Brooke Adams on Waiting for Guffman

This week is another NY session, with the lovely and talented Brooke Adams. Brooke was kind enough to indulge Chuck in hammering her with questions about one of his all-time favorite movies, Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven. Then they talked about her movie crush, Waiting for Guffman!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Hey everyone, and welcome to Movie Crush. Charles W. Chuck Bryant.
Here in New York City and not Pont City Market, Atlanta, Georgia.
I'm at C d M Studios in New York, which,
by the way, thanks to you guys, they always take
great care of me here in New York City. It's
our partner studio. And uh, this is number two of
five for the New York sessions. Uh. The wonderful, lovely,

(00:46):
talented Brooke Adams, wife of Tony Shaloub, who I had
just before. They were kind enough to both book interviews
with me thanks to my good friend Jim and uh
it worked out great. And Brooke is just so wonderful
and charm and she indulged me quite a bit because
Days of Heaven, her movie from Vight with the great

(01:07):
Terrence Malick movie with Sam Shepherd and Richard Gear was
one of my favorite favorite all time movies. And I
knew if I ever got a chance to talk to
to Brooke that I would pepper her with questions, and
she was kind enough to indulge that. And then after
the interview I realized I didn't even talk to her
about the Dead Zone or invasion of the Body Snatchers

(01:28):
um from three, two of the great great movies as well,
but maybe another day. But Brooke was wonderful and her
pick was Waiting for Guffman, which I was really excited
to talk about because it's one of my favorite all
time comedies for sure. Uh, and I was gave me
the opportunity to watch it again for I don't even

(01:49):
know how many times I've seen that movie, but many,
many times, but I always find something new in it.
So that was her pick for reasons, um that you
will see growing up in community theater, so it hit
very close to her heart, which was kind of a fun,
fun angle on that one. So here we go with
Brooke Adams on Waiting for Government theatrical crazy people. I

(02:18):
wanted to be a theatrical crazy person on my own.
Where was that? Where did you New York City? Oh? Really? Yeah? Interesting?
I always loved talking to native New Yorkers and so
you where'd you what part of New York? The Upper
east Side. We lived in a Brownstone nine between New
York and East End. So we went to Carl Shurtz Park,
you know where the Mayor's house is, And we went

(02:41):
to school at the Church of the Heavenly Rest Day School,
which is also right up it's on Fifth and nineties
where our daughter just got married. And then we went
to Dalton and then we kept running just in front
of the people. We owed the money to write for
these expensive schools. So I ended up in public high

(03:04):
school of the high school performing arts in the dance
department and the school. Yeah, that's pretty neat. It wasn't.
What was that like just like the movie really well,
we danced in the lunch room. I mean it was
really Yeah, it was. It was a fun place. That's amazing.
Um was your family and entertainment at all? Or oh yeah,

(03:29):
both of them. My father was a producer. He had
a summer theater um every year when I was growing up,
and then later he started doing children's theater in and
around New York. He had a company called the part Foundation,
which I guess was performing art repertory theater or something,
but it was a it's still going actually now it's

(03:52):
called Theater Works and it's children's theater mostly about preludes
to great and it's about famous people like young Abe Lincoln. Wow.
Yeah that is really cool. Yeah, what a cool legacy
to um. So was there any ever doubt for you
of what you were going to do? Well, there could
have been doubt, but there was certainly no planning. Um.

(04:15):
I never went to college. My parents didn't even seem
to think it was something we should consider. I never
even took an s A t It was just like, oh, well,
we're going to be actors, so we'll just yeah, that
would just waste right away waitressing tables. Yeah wow. Um? So,
uh did did you grow up going to movies in
New York? And in Lexington? There used to be a

(04:41):
big Archaos cinema there. I think that's where I saw
my first movie, The Ten Commandments at what age? That's
kind of a heavy one. Yeah, I know. And it
wasn't like we were religious or anything. Yeah. I think
a friend of my parents took me. I was about seven, RIGHTO.
And you sat through it? Yeah, kudos for that. Um. Well,

(05:09):
since I have you, I cannot help but talk a
little bit about one of my probably top three movies
of all time. Days of Heaven. Um it is and
we I was at jim ICE's wedding. Uh and and
my wife made me promise not to assault you, cover

(05:30):
you with questions and so I didn't then, but now,
like The Right Venue, just one of the best, one
of my favorite movies ever, one of the best movies
ever made in my opinion. Um, and I do have
a few specific questions, if you'll indulge me, um, and
they're kind of just nerdy production questions in one way.

