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December 25, 2023 39 mins

In this episode, Movie Mike takes a look back at his conversations as he counts down his Top 5 Interviews of 2023. Mike as he revisits some of the most entertaining conversations from the Super Troopers guys to the director of Blue Beetle, the writer of Air and more! Take a listen to find out all about the filmmaking process from the people who made great movies this year!

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mike's Movie podcast. I
am your host Movie Mike, and this week I want
to look back on my top five favorite interviews. At
twenty twenty three. It has been a great and also
weird year because there was a strike and actors and
director they aren't doing interviews. So I am happy to
have the interviews I do have to share with you today.
But I also want to take a moment to say

(00:22):
thank you for listening to this podcast. I started it
now four years ago. Just celebrated the four year anniversary.
December twenty nineteen is when I started this thing, and
as a training exercise, I went back and listened to
some early episodes and oh my gosh, guys, so the
ones that have been there since day one, I thank
you because I sounded like an idiot to those who

(00:44):
are new to the podcast. I hadn't done a show
like this before, whereas just me talking and giving my thoughts.
So I feel like I was so hyped up in
those early episodes and it's almost just cringe worthy to
go back and listen to. But it also just shows
me with not just doing a podcast, but with doing anything.

(01:05):
Those initial episodes you do, or those initial drafts or
whatever it is, that's a part of your craft. You're
gonna look back and think, oh my gosh, and you
should be embarrassed at those things, because if you look
back on those and think, oh, man, that's when I
was really crushing it, you haven't really grown as a person.
So I just want to say thank you to everybody
who listens to this podcast, whether you're part of the

(01:26):
movie crew and listen every single week on Monday when
episodes get released, or maybe you drop in occasionally, maybe
you just see a clip on TikTok or Instagram and think, oh,
maybe I'll go check out that episode or that interview,
whatever level of listener you are, I just thank you
for spending one two episodes, one minute, whatever it is,

(01:48):
because talking about movies is my favorite thing. I love
watching movies and discussing them and crafting my reviews and
crafting my thoughts to share with you, and it is
the thing that brings me the most joy when it
comes to doing any kind of podcast, because even if
I didn't have this podcast, this would be what I
want to talk about with friends. So I'm glad I

(02:09):
have that now in the form of you guys and
being able to share my thoughts. The thing I look
forward to the most is whenever somebody watches a movie
and then tweets me, sends me a DM or tags
me on something of I want to know your thoughts
on this movie. That is my greatest accomplishment, for anybody
to want to know my thoughts on anything. So I
really love what we have created here this movie community,

(02:30):
that we can share our thoughts on movies and not
hate each other and drag each other through the mud.
It's just been really fun to get to do and
to get to grow with and going into the next year,
I would love to be able to do more interviews,
specifically more in person interviews, and I get this question
a lot of why don't I do more. It's hard
living in Nashville not really being a hub for cinema.

(02:54):
As they say that a lot of people don't come
here to promote their movie. We'll get into one. That
was a very rare occasion for me. But aside from that,
it's also just hard to get long form interviews with
really big actors and directors that even the shows at
the top level still only get five to ten minutes
with these people. So I think the thing I have

(03:16):
really tried to get better at quickly because I don't
have a whole lot of time, is just becoming a
better interviewer for you guys. So that is something I
really want to work for for you in twenty twenty four,
going into next year, and just a lot of plans
I have with this podcast. So next year just being
a great year for movies. Also twenty twenty five, all
always looking ahead to that year of movies. I think

(03:39):
it's going to be amazing. So I hope you stick around,
hope you still love the podcast as much as you
did back on episode one, and always thank you for
telling a friend about this podcast. This would be a
great one to share because it is what I believe
to be the best conversations I've had with guests this week.
So going through the list at number five is one

(03:59):
that I actual actually didn't air on the podcast. But
I also do another show called The Bobby Cast, which
is a music show, and we had on Randy Hauser
who is in Killers of the Flower Moon, and we
got to talk to him about that. I got to
ask him some questions about being on set and working
with Leonardo DiCaprio. So this is kind of an exclusive
to this podcast because they didn't really air here initially,

(04:22):
But it was cool for me to be able to
talk about one of the best movies of the year
with somebody who was actually in it, got to work
with Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese. So here I am
talking with country artists. Randy Hauser Lutinia was with Leonardo DiCaprio,
And one of my other favorite movies he did with
Scorsese was Wolf of Wall Street And I've seen like
a behind the scenes clip of him like totally in
the zone, doesn't even look like he's there, and then

(04:44):
right when the camera goes on, he instantly goes into
that character. Does he do that?

