Danny Strong Meets World

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
So I'm wondering if this has happened to either of you.
I got a letter in the mail.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
I have gotten a letter happened recently.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Bring us in, Danielle, Welcome to POB.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
It was a bill for seven dollars and twenty five
cents for me going through the tunnel in Virginia in May.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
So apparently a.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Car that had a license plate that looked like the
plate of my new car, which again I had already had,
was ticketed. Not ticketed, but like gone through a tunnel
in Virginia and now they were trying to bill me.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Hold on, so wasn't I thought you meant like you
were in a rental car?

Speaker 4 (01:05):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Or no, this was not I wasn't in No, I
wasn't there. I have no idea. So I'm like, okay,
my first instinct, what do you think nowadays?

Speaker 1 (01:12):
First instinct, this is a scam.

Speaker 5 (01:14):
This is a scam.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah, Like they they want me and there's like a
QR code. I'm like, all right, so I scanned the
QR code and they you know, and now my genetic material,
they clone me and then I see myself all over
the country something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
So I'm like, they get you.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
That's how they get to you're not going to do it.
So I'm googling like is this a scam? And then
turns out to not be, and so I have to
I'm on the phone for like twenty five minutes this morning,
going I'm in Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
See that's what I'm like. Seven dollars and twenty five right, Well,
here's the thing, and I'm the chief skate of all
of us.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
No, if you don't pay it, which I'm not going
to pay it, I wasn't there.

Speaker 6 (01:52):
And they start to compound it you would have just
paid even though you weren't there.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
I like the idea of I hate the phone so much,
the idea and having to explain things to people over
and over again.

Speaker 5 (02:03):
My way, we're going to just start feeling you for Oh,
it's gonna be great for seven dollars and twenty five cents.
I also would have just paid paid.

Speaker 6 (02:12):
Even though you know it was I will pay for
parking out rushmore because that's that's yeah, that's really to get.
But this like having to be on the phone like
for forty five minutes, and then when they transferred to
the next person, you have to reattene.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
That wasn't me.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
I wasn't in Virginia.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
I'm not paying seven dollars and twenty five cents to
say I was in Virginia.

Speaker 5 (02:30):
I shan't. But I for seven dollars, I probably just
to get it off my plate. I would have paid it,
I did. I'm funny you're bringing this up. I just
got a notification that I had a parking ticket. And
did you guys know that in LA now they don't
often leave the ticket on your window.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
You just oh, you just get it in the mail.
You just get it in the mail. The actually parked.

Speaker 5 (02:50):
Correct, I didn't know what how do you argue with
the right? Yeah, exactly. I had parked in a place
in downtown LA, and I was kind of con used
if it was a parking space or not. I was like,
is this a parking space? I think it looks like
it's a parking space. There was a car parked directly
behind where I was parked, so I was like, this
car is parked in a parking space.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
They make the signs needlessly confusing, and I.

Speaker 5 (03:13):
Was like, I'm pretty sure this is fine. And I thought,
I'm also only going to be in this place that
I'm in for no more than like fifteen or twenty minutes,
So if it's not a parking space, what are the
odds they're going to come by in those in that
short amount of time? Anyway, So I got a parking ticket,
no ticket on my car, just sent to my house.

(03:33):
They ticketed me twice within fifteen minutes.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
What so I because there's no ticket, so they can't
have no ticket.

Speaker 5 (03:41):
So it must have been two different people.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Are you going to call and complain or are you
going to pay it?

Speaker 5 (03:45):
They call and complain because they're one of them. Is
like one hundred dollars space.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Parking tickets get high, but seven dollars for a toll.
I would just be like across.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
The country when I wasn't there.

Speaker 5 (03:55):
Well, it's actually your license plate, Like the first.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Picture of a license plate that then was for my
new car, which I already had in California.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
So it's like, well, it couldn't have been that. So
I'm on the phone.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
They send me to somebody else who's like, oh, the
cameras get weird in the tunnels, And what happened is
one of the letters of your license plate, Like it
looks like your license plate, but when we made it
clearer on the picture. What we thought was an L
is actually an I totally our fault to ignore it.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
You're good to go, not your license plate.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
But all of a sudden, it was like I just
got a bill for something like you you just get
It's like, wait, this is I.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Think this is the beginning of a cool, scary story
where it's like you were there, like then they zoom
in and it was like you see yourself driving and
you're like, wait a minute, how is that? I was
I have to go back and figure out, like what
alternate universe double you have in the world.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
That's great, Yeah, well you know there's a new kind
of a hayte Ai obviously, but there's this new kind
of thing where apparently it's a prank going around on
the TikTok machine where you can make it look like
it's an actual newscast about like a local robbery or something.
But then when they put up the picture of the suspect,
it's like someone in your family, right, right, So it's
people filming like like they think you're watching the local news,

(05:12):
and it's like and here's what the person who lit
the fire looks.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Like, and it's like the nine year old kid. It's like,
kid's freaking out, like I didn't do anything.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
I didn't do anything.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
So yeah, it's all I never know what's a scam anymore.
I don't know what's real and what's not in this world.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
I was teaching it Indie school, and his buddy, his
best friend, Zev, was part of the thing that I was,
you know, running the program I was running. And then
he offered. He was so nice because I was starving.
I hadn't eat any lunch, and he was like, do
you want any of my lunch and he handed me
like some carrots from his lunch. I was like, thank
you so much, Zev, That's so sweet. And then after
the whole program was done, it was the screenplayers thing
that you did before, Danielle. And so after that was

(05:48):
all done and we were clearing out the room and I.

Speaker 6 (05:49):
See his lunchbox.

Speaker 5 (05:50):
I'm like, oh my god.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
So I grab it and I take it home. I'm like,
we'll just give it to him. So then I text
his mom. I'm like, oh, We've got Zev's lunchbox. She's like,
he's eating out of his lunchbox right now in the
car next to me. I was like, why does.

Speaker 5 (06:01):
This feel like a horror film?

Speaker 2 (06:03):
The call is coming from within the lunch box?

Speaker 4 (06:06):
Who's lunchbox?

Speaker 3 (06:07):
Do I?

Speaker 7 (06:07):
Of course?

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Then I check and it has like, oh god, the
beginning of horror.

Speaker 5 (06:15):
By the way, zeb was so kind.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
He gave me some lunch and I have his lunch box.

