April 20, 2021 • 29 mins
DJ Caruso is a big time Hollywood director. He also discovered Jared on a basketball court and put him in his first movie. Unfortunately Jarod is an awful actor so he's still not famous. Ooops.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
From my arm Radio Common Enemy contendum with TV it's
the hay Pal Podcast, Pal, Hey Pal with Jared and
Hey Pal, Hey Pal, Your hay pal is always better
than my hay Pal. I mean, I just like saying it,
and it's, you know, something I've been saying for a
(00:22):
long time. Pal, But do I need to work online?
Hold on? Just g Can I get a take two?
All right? Thank you? Hey Pal? Hey Pal, Hey Pal,
Hey Pal, Hey Pal, Hey Pal. Yeah. Okay, I think
our levels are good. There, you're getting there. Now we
can get into this episode. Getting there, Let's get into it.
So we've got this is This one's a special one,
as you know, Devo, especially special for me because I
(00:46):
kind of, oh, like I was telling Kyle this story,
I kind of breaking into the business um and and
living out here. I mean, we all need, you know,
an army to help us. Yes, but this specific guest,
Mr DJ Caruso, who's ginormous director. Not a DJ, not
a DJ He's not He's not a DJ um but
he's a ginormous director. He's directed massive films, hundred million
(01:09):
dollar films too for the money with Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey,
Eagle Eye was Shila Buff Disturb you with Shila Buff.
But um, I think I was like twenty one or
twenty two. I got to go play basketball. Um, I'm
playing We get done with the game. I was an
actor at this point, um or trying to be an
actor at this point. I was going to say what
(01:31):
is an actor? What is what is an actor? And
um and I got I remember I got a call
from my manager, Ryan Buner at the time, he was
the assistant and he goes, hey, uh, we just got
a call. So I was playing basketball during the weekend.
Then I get a call on like a Monday and
he's like, hey, you're gonna be in in the new
Steven Spielberg movie. Uh it's called Eagle Eye and uh yeah,
(01:53):
so so get ready. And I hadn't done anything, and
I was like, what do you mean I'm gonna be
in this movie? Right? And they're and they're like, we
just got a call from casting and apparently this guy
named DJ Cruso who was directing the film. Did you
think it was a DJ? He loves you? And I
didn't laugh the first time you said it, so no,
I didn't. Um and and he loves you, and he
(02:14):
wants to put you in the film. I'm like, okay,
where do I audition? And who's DJ Cruso? And I
guess the story goes is like he was on that
basketball court. I had no idea. I had no idea
DJ Caruso was. I was year old kid, didn't know
you know, who was who? And uh? And he he
like tracked me down, Dave. I left the gym. He
asked a couple other people, who's that who's that guy?
(02:35):
Then you know, asked does anybody have his number? And
nobody had a number. Then he went and looked me
up on d dB, finds my manager and and apparently
to this day, DJ has told me that like Shaya
and myself were the only ones who did an audition
for that movie. Now, Shia had a lot more lines
than I had. Actually an actor, right, and and it's
actually a working actor. Well I'm a working uh podcast host?
(03:00):
You are, kin kind of but not an actor. You
know what. I've got a movie out right now, Dave
two of them with my partner Kyle Tequila. But not
as an actor, Okay, not as an actor, right, Cole?
Why don't we put me in these movies? The director said, Okay,
well I need DJ Cruso directing more. That's right, that's right.
(03:20):
But anyway, so I got to go be a part
of this hundred million dollar film. I never even auditioned.
And it's just cool to see it all full circle.
And now we're about to get to interview him, Dave.
I mean, that's that's pretty awesome that he he broke
me in and gave me my first little, you know,
taste of the business. And I was on the set
and acting opposite these these huge actors, all because you know,
a basketball game. Yeah, And I think the great thing
(03:41):
about it is he helped you realize that you're not
an actor. And I think that's really the point of
this show. Ladies and gentlemen. You don't have to take
a stab at me every time. DJ Caruso. Let's go, So, DJ,
how are you doing doing well? Man? Doing well? Sitting
sitting here quarantine edit in a movie, uh and having
(04:01):
a good time. You know. There you go a lot,
you know, a lot of people are getting more work
done than they normally gets because this whole thing, which
is amazing. Yeah. No, Actually, I cranked out a script
that I've been trying to write, but you know, started
then stopped, and so I just said, why not do
it now? Right? Wrote a script? Right, I'm getting to edit.
I'm doing a director's cut. I'm not getting in my car.
I'm getting to edit from home that editors computers on
(04:21):
my computer. And it's like right now, it's like, this
is the Apocalypse. I'm okay, that's awesome. So so died you.
You broke into the business from a directorial standpoint, so
to speak. Uh, in the in the feature space with
with the Sultan c starring Val Kilmer, and people absolutely
love that movie. What what we want to know? Because
on here on the Haypal podcast, what we do is
(04:42):
we kind of ask hybrid questions. We merge the entertainment
world and the sports world. Is what do you think
is harder from an outside perspective? And obviously you have
some insight here, but do you think it's harder to
make it as a feature director or do you think
it's harder to make it as a professional athlete. Oh
it's so funny. I have this conversation quite a bit
(05:03):
because I have kittens that have gotten pretty close played
really high level college baseball, and we always make that analogy,
and I don't know. I think it's probably statistically they're
probably about the same, you know, probably one or two
percent if you had to look at it, one or
two percent. But I think, you know, the opportunities to
direct now have become a little more vast with all this,
all the content and all the things that are happening,
(05:25):
So it's probably shifted. But I think it's pretty much
an equal weight. But I probably would say to be
a high level professional athlete is probably statistically more difficult
than a high level Do you agree, Yeah, I mean,
I I think so it's definitely uh, it's a good
quality competition, you know to get there, um, But yeah,
I think I think at the end of the day,
(05:46):
you know, um, athleticism is one of those things, and
you know, building strength and all that. That's something that
you can push yourself as far as you can. However,
if you're five ft five, you know, the chances of
you making the NBA, aside from spud Web and Muggsy
Bows aren't too high. But you could be at five
(06:08):
ft five successful director. You could be a seven ft
six successful director. So I would say it yeah right, yeah, no,
I I definitely so, so Deeed, You've You've gotten to
direct some unbelievable actors. I mean, obviously you know that
I've been a huge fan of yours aside from our
friendship for for a decade over a decade now, and
(06:29):
you've gotten to direct people like Val Kilmer, Shyla buff H,
Matthew McConaughey, Al Pacino, you know, yeah, Angelina, Jolian Ethan Hawk, Um,
you know so many great actors. What I want to
know is, you know when when we are judging athletes,
right and we're looking at athletes, we kind of know
(06:50):
what we're looking for, right, Do they have the athleticism?
Can they We'll talk in basketball terms because I know
that you love basketball and you love baseball actually so.
But you know, like Kenny go from right to left?