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, one of the things that was noticeable, Boy, well
he's also when he doesn't look like he's working his mind.
Like one of the strangest things that happen was, like
I mean, like between like takes, if we had like
downtime changing out film stuff like that, just hanging out
talking I did, I'd notice that he would, like you know,

(05:11):
like the next day, he would come back to the
set and we'd be talking and he would repeat things
that I said to him, just like me, like he
would download my accent and stuff like that, which is crazy,
and but no, he would, you know, he like there
would be time we'd just be throwing a ball or
something out out in the yard and then you know

(05:32):
it would be time to go back in. You know,
like he very normal, very normal guy, but also freaking
amazing when whenever they would yell action, how he would
just freaking go at it.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
You know.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
It was just kind of like stepping on the grand
ole operating them saying your turn and like doing what
I do.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
You kind of have to.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Just one of the things that was so cool about
it to me and I enjoyed about the whole process
is that I was, first of all, was scared to death.
I'd never done this. I was like, I don't know
what the hell I'm doing here. And but the same
is even now before I go on stage, I'm a
little anxious and like these people gonna hate me and whatever.

(06:15):
But when it came time to go to the set
from you know, the actors a little where we're staged,
to go to the actual getting cameras, the same the
same gear was shifted in my being that that is
when I'm walking to the stage go play music and that,
and it became it fed me like to go do

(06:38):
it rather than you know, all the every fear was gone.
It was just go time.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
So I seek.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
I could see that in him as well, but I
was able to like that blocking mechanism that that happens
with going to make music. It totally was the same thing.
I'd never seen this whole process at all, you know,
and so it was it was strange that it was
and I'd never really done and I'd never done it.

(07:06):
And the first first scene I shot was the scene
that actually made the film. There's a lot of scenes
that got cut. You know, they should had hundreds of
hours of stuff, but they, Uh. The first scene that
I shot was the scene that actually made the film.
And it was like four hours of like going back

(07:29):
because they shoot it, you know, from every angle. Everybody's
in the scene has to do their thing. But and
I remember just being like totally like what the hell,
where's Martins course saying here over there, and and he's
coming over to me, and he's standing over my shoulder
right here, and I'm sitting at that this desk. You know,

(07:49):
it's like that beer than that thing, but like old school,
and I'm sitting there and he's explaining what he wants
out of me and talking to me, and I'm like,
literally in lah lah lngle what they And so we
shoot my angle like I don't know, four times and
Marty he's over there in this other room where their
view and what's going on. He comes out, all right,

(08:09):
we got it, and I went because I had seen
a guy the day before I got there, and I
stayed on set all day dressed ready to go to
shoot this scene didn't happen, but I'd seen a guy
and another and another scene that didn't make it. They
shot his this thing like I don't know, it must

(08:32):
have been twenty something times because they couldn't get it
and get it and you could sense the you could
sense the air leaking out of the room and wasting
time and money, and so I was just like went
back to my bus out and I was like, please, God,
don't let me be that guy to study studies. Well,
so then he comes up and he goes. Marty comes out, Okay, Randy,

(08:52):
we got it, and I was like we do and
he's like, yeah, we got it, And I was like
are you sure. He's like yeah, and he said and
so Leo looks say and says, what do you mean
you sure? I was like, I've never really done this.
He said, what do you mean, You've never really done this.
I was like, I've never done this. He said, wouldn't
you wouldn't know you?

Speaker 4 (09:14):
I would know.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
At number four was when I got to talk to
Lee Cronin, the director of Evil Dead Rise, which is
one of my favorite horror movies of twenty twenty three,
a franchise that I believe is highly underrated when it
comes to being one of the best in horror. And
I loved hearing about Lee Cronin's passion for bringing back
blood on the big screen and how much just thought

(09:37):
goes into every single element of the filmmaking process, from
the movie poster to what scenes to include in the
movie trailer, and just what it takes to making a
really scary movie. So here's my conversation at number four
with Lee Cronin, the director of Evil Dead Rise. As
a movie reviewer, every time I go see a movie
out front, I like to take a picture with the

(09:58):
poster and the issue I have now with a lot
of modern movie posters, it's all just a bunch of
floating heads. But I feel like with The Evil Dead Rise,
that was not the case. The other thing I loved
about this movie that first opening scene, the first maybe
twenty minutes of the movie. I really start to connect
with the characters, and I think sometimes in horror movies
they just get into oh, here's all the blood and
guts right away. Yeah, but what changed the level of

(10:20):
this movie is like, I care about their backstory. I
care about them getting together. So what is that kind
of balance you have of like, Okay, I'm going to
kind of commit to fleshing out these characters, even though
I know people came here for the horror. You bought
them in with the trailer, Like how do you balance that?
I think you've got to just try and be true
to those characters and give them enough air to exist
and to feel real. I think that that is really important.

