November 4, 2025 • 58 mins
Legendary comedian, actor and director Mike Binder, whose credits include Minority Report, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ray Donovan, and so many more, sits down with Stephen to discuss whether Blankman is a bad movie or not, what it was like directing a Baldwin brother and the legendary story of working with Stephen Spielberg while he was beefing with Ben Affleck!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Today, on One Bad Movie, we have Mike Binder. You
may know the name from a stand up comedian. Also
his work behind the scenes as a director of movies
such as Indian Summer and My favorite bad Movie. Some
people would call it bad, but it's it's a hilarious
camp classic blank Man, and we definitely talk blank Man.
(00:22):
You may also recognize him as an actor. He has
some great big parts. My favorite role of his is
Leo Crowe in Minority Report, where Tom Cruise realizes.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Oh, I am going to kill this man. Very good. Yeah,
and also Binder was famous for starting something called the
Detroit Comedy Jam just kind of like a.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
We didn't get into any of that in the episode,
but this, you know what, we're leaving this in this
is great.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So, but Mike hilarious is a legendary comedy writer. Yeah,
who's also very well respected for his producing and directing. Listen,
he was executive producer of Ray Donovan for a whole season. Right,
A lot of people don't know that.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
So Mike and an old friend, a great director, an
even better writer, uh an even more important, a great
stand up comic.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
You know what, I just realized now he show ran
Ray Donovan. We had Bronson Pinche on with his great,
hilarious behind the scenes story from Ray Donovan, and he
was bound up. He had a binder. Oh my god,
we're coming full circle and bring it back around all
right without further ado a great episode and he name
drops Steven Spielberg and other big names. This is a
(01:32):
great episode without on one bad movie.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
One bad movie. That's a.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Great and bad lips.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
It's so bad, Sam Guilty Lass Suns so bad.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
It's good.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
One bad movie.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Fun because those guys are in their freaking twenties and
I'm going binder. You know, he's my generation and my
son and law Andrews generation are like the last two
generations that understand. You know George Carlin, I mean he's
like a under thirty five accept in the world of comedy.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Oh, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
But even in the clubs, like you could say to
a young person, yeah, George carl On and they're going,
they're yeah, yeah, yeah, But you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
It's absolutely We had this. We were talking to these
kids and we were talking about Vinnie, the kid that
went on last night and said it's so great to
see new comedians, can you? But but I loved hear
seeing you and our Sinio was on that night, right, Well,
you're here the night our senio was right. And they said,
(02:58):
how about are there any older comedians that we should
know about? And I said, well, George Carlin and Richard
Pryor and they were who are they? No idea right,
No idea right. But that's the same thing with movies though.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
And not just right now, like with the resurgence of
SNL because they got a big movie coming out now,
that big documentary biopic. I don't know if you saw that,
but SNL is gonna flood the media in its own
way because it has that power with that generation. But
it just amazes me what we just said was, yeah,
(03:38):
even younger comics that they don't get the George Carlin history,
that the power of that foundation of that generation of comics.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Well, no, I think young comedians do.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
When you it's kind of my point. Yeah, although of
course you'll run into under thirty five years old kids,
guys that'll not know as much. Yes, But what's wild
about stand up comedy is what you just said. Most
of them will know the history because young guys watched
(04:15):
you last night, and it was cool for them. Like,
first thing I said to him was like, yeah, it's
kind of funny when my kind of puts his little
chubby little forum on the mic stand and kind of
looks at his toe and wiggles it and thinks about
it for and these guys are going, They're like looking
at me like, wow, they were waiting for whatever was
(04:36):
coming out of your mouth, right, you know what I'm saying,
And they're going, yeah, yeah, yeah, And I'm like, yeah, man,
that's the whole power of the pause, and just you know,
no one really had to really have fun with the audience.
These guys are like me, you know, they were like, yeah,
that's that's another frequency.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah yeah, But they know that too in different ways
because people like that keep saying it like that.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
But also, like what I was gonna say is the
new comedians.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
You were right, they know the history.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
They don't really. It's like they know from documentaries. They know,
they know school George Carlin was, they know snippets that
they've seen of him on the YouTube, they know stories,
but they don't really know the work. And the reason
why is because it's the same. It's the same reason
(05:34):
why when you talk to young actors and filmmakers, you
talk to him about a Preston Sturgis movie or a
Billy Wilder movie. That's that's Greek to them, let alone.
Even even you know some of the early, the first
Satura night live movies, that's too ancient for them. They
(05:57):
don't they don't want it. They know of even people
in the business. They know the history what they're supposed
to know to have good conversations and know where it
came from, but they don't really watch the movies and
understand the movies. That's what I found because I made
this five part series about the comedy Store I Don't
(06:20):
know you know? And I interviewed all comics, one hundred
and twenty comedians wow. And I interviewed some really great
new comedians and that are really successful right now. And
there were a few that just flat out said, I
(06:41):
don't know any history of stand up comedy. I even't
care about stand up coming until I gotn't do it
right well. But most of them would say, yeah, I know.
I just I would study it as a kid, and
I'd say, well, did you watch you know prior second
movie set in Second special that he did in Long
(07:02):
Beach or this, and they'd go, no, I never saw
any of his specials. Well, how did just how do
you know his work?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Because I've read about him in a couple documentaries, that's
not you got to watch his work, right, And they
don't think like that, you know, And I get that.
I understand that. You know, everyone's good, you got there's
so many shortcuts to knowing things about things nowadays.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
When I was a kid, Halloween would be coming up.
So if one of the Baldwin family members, one of
the brothers, was doing Monty Python, you know, I'll cut
your arm off. It's only a flesh wound, you know. Yeah,
if we were dressing like you know, we tuck an
(07:51):
arm man and you know, you had one arm hanging
that was caught and leading and it was disgusting, and
you had to dress like a knight. And we had
a fake horse and you know, we got into it,
but we we like performed it on Halloween. We had swords,
yea Monty Pytha wasn't just those guys from England. We
(08:14):
dressed up for Halloween and quoted the film and did
so because it was funny. It was so funny beyond funny,
and kids, younger folks don't know that today, Like they'll
they'll see clips social media blah blah blah blah blah,
you know, and then I'll talk to somebody like I
(08:37):
was with a friend of mine at a sushi place
and Fred Durst was there. It's a musician. Yeah, yeah,
fred Durst, what limp biscuit. So I was there with
the young musician friend of mine and I go see
that guy, I said. I was at a big stadium
here in California once and like thirty years ago, and
(08:59):
the whole place was like moving from that guy's band.
There was ninety thousand people there. He was like really
Andrew Dice Clay, I went to see him in Madison
Square Garden and it was like Metallica was there.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
It was like so now bye.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
By the way, I was just gonna say, the money
Python movies hold up really well. People that do watch
him now, they ok up really well because they were
so ahead of their time.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Oh gosh, yes, they hold up so well.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yes, because they're just nuts and most comedy doesn't. Most
most real comedy movies are of its time and they
just fall you watch them like like it's a mad
mad world or biodome you know.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Oh sorry, did I just say that? No, I call
it the fart frequency. There's like a dumb and dumber frequency,
you know what I mean. But there's like a blank
man frequency.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yes, but the fiche But but but the mony Python movies,
because I mean they were making transsexual jokes forty years ago, right,
you know there's this one joke the mom you and.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Dad was it rape?
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Well at first, it just like just little asides. It
was just like that back then.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
You could almost do that ship because nobody heard it.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
They didn't know.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
They didn't think to get insulted by it.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
You know, they weren't. They weren't attuned to getting pissed
off at everything.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
But it was just so they do. They would just
do these jokes.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
Like oh, oh, I'm going to be a woman. When
did that start? It doesn't matter because I them on
now forever.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
You know, you look at it, like forty years ago,
I think all kinds of jokes were getting ready to
make a big comeback. Yeah no, it's just a weird conversation,
you know in social media.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah no, But but I'm saying these guys It was
very organic to them, and they weren't looking to piss
people off.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
No, they weren't looking whatever the irony of.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Stuff was and in their lives and what they saw. Yes,
but they and people didn't take offense at it.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So I'm sure some did some, you know, so the
conservative Christian movement broad my dollar.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Honestly, I think I think these guys, these guys were
so crazy, so out there there were people, didn't they
they didn't hear the offense. First of all, half of
them at the time, they were men dressed like women.
They never had a woman in their movies. Okay, they
(12:05):
were all men dressed like women. They were They did blackface,
they did everything, you know, they just did. They didn't
ask what the rules were. They just were doing their
own thing and they never thought about it. So I
don't think that there. I really don't believe there was
(12:26):
big controversy with their stuff. They weren't super successful. They
were successful, but they weren't like box office hits, like.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
But only over time, as as like a cult following.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yeah, well, you didn't record anything. We were talk saying.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Everything recorded all of that.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Oh No, I don't know, I don't I just I
didn't know what you said.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
A lot of crazy stuff, Mike, this stuff saying the
stuff you buggering that guy in the woods.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
I should have pulled that.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Out now, define buggering. Now that we've been talking about.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
My running really hard and then one person stops.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I wouldn't I wouldn't be able to run that fog, Mike,
let me ask you another abstract question.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Yes, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
You and I have a lot of history. Yeah, good history.
Remember the first thing I said to you when I
auditioned for the first movie I worked on you.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
I'll never forget it.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
I'm sitting in the living room kitchen area of Outlaw Productions.
You walk in, you take your motorcycle helmet off, You
walk up to me, and you go, do you have
any advil?
Speaker 1 (13:46):
I said, what, I've got a headache? Do you have anything?
Is that monks walking into my audition? I walk into
the kitchen area, there's the.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Director, got any advil?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
And then you gave me the greatest nickname ever on
a set in history, which.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
Was Taz Taz the Tasmanian Devil.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Help me to tasks. I have no idea why I
really I do my favorite stories? Oh no, Okay, is
it decent at all?
Speaker 3 (14:18):
You're gonna cuss? No, okay, I'm not gonna cuss. Are
you kidding me? Why would I do that? This is? This?
Speaker 6 (14:25):
Is?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Are we? What are we?
Speaker 5 (14:28):
In the Christian network?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
What are we?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Where are we?
Speaker 3 (14:32):
I didn't I don't even know who we are.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
I'm not gonna cuss.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
A bad movie factory.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
That's where I belong.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
I'm on the right lane at least.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
If I asked you about bad movies, would you have
an opinion?