You know, Kenny, can he get his teammates involved? Kenny
take it into the paint and shoot a floater? Is
he a five tool player? Is Um? There's there's all
these all these all these things that we know we
(07:13):
need to check off right in the athletic world, you
having directed all these amazing actors, what is it you
know that you are checking off? And what are you
looking for in an actor to know that A I
either got to take a chance on them or B
I watched them in a in a movie and this
is what they had. Well, I think it touched down
a bunch of Each actor obviously is completely different in
(07:33):
their approach is different. Uh, like an athlete, you know,
you know when you have an al Pacino who's one
of those guys who constantly is just going dialogue, running
his dialogue in the motor home with the lights off
so that the dialogue never becomes an issue for him.
He wants to know it so well and has all
that preparation. Then you have a guy like Shy who
comes in and take one and two who just throws
it down. You're just like, I don't even need to
(07:54):
do take three, you know, And everyone's different. And then
sometimes you have an actor and actress that warms up
by take five, I take six, take seven. They get
better and better and better. And so you know, as
far as athletes go, you think about the work ethic,
like how hard does somebody work? What is somebody's approach?
Is someone just uber talented so they don't have to
do anything. We've all seen athletes that have been probably
the best basketball players or baseball players you've ever seen
(08:16):
that don't make it right. They don't make it because
they don't have a work ethic. I notice that all
of these people that I'm we're talking about, they all
have an incredible work ethic. Might be completely different and
the approach might be completely different, But you know, McConaughey
is just one of those guys that just is like
a puppy dog, just wants to keep working, keep lifting weights,
keep telling me what do you need to give me
a verb? I want to do this. You want me
(08:36):
to destroy, or you want me to charm, or you
want me to do this. And so he's like an
athlete in the gym, just trying to do things and
keep working. So when you're looking for an actor and actress,
depending on the part, you do look at their body
of work, um, and then you do have to sort
of use your imagination to imagine can you get them,
help them become the character that you have in your
mind that that's on the screenplay. So I think there's
(08:56):
a really good correlation between athleticism and acting and acting
as far as like everyone has a different style, everyone
has a shore approach. Some people are so ridiculously talented.
It's scary, and others have a work ethic that they're
not great, but they just keep working, working, working, working
until they get it. Yeah, you know, it's funny. Talking
to Julian Edelman and Jeremy Piven, they both mentioned Shaia,
(09:18):
which was kind of crazy, and Jeremy was talking about
how he feels that he's one of those actors, almost
like a Daniel day Lewis that really becomes whatever character
he's playing and really just is completely engulfed in that character,
and then uh, and Edelman brought him up as well. Yeah,
well it was interesting. Die. We asked Jeremy Piven an
(09:38):
awesome question because you know, he obviously played Ari, you know,
on Entourage, and we said, if you were an agent
in real life, right right now, who is the first
person you were going after to try and sign And
he snaps said, you know, to I didn't think he'll
ever say this name. He said, Shi Labuve, Oh yeah,
I know he and he went right into how you
(09:58):
know Shia is just one of those magical you know,
basically creatures slash actors and his work ethic and you
know that you're and he just goes all in, and
he gave these beautiful stories about how how he goes
all in. So you know, no one, it's a no
wonder why a person like DJ Caruso cast him and
not only disturb you, but then said, let's go roll
the dice on eagle eye and let's go do this again.
(10:19):
You know, let's go again again again. Don't go anywhere, Hey,
Pam will be right back after a word from our sponsors.
If DJ Cruso is the the head coach of an
NBA team, okay, and you get a call that you
(10:41):
you can fill a roster spot with a pretty talented guy,
but he's got a trouble of being a bad guy
okay and somewhat locker room cancerous, you know, not totally
gonna but like he's got it. He's got a history. Okay,
So you don't know what you're gonna get. Is he
gonna respect you, DJ as the coach? Is he you
know all these things? And then you've got another guy
(11:01):
who's probably three or four talent meters you know, below him,
But he's a great guy and he's gonna work hard
every day. Who are you gonna go with and put
on the court and put on your roster there. Well,
I mean, just if you're starting from scratch, I'm gonna
go with the guy who's gonna maybe three times a
little less talent, who's gonna work harder. Okay, if I'm
(11:21):
if I'm established and I'm adding someone to my team,
and I know that I got Michael Jordan or someone
sitting there is going to take that other guy and
say sorry, you're not gonna behave this way, then it
is the changes who you pick. But I'm gonna take
the guy who's maybe not quite as talented, but it's
gonna work three times as hard, you know. So then,
so where I was getting at is and I love
I love your answer, um, And it's appropriate because that's
(11:41):
what Kyle and I did by getting Jared for this podcast.
That's exactly what we did. The talent levels not there,
but he's putting the work, but hardy. He's Dennis Rodman
from central Arkansas state. He's getting some ford. Um is
so deeed. So now now I put you in the
(12:04):
in the arena that you're in right, and you are
DJ CRUs So you are an established director. You have directed,
you know, films that are ten million, You've directed films
that are a hundred billion dollars. Okay, and now you
get a call for a role that you can get
this actor. But this actor is super talented, right, but
has been a bit of a ship head on other sets,
(12:25):
and you don't know if you're gonna be able to
control them. Or you can go three ms down and
get someone who's not as great of an actor, but
you know that you can more direct and control and
he'll take your notes. I want to know what your
process is when you have to, you know, choose between
those two. Well, that's that's interesting because the actor who's
uber talented, there's something about it when the cameras rolling,
if you can just control them. Like I always say,
(12:46):
whether I do two million dollar movie an eighty million
dollar movie, it's the seven people around the camera. It's
the camera operator, it's the DP, it's the director because
I'm always near the cameras. You know, I'm not back
in the monitor. Uh. And if that when that cameras rolling,
that's those seven people, no matter how many hundreds of
people are, twenty people who have in the set, that's
where the magic happens. And that actor who's a pain
(13:07):
in the ass and all that other stuff. If they're
so talented, I'm probably gonna go with that actor because
they're gonna there's gonna be magic, there's gonna be something organic,
there's gonna be something that happens. And I'd rather go
and I'd rather deal with some of the pain and
take take that magic that's gonna happen, because it's all
about what's happening when the camera's roll right, you can't
teach it. And and if it was really bad in
(13:27):
the next movie, if he's available, you're saying, let's just
grab him again. I mean if if hey, you know what,
if that success happens and you know how to deal
with it, you can cope, right because once you learn
how to you understand that. And I would do that.
I mean, that's like a great coach, you know, having
to deal with a with a player that's a prima donna, right,
which is what DJ is. You know, I actually met
I got to meet DJ on on Eagle Eye. We
(13:48):
met and right away, I just I mean, he was
so cool enough to let me, you know, sit back
and watch and I just knew he had it right away.
I was like, whoa the way that this guy because
you know, we grew up playing sports and also DJ
plays for by the Way, and it's very very very
very good. And and it was like I was sitting
there watching I remember being twenty two deeds or something
like that. I was, I was a puppy, and I
(14:11):
just remember sitting back and watching you and going, WHOA,
Like this is like one of the coaches I want
to play for. So you knew right away, like this
is a guy you know that has it and can
and can translate it and all that. But you know,
sometimes you just gotta go with the magic, right, Yeah,
you gotta go with it. I agree. So I want
to talk about one of your projects, Triple X. UM.
