as nervous as I got because were you there when they were when they were seeing it no but I was gonna get a text so I was sort of waiting for the text it started an hour ago we got 45 minutes left and then I found out Melinda said that uh they were very moved and liked it a lot so bill they were they were moved they'd like to the letter I mean from what I read right away they liked it if if there had been problems that they had with it would you made changes would you have been open to that yeah I mean well within the degree we talked about this early on both Brian and Melinda were great partners in it but we talked too early on when you're doing a movie about a real person obviously if they were making the movie they would make it differently just like all of us if we were trying to tell our own story we tell it one way and it has to be there has to be some objectivity there to be able to you know kind of see this vision through I am and again I admit all the time that you can't do a film about anybody that's the definitive version so we got to kind of bow ourselves down to the fact that this is just my version or our version of a story it's not the definitive Brian Wilson thing so in that sense you know you got although the filmmakers which they did amazingly well to kind of they trusted the process but they also were there I mean Brian gave notes broke Brian and Melinda gave notes on on the script early on and as well as a rough cut but they were never like notes of changing anything dramatic with more things that were very insightful about the way things really were versus you know I didn't say that or I'm funnier than that or something like that but it's good that it's not the definitive Brian Wilson story because when you try to get a definitive biopic you end up getting these biopics that we see come out of Hollywood all the time which is trying to tell every moment of someone's life that ends up becoming kind of riddled with cliches because you're just trying to say too much where this does not have that at all every moment feels very honest and truthful to the point where I was telling you guys in the greenroom where there's a moment where Paul Dano just hits a kettledrum and it's the opening beat for a pet sound song and in the drew me to tears because I love that album so much and it's just this amazing moment to see the beginning of that idea yeah and that that point is to what I was talking about earlier too is that there's so many things about Brian's life and and his relationship with Melinda and his relationship with music that people are gonna wonder why they're not in there you know like Phil Spector is a you know huge influence on Brian and we had scenes that we shot that referenced that but in play so did you have those who played Phil I can't yeah it didn't end up in the movie unfortunately he was a great great guy but so a really we you hate to cut those things but on the other hand you're trying to get the intimate portrait and sometimes things like that that might satisfy a fan or something like that all right you know they just don't fit and don't make it as poignant Brian when we when people think of the Pet Sounds era the smile area you're immediately mythologized as a as a genius a misunderstood genius of your time did you feel like that in that time did you have a sense of how important what you were working on and how misunderstood it my time so yeah I didn't I didn't really know what I was up to I was working so fast I couldn't you know slow down and see where I was at you know so the Beatles didn't just fire me very much and John did you did you go did you talk to Dan know-it-all about what he was going to be doing no I think bills conception of it was that we would have we wouldn't want to kind of compare notes but hopefully because of the source material and as you always say it all comes back to the music and all of his complexity and beauty and joy elation sorrow all those things are woven into every piece of music he's made that we would have you know that there would be unity amongst the performances just based on Brian so we didn't want to sort of get into what do we how you're gonna look like are you gonna wear a certain thing we didn't want to do a surface comparison is this different for you I mean obviously it's different because you're portraying Brian here but you you make you you work a lot you make a number of movies a year when something like this comes along do you sort of pump the brakes on everything else that's going on and and think about this a little bit differently this is on a whole different leak than a lot of other films this is a chance to explore an American master a true creative genius and a beautiful soul and a beautiful human being but there aren't that if you think about what Brian was doing in Los Angeles while the Beach Boys were touring with one ear and he was writing and composing and arranging this music that would change the next 50 or six years and in England the beat the Beatles were doing that and they had two songwriters named Lennon and McCartney and a producer named George Martin it's very hard to overestimate the impact he's had on on the music and and how many hearts that he's open so this is kind of this is not just another job nobody was on this film thinking oh god I can't get another job so maybe I'll be do this everybody was here because they knew this was a real honor and I mean a lot of people say that all the time for films but this one it was actually really true well you can tell it comes through in the material it comes through on screen it doesn't feel like I watched something that I didn't really enjoy it now you guys are sitting up here and being like oh it's just great just great bill you know talk to me about again they're documenting that creative process of Pet Sounds what was your intention going in there you told me that you improvised a lot you had 16 millimeter cameras you're truly trying to get the