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah, I've made a bunch of them. You've made a bunch,
I don't think so. No, No, I've made a bunch. No,
that's because I spent more money than you. To me,
I would say, I'd say I made two or three
of them. But actually the one that everyone always calls
(15:16):
me out on being the bad one.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
So, Mike Binder, what's your one bad movie that I made? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Well, it's funny because if people call me out, and
whenever I see someone's writing about me, they'll they'll say,
this guy actually made blank Man. But it's not a
bad movie, and it's aged really well and people love it.
And when we made it, the studio thought they had
a huge hit right, because it tested so well and
(15:48):
audience loved it, and it was just so funny. And
you know, Damon Wayne's and David Allen Greer were the
stars of In Living Color at the time, and they
were the two funniest guys at that time. It was
before Jim Carrey. Really. They launch took and they they
did their movie reviews together, and you know, and they
(16:11):
had a bunch of they were they were a great
comedy team and they were so funny in blank Man,
and the studio was sure they had a hit, and
they spent a lot of money on the movie and
it came out and it died. It died, and it
(16:33):
was so funny. Because Damon wanted to do Handyman, which
is a character and in Living Color, which was a
great one of his favorite, most famous characters, and he
couldn't get the rights to it right, so he made
up blank Man.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
And Handyman.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
We just Handy the handicapped guy, but he was and
I smacked people in the face and just tell him off.
And it was writing his strike zone for his fans.
The blank Man was this, you know, kind of almost
I won't say it because you're not allowed to save
it awkward. Put this guy and he awkward, and he
(17:18):
was effeminine and he's out, you know, whenever you get hit.
And even as blank Man, it wasn't a it wasn't
that version of Damon's funny. It was funny as hell.
And this is all in the rearview mirror. All the
materials were this really soft guy getting beat up and
(17:42):
shrieking and ah, you know, and and that's not what
he had just come off of mo money and and
this big Bruce Willis hit hit that he did and
in and his audience wanted to see him as a badass,
so they didn't go see it right. But over the
years they went and saw it, and they saw it
(18:04):
on cable and loved it. I mean, people loved that movie. Kids,
we were just talking. Kids took or treat as blank Man.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So that's now question. Blank Men's a cult classic. How
did that come to be?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
How I became on it? I had just had this
movie directed it. I had I directed it, Yeah, Damon
wrote it and produced it and started it. And I
had just had this movie out called Indian Summer. I
had to deal with Disney and I went to to
see the movie Indian Summer on a Saturday night play
(18:40):
in Century City and Damon walks out and he says, Hey,
I love that movie. I want I actually wanted to
see it because I wanted to talk to you about
directing a movie I'm doing at Sony. Yeah, he said,
I I really I want you to talk to you
(19:00):
about this movie. And it's like a spoof on Batman,
which it was, it really was. And Sam Raimie growing
up was one of my best friends. We grew up
together and he was in my movie Indian Summer, and
he had done this movie The Dark Night, which I
(19:21):
always loved and I always because I always loved Batman,
and so to me, I thought, okay to do a
comedy Batman. And my agent at the time said, you
can't do it. I said, I haven't read the script yet.
He goes, it doesn't matter. You can't do it. You
have a deal with Disney and you can't make a
(19:44):
movie with Damon Waynes. You can't make a comedy with
Damon Waynes. After and Indian Summer wasn't a hit, but
it was successful in the first few weekends and people
liked it, and crossing the Bridge people Disney made me
a big deal because of Crossing the Bridge. Jeff Katzenberg
and Michael Eisner loved that movie. And but I didn't
(20:09):
listen to people back then.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I was just gonna say. The best thing they could
have said to you was you can't do that.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Yeah, So I thought, you know what it's like producing
a friend's album. This is like producing a friend's album.
What's it gonna hurt me? You know it's his it's
his movie, he's the director. Movie came out and tanked.
I went into movie jail for three years. Damon made
five other movies in the meantime, and my agent was.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Like, I told you this was gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
I told you this was gonna happen. But but and
Jeff Katzenberg called me up said why are you doing
this movie at Sony with Damon? I have a cop
movie here that he should do, and you, the two
of you.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Guys, can do it. Bring him here to do it.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
And I went, no, I want to go do and
and j said it's gonna bomb. It's gonna bomb, and
the cop movie is what he should be doing and
what you should be doing. And I went, okay, thanks
for sharing.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Jeff Katzenberg what does he know?
Speaker 5 (21:14):
Yeah, I still the eighth Dwarf.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
I still say that.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Remember that, Remember that Eighth Dwarf.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
No, I don't mean, I don't tell that story.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
I don't tell that story.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
I don't know that story.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Jeffrey Katzenberg got upset with a relative of mine. Oh
that's right.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I do remember that.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
I spouted off in the trades many years ago, decades ago.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
I remember this. How was it Disney at the time
that the Marrying Man.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
And my brother was quoted I think in Variety or something.
I don't know what it was, some some trade rag
not variety of right is terrific thing. But uh, Alex's
responsive quote to like some criticism I guess by Katzenberg
publicly was oh, well, I'm not really interested in what
(22:03):
he thinks of me. I'm more interested, like in what
his gardener thinks of me. And he goes because this guy,
you know, he's like the eighth Dwarf greedy. And that
was published in the trade.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
No, I remember, I remember.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
And uh, we're gonna, we're gonna leap some of this
out here or something.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Oh no, but this is this is what's gonna make
this thing great.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
And it just cracks me. Whenever somebody says Katzenberg, I
just go it's going because I'm thinking I'm seeing him
gardening or something.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Oh no, he he, he was real hard on me.
He said, don't do this, and then he dropped me,
you know, and he just you know, it was funny,
but it's okay. He did his thing. I did mine,
and you know, he's worth billions and I've got several
thousand dollars in the.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Band One Bad Movie podcast. Hey, there's nowhere else to
go from here, bros.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Nowhere to go the story that I loved telling about you.
We first movie we met on and we crossing the bridge. Yes, sir,
we going to Minneapolis and it's a small little indie movie.
(23:28):
We've got to make it. Thirty days that brutal, that
should have been about fifty days, brutal and all at night.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
And you were a whore with the camera. Yeah, you
just you were.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
I never made a movie before. How could we be
a whore? I was a virgin. I was a virgin
that loved so anyway.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Anyway, yes, sir, you say to me, you and Josh
and Jason Gedrick are sharing one trailer. Yes, that's how
low budget this thing is. And you say, Mike, I
just got off the phone with big brother. I just
got off the phone with Alec. He's doing this movie
(24:12):
Marrying Man. We talked for forty five minutes. At the
beginning of the call, they're knocking on the door. They
want him on the set, and he goes, I'll be
right there the whole time.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Every ten minutes, Alec, we need you, Alec, we need you.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
He said.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
God Mike, the way he handled it. Finally, after about
forty five minutes, he goes, I think I should go.
They need me, and I swear to God, I'm I'm
wedding myself.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
My pants are soaked. This is what I'm gonna deal with.
This is what this guy looks up to.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
The very first big scene you have, we're shooting in
a guess at a car dealership. And again, I've never
directed anything. I've had three days of shooting already, but
we're shooting a big scene in a car dealership and
we can't get you out of the trailer. And the producer,
(25:17):
Jeff just keeps going over, go just get him, just
get him?
Speaker 1 (25:22):
And was I tired?
Speaker 3 (25:24):
You weren't tired. You weren't tired. You were wired. No, no, no,
you weren't. But but and Jeff goes, I go, oh
my god, he's doing his older brother. He's doing big brother.
I said to the producer, go get him. He comes back,
(25:45):
he goes, he's not ready to come out yet. I said,
this is not that.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
So I said, okay, just you know what, we have
to shoot this, rewrite this scene. You take his line,
you take this line, and we do the scene without
him his careara, and we start shooting and all the sudden.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Whoa, whoa, you come running around. What are you doing?
Speaker 5 (26:07):
I go, You're not in this scene anymore.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
The smartest thing you could have done. I didn't realize
it at the time, taking actors lines right.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
I realized that it was just a It was a
survival thing for me.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
But I've done in my whole life.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Now you're not here, I'll light you out of the scene.
Speaker 5 (26:22):
I don't care.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
But and you were whoa, whoa. I go, Stevie, you're
not in the scene anymore. You're not in the scene.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
Just let us shoot this. You're you're it's fine.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
You pull me aside, you go. I will never do
that again. I will never do that again.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
I don't remember why I was delayed. I truly don't remember.
Was I constipated.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Uh, let's say you were okay, okay, I I actually
think you had diphtheria, is what it was. It was
a quick one hour about of diphtheria and when it
went away fast okay.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
So hold on. First time I ever got on a plane,
I was seventeen. Alex flew me out to la he
was living in Venice. Blah blah blah blah, like never
been in an airplane U til I was seventeen. I go
to the set a hunt for October. It's in the
sound stage. They have their trailers in the stage, and
then the set of the submarine. My brother goes.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Sh sit there, don't talk to anyone. He goes Sean,
he's gonna come out of that trailer and he's gonna
walk right by you, and he's gonna take the place
of his stand, and then he's gonna speak, and then
(27:45):
we're gonna cut, and then he goes back to his trailer,
and then everybody breaks the setup for.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
The next shot, and I go got it, But I
don't realize is in homies? What's his name Sean Connery,
Sean Connery sorry. And Connery's deal he doesn't come out
(28:12):
of his trailer till the cameras rolling. So when you
were trying to get me on the set of Crossing
the Brie this guy and sound rolling and background and
and you're on the sub I'm like, like everybody's everybody's
acting in the middle of a submarine. You're here, we're rolling,
(28:33):
and you hear we're rolling. And a door opens and
Sean Connery comes out of his trailer and walks this
little carpet right to where his standing is and standing
he doesn't step up, and you know, tapping on the
shoulder and think it just ways to come. Counnery steps
in the camera goes, could I get one ping please?
Speaker 7 (29:00):
He's like God, and he goes, I mean, I mean
my seat, you're going, I guess he walks by me.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
I'm going.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
It was mind blowing. I bet that level of filmmaking.
I bet that they built the whole set of the submarine.
But Connery, you know.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
What I mean, It's really funny because you didn't know it.