(14:31):
Nina and Ruby are friends of mine. Actually I was
on the phone with Ruby yesterday and I was telling
Jared I thought Nina did such a great job playing
that character that nerd. She was so funny doing that. Um.
But I want to talk about Vin, And you know,
we like to mix things up here, so I want
you to pick a position and each of these sports
that Vin Diesel would play. So let's start with basketball.
(14:54):
What would be the position that Ben would play in basketball?
And basketball? He'd definitely be a rebounding power forward. Okay, not,
probably'd be so he'd be like a Rodman. D like
a Rodman. Not deaf touch around the rim or anything.
But he can go out and box out and just
grab you a board and make sure he gets it,
you know. Okay, I like it. As a hockey player,
what would he be is an ice hockey player? Is
an ice hockey player? Oh man, that's a good call.
(15:17):
That's a good call. I'd say, I gotta go old
school because I'm an Islander fan. He'd be like a
Mike Bossy. You know who Mike boss is. Yes, of course,
back in the day, kind of like yes, you know, good,
good skater, not the fastest skater in the world, but
always in and around the net and always score. Okay, okay,
um in uh we got basketball, football in football? What
(15:37):
would be in football? This is a good one. You'd
be clowney. I think you'd be clowney. He'd like, that's
all right, that's how I praise. You'd a clowny. But
at least he can clog the middle and get to there.
He can get there and stop. He can stop and
make a play, make a play. I like it. I
like it now this sport, this sports, you know, up
and coming in America. It's obviously huge globally, but soccer,
(15:59):
we're football. He'd kind of be like probably one of
my old school favorites, kind of like a Wayne Rooney,
you know what I mean, kind of like, yeah, you
know what I mean, like death, not super fast, mean
and and kind of competitive and ferocious. So I'd say
he'd be a Wayne Rooney. Okay, And last, but not least,
my favorite baseball. Where would we put Vin Diesel on
a baseball field? Baseball, I'd say he'd be he'd be
(16:25):
kind of like Frank White, Okay, you know what I mean,
kind of a big body, you know, Albert Poolhole's kind
of guy, big spake, sitting on a chair, sitting on
a chair, astly get a free swing. So what fielding
position do we put him out? We think there's no
question either going to be catcher, third base. That's basically okay.
I love it. What Um What to You is the
(16:48):
greatest sports movie of all time. I know it's hard
and people go, oh, I can't just pick, but if,
like if you had to only pick one, I think
it depends on what's your sport. That's on this is
djould say, like, right when you said that, there's two
movies that kicked in, and uh, it's Field of Dreams
and it's Hoosiers and we both, we both and I
(17:13):
think that, you know, Field of Dreams is much more
than just a baseball movie. But it is a baseball movie.
But there's something about Hoosiers that just every time it
comes on, man, it's just I cannot not watch it.
I have to watch it. You know, you have to
watch it. I'm actually I was planning. I don't know
if it's happening now, but I was going to go
to Iowa and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah that who wasn't
(17:35):
Yankees and Yankees And I'm actually forgetting I forget too,
like the White Sox maybe or Chicago maybe just because
of the way that when the movie the Black Sox
in the movie. Yeah yeah that would, yeah, that would,
because that's something that I was really looking forward to
that I'm sure it's gonna be put on hold unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah,
Field of Dreams. I I love Field of Dreams. My
(17:57):
my my dad growing up kind of reminded me of
Kevin cors And so I would watch all these Costner
films and and Costner ended up doing a bunch of sports.
He did, he did a bunch of sports. But think
about Field of Dreams. It's one of those two. It's like,
you know, the girls have their notebook and all that stuff,
and like you guys watch Field of Dreams and the
girls look at us where crying at the end when
he's playing catch with the dad, and they're just like,
what the fun is wrong with you? You don't understand,
(18:20):
you don't understand. You know what baseball movie I love
too is The Natural Robert Raising. Yeah, visually like Kala Deschanel,
The DP and The Natural, it's probably the most beautiful
sports movies ever photographed. Is just oh yeah, but you
just you just nailed it on the head. D just
like you said, you know, it's about a father and son.
At the end of the day, it's a father and
son and reconciliation and forgiving your father. Yeah, and in
(18:44):
a in a bizarre way, it's like if you really
think about, like, you know, there's all these Christian movies
and feel the Dream just kind of really a movie
about faith, like hearing a voice and doing something, you know,
and like I'm gonna take down my Cornfield. I'm gonna
build a baseball field because I heard a voice. You know,
I'm gonna borrow that from you, that that's our the
male notebook, and really feel that way, that's incredible analogy. Well,
(19:04):
and it's and it's DJ I think and and correct
me if you think I'm wrong. But like, I think
that's what's been wrong with sports movies over the last well,
they don't really try to make them anymore, but you know,
in the early two thousands to late two thousands, they
were still making movies like you know, I guess the
Replacements or Coach Carter any given so anyways, but I
think the problem is is that it's about the sports
and not about the character and relationship and what is
(19:26):
the what is the theme? And is the theme good enough? Yeah? Yeah.
Early on was first coming out, people like, oh, you know, like, oh,
it's about the first all women's baseball team. I'm like, great,
but like, what's the movie about? Like what's what is
it about? Okay? So, and I think the sports movie
fell into sort of the trope cliche of you know,
it's David and David and Goliath and all that stuff,
and the movies that aren't the David and Goliath stories
(19:47):
sometimes are the ones that are the best, you know,
but yeah, there's you know, there's the sports movie sort
of became that mid budgeted, leveled like can we strike
gold and get people excited and do those kind of
things as opposed to maybe really being truly abo where
I actually wanted to see Ben's movie. I gotta watch it.
I gotta street. Yeah, I was gonna ask hibou We'll say, yeah,
it was one of it was a great script. When
(20:08):
I read that script, it was a lot more than
just a basketball movie. Don't go anywhere. Hey, Pam will
be right back after a work for our sponsors. So, dee,
if if you were the pitching coach and you have
to go out to the mount and we gotta you know,
(20:29):
go to the right of the left and we gotta
make a pitching change, have you and you don't have
to tell us who or what movie? That's fine, But
I just want to know you as a director, because
what we're doing on this show is this episode, we're
giving people kind of like an inside you know, look
at the other side of the camera. You know, we're
pulling back the curtain. And so as DJ Caruso over
(20:49):
his career. Ever in the middle of the movie, just
been like, man, I wish I could make a pitching change,
you know, probably on an actor. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, so yeah.
