Welcome to Produced by, in this episode, Michael Douglas in Danny DeVito, look back at their long-standing friendship and share stories on how they overcame producing hardships. This interview, produced by PBLA Conference, was recorded in front of a live audience in 2019. Please enjoy these industry veterans sharing their outlook on their award-winning filmmaking and quirky friendship. Hello everybody!
So, listen, welcome and this is a great opportunity. I'll give it a big, Danny and I have known each other more than 50 years. So, that's crazy. And I know we're talking about producing and all that, but so much about producing is about trust and also friendships and connections.
So, we want to spend a couple minutes talking about our history. We met in 1966 in the summer. I was going to college at the University of California at Santa Barbara and I had a summer job at the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater in Waterford, Connecticut for the National Play Rights Conference. And I was just working construction with getting like small gigs and stuff.
And it turned out to be a magical time because at that time it was Sam Shepard, Israel and the Horowitz, Lantford, Wilson, tremendous number of writers. Anyway, so we, one of the several I'm constructing in this group, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts comes up. And we were out in London, Connecticut, right near there, right by the sound. And this guy, I see this guy walking up to me, he's got like long hair, you know, I know.
Hair. It was long. It was long. And he looks up to me and he goes, hi, can I go, hi?
And he look at each other from there and says, you get high? I said, yeah. Well, you guys, you know, I was on the road with a play from doing all Connecticut thing with me, American Academy. And I knew some of the people in the play, but I didn't know everybody.
So I had a little bit of stash with me, I traveled with. And you know, and you know, you run out, man. And you look, when you go to the next place, you see like, let me look at this crowd, who's in this crowd that might smoke pot. I mean, first of all, the whole construction thing, this was funny because all the actors, he was a resident actor, he was from UCSB and they were doing plays and reading plays, very valuable for producers, very valuable for actors, and great for playwrights, of course.
That's the Eugene O'Neill Foundation. What they were doing was building an amphitheater and they recruited the actors who were there, resident actors, to help do things. I came in for a couple of days and it was outdoor work, you know, lug and cinder blocks, doing the thing. Then you'd go read plays under a really beautiful shady tree and you'd get to read, you know, plays by John Gewehr and all the people that Michael was mentioning.
And so I wanted to get out there and do the things. So we were out there doing that. We had to, soon it got tiring, you know, lugging bricks and moving shit around and everything. And somebody said beer running, I said I'll go.
And he said I'll go. I didn't have a vehicle. He had a motorcycle. So now you got a picture of this.
So I go okay, I'm going to come and then we go, you know, and on the way over I'll be looking at each other, you get high, yeah, I get high. Okay, when is that beer coming back? These guys would be dead by the time the beer comes back. We went out, got on the motorcycle, went and got the beer, you know, stopped off, looked at the scenery, got loaded, came back with the beer.
I was sandwiching the beer between me and Michael, hanging off the dear life and he's driving through the streets. And we got back, we had really nice stuff. That was our first basic, first drug meeting. There were many, many more.
So what was the first lesson I learned? But the irony was that we were there for a playwrights conference and the actors were there to serve, service these plays. And what you learned as an actor is that you were reading the lines of these playwrights and then you were making adjustments based upon how the readings went or how the show went. And I think this is still in both of us in the beginning of our careers that the play is the thing, the material is the thing.
Actors are interchangeable, a lot of possible actors, but your content is what is by far the most important vehicle. And I think it's carried through for us for most of all of our career. We continued then on, Dan came out and visited me a couple of times. He was anxious to play in cold blood.
You were doing some off-Broadway shows. We then became roommates in New York. Careers are off and running. You're doing some off-Broadway stuff.
I'm trying to get one full of the coocos and it's done. I've now started this television series, Streets of San Francisco in Vancouver, San Francisco. Once again, we're doing 26 one-hour episodes of season, working six days a week because it's on location and I'm learning a whole lot about material. It's all about these new shows coming in one after another.