(10:42):
And I remember when I approached this because again understanding
Evil Dead and what these type of movies need to be,
I knew that I couldn't have extraordinarily elaborate arcs. You know,
there had to be a point in time where things turned.
And maybe it's really Beth in a lot of ways,
and Cassie to a certain extent, as they're accepting what's
happening and trying to this new little family unit to
survive as the film progresses. But it's funny you talk

(11:05):
about structure a lot when you write, and obviously I
wrote the screenplay, and you know, from that point of view,
rather than looking at it as a traditional three act
structure that it was, there was three parts to it.

Speaker 5 (11:14):
In my mind. There was a really great opening to
the film that would draw people in them, give them
a fright, give them some scares, give them some of
that visceral, give them a taste of what was to come.
And then I wanted to go and spend some time
with the family and hopefully have put people on edge
so that then when they spend time with that family,
they're wondering, well, when is this going to kick in?
And when is when is it all going to go crazy?

(11:36):
And so I was comfortable spending time in that space
with that family, getting to know and love those characters,
because then when I turn it and everything falls apart
with these people and the darkness rolls in and the
evil wakes up, what you're kind of facing them is
just that roller coaster, but you're doing it with people
and characters that you care about. That was the key.

(11:56):
So it's not a traditional three act structure. It's it's structure,
but it's still a story in three parts, which was
you know, open that movie and scare the hell out
of people, get them on board, strap them in, give
them people that they love, and then just kid is
shit out of everybody.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
Yeah, you mentioned the writing process of this, and I
always here to write about what, you know, Like if
I were writing a horror movie, I would write about
like the sweet paralysis that face when I felt like
it was like a demon on my chest. But for
writing a movie like this, like where do you go
in your mind? Do you like draw from personal experiences?
Do you have like experiences with any kind of like
demonic presence? Where do you go?

Speaker 5 (12:30):
I've got all these cheese grater wounds. And again, it's
actually back to character in a lot of ways, like
I look to my family and people that I know.
I'm not a parent, I don't have children, but the
three kids in this movie are kind of loosely based
on my sister's three children, for example. So that was
a place that ID in terms of character. And then
I actually wrote the film during the very first COVID
lockdown that took place, so I was kind of trapped

(12:51):
in my apartment and that really aided me and just
looking at the basic trappings of domestic life and how
I could kind of use those. So in a way,
I'm still drawing on quite banal things, like I said,
cheese great, or something you use when you're making a
sandwich or you're making lasagna or whatever it might be.
You know, you drink some wine from a glass, or
you play with a toy er, you use the scissors
to cut something, and it might seem obvious, but I

(13:12):
was able to kind of stare at those objects and
think about ways of using them. So again, I just
will always lean into what I know. I've always as
a as a you know, as a grown up, essentially
lived in an apartment. So also kind of that context
of that place of not knowing who's above, who's below,
who's left, and who's right, and what might kind of
walk up the corridor in this strange place because you're

(13:34):
in your own little island, locked in a box when
you live in an apartment. So all of those things
were still kind of personal and things that I could
lean into to just try and draw a little bit
of influence out of Luckily you haven't faced any real
world demonic possessions yet, but you know.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Yeah, maybe for the next movie you get possessed.

Speaker 5 (13:51):
Yeah, I just gotta be careful. I don't like, you know,
research something and dabble with the wrong juju that then
brings something my way that I don't want.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
This movie has what my favorite just single images. When
Lily Sullivan has the chainsaw, She's covered in blood. All
you can see is the white of her eyes and
the white of her teeth. Did you have to fight
for the amount of blood used in this movie? Not?

Speaker 5 (14:12):
Like not in terms of ambition. One of the biggest
battles is actually, like, when you use that volume of blood,
it's pretty expensive. It becomes like a serious budget line
when you're when you're making a film. So it was
finding the right way of making sure we could we
could get all the blood right and use all the
blood the way that we actually needed to.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Do it was the blood budget.

Speaker 5 (14:31):
I actually couldn't tell you how much we spent on it.
I can tell you it was. It was around three
thousand gallons, I think so, which is about in You know,
I'm from Europe, so it's like six and a half
thousand liters. So it was a lot of blood. But
the expensive aspect was I made it clear really early
on that we wouldn't cheat. There was no water with
red food coloring or using something else in color correcting it.

(14:53):
It's like, it's got to be movie blood. The cast
have to suffer in a way, and they did when
they were drenched in all of that sticky it stick
skin together, you lose hair, you can't walk properly. It's
like it's really intense. But it actually added in a
good way to their discomfort because it made them feel
something very very real, and that was important.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
That final scene, all the blood coming down the elevator.
It just made me feel whenever you first make the
first trailer for this movie and you put that out,
do you ever worry like this might be a little
bit too scary for just like the general going, like
movie person.