(05:53):
But um, the whole movie looks like it was shot
between the hours of six thirty and eight pm. You
know that Magic hour, of course, it was that. Yeah.
We waited for Magic Hour every day pretty much. Really. Yeah,
we wouldn't wait for anything else. Like if it was
snowing and it was supposed to be August, which it was,
we'd shoot anyway. I love the snow. But made for

(06:17):
a long shoot probably, huh. Um. You know, we did
a lot of reshooting later. The actual shoot wasn't all
that long. I have a bad sense of time, so
I couldn't tell you how long exactly, but it wasn't
you know, there was so little dialogue and there was
It was just it was really about the visuals and

(06:41):
we had great narration of course, which we did much later.
Literally at Terry Malick's house with Linda sitting underneath the blanket.
He said, just tell me what you think the story
was about? Really? Yeah, So was that improvised or kind of?
I mean, Terry is a great writer, and he wrote

(07:04):
a beautiful script, the original script. It was like a
Thomas Hardy novel. And every time we opened up our
art mouths and rehearsal room, he'd say, oh no, don't
say that, Oh no, don't say that, which didn't give
us all a lot of confidence. But anyway, that's when
it became a very visual, not very verbal movie. Um,

(07:31):
and so yeah, he just he loved that sort of authentic,
off kilter kind of um, you know, nothing too literary
and not nothing too on the nose. So it as
always he'd say, you know, just go m right, yeah,

(07:54):
or just or don't even make the sound, just do
this with your chin, you know. Well, there's so much
the faces, and it's I think that's a quality that
you don't see a ton anymore, which is to let
a movie tickets time, to not spell it all out.
The way the story unfolds in Days of Heaven is
just so languid and um, just such a beautiful movie.

(08:17):
What was the casting process like for that? Ah, it
was endless. I auditioned. I don't know, maybe ten times. Really.
First time I auditioned, I was put on film by
the casting director Gino. I know his name, but I
forgot at the moment, and he didn't like me, and

(08:40):
he wasn't gonna show Terry, but we were they were
sitting there looking at some of the other people, and
he sort of sped past me, and Terry said, wait, wait, wait,
who was that. So that's how I even was considered.
Now was this your first first big movie? Um? And
then it became audition after audition because it was going

(09:01):
to be John Travolta was going to do the Richard
g Yes, and so he would pair me up with John,
and then he paired me up with Richard, and then
just tons of tons of auditions, and I became completely
superstitious and thought, I have to wear this ring if
I'm going to get the you know, it was just madness.

(09:22):
And then I didn't get it, and he hired Genevieve
Boujel to do the role. I don't think I know
who that is. French actress, you might ask your with
a French accent, which made the story a little more accomplishate.
How are they going to pretend to be brother and
sister all that, but actually Genevieve Boujell and I look

(09:44):
a little bit alike. So, um, he hired her, and
he and Richard and she and we also lost John
Travolta because they wouldn't let him out of Welcome Back
caught her and U. So I'm sure John wasn't very
happy about that. But Richard was so great in it. Yeah,

(10:07):
and John would have been great too, I mean he
has a kind of anyway, But Richard was fantastic and
and uh, so he hired this woman and they went
out to the beach and the next thing I knew
was he fired her. She had been I don't know
the story. I shouldn't say this on the air, but

(10:28):
apparently they didn't get along and so he called me in.
Wow serendipity. Huh, yeah, serendipity and you know, getting the leftovers? Well,
thank goodness I did. Yeah. I was so happy to
do it. I knew when I was auditioning for it

(10:48):
that this was going to be a classic. That's what
it's going to ask. Yeah, because um, Terence Mallock certainly
at the time had done bad Lands, but he hadn't
garnered the reputation yet he was still young in his career. Yeah,
so it's not like you knew you were walking into
a master class, but I somehow knew it. I maybe
it was the fact that Terry was so hush hush

(11:09):
about you know, you were allowed to say the name
which was fine because I could never remember the name
after the and I'd say, oh, it has a heaven
and I don't remember. Um. Yeah, he was. He was
very much the auto with a secret and maybe that's
what made no it was going to be a big hit.
I don't know. I just thought this is oh and

