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Acast helps creators launch, grow, and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com. Hello and welcome to Raw Impressions number 27. In this episode, Lou and Adele discuss the movie that Lou was in.
He had a very, very, very small part. He appeared in maybe three or four scenes very briefly, but Lou has a lot to say about it. The movie was Laurel Canyon. The movie is Laurel Canyon starring.
Francis McDormand, Christian Bale, and Kate Beckinsale, and fellow principal actor. Louis Knox Barlow. I was considered a principal actor. I'll have you know.
Oh, I do know. I've heard a lot about it. So, okay. We rented the movie yesterday.
4.99, high definition. 3.99. 3.99, high definition. Yeah.
On the prime, on the Amazon fire stick thing. And we don't own the movie. But oh gosh, okay, I'm giggling because there's been a decade plus of lead up to hearing a, to seeing this movie for me. I've never seen it before.
Lou is in the movie. We've been together for over a decade and he's often shared, shared stories about this movie and his experience filming Laurel Canyon. It was an experience. It's not really reflected.
And I don't show up in the movie very often, but I was there on the set soaking it all in, soaking in the ambiance, the buzz, the buzz of activity that it takes to create a Hollywood movie. I was there. You were there. I was in the little shuttle van going from Basecamp.
That's what they call it. Basecamp was at Will Rogers Beach outside of Santa Monica. And I would ride the little white van with my Christian Bale. And then also the stand-in actors.
I got to find out there's a whole culture of people who are stand-in actors, who stand-in for the main characters. I heard the lingo. They call the movie a show. They refer to it as a show.
Oh, that's interesting. Like movies, for instance, Kate Beckinsale had done Pearl Harbor before that. She had already done it? Yeah.
I was in the makeup trailer with her. She referred to Pearl Harbor as a show. That show that I was working on. The truth is, I wasn't, I'm not going to say I was let down, but I was a little bit disappointed that Lou is not as present visually in the movie as I was hoping for.
And I don't even know if I heard you say a single line. I did. You did. I said up you a well-butrin.
You probably missed that. I'll tell you what. I was relieved at how little I was in that movie because I have one scene where I walk across the, you know, the camp, the, I walk across the scene and the way I'm walking is so bizarre. And then it shows me drinking like a fake beer and the way that I put my mouth around the, I'm like, oh my god.
I loved it. You guys, I could not stop laughing. I was giggling and laughing and beside myself the whole time you were watching it, I was like so unbelievably giddy. I don't know why.
And I was brought right back to home. I was brought right back to home. I was nervous I was doing that. And like in my feet were sweating, they're actually sweating now even speaking of the film, even though that I was sort of felt absolved of a lot of embarrassment by watching yesterday and finding out that I was in so little of a movie.
I have to say I was like, where are you? I've heard about this for so long. And I keep looking for you. I had my phone ready to take video and picture at the ready.
I was like, here I am. I just assumed you were the star. I mean, baby, you're a star to me. But yeah, let me explain it briefly for the people listening.
My band at the time, the new full conclusion. I kept the full conclusion going and then just stuck new at the beginning of it. And who was in that band? And Mod Wasseth and Russ Pollard, who were quite a bit younger than me.
I think they both are a lot younger than me and a lot more handsome. And they're a lot there. They show up in that movie quite a bit. They were good.
They were good. They were good. Russ was actually quite a good actor. He was a really good kid even.
They gave him a kid even. They gave him like in a movie. Yeah. I mean, it was like, yeah, he was like kind of flirting with Kate Beckinsale on set.
He seemed really like in his mode. I was. Am I the cool? Well, he always looks cool.
I mean, always looks cool. If you don't know who he is, come on. You'll put a picture of him in the middle. You'll put a picture of him in the middle.
Yeah. He's a good looking guy. But he looked so badass in that movie. But Christian Bale is an who's the lead singer of your band.
He's not in your actual real band. He was the actor. Alessandro Nivola. Okay.
He's an actor originally from Boston. Oh. He was a Italian royalty. I was going to say it sounds like Italian royalty.
I love that last name. It's so pretty. He is in real life married to Emily Mortimer. Who's also an actress?
Yeah. And I got to go to a party at his house after we finished filming it. Is she English? Oh, yeah.
Yeah. There's so many English people on that movie. All the English people are American. And a lot of American people, myself included in my band, we were meant to be English.