As it turned out, I've always been indebted to my mentor, Carl Malden, who was an extraordinary leader to me and a very great man who had a work ethic coming out of Gary and Deanna. It was incredible. We would work every time between shots would work on next week's episode. As a result, our shows were like the writers halo us because our scripts were like six pages longer simply because we picked up our cues.
Simply because we didn't have a television pace, we didn't really know our stuff was going on. One time I'm working on trying to get coocosness made. Finally, we get it set up with my partner, Saul Zans, and Milosz, and we go to get casting. Who is the first person we cast?
I tell Milosz, there's a guy in New York who's doing the off-Broadway production of Clookos Nest who's playing the part of Martini. You got to see him. We went to New York and there he is. Yes, yes, yes.
Danny was the first person casting one flew to Clookos Nest. Yes, thank you. Here we had an extraordinary experience with Matt. I think we all learned a lot about casting and the importance of casting.
We were able to have an extra six months because we were waiting for Jack Nicholson to get off another picture and spend that much more time in the casting process. Which Danny, you went through it from the very two with all the groups. The great thing is the whole idea of like, you learn, that's the whole idea. You hang around, you learn, you see what it is.
You see what the producers going through. You see what the directors roll and what everything is going through with it. You got the script. We all know this.
I was getting a first hand look at the whole deal. Back in the 60s when I come visit Michael in California, we met in the 60s, I used to come out here, I didn't know what the hell was going on out here. He talked about Nootie. Nootie?
No, I'm not talking about Nootie. The nude stuff I can always do. They want to hear about the serious stuff. So I actually experienced the Kirk Douglas wanted to do Clookos Nest for many, many years.
He did it off on Broadway. He tried to get the movie made. He was sitting there. Michael knew this all this time.
But it was smart enough at the time when Keesy's book was taking off in the early, late 60s, early 70s with all the universities and all the advent of drug rehabilitation that they took all the people out of the hospitals and put them on the streets. It was just ludicrous. Keesy's book started becoming majorly relevant. That's when Michael jumped on it, brought in soles.
He understands that kind of sensibility. That it is a place where you're always looking for that material. He found it, he went after it, and he got bit. Now the thing about the Mike Hasney experience is that Milos Foreman, the way he cast the movie was really unique.
He brought me and about six or eight other people up into the Harlequin studios in New York. One flight up in a bare studio and he played the big nurse. He improvised with all of us. What he was looking for, he was casting the movie.
He was looking for behavioral patterns, how we work together, how we improvised together, what would all fit together. That's a sign that what I saw in Michael at that time was that he found the right director. He trusted the right director. I know you had a lot of input into the whole thing about Milos.
He says, okay, we want to cast Louise Fletcher as the big nurse. Louise Fletcher hadn't done a lot of stuff, but she was the right person for the part. He wanted her. Any other producer might say, well, you may list somebody who's got this big name recognition or whatever.
She's right for the part. She was great for that part. The producers and the director recognize that. That's like a kind of a thing that you learn.
You put you two cents and you have to be there for everybody to support them. But you have to really understand when the director is making the right choice. The next time you produce a movie that I'm directing, just defer to me. That's all I want you to do.
So that was a big moment for all of us. For you after that, you went off and did Taxi, which was an amazing run. I think you probably learned a lot out of that, which you can probably talk about in a second when I'm finished. Have I interrupted you?
No, no. I'll say hi. I did a couple of things. Then we came to Romancing the Stone.
Again, it was a wonderful story in the fact that a woman Diane Thomas wrote her first screenplay, which was just a spectacular screenplay, which I had a deal in a studio and paid a lot of money. The studio did for this screenplay. Everybody was accused of talking about why would you possibly play a first time screenwriter so much money. I didn't care if it was a first or the last.
It was really good. Ultimately, it was a lot less in terms of rewrites and whatnot. It was a wonderful combination of a romantic adventure. But I really felt that comedy was going to be an integral part.
It was as exciting as I was with Kathleen doing it. I played it again. I was producing it and I tried to get two or three other name actors to play the part who had passed. Mind you, I just have to preface this.
The change, on one side, I won the Oscar for Kooku's Nest. I was an Academy Awarding Producer as an actor. I was still trying to make the transition out of television into feature films. Because at that time, before me, really only Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood had been the only guys who had been able to make this transition.