(11:31):
I just wanted to be in those nineteen ten clothes.
Well the look was just amazing. Yeah uh. And that
was another kind of nerdy question. Is uh just the
equipment in the movie, the farming equipment was how are

(11:54):
they doing that? Because it was so authentic, like were
these real machines that ran? Yeah? Yeah they were. And
we were also working in Alberta, Canada, where those were
all hutter rights. A lot of them did not even
have to get into costume and the perfectly okay, they
were all farmers of that. It was the last hey

(12:15):
that was going to be brought in because the movie
had been pushed back and pushed back, so we had
to shoot it there and and they were all there.
And I think maybe some of those machines were there's
because they lived a very simple you know how to
rights are like Mormons are not Mormons, but you know
quicker that whole thing. And so they were in the

(12:37):
film and they their equipment was too. Huh, Well that
explains it after all these years. I probably can't look
that up, but this is much better to find out
from your mouth. Well I could be wrong too, just
the warning. I mean, I can tell you that they
were authentically there, but I don't know whether they had
to get the props from some prop house in l A.

(12:58):
It's possible, right in the whole thing was shot in Canada.
Now did they build that house? Wo? Jack Firsk Oh right,
the oh that's right. They worked together on many bad
Lands was such a great movie, right, which is where
he met his wife, I think, right, well then his
wife not oh you mean Jack? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I

(13:22):
watched that one not too long ago because the guests
dropped out, but their pick was bad Lands. And I've
seen all those movies days of having and bad lands
so many times. But I can't believe they built that house.
That's amazing. It was so beautiful. Yeah, and just out there,
I mean the whole It was so striking that um
that house just out in the middle of nowhere. Uh.

(13:44):
And Sam Shepard is this kind of visionary. Uh. You know,
you could sell one day, it would be this great estate.
But it was just so new out there in the
middle of nowhere in the field. It was so crazy
with the couch in the field. Yeah neat Yeah, one
of my favorite movies. Uh. What was Terrence Malick like

(14:05):
back then? Well, he was fun He was very funny,
but he was also kind of a taskmaster. He Um,
he didn't I would say he didn't have the greatest
way with actors. I think I've heard that. Um. I
mean I loved him, We all really loved him. We

(14:26):
all got along and we laughed a lot. But he
didn't know how to communicate what he needed to actors.
So what he would do is these are the things
I remember. Specifically, he told Richard that he didn't believe
anything he was saying. He told me that I should
just do whatever he says and don't ask any questions.

(14:49):
He told Sam, he said, you promised you would be
good in this movie. It was all of our first movies.
And he told Linda that if she didn't do it right,
he'd shoot her. Oh my god. I mean with a
sense of humor. But but he was serious and we
were all incredibly uptight as a result. And maybe that

(15:12):
works for the movie. I don't know. Yeah, I guess
that was everyone's kind of one of their first films,
if not their first, right. That's an interesting approach to casting.
I think he didn't want you know, people that were
record it sounds like it. Yeah. Of course, by the
time it came out, Richard was already recognizable from Goodbye Mr.

(15:32):
Looking for Mr. Goodbar Yeah. Yeah. And Linda Mann's was
that her name? Yeah? She was just so wonderful. That
voice in that narration just makes it put over the top. Yeah,
so great. Do you keep up with any of them?
Not really, you know. I was heartbroken when Sam died. Yeah,
but I hadn't seen him in years, and Richard, who

(15:53):
I haven't seen. I think his film fans we all
want to think that you all, you know, are pin
pals and have lunched together once a year but I
understand the reality of it. Other type of actors would
be doing that. I'm not very good at following through
on oh really really? Um, All right, well we can

(16:15):
go ahead and get into Waiting for Government, which I
watched on the plane for the probably time. No matter
how many times I've seen a movie, I always try
to watch it right before these interviews. Yeah, I watched
it too. Oh good, Yeah, yeah, that always helps. I
appreciate you doing that. I remember my first experience seeing this. Um.

(16:38):
I was actually living up here and I saw it
at the Angelica. It was a big kick for me because, uh,
Susan Surrandon and Tim Robbins sat right behind me, and
that was just always I was much younger than and
it was in my twenties, and seeing movie stars out
for one of the first times in New York was
kind of cool. And it's just such a funny me.