So they, they, the powers that be, wanted us to speak in English accents. And we even went to like a vocal coach. Oh my God. I had like a CD of vocal coaching.
I wanted desperately to find this. I could play it for you. But it pretty much consisted of the guy going, I'd rather lava. I have to say, I'm going to roast Laurel Canyon, some of the things.
And one of them is that was a terrible decision to make you guys be English. I mean, the accents were ridiculous. I think they just seemed more rock and roll. I think it seems more rock and roll.
It seemed more rock and roll. But that was at the time that at that time I think we were in the still in that kind of blur, oasis kind of thing. Oh, yeah. The thing that was going on, I like to think that there was no name for the band ever.
Right. But I would like to think the name of the band, a good name would have been Radio Play. A combination of Radiohead and Coldplay. Oh, Lou's character's name was Fripp.
Fripp. Oh my God. I died. You guys, I just could not stop giggling anytime he came on screen, which was not enough.
But I did love the fact that when you were on screen, you were typically sharing it, sharing the screen with Frances McDormand, legendary actress. My God. She's literally one of the best. She was a really cool person too.
And I'm sure she still is. I see nothing stopping. She's going to be, yes. I mean, she's going to live forever and be nice forever.
I think that you've had, I mean, of all the celebrities and things that you've encountered and you're like, people you've encountered, you, when you speak of her, she sounds like she was just so classy, so nice, so generous. She was just like you think. She's just like you wanted to be. She was so cool that she knew we were newbies and she really like made it easy for us and took an interest in us.
She actually bought Russ and my self matching members only jackets from a vintage store, probably in San Monica. That's so sweet. And then we kind of hung her a little bit after we finished the movie too. She came to my house.
I went to her place. That's dinner. Yeah. Chatted.
That's really cool. Went to her apartment and her and Joel Cohen's apartment. Did you see that? He got to eat Joel?
Yeah, I met Joel. He was really nice. We got to hold one of her Oscars. Wow.
Holy shit. She was cool. Probably for Fargo. Probably.
Man. It was cool. I like to talk about it a lot because it was actually a very interesting experience to be brought into that world and to witness it. To be there, the acting part was agonizing.
But the fly on the wall part and meeting Francis McDormand and that and then also all the people that worked on the movie were like super cool like rockers. They were all the guy that was like the director of photography was in the super cool new wave band from DC I think called 9 5 4 3. I'm not sure. It was a succession of numbers.
This guy Wally Fister had the best name ever. Wally Fister. Totally cool. All the old guys that were working the cameras and stuff were like so chill.
So it was really nice to be a part of to sort of be there and experiencing that. But when the camera came on it was hell on earth for me. And I really realized like I think in your mind you think I could act you know but boy. And then I actually really understood and for the first time I really understood that actors get that kind of money that they make for a very good reason because they have to be the center of attention of this whole constellation of people that surround them.
And these moments are so fraught with like detail and there's so much relying on them. To carry that moment right in time money lighting direction. Well while inhabiting a character is like I'm like that is super natural ability stuff. So I really I talk about it so much.
Not only because I like to drop Francis's name as much as possible. That's a great name drop if you're going to have one. But I really you know I really did I did enjoy being in that world. I mean I didn't necessarily want to be there.
I'll go back to that world but it while it was happening. You're grateful for that experience for it. I feel I can totally relate in the sense that I didn't really know anything about how the film and TV industry worked before moving to Los Angeles. And I probably had a pretty dismissive idea to be perfectly honest when I was like growing up living in the Twin Cities.
And I kind of would just be like you know sort of I mean I hate to say maybe even look down on some of those people. I don't know why. But I think it can feel kind of threatening to someone's ego when you just like film stars and TV stars can just threaten our everyday life. You know we're like there's so much better than us.
I think it's just because they're put on some stage that we've decided this. But maybe I'm just speaking for myself. But I think there's a lot of people that feel. Yeah right.
And then when I moved out to LA I unexpectedly was I don't know if thrust is the right word but I ended up working in the industry and I needed a job. You came out there as a grocery worker but there was like a big strike. I was a grocery store strike. And so this lady did not cross the picket line and so I didn't know what the heck to do.
Anyway I can't remember if we talked about this on the podcast already. But and this could definitely warn its own episode or two someday. But I became an audience clapper. Yes I was paid to clap everybody.
