Joe Rogan Experience #2310 - Robert Rodriguez

joe Rogan podcast Check it out The Joe Rogan Experience Train by day Joe Rogan podcast by night All day Oh man Very very nice to meet you Incredible to meet you [ __ ] gigantic fan man I appreciate that I just love what you've done because like anybody who could start their career off and make a movie for $7,000 is a hero That's such a just an incredible accomplishment to make a a movie that people still watch and talk about today for seven grand It was an experience for sure I I I had a really

good plan and it backfired So I tried to right away when it worked in a different way I wanted to share that experience I wrote a book called Rebel Without a Crew that really inspired filmmakers because you remember that for it too just recently I couldn't believe it hadn't read it since I wrote it and I had forgotten a lot of the details and now I can see why it inspired so many people because it you know when you're in your early 20s six months feels like six years right so when you read it now

and go oh my god from inception to making it penniless by myself to toast of the town it's like that it was unbelievable I couldn't wait to shout from the roof rooftops to all the other filmmakers like me who thought they couldn't get in how I did it exactly I wrote a book about it and I read it now and you go "Oh my god this is an impossible story." I keep laughing during the audio book going "Okay what you're reading right now never happened before and it never happened again It was like lightning in

a bottle." And you would see every time I thought something wasn't going my way and I was really bummed about it Within weeks an upshot beyond And it really taught you that you just got to follow your instinct If you have an idea go even if you know no one else has ever done this before and you'll end up someplace different I want to ask you about that because I know you end up doing the same thing a lot Yeah Where it's not manifesting so much in that You're just kind of following your nose You're

doing something that just sounds ridiculous They even when I try to tell one of my teachers what I was going to go do that summer I said "I'm going to go try and make a movie." He goes "Oh yeah Who's going to be your director of photography?" And I said "I didn't want to tell him I'm the whole crew." And I said "I I'm I'm the DP." "Oh the actors are going to hate you You're going to be there setting up your lights all the time." I like "Okay I'm not even going to tell them

on the rest of the crew It was just because I had read this advice that meant to be good advice but it sounded really depressing It was someone had written "If you want to write screenplays write three full screenplays throw them away Your fourth screenplay will be it." I never written a screenplay It's very hard to write a screenplay It's hard to write It's like three huge meals that you're just going to dump Why not okay write the script throw it away but while you're throwing it away why not also shoot it and direct it

light at yourself do the sound yourself so that you're training yourself on each one So I thought where can I do this where I can get paid to do that like my own film school where I get paid to learn So I discovered that there were these straight to Spanish movies that are action movies You go to the You've seen the HBS around here There used to be a video section to rent movies and there was a Spanish section The Spanish section had movies like they were just action movies They had a soap star They

were made for 30 grand 40 grand shot on video no action but it had a title that looked kind of like a US title like peros raios dos like written like lethal weapon 2 And you would rent it it'd be like just crap people in an apartment talking It wasn't And so I I looked at the back of those and I thought we can make a better one probably for like $5,000 because I had made a short film called Bedhead by myself with a windup camera It was eight minutes and it cost $800 So I

thought multiply it times 10 I could shoot an 80-minute movie for $8,000 But with dialogue and everything I bet I could get it for under eight probably more like five or six Let's go shoot a movie write it shoot it I'll be the whole crew So I learn all the jobs and then we'll sell it to the Spanish home video market No one will know it's me because it's Robert Rodriguez a bunch of Robert Rodriguez's I'll make three of those because I was so young I was winning a lot of film festivals with short films

But I thought if someone sees one of my short films that's winning all these awards they're not going to hire me to do a short film They're going to hire me to do a feature And I've never practiced that I need practice So I'm going to practice three films take the best scenes from them have a demo reel with the money I make from them I don't know how much I can sell it for so I got to make it really cheap Let's just do the first one then we'll know Then I'll take that money

and make my first American independent film and that'll be more serious Because I threw it away like that I just thought well let me just make something fun Action movie I guess I could do action I started as a cartoonist so it was more comedic than anything else I said well an action movie let's make it fun Let's make it about a guy with a guitar case full of weapons Kind of like Road Warrior who goes from town to town with a guitar case full of weapons but I can't afford Road Warrior on the first

one So how about I just do a uh a Genesis story so I took out these cards and I go okay maybe he was a guitar player In fact that'll be a funny title because I have this comedic sense I thought I'm going to make a movie that's got so much action and it's actually shot on film but I'll call it basically The Guitar Player which promises no action whatsoever put it on the shelf and if someone happens to be so desperate to watch it they'll be surprised You know that was like my joke to

myself but I just want to practice So I did this method where I just got the cards and I go "Got because I'm used to making short films." Guy with a guitar case walks into a bar looking for work They refuse They don't hire people We use a synthesizer now He leaves A guy with a guitar case full of weapons walks in after Shoots the place up says he's going after the guy who owns it because he did them wrong So I put those two cards down and I went "Okay that's how a short film

would start." But [ __ ] this is a feature So let me put it's going to need like three scenes before This is how fast you write the script I wrote that script because it was again I'm throwing it away I'm just going to make something that I want to see because no one else is going to see it You're getting paid to practice I'm If I can sell it I'll be paid to practice So then I thought okay we got to figure out who this guy is Okay how about he's a control player who's

coming into town but wait who's the guy that shoots the play let's start with him in jail I read a story about a guy in Mexico who was running his drug business from his from his jail cell and he used it as protection He could walk out at any time Someone puts a hit on him in jail He shoots them up tells the bad guy "I'm coming after you now I'm coming to your town I'm going to shoot up your town." He passes the mariachi on the road The mariachi is a mariachi The guy who

just wants to be a musician We get to know who he is And then he walks in the bar And then the guy comes and shoots the place up Well now he's got to leave and go to another place So now he's got to go meet the girl Oh now this is going to Oh and because it's a it's a it's a you know movie about a guitar player he's got to have some kind of tragic past because Road Warrior had a tragic past Mad Max he lost his wife and kid Oh my gosh he

has to die because that's going to be every movie is going to be like a sad song in his song book So it kind of just wrote that fast I went and I shot it Did you do it like that with the index cards index cards I do this on a table I do this for everything I tell people I I do this talk where I I by the end of the talk I say I keep these in my in my bag It always makes me smile because I know I've made a million dollars with

this before And that's a tiny little This is a tiny one you carry anywhere I gave this to my kids one Christmas For people that are just listening it's closed together with rubber bands Rubber bands I gave this with in a in a cool little leather bag for my kids one Christmas I thought they would say "What's this shit?" They loved it I said "You can change your life with this thing." Because a lot of times you know you go to therapy not for answers You go for questions We have the answers inside us Usually

we ask ourselves terrible questions The therapist ask you questions like why do you why did that make you feel why did you do that and what's up what's going on if we do our own questions like what's next what goes before this your mind comes up with the answer if you ask the right question So I've used this for like we usually ask unempowering questions You know the words we use in ourselves are so important but so are the questions like "Why am I such a loser?" Well I can give you 10 answers right now

But if I change it to "What three things could I come up with to start this week that would not just change my life but everyone around me?" You don't come up with three you come up with like 15 Just keep coming out And as you look at them you go "These kind of go together and are actionable I can actually start this right now." I mean you can literally change your life business ideas um movie ideas stories just with a deck of cards By the time I build up and show all the examples of

it at the end of the talk I hold up one of these with a rubber bands to the crowd and I say "Who wants to change your life everybody's hands go up I toss one out they catch it." In fact I remember my nephew about seven years ago caught one It's funny because he's on Broadway now It's just like let you map out your life Uh another friend of mine DJ Katrone he's an actor He caught one and he said "Wow that talk you gave was so empowering How you wrote it I went home and

I picked up an old script I hadn't picked up in a while." And I just cut off the phone for three days and I finished it And I said "You finished a script in three days?" I like the feedback loop that happens when you inspire somebody Well I'm going to try that because I got a bunch of halfbaked ideas that I've never gone and done that with That's You did it in three days yeah If you shut the phone off you can do it in three days And now he has that movie's out It's coming

out It's called Fight or Flight with Josh Hartnett He wrote Wow Yeah After hearing the talk he went and picked up this old thing that he thought and I get this a lot when I've talked to people It's really inspiring to them to hear other people That's why I'll ask you questions about it too Where did you develop this approach like is this something you completely invented yourself just and to map out life on index cards writers uh will often put index cards up to just kind of block out a scene It's a very it's

it's a it's a visual way to see your story Like when you lay it out and you go "Oh this works I'm missing a section here." But again like this is asking you "What could I put there?" You'll come up with a bunch of ideas and it's almost gives you like an overview But I started it when I was a cartoonist I had a daily cartoon strip So I would draw on different cards different drawings and every day I had to come up with a comedic idea and a drawing and a story And it was

tough You'd have to draw it out And you would sometimes make two drawings that you really liked and go "Oh this kind of is the setup One two three pay off of the joke here." And they come up with it like that So I kind of use it for everything It's kind of a more vis I'm a more visual kind of person So it helps you visually see something that's normally like written words and stuff So it started off concepts and ideas with cartoons and then worked into writing But I I haven't seen too many

people apply it the way you're you're explaining it like you could actually use that to fix your life Oh fix your life completely because it's another question It's just questions you're asking yourself And the amazing thing is once you start doing stories that's why I like doing a lot of original franchises Probably like made the most original franchises of filming because I don't usually direct other people's stuff because you realize you're creating this story like I just made this guy's destiny happen and I can give him a good outcome or a bad outcome It's in

my control And you realize you can do that with your own life So you're writing the story of your own life of who you're going to become who you're going to be And as a parallel and you realize you've got that power and when you realize you got that power you can you can make literally anything happen And it's uh I you realize art and life should be the same You know so many people I was telling the story to somebody and they said "Wow you're really positive and that kind of makes a lot of

sense." You know I have a project that's pretty much all together Almost the pieces are there but I guess I'm just not ready It's going to be on your tombstone Here lies so and so He was never ready You can't wait to go do it Like with life you don't know what's going to happen You wanted to work out today What happened bunch of [ __ ] right got in the way Your tires flat Fires went up you just got fired You can't You're not ready for life You're like this right but for some reason

people artists think that they need to be ready to create art It's like no you got to jump in and just start You just need to start You're not going to really feel ready till you're almost done with a project I didn't feel ready to make that $7,000 movie till the last few days when I was like "Okay now I wrap my head around it." I had to figure it out day by day Yeah The procrastination really cripples people Yeah Or thinking that they need to know more and you don't realize the answers you get

that you need are not going to be figured out sitting at a desk going to be on the floor Well I think it's kind of a fear of incompetence and failure especially if you're undertaking something like starting a film Like some people just for whatever reason they they don't have the confidence to just potentially fail and just just try it Just get moving Just get you know Hemingway my friend Ari on his laptop he has this quote top of his keyboard uh first draft of everything is [ __ ] Yeah And it's Hemingway like god

what a great [ __ ] it's like such an important thing to know because he knows the process Yes If you trust the process you don't have to worry And if you question well I don't know if you're an artist That's what an artist should think but don't let that [ __ ] you I call it fear forward Like you should have some fear going into something Like I might screw up but that's good That means you're not wasting your time I think it's really important for people to hear someone like you who's accomplished so

much say it that way cuz they can internalize it and go "Okay this is what it is I just have to do something I just actually get moving I just can't sit around waiting for the perfect time cuz it won't happen It's not going to happen And there's that thing like you have to you know I always give people copies of the War of Art Presfield's book Yeah Yeah Amazing It's a great book But it's all about that That book is if you're trying to figure it out That book's the guide book Read that book

It's a short little book Super easy to read And it gives you the tools to put in your head like "Oh this is resistance." Like this procrastination This is this weird fear of doing it Yeah Because it's not like the thing you're doing is painful which is really crazy Like writing out cool plot lines and this is that's got to be fun It's really fun Fun Now the making of it might be very painful but it's a very short amount of pain versus a long-term pain of you not living your dream That's the longest That's

the longest time you can spend That's the longest time in pain There's um you just rip the band-aid off and jump in I mean I'm sure there's a a bunch of people out there that are in the middle of that right now and they're trying to figure out we have to keep reminding ourselves because we know and we got to remind ourselves Sometimes we forget and we don't apply it to other areas of life I'll talk about that That's when I really found success was find when I took these ideas and moved it to another

area But like I tried to figure this out when I was I was doing that other method the wrong method when I was cartooning because I would it would be so hard to come up with a cartoon strip each day But I needed the money and I had a daily cartoon strip here at UT We had the biggest comics page in the country It was really everybody wanted to be the next Burke Bread He'd come out of there He did Bloom County He was a UT student His college art was like national stuff So we

all wanted to be him So I would go like there's got to be an easier process than sitting here and working it out I want to come home and develop a process where I sit on my couch and I just picture it first I picture the comic I picture the jokes I picture the drawing Then I got to just go draw it right m I'd be there 2 hours 3 hours my deadines's coming up [ __ ] it's not working So I have to go [ __ ] start drawing again then be like okay this

kind of goes with that one that oh oh here it is And I realized something really profound back at you know 19 And it's really carried into mariachi which is when you pick up the pen or the keyboard or the camera and you start it starts doing itself You realize it's not you It's coming through you because there's a creative spirit assigned to us that needs hands and it's not going to reward you if you're doing that because it can do that But as soon as you pick it up it takes over So I it

realize oh I just have to be a conduit or a pipe And if I just start I'm going to be like whoa And and you got to keep your ego out of it because you go wow how did I do that i wonder if I could do it again You just shut you just shut it right back up because you think it's you and it's not you And I know this works because I taught it to my kids when they were younger I thought I got to teach it to my kids And since they hadn't

learned any bad habits they went "Oh we so we didn't have to do anything We just have to start writing and it's going to come out and go yeah." And they went they wrote all this amazing stuff And I was like "They don't have to be reversed you know reversed." But that that was a very powerful thing And I saw when I did another $7,000 movie recently I had a TV series based on Rebel Without a Crew where I I got independent filmmakers So it only made short films and I gave him two weeks You

got to do like Mariachi You can bring one person to be either a cameraman or your sound guy but you got to do the whole movie yourself Write it direct it edit it and be shot in two weeks That's how long it took me to shoot Mariachi And they're all oh we don't know how we're going to do it By the week they started shooting they're already go talking about their next three films Like they changed their idea of what was impossible just dropped out So I was really curious to do mine I was doing

one based on my medical experiments I did to pay for Mariachi which is another story And I brought my son I brought my son Racer because I knew he hadn't been working with me on the movies for a while I'm going to make him my second guy He's going to be my coowriter my co-lighter and he's going to be doing the sound And I didn't show him how to use the sound equipment till we're filming because we're documenting it We made a documentary about it and people really loved about how we made this movie today

for $5,000 and he was fumbling around and and we're going and I thought they're g he's gonna hate this You know he's got his own interest He doesn't want to work on a movie but I need him And so he comes to me at the end of the day with his brother and goes "Dad the actor didn't show up The set didn't m the location didn't match the script at all Everything was falling apart We asked you how are we going to finish the day?" And you said "Well I don't know We'll see what happens."