(17:01):
What do you remember your first experience with it when
you saw it? For the first thing, I saw it
in a movie theater in l a And I think
maybe my sister was with me, and she and I
both grew up in this theatrical world. That is what
this movie just gets so brilliantly and we just how old.

(17:23):
And I've had that experience and then I go back
to look again and it's just not funny. And this one,
when I saw it again, I thought, it still makes
me laugh so hard. It is so so funny, so funny,
I mean, and for me personally, it is my life.
I mean, what is um write down names because I'm

(17:46):
terrible with names. But oh, Louis Arquette, he does the
intro to the plan. Yeah, he's the narrator. Narrator, and
that part so took me back of my father's children's theater.
I mean it was really it sounded just like the
narrator of any one of those plays. So funny and heartbreaking.

(18:10):
The whole thing breaks my heart right Well, there's an
earnestness to it that I think. Um. I've seen interviews
where Christopher Guests talked about his inspiration for this was
seeing his kids in a play. Um that was not
very good, but how earnest everyone was, and how hard
they were trying, and how they thought they were great,

(18:31):
And he just thought that that was a pretty rich
world to create one of his. It is, as I said,
when we grew up in summer theater, so we were
doing weak stock of musicals, which is mayhem. I mean,
it was just like this. You're pulling together this thing
in seven days and then when once you open you

(18:53):
you're rehearsing the other one and then it comes in
and you know, it's crazy, and it was exactly like
this movie. So earnest and so my sister still says,
I think they were as good as any Broadway show
you could see, but I can't imagine that that's true. Well,
it has such um. It's one of my favorite things

(19:14):
in movies or comedies like this is when they're not
afraid to be silly and to make what I call
dumb jokes, but I say that with endearingly um. Sometimes
a dumb joke can just be the perfect thing. And
it really starts off in that very first scene when
they're looking at the miniature of the town planning out
the porta potties and the guy makes the joke about

(19:35):
having snipers on the roof, which is such a silly
notion to have you and we can put a gun here,
we can put a gun here, and it's just hits
that tone right out of the gate, and when um,
but Christopher guest as what's his name, Corky st Clair.
Corky of course goes asked them for the money, right.

(19:56):
Scene is just the funniest things under hundred thousand. They say,
we have fifteen thousand for the whole year, right, and
that includes swimming, which was such funny addition on that line.
Uh And then the Blaine was the another dumb joke,
which is so great. Um was this the stool capital

(20:18):
that play on words? It was just so silly and
fun the stool boom or the production the stage production
of Backdraft, just all these kinds so funny. It's great.
Uh So in the cast, of course, um, the great
Fred Willard and Katherine O'Hara as Sheila and Ron and Sheila.

(20:42):
I mean we had always a couple in the summer
theater in my fun I was going to ask about that,
an odd, very odd couple that I remember one couple
that had like a toy that they used as their
baby that they would talk to and they invite the
cast over. We couldn't do Yeah, and they've been doing this.

(21:05):
You know. These are people who travel from show to
show and probably are not much better than right. But
that scene where Kafrene O'Hara is drunk at the dinner table.
That's the funniest drug scene I've ever seen. She's brilliant, right,
And of course the another silly reveal of the penis
reduction surgery that Ron got Um and the great Eugene

(21:31):
Leavy in this movie is so so wonderful, as is
the dentist so funny and wrote it with Christopher Gett
all right, I thought, I thought that was the case.
And of course these movies are improvised, so they write these,
um robust outlines for the movie. Oh is that right?
There aren't line they don't right lines right? This this

(21:51):
and Best in Show um, which I don't know if
you've seen Best in Show. Yeah, I feel like these
are like a one two punch. Yeah. But this one
for me, I guess because I'm so into theater, you know,
community theater, This one for me is just yeah best. Yeah.