documentary feel but what was the real intention because rarely do we see even in movies about musicians people really struggle through the creative process really follow through with the creative process it's usually a blip in the narrative well again I think Brian's life creatively and his growth you know as it is emblematic and in the Pet Sounds era and the smiler era was just so much you know you want it so much to make it right and to make it you know not artificial but somehow spontaneous and feel like you're actually there I mean I grew up you know seeing those little behind the scenes documentaries like sympathy for the devil or that'd be here things like that were you those rare times when you got to see behind the scenes I just wanted to try to recreate that so we hired real musicians instead of actors we didn't rehearse them we just put them in period clothing and we brought him into the studio and then Paul Deino had been listening to the way Brian worked from outtakes in the pets on sessions and other outtakes just so extraordinary to be able to hear how he interacted with the wrecking crew and so Paul just came in we started rolling and we shot it like a documentary so they actually played that music through and Paul worked with them and they fight it through again it wasn't like caught let's do that over it was like you know just letting it happen it was really a magical moment to be able to do that in the studio that this was this guy was actually doing it for the first time did it bring back a lot of memories Brian yeah do you feel like you might go back and try to sort of recreate pets after watching that try to record like that I thought about that I said I think it would be a waste of time to try to she'd exceed Pet Sounds you know yeah so you so in making this film working with Elizabeth Banks right Elizabeth did you and Elizabeth sort of work together and getting to know Brian and Melinda or do it separately yeah we went to go to a restaurant they like to go to and met and and I'm sure Melinda and Elizabeth spoke a lot and I spoke a lot to Melinda so yeah is there a point where you're speaking with Brian you're working with Brian where you have to stop because you you don't want to go too far you don't want to take in too much that might limit or inhibit your performance no I had a sense that maybe I didn't want a burden Brian but I wanted the soak in as much as I could and he's been famous for a long time and he's his music has meant so much to people for so long that people come up you know in an emotional state to talk I did it to you earlier and you know so I didn't want to be in his house and bother him but I also wanted to know stuff about his life and so I just tried to play it cool but I was I wanted to know as much as I could but it ended up working out okay I hope Brian work out okay Brian yeah the film depicts again you know that the the the rest of the Beach Boys didn't necessarily understand Pet Sounds they didn't necessarily understand what you were working on with I thought it was too experimental and I tried to tell him look we've got to grow musically you know okay and so I play some of the background music for him they said hey we they start liking it then we dinner our vocals did they though so they started liking it then I mean there's it depicts Mike at one point in the film is upset with Pet Sounds and the release and it didn't necessarily sell as many albums as he would have wanted did any of the beach boys ever later on as Pet Sounds became a classic and that people just loved and talked about did they ever come back and say I'm sorry Brian you you know you were right yeah they did they something well Mike did yeah he said I'm sorry that I was being troubled you you know your mind but I said it's okay you know that's incredible you think I wouldn't have forgiven you're right I killed it so now with this limb do you feel like you're gonna expose a lot of people to Pet Sounds to smile at this point is that something that really turns you on to me it would I mean that's one of those things that one of the great joys for me I can just say with bills to just to be able to go back and listen to all that music new and try to imagine a time when it wasn't there and then because it's been in our DNA for so long and it's been a part like the Beatles it's his music and his sounds have been they've been there as long as I can remember people have been it's made people happy and it's made people feel transcendent but to listen to it again is a you know it seems like you can it's just as good yeah and also I mean I think there's a lot of people who probably appreciate Brian's music for its depth but there's also a huge population who just thinks it's the surf music thing and fun fun fun and all that and that's great for what it is but I think there's something about Brian's music that transcends that that and allows it to stand the test of time it's there's much more calm you know complicated things going on in that music and much more progressive things that we're going on that think people like Paul McCartney and John Lennon recognized that not a lot of other people did because it was in this kind of surf music California thing package and so to get people to understand the depth of you know on a wider basis the depth of brian's genius it would be certainly one reason or one thing to take away from the film I think many people would call Pet Sounds and smile spiritual experiences and one of the few some of the few spiritual experiences when it comes to pop music we have to take some questions let's see if they're out there who has some questions for us this guy hello I'm a musician myself I'm a percussionist and first off always been a big fan so really thank you for everything but we're in a very interesting point with music right now I've been up here playing gigs around for shows and bands and whatever and there are times when you find yourself replaced by an iPad or there