But your deal on crossing that bridge was that you
didn't come out of the trailer until you we were
filming a scene that you had just been cut out.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
I gotta read the fine print, Mike, Yeah, you gotta
read got read the print.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
But I'll tell you what those those early days.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Can I tell you one more thing. I think your
indie films, your little films, Indian summer crossing the bridgetff
like that. It's just cool now because that's gonna be
your leg see. Not just the stand up shit and
everything up. But I just mean that cool films, quality films,
real films, touching films stand on their own. You kind
of catch little gifts from the most unique places. And
(30:14):
the best direction I ever got, and I worked with
Oliver Stone and Brian DePalma. Remember the best direction I
ever got was from you. I'll never forget this. I'm
doing this heavy scene, monks. I'm like, you know, Stella
in my head, I'm Stella. I'm stella ing. I swear
(30:34):
to god. I had to do eleven takes, not it
was taking nine or ten or eleven, and Mike had
come up to me every second or third one. It's
going great, getting great stuff. Can I just and I go,
just give me one more bro every time he goes,
Can I just I go, stupid, Johnny Man. You know,
(30:58):
I'm like that. Know, I'm just I'm just trying to
just open the floodgates of anything. You know. I don't know.
I just think that's gonna work. So I get to nine,
I get the time, I probably get to like eleven,
and Mike goes, that's great. I want you just try
one like this. I'm like, what he's try one like this.
(31:24):
I'm like what he's like, Just say the words. Look
at me, don't act, don't act. You're there, say the words.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
And I like this.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I swear to God, monks, I go, just say the words.
It's one of my first films. I'm going, just everything
must be Richard Burton. Uh And I just like this, okay,
(32:03):
just like I hadn't thought of that. I literally hadn't
thought of like a revelation on me. From that film forward,
I flipped all my work. That's what you don't realize.
I then found the two or three places to a
(32:24):
mount that made sense if it made sense in the work,
and then the rest was all just say the fucking
and in a in a sense, that's really the greatest philosophy.
Less is more.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
That's yeah, I think so and to me one of
the greatest underrated actors of all times with Spencer Tracy.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
And I thought you were gonna say me, no, no, sir, no,
that's so sweet. But Spencer Tracy, welcome to one body.
Spencer Tracy. Love him, Spencer Tracy.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
His whole thing was just the secret great acting is
say your lines and don't bump into the furniture, you know, and.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
And beyond time. I must have not heard that one.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Yeah, but he just he just simplified it for everybody
at that time.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
You know, I have one more one bad movie question.
I was gonna tell you what I thought was my
bad movie. Hurry up.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
I didn't do hurry up. That was another guy.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
You don't do hurry up.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
I don't do hurry up. Okay, Stevie, you come bring
me on your podcast. I got I got two three
hours to go and get into it and let and
let everything out.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
We got plenty of films, mister Binder. Don't worry no.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
I made this movie.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Called Man about Town for Lionsgate with Ben Affleck. It's
really interesting. I had written it for Steven Spielberg. I
had Steven Spielberg loved the upside of Anger and he
saw me in the Contender. Oh wow, he saw me
(34:12):
in the Contender and he put me in a minority report.
And then I showed him The Upside of Anger, which
I was editing, and he said, we got to do
something together. I want you to write something for me.
And at the time we both lived up in the
(34:34):
Palisades and we were talking about, you know, power and
the struggles. And also he was going through a thing
where there was a guy who broke into his house
late at night and was gonna they found notes. The
guy was gonna electrocute Steven and beat him up, and
(34:57):
it was just horrible guy with Kate jail what he
was with Kate.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
So I wrote this thing with Stephen called Man about Town,
about this big agent who has a stalker and destroys
his life. And I worked with him in his office
for a long time and this thing, and he was
(35:23):
so into it. I mean, one day we're sitting there
writing and his assistant who's now his producer, Christy, says,
keeps buzzing Stephen, He's at the gate. You're gonna have
to wrap this up. Okay, we keep He's telling me, okay,
we'll try this scene and write something like this and
working forty five minutes, goes by Stephen. He's in the lobby.
(35:45):
You gotta he can't do this. Another twenty five minutes
goes by Steven. She comes in, Stephen, you can't do this.
He's here. He's here, he's waiting for you. He goes, Mike,
I gotta go moknock him Bageum Began is here. Prime
Minister of Israel is waiting to But he's just like.
Speaker 5 (36:05):
So into developing this screenplay. And that was what kind
of guy was, you know?
Speaker 3 (36:09):
So we we wrote this screenplay or I wrote it,
he developed, he was gonna direct it. And I'm in
London scoring the Upset of Anger and he calls me.
We're getting ready to make the movie. He's gonna direct
my movie Man about Town. It's like sixty five million
(36:31):
dollar movie, which is low budget for him. Yeah, but
it had so much movement and craziness. And he says, Mike,
I got bad news. I'm not making this movie. Kate
talked me out of it. What do you mean it's
too autobiographical. I don't want to do something autobiographical right now.
(36:55):
But it's a great movie. You wrote a great script.
I think you should direct it, and if you want
to direct it, will will make it here a DreamWorks
for you to direct. But I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
I said, Okay, that's too bad, Flowers. No, no, that's
not what happened.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
So then the guy this is I'm making this a
long story short that the guy, the production guy at
DreamWorks says, Okay, if Mike's gonna direct it, it's an
eighteen million dollar movie, you know, and with.
Speaker 5 (37:34):
Steven is this with Mike it's eh.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
So I but I wanted to do it, and I
didn't want to rewrite it. I wanted to do it
with the swooping and the and the effects and the
and the camera shooting around this guy, and that's all
the stuff that I thought Steven would do great. Right,
So I said, fine, I'll do it for eighteen I'll
figure out where to do it. And then Ben Affleck
(38:04):
comes to my editing room and watches Upside of Anger.
He says, I want to do your next movie. I said, well,
I'm doing this movie that man about town a DreamWorks said,
I know, I want to do it. I haven't even
read the script yet, but I want to do it.
I said, Okay, that's why I wanted you to see
the movie. So we make a deal. He's going to
do it. We shake hands, we'll do it. I called Stephen.
(38:27):
Stephen says, no, can't do it with him. He just
we just bombed with a movie with him. He's got
that whole JL thing going on now, and I have
other problems with him. So and it's a good story too,
because I know it's amazing. I love both these guys,
and they're both smarter than me, but they both kind
(38:50):
of acted like idiots, and so did I. So Stephen says, Mike,
let me tell you something. One time he was going
with my god daughter Gwyneth, and we all went on
a trip to Spain, I believe it was, and my
son was a little boy, was playing in the pool
(39:14):
and he got out of the pool and Ben came
in fully dressed, and my son pushed Ben into the pool,
and Ben got really mad at him, and he came
out of the pool and he picked him up and
he threw him back into the pool and made my
son cry. I said, okay, what what where does this
have to do with anything? He goes. I just don't
(39:35):
like to work with him, plus his last two movies bombed,
So find somebody else, anyone but him. He's cold as hell. Okay, Stephen.
So so I call Ben. Ben's agent said it's not
going to work. It's not gonna work. Ben calls me up.
(39:57):
He goes, did Steven Spielberg tell you I there his
kid the water? Is that what happened? Is that why
I'm not on your movie?
Speaker 1 (40:03):
He just what he said.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
I said, no, who No, he didn't say yes he did.
He told you I threw his kid.
Speaker 5 (40:11):
In the water. That's why I'm not on the movie.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
So I called Stephen Backer, go listen. I really think
I want to use Ben. He's the right guy. He goes, Okay,
use Ben. Next morning, I get a call from my agent.
DreamWorks is dropping the picture. They're letting you, but they're
gonna let you take it somewhere else. So the company
(40:36):
Media eight that made Upside of Anger lets me make it.
They finance it for fourteen million dollars and Lionsgate distributes it,
and I make it up in Vancouver.
Speaker 5 (40:51):
Ben is cold as shit, and it's your Siberia and.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
We have a great time making it. But I make
a shitty movie. Ben, Yeah, Ben's in it. Okay, I
make a shitty movie. I just made a shitty movie.
I made some severe casting mistakes.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (41:17):
I just that's you know, I just.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
It was too much for me to bite off. There
were too many gear shifts. Anyway, Uh, the movie comes out,
Lionsgate sends it straight to video. Wow, and it's a
it's not a good movie. There's some great stuff in it.
John Cleese's great in it. Ben's great in it. Rebecca
(41:46):
ramp Mecca's Romain, Rebecca Romain Lettuce is really good in it.
But anyway, so Ben, his career goes so cold, and
then it goes like that, like that takes off right.
(42:08):
He wins the Oscar for Argo. About three years later,
he beats Spielberg and he's at the Academy Award and
they're hugging, and I text him I'm watching it, and
then I go, Ben, tonight you could throw Spielberg's whole
(42:31):
family in the pool and get away with it. About
an hour later, phone rings, it's Affleck at the Academy.
He goes, that made me laugh. So I said, well,
just when I saw him hugging you, you know, I
told Stephen that story too.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
I go, he goes, yeah, I think that night.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
He's but it shows. It's just it just that was
like my one moment of dealing with those super hot shots.
And they were like great guys yet at the same
time assholes.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
They were just like season they were like what for
a moment they were they were like everybody else, Well,
that's kind of cool. They could get over it.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
Yeah, Steven Spielberg is a genius and a great guy,
but he can be an asshole. And Ben Affleck is
a great guy and he could be a bigger asshole,
you know.
Speaker 5 (43:22):
But by the.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Same token, both of them can go, yeah, I can
be an asshole, you know to me in that story,
if I had made a great movie, that story would
have been different.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Okay, I made a come would have been different.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Maybe I made I made a boner, a stinker, you know.
I just it didn't come together. So that allowed everybody
to be kind of shrimpy around it, you know, so
that because you know, the thing is, they're not your friends.
Speaker 5 (44:00):
They're not your friends. It's just business, you know.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
I'll that's part.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
Let me tell you. I'll tell you a really great story.
I was doing Indian Summer casting it and This is
when Katzenberg and Eisner loved me for like one minute
because they saw crossing the bridge at Eisner's house late
one night.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
They said, that's our childhood.
Speaker 5 (44:20):
Let's let's make a deal with this guy.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
You remember this, And then I showed him this Summer
Camp script and there and Eisner was like, I went.
Speaker 5 (44:29):
To Summer Camp. It's my life.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Yeah, do it.
Speaker 3 (44:32):
So I'm casting it and everybody's coming to read. And
John Travolta, who's cold as hell, cold as can be,
it's before pulp fiction.