They had television, they see you for free, movies, they have to pay to see you. I was fortunate to get in. My point is that Danny DeVito made that part, in a large part, made that movie. The comedy that he brought to Romain Sing the Stone wasn't necessarily on the page.
He came up with so much physical humor that was made this picture so magical in terms of combining romantic adventure with comedy. I will always be indebted to the great job that Danny did. Not only for that. Thank you.
Thank you, Michael. For being down in Mexico. Oh, yeah, baby, Mexico. I loved it down there.
I wanted to say about Romain Sing the Stone. One little quick, this has got to do with how a producer could have been Michael. Really seriously. He, like he said, he wanted to get the picture done.
He really invested his time and his energy into the screenwriter big time. I can imagine you going in with a screenplay studio and you've got to be pushing this thing. The person has never done anything before. He was still behind a really big time.
I got the part. I was thrilled to do this. It was after that time, after Taxi. I was like the same thing.
I was a big star on television, all that kind of stuff. It was really fun. I had a hell of a time on Taxi. It was one of the best experiences.
Five years of bliss on that show. I had a ball and every day doing all this stuff Michael was talking about being there with the screenwriters and the television writers and whatever. But I remember this one thing. This was a real key thing for me as a producer.
We had done the movie and they were editing and doing all the stuff they have to do, get it ready. The movie was done and they showed the movie and screened the movie. I had no idea this was going to happen. My name was above the title.
That's my buddy over there. At that time, when was the movie? At that time, after Taxi, I did romance. I think I might have done terms of endearment where I was in that with Charlie McLean and all that.
Not broken through as a movie actor, so to speak. He put my name above the title and that was a big, big, big thing. A decision that a producer can make. I did bring value to it.
I had a big television following. You didn't have to do that. It was a great thing for me. That's one thing.
Now. Now the other thing, I'm not going to just blow smoke up your ass all day. I'm saying I want to talk about producing. That's about getting people to come to see your movie.
What's the best choice? It's got how you're going to get people in the seats. That was the big thing. Now, I wanted to direct.
At that time, somebody offered me a pilot for television. I gave a whole legal pad of notes to the writer. The writer was kind of hotcy-totsy at the time. I never directed a pilot before.
I'm in the Paramount Commissary. I'm looking at this guy. This guy is looking at my notes like they are dog shit. It's like just he's dissing me like mad.
It was like, okay, the woman comes up to me from the staff and says, Mr. DeVito, you have a phone call. I'm just like, where the God? It's him, right?
He doesn't know what I'm doing. It's just Michael. He's saying, oh man, the relationship's going so great. We're going to go on the road and we're going to promote the movie.
And I said, what do you mean we're going on the road to promote the movie? He says, you know, we're going to do the junket and the this and the that. I never heard of this before. And I said, what do you mean when?
He said, two weeks, we're going. I said, holy shit. This is like God giving me a gift. I go out to the guy and say, look, I'm sorry.
I got to have to bow out. I went and did a promotional tour for a performance and so on. Had more fun than I ever had in my life. We sold a movie.
That's a producer, see? OK, so that's all. That's my story. And you're saying with it?
Well, again, just keeping the theme of the two of us together, which brought us to the possibility of the first time and the lessons you learned of doing a sequel. And so the studio was very happy. We all were romancing the stone and thought about let's do a sequel. And that was the jewel of the Nile.
Now, a couple of things had happened. Kathleen Turner had become a big star after romancing the stone. And she was perceived off and running. And I had a contract with Kathleen for a second picture.
And we got our script together. And I contacted her. And I said, well, OK, it's all looking good. We're going to go.
And she said, when are you going to go? And she told her the day she's like, can't do that. I have another picture. Happened to be, I think it was Steven Spielberg's picture about the house that got destroyed.
I can't remember what it's called. What's it called? I don't know the house belt down. House belt down.
That was it. But I said, I said, house belt down. So I said, well, I'm sorry. But we were going to go ahead.
And we got a contract. I said, well, I got a contract. I got a contract. I don't want to do it.