Speaker 5 (15:26):
There's always that line, you know, there is because I
wanted this movie to play to a wide audience, So
I guess we got it right. But there's of course
you ask those questions because there are certain people that
just go, no, no, no, no, there's no way I
can watch this. But to be fair, those people also
maybe will struggle to watch it one way or another,
and maybe they want to wait and watch it at home.
They're going to struggle to watch it in a room
with a bunch of strangers in the theater or whatever.

(15:48):
But I think you just got to put your best
foot forward, and the goal of the trailer was to
make it entertaining and scary. I don't think there's a
line that's too scary. It's like it was a comedy. Hey,
that trailer was too funny. The one thing I was
really happy with was the trailer showed people a lot,
but there was so much more to discover. So I
remember that you'd always get comments and the trailer come out,
it's like, oh, I hope they haven't shown everything. And
I was kind of rubbing my hands in the background, going,

(16:08):
you kind of ain't seen nothing yet, because we obviously
there's there's quite a monstrous conclusion of the film, and
nobody had a clue about that until the film came out,
And a lot of other kind of great kills and
stuff like that. So yeah, I think you've got to
make it scary. You've got to appeal to it as
wide an audience as you can, but you've got to
try and push it right out to the line as
far as you can. And again, great team and Warner Brothers.

(16:29):
I think they you know, and you know, really took
it to the right place.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
Yeah. I mean, I've never been just scared off a
trailer alone going into a movie, like I felt terrified
in the theater the first time I watched it. So
that was awesome. So I thought the movie was great.
Really great time talking to you. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (16:45):
Thank you so much. Nice to speak to you too.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
At number three is my conversation with Alex Conrey, who
wrote Air, which came out earlier this year with Ben
Affleck and Matt Damon, which is the story about the
creation of the Air Jordan and I just loved how
this movie came to be and how Alex was really
just hanging out on his couch. He watched that show
The Last Dance on Netflix, which is all about the

(17:09):
rise of Michael Jordan and his career and becoming one
of the most iconic figures in sports. There's a small
segment in the last Dance that inspired him to write
this movie. He wrote this script and then Ben Affleck
and Matt Damon saw it and decided they wanted to
make it into a movie and give them sole writing credit,
which is a major, major deal in the movie industry

(17:31):
to have your first film picked up turned into a movie.
And even though they worked with him to fix the
script and change things, they still didn't put their name
on it, which is amazing. And I can't wait to
see where his career goes from this. And I just
love getting to know about the writing process and all
the work that goes into making sure that the story
is there on the page before it gets put onto

(17:53):
the screen. So here's my conversation with the writer of Air,
Alex Convury. What has been the most important phone call
that you've received in your life?

Speaker 6 (18:01):
There are a couple, you know, like I mean dating
all the way back to like getting the first call
from you know, the guys that would end up being
my agents saying like, we read your script, bagman and
are interested in meet with you for representation. It was like,
oh my gosh, you know, that's the call that like,
you know, in a lot of ways, I've been dreaming
of since moving up here for film school. Now at
the time, I was like, oh my gosh, I made it,
but it's like, Nope, there's still so much work that

(18:23):
has to go into it, you know. You know, obviously
getting the call on this one that that you know
Ben was interested and I was going to meet with him,
that was an important one. I mean, the call after
Ben had met with Jordan basically saying like, Jordan has
given his blessing with a few you know, as long
as we can accomplish these notes and we're good to go.
I mean, that was that was huge. And then I mean, finally,
really the call from the producer saying like, you know,

(18:46):
Amazon is going to finance the movie. That that's like again,
like in terms of calls you dream dream of, like
that's that's kind of the list on a specscript, you know,
like those are all the ones you need to get,
and every one of them is very unlikely in its
own way. And I had come to learn that, you know,
over my thirteen years living out here, that it's those
are very few and far between. Usually it's getting a

(19:07):
phone call saying like, yeah, they didn't like the script
up that actor passed on it.

Speaker 7 (19:11):
Well, time time to move on to the next one out.

Speaker 6 (19:13):
This project's dead, like you know, so it's just like
you get used to it that the good ones definitely
stand out.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
What was the stress like waiting for the final approval
that Michael Jordan has given his blessing on the film?

Speaker 7 (19:23):
You know, like, what can you say? I mean, it was.
It doesn't get more stressful than that.

Speaker 6 (19:27):
I mean, it's just like when you lay out what
that meeting kind of meant for, you know, again, it
was just like I was an unproduced screenwriter and like
we had everything else ready to go on this one,
and it was basically like, if Jordan gives his blessing,
then like we're going to do the movie. And obviously
it was Ben and Mad and She's like, oh my gosh,
what a you what a dream scenario on this one.
But just as easily it was like, I, you know,
I kind of figured what incentives Jordan have to do

(19:50):
any movie? You know, like he he doesn't need to
do anything unless he wants to. So look, it's a
credit to Ben that Ben was able to like earn
his trust and lay out all of what we were
wanting to do with this movie and and you know,
have Michael recognize that that's a very like a person
I would have been scared on my mind sitting there
for that meeting.