Speaker 5 (44:44):
Cold cold, cold, like ice.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Cube cold, comes in and he wants to read for
the part that they ended up having me use Vince
Bano for because he was in there Hit Alive that
had just come so and Vince did a good job,
but John wanted that role. And I would go like
every two weeks while we were casting this thing with
(45:08):
Bobby Neumayer and go up and meet with jeff Katzenberg
about the casting because he was heavily involved because he
really wanted to make sure my next movie was gonna
be a good movie, right, and he he Bobby said, well,
(45:28):
you're gonna have to run John Travolta by Jeffrey they're
not gonna say yes to that. I said, well, I'll
talk to him, and Travolta comes in. He goes, I
would love to do this movie. Plus not only that,
it'd be here with Michael and Jeffrey. They're like family
to me. They're my uncle's. I did Greece, and I
(45:50):
did Saturday Night Fever, and I did all this stuff
over paramount with them. This is my family. It'd be
like coming home, right. So I go up there and
I'm Bobby goes, all right, so tell me who you
want for the row of Matthew and I go I
think John Travolta would be really good, and kats me goes,
(46:12):
he's a bum. He's a he's a bum. Nobody wants
them unless he's Vinny Barberino. Nobody wants anything to do
with him. And I thought, right there, in that moment,
we wereized that's the difference. We fall in love with
each other and think, oh man, you know they're my uncles,
(46:33):
they're my cousins.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
That's my buddy.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
And they think, all right, I used him, he's done,
or I can keep using him. He's helping me. I'm
helping him. It's just business. If not he's a bum
and that was that cut and dry, and he didn't
have anything else to say about it. He goes and
again help fiction comes out. See on the Oscars, Jeffrey
(46:56):
Katzenberg's hugging John Travolta, And that's just the.
Speaker 5 (47:00):
Way life is.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
It's okay, Jeffrey Katzenberg is an asshole. Okay, that's never
gonna change.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
I've never met the man I have.
Speaker 3 (47:14):
He's an asshole, but he's also got a lot of
good qualities.
Speaker 5 (47:18):
I can't none spring to mind, but.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Travolta is a great guy.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
But you can also obviously he's just too romantic, you know,
And look at jeff Katzenburg made much smarter decisions in
his life than I have. Okay, so who's the asshole? Really?
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Hey, we should do in the future again, I'm just
improvisationally coming up with a great idea, Mike, Okay, I
should do a romantic comedy with John Travolta in the future.
Matt like, now like and let him let him look
however he wants, let him just look however he wants. Look,
(48:07):
let him look however he wants. We'll work around it. Yeah,
I think, because because I met him once and I'm
a huge fan, and I think it would be like
a great buddy thing I could do with John Travolta.
You could come up with something, couldn't you. I loved
(48:28):
let's do something. I love John, but not like a
sci fi thing. I don't like when he does futuristic
sci fi. That's scared. That's that's the John Travolta. I
love no John Travoltas. I like him when he's cute
and sassy.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
He's got so much talent. He's got beyond goddamn talent,
beyond and before my favorite, my favorite. I love when
I got an idea. We're walking down the street, you
and I and Albert Brooks when he came over to
my house and we walked with Albert Brooks, we're just
talking to me. He goes, Stevie goes, Albert.
Speaker 5 (49:06):
I just had a great idea.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
This is the one moment Mike Finder dreading.
Speaker 5 (49:13):
He goes, let me pitch something to you?
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Do you mind? And Alberts. I can just hear Albert's buttthole.
He was walking his dog.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
It's it's like a sacred time we walked at night and.
Speaker 5 (49:29):
Let me pitch something.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
Can I pitch a project to you.
Speaker 5 (49:35):
It's just you in.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
Yeah, yeah, you do it. So we're walking and I
know Mike Binder a long time and he goes, hey,
so we're gonna hang out and then after the girls
can hang out our wives, but I gotta do this walk.
I go on this walk with John Favreau and Albert Brooks,
and Favreau's out of town. So like a dog, I'm going,
(50:04):
what do you mean, Mike? He goes, why don't you
come with me? And Albert I'm like, it's like the
wildest massive peak with Jedi mind trick of all time.
I'm sitting there going and then I become travolto, like
what you know. I'm just like, we're you know what.
I'm like so cool? I know you well enough. So
we go on this walk. The amount of information pop
(50:28):
culturally that Albert Brooks.
Speaker 3 (50:29):
Is we wait the best. Let me tell you the
best line, the opening line. And this is why Albert's
so brilliant and funny.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
You eat the best.
Speaker 3 (50:38):
Stevie and I come out of my front door. Albert
comes up with his dog and he goes, oh, you
said it was gonna be billy, Hey, how are you?
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Then he goes, oh, no, just kidding, Hey, how are you?
Speaker 3 (50:54):
So?
Speaker 1 (50:54):
We're walking like forty minutes and I'm just doing a
lot of listening, and finally I just I have to
blurt out just what I think maybe something Albert might appreciate.
I'm swinging right, you know, I know how fast this
(51:15):
ball's coming, but I don't care. I go, just what
you said, I go, mister Brooks, one second. Mike begged
me not to do this, but I'm serious. I think,
just quick pitch, here we go. I think, what do
you think of the sound of this idea for you
as a future project? Ready? Albert Brooks an imax, you
(51:40):
just hear footsteps for like six eight eleven steps, you know,
and Mike's sake, Imax, you.
Speaker 5 (51:50):
Know what, I tell him what he said?
Speaker 1 (51:51):
Just say it? Tell him what Albert said.
Speaker 6 (51:53):
No, you say, because it sounds like I'd have to
leave the house? No, correct, He goes, would I have
to leave the house? I'm going to say that fast forward.
You literally, it's me with a legend and a legend,
and you know, and I just thought, I just want
(52:13):
to see what But Albert's reaction to this, and his
response is what I have to leave the house in
order to do something called imax.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
That's what he said, right, No, he's just one time
I'm walking with him, there's only one. Well, the first
time I have the first time I ever walked with him.
And then I'm living in the neighborhood. He moves in
about eight doors down and all of a sudden, I'm
on my porch when I spoke in a cigar and
he walks over and he goes, Mike, I heard you
lived here.
Speaker 5 (52:47):
How you doing. Yeah, and that's how you met him.
Speaker 3 (52:52):
No, I'd met him a couple of times earlier, but
that's how Yeah, your house.
Speaker 1 (52:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (52:56):
So we just started on these nightly walks in and
John joined us, and Diane calls it jew jogging, Jewish jogging,
you know. But but he the first time we everyone
on a walk together at night, he stops next to
this construction. Uh, you know the crates that they the
(53:19):
big what are the canisters that they put there, you know,
you're talking about like when they're building a house, they
put they bring these containers containers, and he just stops
and he looks at it for a minute and he goes, I.
Speaker 5 (53:32):
Don't like the new Fords. He just walks. He just
and he he makes us laugh so hard.
Speaker 3 (53:42):
He just wild, he says the most.
Speaker 1 (53:45):
He was talking the night that the Row versus.
Speaker 3 (53:49):
Way Roe versus Wade band came out. He said, He goes,
I don't know why everyone's making a big deal about this.
Speaker 1 (53:58):
Here's what you do.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
You have everybody on a cruise ship right off thing,
go off shore and get your abortions. And here's the tagline.
It's the only cruise you'll ever go on. You'll come
home eight pounds lighter. He's sick, and he.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
Just like, I go, did you write that? Beheaded that?
Speaker 5 (54:17):
And he goes, no, I.
Speaker 3 (54:17):
Just thought of it.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
You called Steven Spielberg an aholt.
Speaker 3 (54:27):
So he is ken can be. But it's okay.
Speaker 5 (54:30):
He's a human being.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
But that's the difference between me and you. See you
can you can do that? Why no? I can't.
Speaker 3 (54:39):
I mean, it's.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
Look it. I don't care. I don't care.
Speaker 3 (54:47):
It's a true story.
Speaker 5 (54:48):
He knows it.
Speaker 3 (54:49):
He knows the story. He'll be happy to hear it.
If he hears it.
Speaker 1 (54:53):
You know, all right, thank you again. I love you
to die pleasure. You're the funniest mother. Effort. Now after me.
Speaker 5 (55:02):
After you I was gonna say, what can you talk about?
Speaker 1 (55:06):
What's coming up for you? What can you just as
we say goodbye here, what are some projects you can
talk about.
Speaker 3 (55:14):
I just doing a lot of stand up comedy. I'm
getting ready to make another movie that I'm really excited about,
but I don't want to talk about. Okay, and then
after that, but that's a big movie. Yeah, it's a
big movie.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
That's all I'm going to say for people.
Speaker 3 (55:28):
And I'm just really really loving stand up comedy again.
I stopped doing stand up for twenty eight years. I
started when I was seventeen. I was one of the
youngest comedians ever to be on The Tonight Show. I
had my own HBO specials. I just did everything, you know,
as a young guy, toured the country as opening act
(55:50):
for some big stars and played club for who named
one or two please the Pointer Sisters, Kenny Loggins, that's
a yeah, I mean, I opened for God, I opened
for Miles Davis when I was a kid. Wow, you know,
I mean, But but I just was all too young,
(56:12):
and by the time I was thirty, I was done.
I was making movies. I started making movies and having babies,
and it just I was so obsessed with it for
so many years, and then I just burned out on it.
And then twenty eight years later, twenty twenty twenty six
years later, I got an income and call to make
(56:34):
a five parts documentary for Showtime about the Comedy Store.
And I went back there to like my old college,
and saw how vital and alive the stand up comedy
world was again r and I started directing a lot
of specials for Netflix, you know, and I just got
(56:55):
you got the buggy. One night I went up on
stage on a benefit, I wrote teen minutes a new material,
and the next morning it was like guys in the
alley for time spots again. You know.
Speaker 5 (57:06):
It's like a hair.
Speaker 3 (57:07):
I was a heroin Addicts, you know, and uh, you know,
it's it's uh, it's it's. It's been an incredible journey
because sometimes I walk into a club, a comedy club,
and they go.
Speaker 5 (57:24):
Oh my god, you're a legend. You want to go up,
you want to jump up.
Speaker 3 (57:30):
And then sometimes I walk into a comedy club and
they go, sir, do you have a ticket? You know,
I don't know, you know, It's I'm like, some people
know me, some people don't know me. And and you
know it's starts over.
Speaker 1 (57:47):
You know what's cool is the specificity of the expression
when you say stand up. It's different. It's the different
you know kung fu and uh uh. I just think,
you know, uh not just the documentaries, but like I said,
(58:07):
you have many more films in you. But I think
you're You're really heartfelt. You know, you know, well told
stories are are your greatest uh acumen and uh, congratulations
on your next film. That's all I'm gonna say. You
(58:28):
heard it here first. Mike's doing a big film. I'm
shutting up. Love you, buddy, Thank you, so.