Speaker 7 (06:20):
But he's.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
Welcome upon me to world.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
I'm Daniel Fischel, I'm righter strong, and I wasn't in Virginia.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
I'm Wilfredell.

Speaker 5 (06:51):
When looking back on the show and recapping all seven seasons,
we spent to the beginning of each recap detailing new
guest stars. We gave listeners their names, what other projects
you might know them from, and win applicable a little
life update. Some of the more interesting check ins we
heard over the last few months actually doctor Forbes. Riley
has sold two point five billion dollars worth of infomercial

(07:12):
products and has a buff husband. Andrew Levittos is an
acclaimed artist. Marisol Nichols poses as young women on the
Internet to bust sexual predators. And Glenn Merzer thought our
show was at least better than Facts of Life, which
was important, but it's hard not to wonder who exactly
became the most successful member of our alumni. There's Bill Lawrence,

(07:36):
a Hollywood powerhouse whose first script was an episode of
Boy Meets World, and now he has an Emmy filled
resume that includes Scrubs, Ted Lasso, Shrinking, and Cougartown. You've
got Adam Scott, one of television's biggest stars in twenty
twenty six, arguably making the best work of his long
career in Apple's Severance and the critically acclaimed horror movie Hokum.

(07:56):
Linda Cardellini has been a mainstay in Hollywood since childhood.
She went from Velma and Scooby Doo to shows like
Freaks and Geeks, Er Madman, and Dead to Me, while
appearing in other movies like Legally Blonde, Avengers, Endgame, Broke Back, Mountain,
and The Founder. And she will soon star in the
new Friday the Thirteenth TV show called Crystal Lake. There's

(08:17):
Carrie Russell, Ethan Supple, Minasuvari, Marla Sokoloff, Emmy winning writer
Barbie Adler. The list goes on and on, but this
week we are talking to a guest star who, in
any debate, would find himself somewhere atop that list. He
was a child actor whose career began on Saved by
the Bell The New Class, where he appeared in five
episodes credited as both Stanley and Noogie, and soon after

(08:40):
he would join us for season three's The Heart Is
a Lonely Hunter, where he played Arthur, Eric's overly qualified
competition for the local newscaster internship. He'd have other stops
on shows like Third Rock from the Sun, Seinfeld, and
Gilmore Girls, but it was as Jonathan Levinson on almost
thirty episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that most of
our listeners would recognize him from, and though he never

(09:03):
fully gave up on acting with appearances on Gray's Anatomy, Madmen,
and Billions, it was behind the scenes that he solidified
his Hollywood legacy. Hoping to write material for himself as
a leading man, he opened his laptop and started writing screenplays,
and his first successful foray into the profession was HBO's
political drama Recount, which he may not have ended up
starring in, but instead found himself nominated for eleven Emmys

(09:27):
and five Golden Globes. He followed that up with Game Change,
another fascinating look into American elections, but this time, not
only was it nominated, he won the Emmy for Outstanding
Writing for a Mini Series, Movie or Drama and also
a Peabody. He'd go on to write the box office
smash The Butler for Lee Daniels and Oprah Winfrey, both
parts of the final Hunger Games movie. He co created

(09:50):
the TV series Empire, created, wrote, and directed Hulu's Dope
Sick that was nominated for fourteen Emmys and won him
another peace Body. All while he wrote two musicals, Chess
and Galileo for Broadway, and yet today he is joining
us to talk about the one week he spent on

(10:12):
the set of Boy Meets World, the true crowning achievement
of his prolific career. I'm sure so. Welcome to the
podcast the very talented and not related to writer Danny Strong.

Speaker 4 (10:25):
Hey, how's it going?

Speaker 1 (10:28):
How good?

Speaker 4 (10:29):
How good? Hey?

Speaker 1 (10:31):
You guys doing good?

Speaker 5 (10:32):
We thank you so much. We know you do not
have much free time, and we are so honored that
you gave us some of your time today because we
claim you as alumni and now we're happy today to
be able to prove it.

Speaker 4 (10:45):
That's right, Yeah, I'm an alumni.

Speaker 7 (10:47):
Yes you are I'm so congratulations on your massive success
and this massive hit of a podcast.

Speaker 4 (10:54):
It's so cool.

Speaker 7 (10:55):
I've been hearing about it for pretty much since it launched, obviously,
but I mean, it's just amazing what you guys have
all achieved here.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
So thank you.

Speaker 5 (11:05):
We have harassed you a few times about coming on
the pod and convincing.

Speaker 7 (11:12):
I'm also you know, I'm so all in when i'm
when I'm promoting projects, but I kind of feel like
when I'm not, I should just kind of disappear, So
I usually and then I don't know, because I'm not
promoting anything right now, like, and I think Adam Bush
brought it up again.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
I'm like, let's do that. I'm just going to go
do it. He's like, do it.

Speaker 5 (11:35):
Well, thank you, thank you for joining us. I know
you were a Manhattan beach kid, which, despite the first
part of its name, is not thought of as a
big city hub for the entertainment industry. This dream of
becoming a child actor, how did you convince your parents
to do it?

Speaker 4 (11:54):
Well, you know, I don't.

Speaker 7 (11:55):
I don't really view myself as a child actor because
I didn't have any success as a child. But I
wasn't you know, and I wasn't only auditioning, and it
was really I was able to get an agent in
high school, but I never booked anything. I booked one
commercial and then and then I was a theater major

(12:15):
in college and had similar lack of success, although I
did book a few episodes to say, by the by
of the new class, okay, it was very exciting. And
then it wasn't until I graduated, or I was about
to graduate. I actually finished a semester early at college.
So and then it was in that window, you know,

(12:38):
before the official graduation that I started to book a
few jobs, Boy Meets World being one of them.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
So how old were you when you were on Boy then?

Speaker 4 (12:50):
Twenty one or twenty two?

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Okay, yeah, we were still in high school, so you
were playing a high schooler.

Speaker 7 (12:56):
I was playing a high school till you know, a
few weeks ago. I literally I was playing college into
my mid thirties. So yeah, but I actually had an interesting.

Speaker 4 (13:09):
You know for me.