Speaker 7 (20:09):
You know, shocker.

Speaker 6 (20:11):
Ben knows what he's doing, you know, So it was Yeah,
I you know, it would be hard. I'd be hard
pressed to think of like a more stressful twenty four
hours than than that one.

Speaker 7 (20:21):
When professionally at least, so.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
You're about the same age as Ben Affleck and Matt
Damon when they wrote Goodwill Hunting and this being your
first you know, credited movie, do they offer you any
kind of advice of where to take your career from
here next? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (20:35):
I mean, you know not so not not like directly.
I mean, you know, the getting sole credit on the
movie and all of that and having you know, Ben
tell me, you know, personally about that was just a
very like surreal to be kind of part of that
like lineage. You know, it's still hard to out my
head around. But no, you know, something Ben has said

(20:55):
which I've really taken the heart, you know, over the
last couple of months here is like, you know, he
really is a believer in good scripts, you know, and
that if it's not there on the page. It's not
going to be there on the stage as they say.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
You know.

Speaker 6 (21:07):
He's also talked a lot about the projects you turn
down and say no to are in a way just
as important, if not more important, than the projects you
do decide to take on and say yes to. And
it goes back a little bit to what we were
talking about earlier about like really having to love a project,
you know, and really feeling the passion for it, and
if it's not there, then you know you shouldn't do it.
That's hard when you're young and you've been wanting to,

(21:30):
you know, do all the projects in the world for
so long. You know, it's like the gut instinct is
to say yes to everything because it's like Hollywood is
crazy and you just don't know, you know, how long
a moment like this can last, so you know, take
it all while you can get it, and and that's
the that's kind of the gut instinct. But one hundred
percent see where he's coming from. Where it's like, you know,

(21:50):
like we were talking about, you really got to love something,
You really really have to be married to a project
to to want to do it and take it on.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
Did you keep anything from the set.

Speaker 6 (22:02):
I'm going to get in trouble, but you know the
cafeteria where they where they steal the candy from in
that scene where Mann and Jason are working later over
the weekend on the last day, I was like, well,
it would only be fitting if I also take something
from here. So yeah, I have a I have one
of those coffee mugs that that was sitting on the shelf.

Speaker 7 (22:24):
So it's like, you know, it's right what they say.
It's not stealing.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
It does no work in the register. You can take it.

Speaker 7 (22:29):
That's right. Exactly.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
Did you get any free Nike stuff from working on
this movie?

Speaker 6 (22:33):
Not free, but I was you know, like when these
things happened, there's like you get like a start gift
when the movie starts in a rap gift when the
movie and so from like you know, multiple agents and manager,
you know, producers and the whole deal. So you can
imagine on this film what most of those gifts were.
But yes, those were you know, they kindly uh you know,

(22:56):
bought those shoes and yeah, it's it's been a nice
part of it that I've definitely expanded my mind.

Speaker 7 (23:03):
My shorting collection by a vid.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
At number two is the director of Blue Beatle on him,
Manuel Soto, who is somebody that I just felt an
instant connection with because he's Puerto Rican, I'm Mexican, and
he made a movie that just resonated with me and
so many other people who haven't seen themselves represented on
the big screen in a superhero movie before. And I

(23:30):
could have talked to him for hours, for hours, because
I just love this movie so much, and it was
cool to see him be so passionate about his work.
And you think sometimes when movies don't necessarily perform the
way they should at the box office, you think it
would discourage director from being so proud of it. Not
the case when I'm he was so just like, this

(23:52):
is the best movie ever and I'm gonna tell you why.
And he's just a really bright and positive guy. And
right now, with the DC EU ending with Ocolmhan two,
I hope that DC keeps him around, and I really,
really really hope we get another Blue Beetle movie with
On Hill behind the camera, because this movie I love it.

(24:14):
It's on Max if you haven't seen it yet. I
would actually recommend every single movie we've talked about here,
because they've all come out this year, but at number two.
Here is my interview with the director of Blue Beetle Hey.
It's something they mentioned before we got on this interview
was the pronunciation of your name, and it got me
to thinking, did you draw a personal experience in the
movie when they keep calling him round, they keep calling

(24:35):
them Jamie, and they're like.

Speaker 8 (24:36):
Oh, we we had to like that. That's something that's
way too common, I guess to avoid and the fact
that you know it is Hime, but people call him
Jamie and it happens during production. It happen all the time.
They have some interviews and I'm like, see it happens,

(24:57):
you know, and it happened to me, Like my wife
always makes fun of me because at first I used
to lose patience, but then I'm like, you know, it's
what it is because it's Anghil And they'll be like,
can you say that again? Anghil and an Hill? How
do you spell it? Like angel? Oh? Angel? Like it
doesn't work. Repeating fun thattics doesn't work for everybody. So

(25:21):
I'm like, you know, just call me whatever you want
as long as you're being respectful.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
I feel on a personal level, because my real name
is migue a long hill. My dad is un hill.
And there were a lot of moments of this movie
where I felt like just speaking to me, and that
was one in particular. And even with them, you know,
thinking that he is supposed to be at a different location, like, hey,
you're not supposed to hear you're supposed to be helping
in the back.