Speaker 5 (58:36):
Bad up guilty manness this on this, it's so bad.
Speaker 3 (58:46):
It's one bad deal.
All right.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Today, on One Bad Movie, we have Mike Binder. You
may know the name from a stand up comedian. Also
his work behind the scenes as a director of movies
such as Indian Summer and My favorite bad Movie. Some
people would call it bad, but it's it's a hilarious
camp classic blank Man, and we definitely talk blank Man.
(00:22):
You may also recognize him as an actor. He has
some great big parts. My favorite role of his is
Leo Crowe in Minority Report, where Tom Cruise realizes.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Oh, I am going to kill this man. Very good. Yeah,
and also Binder was famous for starting something called the
Detroit Comedy Jam just kind of like a.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
We didn't get into any of that in the episode,
but this, you know what, we're leaving this in this
is great.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So, but Mike hilarious is a legendary comedy writer. Yeah,
who's also very well respected for his producing and directing. Listen,
he was executive producer of Ray Donovan for a whole season. Right,
A lot of people don't know that.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
So Mike and an old friend, a great director, an
even better writer, uh an even more important, a great
stand up comic.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
You know what, I just realized now he show ran
Ray Donovan. We had Bronson Pinche on with his great,
hilarious behind the scenes story from Ray Donovan, and he
was bound up. He had a binder. Oh my god,
we're coming full circle and bring it back around all
right without further ado a great episode and he name
drops Steven Spielberg and other big names. This is a
(01:32):
great episode without on one bad movie.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
One bad movie. That's a.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Great and bad lips.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
It's so bad, Sam Guilty Lass Suns so bad.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
It's good.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
One bad movie.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Fun because those guys are in their freaking twenties and
I'm going binder. You know, he's my generation and my
son and law Andrews generation are like the last two
generations that understand. You know George Carlin, I mean he's
like a under thirty five accept in the world of comedy.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Oh, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
But even in the clubs, like you could say to
a young person, yeah, George carl On and they're going,
they're yeah, yeah, yeah, But you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
It's absolutely We had this. We were talking to these
kids and we were talking about Vinnie, the kid that
went on last night and said it's so great to
see new comedians, can you? But but I loved hear
seeing you and our Sinio was on that night, right, Well,
you're here the night our senio was right. And they said,
(02:58):
how about are there any older comedians that we should
know about? And I said, well, George Carlin and Richard
Pryor and they were who are they? No idea right,
No idea right. But that's the same thing with movies though.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
And not just right now, like with the resurgence of
SNL because they got a big movie coming out now,
that big documentary biopic. I don't know if you saw that,
but SNL is gonna flood the media in its own
way because it has that power with that generation. But
it just amazes me what we just said was, yeah,
(03:38):
even younger comics that they don't get the George Carlin history,
that the power of that foundation of that generation of comics.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Well, no, I think young comedians do.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
When you it's kind of my point. Yeah, although of
course you'll run into under thirty five years old kids,
guys that'll not know as much. Yes, But what's wild
about stand up comedy is what you just said. Most
of them will know the history because young guys watched
(04:15):
you last night, and it was cool for them. Like,
first thing I said to him was like, yeah, it's
kind of funny when my kind of puts his little
chubby little forum on the mic stand and kind of
looks at his toe and wiggles it and thinks about
it for and these guys are going, They're like looking
at me like, wow, they were waiting for whatever was
(04:36):
coming out of your mouth, right, you know what I'm saying,
And they're going, yeah, yeah, yeah, And I'm like, yeah, man,
that's the whole power of the pause, and just you know,
no one really had to really have fun with the audience.
These guys are like me, you know, they were like, yeah,
that's that's another frequency.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah yeah, But they know that too in different ways
because people like that keep saying it like that.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
But also, like what I was gonna say is the
new comedians.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
You were right, they know the history.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
They don't really. It's like they know from documentaries. They know,
they know school George Carlin was, they know snippets that
they've seen of him on the YouTube, they know stories,
but they don't really know the work. And the reason
why is because it's the same. It's the same reason
(05:34):
why when you talk to young actors and filmmakers, you
talk to him about a Preston Sturgis movie or a
Billy Wilder movie. That's that's Greek to them, let alone.
Even even you know some of the early, the first
Satura night live movies, that's too ancient for them. They
(05:57):
don't they don't want it. They know of even people
in the business. They know the history what they're supposed
to know to have good conversations and know where it
came from, but they don't really watch the movies and
understand the movies. That's what I found because I made
this five part series about the comedy Store I Don't
(06:20):
know you know? And I interviewed all comics, one hundred
and twenty comedians wow. And I interviewed some really great
new comedians and that are really successful right now. And
there were a few that just flat out said, I
(06:41):
don't know any history of stand up comedy. I even't
care about stand up coming until I gotn't do it
right well. But most of them would say, yeah, I know.
I just I would study it as a kid, and
I'd say, well, did you watch you know prior second
movie set in Second special that he did in Long
(07:02):
Beach or this, and they'd go, no, I never saw
any of his specials. Well, how did just how do
you know his work?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Because I've read about him in a couple documentaries, that's
not you got to watch his work, right, And they
don't think like that, you know, And I get that.
I understand that. You know, everyone's good, you got there's
so many shortcuts to knowing things about things nowadays.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
When I was a kid, Halloween would be coming up.
So if one of the Baldwin family members, one of
the brothers, was doing Monty Python, you know, I'll cut
your arm off. It's only a flesh wound, you know. Yeah,
if we were dressing like you know, we tuck an
(07:51):
arm man and you know, you had one arm hanging
that was caught and leading and it was disgusting, and
you had to dress like a knight. And we had
a fake horse and you know, we got into it,
but we we like performed it on Halloween. We had swords,
yea Monty Pytha wasn't just those guys from England. We
(08:14):
dressed up for Halloween and quoted the film and did
so because it was funny. It was so funny beyond funny,
and kids, younger folks don't know that today, Like they'll
they'll see clips social media blah blah blah blah blah,
you know, and then I'll talk to somebody like I
(08:37):
was with a friend of mine at a sushi place
and Fred Durst was there. It's a musician. Yeah, yeah,
fred Durst, what limp biscuit. So I was there with
the young musician friend of mine and I go see
that guy, I said. I was at a big stadium
here in California once and like thirty years ago, and
(08:59):
the whole place was like moving from that guy's band.
There was ninety thousand people there. He was like really
Andrew Dice Clay, I went to see him in Madison
Square Garden and it was like Metallica was there.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
It was like so now bye.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
By the way, I was just gonna say, the money
Python movies hold up really well. People that do watch
him now, they ok up really well because they were
so ahead of their time.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Oh gosh, yes, they hold up so well.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yes, because they're just nuts and most comedy doesn't. Most
most real comedy movies are of its time and they
just fall you watch them like like it's a mad
mad world or biodome you know.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Oh sorry, did I just say that? No, I call
it the fart frequency. There's like a dumb and dumber frequency,
you know what I mean. But there's like a blank
man frequency.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yes, but the fiche But but but the mony Python movies,
because I mean they were making transsexual jokes forty years ago, right,
you know there's this one joke the mom you and.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Dad was it rape?
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Well at first, it just like just little asides. It
was just like that back then.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
You could almost do that ship because nobody heard it.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
They didn't know.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
They didn't think to get insulted by it.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
You know, they weren't. They weren't attuned to getting pissed
off at everything.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
But it was just so they do. They would just
do these jokes.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
Like oh, oh, I'm going to be a woman. When
did that start? It doesn't matter because I them on
now forever.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
You know, you look at it, like forty years ago,
I think all kinds of jokes were getting ready to
make a big comeback. Yeah no, it's just a weird conversation,
you know in social media.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah no, But but I'm saying these guys It was
very organic to them, and they weren't looking to piss
people off.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
No, they weren't looking whatever the irony of.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Stuff was and in their lives and what they saw. Yes,
but they and people didn't take offense at it.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So I'm sure some did some, you know, so the
conservative Christian movement broad my dollar.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Honestly, I think I think these guys, these guys were
so crazy, so out there there were people, didn't they
they didn't hear the offense. First of all, half of
them at the time, they were men dressed like women.
They never had a woman in their movies. Okay, they
(12:05):
were all men dressed like women. They were They did blackface,
they did everything, you know, they just did. They didn't
ask what the rules were. They just were doing their
own thing and they never thought about it. So I
don't think that there. I really don't believe there was
(12:26):
big controversy with their stuff. They weren't super successful. They
were successful, but they weren't like box office hits, like.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
But only over time, as as like a cult following.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yeah, well, you didn't record anything. We were talk saying.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Everything recorded all of that.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Oh No, I don't know, I don't I just I
didn't know what you said.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
A lot of crazy stuff, Mike, this stuff saying the
stuff you buggering that guy in the woods.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
I should have pulled that.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Out now, define buggering. Now that we've been talking about.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
My running really hard and then one person stops.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I wouldn't I wouldn't be able to run that fog, Mike,
let me ask you another abstract question.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Yes, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
You and I have a lot of history. Yeah, good history.
Remember the first thing I said to you when I
auditioned for the first movie I worked on you.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
I'll never forget it.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
I'm sitting in the living room kitchen area of Outlaw Productions.
You walk in, you take your motorcycle helmet off, You
walk up to me, and you go, do you have
any advil?
Speaker 1 (13:46):
I said, what, I've got a headache? Do you have anything?
Is that monks walking into my audition? I walk into
the kitchen area, there's the.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Director, got any advil?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
And then you gave me the greatest nickname ever on
a set in history, which.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
Was Taz Taz the Tasmanian Devil.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Help me to tasks. I have no idea why I
really I do my favorite stories? Oh no, Okay, is
it decent at all?
Speaker 3 (14:18):
You're gonna cuss? No, okay, I'm not gonna cuss. Are
you kidding me? Why would I do that? This is? This?
Speaker 6 (14:25):
Is?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Are we? What are we?
Speaker 5 (14:28):
In the Christian network?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
What are we?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Where are we?
Speaker 3 (14:32):
I didn't I don't even know who we are.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
I'm not gonna cuss.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
A bad movie factory.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
That's where I belong.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
I'm on the right lane at least.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
If I asked you about bad movies, would you have
an opinion?
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah, I've made a bunch of them. You've made a bunch,
I don't think so. No, No, I've made a bunch. No,
that's because I spent more money than you. To me,
I would say, I'd say I made two or three
of them. But actually the one that everyone always calls
(15:16):
me out on being the bad one.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
So, Mike Binder, what's your one bad movie that I made? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Well, it's funny because if people call me out, and
whenever I see someone's writing about me, they'll they'll say,
this guy actually made blank Man. But it's not a
bad movie, and it's aged really well and people love it.