I don't think the script's ready. I said, trust me, the script will be ready, Kathleen. I don't want to do it. We got into a lawsuit.
And she hired Roy Cohen. Was Roy Cohen was her attorney? Holy shit. That was exactly my reaction.
That was exactly my reaction. What a miserable individual that guy was. So we go off and the picture's going to be done in Morocco. So we're in a student.
A student looks like I'm going to win. And Kathleen's going to come there. But at the time, not very happily. This is like the demise of the karma of a sequel.
And lo and behold, while I'm doing pre-production in Morocco, we have a plane crash. And I lose six of my crew members. My production designer, my art director, assistant director, about two weeks before the picture starts. I've lost a good part of my crew.
And the movie starts with us not being able to even get the widows or all their opening days of the picture, trying to get their husbands, respectively, home. Kathleen is not happy. Danny, thank goodness. You were getting along pretty good then.
Yeah, you're getting along good. Yes, we were. LAUGHTER So it was a rugged start. I was so grateful for this guy.
I just had, Gracie was just born. My two, she was two. No, she was just born. Lucy was two.
So I had two kids. This was really, oh god. I said to Michael, I say, he says, coming down to come down to Fez, Morocco. Yeah, I'm coming.
So I'm a doting father. I got two kids. Like, weeks old, the other one is two years old. And I had, I don't know, 10 or 12 refrigerator box sizes of stuff that I wanted to bring.
Because I had, I don't know, 600 diapers. I had, like, peanut butter. I had, who the hell knew where Morocco was? I didn't know anything.
And I had a seer sucker jacket on. There's, like, striped seer sucker jacket and a little hat. And I had all these boxes that wound up in Casablanca. And there were guys with guns and everything.
I said, what the fuck did he take me? What is this place? And I got to bring this stuff. They had a truck.
He sent a truck for all the stuff. So we took the truck, loaded up. I had videotapes. They thought I was black marketing.
I went, I got cartoons for the kids. What are you going to do with them? You put them in front of a television show. I had taped, like, I don't know, 100 Sesame Streets.
And I put them on. You know what I mean? Plop, cereal, look. You know, that's it.
It's a parent raising. A child raising. Anyway, they put us in a million. Palagia, ma'am.
It's a Palagia made beautiful place. And one of the great things was, you know, I'd never been to travel a little bit around once in a while. We went to a place like this. Go down there.
He brings it. We shot there. We did all of that. Then we go to, like, wait a minute.
We go to a party. The first night to bring all the crew together, we had the DP. We had Jan de Bont. We had, like, and then Jan de Bont's wife was this very sexy film star in Poland or whatever.
She was, like, really talented. She was very hot at the time. And I met her, you know, at the party. And everybody was there.
Ria was there. You know, a lot of people, all everybody saying, well, have a cocktail, like the producers. You put together a little party for the crew to introduce everybody. So we end up the picture in the desert.
We're in June. We're in June. And Waza's at. In the desert, it's in June.
It's 115 degrees. I have maybe, I have 106 foreign crew members from, like, 12 different countries working on the crew. And people are getting sick. The temperature, the temperature, this and that.
And we have the health service come down from the Capitol. And they tell me, I think that you've got a case of hepatitis on your crew here. And I said, we were three days away from filming, finished filming in Morocco to go to France. And I think you have some case of hepatitis.
And I'm afraid that we're going to have to quarantine the company for six weeks. And I said, I got it. I said, that's going to take us into August. It's 125 degrees.
We got to stay. We're all done. And I said, what to do? He said, well, $2.5 million.
And at that time, we did what was called a negative pick up with the studio, which was originally before I leave, I make a thorough budget and everything. I give it to the studio. They agree upon the budget. And then I take their approval to a bank.
And I get that money to make the film. But this situation, so I call the studio. And I said, listen, I've got a real problem here. And I tell them the situation.
I said, well, I guess you do. I said, thank you so much. And then I call our embassy in Morocco. And I explained the situation of being held up.
And they said, well, now you know the difference between the democracy and the monarchy. Well, thank you too. Thank you, too. So we didn't really have hepatitis.