Speaker 8 (25:44):
Oh man, that's uh, that happened to me. I'm the writer.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
This is the only movie that I've seen twice in
theaters this year. I went to go see it the
first time in the summer, and I loved it so
much that I wanted to take my mom to go
see it.

Speaker 8 (25:55):
My mom, oh nice, he does.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
Not like superhero movies whatsoever. Group in Mexico came here
as a teenager, but she loved the movie. And one
of the things that I found her grass beyond to
was the fact that you committed to using Spanish throughout
the entire movie. Did that feel like a bit of
a risk to you?

Speaker 8 (26:13):
No? Now, because that's my life, that's our life. I don't.
I don't see it as a risk. I don't know
if the studios is that as a risk. But when
we were doing it, we had the Blessing. I wanted
to have more Spanish because the truth is, all those actors,
especially like Alberto Regezzar and Agena Brasa, their main language

(26:36):
is Spanish, and when you speak from the heart, it
doesn't matter where you are, You're going to speak from
the language that you can better communicate. It happens to
me a lot like for me, I'm here struggling as
I translate in real time, like if it was from me,
I would do this in Spanish basically. But our Spanish
is already part of the dynamic. And because we have

(26:58):
three generations of family in the film, it felt very authentic.
This is how we talk. There's the old lady that
only speaks Spanish but understands English because she's been here
for a long time, but she refuses to speak English.
There's the parents that they have to live in both worlds,
and there's the kids that are already born there as
for generation, but English is their first language, but they

(27:21):
understand and they can speak Spanish. So having that work organically,
we just went for the organic. We didn't want to
force anything. We didn't want to force their wrong English
because it felt like that doesn't come from the heart,
it would be better in Spanish. We didn't do the
way Hollywood used to do it, which is like I
say something in Spanish and then I right off the

(27:41):
bad translated in English for you know, the person that
refuses to read subtitles. You know there's no need for that.
So yes, let's swing it because this is how we talk.
And you who hired us for our authenticity, so let
us be authentic, and they did.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
I loved it. I just wanted to thank you for
creating a story and characters that listen to the music
we listen to talk the way we talk, drive the
cars that we drive, and the fact that you put
those to Kandes de Tijuana in a major motion picture
was like I was like, that's it for me, Like
this is gonna be my favorite movie.

Speaker 8 (28:15):
Well again, like, you know, the same way that we
consume Cypress Hill, we also consume the stuff that we
grew up in. Like how how untrue would it be
to only play United States Top forty in all Latino?
It doesn't make sense to me. We listen to it.
But you know what, there's other music too, man, you know,

(28:36):
like there's more stuff out in the world that's fun,
that creates a similar emotion. You know, you can have
eighties music in John Hughes and we have sorta stereo,
so why not use it like it's right there for us.
So for me, it was about let us show the
world who how we can be, or a portion of

(28:56):
everything that we can be, and maybe if we don't
conform to the expectations of society, maybe we can bring
something fresh.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
I don't know, really appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
Love the movie.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
Great to get to talk to you.

Speaker 8 (29:07):
Oh man, thank you so much. That was a great talk.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
All right, have a good one you too. At number
one was a childhood dream that came true. I got
to talk to the guys that created and start in Supertroopers.
They put out a new movie earlier this year called Quasi,
so they were actually in town for a screening of

(29:32):
that movie, which that was also the first ever movie
premiere I got to attend, and then the next day
they came into the actual studio and we got to
do this together. So this was my first ever in
person interview on this podcast. And to be with people
that I watched as a kid and was so inspired
by and made me love comedy movies was really a

(29:53):
dream come true and we got to talk all about Supertroopers.
So at number one. My favorite interview of the year
on Movie Mike's Movie podcast is with the guys for
the Supertroopers. Here now with the cast of Quasi. How
are you guys?

Speaker 4 (30:07):
Oh yeah, good, how you doing?

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Are you doing great? I imagine you guys had the
after party last night. When you guys go out to
a bar that people automatically just want to buy you
beer because you're the beer fest guys.

Speaker 4 (30:17):
Lots of chugging. There's a lot of chugging that goes on.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
And you can still handle a chug.

Speaker 4 (30:24):
You have to be prepared.