And have you have you ever gone forward and tried to,
you know, be like, what can we do to make
that pitching change? Yeah? I made at one time I
had to make the pitch and change. And then there
(21:09):
was another time where the studio was kind of saying like, hey,
you haven't gone so far, you can do better, and
I was like, no, this person is going to do
it and trust me. And I ended up being right
on that one. Oh. So it's like the Resese. It's
like the front office telling me, hey, this isn't working um,
and I'm like, no, no, trust me, you know this
is gonna work. It's gonna work out. And thank god
it did. But there was a time that, you know,
(21:30):
in the middle of a movie two days actually I
shouldn't say middle two days in I made a pitch
and change because I noticed when we came into rehearsal
this particular actor, uh started to just change things up
in the lines and things, and there you can feel
a little bit discussed, like like a good team. You
have to have harmony, right, you have to have You
don't have that unity, your movie can fall apart the
way a team can fall apart. And I just sensed
(21:52):
that this was kind of this you know, this, this
this unity was going to be broken up if this
actor had had a chance to go further. And would
you mind you don't have you can say no obviously,
but would you mind telling us not the pitching change,
but the reverse of that. What movie that was? It
was in Disturbia and it was the Yeah, it was
the female leading Disturbia And like, that's all really active
(22:12):
before Sarah. Sure, yeah, And so at first, you know,
Daily's like what happened was? And by the way, she
was great, but shya take one, take two and you
have the studio watching dailies and you're linking taketeen, take
fifteen takes Steen on her and like, wait a minute,
something's not jelling. But I was like, no, we're gonna
get it. And she turned out to be great. But yeah,
the movie is absolutely it was just it was just
it was just early on and I think sometimes studios
(22:33):
get get excited, and of course, um, I have a question,
have you seen tire King in Quarantine. I watched two episodes.
I got through too. Yeah, I just didn't go nuts
over it. I'm sorry me neither you didn't. I'm I'm
a pop culture guy, so I'm absolutely losing my mind
over it. And and and the reason I was asking
is because I was gonna ask you out of all
(22:55):
your projects, if you had to cast Carol Baskin and
one of your problems, what role would she have played?
And Sam goes for Joe Exotic. I think Joe Exotic
from what I've seen, I'd have I'd haven't replaced Sam
Jackson's character. And Triple X, I'd have him be the
head of the Triplex. Well, if he ever gets released
(23:19):
from prison deeds, maybe he can. Maybe he could come
start a Triple xplore Carol back. He'd be a lot
cheaper than Sam too, he would, he would be, but
he but he might be difficult on set, that's true.
And Sam is, Sam's a prince man. Sam's the best.
He comes on set, throws down his lines and he's
he's such a pro he's amazing. And then Carol Baskin,
(23:40):
what role would she play? Carols, that's the woman that
and I don't you haven't seen the whole thing, but
I don't want to. I don't want to get anyway.
I don't know her, so I can't tell you. Okay,
fair enough, that's fair, that's fair. He doesn't it. But
some stuff, some stuff goes down with Carol. I will
definitely finish, but I will say it didn't. I was
(24:00):
excited to watch it. Didn't like my fire as much
as ESPN has lit my fire with this whole the
last of course, Yeah, that's that's that. That product is amazing.
Um Dee's last question before we let you go is, uh,
you have a lot of movies that have made the playoffs.
You've had a lot of movies that have even you
know one in the first and second and third round.
What movie to you has won the championship? Which one
(24:23):
is holding the trophy high above the head for DJ
Caruso of of movies that I made that, Yes, sir,
you know that's a really tough question because, uh, it
depends on like it depends on what tournament you're in
and what field you're in, you know what I mean.
There's like the World Championship and then there's like the
little tournament in Iowa that you know, you guys ran
the table, and you want to termamentum the perfect the
(24:45):
biggest of the big, the big one Um. I would
say the one that was the biggest of the big
because it kind of surprised everyone and just would probably
be disturbing, just because like it just it was everyone's like,
nobody heard a shy at the time, You've done a
Disney thing, and all of a sudden, if he came,
you know, Rihanna wrote a song, it just sort of
blew up, Like, you know, my kids didn't think I
(25:05):
was cool until Disturbing came out. Then all of a sudden, right,
I don't know, that was kind of the one that
was sort of a game changer. So if there was
like a championship, i'd say from like on a world scale.
But I still think the first movie the Salton Sea,
which is such a close place in my heart and
there was some personal things I was going through at
the time and put a lot of that into the movie,
and so you just kind of like there's something about
(25:25):
that movie that just it just still embedded deep in
my soul. Well, if you're picking disturb you they were
probably that year going into the playoffs, disturbing. It was
probably what like a sixth or seventh sea for sure,
they were lower. They were lower there. Yeah, I know,
it was really really funny because at the time, and
we don't do this anymore, Frank Derivant always had a
director's dinner, which I always thought everyone in Hollywood would do,
(25:47):
But it was Frank Deravan, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Edgar Wright,
Greg Nicko, Tero who was doing more makeup at them,
but he's on The Walking Dead and we had all
these dinners, and I'll never forget Quentin saying to me, like,
you motherfucker, four weeks in a row at number one.
I can't believe it. Man, you're that that is awesome.
(26:08):
That's a championship right well, by the way, that is
a championship right there. You were You were like the
seventh seed. You upset the two. See you moved on,
then you beat the one seed, then you went to
the five. I mean, that's awesome. That's probably. That was
a good tournament run. That was my Valpariso tournament run.
The brys true of Valparaiso run. I know it's so true. Well,
(26:30):
DJ Cruso, we want to thank you so much for
taking our call and and being so open, uh, you know,
to coming here on the hay Pal Podcast. And we
can't wait to uh you know, hopefully maybe talk to
you again sometimes. Appreciate it, be good, take care of
Thank you. That was it. Great interview with DJ Caruso. Um,
such a good dude, and uh, you know what, what
(26:53):
a great eye for talent, with the exception of finding
you on a basketball court, but what a great eye
for talent. And he's that was so informative by the way. Yeah,
I hope like our listener to see that perspective and
to get a guy like that, you know, um that
does such a great job as a director. To have
that perspective is really really treat Yeah, and we and
(27:13):
you know that we've been talking about having like some
other behind the curtain episodes, or having like Jason Reitman
on the show, maybe some studio heads. Uh. If if
there's anybody that you guys want to hear out there, Look,
there's nobody we can't get ahold of here at the
Hey Pal Podcast, So go ahead of everybody. We can
get ahold of. Everybody doesn't mean they're gonna do the podcast,
(27:33):
but we can get ahold geld of so email us
at Hey Pal pod at gmail dot com. And uh
and maybe we'll get you know whoever you want on
the podcast. It doesn't matter if it's an actor, uh,
an athlete, a producer. But I really loved this interview.
This was very special to us. Dave very cool to
to get that perspective in his thoughts on the industry.
(27:56):
And and uh, I really enjoyed it. Yeah, that was
that was cool. That was cool. Well, well, thank you
guys for listening, and uh, stay tuned. We've got a
really fun one next week. Hey Pal Part two with
special guest Tiffany Hattish drops on Thursday. A Pal is
(28:22):
a production of I Heart Radio, Common Enemy and tender
Foot TV, hosted by Jared Einson and Dave Osco producer
is Kyle Tequila. Executive producer for I Heart Radio is
Shaun Taitone. Executive producers for tender put TV are Donald
Albright Pain. Catch new episodes of Hey Pal every Tuesday
on our radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get
your podcasts, and if you love the show, don't forget
(28:45):
to rate us five stars, share it with your friends,
and subscribe
From my arm Radio Common Enemy contendum with TV it's
the hay Pal Podcast, Pal, Hey Pal with Jared and
Hey Pal, Hey Pal, Your hay pal is always better
than my hay Pal. I mean, I just like saying it,
and it's, you know, something I've been saying for a
(00:22):
long time. Pal, But do I need to work online?