Does anybody have it? Well, no. It turned out. It turned out.
No, somebody was sick. There was a food poisoning issue. So finally, I really was at Whitsen. And I thought, this is it.
This is my Waterloo. And then you know those big Russian transport planes, the entire nose opens up. They have trunks going up into them and all of that. So I booked one out of France along with the 737.
And I called the head of customs from Morocco. They come down and meet us at this airport, this is the airport in the desert. And I said, listen, we're going to be leaving now. I'm thinking one department may not know what the other one is doing.
We're going to leave right now. I want to thank you very much. I gave them a little envelope of gratitude. And I said, one last favor.
It's certainly, could you make this airport an international airport for about two hours? And he said, yes. We contacted the plane in the sky. They came in.
The new woman's solution came in. We opened it up. We drove the Chapman crane. The costume truck.
We drove everything right up into the plane. The crew got on the 737. And it was too hot to take off. We had to wait there.
We were sitting there waiting there, like the cavalry, waiting. And finally, we got to sunset. We got cooler. We took off.
Arrived in the niece. where are your papers? I don't care. Rest me.
And we finished the picture. So that takes us our story to the next time when Danny calls me up one time. He said, my God, I got a script I'm working on. I know you don't know anything.
Take a look at it. Maybe get some ideas. So he sent me, said, just to love your input. So he sends me this script that's called The War of the Roses.
And I read it. Michael Lisa, he rests in peace who wrote it. And it's really good. And I think there's a part that I could play.
But he's never mentioned that. As a producer, see, I suckered him in, basically. I said, give me some notes on this. I knew the part was perfect for him.
He's an actor. He's going to go crazy when he reads this. Lured him in. Go ahead.
No, I was. I mean, the first time he's hearing that I lured him in. Well, I think the beauty of this point is this would have been. This was the third time that Danny and I and Kathleen worked together.
And so going back to the beginning, this whole talk about friendships and ensemble, I realize now, or then, how crucial and how much more fun it is when you're working with people that you know and your friends. There's a shortcut. As actors, you don't mind overlapping each other. You're not worried about anybody being offended.
You're all really much more comfortable with each other. And it was a tough shoot to say the least. I was a taskmaster. He has a perfection eye.
But I always knew, even back at the very beginning, Danny was a great director. Or he knew he was a good actor, but he'd be a great director. And that was a wonderful experience. Thank you very, very, very, really great time.
And it's also like, it was a great thing when Michael said, you know, that he loved to play the part. And I said, yeah, great. This is great. And I wonder who I can get to play the other part.
And he said something like, if you don't offer this to Kathleen, I'm just going to castrate you. And I said, I think I should offer it to Kathleen. But the great thing was it allowed me, you know, the whole throes of this whole fact of bringing this all to go. I got lucky with the script because that's the way it is.
Like Michael was saying earlier, it's really about the material and about how you handle it. And all that is very important. But the material is the thing. And we were lucky to have that screenplay.
And the thing is that I got to be Fritz Lang. You know, I got to do like, you know, he did Scarlet Street with the same cast. He did Woman in the Window with the same cast. You know, he had John Bennett and Dan Durya and Edward G.
Robinson. And so now I have this incredible gift. I've got a great screenplay. I've got people who support it.
And I've got Michael and Kathleen. How could you go wrong? Of course, I killed him in the end. But that, oh shit, did I ruin the movie for you?
They couldn't believe it. So I guess our message really is about the material, which I've taken up recently. A couple of years ago, my agent sent me a script for a television series I didn't know much about streaming, called the Kameinski Method. And it was written by Chuck Laurie.
And Jesus, it was really good. It was really good writing. And then I realized this phenomenon has happened with the streaming area, which first of all has allowed all of the talent. Writers, directors, producers, everybody, creatively, so many more outlets and assets.
And this is the first time since the beginnings of our career where it's been easier to go from film into so-called television, although I think it's probably going to be called something else in the near future effortlessly. Where one can go back and forth like never before. And once again, it was the value of really good writing and being cast very well. So we just finished our second season of the Kameinski Method.