And and we thought "Oh my god is this the movie that finally you know he can't figure out?" But by the end of the day we figured it out And their eyes were all wide Oh they don't realize that's the creative process And that's every day in life and in work Life you don't you don't know You're going to figure it out as you go Art should be the same way And by the end of the two week shoot they're interviewing him He's all waxing philosophical about the creative process Like he's been doing it for

years He goes he goes "I never knew how my dad did mariachi." And then now I know cuz I just did this project He didn't know either He just started and he figured it out day by day Most people never start I mean he succinctly encapsulated everything I tried to say in my book which was you just got to go And identity is key Identity is the main thing All these people who are out there I got to tell them this If you are listening and there's something you're not getting in your life that you

really want it's not it's not a matter of desire You have the desire There's a there's a missing element that I talked about in the book and I'd forgotten myself You know we forget our own good advice Over the years people would say "Hey in your book it says this." And I'd go "I wrote that I was so smart back then What What happened i got to go reread my own book." But it was this thing where I told people because they would come up to me a lot because I was making films really early

on and say "I'm an aspiring filmmaker." You might hear that I'm aspiring comic You know I'm an aspiring filmmaker I go stop aspiring You're calling yourself an aspiring filmmaker That's now your identity You're always going to be aspiring Just say you're a filmmaker M take one of these cards and make a a business card Even if you have to handw write it who you are I'm a director I I wrote I did one I had it printed up Director cinematographer editor composer I that's who I am Now you're going to have to conform to that

And you're going to start making films That's I started making these films even for Spanish video And so you have to think at first And I've forgotten that lesson So and I wanted to use your gym because you know I like to work out now I never did You started as a cartoonist I'm surprised I I was always an artist I was really tall you know for school Yeah I started I was an illustrator when I was a kid I wanted to do comic book illustration Yeah That was my thing Yeah Yeah This episode is

brought to you by Visible Now you know I tend to go down a lot of rabbit holes I want to know everything about everything And if you're like that you need wireless that can keep up Visible is wireless that lets you live in the no It's the ultimate wireless hack You get unlimited data and hotspot so you're connected on the go Plus Visible is powered by Verizon's 5G network meaning fast speeds and great coverage And with the new Visible Plus Pro plan you get premium wireless without the premium cost And the best part it's all

digital no stores You can switch to Visible right from your phone It only takes about 15 minutes And then you manage your plan in the app Ready for wireless that lets you live in the no make the switch at visible.com/roganogen Plans start at $25 a month For the best features get the new Visible Plus Pro plan for $45 a month Terms apply See visible.com for plan features and network management details It's fun right cuz it cuz it's just it's not you you know you start drawing and then suddenly how when did you learn that as

a I don't think I knew that I think I was doing that but I didn't know it And until I started reading about it like the the concept of the muse the concept right like that you you just have to sit down and do the work and it comes to you Yeah Well started when I was 19 doing the comic but then it kept getting repeated But you realized it at 19 I realized at 19 that was that it wasn't you It felt like something else but then it really hit me later on Um and

I'll get to that one It's uh it it really hit me later on where I kind of put it all together around 2001 2002 when I was doing a movie where I was again kind of going back to the way I did Mariachi I was on a big movie though I was the the writer the director the producer the cinematographer the editor the composer I was doing all these things Plus I was doing the production design now and I was taking on more jobs to make it more like a handmade film more like a lot

of factory movies were being made I said I want people to this to feel different I think they'll they'll get a feeling from it they don't get from you know a McDonald's process You know they're still good but you know there's something about a home-cooked meal And I didn't even know how to read or write music And I was writing music for 100 piece orchestra And I was like how figuring it out by notes going there's only 12 notes You go even less than a scale So you hit three notes four notes That's not a

bad that's a bad note Okay that's pleasing to the ear And I was just writing a note by note because it is a kids movie So I figured it should sound like a kid wrote it and I'm like a kid It should sound like that And I was writing pretty complex stuff not knowing what I was doing I go "How is this even possible that I'm doing all these jobs I wasn't trained in?" So I went on Amazon and I looked up any book that had the word creative or creativity in it I just ordered

it I didn't know what section it came from They just arrived And I'm thumbming through them and one of them was really speaking about the creative process how it worked And I was like "Wow wow that's how it is That's how it is." And then it said gels and mediums and I was like "Oh this is a book particularly about painting but it applies to all the other things I'm doing." That's when I realized that it's all linked Yeah That creativity is 90% of any of those endeavors 90% of it is just being creative The

technical part like write reading or writing music and there's a lot of great musicians who don't read or write music They're fantastic The technical part you can fudge that like how how to shoot the movie You can you can fudge a lot of the technical stuff 90% is creative And if if you know how to be creative you can literally jump from job to job and do it really well because you're coming with your own experience your own point of view It's why I teach my actors to paint on the set because they've never painted

before and they're already being creative by acting But in between takes we'll go paint a portrait of their character where I take a photo of them in character and have them paint a background I said "Just pick up the paint You can use these three methods Any color you want The paintbrush is going to know where to go Even though you've never painted before it's going to know where to go And they do it And I put a stencil of a line drawing of their face over it I'll show you some You're not going to

believe it Josh Brolan was way into it Lady Gaga did one Bruce Willis did one And it's just like magic how it comes together And it's to teach them that you don't have to know You know we always think I need to know this I need to know that What about the other side half of half of the battle is knowing What about the other half not knowing I think is the more beautiful and where the magic is because you don't need to know what's going to happen You just need to show up You just

need to pick up the pen You need to do the keyboard Yeah Because it just starts coming through you and they see it and it helps them go back to the set and solve any creative problem because it was much harder in the faint room figuring out gels and mediums and all this stuff They go back to the set and they can solve any problem instantly And and you'd think that they're already in a creative mode by acting but it fires off a whole other part of your brain to go do something else creative at

the same time Remember the set Josh goes "Is it okay i'm still thinking about the painting." I go "I think so I think it's all right Let's see Let's see you." It was so funny That's a like a Miiamatu Masashi quote from the book of Five Rings right once you know the way broadly you could see it in all things Yeah you start see and so that's where I started piecing together that it was something because I I really wanted to look it up because it would feel like when I would go to write the

music I don't have to write very many notes before it feels like I'm being pulled by the hand like I didn't make that I didn't make that and I didn't do that and I didn't do that what is it say that and a lot of comedians say that too well if you ask any all the disciplines like I go I ask Jimmy Vaughn how how did you play that Like that solo was amazing Did you have that worked out it's kind of like tuning a radio You know if you get it just right you can't

even believe what's coming through Yeah You know you always hear everyone's version of that And so I called it something I thought I'm going to call it the creative spirit Like there's a creative spirit Imagine the creative spirit that's assigned to you And if you're someone who's just like I don't think I can do I don't think I can do this or that And they don't and they don't pick up the pen They don't they don't actually start how frustrated that is just hovering over hovering over oh my god were you just p it's not

you It's not you You just let me through And it's crazy that that concept has been around forever This concept of the muse but yet still I never heard it like that where it's like takes it still feels like you have to do a lot You just go I still need to be a pipe Yeah A clean pipe a conduit so more stuff comes through And that means take your ego out of it and just just do the work Just show up and start Yeah Presfield literally thinks that it's like like an angel or like

some sort of a divine presence that presents you I I think I think there's something to it man And it's it sounds so kooky but if something is super successful for amazing people and they're all telling you the same thing like why do you have to nah man I'm not stupid I'm not going to believe in the concept that whatever the [ __ ] it is There's something that happens when you're creative where you feel like an antenna You feel like you're just take these ideas are coming to you They're entering into your mind It's

not physical effort It's not like you're picking up bricks and stacking them on the wall Like something is happening to you Yeah You're tapped into uh I had a friend of mine Tim Ferrris was over at my house and I was telling him about some kind you know it's very creative house really because it's that's where I do a lot of my creative work and a lot of creatives like coming to this place and see you have to come check it out You can see the fettettas I have Oh you have original fettas Okay we'll

get we'll get to that We'll get to that Oh my god But um it's just totally totally You have to tell me what your favorite for that is Totally creative place and I like people to come there But it's it's just inspiring to be in an environment where everything around you is is about creativity because then you get in that headsp space and you're able to do more because you realize it's not you It's just coming through you and you just got to and you just have to witness it and it just takes a lot

of the load off of you A lot of people can start easier if they know oh it doesn't have to be me Like my kids that oh it's not I don't have to do it I just have to actually pick up the pen Yeah It's it's very freeing Yeah It's uh it's something that everyone should learn with anything in life anything that you're doing in life is just to take action and trust this process that happens Yeah But you you have to do things You can't just sit and wonder And it's that procrastination the anxiety

about starting that's like crippling for people It keeps them from getting off the ground And they're doing that to themselves You're literally doing this to yourself So when you say "Well I don't know if I can." You just chopped off your leg right at the at the beginning of the race Right Right Right You go "Well I tried it once before and you just cut the other one off." I mean you're literally doing you're you're own worst enemy I had this one gal in fear of failure This is the bas one one gal one of

the talks She said "Okay you're real positive but what do I tell myself when I just spent a year and a half doing something and it didn't work out?" I said "Well that's very negative way to ask that Can you rephrase the question first then I'll then I'll attempt." And she went "I learned a good lesson the hard way." No that still sucks If you're focused on the failure if you followed your instinct and it didn't work out it doesn't mean you're wrong Sometimes the only way across the river is to slip on the first

two rocks It's the only way And if you just stay there you're not going to go So you have to embrace the failure because if you're going on instinct I mean you're doing it literally on instinct Not like someone said "Hey go over there There's a money-making scheme Go do that." Literally you had the instinct And my best example was Four Rooms a movie I did with Quinton Um because if you study the ashes of your failure you'll find a key to your next success That was the movie where there was four different stories playing

simultaneously Four different movies Four different stories And I love short stories cuz I had made a bunch of short films I thought "Oh I want to do that." So when Quinton asks and I asked the audience I like asking the audience "How would you answer this?" Quinton goes "Hey I'm going to make a movie called Four Rooms Four different directors You got to use the bellhop It's New Year's Eve You're in a hotel You can't leave your hotel room You want to do it." Hand goes up Now just on instinct now I ask the audience

was I wrong to just go by instinct or should I study it a little bit nobody really knows the answer What would you say would you study you are you more serious you're more in Are you more instinctual 100% Yeah I'm primarily instinctual It figured because that's why you're here right now because we're not that smart I'm not that smart I I couldn't have figured this [ __ ] out It's because I was just had an instinct to go that way when everyone else was going that way And you're going to stumble You're going to

fall but you're going to stumble upon You're going to stumble upon ideas no one thought of because you're going the way that's not picked clean already Right Right So I just like four rooms I said "Yeah." Now if I had just studied a little bit I would have seen that anthologies like that never work Like even when it's Scorsesei you know Woody Allen and Copa they did one Nobody goes to see because they don't know how to wrap their head around what is three movies anthology doesn't work If I had studied first should I have

changed my answer nobody knows how to answer Well I'm going to go on Instinct I'm going to say I say Instinct anyway Movie Bombs doesn't do well at all Now I could be really upset about that and go like "Wow I got to be really careful now going forward I have to tiptoe around as an artist." Well that's that's not the state of mind I was when I won Sundance I was throwing stuff out Can I offer a counter to that sure It only bombed financially Okay No no I'm I'm not done with the story

Artist is a very good movie There's a lot of great stuff in it But it goes even better than that My whole thing is examine the ashes of your failure And I don't find one I find two keys in there to my biggest movies directly from that experience So my instinct was right But again sometimes the only way across the river is slipping on the first two rocks I was on the set had to be New Year So I dressed everybody up in tuxedos And Antonio had just done Desperado The next week he came and

appeared in there The little boy from Desperado He had a little brother So I hired him And then I just found the best little actress who's a half Asian girl Asian-American So I cast an Asian mom So it would look like they were a family So I'm seeing Antonio and Tamil Tama all dressed up to Denise I'm going "Wow they look like a really cool international spy couple What if they were spies?" And the two little kids that can barely tie their shoes don't know it they get captured and the kids have to go see

them So by kids there's five of those now The other key to success that I got on that set was I love doing short films That's why I signed up for it It didn't work But I'm going to try it again Not four stories three stories like a three-act structure Not four directors but the same director I'm going to try Why on earth would I try it again except that I had just done one and I figured out there might be a different approach That's Sin City So Sin City and Spy Kids directly came from

that thing you would call a failure if you if you focused on the failure Wow So go back and look tell everybody go back and look at something that you had a real instinct for that you did and it didn't work and sift through the ashes of it and you're going to find either that you've already had the success from it and you didn't realize it which you really need is a boost of confidence in your instinct or you you will find something that will be the key to your success Well that's also the the

magical part of the creative process is that it's not always going to work And that's actually good That means when it does work it'll be even more rewarding Yeah I mean Mariachi didn't work This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp It's the end of tax season and I know by now you all are probably sick of numbers but there's one more expense we need to talk about and that's how much you're investing in your well-being The cost of traditional therapy can be outrageous between $100 and $250 a month or even more So how do

you get the help you need without blowing your monthly budget use BetterHelp With BetterHelp you pay a flat fee for weekly sessions saving you money and time It could even help you save up to 50% per session and you still get quality care Therapy is a good tool everyone can use whether you've experienced a major trauma or not It can teach you valuable skills you can use in your everyday life like how to better manage all that stress tax season brings or how to communicate better with your partner or even how to be more mindful

Use Better Help to work towards your goals at a reasonable cost It's also more convenient since everything is online It's easier to work in a therapy session no matter how hectic your schedule gets And as one of the largest online therapy platforms BetterHelp has access to thousands of therapists with all sorts of specialties so you can find the right fit for you Your well-being is worth it Visit betterhelp.com/jre to get 10% off your first month That's betterhelp hp.com/jre I failed at that I was going to sell that to the Spanish home on video This what

blew me away about rereading the book I went "Oh my god I was so bummed I finished making that movie." And you you see in the book clearly I'm a penniles clueless filmmaker making this movie I think by myself I think it's going to work I don't know a borrowed camera I didn't even know how to use it I call a place in Dallas that rents this equipment I go I got an Aries 16s you know on the phone It has two motor looking things One has one number and one's got many Oh that's a

variable speed motor It means you Oh can I do slow motion with it you know I was literally learned like that And then I went and shot the whole movie And I had to shoot the whole movie in two weeks and I couldn't develop the film till I got back So I shot blind not knowing if that camera was even working Is it true that you invented the walk away with the explosion behind you yeah that was actually Yeah Yeah If you look at all the compilations it starts with Desperado Wow Because it was an

accident I didn't think you This is what happened And so in Desperado in the script it says he throws some grenades over the side of this building to blow up the bad guys And him and and and Salma walk away It was just supposed to see some body parts fly It was just a grenade You know it was supposed to be a nuclear explosion Just some body parts some shrapnel and some smoke But it's two stories up And we get there we're shooting so fast I went to my poor effects guy who was just you

know so busy just having done a big shootout And I went "Man do I know you don't have body parts because we didn't ask for it but do you have anything we can just throw it's so high up Is there anything you can launch up there and he goes "No no I don't have anything." So I need something to come up because I wanted some [ __ ] to fly up behind him He goes "I give you fireball." I said "Fiber like what it'll go up uh 60 feet." But it's propane so it's going to

burn off like that How fast does it burn off like that So okay I'll shoot slow motion Okay we shoot slow motion I tell the actors just keep walking Don't turn around because it's supposed to be pretty big and it might be really high I don't want you to sing your eyebrows Just walk fast Walk fast and determined but I'm going to shoot It's going to feel funny but when I shoot it in slow motion it'll look like you're just walking normal speed and it'll slow down the explosion Well it looks fantastic I remember when

I show Yeah it looks See they're just walking They don't know Look at Tonio's just like look at her She's just like so calm But if you play that if you sped that up and played it normal motion it goes by like that It's crazy because that that scene has been copied so many times It became an action like staple Look So they even used it for Fear Factor Now that I'm thinking about it we used it for one of the ads for Fear Factor is me walking away and they blew some [ __ ]

up behind me because it's just like it's this cool attitude and working with the music I thought it was the dumbest [ __ ] ever because it was a TV show dicks It wasn't kind of silly but it's it was just an accident Again the accidents that you stumble upon There you go All right That's where it came from So uh that came out in August of 200 um of 1995 Just six months later Dust Till Dawn came out and I made that I I enjoyed it so much I [ __ ] loved that movie

Oh thanks I love that movie I showed this explosion shot you know the movie to Jim Cameron He was watching it I was waiting for his for cuz you know he he was doing like movies like Terminator 2 blowing the [ __ ] out of everything So I was wondering if he'd like my little rinky dinking thing and his hand went up in the air when he saw that moment So I thought "Okay I'm doing that I'm going to do that." Dust till Dawn Dust till Dawn I had it where the actors come out doing

the dialogue though and the explosion just keeps going and they're walking away while having a conversation So so within two move within six months you saw two versions of that So people just started doing you see it in Man and Fire You see I mean you see like whole compilations of it but it's an that's got to be weird for you Like you're like [ __ ] that's mine No no because it wasn't mine again it came it came if I if I had engineered it yeah I'd be really smart but again like I said