Hold on? Just g Can I get a take two?
All right? Thank you? Hey Pal? Hey Pal, Hey Pal,
Hey Pal, Hey Pal, Hey Pal. Yeah. Okay, I think
our levels are good. There, you're getting there. Now we
can get into this episode. Getting there, Let's get into it.
So we've got this is This one's a special one,
as you know, Devo, especially special for me because I
(00:46):
kind of, oh, like I was telling Kyle this story,
I kind of breaking into the business um and and
living out here. I mean, we all need, you know,
an army to help us. Yes, but this specific guest,
Mr DJ Caruso, who's ginormous director. Not a DJ, not
a DJ He's not He's not a DJ um but
he's a ginormous director. He's directed massive films, hundred million
(01:09):
dollar films too for the money with Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey,
Eagle Eye was Shila Buff Disturb you with Shila Buff.
But um, I think I was like twenty one or
twenty two. I got to go play basketball. Um, I'm
playing We get done with the game. I was an
actor at this point, um or trying to be an
actor at this point. I was going to say what
(01:31):
is an actor? What is what is an actor? And
um and I got I remember I got a call
from my manager, Ryan Buner at the time, he was
the assistant and he goes, hey, uh, we just got
a call. So I was playing basketball during the weekend.
Then I get a call on like a Monday and
he's like, hey, you're gonna be in in the new
Steven Spielberg movie. Uh it's called Eagle Eye and uh yeah,
(01:53):
so so get ready. And I hadn't done anything, and
I was like, what do you mean I'm gonna be
in this movie? Right? And they're and they're like, we
just got a call from casting and apparently this guy
named DJ Cruso who was directing the film. Did you
think it was a DJ? He loves you? And I
didn't laugh the first time you said it, so no,
I didn't. Um and and he loves you, and he
(02:14):
wants to put you in the film. I'm like, okay,
where do I audition? And who's DJ Cruso? And I
guess the story goes is like he was on that
basketball court. I had no idea. I had no idea
DJ Caruso was. I was year old kid, didn't know
you know, who was who? And uh? And he he
like tracked me down, Dave. I left the gym. He
asked a couple other people, who's that who's that guy?
(02:35):
Then you know, asked does anybody have his number? And
nobody had a number. Then he went and looked me
up on d dB, finds my manager and and apparently
to this day, DJ has told me that like Shaya
and myself were the only ones who did an audition
for that movie. Now, Shia had a lot more lines
than I had. Actually an actor, right, and and it's
actually a working actor. Well I'm a working uh podcast host?
(03:00):
You are, kin kind of but not an actor. You
know what. I've got a movie out right now, Dave
two of them with my partner Kyle Tequila. But not
as an actor, Okay, not as an actor, right, Cole?
Why don't we put me in these movies? The director said, Okay,
well I need DJ Cruso directing more. That's right, that's right.
(03:20):
But anyway, so I got to go be a part
of this hundred million dollar film. I never even auditioned.
And it's just cool to see it all full circle.
And now we're about to get to interview him, Dave.
I mean, that's that's pretty awesome that he he broke
me in and gave me my first little, you know,
taste of the business. And I was on the set
and acting opposite these these huge actors, all because you know,
a basketball game. Yeah, And I think the great thing
(03:41):
about it is he helped you realize that you're not
an actor. And I think that's really the point of
this show. Ladies and gentlemen. You don't have to take
a stab at me every time. DJ Caruso. Let's go, So, DJ,
how are you doing doing well? Man? Doing well? Sitting
sitting here quarantine edit in a movie, uh and having
(04:01):
a good time. You know. There you go a lot,
you know, a lot of people are getting more work
done than they normally gets because this whole thing, which
is amazing. Yeah. No, Actually, I cranked out a script
that I've been trying to write, but you know, started
then stopped, and so I just said, why not do
it now? Right? Wrote a script? Right, I'm getting to edit.
I'm doing a director's cut. I'm not getting in my car.
I'm getting to edit from home that editors computers on
(04:21):
my computer. And it's like right now, it's like, this
is the Apocalypse. I'm okay, that's awesome. So so died you.
You broke into the business from a directorial standpoint, so
to speak. Uh, in the in the feature space with
with the Sultan c starring Val Kilmer, and people absolutely
love that movie. What what we want to know? Because
on here on the Haypal podcast, what we do is
(04:42):
we kind of ask hybrid questions. We merge the entertainment
world and the sports world. Is what do you think
is harder from an outside perspective? And obviously you have
some insight here, but do you think it's harder to
make it as a feature director or do you think
it's harder to make it as a professional athlete. Oh
it's so funny. I have this conversation quite a bit
(05:03):
because I have kittens that have gotten pretty close played
really high level college baseball, and we always make that analogy,
and I don't know. I think it's probably statistically they're
probably about the same, you know, probably one or two
percent if you had to look at it, one or
two percent. But I think, you know, the opportunities to
direct now have become a little more vast with all this,
all the content and all the things that are happening,
(05:25):
So it's probably shifted. But I think it's pretty much
an equal weight. But I probably would say to be
a high level professional athlete is probably statistically more difficult
than a high level Do you agree, Yeah, I mean,
I I think so it's definitely uh, it's a good
quality competition, you know to get there, um, But yeah,
I think I think at the end of the day,
(05:46):
you know, um, athleticism is one of those things, and
you know, building strength and all that. That's something that
you can push yourself as far as you can. However,
if you're five ft five, you know, the chances of
you making the NBA, aside from spud Web and Muggsy
Bows aren't too high. But you could be at five
(06:08):
ft five successful director. You could be a seven ft
six successful director. So I would say it yeah right, yeah, no,
I I definitely so, so Deeed, You've You've gotten to
direct some unbelievable actors. I mean, obviously you know that
I've been a huge fan of yours aside from our
friendship for for a decade over a decade now, and
(06:29):
you've gotten to direct people like Val Kilmer, Shyla buff H,
Matthew McConaughey, Al Pacino, you know, yeah, Angelina, Jolian Ethan Hawk, Um,
you know so many great actors. What I want to
know is, you know when when we are judging athletes,
right and we're looking at athletes, we kind of know
(06:50):
what we're looking for, right, Do they have the athleticism?
Can they We'll talk in basketball terms because I know
that you love basketball and you love baseball actually so.
But you know, like Kenny go from right to left?