I hope you all see it doesn't come out until probably until October. But I've been very happy about it. And you, sir, have been busy yourself right now. You're talking to me?
I am. Oh, yeah. Well, we start sunny next week, it's our 14th season. And again, it's like about the idea that those guy Charlie and Robin Glenn and all the other writers that work on it and Caitlyn, they really put their heart and soul into the scripts.
We have really wonderful, funny, crazy scripts. And we have a ball. And I want to say that last year, I did a guest starring part on the Kameinski Method. And I had a great time.
It was really, really wonderful. I don't know if anybody has seen it. I played Michael's urologist. So it was the first time that I ever got paid for sticking my finger up his ass.
We didn't have a lot of lupa German in the house. And you know, we're in a lawsuit right now, Michael and I, because I'm trying to get my watch back. Ah, go on. I had a great time doing the show.
It was really good. And yeah, it's good. We do a lot of stuff. And thank goodness that we can have.
The thing about it is, I guess what it is, it's like really wanting to go to work. You love the business so much. I know we both do. I know that we love our families, and we love our friends.
And we dig partying and have a good time. But boy, getting up in the morning, going to work as a producer. You've got to hunt for that material. You've got to look for that stuff.
You've got to try to make those relationships work. It's friendship. It is relationships. It's all about keeping in touch and being with people that you care about.
You accumulate if you're fortunate enough to work with people over and over again, like Michael and I have. And it really adds to the joy that we already feel about the film business and the TV business. So we're opening up to you guys. Anybody have any questions or areas that we haven't covered?
We're happy to talk about it. Who's going to pick the person? Thank you so much. Who's going to pick?
There. I just want to have a question for you, Mr. DeVito. Way back when I took you scouting in Las Vegas for a win versus Trump when you were.
Yes. Yes, you remember that? Talking about material. Whatever happened to that?
I met win and I met Trump. And after I met Trump, I ran for the hills. As an actor that's beginning to produce, how important is it to be a multi-hyphener right now? That's the first part of the question.
A multi-hyphener. A multi-hyphener. As you guys are. And also, how important and where do you guys see micro content going?
Micro content. Yeah, like Quibi, Jeffy, Jeffy, Katzenberg, and the company. Oh, yeah. Sort of what you hyphen it and micro content.
Like, I don't know if it's important to be a hyphener. I think you could focus on one job. You know, as a producer, you can be a producer. I don't think it's bad to know what an actor goes through.
I don't think it's not helpful to know what a director goes through. I think it's really, if you're going to produce, it's great to know what time goes into planning that movie as a director. And if you were going to take an acting class, take an acting class from Michael. You know what I mean?
Or just understand what an actor goes through. Go take a directing class at one of the universities. Try to find a free one. Bernie's trying to figure that one out.
And so you know what it is like. But it's cool to be hyphen it. But you go. I think part of my success as an actor is picking the projects.
And because I'm an actor that thinks I could produce her. So I want to be involved in a good movie. I don't care about the part. So I really know.
And some movies, I think, are good projects, are really good movies. And my part is maybe secondary. Maybe whoever it is has got a better part in the picture. But I think it's a good movie.
What you have to be careful about as a producer, especially if you're successful as an actor, is where are you leading? So for me, I think where I've been very successful is I want to be surrounded by the best people possible. What the best actors around me, I think, can show me up. Everything you want.
Because if they're good, I'm going to be good. I don't want to be good in a bad movie. It doesn't really matter. So I think your priorities have to be set.
Also, I found ultimately that it was not enjoyable being a producer and an actor. An actor, you're paid to be selfish. I'm paid to just look at you and act with you. I have blinders on.
I don't have to know anything else that's going on. And everybody makes sure that. I'm a producer. I have to have a 360 degree vision.
I have to be able to know everything else that's going on. And so having that in a few pictures, some of which we talked about, Romancing with Stone and Mexico or things, huge production problems and everything else, which totally distract from you as an actor. And alienate your cast members, too, because they know you're thinking about other stuff. The micro stuff that you're talking about, the Jeffries, I'm not really familiar with it yet.