I'm not that smart sometimes pretty cool that it's become like a part of like action films Yeah Dust Till Dawn is so first of all who knew Quinton Tarantito would play such a good [ __ ] psychopath who knew what's so fun is um he's in Desperado now I met him on the film festival circuit So in 1992 we were both had movies with guys in black in violent movies In fact I met him at the Toronto Film Festival for Reservoir Dogs had mariachi because they put us on a panel together to discuss violence in

the movies in the 90s even though it was only 92 and so we met there became friends and he said I'm my next movies in pulp fiction and I just thought this crazy guy he's so funny and I said I'm going to write him into desperado it was before he did pulp fiction or any of that so by the time desperado came out pulp fiction was a phenomenon then people cheer when he walks on stage on set but when we were doing that four rooms here's another thing that came from four rooms if I hadn't

done four rooms it'd be no dust till dawn when we're doing um Four Rooms he takes me into a room and he starts reading me and I got on it's on the internet I put it out him reading me the first scene of Kill Bill Uh this was in you know eight years before he made the movie Um and then he said "My very first script I wrote and I didn't get paid [ __ ] for like 1,500 bucks was Dust Till Dawn And now because of the sex the success of Pulp Fiction they want

to make all my old stuff and these producers have it I didn't get paid dick So I'll do a rewrite and you and I will go in together You should be the director because it takes place in Mexico and you're Mexican So I was like "All right." That's the second time he writed me a scene in 2001 There was there's one video where he's even younger in uh four rooms reading me a second version of it So over the years he would read we had an office next to each other when I was writing Desperado

and he was writing Pulp Fiction So he'd read out scenes There he is And I would read out you know show him scenes from Desperado [ __ ] and we just became friends there He was originally going to make Pulp Fiction for Tristar and then they passed on it because they thought it's weird it's long and he went did it for me Did he want to be the serial killer i asked him to because I knew he he liked acting and I and I just knew him as a person Like a lot of times I'll

cast somebody just by meeting them I'm going to cast you and because you realize you can there's something about them that captures you that's going to just be magnified when you put it 50 feet on screen That's I've discovered a lot of talent that way That's how I found Salma I just knew she was going to be it Um but he was so so great I thought this is a really fun character I bet he could he likes act I can get a performance out of him and he'll come in with a take on it

So I said I'll do Dust Dawn Uh would you be interested in playing Richie he goes I'd love to play Richie Okay Well so he was the first person we cast and he's fantastic in it He's really great He's really scary Got all into character He was terrified Kind of had this really cool haircut I showed him a picture of uh Bert Reynolds in Deliverance Said "Dude you got the haircut of Deliverance It was really cool." He's like "Oh wow." You know he just really slipped into it It was always in character and he was

always intense on on the set It was really fun to see him get very believable He really enjoyed that performance I said "Dude you're so good in this movie Anyone talks [ __ ] they're just talking [ __ ] It's [ __ ] through gritted teeth Don't listen to anybody You're really great in this movie The test of time." You can't listen Anybody's talking [ __ ] about Quinton in that movie shut up Oh he nailed it He he scared the [ __ ] out of me Well when you get a lot of success people

would tend to you know makes you a target you know of course So they would they would say stuff about him and and being in well he shouldn't be acting in his movies you know just [ __ ] like this Like dude this will shut him up And if it doesn't it's just [ __ ] that because you're really great in the movie Yeah You just have to tune out the noise Yeah How do you how do you how do you get past the noise i just tune it out I'm busy Stay busy Yeah I

don't read anything about me That's the big one Don't read it That's Don't engage Like sometimes people send me things I'm like "Don't send me that man I don't want to read it I'm not going to read it anyway." Send it to you Yeah Friends they don't know any better or my sister might send me something Yeah It's just I just leave me out of it I got some really good advice early on I like to share this people I share this with my actors because they get a lot of [ __ ] sometimes Um

I was afraid to even do like a bigger movie because I was flying under the radar with you know Mariachi and Desperado and then Spielberg sees Desperado wants to do Zoro with Antonio and me directing right so I go "Cool working with Spielberg." And it's like "Oh [ __ ] I'm working with Spielberg." You probably remember this time because we're about the same age Remember the 80s and 90s people would just throw [ __ ] on him all the time All the time Like there's no respect for this guy They were so jealous Press public

everything He was just like he couldn't catch a break and he was making like the coolest movie Ah that movie sucks Ah Jurassic Park sucks And this unbelievable So I thought "Oh [ __ ] it's cuz he's got his head way up Maybe I should fly under the radar and not go make if I can make a movie with him what chance do I have?" I went back and rewatched you know like Temple of Doom which people that's not as good as Raiders I watch it and go if I can make a movie that's an

eighth of that I'd be lucky So I called them and said "But they make Close Encounters." I I know Jeez that's [ __ ] incredible Great movies But that but do you get that much success and after and and then people kind of resent right it comes with the territory Yeah But how do you get by past it i was curious for him So I I I said "Hey man I just saw Temple of Doom I don't know how I'm going to make this movie for you." He goes "Oh don't worry about that Just make

a great movie." So then I go to him and I say "Um I'm afraid that if I make a movie at the bigger level I'm just going to be a target like him I mean he's the best filmmaker and he's getting the [ __ ] kicked out of him." I said "How do you do it how do you do it do you just you get rocks thrown at you all day long he goes "Oh Robert you just don't blink." I was like "Wow." It's not like a Clint Eastwood line I go "Wow that's how he

did it all this time It's just like just don't blink Commit to making a body of work." I try to tell filmmakers sometimes that they have a success for the first one they get really afraid of the second one because they think "Oh [ __ ] now I might fail." Right the fail the fear of failure cripples a lot of people If you commit to just making a body of work a body of work like he did he just made any movie he wanted Some hit some don't Some overperform some underperform A movie like Mariachi

that was not supposed to go anywhere way overperforms and you can't tell what's going to be the one So just commit to a body work And now no one gives them any [ __ ] Now I think it's also important to recognize that the people that are tossing [ __ ] your way they're doing it to distract themselves from the fact that they're not contributing anything It's almost always the case of that That's what the critic is The critic would not be a critic if they had something to contribute So they see other people that

are taking that chance and going out there and they're they're acting on their instincts and they're putting something together and they try to attack all those things as being garbage because really they're not contributing Yeah And so they're and they may very well Very easy to attack and they may very well want to but they hurt Most of them Yeah Well the same instincts that make them want to attack successful people are the same things that hold them back from being creative Talk about closing that pipe Yeah I mean doing it to yourself Doing it

to yourself and by by doing that to other people If they would just commit to a body of work Don't blink right and just keep making [ __ ] Don't get somewhere That's great advice Commit to a body of work Body of work Like look at someone I mentioned this and a friend of mine businessman called me and said "Wow I really that really spoke to me You know I tend to look at all the different businesses I've created that failed instead of looking at the whole body of work and I fixate on the ones

that didn't work And it's like you never know what's going to work or not Don't that's not your concern Just go make [ __ ] Follow your instinct because again maybe maybe that one that didn't work is your four rooms and you got and you got you get two other great ideas out of it I've forgotten that Dustel Dawn came out of that as well So that's the that's the third one out of that four rooms That thing gave and gave and gave Hustle Dawn was so fun because it was two different movies It was

like this that's why it couldn't get made So when he first wrote it he couldn't get made because people Okay so this is what happened The effects company hires him and um they they said we want a a movie that'll showcase our effects in this vampire bar It's about two brothers that go to vampire bar Start Quinton starts riding He starts riding Quinton style where he gets way into the brothers So much into the brothers that it turns into like a desperate hours type movie for half the movie He he waits half the movie to

get to the bar So now for for financeers it's now like a mixed bag It's like two movies in one right but it was a negative then It was like this movie is all wrong It's like suddenly they're it's one thing and then suddenly it turns into a vampire bar This we can't make this But then Pulp Fiction comes out and now everybody wants to make it Oh it's two movies in one It's great You know whole different perspective change Well a little success will do for you Four rooms Oh four rooms Oh yes four

rooms Four times the fun you know So you never know So I told Quinton "Let's make it right now because we made it to our next movie right after Four Rooms." So Desperado Four Rooms at So Desperado came out in August 1995 Four Rooms in December Dust Till Dawn was in January That's how fast those came out We're working that fast back then Wow So I said "Let's make this right now because you're starting to steal from the script." That's Ezekiel speech that um Sam Jackson says in Pulp Fiction that's from the original Dustal Dawn

script Really he just took it He was he was pulling stuff out of it cuz it was just like not going to get made an old car So I said before there's before it gets picked clean Let's go make this thing and we'll shoot it now We'll go shoot it right now And it was so fun It was so fun I love that movie It was so fun Che is so great You know we did a table read and we have a table read with your actors You only have your main actors there So sometimes

you'll assign other parts to other people who are there So it was like cheat why don't you go ahead and take you play the main guy at the end but go ahead and read for the for the Oh no He he he made the the guy who gives the speech in front He was playing that character Read for the border guard and for the guy who comes at the end Carlos who I was going to get like you know Eric Estrada or something So he starts reading and he does each one you know comedian and

he does everything in a different voice And we're like by the end I was like wow he should play all three characters And so I asked Quinton and Quinn goes hey what if we get Che to play all three guys I was thinking the same thing So I go and tell Chee is just freaking hilarious And he go hey man you're going to play all three characters Do I get paid three times but this is why I love having comedians on the set you know because we're out there shooting that desert scene you know at

the end when the che comes and the whole place is burned down It's 125 degrees in the shade We're in Barstow in a dry lake bed So freaking hot We're all just like not moving So I'm going to have to go get something We're all just Chicha is like this in a suit with a hat He goes "Hey Robert Can I This is going to be a while Can I go to my trailer?" I was like "Oh man by the time you go this guy's going to be back and we'll have to start We should

just stay right here." Okay I'll go into my mental trailer Okay high school drinks air conditioning This light lines up the whole set Okay this guy's going to be in every movie I do He's been in 10 movies of mine cuz just that attitude You like that attitude of somebody who can find levity and torture because sometimes movies can be torturous sometimes So having people like that that are really on your team that can really lighten up a set is just the best You've done so many different kinds of movies It's so interesting because you

never got you know Quinton essentially does these wild chaotic action movies that just blow you away You do everything like you're doing like kids movies animated movies you did Yeah there's a similarity to them I'm still that cartoonist So what they all have is they're all comedic Like even the action movies are kind of just fun I mean think of Desperado It's like a James Bond movie He's got a guitar case that fires missiles He's got this one that's got weapons It's like spy kids is very much the same thing It's just some are for

big kids and some are for little kids Even Sin City Yeah even Sin City is very playful The Sin City one was so dark I remember the the first book the one that Marv that Mickey work plays It was so dark I was going like "Oh my god it's going to be dark I have to add some levity to this." And Mickey will bring humor to it and it's the funniest episode It's really funny But he's in the book It's It's just like "Oh my god he's just killing everybody." But you're really with him because

of the way he betrayed you We didn't change very much We just added you know some humor to it And that the gallows humor really you know really helps Yeah Like when the yellow guy gets shot in the dick Oh that's Yeah that's the that was a good one Yeah that's a really good use of color That by the way was one of the [ __ ] creepiest characters ever in a film And it looks like that in the drawing and I just wanted to My whole idea was because I'm so respectful of someone's artwork

You read Sinc City and you realize that art is half of it If anyone else in Hollywood were to make that into a movie they would just make it like a gritty crime thriller and take out the whole visual element which is that stark black and white where people's eyes glow in the dark and it has all these layers of unreality And I went to Frank Miller I said I want to just make this move I want this is like the coolest movie never made And he actually wrote it because he had been in Hollywood

writing a couple of screenplays and he got [ __ ] on and screwed around the whole Hollywood thing Jamie can you show me the scene with Mickey Ror and the yellow guy oh this Bruce Willis and the other guy excuse me Bruce Willis Just I just want to like while you're talking about this I want to look at it And uh yeah so he he went and made this comic He said "Fuck Hollywood I'm going to go make a comic that could never be made into a movie because it's so dark so sexy and so

every and I'd call him up man let's make a great movie." God it was so interesting Oh Bruce love this Well I got to tell you this funny story This is the fastest I think any Hollywood movie's ever gotten made Um I Yeah I'll show you the process It's kind of like this cards thing You're you're going to it's going to blow your mind What is it now it's April Okay So imagine this is if this is 200 If this is 2004 April Last year I had two movies out in the summer was Spy Kids

3D It was the number one movie Couple months later Once Upon a Time Mexico another number one movie but also both of them ended a trilogy that I had started So I was looking for my next thing and I was I opened up my Sin Cities again I was like "Oh [ __ ] I know how to do this." Now I just did a whole movie on green screen which was really new back then for Spike Kids 3D because I wanted it in 3D It was the first digital 3D movie Because when you're in Austin

you just innovate a lot You know George Lucas tell me that it's a it's a good thing you're in Austin That's why I'm in Marin County When you live outside of that box you think outside of that box automatically you're just stumble upon innovations So I thought I'm going to go take this process and utilize it to make Sin City So I did a test a little test of it I went "Oh [ __ ] this is going to work." So it was October when I got the idea I filmed it I contact Frank Miller

met him in New York I showed him my laptop It looks like his art but then it starts moving and it's actor and he's like "Wow." And he gets all into it right it's November And he goes "Um oh no but then we have to write a script and the studio is going to have notes." No that's not how it works I got my own studio I'll write the script It's going to be unremarkable I'm going to copy it right out of your book and I'm going to edit it down I'm going to edit three

of the stories together I'll write it this month We'll show it to you in December And then in January we'll get a couple of actor friends We're going to shoot the opening scene as a test You don't give me the rights yet because I understand this is your baby You've never given up the rights I know what it's like for an artist to make something Let me take all the risk I'll go ahead and write the script We'll shoot the opening scene You I'm going to fly you down so you can watch Brought Josh Harnett

Marley Shelton That opening scene in Sin City That was our test 10-hour shoot day And uh Marley Shelton comes up to me and says "Why why did I hire this guy to kill me?" I don't know Let's go ask Frank He should know It's not in the book but I'm curious myself So Frank answered her question and said "I want to do this movie." Let's wait We had a whole process I'm going to shoot the opening I'm gonna cut it together I'm going to put in the effects I'm going to put in the music I'm

going to put in fake titles then we're going to watch it And if you like what you see then we do the rights and we make the movie If you don't like it and you're still on the fence about it just keep it as a short film Keep keep the gift So we committed to the process We make the opening sequence He loves it He wants to do it I take it to Bruce Willis first which was cool about doing it that way which is unheard of When I went to his uh his agent his

agent was like "Wait," he leans forward very dramatically "You brought actors down." Oh because because I told him "This is Frank Miller He's one of our greatest artists He wrote in Hollywood and he got screwed around." And the guy goes "Welcome to Hollywood." You know like that I'm like "Yeah whatever." I just respect the artist So I just thought "Hey you'll be a partner You're going to co-direct this with me and we're going to make this We're going to take all I'm going to take all the risk You're going to come down We shot this

opening which I have I want to show it to Bruce so he can see the book but then he can see how it gets translated And the guy gets very dramatic He goes "Wait you brought the actors down You shot this You did the effects for it and you didn't have the rights." And I leaned in I went "Welcome to Texas." All his little monkeys spit out water Frank was dying It was super annoying They said "Okay you" Then he saw it He went "Okay you can go meet with Frank You can go meet with

Bruce." So I show it to Bruce and he's watching it He looks at the book and he looks at the thing and he goes "Damn this is really great." And then fake titles come up His name's in the titles And I go "Look you have to be in the movie Your name's in the titles." And he's like "I'm in." So he was in and we were shooting the finished We're shooting the actual movie by March Wow So April we're already done with we're filming the the second story by April It was out the next year