Speaker 7 (13:10):
Booking Boy Meets World was sort of a big life
moment for me, which I'm happy to explain that please.
So I basically I had been auditioning, Like I said,
I had an agent in high school and went on,
but I didn't regularly go on auditions.

Speaker 4 (13:27):
You know.

Speaker 7 (13:27):
It was maybe once a month i'd get an audition
for something, but I never booked anything. And then I
was a theater major in college and I never really
booked anything, as I just said. So then when I
was about to graduate, and I was in that period
where I wasn't I hadn't graduated, but I wasn't in
school anymore, right, I started to rethink what I was

(13:48):
going to do with my life. And I got an
internship for these producers and they actually offered me a job.
So I thought, you know what, I think, I'm going
to quit acting.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
And then I.

Speaker 7 (14:00):
Went on this what I viewed as my last audition
was first show called Minor Adjustments.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
You guys remember that.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
I remember minor adjustments?

Speaker 4 (14:07):
Yes, where'd you do minor adjustments? Who doesn't remember?

Speaker 7 (14:10):
So I went and for Minor Adjustments and there was
the audition sides, and I guess I didn't get them
till I got to the audition. And then I thought
what I had always thought whenever I was auditioning. And
I don't know if this ever, if you guys ever
thought this, which was what are they looking for you know,
what are they looking for?

Speaker 4 (14:30):
Right?

Speaker 7 (14:30):
And then I thought, well, it's my last audition, because
I was told myself this was gonna be my last audition. Uh.
And I thought, well, I don't care what they're looking for.
This is my last audition, so I'm gonna do whatever
I want. And I read the material and I thought, Oh,
this kid's weird. I should play him sort of like
Kramer from Seinfeld. So then I walked into the room
and I did the audition, and I walked in the

(14:53):
room sort of my version of Kramer, and they just
started laughing the second I walked in. And then after
all those years of auditioning, I booked the job.

Speaker 4 (15:00):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 7 (15:02):
And so then my agent called me and said, look,
you book the job, and you have an audition for
Boy Meets World tomorrow. And I was like, and Boy
meets World minor adjustments is I hadn't aired, I hadn't
heard of it. Boy Meets World. That was a big deal,
you know. I mean, I'm like, wow, this is that's
a really cool.

Speaker 5 (15:19):
It's a real show.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
Yeah, that's a real show. That's a famous show. Right.

Speaker 7 (15:23):
So I went into the audition and and then and
again I didn't get the sides untill I got to
the audition, and I thought, Oh, what are they looking for?
And then I thought, wait a second, I ignored that yesterday,
so I'm not I don't care what they're looking for.
I'm just gonna do what I think is funny with
the material. And I thought, oh, I'm gonna make the
character very arrogant. I'm just gonna be very arrogant. So

(15:45):
then I walked in and I did the audition, and
then I got the job. And then the same thing
happened a few days later, and I booked three jobs
in one week after having not worked for almost seven
years of auditioning so to me, and Boy Meets World
was and the other show I actually hadn't heard of either,
so that so it was literally but booking Boy Meets

(16:06):
World was like, oh wait, maybe I shouldn't quit, Maybe
maybe I.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
Should do this.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
It's work.

Speaker 4 (16:12):
So that was my.

Speaker 7 (16:12):
Big life moment, which was and it was a huge
turning point for me, not just as an act but
just in life. Right, not what they're looking for, but
just bring what you want to bring.

Speaker 5 (16:24):
Okay, So here here's my follow up question.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
Then, yeah, did that play out in the in working
on the job, Like, did you get to did you
get to keep doing what you wanted to do on
the set of Boy Meets World? Or were you then
immediately told that here's what we're looking for.

Speaker 7 (16:37):
No, no, no, kind of did what I did. I'm
glad and everyone was, you know, they really liked it.
It was you know, and then I have to say,
the three of you and everyone was so nice to me,
and it was so memorable because you know, you're all
very famous. I've barely done anything except for this episode

(16:58):
of Minor Adjustments, which.

Speaker 4 (16:59):
I actually ended up shooting the day before I came
to Wow.

Speaker 7 (17:03):
Really yeah, it was all booked at the same time, right,
and it was you know, and I was all star
struck by by the three of you and by Ben
Savage and it was just, you know, very exciting to
be there, and you.

Speaker 4 (17:14):
Guys were also nice.

Speaker 7 (17:15):
So it's very memorable to me, a very memorable sort
of life moment.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (17:34):
Well, at this point, Quentin Tarantino's employment at your local
video Star Video Archives has become folklore in film history. Sure, you,
as a young person befriended this clerk and talked movies
all day with him. Tell me what that was like
and how his passion affected the way you looked at movies.

Speaker 4 (17:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (17:57):
So there was this avant garde video store called Video
Archives where I grew up in Manhattan Beach, and I
was I was sort of a movie buff since I
was five six years old. I was watching grown up movies.
I used to say, adult movies, and people are like,
you're watching now.

Speaker 5 (18:14):
I was.

Speaker 7 (18:16):
Actually, you know, rated R movies, you know, way too young,
But nonetheless, I was just sort of what I was into, right,
I wasn't into kids movies, and my mom fully embraced
what I wanted to watch, right, So they opened this
avant garde video store that assorted the films by director,
So there were sections that was this director, this director,

(18:38):
you know. And so I started going there and I
and this was when I was nine or ten, you know,
eleven ish, right, but I.

Speaker 4 (18:46):
Looked really young.

Speaker 7 (18:48):
And there was this video store clerk that just was
so much fun and just wanted to talk movies with me.
And he was in his mid twenties, I guess, and
it was Quentin Tarantino. And I would just go and
talk movies with him, and you know, he fully embraced
my the films that I was watching at that age

(19:08):
recommending nothing. But you know, adults had grown up alms
all the above, you know, and so but I spent
so much time in there. They would call me little Quintin,
and so they'd be like, quit in, Little Quintin's here,
and then I'd like go. And I just loved Quinton
because he wanted to spend so much time talking to me,

(19:29):
and my mom thought it was strange. She was like,
why does this guy talk to you so much?

Speaker 4 (19:32):
Because he's my friend?

Speaker 5 (19:33):
Mom, Okay, I gets cool.

Speaker 7 (19:37):
Someone is talking to me about movies, because it's not
as if I was having these conversations with my friends.

Speaker 5 (19:42):
At school year old friends.