I kind of get the idea from Snapchat and all of this and looking at little films. And you actually had a whole series that you were doing a while ago. The idea of that, the way I understand it, what Mr. Katz and Berg are doing, I understand that it's about a couple of things, about the writing, how you're going to write those little incremental things that mean that make a whole piece, which is a really interesting task for somebody as a writer.
I'm sure a lot of writers would love to try to do that. And I don't know if they have to be cliffhangers. They just have to be really interesting pieces. And I imagine the way he's going to do that is to, I think I understand the way he's going to do that is to stream them out, and people are going to watch 10-minute things or 8-minute things and get interested in.
I think it's a really interesting challenge for everybody. And the way I look at it in our business, the more avenues that we have to explore as producers and writers and as directors, the better. I mean, let's try to, look, I love going and see moving on the big screen, just like everybody else. And I try to go out to see all those movies.
But I catch up on things on airplanes. And I'm sorry. I look at them on my TV and stuff like that and have a really good time. Because I'm closer to the popcorn and I can make it anytime I want.
Everybody else? Hi, I have one here. Hi, thanks for being here. And the movie you were talking about was Poltergeist, right?
The one with the house exposed and everything? No, not that one. Anyway, whatever. Money pit, thank you.
The money pit, thank you. That one. We'll all be in there. Wow, wow.
So I've been very fortunate to have been a former executive and then now living my authentic life as a writer and stuff. But I want to ask you guys this, because I think this is super important. And what your take on is what are some of the essential and basic things that one needs, right? Just as a reminder to everybody in the room about this terms of etiquette and when you go in a room, either as a writer or a director or as an actor, how you should present yourself.
I only say this because I've been in the room and I look a lot younger than I am, but I'm not. And I go in the room with people who are very young and they have this entitlement. There's that fine line between being entitled and then also having courage, right? So how can you lend your experience?
You're talking about coming in the room as a writer pitching a thing to an executive or somebody's coming into your room to pitch you something. No, you're coming in. Right, either as a writer or director. You know what I mean?
What are some of the things, some of the takeaways that you have? Well, first, go ahead, Michael. You want to ask him? I mean, you have to have a point of view.
You have to have something that you're presenting up to something that you believe in that you're bringing to somebody. Go ahead. Let me speak first from an actress point of view. There you go.
You want to get an interview in the morning. OK? You want to get interview in the morning. And I take that even further into pitch ideas and everything else.
Something has to do with my age, just generally. Things tend to go downhill after lunch. Ha! They really do.
There's just a lack of refreshness. So you have a couple of things. You have either the concept that you can actually do, and capture it like that. You have to be a courteous and maintain a degree of energy.
I mean, it's really a reflection of who you're dealing with. A lot of executives now be behavior-resectrosious. Behavior is really bad. I must say that.
If I can tell you that, I can imagine when a lot of people are not going through. It's not acceptable. This is all this is popular. This is atrocious behavior.
See, we were out of generations. This is one of the good things about streaming. I mean, just my experiences with Netflix, which have been generally, it's like the 70s and 80s in the movies. They trusted the filmmakers.
They leave you alone unless there was a problem. You don't hear a lot. Just go do it. But nowadays, studios, executives, for some reason, appear to think that they know a lot more than anybody else.
And we're constantly shown different things. I mean, I'm thinking Jordan Peele's last movie, Ma, and everything else. And how it's received, you can travel to what people thought was going to happen. So I don't think you have to change.
You have to maintain your decorum and your behavior and your patience. And you can't do anything about the executive. Yeah, yeah, it's really a bad thing. I have an advanced team that goes to the studio to make sure there are no ferns.
I won't go into a room with a fern. I'm telling you, I'm a delicate creature. You may not know that. Go ahead.
Hi. Thank you. Gentlemen, so my question is about how you transitioned. You talked about being actors and you that became a producer and eventually became a director.
I'm curious about your experience when you started that next step and how people treated you then and how did they mentor? Did they help you? Or were they waiting for you, unfortunately, to fail? Even though, you didn't thank God.