(22:12):
You know, when I was trying to think of what's
my favorite movie, it's a very hard thing to think about.
I started looking at lots of movies that I thought, oh,
I remember, that was great. It's an unfair question. Yeah,
so let's not say it's my favorite movie. Of whole movies.
That's that's sort of impossible. But I did look up.
I did watch Rosemary's Baby, which I remembered that's a

(22:33):
great movie. But I realized that what in thraws me
the most in that movie is this part that John
Cassavetti's plays where he's an actor who's willing to do
let the devil funck his wife for a job for
a part. So again it's the same world. So well, yeah, boy,

(22:56):
that's a that would have been a that's the opposite
of waiting for Guffman. Yea, as far as the pick goes. Um,
So Eugene Levy is as the dentist's just so great
and apparently, um Christopher Guests could not even be on
screen when he did his eye gag, when he would
take off his glasses and cross his eye. It would

(23:17):
it would break him up every time. And they all
told stories about um very scenes that they and because
it's improv they don't want to break a scene if
they have something good going, So Eugene Levy or Christopher
Guests would just kind of slink off camera and disappear
and laugh around the corner just to kind of keep
the scene going. Which is great. And Parker Posey, she's

(23:39):
wonderful in it. She's so so great and everything, but
especially as Libby May the dairy queen worker, which a
great character. Uh So the audition scenes, um, one of
the best parts. And I'm sure you were familiar with
kind of this community theater audition process. Yeah. Did it

(24:01):
smack of reality completely? It's all there's That's what's funny
about it is that there's nothing that's really that unreal
at all. Um. Oh god, yes, the audition process at
my father's summer theater, we used to have the auditions
in our bedroom, my sister's and mine because that's where

(24:21):
the piano was. We're all musicals, so, um, we would
be awakened if that's the way it does it, you know,
like on a Saturday when we were trying to sleep
in by Oh Coloma right in our bedroom set up
and have to kind of go out of the room
with drool on our faces past all the actors who

(24:44):
were waiting in the hall. Yeah the bathroom. Yeah, that's
so funny. And apparently for this they they would decide
on the song because they needed to have the piano accompaniment.
But Christopher guests said he didn't even want to know
what they were going to do for the audition, Like
you knew what the song would be, but not how
they would play it. So they discussed it and they

(25:06):
must have had such a good time. Oh yeah, Parker
Posey with teacher's pet little dance she does so wonderful,
and and the stick of Ron and Sheila together with
their matching track suits and it is it was really
something else. Yeah, they're correct. One of my favorite lines
in that audition scene was after Ron and Sheila audition,

(25:29):
he asked if he wants to Fred Willard's asked if
he wants to move the stool? Is you want me
to strike it? He said, you know, we worked with Quirky,
we know some of the terms coming in strike the
stool and Bob Balaba And what a great, hilarious character
that is. The musical director who wants to direct it

(25:50):
thinks he gets his moment, and then it's even more
humiliating because everybody in the company goes out to find
Corky and ring him back. Love that, yeah, because he well,
he kind of makes his role clear early on when
he says that he every year up until now he
had always done it himself. But now Quirky, of course

(26:12):
is a professional from New York City, so is his his
expertise that he really doesn't have. There are so many
lines from this movie that my wife and I still
kind of incorporate into our daily life, and um, one
of them is the great Quirky line, I'm gonna go
home and bite my pillow. We still say that to
each other when one I was just like joking around

(26:34):
about being upset. It's pretty funny. Eventually they move on
to the um the show itself, which is the last
act of the movie, and they had to They had
a real choreographer and um, I think had a like
a week to rehearse, which he said he wanted it
to be short so it would be realistic. Is sort

(26:55):
of half knowing the dance moves, so they didn't have
to fake half knowing, right, Um, but they had to
learn it a little bit to actually get up there
and perform Red White and Blaine all right, And you
just it just seems so real, And I think that's
the only way this movie works. It does that's absolutely

(27:16):
there's never I mean, you know, they know some of
it's funny, but they never act like they do or right. Yeah,
And that's kind of the key I think for a
lot of comedy, absolutely, because there's not a nudge and
a wink to it. He and I know Christopher Guests
and and all those documentaries he's done, wants to play
it very straight that these are real people. I know.

(27:39):
He's always said, these are people that exist in the world.
I'm not making fun of them. Um. I think he's
sort of a love letter to these people on if
you've if you've grown up in the theater, it is
a love thing. I mean, it's probably why I don't
stay connected to all the people that I do movies
with us because I would make these families every summer

(28:03):
from when I was six years old on and then
never see them again until now. Now I run into
people that weren't my father's theater. Yeah, that's fun. And
they come up to you or I recognize that you know,
and now we're the same age. I was six at
the time and they were adults. I know that, yeah.