Speaker 7 (19:44):
Yeah, they weren't watching Chinatown, right, right, So so that was,
you know, sort of the I don't know, I guess
the start of my film education was with professor Video
Store Cork, Quentin Tarantino.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Whatever happened to him, I don't know.

Speaker 7 (20:00):
I don't know, Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're just hoping
he hangs in there.

Speaker 4 (20:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
Tough business.

Speaker 7 (20:05):
It's look, it's a tough racket. We can all light
a candle for Coldland tonight.

Speaker 5 (20:11):
Did you ever keep in touch with him over the years,
have you ever run into him again?

Speaker 7 (20:15):
So I didn't see him for many, many years. And
then the first movie I wrote that got made was
a movie called Recount about the Ford to recount great movie.

Speaker 4 (20:26):
Oh thank You, Thank You.

Speaker 7 (20:27):
And then out of the blue, I got a message
from his assistant. And the film hadn't even come out yet,
but it was on the brink of coming out. It
was getting a lot of press and and she said, hey,
Quintin is having.

Speaker 4 (20:38):
Some people over to Uh.

Speaker 7 (20:41):
It was this Mexican restaurant, and he just wants to
know if you want to stop by. So I came by,
and he had watched the movie already because he had
gotten an advanced screener on DVD when people used to
have those things. Sure, and he just was so amazing
to me, and he gave a whole speech to He
had you know, ten people there, and you gave a

(21:01):
whole speech to everyone.

Speaker 4 (21:02):
He was like, you guys, don't scand this is little Quintin.

Speaker 7 (21:05):
Okay he used to come to and he told him
the whole story about he He's like, and he's got
a movie coming out. And so then over the years,
you know, I would see him from time to time,
and then he was he won an award from the
video store Clark Association International, some video store. It wasn't

(21:27):
the Quirks, but it was, you know, video I don't
even know what it was, but it was in a
big ballroom and he invited me and he gave this
whole speech at the end, and then at the end
of the speech he's like, there's someone here you all
got to meet, and then he introduced me. He had
me scand up and he said, okay, this is a
little Quentin.

Speaker 4 (21:46):
Okay.

Speaker 7 (21:46):
And at the time of this movie, The Butler that
had just come out, and there were billboards everywhere and
my name was actually on the billboard written by which
was very unusual.

Speaker 4 (21:56):
At that time. But they've been doing that more sense.

Speaker 7 (21:58):
And he's like, his name's on billboards and he goes,
he goes. He used to come into the store. And
years later I found out that he had become a
screenwriter and that he was successful. And I thought to myself,
thank god I did something with my life, because if
Little Quinton was successful and I wasn't, I would blow
my brains out.

Speaker 4 (22:18):
Thank you and good night.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
Oh that's awesome.

Speaker 4 (22:25):
Yeah, it was. It was unbelievable and hilarious.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
Okay, I have a question then, because I loved Recount,
great movie, Thank you, obviously had to do a ton
of research.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
So did George Bush win that election? Oh?

Speaker 7 (22:40):
So, I can tell you because they did. They did
an entire recount of the state of Florida that took
place over eighteen months. And the results of that that
recount exist, and I can tell you that it's incredibly confusing.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
So this is all the hanging chads and all that
stuff like that.

Speaker 7 (23:05):
It's really confusing. But basically, when they were counting, so
the Supreme Court famously shut the recount down, and finally,
after thirty four days, thirty five days of battle, the
entire state of Florida was finally doing the right thing
and counting all of the votes in the state of Florida. Okay,
And no one was doing the right thing at the

(23:28):
start of this process. Al Gore had only requested recounts
in four counties, not doing the right thing. He should
have been requesting them in the entire state. Why didn't
he It's actually pretty complicated, but the fast answer is
there was no mechanism to ask, so you had to
go to every single county. He thought that counties would
start to say no and it would become a big
disaster for him. Right, Bush was trying to count zero

(23:52):
votes in the entire state of Forest. One candidate four counties,
the other candidate zero counties. Finally, they're counting votes in
the entire state. Supreme Court shuts it down. They have
a hearing, and they basically run the clock out. But
the Supreme Court rules against starting the recount over and
thus George Bush becomes President of the United States. So
what was happening on that final day. They were not

(24:14):
counting certain types of votes called over votes. I told
you this was confusing, But they weren't counting those votes.
They were just counting under votes and all the other votes.
I'm not going to explain what an undervote and overvote is. However,
so when they did the final recount that took place

(24:34):
over eighteen months, it was determined that if you had
just recounted the undervotes, which was what they were counting
on that day, George W. Bush would have won the
election by any counting standard i e. Hanging chads or
not hanging chads, by something like one hundred to three

(24:57):
hundred votes, it was that's okay. However, if you included
the over votes, so they were. If they were counting
the under votes and the over votes, which is the
true total number of votes in the state of Florida,
al Gore wins the election by any voting standard, and

(25:18):
it's and it's even smaller margin I believe. I believe
it was like ninety to one hundred and eighty votes.
Al Gore wins. So you could say, well, they weren't
counting the over votes that day, so had they had
gone further, Bush would have won the election.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Right.

Speaker 7 (25:32):
No, When the Supreme Court, right before they shut it down,
a hearing was called to as the Democrats were trying
to get them to count the over votes Wealth and
the judge was on the way to the hearing when
the Supreme Court shut the recount down and he was
asked later, you know, when this all this information came out,
would you have allowed over votes to be counted on

(25:53):
the day, And he said, oh, yeah, absolutely, of course
I would have because that would have been the true determination.
So final recap if if that had happened and the
Supreme Court had allowed this process to move further, would
al Goore have been elected on that day.

Speaker 4 (26:12):
The margin is so small. Yeah, who knows? Because that
those numbers.

Speaker 7 (26:16):
I was telling you that was an eighteen month methodical
recount that was done by meeting on the day. Who knows.
With margins that small, my gut who or probably would
have pulled it out. But but the truth is thousands
of more people on election day went to vote for

(26:37):
al Gore over George W. Bush, but he ended up
losing thousands of votes in three different counties, the most
famous being in pomp Beach County because of the butterfly ballot.
It was so confusing that Pap Buchanan got you know,
something like six or seven thousand votes for people that

(26:58):
meant to vote for al Gore because as the ballot itself.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
Was very confusing.