And when we made it, the studio thought they had
a huge hit right, because it tested so well and
(15:48):
audience loved it, and it was just so funny. And
you know, Damon Wayne's and David Allen Greer were the
stars of In Living Color at the time, and they
were the two funniest guys at that time. It was
before Jim Carrey. Really. They launch took and they they
did their movie reviews together, and you know, and they
(16:11):
had a bunch of they were they were a great
comedy team and they were so funny in blank Man,
and the studio was sure they had a hit, and
they spent a lot of money on the movie and
it came out and it died. It died, and it
(16:33):
was so funny. Because Damon wanted to do Handyman, which
is a character and in Living Color, which was a
great one of his favorite, most famous characters, and he
couldn't get the rights to it right, so he made
up blank Man.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
And Handyman.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
We just Handy the handicapped guy, but he was and
I smacked people in the face and just tell him off.
And it was writing his strike zone for his fans.
The blank Man was this, you know, kind of almost
I won't say it because you're not allowed to save
it awkward. Put this guy and he awkward, and he
(17:18):
was effeminine and he's out, you know, whenever you get hit.
And even as blank Man, it wasn't a it wasn't
that version of Damon's funny. It was funny as hell.
And this is all in the rearview mirror. All the
materials were this really soft guy getting beat up and
(17:42):
shrieking and ah, you know, and and that's not what
he had just come off of mo money and and
this big Bruce Willis hit hit that he did and
in and his audience wanted to see him as a badass,
so they didn't go see it right. But over the
years they went and saw it, and they saw it
(18:04):
on cable and loved it. I mean, people loved that movie. Kids,
we were just talking. Kids took or treat as blank Man.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So that's now question. Blank Men's a cult classic. How
did that come to be?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
How I became on it? I had just had this
movie directed it. I had I directed it, Yeah, Damon
wrote it and produced it and started it. And I
had just had this movie out called Indian Summer. I
had to deal with Disney and I went to to
see the movie Indian Summer on a Saturday night play
(18:40):
in Century City and Damon walks out and he says, Hey,
I love that movie. I want I actually wanted to
see it because I wanted to talk to you about
directing a movie I'm doing at Sony. Yeah, he said,
I I really I want you to talk to you
(19:00):
about this movie. And it's like a spoof on Batman,
which it was, it really was. And Sam Raimie growing
up was one of my best friends. We grew up
together and he was in my movie Indian Summer, and
he had done this movie The Dark Night, which I
(19:21):
always loved and I always because I always loved Batman,
and so to me, I thought, okay to do a
comedy Batman. And my agent at the time said, you
can't do it. I said, I haven't read the script yet.
He goes, it doesn't matter. You can't do it. You
have a deal with Disney and you can't make a
(19:44):
movie with Damon Waynes. You can't make a comedy with
Damon Waynes. After and Indian Summer wasn't a hit, but
it was successful in the first few weekends and people
liked it, and crossing the Bridge people Disney made me
a big deal because of Crossing the Bridge. Jeff Katzenberg
and Michael Eisner loved that movie. And but I didn't
(20:09):
listen to people back then.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I was just gonna say. The best thing they could
have said to you was you can't do that.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Yeah, So I thought, you know what it's like producing
a friend's album. This is like producing a friend's album.
What's it gonna hurt me? You know it's his it's
his movie, he's the director. Movie came out and tanked.
I went into movie jail for three years. Damon made
five other movies in the meantime, and my agent was.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Like, I told you this was gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
I told you this was gonna happen. But but and
Jeff Katzenberg called me up said why are you doing
this movie at Sony with Damon? I have a cop
movie here that he should do, and you, the two
of you.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Guys, can do it. Bring him here to do it.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
And I went, no, I want to go do and
and j said it's gonna bomb. It's gonna bomb, and
the cop movie is what he should be doing and
what you should be doing. And I went, okay, thanks
for sharing.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Jeff Katzenberg what does he know?
Speaker 5 (21:14):
Yeah, I still the eighth Dwarf.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
I still say that.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Remember that, Remember that Eighth Dwarf.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
No, I don't mean, I don't tell that story.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
I don't tell that story.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
I don't know that story.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Jeffrey Katzenberg got upset with a relative of mine. Oh
that's right.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I do remember that.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
I spouted off in the trades many years ago, decades ago.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
I remember this. How was it Disney at the time
that the Marrying Man.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
And my brother was quoted I think in Variety or something.
I don't know what it was, some some trade rag
not variety of right is terrific thing. But uh, Alex's
responsive quote to like some criticism I guess by Katzenberg
publicly was oh, well, I'm not really interested in what
(22:03):
he thinks of me. I'm more interested, like in what
his gardener thinks of me. And he goes because this guy,
you know, he's like the eighth Dwarf greedy. And that
was published in the trade.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
No, I remember, I remember.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
And uh, we're gonna, we're gonna leap some of this
out here or something.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Oh no, but this is this is what's gonna make
this thing great.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
And it just cracks me. Whenever somebody says Katzenberg, I
just go it's going because I'm thinking I'm seeing him
gardening or something.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Oh no, he he, he was real hard on me.
He said, don't do this, and then he dropped me,
you know, and he just you know, it was funny,
but it's okay. He did his thing. I did mine,
and you know, he's worth billions and I've got several
thousand dollars in the.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Band One Bad Movie podcast. Hey, there's nowhere else to
go from here, bros.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Nowhere to go the story that I loved telling about you.
We first movie we met on and we crossing the bridge. Yes, sir,
we going to Minneapolis and it's a small little indie movie.
(23:28):
We've got to make it. Thirty days that brutal, that
should have been about fifty days, brutal and all at night.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
And you were a whore with the camera. Yeah, you
just you were.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
I never made a movie before. How could we be
a whore? I was a virgin. I was a virgin
that loved so anyway.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Anyway, yes, sir, you say to me, you and Josh
and Jason Gedrick are sharing one trailer. Yes, that's how
low budget this thing is. And you say, Mike, I
just got off the phone with big brother. I just
got off the phone with Alec. He's doing this movie
(24:12):
Marrying Man. We talked for forty five minutes. At the
beginning of the call, they're knocking on the door. They
want him on the set, and he goes, I'll be
right there the whole time.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Every ten minutes, Alec, we need you, Alec, we need you.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
He said.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
God Mike, the way he handled it. Finally, after about
forty five minutes, he goes, I think I should go.
They need me, and I swear to God, I'm I'm
wedding myself.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
My pants are soaked. This is what I'm gonna deal with.
This is what this guy looks up to.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
The very first big scene you have, we're shooting in
a guess at a car dealership. And again, I've never
directed anything. I've had three days of shooting already, but
we're shooting a big scene in a car dealership and
we can't get you out of the trailer. And the producer,
(25:17):
Jeff just keeps going over, go just get him, just
get him?
Speaker 1 (25:22):
And was I tired?
Speaker 3 (25:24):
You weren't tired. You weren't tired. You were wired. No, no, no,
you weren't. But but and Jeff goes, I go, oh
my god, he's doing his older brother. He's doing big brother.
I said to the producer, go get him. He comes back,
(25:45):
he goes, he's not ready to come out yet. I said,
this is not that.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
So I said, okay, just you know what, we have
to shoot this, rewrite this scene. You take his line,
you take this line, and we do the scene without
him his careara, and we start shooting and all the sudden.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Whoa, whoa, you come running around. What are you doing?
Speaker 5 (26:07):
I go, You're not in this scene anymore.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
The smartest thing you could have done. I didn't realize
it at the time, taking actors lines right.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
I realized that it was just a It was a
survival thing for me.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
But I've done in my whole life.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Now you're not here, I'll light you out of the scene.
Speaker 5 (26:22):
I don't care.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
But and you were whoa, whoa. I go, Stevie, you're
not in the scene anymore. You're not in the scene.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
Just let us shoot this. You're you're it's fine.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
You pull me aside, you go. I will never do
that again. I will never do that again.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
I don't remember why I was delayed. I truly don't remember.
Was I constipated.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Uh, let's say you were okay, okay, I I actually
think you had diphtheria, is what it was. It was
a quick one hour about of diphtheria and when it
went away fast okay.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
So hold on. First time I ever got on a plane,
I was seventeen. Alex flew me out to la he
was living in Venice. Blah blah blah blah, like never
been in an airplane U til I was seventeen. I go
to the set a hunt for October. It's in the
sound stage. They have their trailers in the stage, and
then the set of the submarine. My brother goes.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Sh sit there, don't talk to anyone. He goes Sean,
he's gonna come out of that trailer and he's gonna
walk right by you, and he's gonna take the place
of his stand, and then he's gonna speak, and then
(27:45):
we're gonna cut, and then he goes back to his trailer,
and then everybody breaks the setup for.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
The next shot, and I go got it, But I
don't realize is in homies? What's his name Sean Connery,
Sean Connery sorry. And Connery's deal he doesn't come out
(28:12):
of his trailer till the cameras rolling. So when you
were trying to get me on the set of Crossing
the Brie this guy and sound rolling and background and
and you're on the sub I'm like, like everybody's everybody's
acting in the middle of a submarine. You're here, we're rolling,
(28:33):
and you hear we're rolling. And a door opens and
Sean Connery comes out of his trailer and walks this
little carpet right to where his standing is and standing
he doesn't step up, and you know, tapping on the
shoulder and think it just ways to come. Counnery steps
in the camera goes, could I get one ping please?
Speaker 7 (29:00):
He's like God, and he goes, I mean, I mean
my seat, you're going, I guess he walks by me.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
I'm going.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
It was mind blowing. I bet that level of filmmaking.
I bet that they built the whole set of the submarine.
But Connery, you know.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
What I mean, It's really funny because you didn't know it.