(28:23):
And they're also my same height. They were much taller before,
but they've shrunk and I've grown right, and you all
catch up to one another. That's funny. So it's sort
of an editing masterpiece. I think when you I think
they ended up having I have a little trivia bit

(28:46):
in here. Fifty eight hours of footage. Wow, yeah, fifty
eight hours that he had to whittle down to a
very lean ninety minutes or so. And uh, at one
point he had cut himself of the movie entirely as Quirky,
and Eugene Leevy came and said, you know what are
you doing? If you know how if you get in
that editing room he sort of lose yourself and not

(29:08):
know which way is up at one point. And I
think it took a third eye coming in and saying
you have to be in the movie. Oh my god.
I can't even imagine how they would do it without Quirky. No.
I mean, he's one of the beloved characters. Um, I've
heard Christopher guess it is very serious in real life.
It's interesting you all. Um, No, I've met Jamie and

(29:32):
I maybe i've met him. No, I don't. I think
that's true of some comedians. Is it's you have the
sense tragic character. Yeah, you have the sense that they're
just always laughing and funny. But he's apparently he is
a very serious guy. It takes this comedy very seriously. Uh.
And of course he wrote the songs with his spinal

(29:54):
tap cohorts, Um, Michael McKeon and Harry Shearer. When it
came time to write the musical, they had to take
it seriously and um, even though it's an improvised movie,
I think they the only thing that was written out
ahead of time were the songs from the musical. So
nothing ever happens on Mars and just all these great

(30:17):
great songs that as a lover of the movie, UM,
become like real songs to you, you know, like every
time I see it, I'm singing them to myself. Well,
you've seen it more than I have. I'm not a
big see a movie a lot of times, although I
have had the experience of hating a movie and going

(30:39):
back and loving it more than one time. Do you don't.
Can you remember one like that? Um Manhattan Wo hated it,
then loved it, then loved it. YEA, Yeah, that's that
is one of my all time favorite movies. A little
problematic now because of the nature of the teenage relations chip,

(31:01):
but I remember seeing it recently and thinking he just
he should have just put her in college. That would
have solved the whole problem, you know, And of course
it was a different time, but still the high school
relationship was. It's a bit problematic through today's lens, but
one of the great great movies. Um. And there's just

(31:22):
so many subtle jokes in government too. Every time. It's
one of those movies where every time I see it,
I pick up on some new little thing. And whether
it's in the in the band, the orchestra of the musical,
the trumpet player who also doubles is the kettle drum
guy while he's playing the trumpet, and I'm sure in
local theater you had a lot of that people doing,

(31:42):
you know, wearing multiple happens. I thought they were quite good,
that musical group, but I guess our orchestra was really
good in my father's summer theater. You know. It's it's
less obvious, but maybe just to me because I'm not
a musician, but it's less obvious how amateurs they are, right, yeah, yeah,

(32:04):
And these characters are just I think it's easy to
um to see someone doing maybe not a great job
at a local community theater and I think, why, why
are they wasting their time or what? What are they doing.
But to them it's there. It's as good as Yeah,
it's their life. Yeah, exactly, and it should be embraced.

(32:29):
It's a wonderful thing. All right. Well, we finished with
a couple of quick segments. UM one called what Ebert said,
this movie is a complete disappointment. I always like to
go and see what Roger Ebert thought of these movies.
He gave this three out of four stars, not bad,
and he says the movie doesn't bludgeon us with gags.

(32:51):
It proceeds with a certain comic relentlessness from set up
to payoff, and it's deliberation as part of the fund.
Attention is paid not simply to funny characters and punch lines,
but two small nudges that human nature. Some of the
laughs are so subtle you almost missed them. Yeah, I
think that kind of nailed it. Yeah, I think so too.

(33:14):
I mean, it can be broad at certain times, but
there's so many just funny, subtle moments in there. You
have to kind of pay attention. And I love that
kind of movie. And then we finished with five questions
with Brooke Adams. Do you remember the first movie you
saw in the theater? Yes? The ten Commandments. I think

(33:36):
it was The R Chaos and m R. I don't know,
eight six the Lexington and I was about seven. And
do you remember what you thought of it? I'm sure
it was larger than life. It was really all that
I thought was, Wow, that was huge and I didn't
really get it right. Yeah, well it's not a kid's movie. No.