Speaker 7 (27:02):
It was sort of a comedy of airs, you know.
It was a complete sort of perfect storm of disaster
for al Gore. Who more people on election day went
to vote for him than George W.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Bush?

Speaker 7 (27:15):
For sure.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
God, that's crazy.

Speaker 7 (27:17):
Yeah, it's a crazy story. And anyone watching or listening
to this Gon recount.

Speaker 8 (27:24):
Yeah, it's great, But I want to I want to
dive into it from your like the personal part because
you did all this research because Recount was you had
written scripts, but Recount was the one that, you know,
really moved you from being an actor to being a
writer director.

Speaker 5 (27:40):
So what was that process?

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Like, I mean, I've heard about it secondhand from Adam
Bush that you were just like so angry about the
election that you were like, I'm going to go down
there and do all my own research and write a
movie about that. Is that true? Is that what I It.

Speaker 7 (27:53):
Wasn't that dramatic, No, I mean, I was very I was.
I was very angry about the election at the time.
But I actually I even follow the recount when it
was happening because I was so enraged. I couldn't watch
and I just could not watch the recount. And then
my anger, you know, grew during the Iraq War. That
was very, you know, a sort of big life moment

(28:16):
for me because I felt like, I don't really not
an expert on politics, but I know Sadom Hussein was
not responsible for nine to eleven yet, and yet you know,
the President of the United States and his entire party
is saying he is, and the media seems to be.

Speaker 4 (28:32):
Kind of going along with it.

Speaker 7 (28:34):
So that kind of I don't want to say it
radicalized me, but it definitely, you know, inflamed me.

Speaker 4 (28:39):
Right.

Speaker 7 (28:40):
So so then I was trying to figure out what
I wanted to write next, and I'd been writing these
comedies that weren't selling. And I saw this play called
Stuff Happens that was about the build up to the
Iraq War, which I had read a lot about because
I had read a lot of books about it. And
I saw how David Hare, the famous playwright, had turned

(29:01):
all this research that I was familiar with into this
stunning piece of drama that was electric. I mean, the
audience was booing the actors. They were booing each other
on certain lines of dialogue. And I was in the
last seat of the theater because that was all I
could afford with like eighting grins so wide, because I
just was just this was just sort of everything I
was about as an artist and you know, is just

(29:24):
a citizen of the country.

Speaker 4 (29:25):
Right.

Speaker 7 (29:26):
So then I walked out of the theater thinking, oh,
that's what I need to write next. I need to
write something like Stuff Happens, And within thirty seconds, the
idea of the Florida Recount popped into my head, which
is weird because I hadn't really followed the Florida recount
and this was six years later, five years later, so

(29:46):
it's not as if the recount had been on my.

Speaker 4 (29:48):
Mind for years.

Speaker 7 (29:50):
So that's how it came about, was that it popped
into my head and I called my agent for my manager,
and I said, you know, I know what I want
to write next. I want to write the story of
the Flida account. And he said, well, no one will
buy that except for HBO, and HBO won't buy it
from you because they only buy stuff from literally Tony

(30:11):
Kushner and David Hare like they were at the time
in this very kind of elite, you know, you know,
a sort of overly snobby stage. And I said, yeah,
I know, but it's so good because I'd already boughten
a book and it does some research at this point.
And I said, but the story is so amazing. I
don't really care. I just want to do this. And

(30:31):
then he said, okay.

Speaker 4 (30:33):
I mean it was like, literally, is that all right?
I love?

Speaker 7 (30:35):
That's what I don't care about. Tell yet who, Well,
I told you, you know, buy it and you really
want to do it. And it was actually a good
managing because he had a client he was passionate about
a story, and and so he just said go for it.
And then, you know, it was a long, sort of
windy road, but I ended up, you know, several months

(30:55):
later in the office of HBO to pitch the movie Recount,
and I couldn't believe it. To me, that was the
victory that I had just made it to that point
because I never sold anything. I wasn't in the writers guild.
And I turned to the producer that I was with,
Lena Motto, and I said, I can't believe I'm sitting
in HBO about to pitch this movie. And he said, well,

(31:16):
it's a better story if you sell it. So and
luckily it turned into a better story because because I
did sell it, and it took him a few weeks
to give me an answer, and when he called me
and he said, well they bought it, I was terrified.
I just was scared. I was like, oh my god,
I finally sold something. The first thing I never sold

(31:37):
was a pitch, and now I have to write it.
And I just thought, well, you know, this is my
big shot. What if I blow it?

Speaker 4 (31:45):
And so that was that's but that's how that's how
it came together.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
Wow, and vaguely was great in that movie, Fantastic. He
was one of those guys that I remember he's his performance.
I've always loved him, but his performance so stuck out
to me in that film where I was like, man,
he's he's like an under rated actor for me.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Yeah, he was really good in that movie.

Speaker 7 (32:03):
It was wonderful. And when he when they you know,
his name came up for the part, I was like
Ed Begley Junior because I thought of him as this
comedic actor, right. And and then they showed me a
scene from I think it was an episode of West Wing.
It was a dramatic scene and he just tore it
apart and it was he was clearly perfect casting for

(32:24):
David Boys. Yeah, And I thought, oh, that's perfect, that's
what you know. And I you know, and it wasn't
my choice. It was the director's choice. But you know,
the director was Jay Roach was a wonderful person, really
listened to me too, you know, on my input and
so and I just said, you know, I just think
he's perfect, and Jay was like, well, good, because that's why.

Speaker 4 (32:41):
I want to cast. So yeah he was. And then
and then Ed was fantastic in it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
Oh he's such a cool guy too.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
Yeah yeah, sweet, yeah, really wonderful.

Speaker 5 (33:03):
I know you and writer have kept in touch a
little bit over the years. Is boy Meets World the
first place you met?

Speaker 4 (33:10):
Yeah? Yeah. We were on a radio show. Yeah, sort
of a live radio show.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yeah, The Thrilling Adventure Hour Zaccer and Acker and Blackers.
So that brought us back. That brought us together. I
mean that's really when we hung out. I mean, I
you know, Boybe's World, like that was such a blip
and the rear view mirror by the time because you
had already done Buffy and so they brought us on
to host together. Actually because normally they had like two

(33:38):
actors that were always doing the hosting duties for The
Thrilling Adventure Hour and they couldn't do it one week
or whatever, and we had both guest starred on different shows.
So they decided to have the Strong brothers and they
created characters for us to go and do it. And
that was like when we first hung out. And I
think at that point had you even written recount yet.
I think you were writing, but I don't think you would.

