when an actor got dumped...and decided to conquer hollywood

if you're wearing a suit and you look like you gamble lot they give you free [ __ ] it's in the back all right I'll put it on when we get there uh-uh no way no turn around I never thought this would happen I never thought that this many people would see it what's happened wow you talking to no one just making a little video of the trip this is how most people recognize John Fabro his character happy Hogan in the Marvel movies hello is this forhead of security which makes sense they're popular he's funny is that where you going to sit yeah long before Marvel long before he directed Iron Man long before friends even yeah I'll have a slice of cheesecake and and a date if you're giving him out F was kind of stuck well um I was an actor I was in a film Rudy I don't know if you remember that film about Notre Dame I got Notre Dame pretty well sted out and it was my big break look like you were in coming off a big movie at the age of 27 favro moved out to LA to become the next big thing I mean my family my friends all felt that now I had arrived I mean I was a movie star had to go but there was a problem no one cast him in any movies I just didn't work I had dropped about 75 lb the town didn't know what to do with me so he said screw it and wrote one himself and I just sat down at my computer not thinking anybody would read it I'm not going to Vegas and certainly I didn't think anybody would make it I'm not going to Vegas and I wrote the script swingers in about 2 weeks all right listen I took out $300 but I'm only betting with 100 I can't afford any this wasn't unusual for the '90s Tarantino bursts onto the scene with res dogs in '92 Robert Rodriguez famously wrote filmed and edited El Mariachi for only $7,000 yes $1,000 in 93 turning it into a cool 2 million and Ed Burns won plenty of awards with the very cheap Brothers mcaren in '95 basically independent movies were hot in the '90s so if you had a good script and a little money you could do anything just slid my ticket across the table and I said sorry guys I got to see about a girl and Fabro did well he did this veg you think we get there by midnight money we're going to be up 500 mid baby you are so money and you don't even know it even if you haven't seen swingers I'm sure you've heard that line the story of recently single Mike and his best friend Trent it's one of the most quotable movies of the '90s baby that was money tell me that wasn't money made Vince vaugh a movie star when we met on that movie he had just done this movie called swears that he was talking about and of course Vegas baby [Music] Vegas I want you to remember this face here okay this is the guy behind the guy behind the guy but before joined the ranks of Vegas movie royalty swingers was just fao's life and I spent a lot of time with these outof workor actor friends that also had gotten their big breaks but also weren't working and so we just kicked around town and I decided to try my hand at writing much like Seth Rogan and EV Goldberg for super bad favro didn't really know what to write about he wasn't a writer so what did he focus on I showed it to my friends I based the characters sort of on my friends to give them a laugh cuz I know they would read it I showed it to my and importantly not just based on his friends these characters were his friends here's Ron Livingston who plays Rob yeah like it's like watching home movies for me I'll give you a name you get I got an name there's no way like the only reason I was in swingers is that John Fabro was the only guy that I KN like that I knew in LA and here comes Ronnie and Ronnie and me really did have the scene and he did bring over a pepperoni and I was drinking orange juice he introduced me to Vince and we spent you know I mean a year or two playing video games and going to the Dresden and going to the derby like stumbling around trying to pick up girls and not being good at at all except for Vin no she's not looking at you dude will you quit asking me she looking at you she hasn't looked at you wait she just looked so favro had a good relatable script and people seem to like it and people wanted to buy it and develop it but talking with Distributors another problem cropped up with you starring or no no no with me with me like in a supporting role and as a producer but basically it would have been taken away from me here's Vince Fen with a bit more on this it's Real Testament to Fabro too because he wrote the screenplay with all of us in mind Patrick Ron Livingston Alex myself and he actually had opportunities to get the movie made at other places and actually get paid and and give it at the time what seemed to be a bigger opportunity for release but John was very insistent that the piece was pure and that the people that it was written for portrayed it because there was a quality to it so instead of letting a big production company mangle his good idea his original idea Ferro took a risk and backed himself oh you're a comedian yeah and an actor kind of credit to John is you know setting it in a world that was interesting enough that that that was fun to follow and being specific to that world there was a lot of pressure to lose you're the money and and a lot of the saying that were in the movie because they thought it wouldn't be understood by people outside of that area in Los Angeles your money you know what else you're a big winner tonight but John was smart enough to realize that that's the thing that would make people drawn more into it meaning someone going through a breakup is universal so how long do I wait the call a day tomorrow tomorrow a day yeah while this idea is all very romantic having so creative control over your movie favro didn't have any