Well, let me say, from the very beginning of going to school, when I met Michael back in the 60s, when I was at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, I always wanted to be a director as well. So I always thought about the business as a whole. I did want to act. I didn't see myself as Carrie Grant.
I knew the idea. I don't know. Maybe you do. But I was thinking like, you know, we got very, very fortunate to get a taxi because that is like Michael was saying in terms of that, that kind of almost graduate school of it all, where you're with the writers and you're with the producers and you're with the director and you're with the cast for a concentrated time.
And you hang around and you learn. And you understand that and you say, well, OK, this. The first time I wanted to really direct was when I saw the Battle of Algiers, the Pawn of Cornmup move, because there's no actors in it. It's just like, I mean, there's no documentary footage in it.
It's all actors, but it feels like a documentary. What is it that they do? So you got to ask those questions. Now, you know, it's just a matter of like, if you're an actress and you want to direct and you're an actor, director and you want to produce, you have to exhibit all of that interest.
And it's very difficult because it's like, you know, but you have to have as much passion for each one of those things. And eventually, the truth will out. You people will see you for what, you, how much passion and how much desire you have and your talent will come out. They'll see it and you'll be successful.
I think this is where television is just so important. I look back when I was doing the 104 hours, the streets of San Francisco, 104 episodes, 104 hours. Different writers, different cast, different directors. And if you keep your eyes open, what's an hour show?
An hour show is shot in 52 minutes, shot in six days. It's a little mini movies. What I'm doing now with the Comminsky Method is half hour, half hour of streaming can be 20 minutes long, 40 minutes long. But you're with a cast, so you're aware of your script and your cast and all the things.
And if you pay attention, make you a better producer. In my situation, you know, I hit the jackpot first time out. I got five Oscars and on one level, I had a different problem because I was an Academy Award winning producer. But I was this actor trying to make it into future films.
And a lot of my early productions, I was not approved as the actor. I did a picture of a producer called Starman that Jeff Bridges did. He got nominated for an Oscar. I wanted to play that part.
I wasn't approved by the studio at that time. So I think you just have to be open and collective. Also, you know, this Me Too movement has been phenomenal in bringing women into our industry more than ever before. And I got to say, it is amazing.
But I think it's also time to be kind to each other. All right, we know there's been some mistakes by a lot of people or some people. But I don't think it's a large population. And I do feel the vibe that is important still remember that we all mutually love this process and to be kind to each other.
I have a question about you as an actor. So as far as I know, you and Catherine have never made a film together. Is it because you haven't found the right script? Is it that choice you've made?
Because... Well, we have a nice marriage. Why spoiler? No, we did a movie called Traffic.
It was Steven Soderbergh, although we were not in the same scenes, we were in the same movie. It just hasn't happened. Part of it also is with kids growing up, we've had kids ever since we were married. We actually had our child before we got married, our first child.
So we tried to overlap. Somebody was home when the other one was working. Hi. Hi.
Firstly, Michael, I'm actually working on Ratchet right now. So it was so fascinating to hear you speak about One Floor over the Cuckoo's Nest and that... What was the name of the movie? It's a series called Ratchet.
Ratchet. It's a Ryan Murphy new Netflix show. And I see your name on the Col Street every day. Wow.
Anyway, I grew up in South Africa loving movies, loving storytelling, watching all of the movies you've talked about today. And I truly feel like I'm living the dream. And it's just, thank you for being such a huge inspiration in my journey. I'm a director now and I love it so much.
I'm just curious. I've always seen you both as actors first. And I'm curious, do you see yourselves as producers first or actors first? I love acting.
I mean, producing just allows you to keep yourself busy and not going nuts. When there's nothing to try to act. But I love acting. And Guy knows Danny does not.
You can tell he has no interest in performing. He has no... I was wondering if you could both talk. Michael was a producer and Danny as an actor about what it was like working with Francis Coppola on The Rainmaker.
Oh yeah. Oh right. You produced The Rainmaker. Yeah, you were good too.
I got to talk to him about the last check I got. Right. I had very little, once that picture got going, I had very little direct involvement. It was in the hands of Francis Ford who was wonderful.