Speaker 4 (33:58):
I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
No, Yeah, I think you still primarily like I thought
of you as an actor at that point, you know, yeah,
and I remember we talked a little bit about writing,
but that was yeah. And then it was watching the
recount thing happen. I was like, oh my god, Dan,
he's doing so well.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
So I don't think I'm wrong. Do you recall the
last time you and I ran into each other?

Speaker 7 (34:19):
I mean I don't. I sort of feel like it
was on set on Blamet's World. Is there another is
there a story here?

Speaker 1 (34:26):
I could be wrong. Did we run into each other
in the streets of Amsterdam?

Speaker 4 (34:32):
Whoa when was that? I mean, I've been to Amsterdam,
but once.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
I'm pretty sure I rounded a corner and you rounded
a corner and I was with Jason Marsden and we
stood in front of each other, went oh my god, Yeah,
we just ran into each other in the red light district.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
Ninety eight would have been late nineties.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
Yeah, late nineties, yeah, late nineties.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
So that was I think the last time I saw
you was on the streets of Amsterdam.

Speaker 7 (35:00):
Yes, and I was never in the red light district.
Every One that claimed I am this tribunal was a false.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
Because you can walk through and not partake it. It
is something that must be seen.

Speaker 7 (35:15):
To be still pretty filthy just walking through it. And
I'm still showering from walk through the red light district.
Been there, which I wasn't. I was never there.

Speaker 4 (35:27):
I only make me very clear, that was the.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
Last time I saw you just ro out of the corner.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
We were both like, oh my god, because I think
it was the year you were envoy me twirl and
so we just ended up just kind of there at
the same time.

Speaker 4 (35:40):
Yeah. Really I think it was a few years later.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
But was it Okay, it wasn't a year.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
Yeah, maybe it was just a year and a half
lay or something like that.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
Yeah, but it was like, oh my god, standing, Yeah, did.

Speaker 5 (35:52):
You have like a young actor crew back then? Like
we're all your friend's other young performers. We realized we've
all had little boss's of other actors who've lived in
and out of the Oak Woods, and yeah.

Speaker 7 (36:03):
You know, you know, I was never I was never
sort of that much of an insider. I always felt
kind of like I was kind of on the outside
a little bit. But I was really close friends with
Michael Bacall. I don't know if you know Michael baccall.

Speaker 4 (36:21):
He was an actor.

Speaker 7 (36:21):
He was in tons of stuff, and we often would
would come down to me or him for parts. We
became friends because we exchanged info to let each other
know who got it.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
Because of his Oh, of course, of course I recognize him. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (36:37):
Yeah, he worked a lot. And I started writing because
Michael started writing and he sold a script and I
was so jealous of him that and he was encouraging
me too, like you should write too, you should really
do this. That That was partly how I started writing.
And he's gone on to have a very successful writing career.

(36:58):
You just wrote The Running Man, the Edgar Wry movie.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
Yeah, Scott Pilgrim versus The World Street.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
Yeah, he's done some stuff.

Speaker 4 (37:05):
Wow.

Speaker 7 (37:05):
Yeah, yeah, that's all Michael. So Michael and I were
really close. I had another buddy named Blaine Weaver, who
I just saw recently for the first time in years.
But it wasn't you know. Me and Adam Bush became,
you know, really good friends. And Tom Link we were
sort of this trio on bucking the Vampire Slayer. But
I didn't I didn't sort of roll in a in
a young Hollywood kind of crowd.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (37:29):
Yeah, I was a little awkward. I was felt awkward.

Speaker 5 (37:34):
I was gonna say, Manhattan Beach will kind of alienate
you from you know, it's I lived in Manhattan Beach
for a while. I love it there, but boy is
it hard to get to Burbank from Manhattan Beach.

Speaker 7 (37:45):
Well I wish that was my excuse, but the truth
was I grew up there, but then and then when
I went to college, I never went back. So I
was in Hollywood, you know, just right on you know Stanley,
just right there street from a halfway house. Uh, I
lived for a decade.

Speaker 5 (38:06):
And halfway house.

Speaker 7 (38:08):
Yeahs street from it. So it's called Villa Stanley. And
there's another Villa Stanley on Melrose, Villa Stanley number two.
So but yeah, I I uh yeah, I just never.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
I don't know, I never. I never kind of got
super inside.

Speaker 5 (38:23):
You also appeared on we've mentioned Buffy now, but you
also appeared on another cult classic, who Fans Will Never
Let Die, and that's Gilmore Girls. Between Gilmore Girls Buffy,
I mean in Boy Meets World, you're sort of in
the holy trinity of fandoms.

Speaker 4 (38:39):
Pretty good.

Speaker 5 (38:40):
Yeah, what do you yeah, what do you get recognized
from the most.

Speaker 4 (38:45):
Gilmore Girls all the time.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
I mean, they have fans, rabbit fans.

Speaker 7 (38:52):
I don't even know if you would call them rabbit fans.
At this point, it's it's like it's just everywhere people
are just watching that show. You know, mothers and their daughters.
You know it it is. It's bigger than it ever was.
And when it went off the air, it didn't you know,

(39:12):
you didn't feel that at all. And then when it
started airing on Netflix is when there was this massive
cultural shifty Gilmore Girls. In some ways, it's like Friends,
where it's you know, it's it's sort of that big,
so that I get that all the time. I was
also even though I'd stopped acting, I kind of kept acting.

Speaker 4 (39:33):
The things would just pop up.

Speaker 7 (39:35):
And I ended up on a TV show called Billions
for six seasons, which is crazy. And then and so Billions,
you did that Billions a lot.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
You did six seasons of Billions.

Speaker 4 (39:47):
It was supposed to be no idea.

Speaker 7 (39:49):
There was supposed to be two episodes, and then I
ended up doing three or four a year from season
two through seven.

Speaker 4 (39:55):
My best time.

Speaker 7 (39:56):
The part was so much fun and and and it
was its in New York where I live, so I
could just kind of run down there and shoot the
scenes and go So, yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
Which one do you prefer?