Speaker 9 (30:25):
There's certain conditions and like sometimes somebody will hold you,
hand you a freezing cold beer and want you to
chug it, and that's that's not fun.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
I chug any temperature, Guysvin's the fastest chugger.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
You have to be cautious of the drinks that people
give you. Sometimes you see it be poured. You're worried
about none of.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
Us has been roofed so far. We're we're not handsome enough.

Speaker 9 (30:48):
But you Johnny Knoxville showed you a trick where you
throw a shot, you get the shot, but you throw
it over your shoulder while the other person's.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
I showed him that trick.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
You know, I thought, you check on the egg.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
People can find me shots in baton Rouge, and I
can only drink so many, so eventually, after one or two,
I would throw the third one over my shoulder. But
I was usually so drunk that I would occasionally hit
someone right in the face. Right.

Speaker 9 (31:13):
And then when we did Irish car bombs.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
Yeah, well what happened was I did hit somebody right
in the face. They go, oh my god, oh super Troopers,
I got away with it.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
I imagine that's the same effect with like police officers. They
see you guys, you know're like, oh, supertroopers, guys.

Speaker 10 (31:29):
Yeah, we get out of a lot of tickets, get
out of jail free cart.

Speaker 9 (31:32):
Oh man, I was so busted in New York City.
Sometimes you're out run around New York City and there's
no place to go to the bathroom. So I ducked
into like I ducked into like construction scaffolding, and as
I'm still in the middle. You can be in the
middle of taking a leak and feel when a cop
is right behind you.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
And I was like.

Speaker 9 (31:51):
Oh man, I'm so screwed. And I turned around and
the guy's eyes got huge. He's like, you have no idea. Yeah,
how lucky you are, buddy that I'm a bigger I know,
because you'd go to this.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
Is that why you wrote the movie? You're like, we're
gonna get out of all the things.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
Yeah, I thought it would be the opposite. We thought
they would be really unhappy with us.

Speaker 4 (32:12):
Really, we're nervous media.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
You get out of tickets, you get free, yeah, and
you get But it's.

Speaker 9 (32:17):
Just funny now because it's almost like the maple syrup thing,
Like these guys have been haunted for the last whatever
twenty years, never.

Speaker 4 (32:25):
Again, chucking maple syrup, never again?

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Is that the one you regret the most, putting the
maple syrup? And everybody now, everybody wants to.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
That one really almost killed us.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
So it was real maple syrup.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
Yeah. I drank two and a half and I made
him drink three and a half because I'm like, you
don't have it yet, Well, let's do another couple of
takes and uh, you know, afterwards, I had to go
shoot a love scene which didn't even make the movie,
but anyway, he went I mean we were we at lunch.
We laid down in the dark in my trailer and

(32:54):
just shook all for the entire thirty minutes, just shook.
And then and when I got back to the hotel,
I saw him coming out. He goes, have you pooped yet?
And I'm like no. He goes, report back to me
after you wait for and he goes, there's a reason.
It's part of maple Syrup's, part of the of the
Master clets and you know, like things came out of me.

(33:16):
I don't remember putting in like a fossilized robin fetus.
I was like, I don't remember that one.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
Park plug Jay is a director. Do you ever ask
for another take when you really don't need another TAKEE?
But you just want to mess with the guys?

Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yeah, if it's something, if it's something that's uncomfortable for them, sure, yeah,
I'll do it just for fun, just for fun.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
So Super Troopers came out when I was ten years old,
and I feel like it was very influential on my
sense of humor rewatching it as an adult, I feel
like you guys don't get enough credit for the writing.
The writing is just so solid in every single one
of your movies. So I wanted to share with you
the top three quotes that I use in my everyday life.
Oh yes, from all your movies. So and number three
I have he can't pull over any farther.

Speaker 6 (34:07):
You get.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
Is it true that that that opening steam was based
on a true story.

Speaker 4 (34:12):
Yeah, it was a true story.

Speaker 10 (34:13):
It was uh, I think it was Lemmy or They
were trying to go over the border into Canada and
these guys got pulled over and they had mushrooms, and
some guy ate all the mushrooms and then they got
thrown in jail and the brushrooms kicked in.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
When the guy was in prison, he ate mushrooms for
six people. Yeah, terrible.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
I've had a problems the trip for He's still still his.

Speaker 4 (34:33):
Eyes went black and he's still trapping.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
I had trouble on the Canadian border too. One time
I was trying to get back into the United States
and somebody with my exact same name. I think they
were charged with murder. They had to like identify that
I was not that guy, so they held me at
the airport for like an hour and I'm like, I'm
not him. And number two on my list, I have
give me a double bacon cheeseburger.

Speaker 9 (34:55):
Welcome to Dippis.

Speaker 4 (34:55):
Can I take your order?

Speaker 5 (34:57):
Give me a double bacon cheeseburger.

Speaker 7 (34:59):
Double old Baker cheezburger.