I mean that's as fast as the movie's ever gone into production All these actors jumped on right away once we had Bruce and he loved he loved doing this film noir type thing and we're doing something very experimental which is green screen Nobody knew what green screen back then was And what I told him was well it's kind of like theater but instead of being in front of a black curtain you're in front of a green curtain You'll still have some props You might have a steering wheel like Clive just there just had a steering

wheel You might have uh but just mainly you and the actors and everything else goes away and I'll fill in the the later So what's cool is their performances are so focused on each other because there's no other stimulus around that you got these great performances We only built the bar Hey Frank we'll build the bar so that you have we have a place to hang out with and uh you know do our story meetings but everything else will just be on the same you're going to come see the screen when you come visit my

studio The whole movie was shot in an area le smaller than this room by the time you bring your lights in where the actors actually had the the playground It's unbelievable Wow That's incredible And it was so inspiring too That movie was so because when I left the theater I remember thinking I've never seen anything like that before Was like the comic was that way It was so different It just like when someone does something that really just steps up and and and enters into like kind of just a new area of art because that's

what it felt like It felt like a real legitimate comic book art movie And this is before 300 Yeah 300 300 kind of took that as well and they went I called and said "How do you do that movie?" I said "I just put out a DVD Go I put all the I put all the secrets on there and they went and they shot the same way It was such a good movie and it was it was so fun because it was also a Frank Miller movie The thing about the Yeah Right Same thing The

thing about those kind of films where someone like does something new it's like when you see something new and I felt this way about Pulp Fiction too You're like "Wow [ __ ] you leave the theater like everything's different you know like the world's different." like that got made like this like I now I know and the thing about people today like young people today that don't know like how revolutionary Pulp Fiction was when it came out When it came when it came out it was like such a different kind of feeling that you got

after you saw the movie It was there was so many what the [ __ ] scenes that you left that theater like Jesus Christ It's like the world was different The world was different Quinn Tarantino changed the world with Pulp Fiction That's how profound it was Yeah And I'm not exaggerating It changed what was possible in film after that No I I was I was there during it I remember the studios were just like we don't understand why this movie's big hit We don't we don't have anything like this coming out except except your movie

Desperado maybe because Quinton was in I said I was like yeah we we got our pulse on the on what people want It's like we don't we don't know So I got to tell you early uh two things First of all George Lucas told me that He's like um I showed him the Sin City thing because we'd both been early adopters of digital and DPS directors of photography didn't want to even look at digital They were like "Fuck that." They already spent all their time learning film which by sticking your head in the sand and

not seeing where the times are going to the detriment Now the cameras are designed and they they don't look as good as they could look But they weren't a part of the conversation where I was shooting my own movies I wasn't gonna let some DP who didn't want to get in digital keep me from making you know Sin City So I just shot it myself I figured it out myself So I showed it to Lucas He was like "This movie will show people what digital is capable of." Finally more than the Star Wars movies I'm

doing because it's just so avanguard and so crazy looking But I only made it for me I I really wanted to see it made I didn't I literally didn't think it would be successful on its theatrical run In fact we didn't even test screen it They're like "Can we do a test screen?" No Why what for everybody's going to say it's black and white Why is it black and white why are there three stories that's all wrong It's voice over It's all voice over That's all wrong We know it's that way Why would we go

hear people tell us that that's not what movie is supposed to be let's just put it out I figure it won't do well theatrically because you you see the first trailer and go "Okay black and white It's not for me." It's very counterintuitive which is most of the things I do Just like always go a different way But they'll find it on video later and that's that's good enough for me But then it was a big hit theatrically Now let me tell you about Pulp Fiction Because groundbreaking doesn't look groundbreaking to you or anyone around

you necessarily when you're doing it I've forgotten about this but I journal and I I ran across an old journal and I brought it up to Quinton when I interviewed him from my director's chair I have a show called the director's chair where I interviewed writer directors He his was so big we did two episodes We talked about all his movies and I said "Do you remember this time I found in my diary right down to the hour we went out to dinner?" I mean he was so into Pulp Fiction ever since I met him

My next movie is gonna be Pulp Fiction I I visited the set He was into it He's into it He finished the movie and I said "Hey how did because I live here in Austin I get to hang out with him except when I go to LA How did you how did your movie come out?" He goes "Yeah it's not it's not the one." It's like still feels like a movie Quinton would make I be like "What what do you mean?" He's like "It's just doesn't feel like a real movie Feels like another movie Quinton

would make." And I was trying to be the supportive friend because I knew how much he'd put in Well it should be different and he was like "Man I just wouldn't wouldn't have it." It's like 2:00 in the morning I was dropping him off at home after we'd been out And so I went back to Austin and he had had a screening for his all his director friends that I couldn't be at because I lived in Austin So I called one of them said "How was the screening?" He was a little bummed about He goes

"Nah this isn't the one for him." And I was like "Really?" Yeah it's it's just too Yeah it's just not it And I asked him this and he goes "You're right." You know he'd forgotten about that moment He goes "Fact yeah people didn't get it." And in fact and he didn't get it either He wasn't sure if it was it In fact one filmmaker even said "I want to sit you down and tell you all the things that are wrong with this movie but I'll wait till you get back from Ken." He goes to Ken

he wins Ken And the friend left him a message What the hell do I know i've only made one movie Everyone's mind was changed So he he was surprised by it too So that's I just want people to hear that because you're making something groundbreaking It's not like you're going I'm making something groundbreaking You don't know that it's going to do that Sometimes things overperform And that's why if you just commit to a body of work you're not going to know which one's going to be your pulp fiction which one's going to be your four

rooms you know and if you just do that because I saw a lot of people get hurt you know like John Carpenter made the thing He thought he made a great movie Thought he made an amazing movie Bombs Critics called it pornography at the time If you remember like this the the makeup effects of it Audiences didn't go It came out the same weekend unfortunately as ET Right Why did they call it pornography just because it was just so self-indulgent and gross and nasty I mean they they really like reamed him to the point So

the special effects Yeah The special effects are really crazy Yeah Yeah If you don't remember the time it was really like that There was repulsion towards this movie Wow I know you don't think that now because 10 years later it took 10 years No it was not It was not Wow 10 years later it was suddenly considered a classic Now if he had committed to a body of work he would have just let that roll off his shoulders and just don't blink But it really [ __ ] you up if you think I made a

I my instincts must be off I thought I made a great movie It's a great [ __ ] movie but if no one else is saying that So I asked Quinton who George Lucas had the same thing He showed famously Star Wars to all his director friends and they're all like "Poor George just wasted all his time on this movie." And Spielberg was the only one who was like "Uh it's naive It'll do good." And so I asked Quinton "I was there anybody in that director's group?" And he goes "Yes there was one Katherine Begalo

She was the one who was championed and said "This is something new and different." No one else was saying that But that's pretty amazing right that's super amazing It's really And I would have forgotten it if I had not written it down So there's a lot of films that slip through the cracks Yeah for whatever reason or they don't get received You know what I saw recently that I [ __ ] loved the monkey Did you see the monkey yeah Yeah Yeah It's It's a Stephen King book that or maybe it might have been a

short story It was a short story in one of his adapted skeleton crew It's [ __ ] fun man I watched with my youngest daughter loves horror movies We watch a lot of horror movies together and uh we were you know looking for something the other night and we were like "All right let's take a chance on this." had no idea what it was Watch the trailer I'm like "Are you in?" She's like "Okay this is good." So it's [ __ ] chaos It's such a chaotic insane hyper violent movie and but funny and just

you know kind of scary It was really good man It was f It was like a classic What I really love about the early Stephen King work like his early work was like that's a here's one that fell through the cracks like and I was there at Sony when we were doing mariachi despa when this movie came out I remember the marketing team said we have a really great movie Unfortunately no one's going to see it because of the title So what is it called shaw Shank Redemption Oh my god And it bombed What oh

Shashank Redemption bombed What it was a bomb How nobody went to see it It's called Shaw Shank Redemption And what the hell is it guys in prison Nobody went to see it And this is Sony marketing They just couldn't get anybody to go see it Wow But you've history gets rewritten Now again you can be Frank Daraban and be like really down But fortunately he didn't have to wait 10 years As soon as it got to video it became a phenomenon on video And now it's considered if you go on IMDb it's always neck andneck

with The Godfather is the best movie of all time Wow That is a movie nobody saw So again look don't blink Commit to a body of work You may make a classic like it might be the thing and you're not going to hear about that for 10 years Just keep going Don't let it don't let it make you question your instincts cuz your instincts I would have never guessed Shaw Shank was a failure There's a lot of movies that are like incredible That was a time when people could um really get a second life on

video Now now it's different with this opening night to see the audience to view their film Darbon and Gladzer went to the Curama Dome and found no one there The Cama Oh my god Oh my god I know Imagine just like I don't know I thought I thought you know as an artist you're going to be going I I must be wrong I must have just don't have the That's clearly a fault of the marketing No it's also just I'm blaming them Yeah I think I mean cuz if anyone showed up they would have gone

and screamed it to everybody else Sometimes it's just it's just the way it goes It's just it's supposed to go that way Now now I'm gonna give you an alternate one that there's a movie called Body Parts with a guy named Jeff Fe I loved that movie Body Parts by Eric Red He did the Hitcher He did You would never hear about it because the timing of it and Jeff Fe was a big J Fe fan I remember in the early 90s I I kept going I was at my mother-in-law's and across the street was

a dollar theater showing Body Parts I go every night for seven at 7 p.m I go for a dollar and it was at the second run and watch it just to hear how an audience responds to it And he was just great in it I just felt a connection to this guy I go I wish I was making movies cuz I would work with this guy He's really a cool actor What is this about it's it's about a guy who gets in a car accident loses his arm and he's given the arm of a killer

just to kind of just replace him But it suddenly he starts doing things with Oh I remember Okay So anyway that's the same dude that was Lawnmower Man Yeah he he was in Lawnmower Man too Yes So another season this should have been something that you know was it for him but this week it came out they had just caught Jeffrey Dmer like the week before so they pulled back on the marketing completely so no one saw it and so he didn't get that boost his career but but the silver lining the ash the key

in the ashes was me I saw it every night so when I went to do grind house he retired from acting he was in Afghanistan I asked for him to send a tape guy was working doing work out there Send me I don't I don't remember some kind of you know like helping people and stuff Um he sends me a tape and so I hire him I hire him to be in it and because he was in that movie in fact I'd already hired Michael Bean and I went oh [ __ ] Jeff sent me

a thing God Jeff's great too I'll just make them brothers So they play brothers in Grinhouse because he did that movie He got lost that show Lost He got he just his whole career came back So we were talking about it I just recently was telling him "Man it just came out on 4K You got to come see You probably never seen it." He goes "I never seen the finished movie." And I said "You're great in it." I was showing him some scenes It was blowing his mind He goes "Yeah this movie didn't do well

I remember now Why?" Cuz the Jeffrey Dmer thing just I went "That's just how it's supposed to go." But I saw it and that's why I hired you and that's how you got that second career later on because I was there every night because it was in the dollar theater so quick I wouldn't have been able to afford it any other way So that's how weird [ __ ] happens right it's like so cool It makes you see that you don't it's it's just sometimes that's just how the balls roll you know It's just all

interconnected somehow Yeah Somehow it's interconnected You have to trust the process You just have to trust the process I had someone in the audience uh recently I was talking about brass knuckle films and and and getting everybody all stirred up about it and uh one gal goes "You're all positive but do you have any doubts?" I was like "Well I've never been asked that question before." So whenever I don't have an answer I'll ask them first You know what do you guys think what do you guys think how would you answer how would you answer

that stay as you Do you have doubts you have do you have any human doubts everyone has doubts Okay So it's what you do with them Do you let your doubts overwhelm you or do you take them into consideration like are these doubts valid right like I And what do I have to do to make sure that these that these fears don't manifest themselves as reality i have to do extra work Do I have to work harder i have to be more objective right you know you have to you have to take into consideration that

anything you're going to do that's going to be exciting also carries the possibility of risk And the risk of failure is a thing that keeps a lot of people from acting So if you're going to commit to a body of work and not blink you got to be welcome You don't have to worry about that There's a jiu-jitsu expression Well a lot of people use it in MMA as well You don't lose you learn Yeah So if you know that's the process this is my answer I said "No I don't have any doubts." Because I

like to be counterintuitive Yeah Your process is long The the the the thing is long It's a it's not a a sprint You're not running to a telephone pole You're running to the other side of the world right So I tell her "No I don't have any doubts." Just to be counterintuitive And I say "Why?" Because if you understand the process why should you have a doubt you might fail but it might be four rooms You might if you have an instinct to go there or you don't know how you're going to do it What's

what's half the battle not knowing That's the magic is I don't have to know I'm going to figure it out when I'm almost done You know all those things come together Risk averse early and it becomes a pattern And it's very hard to break out of And I always tell them find something that you can have success in Find something that you enjoy doing It doesn't have to be a career It could be a game that you enjoy playing It could be anything Painting writing It could be a thing that you because you love it

You'll probably will have success at it Yes Yes because I'm sure you were drawing too you know in school I would be drawing all day in school I'd make these flip cartoon books in the sides of the dictionaries paper dictionaries flip cartoon movies They get the dictionary biggest and fattest I'd make these very elaborate stick figure animations and everyone in class loved him and I'd be like I'm going to be broke I used to I can't pay attention to class I used to do cartoons of the teachers in high school Yeah And everybody loved them

Yeah passed him around the class and I got in trouble a bunch of times for it And one time I had this uh science teacher Mr Holman And Mr Holman was very odd very eccentric guy And so I drew a cartoon of him uh behind his screen So he had a screen that he pulled down where he could show like films and then when he pulls the screen up he had no idea that on the chalkboard I had written I had drawn this cartoon of him and the whole [ __ ] class starts laughing The

power of the pen you had back then Yeah It was like my first introduction to being a a comedian It's It was It's very satisfying But But did you think you were going to make a career out of that no of course not You think I was thinking "Oh my god I'm going to be so broke I can't understand what they're talking about I'm way behind and I'm not the best artist." So it's not like I'm gonna like I'm some protetéé or something So I'm [ __ ] But that's ended up being my career was

just doing that stuff because you love it so much So I ask people if you want to find what your passion is what what is that thing that you run off to do on the weekend right i was always going to making movies and I was doing that When once you're done punching the clock all week what is it that you go run to that's probably your passion Put more effort into that and you'll you'll actually find success doing it When you put stuff together suddenly opportunities are going to fall in your lap And if

that's not it at least you'll have learned that you could follow this process to get good at something or get really deeply involved in something and you could apply that to other things It might be a new thing you get excited about So this is what I applied it to because I'd forgotten this lesson which was just say you're this person Stop aspiring right our words we use are so powerful If you say well you know I'm might not I'm probably not going to be successful Well that's your lot in life You just you just

did that to yourself Self-defining So I I had a a friend of mine I mean like I I always hated working out I didn't follow any sports Didn't know sports in high school They go "We need you It's a small school We need you on the team You look at tall and everything You play basketball I don't know how to play any of these things I hate working out." There's a line in the faculty that I gave to Elijah Wood because that was my line to teachers when they'd make me want to run and go

I don't think a person should run unless he's being chased and they would leave me alone But I hated it And so then I became a filmmaker Oh when I was a cartoonist my back kept going out 19 I'm like have a have a cane and my back would be out for like a month because I would sit Oh wow kitchen table drawing I was so tall that it was just it would throw my back I would just disc would go out and then when I started film making every year would just go out like

clockworks I'm operating the camera I'm operating the steady cam And when when I was doing you know spy kids too I think with a Ricardo Montban had a bad back that he got surgery and it [ __ ] him up and he was in a wheelchair He was paralyzed So he's in a wheelchair and I'm with a walker because my back went out and he goes "Robert I'm 84 years old What's your excuse you got to work out Robert." He was always in shape Ricardo that chest in SP in in Star Trek 2 that's his

chest God I know And he was in his late 60s or his mid60s They fused his spine Is that what they did yeah they did something and [ __ ] up God damn it So um every time I hear a story like that I'm like I wish I could talk to that guy before he did that I know and he went to a good place but they just hit something wrong They [ __ ] him up It happens to so many people Yeah So I go "Okay I don't want that to happen to me but