You know, Kenny, can he get his teammates involved? Kenny
take it into the paint and shoot a floater? Is
he a five tool player? Is Um? There's there's all
these all these all these things that we know we
(07:13):
need to check off right in the athletic world, you
having directed all these amazing actors, what is it you
know that you are checking off? And what are you
looking for in an actor to know that A I
either got to take a chance on them or B
I watched them in a in a movie and this
is what they had. Well, I think it touched down
a bunch of Each actor obviously is completely different in
(07:33):
their approach is different. Uh, like an athlete, you know,
you know when you have an al Pacino who's one
of those guys who constantly is just going dialogue, running
his dialogue in the motor home with the lights off
so that the dialogue never becomes an issue for him.
He wants to know it so well and has all
that preparation. Then you have a guy like Shy who
comes in and take one and two who just throws
it down. You're just like, I don't even need to
(07:54):
do take three, you know, And everyone's different. And then
sometimes you have an actor and actress that warms up
by take five, I take six, take seven. They get
better and better and better. And so you know, as
far as athletes go, you think about the work ethic,
like how hard does somebody work? What is somebody's approach?
Is someone just uber talented so they don't have to
do anything. We've all seen athletes that have been probably
the best basketball players or baseball players you've ever seen
(08:16):
that don't make it right. They don't make it because
they don't have a work ethic. I notice that all
of these people that I'm we're talking about, they all
have an incredible work ethic. Might be completely different and
the approach might be completely different, But you know, McConaughey
is just one of those guys that just is like
a puppy dog, just wants to keep working, keep lifting weights,
keep telling me what do you need to give me
a verb? I want to do this. You want me
(08:36):
to destroy, or you want me to charm, or you
want me to do this. And so he's like an
athlete in the gym, just trying to do things and
keep working. So when you're looking for an actor and actress,
depending on the part, you do look at their body
of work, um, and then you do have to sort
of use your imagination to imagine can you get them,
help them become the character that you have in your
mind that that's on the screenplay. So I think there's
(08:56):
a really good correlation between athleticism and acting and acting
as far as like everyone has a different style, everyone
has a shore approach. Some people are so ridiculously talented.
It's scary, and others have a work ethic that they're
not great, but they just keep working, working, working, working
until they get it. Yeah, you know, it's funny. Talking
to Julian Edelman and Jeremy Piven, they both mentioned Shaia,
(09:18):
which was kind of crazy, and Jeremy was talking about
how he feels that he's one of those actors, almost
like a Daniel day Lewis that really becomes whatever character
he's playing and really just is completely engulfed in that character,
and then uh, and Edelman brought him up as well. Yeah,
well it was interesting. Die. We asked Jeremy Piven an
(09:38):
awesome question because you know, he obviously played Ari, you know,
on Entourage, and we said, if you were an agent
in real life, right right now, who is the first
person you were going after to try and sign And
he snaps said, you know, to I didn't think he'll
ever say this name. He said, Shi Labuve, Oh yeah,
I know he and he went right into how you
(09:58):
know Shia is just one of those magical you know,
basically creatures slash actors and his work ethic and you
know that you're and he just goes all in, and
he gave these beautiful stories about how how he goes
all in. So you know, no one, it's a no
wonder why a person like DJ Caruso cast him and
not only disturb you, but then said, let's go roll
the dice on eagle eye and let's go do this again.
(10:19):
You know, let's go again again again. Don't go anywhere, Hey,
Pam will be right back after a word from our sponsors.
If DJ Cruso is the the head coach of an
NBA team, okay, and you get a call that you
(10:41):
you can fill a roster spot with a pretty talented guy,
but he's got a trouble of being a bad guy
okay and somewhat locker room cancerous, you know, not totally
gonna but like he's got it. He's got a history. Okay,
So you don't know what you're gonna get. Is he
gonna respect you, DJ as the coach? Is he you
know all these things? And then you've got another guy
(11:01):
who's probably three or four talent meters you know, below him,
But he's a great guy and he's gonna work hard
every day. Who are you gonna go with and put
on the court and put on your roster there. Well,
I mean, just if you're starting from scratch, I'm gonna
go with the guy who's gonna maybe three times a
little less talent, who's gonna work harder. Okay, if I'm
(11:21):
if I'm established and I'm adding someone to my team,
and I know that I got Michael Jordan or someone
sitting there is going to take that other guy and
say sorry, you're not gonna behave this way, then it
is the changes who you pick. But I'm gonna take
the guy who's maybe not quite as talented, but it's
gonna work three times as hard, you know. So then,
so where I was getting at is and I love
I love your answer, um, And it's appropriate because that's
(11:41):
what Kyle and I did by getting Jared for this podcast.
That's exactly what we did. The talent levels not there,
but he's putting the work, but hardy. He's Dennis Rodman
from central Arkansas state. He's getting some ford. Um is
so deeed. So now now I put you in the
(12:04):
in the arena that you're in right, and you are
DJ CRUs So you are an established director. You have directed,
you know, films that are ten million, You've directed films
that are a hundred billion dollars. Okay, and now you
get a call for a role that you can get
this actor. But this actor is super talented, right, but
has been a bit of a ship head on other sets,
(12:25):
and you don't know if you're gonna be able to
control them. Or you can go three ms down and
get someone who's not as great of an actor, but
you know that you can more direct and control and
he'll take your notes. I want to know what your
process is when you have to, you know, choose between
those two. Well, that's that's interesting because the actor who's
uber talented, there's something about it when the cameras rolling,
if you can just control them. Like I always say,
(12:46):
whether I do two million dollar movie an eighty million
dollar movie, it's the seven people around the camera. It's
the camera operator, it's the DP, it's the director because
I'm always near the cameras. You know, I'm not back
in the monitor. Uh. And if that when that cameras rolling,
that's those seven people, no matter how many hundreds of
people are, twenty people who have in the set, that's
where the magic happens. And that actor who's a pain
(13:07):
in the ass and all that other stuff. If they're
so talented, I'm probably gonna go with that actor because
they're gonna there's gonna be magic, there's gonna be something organic,
there's gonna be something that happens. And I'd rather go
and I'd rather deal with some of the pain and
take take that magic that's gonna happen, because it's all
about what's happening when the camera's roll right, you can't
teach it. And and if it was really bad in
(13:27):
the next movie, if he's available, you're saying, let's just
grab him again. I mean if if hey, you know what,
if that success happens and you know how to deal
with it, you can cope, right because once you learn
how to you understand that. And I would do that.
I mean, that's like a great coach, you know, having
to deal with a with a player that's a prima donna, right,
which is what DJ is. You know, I actually met
I got to meet DJ on on Eagle Eye. We
(13:48):
met and right away, I just I mean, he was
so cool enough to let me, you know, sit back
and watch and I just knew he had it right away.
I was like, whoa the way that this guy because
you know, we grew up playing sports and also DJ
plays for by the Way, and it's very very very
very good. And and it was like I was sitting
there watching I remember being twenty two deeds or something
like that. I was, I was a puppy, and I
(14:11):
just remember sitting back and watching you and going, WHOA,
Like this is like one of the coaches I want
to play for. So you knew right away, like this
is a guy you know that has it and can
and can translate it and all that. But you know,
sometimes you just gotta go with the magic, right, Yeah,
you gotta go with it. I agree. So I want
to talk about one of your projects, Triple X. UM.