Speaker 3 (40:07):
I mean, now that you've got this incredible writing career,
I mean, but you're also your acting career took off
the second you decided you didn't want to be an
actor anymore, which is seems to be the the way
it works is like we always joke, if you want
the audition, you you book a non refuninable plane ticket
somewhere on the same day. Yeah, the second you went
I'm done, your career kind of took off.

Speaker 1 (40:25):
Is there something you enjoy more than the other? Do
you enjoy writing more than acting or acting?

Speaker 7 (40:29):
Well, writing, I don't really, you know, like I said,
I don't pursue acting, so it's not even something where
I'm actively trying to do it right. It's fun when
I do do it. I really enjoy it, but it's
it's you know, I have a full writing, producing, directing
career that is consumes my days, you know, every day,

(40:52):
and it's and that's what I'm steeped in. But but
you know, when I'm when I am lucky enough to
be on set, you know, acting in something, and I
only do it now if it's something I really want
to do. But it's not like the phones ringing off
the hook either in front. I mean, it's just kind
of every once in a while goes me from something,
I guess, and then they reach out. So so it is,

(41:14):
you know, I do enjoy it, but I'm you know,
fully immersed in a very high stress writing producing career.

Speaker 5 (41:21):
Were you afraid that people wouldn't take you seriously as
a writer because they knew you as an actor?

Speaker 1 (41:27):
You know it?

Speaker 4 (41:28):
Really I didn't.

Speaker 7 (41:31):
I wasn't because it seemed common for actors to become writers.
And what was great about it because it took me
seven years from writing my first script to selling that
pitch for recount, right, So that's a long time to
do something. But the first script I wrote, a few
producers read it and they loved it, and I realized,

(41:55):
it doesn't matter what you've done. They're going to sit
down and read the script, and that's all that matters
is the script. And I guess a lot of scripts
are pretty tough to read. So when they read one
that they really like, they're very excited and they're very
excited to meet you. And I've never experienced within the
industry any bias from being an actor on the writing front.

(42:20):
In fact, it's sort of the opposite, where people in
development that do this for a living of reading scripts,
you know, have a long sort of history of knowing
that when actors can write, the scripts can often be
really quite good. And I've had a number of friends
have their lives change by writing a script, right, And
it's just they have a whole new career from it.

(42:42):
And you know, as an actor, you're boxed in by
your DNA to a certain extent, you know, and it's
and you could be, you know, the greatest actor in
the world, and a lot of times the material doesn't
call for it, right. Yeah, So it's sort of and
I know now from casting being on the other side

(43:03):
of it, you know, I'm just trying to find the
person who's right for the part that does that sort
of does the scene the best, or well, who's also
right for the part. You know, there's that element which
is right for the part, the right type of whatever
that character is right, and that all goes away on
the writing. It's just doesn't matter what you look like,

(43:25):
it's just the page. And I found that, you know,
very liberating to this day. I find it very liberating
that my DNA is not is not being judged.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
It's just it's Yeah, total, when you said it took
seven years from when you started writing to Recount, then
Recount comes out, Now you know your career is taken
off in the writing, writing, and directing and producing kind
of aspect.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Do you get to now go back to the scripts
that maybe you didn't.

Speaker 3 (43:55):
Sell in those seven years and go, Okay, now I'm
going to go back and do some of the ones
that I originally wrote that I wanted to do.

Speaker 7 (44:01):
Yeah, that's a really good question, because that came up.
You know, Hey, go go to your old scripts and
sell them and make them dough, you know. And I
I went and read a few of them to see
how I felt about it, and I thought, you know,
this script belongs in this drawer.

Speaker 4 (44:21):
Even if I can monetize.

Speaker 7 (44:22):
It, I don't want to monetize it because I feel
that i've you know, that my writing has grown. And
when I wrote Recount, it was the first drama i'd
ever written, the first true story i'd ever written it,
and it was much more natural for me than any
of the comedies that I had written up till that
point and I just felt, oh, I've you know, maybe
I've grown as an artist, or I found my voice

(44:43):
as a writer, or I just felt that the work
was much stronger than the work had been before. And
I thought, why don't we just leave this? Uh, why
don't we just leave this where it is?

Speaker 5 (44:53):
How long was it between Recount and then Game Change?

Speaker 7 (44:57):
Well, they were it was four years from when it
came out when Game Change came out, but I think
it was maybe two years two and a half years
when I started writing it. And it was really interesting.
When we had finished Recount, the director of it immediately
thought there was a movie in Sarah Palin. And for

(45:18):
those of you who don't know Game Change, it's the
story of John McCain picking Sarah Palin.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
Scared the got to me that movie that scared out.

Speaker 4 (45:26):
Of it is.

Speaker 7 (45:27):
It is kind of terrifying, and it's the very much
kind of the canary of the coal mine of the
Coole mind of where we are today, right, you know,
you see sort of the birth of the mega movement
in this story. Uh. And Jay Roach was all over
it as it was happening in real time. He said,
I want to be in the rooms where they decided

(45:47):
to pick Sarah Palin, and I said, that's the last
thing I want to do. I really don't want to
do another true life, modern day political story. You're a
little handcuffed. You can't make stuff up. It's got to
be super but down.

Speaker 4 (46:00):
And I was so.

Speaker 7 (46:01):
Attacked on Recount, and Recount was a very accurate and
peck uply research, but it didn't matter. They just attack,
you know, an attack of attack, and so I was
a little gun shy. Then the book Game Change came out.
And by the way, I had been offered the book
before they had written a script. I'd been offered it

(46:22):
a year earlier, and I passed. And the book came
out and it was a sensation and I read it
and I felt like such a fool that I had
that I had said no to it. I just loved
reading it. And Jay Roach, by the way, in that
time period, kept calling me every six months about doing
the Sarah Palin story, and I kept saying no. So
when I read the book Recount, when I got to

(46:44):
the Sarah Palin chapters, I immediately saw what the movie
would be like. And I immediately thought Jay Roach was right,
there's a great movie in here, and then I forgot
about it. Then about six months later he called me
and because they were developing an Obama versus Hillary movie,
that's what they were trying to do. So Jay called
me and he said, I've taken over game, changed the book.