I don't I don't know how to work out." So the next year I worked with Stallone/ Stallone I got to get in shape because my back keeps going out and I don't like to work He goes "Get thee a trainer." Anyone you ever seen in Hollywood got in shape they had a trainer What about you oh I need a trainer You need a trainer Well then if you need a trainer Mr Rocky what chance do us mortal men have so I hired a trainer and guess what happened hated it Hated it I'd hide from the

guy He'd come to my house I'd pay him not to show up I'd hate it I'd hide I'd hide I'd be I'd call in sick And then when he did when he did get me I'd be like halfass in the workouts you know cuz I hated it And then um one year it was just torture I knew I had to do it But so this was my my point is that sometimes it's not a lack of desire So when people really want to become something they're not getting it It's not because they have to change

their minds the there's something that goes with it Desire You I have plenty of desire I was paying this guy I wanted to get in shape I didn't want my back going out anymore I had the desire I was missing another key element that I figured out And it's a lesson I already knew which was stopp aspiring But I forgot it So this woman friend of mine from Mexico shows up She says a production manager I have to stop smoking My doctor said I have to stop smoking or I'm going to die I've been smoking

since I was 8 years old Oh boy I said well you're going to go back to smoking because you just told me that's your identity You've been doing it since you were eight So right now you're a smoker who's not smoking Eventually you're going to conform to your identity You have to change your identity You have to say "I'm a non-smoker I'm a non-smoker." Because what does a non-smoker do hate smoke They get sick of the smell of smoke She was like "Okay I'll try it." I don't know what happened to her but I thought

that voice is killing She truly talks like that So then I go "Wait a minute [ __ ] I used to I used to apply it to filming but that's all I was back there Where where else in my life can I do a 180?" And it's got to be a 180 because if it's just a matter of degrees it's [ __ ] Yeah it's much easier if it's just opposite day So I went "Oh my god working out I hate working out." Of course I hate working out because I tell my trainer and everyone

who will listen how much I hate it I'm an athlete Oo I'm an athlete The last thing I would ever call myself Mr Cartoon Guy Wow I'm an athlete by the next day What does an athlete do loves to work out Makes time to work out Ess And it's got to be opposite day It's much easier I'm going to go lay on the couch today and just kind of No I'm going to go work out or there's a donut Not going to cut it in half and eat half That's [ __ ] Does degrees [

__ ] you up Opposite day There's a donut No I'm going to reach for an apple Not only was I able to work out this is 14 years ago I didn't need a trainer again ever I would just be like making myself do it because I'm an athlete That's how powerful the mind is So I was saying if someone says ah I want to go do this thing on the weekend and you might have the desire but you got to get the identity too You've got to say you are that and it sounds a little

awkward like I asked somebody Lex Freedman I I said do you consider yourself a creative person and he went well you know that's a good impression I said you're stuttering there man you're stuttering you're stuttering He goes I I know I know I said no no no you got to say and are you technical he goes "Yeah okay You're technical and creative." That was the first thing that stuck in my ear It's also what Jim Cameron is It's also what you know George Lucas is technical and creative When I first had a my first job

my dad had a friend who owned a Photoshop and he said "Go work for my friend Mario for your summer job when I was 16 Went to work for Mario processing film for photos." And he gave me a camera and film and said "Go home and take pictures with this because I need you to know how to use that camera so you can help me sell the cameras." So I went home and I'm from a family of nine kids I mean 10 kids nine siblings taking all these pictures of them doing cool stuff Go back

He looks at the pictures and he goes "Whoa these are really creative You're creative You got to now learn how to be technical because most creative people always need technicians and technicians always need creative people." Now it's against your It's just a gift you have They can never really be creative They'll just be technical But because you have creativity if you apply yourself it's against your nature But if you apply yourself and learn the technical part you'll be technical and creative and you'll be impossible You'll be unstoppable And I was like whoa unstoppable at 16

He goes here go I know sometimes and I'm going to ask you about who did that for you Who was because if you look at all the different turning points in your life there was probably somebody who sent you in a direction It comes through them Because if I were to go back and ask that guy hey that advice you gave me he'd be like what but I I don't remember seeing that Kind of just came through him at the time Right Right So he he pointed me that way and that's why I went and

made a march by myself I didn't want to take anybody because I wanted to learn I didn't know how to use that camera But but if you go ask somebody to do it for you your I need list if you make a list of all the things you need before you can make your dream happen The longer that list is the less that's going to happen You got to reduce it down to nothing Me my hands my bootstraps this camera I'm going to figure it out on the day be technical and creative So I told

X "Now you got to own it When I say are you creative?" You go "Yeah I'm creative and I'm technical and I don't blink and I'm going to create a body of work." And he's like walks out of there supercharged You know Lex needs a guy like you in his life all the time He's too self-deprecating He's such a brilliant guy and and it's nice to be self-deprecating is kind of a joke but little bit but the words you use in yourself are very important He beats himself up The words you use and you're doing

that to yourself Yeah The guy throwing cabbage at you on stage Look close It's [ __ ] It's you You're doing that to yourself You're the one who's like you do that to yourself with your words He'll make like Twitter posts about how down he is and I want to go over to his house and [ __ ] shake him like a baby Yeah dude You're going to you're down You stay down I have this theory called baseline I talk to some of my kids and we just laugh about it now I go "Okay when

[ __ ] [ __ ] up when shit's not going right don't be down about it Don't feel like you're in a slump cuz now you just stuck yourself in a grave and it's going to be hard to climb out right when [ __ ] isn't going right oh the tires flat Oh I got fired I call that baseline You're at baseline Anything above baseline Like this right now we're here having this great talk This is way above baseline Yeah I'm on the Joe Rogan show you know so way above bas celebrate that [ __

] because it's not always there Don't say that you're going to go down You're just going to go to baseline It's much easier to accept and then you're not in a negative position You're just kind of at a normal I'm at a normal and I'll really appreciate when anything above baseline happens My daughter and I are about to go play an arena show She's going to sing I'm going to play with my band I told her way above baseline We're going to get a nice hotel We're going to really celebrate this because this [ __

] doesn't always happen And when everything's going really really wrong Baseline Only when things are really down you call yourself low And you don't want to do that Otherwise you'll stay there for a much longer time M if you're just a baseline that's just life Oh yeah I tried to go make that movie and it didn't work Baseline such advice It's it's really it's mindset It's all mind It's all stuff you're doing to yourself Yes And these are things I like to pass on to people because when they come back and give it back to

me I don't know if you'd give your kids advice Liz You learn it because you learn so much You've got the best job in the world You're learning all day I bet you don't know if that it's going to stick with them I was shocked how much stuff not only sticks but they come back and they feed it back to me and go "Oh dad it's just like just like you taught me." And I go "They also learn by watching you do it." So oh yeah They've seen you move through the world but you're the

dad and you're making all these films You're doing all this You're you're involved You're you're you have action There's a lot of action You're constantly in motion You're doing things You're creating things That's inspiring to them They like absorb that If you're down on yourself all the time Oh yeah You know that's they go "Okay that's life." and I got to look for I'm that's going to happen to me you know Or you can reject that and be the opposite Like I have a friend and his family was alcoholics He's never had a drop a

drink in in his life and he's like super disciplined because of that I'll tell you my secret I've never done drugs None None Nothing Yeah You don't even drink coffee You were saying I don't even drink coffee You would tell that story because it's so hilarious Oh a friend of mine what was his name he was working at the Sony when I first got there for um Mariachi and I was like this kid and the other people my age were assistants and he was like falling asleep at his desk and I'm like why why are

you falling asleep and he goes I'm trying to get off coffee I was like oh my god I'm never going to get on coffee And I want those guys getting their hooks in me And then over the years you see like Starbucks showing up and everybody like zombies going in there having to get their coffee went as I drink something all marketing all it's it's it's made to be addictive like nicotine and all that and then your buddy can't create that and I already I already stay up for days as it is you know so

I don't want to anything like that Do you really i can stay up I just I just did this uh what's your favorite workout music mine clan I just did I just did a I love classic stuff like Van Halen and I did a music video for Wolf Gang Van Halen and uh we shot it in two days and I was up two days cutting it cuz I just wanted to see what was going to happen next Two days I could not two days I was just like I want to see what happens next You

don't even notice my shoulder is getting all [ __ ] up and I'm like what's wrong with my shoulder did I pull a muscle and doing some shrugs or something i was like I went back to sit in that chair I was like oh cuz I've been sitting like this for two days sitting just doing this That's insane But it's it's really cool It's great Don't you hit a point of diminishing returns where it's like you're so tired that you really would be better off It's different with editing Editing is a weird I I was

thinking that as I was doing it I go I wish I could do this with writing where I could just write for two days straight but you words will knock me out put me to sleep after a while Editing is just visual stimulus and you're so excited going "Okay one more hour One more hour." And you just can't stop You just can't stop because now you're you're seeing it It came out so cool It's going to drop 38 hours later It's going to drop like next week It rips your head off It's a great workout

song for sure But it's just really entertaining Kids talented He uh does all the instruments himself on his albums Yeah He plays every instrument He plays the drums the bass the guitar sings writes the songs Uh when he goes on tour he takes this really great band with him because he can't play all the parts But the albums his third album he's working on is um all plays all the instruments Wow Super talented Really really fun But I like working with people who just do more than than other people They just they're just at that

level and it's so inspiring and inspires you stuff Yeah definitely fuel That's why I always tell people if you can surround yourself with other people that are really getting after it in life it will 100% motivate you completely In a different way instead of having that procrastination feeling you'll get up excited You have to And it's like you know your parents tell you be careful who your peers are when you're younger because it means one thing Oh yeah But later even more Like when I started going to the film festival and there's Quinton and then

I meet Jim Cameron and then you meet like George Lucas It's like you can't hang with these guys if you're not accomplishing something right so then when they say "Hey what are you up to?" Well I'm down in Texas and I got my own studio and I'm pioneering digital film making and green screen technology and I want to make the first digital 3D movie And they go "Oh okay Cool So you can hang out." I'm like "Oh okay I'm gonna hang out here for a while God I got to be doing something." That's a great

oneline I was like but still compared to what they're doing you know when I first met Jim still exciting When I first met Jim Cameron that's why you you don't want to be around people who where you're the best You're better you know you want to be the one that they're swinging higher than you Yes Yes So surround yourself with those people and do something so that they let you hang with them But you want to learn like here's to Jim Cameron for instance when I met him I really wanted to impress the hell out

of him So I said I'm about to go do Desperado and I can't afford a steady cam operator So I took a three-day three-day steady cam course and I'm going to operate it myself on the movie I'm gonna operate the steady cam that big beast of a camera And he went I bought a steady cam but not to operate it I'm going to take it apart and design a better one So I was like that's completely who he is Us mere mortals are like trying to operate the thing He's designing whole new systems And if

you think that's very consistent with who he is that's the person you want to hang out with Not someone the guy had said "Oh me too I'm doing the same thing." Didn't he go to the bottom of the Mariana Trench or some [ __ ] in summary that he designed it's only Yeah it's on his desk It's like this big on his desk This green machine And I was looking at it going like "Weren't you afraid i mean I've got kids and wife You got kids and a wife Weren't you afraid of going down that

deep and something happening?" He's like "No." I said "Why not?" Oh I designed the escape vehicle So if any other bozo had done it I'd be afraid because he did it Had all the confidence in the world Talk about seven No doubt No doubt So insane Is that hilarious that's great though That's him though It's like yeah if someone else had designed the escape vehicle I'd be afraid But no I did it So he had no no pause at all He designed it Crazy So that's kind of confidence that that's the people you want to

hang out with That's a legitimate genius It changes your perception of life And by osmosis you pick up I call it this proximity phenomenon like when you're just near I took a painting class with uh Sebastian Krueger painter in Germany I saw this class that he gives for a week I went I'm going to go do that class Not to learn how to paint so much I know I'll be a better director by learning paint because it's that another way into creativity Again you just want to get better at creativity So just do as many

jobs as you want as you can that you're interested in because if you just do one job you barely know that job You have to do all these other ones to kind of inform it Yes So I went out there He doesn't teach you anything He just paints I'll show you the examples before and after just by I thought for sure I I did a pre-painting before going out there It looks like crap I I don't know what brushes he's using and the kinds of paints It's a different method I he must have some trick

I go and he's painting this amazing MC Jagger photoreal in front of us and we all can paint alongside him I What paint are you using it's regular paint What brushes are you using regular brushes How come I can't do that i go back and suddenly it's a different painting I'm going to try one more It's more photoreal When I show it to you it's going to blow you away It looks like I dropped the brush I was like "Holy shit." It's because I finally given myself permission to do it Because you you have the

ability but you're blocking it because you go "I don't know I don't know There's something I don't know." So again you're just chopping off your own leg And by being around somebody who's doing it at that level suddenly you can do it too It's like breaking the Mfield Like as soon as I made mariachi no one had ever done anything like that Suddenly there's 10 12 13 movies made you know very low budget because they go "Oh it's possible now Suddenly you can do it too." And when it's in the room when you're right near

it it's just a phenomenon that you can just glean off of them without them teaching you anything Just by being around and seeing how they move through the world and seeing them accomplish and that they're regular people that are just accomplishing at a high level it just blows your mind And that's really important in standup comedy I was conversation last night in the green room We were talking about this uh area of the country that's falling apart and I was like comedy is top down man You you have to have a bunch of assassins all

working together in the same location They all feed off each other and then all the people coming up below They see that they see these young these young guys that are coming up They see these people working really hard and constantly creating and hustling doing all these different sets and constantly working on new material and they get inspired by and then you see these guys get Netflix specials and do and it's all happening at the club So this club that we're doing in Austin is all about that process Like we have specifically designed it to

have two open mic nights Sunday and Monday So new people no experience get up there People from all across the country moving here so they can be a part of the process But there's like a real path to success that you could see because guys like Ron White are there Guys like Shane Gillis are there Tony Hinchcliffe and and these young guys Derek Poston all these young guys that are coming up that are like really exciting you know it's like it's really fun There's like a a vibe of creativity that everybody feeds off of I

love what you've built You've come here You've only been here like four years and you've already like built this whole community Well it kind of built itself man It's it's the same thing we were talking about before with instincts I first of all I had the instinct to escape LA I was like this I this is not going to change This is going to get worse I got to get the [ __ ] out of here And uh Ron had already been here Ron was here in 2018 And um once my family was interested in

doing it it was pretty easy cuz I I'm I'm one of those guys like I just can just pick up stakes and go I'm like well okay life is different now Let's live in Texas Like I want that I like change I like I like not having any [ __ ] idea what's going to happen I'm excited by that And so then once we got out here and then Ron's like "We got to open up a club." Okay we got to open up a club And so then I started looking for locations and luckily the

Ritz was available Wow That's right We we had we did we I'd been under contract for this one world theater that was owned by that one That fell apart There's a lot of is right down there with all the perfect spot When the Ritz was available it was like "Oh my god this is it." And then we walked in and it was still the Alamo so it was like set up for a movie theater with like the angled slope seating And then we had to change everything but I'm like "This is it." And then I

started bringing in other comics to help me I'm like "What would you do?" And Louis CK came and he was like "I think you should make the stage smaller Make the stage smaller I think you should make the ceiling lower Make the ceiling lower." Like so we were able to do whatever we wanted to do and design the club from scratch just for comics And once everybody knew that it was happening people just started moving here man You build it they will come It really was like that But it was it was like the universe

wanted it to happen And I say that it sounds so self-important but No no it's like I believe that it's just you you're stumbling upon so many things had to happen in this order for it to happen this way And then you had to have someone who's like me who's accustomed to just going by instinct Yeah And I've always done that I always my whole life I'm like [ __ ] it Let's do this I'm like that's what I do And so when this came up I'm like okay well you're not gonna stop doing what

you do now Don't be a [ __ ] This is what you do You're gonna throw a bunch of money at this thing Let's make this happen and tell everybody you're doing it and and call all your friends in LA and call all your friends in New York and come on down man We're making this happen Wow Wow I tell people that after Mariachi it's like I I never thought I could get into the industry because I didn't live in LA and you need contacts and all that So I just you know again I made

a practice film But then when it got bought and it was getting released and in one Sundance my practice film I thought I don't have to move to LA They bet they won't even know I'm not there Between that airplane flight and FedEx they I'll just stay here in Austin So for the past you know 35 years people are like why do you live in Austin i don't understand It's like now they're all moving here But it's because you could just think outside of the box here So yeah and I would tell people filmmakers who

all thought they needed to move to LA stay where you are build up your community around you We built this amazing community of filmmakers here All they made here were westerns before that Wow Suddenly I was making Spy Kids Sin City you know these crazy movies that really changed the ripple effects to the whole community is huge because you're changing the the workforce Yes And so you just by doing that thing and it's like it isn't like an instinct It's like it's pre-planned It's like it's pre-laid out Yeah I tell my artist when you come

to my house you're going to feel it you'll feel like these connections And I go I think we realize we're not that smart You know we're not smart enough to predict all that stuff I think we've lived this life many times before and we forget a lot of it So we have a barely impersonate impression of what we're supposed to do But it's because we did it a thousand times and we forgot it each time Like a dream when you wake up from a dream because true because you know you wake up from a dream

and and you go I was a filmmaker in that dream and I had five kids You know that's what it's going to be like when when our life is over You'll wake up and it'll be like your your past lifetime just goes away and then you go start again and only now you're a fish or something But uh but I thought this had this thought Wow what if I wake up and I can barely remember the dream and that's and that's it because it feels like sometimes you feel like you can predict the future but

not like you can predict it You recognize it once it happens like oh yeah this is this is right but how did I know to go this way i didn't on purpose like you said I didn't set all the all the things that needed to fall into place are too too coincidental What is that about so that's why even more just just follow your instinct Follow your instinct Even if it sounds bonkers follow it And if it fails keep going because that might be your four rooms or something Just keep going That really is an

important piece of advice too to if you're outside of a hive of like-minded thinking you could when you're outside of that you can think on your own Go another way Yeah You I mean it's like high school You go back to that you know someone famously leaves high school and goes off to college and goes off and sees the world They come back to their old hometown and they find their old friends still driving the same streets That's LA Yeah They're still doing the same [ __ ] the same way and you just went off

the reservation and discover their opinions are only based on what's popular It's like you were talking about pulp fiction like before they're like "What the [ __ ] is this?" And then they're like "Oh my god now we got to make something like this Let's make Dustal Dawn." Like that's what it is like they don't their opinions are [ __ ] It's like it's all just based on they lick their finger and they find out which way the wind's blowing and that's how they think and that's how they are politically That's how they are socially