(34:00):
I love that you went to it anyway, though. Uh,
do you know what your first R rated movie was
that you saw? You know, Tony told me this and
I never came up with one. You can just make
one up. Um, well, I remember seeing Butterfield eight, but
they didn't have our rights ratings back then, but that

(34:23):
would have been probably. Yeah. I mean, I don't know.
I thought it was pretty risk a right, but I
was very young. Um, will you walk out of a
bad movie? But rarely. I mean I've done it with
Tony because he's like dragging me. We even did it
with some friends out of a screening. Now that for

(34:45):
me was like absolutely a no no oh goodness, like
an industry screening. Yes, yes it was, and they were
so you know, I hated the movie so much. I
was sort of enjoying it. What movie was that Emma,
oh sure, Gwyneth Paltrow. Um, they hated it and we

(35:09):
we left, and I was just I mean, I was
like probably apologizing as I was going. It's just not
something I can do comfortably, anything that I think people
will get hurt by. Yeah, I'm kind of with you there.
That's because people, you know, they put everything they've got
into these God, when you realize how long it takes
to make a movie, how how much it costs, how

(35:32):
much love and oh, it's just it's too much. Like
at least you can do is sit there for two hours.
And although I saw a movie recently by myself that
was pretty unbearable, I have to say, but maybe I
shouldn't say what it was. Well, I guess I should,
because that's what we're doing here, right. Why not the
the new Woody Allen one, Wheell Wonder whe Wonder Wheel.

(35:56):
I haven't seen that one yet. Not very good, not
very good. Well, when you make a movie a year,
you can be hit or miss. Yeah, you know, he
was the best filmmaker at one point. But yeah, as
a director, he seems to have gotten a little lazy.

(36:17):
I think that's a lot. Though a movie every year
it is it's undoable. Yeah, it's kind of a crazy
thing to do. Um, do you have guilty pleasure movies?
He didn't, But you know I have movies like Private Benjamin.
Oh sure, um, Breakfast at Tiffany's. These are movies that

(36:43):
if somebody said you want to go see, I would
want to go see. It's not like I do go
out a lot to see old movies that I remember loving,
but they would those kind of movies, Audrey, hepburn in anything.
I would, of course. Yeah. And boy, I lean Brennan,
who is in the sting that we just talked about
with Tony and in Private Benjamin. She was so great.

(37:07):
She was such an underrated actor. I think. Uh. And
then finally, movie going one on one, Um, what is
your movie going ritual? Well, you heard Tony say I
like sitting sitting in the front. I like sitting in
the middle, and he considers that too far. You disagree
on what middle, front and back means. Yes, okay, I

(37:30):
think you want to sit in the middle of from
front to back and from side to side. Ideally, you
don't want to sit behind somebody who's very tall. And
I always have to have popcorn. I mean a movie
without popcorn is just I won't even bother to go.
But no butter, no butter salt, but only the amount

(37:54):
they put on, which is often too much. Right, Yeah,
all right, well that's wonderful. Um, thank you, Brooke, thank you.
This is great, I hope, so thanks for letting me
hammer you with days of heaven questions. I couldn't help myself.
All right, thanks a lot, Thank you. All right, everybody

(38:23):
that is waiting for government in the can, I knew
someone was gonna pick it sooner or later, and I
thought it was great that that's what Brooke chose. It's
always fun to kind of guess what people might be into,
and uh, for reasons you don't know, because you don't
know this person, you never know what they're gonna pick.
And uh, it turns out that Brooke picked waiting for

(38:44):
government because of her childhood growing up in her father
being a director of community theater here in New York City.
So it was really kind of cool. I love the
story about her waking up in her bedroom to um
auditions happening because that's where the piano was. It was
really neat her and her sister, So it was a
lot of fun to talk about that with Brooke, and

(39:05):
she was very sweet to let me broach her with
questions about Days of Heaven. If you haven't seen Days
of Heaven, Boy, do yourself a favor and get it.
Uh today one of the great great movies of all time.
So thanks to Brooke Adams, thanks to C d M Studios,
and until next time, why don't you start your own
community theater for a change. You're lazy? Do it. Movie

(39:38):
Crush has produced, edited, engineered, and scored by Noel Brown
from our podcast studio at Pond City Market, Atlanta, Georgia.