That's a real job. And so I would sit through TV shows being shot live. You know like when they would see you know Pirea filming in front of a live audience. Quick list of the shows that you did as a clapper.
I can't even. Well I can. The Wayne Brady show. Well the Wayne Brady show.
Yes I mean I have certain ones I did but a lot of. Great Kilborn. Yes. The pyramid.
The pyramid. The 10,000, 20,000. In little boxes. Hollywood squares.
Yeah. What? Whoa that's new to me. I didn't know that you were on Hollywood squares.
Well it was in the audience. Yeah. And then lots of television shows that to be perfectly honest I don't remember the names of a lot of them were pilots. One of them I think was called I'm with her.
Or it was sort of based on like this actress who got together with like a guy who wasn't in the industry and so it was sort of like what it's like to date someone famous blah blah. I think it was kind of around the Notting Hill time you know like this idea we have of like normal people you know like with famous people. Famous people. What must that be like?
Yeah. But I will say this so the experience completely changed my perspective on the industry and I also had a similar appreciation where I was blown away at how hard working that industry is in our holy cow. Yeah. The hours are incredible and yeah just watching the actors and not just I mean every single person there is so vital you realize that it's really truly a team like a sports team.
Every single person working that down to just catering everything is so important and. Can I brag for one second? Yeah please brag. You when you did these a lot of these talk shows you were sat up front and they called you know that if you see this I used to notice this all the time even on Judge Judy and shows like that then on the front row there was like why are all these attractive women in the front and you informed me that that's called Babe Row.
Well that's what it was called. That's the official thing Babe Row. Craig Kilborn. I don't know.
They still do that and they might be horrified having that revealed now after. I feel like that would not fly now with like it just today but you know it was interesting to literally be pulled out of a line and they were like yeah we want to pick you for women to come sit literally in the front in front of Craig Kilborn and I'm like why? And they're like because you look good. It's like Jesus wow weird okay.
So they called it Babe Row. It's embarrassing. God but I did get to see Gloria as it. Estefan.
Estefan or Estefan. Let's not get into it. I know. But she's lovely and she's saying and it brought me to damn tears because it's alive to you.
Like just a few feet in front of me on the Craig Kilborn show live. Beautiful performance. It was like after she had been in this bus crash and I think she sang the song it was like coming out of the dark or something and it was like sobbing. I mean holy cow fucking magical anyway so yeah the people who work in that industry and then I later also worked worked in the industry because I knitted for it.
Knitted made things and again you can talk about it. Let's get back to my monumental life changing super important experience. Anyway. Anyway.
Anyway I want to talk about I'm gonna go back to Royal Canyon. Yes. I think we could do a whole thing about your clapping. Your jobs you had in LA when you moved there first.
Amazing. Yeah. We're going to. In November 2001.
Yeah. Wasn't in the movie Royal Canyon was meant to be a band the band of full conclusion and the new full conclusion was the band in the movie. Yeah. Also in your producer your real life producer our producer played the engineer in the movie.
Frances McDormand was the producer. Right. Yes she sure was. Her engineer in the movie was Mickey Petralia who was actually our producer at the time.
Me. We were recording with him. So we'd actually moved. It was interesting because we were working in his pool house in Las Felis but then we kind of went and set up shop on Pacific Palisades to film this movie in another pool house.
Fun. Got a level pool house. I'd love to have a pool house. Same.
Anyway. But so the songs that we play in the movie were Sparkle Horse songs. Yeah. And you don't know.
I don't know. I'm not playing Sparkle Horse but I guess I can't say I know the music. So we spent a lot of time playing these Sparkle Horse songs and actually recording them in the studio. Oh cool.
Yeah. Alessandro actually sings the. Yeah. I'm going to play one of the songs.
So this song was kind of like the song that's going to, if you've seen Laurel Canyon, it's the ballad that's going to save them. Save the album. Save the album because they're looking for inspiration. They're looking for a hit.
They need a hit. Yeah. And they finally Alessandro writes this song. Although it's originally written by Mark Linkas.
Who passed away in 2010? Okay. I found this song almost impossible to play. I was so nervous.
Oh. So nervous. Even in this, because we went to this crazy studio in Hollywood to record this too. We actually went, I mean this was like A-list shit.
We went to Sunset Sound in LA and like Stevie Nicks was like an Oubbe. Oh my God. We're like in this crazy studio where they've done all these amazing records. Like, and I'm just trying desperately to get through this two-chord song.