That's how they It's like they're nonsense people and you got to get away from that Get away and just create your own thing And the problem with comics is that we got all we all got trapped in the velvet prison of television Right Right So television's the velvet prison The real art form is what we do on stage That's what everybody really loves What do you mean by being on television you mean like sitcoms okay Okay Cuz right now it seems like it's come back the other way So many comics have such great like Netflix

specials are massive Oh yeah Where it's basically them doing stand up but they've got a huge audience Exactly Well what happened was the internet came along and a bunch of unconventional people became very famous on the internet without the help of Hollywood people that the Tim Dillons of the world that don't fit into this television box but when you get them on the internet and they can get Buck Wild like oh my god Then they have this massive following The Theo Vans all these different people that have this very unconventional approach that for whatever reason

wouldn't fit in in certain they couldn't host the Tonight Show right but you know once they get on their own and now they develop these like there's more arena acts now for standup comedy than ever before in the history of comedy Wow Yeah That's amazing Yeah But I mean not even close I mean the the only arena act in the like the 1980s was Andrew Dice Clay So first it was Steve Martin then it was Andrew Dice and Steve Martin kind of decided that the popularity of it all was so confusing to him that everything

that he said was funny and it didn't make any sense didn't feel and he stopped doing comedy stopped doing standup which which you have he had a very different kind of standup anyway He did played the banjo and he sang songs and so Dice comes along and Dice Clay is selling out arena It's like the first comedian ever to do that and then later in the 2000s it was Dane Cook because Dane Cook figured out how to use MySpace and developed this gigantic following online Same kind of thing And so then when by the time

the pandemic hit I was like "We don't need to be in LA right we're not going to be on TV The only reason why we're in LA is the comedy store." And the comedy store is closed for the next [ __ ] year and a half because these idiots that are running the city and we came to Texas and once we were out here I was like "Oh this is so much better." Because now instead of being around these Hollywood people that don't really have opinions they just go which whatever way the breeze is going

Now you're hanging out with regular folks Yeah Like regular people People that are cops and firemen and auto repair guys and you're just humans So all the people I interact with are just normal humans That's what I always loved about living here This is like there weren't any filmmakers here So much better It's infinitely better Nicer Everyone's waiting You get you get a lot more done And I was crank sometimes I'd have two movies out a year I would be making stuff so fast cuz I just had a studio and we're just like let's just

make more stuff There also has to be something cool feeling about like doing it on your own away from the high Way better Way better That's why it's like I try to create original franchises because if you go direct one of the James Bonds you're one of the James Bond director But if you create your own franchise like a spike it feels so much better When that successful and someone says "Wow I really that movie." Go oh I did that voice Flman help us save us That's you Oh my god God I grew up with

you know it's like oh yeah it's a homemade movie you know so it's much more gratifying and yeah you did the right thing by by moving out One movie that seemed like it could be a franchise is Alita Oh yeah We want to do another one for sure Part of a graphic novel series Yes You got to come to my studio That whole city I want to go That city is still in my parking lot Really 20 foot ceilings seven streets It's like the largest standing set in the country if not the world Can I

come Friday can I go Friday all right Come Friday you're not going to believe what's here We're in And you're going to go like "Okay cuz I'm putting you in a movie." Okay Cuz talking about what you just said about how people are different here I just started a a new label Um like the label I gave myself I'm an athlete When you create a label Yes that's a business thing too It gives what it label is is a filter So I'm doing an action slate So that already you get a bunch of ideas because

it's just action Um an action slate of four pictures It's called Brass Knuckle Films and you're going to be in the first one because I'm I'm gonna direct the first one I've already got one it is I'll show you It's a great part for you Um you're gonna come to the studio and I'll tell you about it Okay But Breast Knuckle Films is cool because it's the first time that it's an investable film slate So fans can invest in a movie They get perks and stuff but it's not crowdsourcing or crowdfunding Like you can get

killed in the movie if you put in a certain amount of investment But that's what's cool about it I just want the audience to win because audience is an afterthought Like you say you go to the studios and and the people in Hollywood and you go they barely even watch movies And then you come meet the real audience and they're so into it They're so behind it It's like where's your cut of it studios only show up to an audience at the end when they want you to go get your friends to come spend money

on their overpriced movies So I'm going to do this thing where even at $250 the lowest level you put into this thing any of the four movies one of which I'm going to direct for sure producing all of them they're troublemaker to keep the cost down so they go to profit sooner Any one of these movies success you you share in that success all the way through sequels And for even the 250 bucks anyone who puts money in you get to have that proximity effect because we're we have a whole group together That's such a

great idea Everybody gets to pitch their action movie idea and I'm committed to making at least one of the movies on the slate from a fan investor's idea So not only will you be an investor but you be a creator So we're almost already topped out We're we're going to hit our we still have 20 days left and it's going to surge again We we're we're going to raise like 1.5 million in development funds and we're Yeah we're almost at a million already 22 days left So I'm telling everybody who's listening come in at the

lowest level Just be part of our community because people who come here get proximity And the lowest level is five bucks 250 bucks 250 250 bucks But you know you make that back on success of any of the movies That's awesome And it just hedges your bets And it's just action because there's always an appetite for action Like if you ask Netflix right now what kind of movies do they need they'll say action action action We don't have enough action Sure and internationally That's So we're going to make the thing that people always buy and

they're also really fun to make and you're going to be perfect in it I want to bring you back to Frisetta Oh yeah Because this is the thing that I I wanted to pitch this to Quinton and maybe I could pitch this to you Somebody needs to make a real Conan the Barbarian A real Conan the Barbarian That's like the Roberty Howard books Yeah The real Conan the Barbarian because the the Arnold ones are great They're fun And Mimoa I think is the best Conan of all time because he was that the guy what was

his name in uh Game of Thrones i don't remember but yeah character Huh Yeah In he he's the most realistic of all Conan That's what Conan's supposed to look like Yeah He didn't look like a bodybuilder He looked like a [ __ ] super fit assassin Yeah Just a a mountain of but the books books are awesome They're [ __ ] awesome And it's right up your alley It's about It's about the barbarian is actually the one who's got code and who has morality and all the big wigs are the ones that are like [

__ ] crooked and [ __ ] you know it's just so classic And the barbarians gone That guy was from Texas The guy Roberty Howard from Texas outside of Dallas In fact where where I have a house where I made all these movies it's in the land that he looked over and saw and said that's Samria That's where Kona is from So I always felt this connection I wanted to do Kona So I almost did a Conan movie Um I even roped Jim Cameron into wanting to do it really where we're gonna do kind of

like what we did with Alita I said "Dude let's do a Conan movie and we'll make it look like the paintings." Technology wasn't there yet And I ended up doing Sin City instead I had already written uh it was going to be three movies So he does different occupations This is kind of built like a James Bond series you know where you follow him on his different so it starts with him as a thief and the second movie is him as a buccaneer mercenary and the third one is when he becomes king So the actor

can grow with the role you know the way you you know like you took Daniel Craig and started Casino Royale and by the end he's No Time to Die You got to get an actor who who does the whole journey So I had a whole trilogy uh marked out I know it's Netflix had it I went and pitched it to them and they then they let the light rights lapse like they had too much uh sometimes it's too much baggage for a character Dude let me call them right Let me get on the phone with

Ted Sandos right now Let's go make it We're ready to Yeah Hey Jamie can you pull up Frisetta uh Conan the Usurper it's probably uh a painting called Chain Is that the one with the chains or which one is that or is it the one where he's a bunch of the he named them different than the books because of the copyright issue So like so whatever's on the but you'll find the cover of it but the painting itself might be have a different name Just if you just pull up Fetta Conan because he did a

bunch of them So you'll love this When I first Yes Here we go Chained the barbarian The one when he's standing over the bodies with the sword pointed to the ground That's called the barbarian Yes That's the one I remember seeing that when I was a kid cuz I was always into graphic novels and I was always into comic books and I saw that when I was a kid at a comic book store I was probably like 11 years old and I was like "Holy [ __ ] that is the coolest [ __ ] thing

I've ever seen in my life." And it's still commentated today He has this very triangular way of composing that tells a story The posters still look like this That [ __ ] Look at the one with a snake Again if you see that triangular design your head your eyes go immediately to the snake and then down to him and it's like it tells a whole story I have a theory theory of why his his art is the way it is Now you know I knew him Did I tell you you know okay So when I

first you get to Hollywood right so I'm just this kid who's an artist You get to Hollywood first thing you want to do is work with all your heroes So Dust Dawn I said I want to work with Frisetta because he used to do some movie posters like the gauntlet with Clint Eastwood that gauntlet when he did for look up the gauntlet Clint Eastwood for Zetta Um and so I called him and he said "Yeah I'll do it." In fact when I showed him the movie he goes "Where'd you find this gal?" And I said

"Uh yeah that was for Zetta." Yeah he did that So I wanted to get that for Dust Till Dawn right so he said "Where'd you find this gal?" And I wish I had a gal like that to paint What she's based on all your paintings All the girl that's always in your paintings I made Salma dressed like that because it's a Fresetta come to life He goes "Oh that's all you need on the poster." And I go "Well you got to draw the other actors." So when you come to the house you'll see the painting

he did It was the year he got his first stroke So it took him by the time he I got the painting we'd already made posters We thought "Okay it's not going to come." And then it showed up at the last minute but we gave it away at comic book stores you know but it's really cool But at the bottom of the painting there's the some of the actors He even paint Harvey Catel He just like the other actors Quinton And then instead of vampires he just did his monkey dudes he always does And it's

really cool It's really cool But I got to know him and I got to go visit his studio because we kind of again that similar mindset and I didn't realize he had all his originals I see that little monkey dudes on the bottom Wow He had all his originals in his next to his house in his museum Like all those that you were just looking at they were all there I didn't realize as an illustrative artist sometimes you don't own your own material He made it a point to own his own originals M So like

the ones you just were salivating over those were in my house I wish I knew you seven years ago His kids oh my god his kids are so impassionate about the art Even his granddaughter Sarah Rosetta She has Frisetta girls This is They're so always you know bringing up his legacy and keeping it alive So cool But um I really wanted to go do like a Conan type movie or John Carter I wanted to do one based on Fire and Ice which is the only one he had actually it was an animated film Thought well

maybe if Conan's been used too much let's do Fire and Ice as a movie because he worked on that as an animated film Let's just make his I just want his paintings to move Like I had Frank Miller's art move I want for Zetta's paintings to move because he's he was transporting us to another world that we all recognized If you could make that Conan look like that Yeah Go back to that photo again Jamie That with the sword It's called the the barbarian you um it's you could say that Conan's been done too many

No the one with the sword Yeah that one Yeah They've never seen it like that Yeah But the thing is it's like And look that's not a guy that's just like been in a gym He's he looks like a he's been swinging a sword and cutting off with technology You can do that So that's why I'd gotten Jim interested It's like make him look like that Yeah It's like a madeup even anatomy in a way You know the books were so [ __ ] good man Even though Conan's been done a bunch of times it

hasn't done the right way Yeah No it hasn't been done like the books and it's so ripe like you and because it was done that way first like with with Arnold in it people just figured oh we'll just hire a bodybuilder to be you know a barbarian type creature character from then on But to do it really like that he's more like a James Bond character you know he goes from movie to movie Yes It's really And he's really [ __ ] smart Yes And he's just uh No but I got to meet Frisetta So

you keep that up for a second So I went to his we talked about his paintings and how he did it and I got a theory on how he did this But when I went and saw the originals like holy [ __ ] you got all the originals How did you make the And he really loved to live life Like you go play golf baseball He'd get an assignment and he'd wait till the last minute and go and paint it So what happens when you wait till the last minute you have to just open up

the pipe and let it through Right Yeah I guess that's why we all know this place you know collectively dream you know Jim Cameron would come over to my house you know um Del Toro George Miller John Favro to see these originals in person When you see them in person it blows your mind It feels like you're being transported I think because he did them at the last minute They just came from the universe because that's why people relate to them People would just buy these paperbacks for the art Yes These this Conan was created

in the 30s These books came out in the 60s right they didn't become a big hit till these books came out because of the art Exactly And then when you read the stories the stories were really great But they got him for the art 100% And he was showing me his his his layout of paintings and he went two days one day 3 days Wow 4 days Two days I was like "Holy." Just locked in Just locked in And it's just coming out because he had to And his wife would say "Yeah his pain was

still wet when I was taking it to get shipped because he would wait till the last minute but these masterpieces would come out and I just was really inspired by him." So when he passed away you know his kids said "What should we do with the art?" said "Well let's make a movie based on the art." Cuz who's got this now so different they've sold some of them but the kids like if you go to Frank Jun Frank Jr still has uh the museum up there he still has a lot of the masterworks The kid

each kid has some of the masterworks and um and they're all great and and keeping his legacy going And I want to make a movie about it just to get his name back up you know or below We were all inspired by him Oh so what was so cool was how did he find out about those books i think it was just an assignment and he would barely read the book He would just be like ah he would just do his own thing So they they start putting the books out more mass publishing in the

1960s So he does these illustrations He does the paintings They flying off the shelves Flying off the shelves because of the paintings Because of the paintings Wow And those paintings and those books no matter even the best art book today when you see the original cannot they cannot capture what the original has You'll be blown away You got to see I've got like 14 different fisettas You got to come see You're going to You're going to especially as an illustrator you're going to freak out We have one all the We have one of the prints

of Go back to those uh images One the one that we have Jamie with the him with the giant gorilla Yeah we have one of those where he's fighting the gorilla He's on its back He's got a red cape I'm going to Yeah that's called Manape Manape That's just pan over to the left And it's on the left side I saw it There it is That's it We have that That was in my house Oh okay Okay So the real one The real one Okay So here's what happened Oh my god We have that out

by the pool table The kids said "Hey look how [ __ ] cool that is." The kids said "Um can you take our paintings for us and show them to influential people because hurricane season's coming." They lived in Florida and we don't want anything to happen They're insured but [ __ ] they could be gone We Oh my god Can you take it i like [ __ ] yeah I'll take them to my house So for a year and a half I had these not the the barbarian one you were just the one with the

sword standing I had that one in my house Oh my god So I would have everyone who came to South by Southwest or was just in town they'd come to my house I'd make them pizza and we would just stare and drool over the Frisettas Those inspired me so much as a kid to be an illustrator Yeah Those the the the Frisetta paintings and some of the drawings from the the graphic novels that people had made of these inspired me so much as a kid It just it was dream imagery like you knew what dream

is fantasy you know it would just it would feel like we dreamt this too and recognized it Yes And every young kid wanted oh I wish I was con Yeah You know skinny little kid and you're going like is that what I want to be when I grow up no I hate when you're 11 god I wish I was that I wish I had that kind of power and strength Yeah And so I don't know if you read these books but they were based on this comics They were based on the books they would just

translate the books Um there was a comics code So the Conan the barbarian comic had to follow the code But then there's a black and white magazine called Savage Sword of Conan Oh I read those They didn't have to follow the code right that's why people would get killed and they would just and Roy Thomas would just like take the book and put the book in several chapters Yeah they were brutal They're really great Yeah that's what so I grew up with that drawing out of that learning how to draw anatomy from the Conan books