(14:31):
Nina and Ruby are friends of mine. Actually I was
on the phone with Ruby yesterday and I was telling
Jared I thought Nina did such a great job playing
that character that nerd. She was so funny doing that. Um.
But I want to talk about Vin, And you know,
we like to mix things up here, so I want
you to pick a position and each of these sports
that Vin Diesel would play. So let's start with basketball.
(14:54):
What would be the position that Ben would play in basketball?
And basketball? He'd definitely be a rebounding power forward. Okay, not,
probably'd be so he'd be like a Rodman. D like
a Rodman. Not deaf touch around the rim or anything.
But he can go out and box out and just
grab you a board and make sure he gets it,
you know. Okay, I like it. As a hockey player,
what would he be is an ice hockey player? Is
an ice hockey player? Oh man, that's a good call.
(15:17):
That's a good call. I'd say, I gotta go old
school because I'm an Islander fan. He'd be like a
Mike Bossy. You know who Mike boss is. Yes, of course,
back in the day, kind of like yes, you know, good,
good skater, not the fastest skater in the world, but
always in and around the net and always score. Okay, okay,
um in uh we got basketball, football in football? What
(15:37):
would be in football? This is a good one. You'd
be clowney. I think you'd be clowney. He'd like, that's
all right, that's how I praise. You'd a clowny. But
at least he can clog the middle and get to there.
He can get there and stop. He can stop and
make a play, make a play. I like it. I
like it now this sport, this sports, you know, up
and coming in America. It's obviously huge globally, but soccer,
(15:59):
we're football. He'd kind of be like probably one of
my old school favorites, kind of like a Wayne Rooney,
you know what I mean, kind of like, yeah, you
know what I mean, like death, not super fast, mean
and and kind of competitive and ferocious. So I'd say
he'd be a Wayne Rooney. Okay, And last, but not least,
my favorite baseball. Where would we put Vin Diesel on
a baseball field? Baseball, I'd say he'd be he'd be
(16:25):
kind of like Frank White, Okay, you know what I mean,
kind of a big body, you know, Albert Poolhole's kind
of guy, big spake, sitting on a chair, sitting on
a chair, astly get a free swing. So what fielding
position do we put him out? We think there's no
question either going to be catcher, third base. That's basically okay.
I love it. What Um What to You is the
(16:48):
greatest sports movie of all time. I know it's hard
and people go, oh, I can't just pick, but if,
like if you had to only pick one, I think
it depends on what's your sport. That's on this is
djould say, like, right when you said that, there's two
movies that kicked in, and uh, it's Field of Dreams
and it's Hoosiers and we both, we both and I
(17:13):
think that, you know, Field of Dreams is much more
than just a baseball movie. But it is a baseball movie.
But there's something about Hoosiers that just every time it
comes on, man, it's just I cannot not watch it.
I have to watch it. You know, you have to
watch it. I'm actually I was planning. I don't know
if it's happening now, but I was going to go
to Iowa and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah that who wasn't
(17:35):
Yankees and Yankees And I'm actually forgetting I forget too,
like the White Sox maybe or Chicago maybe just because
of the way that when the movie the Black Sox
in the movie. Yeah yeah that would, yeah, that would,
because that's something that I was really looking forward to
that I'm sure it's gonna be put on hold unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah,
Field of Dreams. I I love Field of Dreams. My
(17:57):
my my dad growing up kind of reminded me of
Kevin cors And so I would watch all these Costner
films and and Costner ended up doing a bunch of sports.
He did, he did a bunch of sports. But think
about Field of Dreams. It's one of those two. It's like,
you know, the girls have their notebook and all that stuff,
and like you guys watch Field of Dreams and the
girls look at us where crying at the end when
he's playing catch with the dad, and they're just like,
what the fun is wrong with you? You don't understand,
(18:20):
you don't understand. You know what baseball movie I love
too is The Natural Robert Raising. Yeah, visually like Kala Deschanel,
The DP and The Natural, it's probably the most beautiful
sports movies ever photographed. Is just oh yeah, but you
just you just nailed it on the head. D just
like you said, you know, it's about a father and son.
At the end of the day, it's a father and
son and reconciliation and forgiving your father. Yeah, and in
(18:44):
a in a bizarre way, it's like if you really
think about, like, you know, there's all these Christian movies
and feel the Dream just kind of really a movie
about faith, like hearing a voice and doing something, you know,
and like I'm gonna take down my Cornfield. I'm gonna
build a baseball field because I heard a voice. You know,
I'm gonna borrow that from you, that that's our the
male notebook, and really feel that way, that's incredible analogy. Well,
(19:04):
and it's and it's DJ I think and and correct
me if you think I'm wrong. But like, I think
that's what's been wrong with sports movies over the last well,
they don't really try to make them anymore, but you know,
in the early two thousands to late two thousands, they
were still making movies like you know, I guess the
Replacements or Coach Carter any given so anyways, but I
think the problem is is that it's about the sports
and not about the character and relationship and what is
(19:26):
the what is the theme? And is the theme good enough? Yeah? Yeah.
Early on was first coming out, people like, oh, you know, like, oh,
it's about the first all women's baseball team. I'm like, great,
but like, what's the movie about? Like what's what is
it about? Okay? So, and I think the sports movie
fell into sort of the trope cliche of you know,
it's David and David and Goliath and all that stuff,
and the movies that aren't the David and Goliath stories
(19:47):
sometimes are the ones that are the best, you know,
but yeah, there's you know, there's the sports movie sort
of became that mid budgeted, leveled like can we strike
gold and get people excited and do those kind of
things as opposed to maybe really being truly abo where
I actually wanted to see Ben's movie. I gotta watch it.
I gotta street. Yeah, I was gonna ask hibou We'll say, yeah,
it was one of it was a great script. When
(20:08):
I read that script, it was a lot more than
just a basketball movie. Don't go anywhere. Hey, Pam will
be right back after a work for our sponsors. So, dee,
if if you were the pitching coach and you have
to go out to the mount and we gotta you know,
(20:29):
go to the right of the left and we gotta
make a pitching change, have you and you don't have
to tell us who or what movie? That's fine, But
I just want to know you as a director, because
what we're doing on this show is this episode, we're
giving people kind of like an inside you know, look
at the other side of the camera. You know, we're
pulling back the curtain. And so as DJ Caruso over
(20:49):
his career. Ever in the middle of the movie, just
been like, man, I wish I could make a pitching change,
you know, probably on an actor. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, so yeah.