Oh. I was so nervous even then. Oh. It's okay.
We're taking it back right now. Yeah. That's great. Look in your face for a thousand years.
It's like a civil war of pain and of cheer. But if you was a horse, I could help you with your chains. I could ride you through the fields. And say, buy your fire.
But I do want to remind you that you've been speaking for a while. And also, I want to make sure that you do tell the story of Kate Beckensel walking quote unquote. And open mouth into one of your farts. That's your legacy.
That's your A-list moment. That's the story you want me to tell. I love that story so much. And you're going to still tell it.
You want to keep playing the song? Where do I pick up? Do I pick up from? I'm going to try not to giggle.
Because I don't want to insult. I could ride you through the fields. Buy your fire. Remain.
Yeah. Let your shade be sweet. And float upon the lake where the sun will be made of honey. The sun will be honey.
Will you burn? Because no one here could save you. She's returning to the earth. But one day she'll be silver.
Stars are dying in my chest. Until I see you again. She was born with the wings of a hawk. And she combs her hair with blood.
May your shame be sweet. And float upon the lake where the sun will be. May your shade be sweet. And float upon the lake where the sun will be made of honey.
Well thank you dear for recreating the ballad from Lowell Canyon. Lowell Canyon everyone. The movie Lewis Knox Barlow was a principal actor in. Can I tell you something embarrassing before I get on to the really embarrassing story?
Yeah. While we were working on the movie I was like well maybe I should like play the director some of my songs. So I went home and I made this like really this like you know acoustic stuff of like my best songs at the time I thought and I gave it to her. And I handed her the CD and she said do you know Elliott Smith?
And I did know Elliott Smith. Yeah you did. I did and I actually managed to introduce her to Elliott Smith. And we got Elliott Smith came to the rap party.
Okay. Not stories there that I'm not going to go into. But yeah. The rap party Elliott Russar.
Russ Pollard was hanging out quite a bit with Elliott at the time. So there was that going on too. But anyway we played two Sparkle Horse songs and I found them very difficult to play. Yeah.
They're very different than your style. Yeah. And also I think the songs the appeal of the songs in their recorded form and their original Sparkle Horse form really rely heavily or they really depend on the delivery of Mark Linkus the singer. And he has this almost his approach is very interesting and kind of ironic a little bit.
But when sang in sort of a earnest way by a band made up band in a movie with an English singer it didn't come off quite as well. So yeah I did get a little bit during some of those scenes. You gasp. You gasp.
You're like what is this? Oh my gosh I want to say this though the movie was real fun to watch. So for $3.99 if you haven't seen it you should do it. It's a good time.
I mean yeah it wasn't. I mean it's not going to win. It's not going to win. Yeah it's.
If it wasn't like three major, major A-list actors in that movie. Who did? I mean in Francis and I'll tell you I did a table reading. I did my table reading.
Sat around a table with all the actors and stuff. And Francis McDormand she used the script as kind of like suggestions. She really kind of like really. So she improv?
She improv quite a bit. And really brought the scenes to life when she was doing them too. She really kind of worked off script. And she's so smart.
I mean she kind of knew what needed to be done to carry that movie. I mean her and Christian Bale and Kate Pankinsale. Let's just say that you guys they put in the work okay. And they did everything they could.
They did everything they could. Meanwhile I was on the set. You sure were. I was.
You look so cute. I was. I was. They used hair product on me to tame my curls which was fine with me because I was at war with my curls back then in 2001.
I got this great great clothes from wardrobe. I got jeans that actually fit me. They like. So cute.
But I was nervous every day. And when I get nervous. My tummy gets a little rumbly. Oh.
This is your transition. Yeah. This is my friend. You know so he set me up for this.
I can't get away with not telling this story. It's really. I need to love this story. Fart stories are so so good you guys.
This is a real good one. Good. I was farting on set and it sucked because there's a lot of people and we were like I said we were recording in this pool house small so the studio is very small. It's just a couch and then you're there's probably like 25 people crammed around us while we're on the couch in the studio.
Oh God. And I didn't want to. I didn't want to. Where was I?
Where was I? Where was coming? I was in so much pain. I'll tell you this.
I was in pain because this is a long time ago. This is before I figured out my diet. I'm in my 30s my early 30s. I'm still sorting through like you know my intake.