The Marvel comics were fun but they were This was still under Marvel but it wasn't under the code because it was considered a magazine That's what I'm saying Like the Marvel comics were fun but they weren't brutal enough They weren't brutal cuz they had a comics code cuz they're comic size By doing a magazine Yes They got around it See if you can find the Savage sort of savage sort of cone in number one There it is Yeah Look at the one where he's where he's nailed to the cross That's Boris VJO Oh Oh this

is a great story Another one He came out He came out later in the 70s So this is a great preset story Um several of his paintings when you see them they're not very big a lot of times because they were for paperbacks So they didn't have to be that big But then there were some like in the early 70s that were big Silver Warrior uh at the Earth's Core And I and I asked Fetta I said "What what what was this era here?" Because a lot of these were in the 60s What's the se

this these four bigger ones you didn't what was that for he goes "Oh they were saying I was washed up that I was finished." It's cuz Boris was coming out and they're like "Oh he's the new Frisetta." So I did one two three four beauties Shut them all up That's so cool It was so cool Shut them all up Shut them all up Pull up Boris Vallejo Conan cuz Boris had a different style It was like a little more it also you could feel sexual or something but you could you know I I I love

his art but you could almost feel the model in it You could almost you could almost see that there was a model he was painting from Well it was very cool but it was a different feeling Fetta was more raw Very raw Boris Valo It was it was great He's doing I mean he's doing the Fetta style I mean I mean you know Fetta was the Jimmy Paige of art Everybody wanted to be him So everyone couldn't you couldn't unsee Fetta's work when you were doing your own I mean this is Manape Yeah he's doing

Manape again He's doing Manape in a different version of it And you know I drew a lot of things that were like that like a different version of Fetta stuff Everybody did But yeah I was more of a FZetta guy than a Boris Vallejo guy I I I loved it It was great I was happy that he was several like the one where he's crucified to the cross on the bottom That that one and the one on the far bottom left is the first issue of Savage Sword That one is really cool because it had

Yeah I thought that was cool Yeah But not it doesn't come close to you know No it's just Fzetta just had a it was more I think it's because of that process It was just the way he did them Yes They were just they were just m there's some magic to them And I'll show you a couple things that will blow you away when you see them in person But the in-person thing will really floor you Just how much even the best books cannot capture the art as it exists I saw your gym Your gym

is awesome I thought I had the best gym You've got a great gym But I got one thing you don't got You got to come see What i don't have mirrors up You don't have mirrors on purpose it's because I just have the original Drew Strusen painting Ah for first blood Stallone Oh wow And because it's got glass over it you can kind of see yourself in it but I just stand in front of that and go I'm not there yet I'm not there yet That's my inspiration Good for form Just say for form It's

I can kind of see the form but that's my mirror when you come It's the it's the Stallone painting And that's one See like that one but it doesn't it doesn't capture it a painting at all Even this digital copy of it like look at the original poster of it that has the writing on it The way they printed it was like ass Look at that thing So when you see the original one you're like "Oh my god this is like fine art." And that and that still doesn't capture it but it's closer than the

than the poster But there's something about seeing the actual physical things you see the real thing it's so inspiring And then when you see the physique that he has you're just like "Okay I'm going to work harder." But that's in my gym So you got to go check that out I've got a photo of Alexander Carellin out there That's my photo to remind me every day what a [ __ ] I am is Alexander Carellin who was like the greatest Olympic wrestler to ever come out of Russia Uh there's a photo that show pull up

the photo that we have in the gym He was a freak They called him the science project cuz his parents were like 5 foot five and he was like 6'2 300 lb and just built like a panther Look at that That's him Oh jeez Yeah That's the picture that picture up in the gym That's my inspiration Every day workout because he was just such a [ __ ] physical freak And it's just that particular image that that intensity If I'm ever tired I look at that image What's your what's your workout routine how often do

you get to work out i work out every day Yeah Basically every day First thing in the morning Occasionally I feel like I need a day off I'll take a day off But uh yeah first thing in the morning right yeah That's the thing Get up get going get cobwebs out of your head Well it's like you said like you decide I'm an athlete I I I sort of decide I'm this person who gets up and gets in the cold plunge first thing in the morning I'm this person that does these two and a half

hour workouts and then gets in the sauna That's what I do I do it every day I do the thing This might inspire some people Like so I don't have a trainer but I'll look at like I like watching other people see what they do in their routine so I adopt some of that I saw Josh Brolan all freaking in shape for the Deadpool movie and I was like "Dude," I texted him "What is your workout could you tell me?" He go "Oh I'll send it to you." He sends me a PDF of his whole

workout routine that the you know the trainers had given him It's intense It was like "Okay if I do 1/4th of this I'll have a quarter of his results I'm fine with that because I'm kind of this [ __ ] to do anyway." So I would be in and out of there in a half hour How long you know so you don't have to commit all the way You know if you if as long as you're doing something you're getting up and you're and you're working out and you're doing it very strategically If you don't

have a lot of time there's no excuse You can make you can make Oh you can get a lot done Get a lot done in a short amount of time Yeah Reverse pyramid train or something You got three minutes in between each one You can get work done during You certainly can You try In fact there was a study that just came out recently that showed that you get more results from one set to failure than you do with three sets Yeah that you sometimes I would then just keep holding the bar after I was

done just like for 10 more seconds Yeah there was some some study see if you could find this It was a very recent study that was very counterintuitive because a lot of people think more work better results right but this in this study they were showing that they got more strength gains and more muscle recruitment in one hard set to failure There's a lot of counterintuitive stuff I like when I hear stuff like that I try it you know i just roll it into the routine and give it a try Yeah Because you don't know

you don't know what's going to work for you There's no there's no one right way to do anything So I try to just get advice and and and adopt it And I had this funny uh Stallone once You ever had Stallone on the show he's a great interview My best interview on the director's chair is him because it's the most one that any layman could identify with That guy really is Rocky His story is unbelievable and he's really funny And uh I interviewed him before for the UFC He called me uh and said if he

asked if an ask actor friend of mine could be in one of the expendables He's like my actor fell through Can we can you ask what's his name you know friend was yeah I'll ask So I asked my friend my friend goes oh no it's too short notice you know because it was last minute replacement I I need to get in shape Okay that makes sense But but it's not a physical role You just want I wouldn't want to be in a Stallone movie and not be in shape So I have to get in shape

and I don't have enough time You know just gonna shoot in a week So I go to Sly and I say "Hey Sly." Yeah He said you know figured Sly would understand Yeah He has to get in shape Get in shape Get in shape You don't get in shape You stay in shape Like that makes sense You got to stay in shape Of Stallone walking around Malibu looking like he's nine months pregnant Have you seen that photo i don't know if he did that for a movie or probably for Copland He gained weight It wasn't

for Copland It was recent It was like within years Now he's like 70 There's no excuses No excuses Stay in shape Stay in shape Yeah that dude such a great interview because I watched the Rocky movies You know when was the last time you saw the Rocky movie yeah here it is Study finds higher training volume increases size not strength Oh this isn't it No this is in May of 2024 It was very recently It was about one set doing one set to failure shows uh strength and muscle recruitment benefits over three sets Um yeah

so I mean I don't know when the last time you saw the Rocky Yeah here it is New research says you could build strength and muscle with single set training No this isn't it either It might be December 2024 It might be it So just one hard set per exercise delivers impressive results Yeah at least try that you know Yeah get out Get in and out They were saying it actually works better So maybe this is another thing because I I read it just a couple of days ago It doesn't matter We get it It

So but that is also very counterintuitive Yeah Because most people think oh it's all about the amount of time you spend time pressure Yeah What I But I do a lot of different uh exercises in one I I do full body workouts almost entirely I very rare ex unless one day a week I do heavy leg stuff where it's just legs you know because the leg there's so many muscles of the legs I don't you know when I want to make sure that I'm doing that I just it takes too much time Yeah Cuz I'm

doing leg curls and leg presses and lunges and it's like I can't do other stuff too Um but I like working out by myself Yeah Trainer because it's time to think Yeah Time to really become very meditative Yeah And you're working the body and the but you getting ideas and I keep my computer there and I I write down ideas Oh nice Nice Uh did you uh you know did you see the I was watching the Rocky movies again and I was like we watched the first one showed it to my lady she loved it

So I said we got to watch the second one Watch the second one The next night we watched the third one I finally we got to the fourth one I was okay Oh I'm going to write Stallone Said "Dude you are consistently moving that character through the different eras." And you need to go back to directing because he when I worked with him he'd done a bunch of movies in the 90s and he was telling me why the movies didn't work I said "You got to go back to directing." No one was at your level

directing yourself getting career bests out of your other actors while you're also not just the star but the franchise and being in insane shape back then which was way before anyone knew anything about training You were probably in the gym much longer than you needed to be And he said "Very perceptive you know I like you probably were way overtraining because then people didn't know There were no science to it back then right and getting all that work done So how can you work with another director now they can't have their respect You got to

go back to directing because you can't argue with the result And he was like can't go back to directing Well we did this movie together It was his biggest opening ever with Spy Kids 3D Two years later a year later he goes "I'm writing another Rocky." And that was that new Rocky He He hadn't directed in 22 years Wow He went back to directing and writing did another Rocky another Rambo and then a whole new franchise Expendables Crazy Like for your career to come back like that Did stunts and expendables and broke his [ __

] crazy But because he went back and that's sometimes you know that's the key to success Late 60s I said "Yeah and he was doing his own stunts It's harder to go do it all yourself but look you can't argue with the results Look at the results you got back then." And I'm so glad he went back to it because it inspires me all over again So it's a great you know I'm sure you've done that someone that really inspired you and I want to know who are your heroes that you got to inspire back

in some way and then you're just like oh my god it's they inspired me so that I could be here for them when they needed to hear that to go on it was like all part of the universe of that creativity you know you're the one who goes whispers in their ear with him because he's inspired me you know so many times was I started working with my kids more it's very counterintuitive like I don't know if you work with your kids or whatever plan to work with your kids but I would say to anybody

if you have an opportunity to work with your It's take it because when I was like when I turned 50 I thought I guess I could keep making movies It's been good to me I guess I could just make more I mean I was way into it you know when I was younger and my it's been good to me But it's I bet there might be another job I can take that with the knowledge I have I could probably make just as much money or something I don't even know what jobs exist I got this

job when I was 21 So I I got jobs for dummies and I started looking through what all the other jobs were Oh I want that job I want that job And then I get to filmmaker and has a little icon of a guy with his hands up like this and it says this is the best job Just make movies with your friends You sit back watch the money roll in But 99% of film students can't get this job so give it up So I went I actually got the best job So I stick with

it But that still wasn't enough desire until I made that $7,000 movie with my kids and they got so into it and I realized that's my next 10 years I'm going to work with my kids I'm going to make them all work on movies because I it's not about making movies It's about life lessons It teaches you a huge project that you have to you don't know how you're going to get through even the day much less the project But that's life It's like I felt so good afterwards saying you know the process now If

I get hit by a bus you guys are going to be fine because it's just like the movies The story of life is just like the stories we make up You go get your plan together which is kind of like your script You attack it Try to make it as bulletproof as possible Go for your goal Whether it's building a comedy club or whatever watch it all [ __ ] fall apart and then that's when you roll up your sleeves turn chicken [ __ ] to chicken salad The finished results way better than your original

vision Wash rinse repeat That's life It's a microcosm of how life works So I made them work on the movies And I did this manifesting thing My son said "Well I'd like to do a VR movie." So let's make a company together We'll call it DoubleR You all have double R names Double R company Watch I'm going to show you this how this works because I did this with brass knuckle films which is creating a label double that'll be our logo and I made t-shirts and little notepads and they got way into it because now

that we have a company you have to do stuff to fill the company so we'll call a VR company and say you all need to sell headsets give us some money to make a movie and we'll make you a movie We did one with Michelle Rodriguez and Norman Reus called The Limit that had the they made us a big double R logo in the front That was like in March Later that year we made that $7,000 movie that also had the double R logo Then I went to Netflix and they said "Could you make us

a Spy Kids type thing that always does well." So I thought "Okay." I kind of came up with in the room I thought "Little kids superheroes who have to save their superhero parents." That's We Can Be Heroes Another double R movie My kids wrote it with me It's the most watched and re-watched movie in Netflix history Nothing can touch it Kids cannot stop watching it because as little kids superheroes no one's ever done that before And my kids were like "Dad it really works this thing." And I was like "Shit better than I thought I

was just I was just making an example." But that's that's how it happens right like it feels predestined but also you're like "Let me just show you how it works." And you go to show someone an example And that becomes your bread and butter Yeah And so I just tell people if you have an opportunity to work with your kids you're mentoring them They're mentoring you because they're the age I was when I was making mariachi and desperado I got so many great ideas and you're taking on this big project that's teaching them about life

and because you're both in the same boat You both know what it's going to take and it's family time so you're like checking all the boxes And I was telling this to Sly I was so excited back in you know 2019 and his wife Jennifer was like "You don't work with your daughters." She hits him "You don't work with your daughters." And he's like I was like "Oh [ __ ] maybe I should dial this story back." I I was so evangelical about it but might get people in trouble but they couldn't hear it And

the next year the daughters went on started a podcast and he would show up every once in a while to like get braidings up Now they have a TV show second season family still They're all working together They're all living the best life So I tell anybody who listens because it's something I stumbled upon because it's very counterintuitive because you would think oh if I work my my kids doesn't that look like privilege or what so I tell you this what happens when we die don't you just give everything that you created over your life

to your kids because they have your last name They weren't a part of it If you have a chance to work with them and build it with you you have that next level mentorship relationship Don't just parent because after a while once they're in their teens they don't really need you japettoing over them Partner with them Become their mentor their OB1 And they mentor you back It gives them such a boost in confidence when they teach you some [ __ ] And you'll have that next level experience That way when you pass on you give

them the stuff they'll go yeah I made this with my dad That's great advice So I tell people especially when you do something like you do that's well you know depends on what you have find your version of you know like not everybody can necessarily work with but if you have an opportunity to do it do it because right but like this thing that you were saying about jobs for dummies 99% of people are not going to be able to do this Well that's the thing it's like but yeah but it's possible It is possible

and part of the 99% not going to do it because they don't know anybody who's done it Right That's part of the problem right once you see like oh look how he did this He just did I think I could He told me how he made El mariachi I think it can be done That wasn't taught in film schools That was completely kind again they don't teach you They teach you how to do one job so that you can go pull cables on someone else's movie My thing was like be the owner be the creator

be everything and you cut the line and suddenly you're at the film festival But you know and no one had really done that before Nobody had done that before It was the first time That's why even when I was doing it I was like I kind of have the idea this can do it cuz I did that short film and I'm doing the math But somebody must have done this already Even when the studio in the book it shows even when the studios were flying me up because they saw Mariachi and wanted to do a

deal with me I went I've never heard of anyone get into business like this This must happen all the time where they find some filmmaker student they whine and dine them and then you never hear from him again because I've never heard a story like this and I was the first one That's why That's wild It was really crazy And I didn't even want them to release it I didn't want them to release it cuz it was my my my my practice film I just threw it away They said "Wasn't everything one take?" One take

because I was shooting on film and if I shot two takes of everything I double my budget because most of the money went to the film I wrote the script around everything I already had So I wouldn't have to buy anything So it's like well what do we have we took stock in what we have And this is a lesson for life Like if you if you think you can't do anything well look around you You got a lot of resources It's about being resourceful Well we have a turtle we found We have a dog