But your deal on crossing that bridge was that you
didn't come out of the trailer until you we were
filming a scene that you had just been cut out.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
I gotta read the fine print, Mike, Yeah, you gotta
read got read the print.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
But I'll tell you what those those early days.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Can I tell you one more thing. I think your
indie films, your little films, Indian summer crossing the bridgetff
like that. It's just cool now because that's gonna be
your leg see. Not just the stand up shit and
everything up. But I just mean that cool films, quality films,
real films, touching films stand on their own. You kind
of catch little gifts from the most unique places. And
(30:14):
the best direction I ever got, and I worked with
Oliver Stone and Brian DePalma. Remember the best direction I
ever got was from you. I'll never forget this. I'm
doing this heavy scene, monks. I'm like, you know, Stella
in my head, I'm Stella. I'm stella ing. I swear
(30:34):
to god. I had to do eleven takes, not it
was taking nine or ten or eleven, and Mike had
come up to me every second or third one. It's
going great, getting great stuff. Can I just and I go,
just give me one more bro every time he goes,
Can I just I go, stupid, Johnny Man. You know,
(30:58):
I'm like that. Know, I'm just I'm just trying to
just open the floodgates of anything. You know. I don't know.
I just think that's gonna work. So I get to nine,
I get the time, I probably get to like eleven,
and Mike goes, that's great. I want you just try
one like this. I'm like, what he's try one like this.
(31:24):
I'm like what he's like, Just say the words. Look
at me, don't act, don't act. You're there, say the words.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
And I like this.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I swear to God, monks, I go, just say the words.
It's one of my first films. I'm going, just everything
must be Richard Burton. Uh And I just like this, okay,
(32:03):
just like I hadn't thought of that. I literally hadn't
thought of like a revelation on me. From that film forward,
I flipped all my work. That's what you don't realize.
I then found the two or three places to a
(32:24):
mount that made sense if it made sense in the work,
and then the rest was all just say the fucking
and in a in a sense, that's really the greatest philosophy.
Less is more.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
That's yeah, I think so and to me one of
the greatest underrated actors of all times with Spencer Tracy.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
And I thought you were gonna say me, no, no, sir, no,
that's so sweet. But Spencer Tracy, welcome to one body.
Spencer Tracy. Love him, Spencer Tracy.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
His whole thing was just the secret great acting is
say your lines and don't bump into the furniture, you know, and.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
And beyond time. I must have not heard that one.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Yeah, but he just he just simplified it for everybody
at that time.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
You know, I have one more one bad movie question.
I was gonna tell you what I thought was my
bad movie. Hurry up.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
I didn't do hurry up. That was another guy.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
You don't do hurry up.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
I don't do hurry up. Okay, Stevie, you come bring
me on your podcast. I got I got two three
hours to go and get into it and let and
let everything out.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
We got plenty of films, mister Binder. Don't worry no.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
I made this movie.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Called Man about Town for Lionsgate with Ben Affleck. It's
really interesting. I had written it for Steven Spielberg. I
had Steven Spielberg loved the upside of Anger and he
saw me in the Contender. Oh wow, he saw me
(34:12):
in the Contender and he put me in a minority report.
And then I showed him The Upside of Anger, which
I was editing, and he said, we got to do
something together. I want you to write something for me.
And at the time we both lived up in the
(34:34):
Palisades and we were talking about, you know, power and
the struggles. And also he was going through a thing
where there was a guy who broke into his house
late at night and was gonna they found notes. The
guy was gonna electrocute Steven and beat him up, and
(34:57):
it was just horrible guy with Kate jail what he
was with Kate.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
So I wrote this thing with Stephen called Man about Town,
about this big agent who has a stalker and destroys
his life. And I worked with him in his office
for a long time and this thing, and he was
(35:23):
so into it. I mean, one day we're sitting there
writing and his assistant who's now his producer, Christy, says,
keeps buzzing Stephen, He's at the gate. You're gonna have
to wrap this up. Okay, we keep He's telling me, okay,
we'll try this scene and write something like this and
working forty five minutes, goes by Stephen. He's in the lobby.
(35:45):
You gotta he can't do this. Another twenty five minutes
goes by Steven. She comes in, Stephen, you can't do this.
He's here. He's here, he's waiting for you. He goes, Mike,
I gotta go moknock him Bageum Began is here. Prime
Minister of Israel is waiting to But he's just like.
Speaker 5 (36:05):
So into developing this screenplay. And that was what kind
of guy was, you know?
Speaker 3 (36:09):
So we we wrote this screenplay or I wrote it,
he developed, he was gonna direct it. And I'm in
London scoring the Upset of Anger and he calls me.
We're getting ready to make the movie. He's gonna direct
my movie Man about Town. It's like sixty five million
(36:31):
dollar movie, which is low budget for him. Yeah, but
it had so much movement and craziness. And he says, Mike,
I got bad news. I'm not making this movie. Kate
talked me out of it. What do you mean it's
too autobiographical. I don't want to do something autobiographical right now.
(36:55):
But it's a great movie. You wrote a great script.
I think you should direct it, and if you want
to direct it, will will make it here a DreamWorks
for you to direct. But I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
I said, Okay, that's too bad, Flowers. No, no, that's
not what happened.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
So then the guy this is I'm making this a
long story short that the guy, the production guy at
DreamWorks says, Okay, if Mike's gonna direct it, it's an
eighteen million dollar movie, you know, and with.
Speaker 5 (37:34):
Steven is this with Mike it's eh.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
So I but I wanted to do it, and I
didn't want to rewrite it. I wanted to do it
with the swooping and the and the effects and the
and the camera shooting around this guy, and that's all
the stuff that I thought Steven would do great. Right,
So I said, fine, I'll do it for eighteen I'll
figure out where to do it. And then Ben Affleck
(38:04):
comes to my editing room and watches Upside of Anger.
He says, I want to do your next movie. I said, well,
I'm doing this movie that man about town a DreamWorks said,
I know, I want to do it. I haven't even
read the script yet, but I want to do it.
I said, Okay, that's why I wanted you to see
the movie. So we make a deal. He's going to
do it. We shake hands, we'll do it. I called Stephen.
(38:27):
Stephen says, no, can't do it with him. He just
we just bombed with a movie with him. He's got
that whole JL thing going on now, and I have
other problems with him. So and it's a good story too,
because I know it's amazing. I love both these guys,
and they're both smarter than me, but they both kind
(38:50):
of acted like idiots, and so did I. So Stephen says, Mike,
let me tell you something. One time he was going
with my god daughter Gwyneth, and we all went on
a trip to Spain, I believe it was, and my
son was a little boy, was playing in the pool
(39:14):
and he got out of the pool and Ben came
in fully dressed, and my son pushed Ben into the pool,
and Ben got really mad at him, and he came
out of the pool and he picked him up and
he threw him back into the pool and made my
son cry. I said, okay, what what where does this
have to do with anything? He goes. I just don't
(39:35):
like to work with him, plus his last two movies bombed,
So find somebody else, anyone but him. He's cold as hell. Okay, Stephen.
So so I call Ben. Ben's agent said it's not
going to work. It's not gonna work. Ben calls me up.
(39:57):
He goes, did Steven Spielberg tell you I there his
kid the water? Is that what happened? Is that why
I'm not on your movie?
Speaker 1 (40:03):
He just what he said.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
I said, no, who No, he didn't say yes he did.
He told you I threw his kid.
Speaker 5 (40:11):
In the water. That's why I'm not on the movie.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
So I called Stephen Backer, go listen. I really think
I want to use Ben. He's the right guy. He goes, Okay,
use Ben. Next morning, I get a call from my agent.
DreamWorks is dropping the picture. They're letting you, but they're
gonna let you take it somewhere else. So the company
(40:36):
Media eight that made Upside of Anger lets me make it.
They finance it for fourteen million dollars and Lionsgate distributes it,
and I make it up in Vancouver.
Speaker 5 (40:51):
Ben is cold as shit, and it's your Siberia and.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
We have a great time making it. But I make
a shitty movie. Ben, Yeah, Ben's in it. Okay, I
make a shitty movie. I just made a shitty movie.
I made some severe casting mistakes.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (41:17):
I just that's you know, I just.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
It was too much for me to bite off. There
were too many gear shifts. Anyway, Uh, the movie comes out,
Lionsgate sends it straight to video. Wow, and it's a
it's not a good movie. There's some great stuff in it.
John Cleese's great in it. Ben's great in it. Rebecca
(41:46):
ramp Mecca's Romain, Rebecca Romain Lettuce is really good in it.
But anyway, so Ben, his career goes so cold, and
then it goes like that, like that takes off right.
(42:08):
He wins the Oscar for Argo. About three years later,
he beats Spielberg and he's at the Academy Award and
they're hugging, and I text him I'm watching it, and
then I go, Ben, tonight you could throw Spielberg's whole
(42:31):
family in the pool and get away with it. About
an hour later, phone rings, it's Affleck at the Academy.
He goes, that made me laugh. So I said, well,
just when I saw him hugging you, you know, I
told Stephen that story too.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
I go, he goes, yeah, I think that night.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
He's but it shows. It's just it just that was
like my one moment of dealing with those super hot shots.
And they were like great guys yet at the same
time assholes.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
They were just like season they were like what for
a moment they were they were like everybody else, Well,
that's kind of cool. They could get over it.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
Yeah, Steven Spielberg is a genius and a great guy,
but he can be an asshole. And Ben Affleck is
a great guy and he could be a bigger asshole,
you know.
Speaker 5 (43:22):
But by the.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Same token, both of them can go, yeah, I can
be an asshole, you know to me in that story,
if I had made a great movie, that story would
have been different.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Okay, I made a come would have been different.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Maybe I made I made a boner, a stinker, you know.
I just it didn't come together. So that allowed everybody
to be kind of shrimpy around it, you know, so
that because you know, the thing is, they're not your friends.
Speaker 5 (44:00):
They're not your friends. It's just business, you know.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
I'll that's part.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
Let me tell you. I'll tell you a really great story.
I was doing Indian Summer casting it and This is
when Katzenberg and Eisner loved me for like one minute
because they saw crossing the bridge at Eisner's house late
one night.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
They said, that's our childhood.
Speaker 5 (44:20):
Let's let's make a deal with this guy.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
You remember this, And then I showed him this Summer
Camp script and there and Eisner was like, I went.
Speaker 5 (44:29):
To Summer Camp. It's my life.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Yeah, do it.
Speaker 3 (44:32):
So I'm casting it and everybody's coming to read. And
John Travolta, who's cold as hell, cold as can be,
it's before pulp fiction.