money so he had to go find some cash to fund the project and this took a few more years and we did readings for like 2 years after that to try to raise money and how much money was that we did the movie for $250,000 Mike I'm telling you your money and this must sound like a lot but in Movie World this was barely enough to cover equipment let alone a crew and the locations I know but the the new places down the strip now those places are supposed to be it that until they found a special firsttime director now this was Doug's idea he said what would you do where should we stage this he says just do whatever you do and I said well I would just walk around the apartment he says well let's do it the Doug f is talking about is director Doug Lyman who you should definitely know from his other projects find me when you wake up but here he was just starting he decided to just shoot it in a way that you don't normally shoot a film shoot it like a student film use a small camera don't use a big crew don't use a lot of lights and if you you seen any of my other videos you know I love this stuff Run and Gun film making on a budget solving problems on the Fly the team had to do it all like the lighting for example we didn't have enough money to light everything the way you're supposed to cuz you need a bigger crew and a lot of lights and it just takes so much time so we used a very sensitive film stock uh Kodak 5298 and we just Tred to push it as far as you can and this is where fa's great script comes in because not only did he write what he knew he wrote what he could film we weren't like a big feature where were worried about the look of it that it looked professional we took chances not everything came out right but we got enough to put a movie together so working with liman in pre-production they agreed that sets extras and a large crew were off the table so instead he wrote for apartments cars and public spaces namely loungers and bars guy behind the guy a scotch on the rocks now the hul Caso was open at this time by the way they would give us a little area to shoot him but we never shut it down on the table excuse me you have to lay on the table and this was another little trick rather than shy away from their amateur aesthetic the team embraced it which let them film in places most people couldn't you have so many people running around Hollywood doing student films and stuff and short films we had no crew in a small camera when we said we were doing a movie and we'd post signs saying we're filming swingers people assume because of the size of the crew that we were actually doing like a student film or a documentary it's 22 we got to get out of here baby were you relaxed and the bar was really open at this time while we shot there which made it easier you didn't have money and stuff for extras but also just for authenticity well watch this dude hey boys uh we almost gave up on you I'm sorry we're late there's uh she asked me what I was thinking about what you want me to do lie you didn't have to get into it baby this was the last thing we shot Leaving Vegas and we were [ __ ] tired we were all hung over and tired stop talking just shut up so yeah if there are scenes and swingers that seem real that's because they probably were not only because the actors were reliving their real life conversations so when it came time to perform them of course these guys knew exactly what to do cuz they we actually live this moment but because the extras didn't know they were extras this guy here doesn't know that we're shooting cuz the camera's walking in and he was trying to make time with her and he gives me a nasty look gives me a nasty look there this all comes together as the raar and imperfect movie you see today they use their own cars that's my car that was F's real car and I which often wouldn't work and actually my car my car ran out of gas remember I got to this it was well and truly a production held together by love effort and LU go double down what time we leaving 5 minutes baby all right and while they definitely cared about the visuals the lack of time or money meant that favro and linan focused on something else entirely we put more of our emphasis on the performances and on getting the story and the script down on film we had good music and good performances and the rest of the stuff sort of fell into place around it now I think this is under playing swingers a bit it still looks pretty good the depiction of male adult friendship is undeniably wholesome and they also shame LLY copi from some of the best I don't know what the big deal is I mean everybody steals from everybody let's just get the hell out of here if we want to make this party these tongue and cheek homages to Tarantino and SC say he work well as lowbudget jokes so I figured instead of just having movie references here we would have references to movie references but watching 30 years later this cinematic inspiration lays the breadcrumbs for fao's career as one of the most influential directors this Century one of the best I wouldn't go that far like he's good he's made some pretty good films but his ability to blend performance with his curiosity for cinematic Tech is fascinating he's a Pioneer in the space and it's definitely something we'll have to explore soon in fact I'm Jack this is Cena thanks so much for watching and uh yeah there's a lot more to talk about now that you've made it now that it's a success now that you did all that you wanted to do what's happening with me yeah well you know just the you know it's uh uh [Music] what are you doing Mike Mike Mike Mike stop don't

Channel: Scene It

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Id: onX_hlHzZUA

Length: 10min 13sec (613 seconds)

Published: Sat May 11 2024