Speaker 8 (35:01):
It's a cop.

Speaker 5 (35:02):
Are you gonna spind it now?

Speaker 8 (35:03):
No?

Speaker 7 (35:03):
I was just telling him that say makes it good?

Speaker 1 (35:05):
How hard was it not to break during that scene?

Speaker 3 (35:07):
I was just happy to be in the scene and
get to watch it up close. It was It's It's
one of my favorite scenes we've ever done because not
only is Kevin great in that scene, but the kid
who plays the burger dimpestburger guy is also one of
my favorite actors.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
He's great, and he's just Charlie Finn.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
The two of them, Charlie Finn and him are just
going at it and I'm like, I'm right here.

Speaker 4 (35:29):
It was so fun because I said to him I'm
gonna going to tackle.

Speaker 10 (35:33):
He's like, okay, here ye are, And then I did
it and he's like, oh my god.

Speaker 4 (35:37):
And it was a you know, that's the tack that
we used.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
You know, my number one is from Beerfest and this
is one of my wife hates because I do it
every single time. She cannot say the word frustrating it's frustrating.
It's frustrating.

Speaker 6 (35:49):
Frankly, I find the whole thing a little frustrating because
I can't figure it out.

Speaker 10 (35:52):
It's frustrating, frustrating, it's frustrating.

Speaker 8 (35:56):
It's frustrating.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Fresh improvised line or was that in the script?

Speaker 4 (36:02):
It was improvised, Yeah, it was improvised.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
It was just a matter of originally my line, yeah,
and I couldn't it was your bit. Yeah, I couldn't
quite get my mind around how to make it funny.
And so I'm like, you do it, and so he
did it, and he started doing it. I'm like, yeah,
that's good, that's better. We'll do that, and so then
they riffed on it on that frustrating.

Speaker 10 (36:22):
Yeah, there's that's another one of those things where there's
probably a lot on the editing floor about me messing
on him.

Speaker 4 (36:26):
Yeah, with trying to make it a snap.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
So between Kevin and j how do you decide who
is going to direct the movie? Because you directed Quasi
I did.

Speaker 4 (36:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:35):
I was doing a movie called Easter Sunday with Joe
Koy and when this movie got greenlit, so I just said,
why don't you direct it?

Speaker 1 (36:43):
You said, okay, simple as that simple as that.

Speaker 4 (36:46):
We've known Ti for a long time.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
Jay I. Speaking of directing, I loved your episodes of
Unstable that you directed. Oh thanks, I'm really into like
a twenty four minute comedy right now. Nice, And I
know you guys are writing super Troopers three. Did you
ever think that that would work as a TV show?
Like a twenty minute TV show?

Speaker 3 (37:02):
Our process is too thorough to crank television out at
the rate it needs to be done, I think, I mean,
because we write thirty drafts of scripts and it's it's possible.
I mean, that would be a good show. I agree
with you. I just don't know if we'll ever I
don't know that we'll ever do it.

Speaker 10 (37:19):
No, no, I mean originally it was conceived that way. There
was a there was a moment time where we're going
to do it as a as a TV show, and
then and then Fox passed, so screw them.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
And Rod the pilot and then where are you guys
on the Superture vers three D script right now?

Speaker 3 (37:32):
And drafts?

Speaker 1 (37:33):
What does that mean? What are the draft?

Speaker 3 (37:34):
What is that? It's about a month it's a.

Speaker 10 (37:38):
Full script, you know, and it's just it's just in
an early form. You know, we keep going through it.
We had jokes and we you know, fixed plot stuff and.

Speaker 3 (37:46):
Mostly trying to get the structure working and then we'll
just pour jokes on top of it.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
So Quasi comes out on four to twenty. If you're
listening to this at any other point, it could already
be out. Go watch it right now. Yeah, there's twenty
the new Broken Lizard release day.

Speaker 4 (38:00):
We trademark, I think, so it's become our holiday.

Speaker 3 (38:03):
We write these movies occasionally with a little bit of weed,
so watching them on weed is really it unlocks their true,
true potential, that is.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
The true meeting. Yeah, well, I appreciate the time, guys,
thanks for having it out.

Speaker 4 (38:18):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
So there we are the top five movie Mike Interviews
of twenty twenty three. Hopefully you join me when I
return in twenty twenty four. We also have an episode
coming out later this week with Kelsey giving her top
ten books of the year. So everybody asks about that episode.
We decided to make it its own things so it's
easy to search out. That will be up here on

(38:41):
the feed later this week. So thank you for being subscribed.
Thank you for listening every single week. I hope you
have a great rest of your break. If that's what
you're on right now, or if you're still working, I
see it to and hopefully you're getting some chances to
watch all the great movies that are outright now. We'll
have a lot to talk about when we return. Until
next time, go out and watch good movies and I

(39:03):
will talk to you
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