Speaker 5 (44:44):
Cold cold, cold, like ice.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Cube cold, comes in and he wants to read for
the part that they ended up having me use Vince
Bano for because he was in there Hit Alive that
had just come so and Vince did a good job,
but John wanted that role. And I would go like
every two weeks while we were casting this thing with
(45:08):
Bobby Neumayer and go up and meet with jeff Katzenberg
about the casting because he was heavily involved because he
really wanted to make sure my next movie was gonna
be a good movie, right, and he he Bobby said, well,
(45:28):
you're gonna have to run John Travolta by Jeffrey they're
not gonna say yes to that. I said, well, I'll
talk to him, and Travolta comes in. He goes, I
would love to do this movie. Plus not only that,
it'd be here with Michael and Jeffrey. They're like family
to me. They're my uncle's. I did Greece, and I
(45:50):
did Saturday Night Fever, and I did all this stuff
over paramount with them. This is my family. It'd be
like coming home, right. So I go up there and
I'm Bobby goes, all right, so tell me who you
want for the row of Matthew and I go I
think John Travolta would be really good, and kats me goes,
(46:12):
he's a bum. He's a he's a bum. Nobody wants
them unless he's Vinny Barberino. Nobody wants anything to do
with him. And I thought, right there, in that moment,
we wereized that's the difference. We fall in love with
each other and think, oh man, you know they're my uncles,
(46:33):
they're my cousins.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
That's my buddy.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
And they think, all right, I used him, he's done,
or I can keep using him. He's helping me. I'm
helping him. It's just business. If not he's a bum
and that was that cut and dry, and he didn't
have anything else to say about it. He goes and
again help fiction comes out. See on the Oscars, Jeffrey
(46:56):
Katzenberg's hugging John Travolta, And that's just the.
Speaker 5 (47:00):
Way life is.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
It's okay, Jeffrey Katzenberg is an asshole. Okay, that's never
gonna change.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
I've never met the man I have.
Speaker 3 (47:14):
He's an asshole, but he's also got a lot of
good qualities.
Speaker 5 (47:18):
I can't none spring to mind, but.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Travolta is a great guy.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
But you can also obviously he's just too romantic, you know,
And look at jeff Katzenburg made much smarter decisions in
his life than I have. Okay, so who's the asshole? Really?
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Hey, we should do in the future again, I'm just
improvisationally coming up with a great idea, Mike, Okay, I
should do a romantic comedy with John Travolta in the future.
Matt like, now like and let him let him look
however he wants, let him just look however he wants. Look,
(48:07):
let him look however he wants. We'll work around it. Yeah,
I think, because because I met him once and I'm
a huge fan, and I think it would be like
a great buddy thing I could do with John Travolta.
You could come up with something, couldn't you. I loved
(48:28):
let's do something. I love John, but not like a
sci fi thing. I don't like when he does futuristic
sci fi. That's scared. That's that's the John Travolta. I
love no John Travoltas. I like him when he's cute
and sassy.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
He's got so much talent. He's got beyond goddamn talent,
beyond and before my favorite, my favorite. I love when
I got an idea. We're walking down the street, you
and I and Albert Brooks when he came over to
my house and we walked with Albert Brooks, we're just
talking to me. He goes, Stevie goes, Albert.
Speaker 5 (49:06):
I just had a great idea.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
This is the one moment Mike Finder dreading.
Speaker 5 (49:13):
He goes, let me pitch something to you?
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Do you mind? And Alberts. I can just hear Albert's buttthole.
He was walking his dog.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
It's it's like a sacred time we walked at night and.
Speaker 5 (49:29):
Let me pitch something.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
Can I pitch a project to you.
Speaker 5 (49:35):
It's just you in.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
Yeah, yeah, you do it. So we're walking and I
know Mike Binder a long time and he goes, hey,
so we're gonna hang out and then after the girls
can hang out our wives, but I gotta do this walk.
I go on this walk with John Favreau and Albert Brooks,
and Favreau's out of town. So like a dog, I'm going,
(50:04):
what do you mean, Mike? He goes, why don't you
come with me? And Albert I'm like, it's like the
wildest massive peak with Jedi mind trick of all time.
I'm sitting there going and then I become travolto, like
what you know. I'm just like, we're you know what.
I'm like so cool? I know you well enough. So
we go on this walk. The amount of information pop
(50:28):
culturally that Albert Brooks.
Speaker 3 (50:29):
Is we wait the best. Let me tell you the
best line, the opening line. And this is why Albert's
so brilliant and funny.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
You eat the best.
Speaker 3 (50:38):
Stevie and I come out of my front door. Albert
comes up with his dog and he goes, oh, you
said it was gonna be billy, Hey, how are you?
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Then he goes, oh, no, just kidding, Hey, how are you?
Speaker 3 (50:54):
So?
Speaker 1 (50:54):
We're walking like forty minutes and I'm just doing a
lot of listening, and finally I just I have to
blurt out just what I think maybe something Albert might appreciate.
I'm swinging right, you know, I know how fast this
(51:15):
ball's coming, but I don't care. I go, just what
you said, I go, mister Brooks, one second. Mike begged
me not to do this, but I'm serious. I think,
just quick pitch, here we go. I think, what do
you think of the sound of this idea for you
as a future project? Ready? Albert Brooks an imax, you
(51:40):
just hear footsteps for like six eight eleven steps, you know,
and Mike's sake, Imax, you.
Speaker 5 (51:50):
Know what, I tell him what he said?
Speaker 1 (51:51):
Just say it? Tell him what Albert said.
Speaker 6 (51:53):
No, you say, because it sounds like I'd have to
leave the house? No, correct, He goes, would I have
to leave the house? I'm going to say that fast forward.
You literally, it's me with a legend and a legend,
and you know, and I just thought, I just want
(52:13):
to see what But Albert's reaction to this, and his
response is what I have to leave the house in
order to do something called imax.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
That's what he said, right, No, he's just one time
I'm walking with him, there's only one. Well, the first
time I have the first time I ever walked with him.
And then I'm living in the neighborhood. He moves in
about eight doors down and all of a sudden, I'm
on my porch when I spoke in a cigar and
he walks over and he goes, Mike, I heard you
lived here.
Speaker 5 (52:47):
How you doing. Yeah, and that's how you met him.
Speaker 3 (52:52):
No, I'd met him a couple of times earlier, but
that's how Yeah, your house.
Speaker 1 (52:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (52:56):
So we just started on these nightly walks in and
John joined us, and Diane calls it jew jogging, Jewish jogging,
you know. But but he the first time we everyone
on a walk together at night, he stops next to
this construction. Uh, you know the crates that they the
(53:19):
big what are the canisters that they put there, you know,
you're talking about like when they're building a house, they
put they bring these containers containers, and he just stops
and he looks at it for a minute and he goes, I.
Speaker 5 (53:32):
Don't like the new Fords. He just walks. He just
and he he makes us laugh so hard.
Speaker 3 (53:42):
He just wild, he says the most.
Speaker 1 (53:45):
He was talking the night that the Row versus.
Speaker 3 (53:49):
Way Roe versus Wade band came out. He said, He goes,
I don't know why everyone's making a big deal about this.
Speaker 1 (53:58):
Here's what you do.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
You have everybody on a cruise ship right off thing,
go off shore and get your abortions. And here's the tagline.
It's the only cruise you'll ever go on. You'll come
home eight pounds lighter. He's sick, and he.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
Just like, I go, did you write that? Beheaded that?
Speaker 5 (54:17):
And he goes, no, I.
Speaker 3 (54:17):
Just thought of it.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
You called Steven Spielberg an aholt.
Speaker 3 (54:27):
So he is ken can be. But it's okay.
Speaker 5 (54:30):
He's a human being.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
But that's the difference between me and you. See you
can you can do that? Why no? I can't.
Speaker 3 (54:39):
I mean, it's.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
Look it. I don't care. I don't care.
Speaker 3 (54:47):
It's a true story.
Speaker 5 (54:48):
He knows it.
Speaker 3 (54:49):
He knows the story. He'll be happy to hear it.
If he hears it.
Speaker 1 (54:53):
You know, all right, thank you again. I love you
to die pleasure. You're the funniest mother. Effort. Now after me.
Speaker 5 (55:02):
After you I was gonna say, what can you talk about?
Speaker 1 (55:06):
What's coming up for you? What can you just as
we say goodbye here, what are some projects you can
talk about.
Speaker 3 (55:14):
I just doing a lot of stand up comedy. I'm
getting ready to make another movie that I'm really excited about,
but I don't want to talk about. Okay, and then
after that, but that's a big movie. Yeah, it's a
big movie.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
That's all I'm going to say for people.
Speaker 3 (55:28):
And I'm just really really loving stand up comedy again.
I stopped doing stand up for twenty eight years. I
started when I was seventeen. I was one of the
youngest comedians ever to be on The Tonight Show. I
had my own HBO specials. I just did everything, you know,
as a young guy, toured the country as opening act
(55:50):
for some big stars and played club for who named
one or two please the Pointer Sisters, Kenny Loggins, that's
a yeah, I mean, I opened for God, I opened
for Miles Davis when I was a kid. Wow, you know,
I mean, But but I just was all too young,
(56:12):
and by the time I was thirty, I was done.
I was making movies. I started making movies and having babies,
and it just I was so obsessed with it for
so many years, and then I just burned out on it.
And then twenty eight years later, twenty twenty twenty six
years later, I got an income and call to make
(56:34):
a five parts documentary for Showtime about the Comedy Store.
And I went back there to like my old college,
and saw how vital and alive the stand up comedy
world was again r and I started directing a lot
of specials for Netflix, you know, and I just got
(56:55):
you got the buggy. One night I went up on
stage on a benefit, I wrote teen minutes a new material,
and the next morning it was like guys in the
alley for time spots again. You know.
Speaker 5 (57:06):
It's like a hair.
Speaker 3 (57:07):
I was a heroin Addicts, you know, and uh, you know,
it's it's uh, it's it's. It's been an incredible journey
because sometimes I walk into a club, a comedy club,
and they go.
Speaker 5 (57:24):
Oh my god, you're a legend. You want to go up,
you want to jump up.
Speaker 3 (57:30):
And then sometimes I walk into a comedy club and
they go, sir, do you have a ticket? You know,
I don't know, you know, It's I'm like, some people
know me, some people don't know me. And and you
know it's starts over.
Speaker 1 (57:47):
You know what's cool is the specificity of the expression
when you say stand up. It's different. It's the different
you know kung fu and uh uh. I just think,
you know, uh not just the documentaries, but like I said,
(58:07):
you have many more films in you. But I think
you're You're really heartfelt. You know, you know, well told
stories are are your greatest uh acumen and uh, congratulations
on your next film. That's all I'm gonna say. You
(58:28):
heard it here first. Mike's doing a big film. I'm
shutting up. Love you, buddy, Thank you, so.
Speaker 5 (58:36):
Bad up guilty manness this on this, it's so bad.
Speaker 3 (58:46):
It's one bad deal.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.