are times when a show goes on tour and they pay a drummer to go in record the show and then they track it for the rest of the tour yet at the same time everybody has access to more music than ever before in human history and you can have a computer and create your own music and there's something beautiful about that but it's just been interesting to see you how in Hollywood there's been almost a trend towards more artists depictions and showing like that it's not just all fun and games that there's really a struggle to this I mean people come up to me and ask me if I've seen whiplash all the time and it's like oh wow I didn't realize drumming was so difficult so it's kind of like it's nice to see that things like this are being made about important artists and everything and do you actually think that this can have an influence on the public having more of an appreciation for artists and live music and everything I think that's certainly one of the goals of it I mean you never want to go into a movie thinking it's gonna change the world hopefully in the back of your head you hope it'll change a few minds here and there or at least let people look at things in a slightly different way but that means suddenly what Brian did you know it was in that time but I think what's important is his artistic journey what he he pushed himself to do or allow to have haven't despite that obstacles that were in front of him and I think that's one of the big messages from that is again to comfort people and I go for it you know kind of stick yeah and also just the idea that you know back then because we all take it for granted but you know like Phil Spector and the wall sound he's miking every they're all live musicians there's no samples there's nothing and he's he's saying second trombone in the middle one inched back now take out you know take out some keys make it sound like jewelry okay Amy's just fine tuning live musicians and doing it all in space in a room it's pretty extraordinary so I think yeah you do have appreciation for people who can't just conceptualize but can actually really do all those things with human beings playing it's pretty wild I'm there I beg to differ I think the surfing we music was very spiritual sorry I loved the warmth of the Sun the lonely sea surfer girl and as one of the original rock away surfer girls who you inspired Bryan I hope and I wonder will you ever go back to the beach I was considering going back to the beach you know I have a ponch I needed to lose a little weight as soon as I lose the weight I might go next question I didn't say the surf music wasn't spiritual hi I'm just wondering when you're dealing with an artist that you have so much respect for and you actually meet and grow to really like as a person is it then difficult to make sure that you you know include their flaws their vulnerabilities because I'm sure you didn't want to just make like a hagiography you wanted to be you know try to do something that you felt was honest right I mean to be honest and I've admitted this to Bryan before I grew up more of a Beatles guy at the time to be honest and and so a little bit more removed because we actually talked to a lot of people and who wanted to be involved in the film that we're huge Brian Wilson you know buffs or whatever and sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees you're so interested in those things that you've been the detail of it that you're not seeing the bigger picture picture so in some ways it was good for me to be a little more removed suddenly during the process I got to know Bryan and Melinda better but you definitely I have a responsibility as a filmmaker to not kind of you know start adjusting the story to please them in some way and we talked about that early on so you know they were very trusting and very understanding of that and knew that that wouldn't be good for the film either I also think you know you do a lot of that work before you get to the filming it so when I met Bryon and Melinda you know I had to ask them about you know a period of his life he might not rather remember but he wanted to tell me the truth about it because he wanted to tell the whole story as much as we could you know not every fact and detail but the general spirit of what he went through so this it was all done with it you know with his blessing I think and you know I'm not to say this with him sitting right here or Melinda sitting in the back but they're kind of ego less in a lot of ways you know Brian is just about I think I don't want to speak for you but about his music and and kind of purity for some you know he doesn't have a lot of ego so he's not like trying to say oh you know make me this way or you just doesn't come into his mind his Center is what he does music and creating it and and so he was like I said he was a great partner and they both were in the process next question we have time for one more question Brian I've admired your music for so long but I've often wondered why it seems like looking back at the illness you haven't talked a lot about it you've been written about it musically I'm sure it'd be hard to do have you accepted the that period of time when you couldn't create you couldn't relate to your children in a lot of ways and you lost a lot of time are you at peace with that yeah well I wasted a lot of time in bed for a couple years because I was having a partial nervous breakdown which you know enter me to produce records but when I got through it I went to the studio took a beat boys and we recorded at California Gurls that's a good place to end it

Channel: BUILD Series

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Keywords: #aolbuild, AOL, AOL advertising, aol build, aol inc, aolbuild, Bill Pohlad, Brian Wilson, build, build speaker series, content, John Cusack, love mercy, The Beach Boys, twelve years a slave

Id: lGvjKAQ2a48

Length: 30min 49sec (1849 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 28 2017