And have you have you ever gone forward and tried to,
you know, be like, what can we do to make
that pitching change? Yeah? I made at one time I
had to make the pitch and change. And then there
(21:09):
was another time where the studio was kind of saying like, hey,
you haven't gone so far, you can do better, and
I was like, no, this person is going to do
it and trust me. And I ended up being right
on that one. Oh. So it's like the Resese. It's
like the front office telling me, hey, this isn't working um,
and I'm like, no, no, trust me, you know this
is gonna work. It's gonna work out. And thank god
it did. But there was a time that, you know,
(21:30):
in the middle of a movie two days actually I
shouldn't say middle two days in I made a pitch
and change because I noticed when we came into rehearsal
this particular actor, uh started to just change things up
in the lines and things, and there you can feel
a little bit discussed, like like a good team. You
have to have harmony, right, you have to have You
don't have that unity, your movie can fall apart the
way a team can fall apart. And I just sensed
(21:52):
that this was kind of this you know, this, this
this unity was going to be broken up if this
actor had had a chance to go further. And would
you mind you don't have you can say no obviously,
but would you mind telling us not the pitching change,
but the reverse of that. What movie that was? It
was in Disturbia and it was the Yeah, it was
the female leading Disturbia And like, that's all really active
(22:12):
before Sarah. Sure, yeah, And so at first, you know,
Daily's like what happened was? And by the way, she
was great, but shya take one, take two and you
have the studio watching dailies and you're linking taketeen, take
fifteen takes Steen on her and like, wait a minute,
something's not jelling. But I was like, no, we're gonna
get it. And she turned out to be great. But yeah,
the movie is absolutely it was just it was just
it was just early on and I think sometimes studios
(22:33):
get get excited, and of course, um, I have a question,
have you seen tire King in Quarantine. I watched two episodes.
I got through too. Yeah, I just didn't go nuts
over it. I'm sorry me neither you didn't. I'm I'm
a pop culture guy, so I'm absolutely losing my mind
over it. And and and the reason I was asking
is because I was gonna ask you out of all
(22:55):
your projects, if you had to cast Carol Baskin and
one of your problems, what role would she have played?
And Sam goes for Joe Exotic. I think Joe Exotic
from what I've seen, I'd have I'd haven't replaced Sam
Jackson's character. And Triple X, I'd have him be the
head of the Triplex. Well, if he ever gets released
(23:19):
from prison deeds, maybe he can. Maybe he could come
start a Triple xplore Carol back. He'd be a lot
cheaper than Sam too, he would, he would be, but
he but he might be difficult on set, that's true.
And Sam is, Sam's a prince man. Sam's the best.
He comes on set, throws down his lines and he's
he's such a pro he's amazing. And then Carol Baskin,
(23:40):
what role would she play? Carols, that's the woman that
and I don't you haven't seen the whole thing, but
I don't want to. I don't want to get anyway.
I don't know her, so I can't tell you. Okay,
fair enough, that's fair, that's fair. He doesn't it. But
some stuff, some stuff goes down with Carol. I will
definitely finish, but I will say it didn't. I was
(24:00):
excited to watch it. Didn't like my fire as much
as ESPN has lit my fire with this whole the
last of course, Yeah, that's that's that. That product is amazing.
Um Dee's last question before we let you go is, uh,
you have a lot of movies that have made the playoffs.
You've had a lot of movies that have even you
know one in the first and second and third round.
What movie to you has won the championship? Which one
(24:23):
is holding the trophy high above the head for DJ
Caruso of of movies that I made that, Yes, sir,
you know that's a really tough question because, uh, it
depends on like it depends on what tournament you're in
and what field you're in, you know what I mean.
There's like the World Championship and then there's like the
little tournament in Iowa that you know, you guys ran
the table, and you want to termamentum the perfect the
(24:45):
biggest of the big, the big one Um. I would
say the one that was the biggest of the big
because it kind of surprised everyone and just would probably
be disturbing, just because like it just it was everyone's like,
nobody heard a shy at the time, You've done a
Disney thing, and all of a sudden, if he came,
you know, Rihanna wrote a song, it just sort of
blew up, Like, you know, my kids didn't think I
(25:05):
was cool until Disturbing came out. Then all of a sudden, right,
I don't know, that was kind of the one that
was sort of a game changer. So if there was
like a championship, i'd say from like on a world scale.
But I still think the first movie the Salton Sea,
which is such a close place in my heart and
there was some personal things I was going through at
the time and put a lot of that into the movie,
and so you just kind of like there's something about
(25:25):
that movie that just it just still embedded deep in
my soul. Well, if you're picking disturb you they were
probably that year going into the playoffs, disturbing. It was
probably what like a sixth or seventh sea for sure,
they were lower. They were lower there. Yeah, I know,
it was really really funny because at the time, and
we don't do this anymore, Frank Derivant always had a
director's dinner, which I always thought everyone in Hollywood would do,
(25:47):
But it was Frank Deravan, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Edgar Wright,
Greg Nicko, Tero who was doing more makeup at them,
but he's on The Walking Dead and we had all
these dinners, and I'll never forget Quentin saying to me, like,
you motherfucker, four weeks in a row at number one.
I can't believe it. Man, you're that that is awesome.
(26:08):
That's a championship right well, by the way, that is
a championship right there. You were You were like the
seventh seed. You upset the two. See you moved on,
then you beat the one seed, then you went to
the five. I mean, that's awesome. That's probably. That was
a good tournament run. That was my Valpariso tournament run.
The brys true of Valparaiso run. I know it's so true. Well,
(26:30):
DJ Cruso, we want to thank you so much for
taking our call and and being so open, uh, you know,
to coming here on the hay Pal Podcast. And we
can't wait to uh you know, hopefully maybe talk to
you again sometimes. Appreciate it, be good, take care of
Thank you. That was it. Great interview with DJ Caruso. Um,
such a good dude, and uh, you know what, what
(26:53):
a great eye for talent, with the exception of finding
you on a basketball court, but what a great eye
for talent. And he's that was so informative by the way. Yeah,
I hope like our listener to see that perspective and
to get a guy like that, you know, um that
does such a great job as a director. To have
that perspective is really really treat Yeah, and we and
(27:13):
you know that we've been talking about having like some
other behind the curtain episodes, or having like Jason Reitman
on the show, maybe some studio heads. Uh. If if
there's anybody that you guys want to hear out there, Look,
there's nobody we can't get ahold of here at the
Hey Pal Podcast, So go ahead of everybody. We can
get ahold of. Everybody doesn't mean they're gonna do the podcast,
(27:33):
but we can get ahold geld of so email us
at Hey Pal pod at gmail dot com. And uh
and maybe we'll get you know whoever you want on
the podcast. It doesn't matter if it's an actor, uh,
an athlete, a producer. But I really loved this interview.
This was very special to us. Dave very cool to
to get that perspective in his thoughts on the industry.
(27:56):
And and uh, I really enjoyed it. Yeah, that was
that was cool. That was cool. Well, well, thank you
guys for listening, and uh, stay tuned. We've got a
really fun one next week. Hey Pal Part two with
special guest Tiffany Hattish drops on Thursday. A Pal is
(28:22):
a production of I Heart Radio, Common Enemy and tender
Foot TV, hosted by Jared Einson and Dave Osco producer
is Kyle Tequila. Executive producer for I Heart Radio is
Shaun Taitone. Executive producers for tender put TV are Donald
Albright Pain. Catch new episodes of Hey Pal every Tuesday
on our radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get
your podcasts, and if you love the show, don't forget
(28:45):
to rate us five stars, share it with your friends,
and subscribe
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