I was like I wasn't living that healthy. I was probably drinking a lot, mixing a lot of alcohol at night and then eating poorly. So there was a burning in my gut. And you know I didn't like fart like I didn't do that.
It was silent. It was totally one of those silent but deadly but when it creeped out of my sphincter it was hot. Oh no. And I was like oh no.
And then as it sort of started to envelop me and the surroundings came back and so she walked into the room and she went ah. She like opened her mouth and she could taste it. And then you know I'm a terrible English accent. I mean I hear so little of me speaking in the film because my accent was so terrible.
But she was like I just walked open mouth into a fart. She was she was kind of like she was actually a pretty raw personality on the set. She was pretty much she was you know she was down to like talk shit with the guys and flirt with Ross and what her. But yeah she walked by her own admission or by her own description she walked open mouth into one of my silent but deadly.
Nervous. Deep, deep, deep, and nerve farts. Did you like did you take ownership of the fart or did you just sit there? I was there like was a mod in Russ there were they sitting in your fart as well?
It was Francis? They were probably used to it at that point. Oh no. Francis was not there.
Oh thank god. That would have been funny. That would have been funny face. And look why that mean she would have known.
She would have known right away. Oh my god Kate back in sales eight when you're farts. Those beautiful lips. That sweet smile.
Oh man. Damn well on that note. Well wrap it up. I mean I don't know what what else should we say.
I mean I could I mean I I almost feel like I love you even more now after experiencing you Oh seeing you like have to do this torturous role this little role. Okay I want to mention one more thing. My heart just is expanded. The first thing seen that I was in I was meant to be taking a bong hit.
Yeah. Yeah. So and I was I had a bong and but what what I smoked was catnip. Oh because catnip is movie plot.
Oh and we did the scene many many times and I was like because I wasn't have to speak. I was like I'm gonna do the best fucking bong hit for this movie I'm gonna do this is it. This is like this is my moment. It's my moment.
I did dozens and dozens of cat full on full lung catnip bong hits. Oh what does that do to you? It made me feel bad. Yeah.
I feel like I was like am I high? I kind of wanted to be I desperately wanted to be altered in some way on that on that set in order to counteract my nervous energy. Oh and you liked filming the big party scene at the show. Oh yeah this is the last part I want to talk about the famous Chateau.
Yeah we went to the Chateau Marmont for the the final scene and it was a party scene in Mark Linkas from Sparkle Horse was there. Oh cool. I believe he was in a wheelchair at the time. And Daniel Lenois the famous producer.
Do you know who he is? Oh Daniel Lenois. I mean I've heard of him. He's from Montreal.
He produced like records for Emmy Lou Harris probably Willie Nelson Neil Young. I mean he he did he kind of came he had this big renaissance as a producer when he started making these new cool sounding records for Bob Dylan. He made time out of mine for Bob Dylan. Oh wow.
Yeah and he lived right on the lake in Silver Lake. Oh apparently. Oh but Daniel Lenois was there at the party. He was psyched.
I think I knew that. I think I actually knew his house because I think James pointed it out to me. I bet he did. I bet he did.
James. Yeah James Prissant. Sorry. Another one of my former jobs.
Yeah. Yeah. I dealt with a pre-famous guitar maker. I did.
I did. For another day. So Daniel Lenois was there and he was like into it and he's all they put him all over the party scene. There's at least two or three shots of him.
Uh huh. But he was picking up the guitar and playing. Oh sorry but to finish that you got to actually have like a little drink or something while you were still in the house. I did.
This is fun. Yeah Francis McDormand had a room at the Chateau. You know so before the filming started we were in his room and she gave me some whiskey. Yeah.
We listened to Tom Waits and she gave me some whiskey which really made me feel so much better. I'm like man if I could have just had a couple of shots while filming this movie I would have been great. Loose. Or been loose.
I think I would have like you know measured it really well and uh huh. Not gotten completely hammered in the course of the filming. I love Laurel Canyon you know. I love it even more.
I love Francis for taking care of you. She did. Thank you Francis McDormand. Alright everyone this is the end.
We're done blabbing. We're done blabbing about this movie. Go rent it. Or don't.
Whatever. And have a wonderful day. Thank you. Hey.
Thank you for joining the new Nadell on this very very very special long edition of Raw impressions. How raw is a fart? That's about as raw. Well it gets raw but that was pretty raw.
The whole story about the fart.