We've got a ranch Your brother-in-law has a school line I mean a bus line We'll bar one of the buses When you see what we do with a bus he crashes into it Have a bar Let's ride everything around that So we just have that And if I shoot two takes we double the budget How about let's shoot one take of everything I know not everything's going to come out because I'm doing everything myself I'm pulling focus I might meter it wrong Who knows but I don't want to shoot a safety take or it's going

to double the budget We'll go home after I finish shooting the whole movie I'll see what stuff didn't come out and I'll go just re-shoot that Of course you get home and you're I'm not going to [ __ ] go back to Mexico and re-shoot anything I'll just figure out a way to edit around all the stuff that didn't come out Not everything came out but um yeah it was merely just following your nose and not knowing if it was going to work Somebody must have thought to do this already but no one had ever

done that before because it's so counterintuitive You're told but that's how movies started You know you think back in the old days Charlie Chaplan and a guy behind the camera doing this they didn't have 200 people It turned into a business just like with comedy and it turns into a business to where you think that's the art form That's not the art form That's the business of the art form The original art form is you by yourself doing it This is how by myself I was It was like you got one guy here now right

because you have all these digital cameras I had one camera and I had the sound And I can't do them at the same time because the camera sounds like this really not noisy and it sounds like all your money is going away So I had no slates I would just run Guy starts running Stop filming Cut Like I would just shoot my little pieces like this much after I would do a whole scene One take One take One take One take Put the camera down Get the microphone really close to them like that Okay See

all your lines again Pick up the glass again Do all that stuff again Wow Cut it in by hand So so the audio by hand I try to sync it to the mouth So when they're not because they're not non-acctors a lot of times like repeat what you just said wait so you cut it by hand and it would match right and if it didn't match I would cut away to the dog or to the knife or the other person That's why it's got a really fast cutting style which became my cutting style was just

to get them back in sync because I didn't want it to look like a low budget rubbery lip thing But if you watch it you see them in sync Every time they're on screen they're in sync And then as they start to go out of sync it cuts and it cuts back But this is about being resourceful But it saved me a ton of money doing it that way And it made it actually interesting to watch Makes it more interesting to watch Oh So anyway so uh originally I didn't have any ideas I was going

to make three of these movies before making my serious American independent film But my first movie I gave it to an agent in uh Los Angeles and he said "I can get you work off this right now." I was a writer director and I went "Writer director i'm not a writer." Well I guess I wrote the script I guess that makes me a writer Again I didn't know how to own stuff yet It's like you just got to say you're a writer I still thought well I I'd even written a movie I didn't consider myself

a writer That's that's the [ __ ] we do to ourselves right so I said "Okay." So he sent it around All these studios were flying me up It's in the book It's just crazy how fast it happened And they were offering me these deals because they saw that I went and did something That's why you just got to go make something because people are sometimes they're so impressed that you even did anything Most people never start And they went "Wow." And I thought "Well it's actually a good calling card now If you like the

cinematography I did that Hire me as a cameraman If you like the editing I did that Hire me as an editor." But they hired me as a writer director And I they said "What movie do you want to do?" I go "This all happened so fast I didn't I didn't really have a chance to think about I was going to do three of these practice films and then make a real one." So but you like Mariachi Why don't we remake that and they said with like Antonio Bender okay okay but audience might not like that

the girl dies So we're going to screen this version that you have now to an audience So I screen it to an audience And they liked it the way it was So they said "We're going to take this to some film festival." I was like "No don't show this movie It's my practice movie Literally no one's supposed to see this one." They go "No no you got something really special." I said "No dude I'm telling you I can do much better than that Give me $2,000 I'll go reshoot half of it just knowing that people

are going to see it now and do completely differently and they go you got something they're smart enough Mark there said you got something really special here we're going to take it to the festivals and we won Sundance because I made it for myself and it was a real lesson in that like if I was trying to think about what all the audience was going to want to see I would have changed so many things but because I knew no one was going to see it It's probably the only movie in history ever made where

people were guaranteed not to see it just by the title I titled it that way so nobody would see it I didn't want anybody to see it I wanted to just throw it away and practice I figured maybe the third one one might might be the better one You know like that advice throw three scripts away and then do a fourth Well I'm going to throw three movies away so that by the fourth I'm I'm so savvy know how to film and do all these things This first practice film is not going to be it

That's the one that going to be it Wow So commit to a body of work Throw [ __ ] away Don't put Don't be precious about it Just go make it Don't blink when people criticize it and just keep going Make a body work That's it That's that's the secret And that's the secret to life too Just keep just keep trying to make it the best That is phenomenal advice And coming from a person like you that has accomplished so much it's so resonant That's why I accomplish it by doing those things which everybody can

do It's not because I'm I'm not that smart I'm telling you not that smart I just follow your instinct like you've done When you follow your instinct you're letting the universe do all the talking And I know this sounds wonky but I just call it that because it is from some other place and you're just an instrument You're just a pipe Yes The soul that gets into your body And you realize that when you have kids I don't know if you had that experience As soon as I had my first kid I was like "This

isn't my kid." You can just tell it's not my kid I mean it has physical characteristics and maybe even mannerisms in my walk but there's another soul in here that's from some other place And each one is so different I have five kids and I have from nine siblings They're so they're from different planets right and so you realize that the soul is on a communication level with some other thing that our human bodies are just very primitive to to do So when we get a a voice we can't tell if it's coming from the

universe if it's for our own mind or if it's just because it all sounds like [ __ ] Morse code because the brain is so prim It's a three pound meat computer That's why we can't remember [ __ ] It's like we're we're limited by the body our soul got put into just like we'd be limited if we were put in a fish because they got even smaller brain you know they only go forward and backwards That's why a lot of people say you have to learn how to get out of your own way because

you're you're you think I'm so limited Yeah But you actually also maybe you don't and maybe you're cocky which is equally bad Yeah Because that's beginning your own way in a different way It's a false It's a false where you think I I can do anything because I'm just so cool Where it's like no you can do anything because you're just a pipe Be that and then you'll see much more flow happening You'll see things just falling in your lap Yeah Don't think about you at all Yeah Get you out of it It's not You

have to be very humble It's a very humbling thing The more humble you are the more [ __ ] happens Not just for you but everyone around you Being creative And I figured this out like one year um there was a book called the one thing business book called one thing like do one thing and just do that Well thought "Okay that book's not for me." And I was doing this talk where they introduced me and they said "Robert is a writer director editor composer it's a long list of all the jobs I do." And

I went up there like "Wow that I get tired just hearing that list and I keep seeing that book the one thing and I thought at first I thought that's not me." But I realize you know what i don't just do all those things There's one thing I really do that ties all those together When you think about it I do one thing and it's I live a creative life And if you commit to living a creative life like literally applying creativity to everything you do your workout in the morning how you interact with your

kids the meal you cook what you're going to do that night a business call you take be creative I love my business meetings now the most I make people pizza I'm making my chocolate We talk about creativity and they want to be in business with you It's like so good because you're adding creativity It enriches your life and everyone around you And that way anything that touches creativity whether it's painting drawing uh sculpture music is available to you because what 90% of that job is just being creative And if you're doing it all day you're

always going to be in a flow If you don't embrace that and you go about your daily life and you don't apply creativity well when you go home that night to write your novel or something you're going to be blocked because you're not in a creative flow But if you just been applying creativity all day long to everything I'm going to do I'm going to do this talk creatively I'm going to bring some cards I'm going to go do this You know you're applying creativity You're always in a flow So when you go back to

go do your main job you're in you've already been doing it and you're living your best life because I found I was most successful happiest and most fulfilled when I was being creative So why not just do that 24/7 and it's been a lifecher It's been doing that like 15 years with consciousness like consciously say because people don't like to say they're creative Like when I ask like are you creative even lexing Well yeah You know like stumbling through It's like because people think being an artist means you have to have the mustache and the

hat And it's like no artists are regular people and regular people are flawed And that's why you relate to something that they do because it's flawed If you made it perfect they couldn't relate to it because humans are flawed And if you think of it that way you go "Well I can create flawed stuff I can do that all day long." And then that get that gets out of your way because then somebody who comes to you and they go "Really love that part with the explosion." Oh well that was an accident cuz I didn't

get what I really wanted and I had to make this work and that's was an accident They like those a they they respond to those accidents in a big way because they're from another univer They're they're they're the part that's magic The part you didn't know and the part you couldn't have predicted right and so if you set up I I purposely make my budgets smaller and my shooting schedules shorter so that those more of that stuff happens because that's the stuff people will relate to and it gives you complete creative freedom like you have

a lot of creative freedom here Um I'm probably the director who's worked with the most outcast ostracized or people who are considered difficult than any other filmmaker mainly because I'm independent and I don't have to listen to a studio if they're like "Oh you can't work with that person." So like Mel Gibson couldn't get a job back when I hired him on I was just always a big fan of his Always look at creativity first and talent first [ __ ] controversy not even distant second it's not even considered and I get to work with

these amazing people Stephen Seagal Charlie Sheen Lindseay Lohan and then people who are considered difficult were like Michael Parks I got this from Quinton Michael Parks was in u Dust Dony's the sheriff at the beginning the the Texas Ranger Quinton said man I love this guy Michael Parks he was going to be the next James Dean he had a show on TV in the 70s called then came Bronson but then he kind of got difficult for people to work with and so he was relegated to these lowbudget grind house films But check him out He's

always really great I want to put him in Dustle Dawn but I hear him He's my difficult to work with You work with him first And if he's great to work with I'll work with him So I said "All right sure." So I work with him He's a dream Was amazing He was really great No [ __ ] Of all the people like that And then we both kept putting him in movies Uh Mickey Ror was considered couldn't work Kinky couldn't get a job I gave him Once Upon a Time but once I met him

I was like "Oh my god he's just like Mickey in the old days." You know Quinton and I actually wanted him in Dust Dawn We both wanted Mickey Ror in the lead role but he had retired from acting He was just boxing He won't even look at the script So we're like "Oh man we could hire Mickey Roor and there's no Mickey Roor now We're so bummed." But then years later I went back to him and no one was hiring him And so I met with him I thought "Okay I'll meet with him." I like

"Holy [ __ ] he still has that charm and everything." So I put him in give him a small role Once Upon a Time Mexico And I kept riding him more scenes Uh he was broke I mean uh I gave him money to go buy his own suits because he always dressed to the nines in his movies It's like look I'm all out of time costume designing this thing I'll give you some money Go buy your own clothes You You're always going to dress He came with these Billy Martin suits and stuff I said I'm

going to put a bullet hole in the back of one digitally just so you can keep because he wanted to keep the clothes so you can keep the clothes Thanks brother And then I put him in Sin City and um it got relaunched his career But he was always a dream to work with And I would hear from people later "Oh he's been difficult again." I was like "Really come back again." No again 100% of the time I've never had any difficulty with even the difficult user size one So it makes you think and you

know that because you'll have anybody you want on your show but it makes me wonder what environment are you putting them in right that makes them like that because like somebody was said that about uh Redgar was amazing Hard to work with Really no I wasn't at all But for some people I didn't know he had a reputation I don't know But somebody told me loved him and stuff Loved him and stuff Bladeunner the Hitcher Um Bruce Willis people would tell me was difficult to work with I was like Bruce I worked with him four

times Let me tell you this is what Bruce is like when he walks in the set Hey what's going on man he means boss Does that sound like somebody who's difficult that's going to be somebody who's just so happy Uh one time I was doing this Kobe Bryant Nike commercial I was going to be in with Kobe and I was directing it and I was working out at the gym where Stallone works out Gunnar Peterson's uh gym and Bruce was there and I was trying to get an actor to do a cameo in this commercial

I was shooting that weekend I was working out because I was going to be on camera and so then I go to Bruce and I go "Hey what what are you up to?" And he goes "Ah I'm just looking for a job." And I said "Well are you a basketball fan?" So I'm shooting a Kobe Bryant commercial Saturday What why don't you come by the set it's downtown You play this role Bring bring a couple of suits because it's very last minute but last minute replacement Yeah Yeah sure I'd love to meet him Okay good

So I went back to the Nike people and said Bruce said he's going to be in it Well we'll call his agents No don't call his agents because he probably didn't tell him And he said he'll come down I think he will because he's cool like that Oh we think we should call him anyway So they call the agents The agents go Bruce Willis is not going to be in a Nike commercial Well he talked to Robert Oh okay I guess he is going to be in a Nike commercial So then we're down there in

the set We're downtown LA We're filming Kobe We're filming everything else And it's like almost time for him to show up And they're like "Are you sure he's going to come?" He said he would He said he'd bring two suits And now now I'm thinking how ridiculous that sounds But I told him in the gym and said "Come down with a couple of your suits from your own closet Like there's no wardrobe There's no time to get a wardrobe fitting and just show up." He shows up Shows up does it say "I'll film you out

in an hour." Because he knows how we work together Had a great time He's great in it Takes off brought his two suits That's amazing That does not sound like somebody who's difficult No it's the envir environment that you put these people Totally the environment you put them in because I was watching like a dog whisperer and it's like if you have a pitbull some of these guys can be alpha male pitbull If you put them in a situation where aggression is needed like if you have a chaotic set and producers are coming down going

"Ah no you can't wear that You can't talk like that." Of course you're going to piss these guys off But if you put them in an environment where they know there's somebody who's the boss I mean they show up It's my studio I'm operating the camera I'm the DP I'm there acting with them We're shooting it in record time Getting them out of there fast They're having a ball Pipple just wants to follow He doesn't want to he doesn't want to [ __ ] take over the show And so everyone's really That's my theory on

it anyway I think it's just the environment because they always say "Oh if you have a dog that's misbehaving it's the owner It's the owner in the environment It's not the dog." Yes there's nothing wrong with the animal The animal is fine The animal could be very calm and assertive and even submissive Well it's also these exceptional actors with these eccentric personalities They're often times like if you put them in a bad environment you're going to get a [ __ ] terrible result because it's part of what they are is like a little bit of

chaos Well also just going to have to protect themselves Yes They have to protect themselves if this if this environment is [ __ ] up Think about the type of guy that told you that like wait you filmed this and you didn't get the rights Those those are the guys that are going to drive you up a wall Exactly Those executives Yeah Yeah I remember I talked to Mick cuz I'd heard you know he'd been trouble and some maybe maybe his head got big trouble So I said "Well what was wrong?" Everything had to be

what Mickey wanted to say what Mickey wanted to wear what Mickey wanted to do So okay Well maybe maybe he's gone back to some I'm about to work with him again So he comes "No it was a dream again." So at the end I go "Man you always bring it brother What you're always bringing it and it's just it's just so great to see He goes "Yeah it was some people you deserve it Most people don't deserve it." I was like because he remembers I gave him his shot back So I was like "Okay." He

didn't give me any [ __ ] Maybe he gives other people [ __ ] but he That's awesome Listen brother I've really enjoyed this Really enjoyed talking to you A lot of things you I want to see the studio but I think a lot of things you said are really going to help a lot of people Yeah Hopefully Hopefully because it's uh it's been helpful to me to then tell people and then the feedback loop They tell me back something I said but they morphed it into something new Like they've added their own thing to

it And I go "That's not what I told you." They go "Oh we've added to it." No [ __ ] Well now now I'm taking your advice that came from my advice My kids do that all the time They go "It all comes back to what you taught us Dad." I go "What was that what did I tell you that one time you said you know basically like the glass is half full half empty?" Okay but I didn't tell you all this other stuff Where'd that come from oh we added to it since I was

like well [ __ ] that's the cool part Yeah My my son got on a was a Japanese knife maker you know in his teens He just wanted to get into Japanese Like this is a guy from another lifetime you know different He obviously knew this was his path That's when you know it's a soul born in there Didn't get that from me Making these Japanese style knives selling them for like $1,000 a pop By the time he was 18 he got on that show Forging and Fire and won And I was like how did

you You didn't even know how to use most of the equipment they gave you you had $10,000 How did you What was your mindset he said "I imagined I had won already Somehow I had won." And so when I'd come up against a challenge that I wasn't sure how I would get by I just had to remember what I did to get by it rather than trying to be freaked out about it I was like "Whoa that's some freaking samurai shit." So that I read that this you've obviously been in another life before to come

in armed with that I didn't learn that from me And it's like well it's kind of like no that's nothing like anything I ever told you Wow So the feedback loop when you share with people I love people coming and telling me hey I was really inspired by your book and you said this I'm like I don't remember saying that in the book I think you added to it a lot It triggered something in you and we all keep compiling our ideas Yeah I'm all interested in everybody else's perspective because we all have our own

relationship to creativity and the universe and all that Yeah And the more you interact with things the more you contribute But come be in a brass knuckle film That sounds like right up reality Let's do Conan or Fetta something You got to come see that Definitely I I can't wait to see your You'd be great I can already tell you I got a great part for you where you will knock it out I will talk Yeah we'll talk Thank you very much It was awesome I really appreciate it All right Bye everybody