(47:06):
I'm throwing out their Obama Hillary script and I'm going
to do Sarah Palin And You've said no to me
four times, but I'm going to ask you one more time.
Do you want to do it? And I said in
the phone call, I said, I read the book, You're
absolutely right, yes, I'm doing it. Yes, so I said it.
So I said yes right there. And then there was
this tricky moment where we actually had a small window

(47:26):
to write the script and get it greenlit, because in
order to get it out, you know, six months before
the election, which is when they wanted to get it out,
they didn't want it too close to the election to
make it look like we were fearing. And then after
the election there was a sense of no one may
care anymore. So I had this kind of about two
months to write a first draft to get them excited

(47:49):
about it. And it was wild because I hadn't had
a movie made since recount, and I thought, okay, I
got two months, maybe I could maybe this will get
you know, and then sure enough I wrote it, turned
it in and then it started to get all this.

Speaker 4 (48:01):
Momentum and it ended up getting made. So that's how
that one came me.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
Phenomenal another phenomenal cast. I mean, the cat whatdy? Harrelson
and everybody in that movie were just they were so good.
But that movie scared the hell out of me.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
I mean, it really did.

Speaker 4 (48:16):
Harris as John McCain. I remember watching them with.

Speaker 7 (48:19):
Them because I had on recount, I had gotten to
know a lot of Democratic and Republican operatives that work
on these elections, and I've become very friendly with people
in both parties. I really enjoyed, you know, I enjoyed
them all, you know, not all of them, but you know,
the people that I became friends with, and you know,
in any party. And so there was one guy who

(48:42):
was a Republican operative and I invited him to one
of our screenings of Game Change to kind of test,
you know, how how are Republicans' operatives going to feel
about this movie? And the movie ended and he turned
to me and he said, that was amazing. I loved it,
and boy, that is terrifying. So he had the same

(49:05):
response to you as insight.

Speaker 3 (49:07):
Well, because they had the Republicans in the movie, a
lot of the Republicans were going like this is not
this is not okay, like this is yeah, and even
John McCain saying things like you got to be really
careful what the future is going to hold for our party.
I mean it was it seemed very balanced, which is
the thing that I liked about it, but man, it
did it scared the hell on him.

Speaker 8 (49:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (49:25):
You know, I interviewed so many people in the McCain
campaign for that film, and they were, you know, they
and they sort of fit into three different categories of
they really despised Sarah Palin, they really liked her and
thought she was treated unfairly, and then people that sort
of kind of understood, you know, both sides of it,
and I try to represent, you know, all the different

(49:47):
points of views in the film. And what I loved
about doing Game Change versus Recount is there wasn't two
parties represented, so I didn't have to you know, be
you know enough time to the Democrats the republic and
make it feel the balance that way. It was literally,
no Democrats are being consulted in the making of this movie.
This is just Republicans. It's their story, it's what they

(50:09):
live through, and how can I make it sort of
as honest and rich and full as possible. And I
felt like I wanted to show Sarah Palin's experience in
a way that was honest and at times. At times,
just in the research, I felt really sympathetic to her,
and I felt she was in positions that weren't fair
to her or that were just so much pressure for
her life experience. Yea, and I wanted to to make

(50:32):
sure I dramatized all that.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Yeah, that was great.

Speaker 5 (50:35):
I would love to sit in on one of your pitches.
And I wonder do you think your acting skills help
you in pitch meetings?

Speaker 7 (50:43):
Definitely, Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent, because I'm just very
comfortable pitching. In fact, I enjoy it because it's sort
of a one man show. It's just me and I've
written the script and then I go and I do pitch,
and it's usually it's actually quite a bit of fun
for me and a lot of writers who don't have

(51:04):
an acting background, the pitch.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
Is terrifying, exactly the worst part.

Speaker 7 (51:09):
Yeah, I hate this and they just kind of, you know,
just kind of read the pitch, which, by the way,
totally fine if you're a writer watching this. You don't
have to have an acting background. People just want to
hear what your pitch is.

Speaker 4 (51:20):
You know.

Speaker 7 (51:21):
At the end of the day, and I tell someone
I produce and I'm working with writers, I tell them like,
don't worry about it. Just re read it. You don't,
you know, it's it's the you know, the story's great
that you've constructed and that'll come through.

Speaker 5 (51:33):
So so Recount goes on to become a massive critical hit,
Game Change wins a Peabody, and you get an Emmy.

(51:55):
Were you at that point just like, Okay, that's it,
I'm a full time writer now. Or did you still
think that you were going to have one foot in
the acting world.

Speaker 7 (52:06):
No, I had after Recount. I hadn't been in la
for a long time, okay, because I was well, I
was in a movie before Recount went into production called
Sydney White with Amanda Bynes. Okay, that's when I was
thirty three. We were thirty two, playing a college students,
and so I and then I we did Recount. So
I actually was gone from LA for nine months, you know,

(52:29):
for I was gone for a long time, came back,
and then I moved to New York. And I moved
to New York for three months as a trial, and
then two weeks into the trial, I said, the trial
is officially over. I'm staying here. I love it right,
and part of me moving to New York was and
I don't want to act anymore. So I stopped auditioning,

(52:51):
and for two years I didn't go on audition. I
had this really neat manager who had been with for
years who's still my manager, and he kept calling me
stuff over the years, saying, hey, will you go in
for this that? And I kept saying no, And then
finally he called and said, there's this raw on Madmen.
Uh do you want audition for mad Men? And that

(53:12):
was my favorite show. I went, okay, okay, I'll do
that one. I'll do that one, and then I booked it.
So then I booked the part and I ended up
doing or recurring on mad Men. And I actually think
all the it didn't work I've gotten since has been
because people love mad Men, and you know, some of
the I know, Billions for sure was from that. But

(53:34):
but so that's when, and that was so that's after
not auditioning for a few years. I have to say
the two years I wasn't auditioning when I moved to
New York may have been the happiest two years ago.
Not having four months of pilot season. Will this audition

(53:55):
change my life for twelve years? And it never did.
I never booked the pilot, but every pilot season was
torture for me. And so to have that go away,
and I'm living in New York City and it's amazing,
And you know, I was writing The Butler and Game Change,
those were the first two movies I wrote there, you know,
So I just was having sort of just you know,

(54:16):
a wonderful experience and that was associated tied into not
auditioning anything.

Speaker 5 (54:21):
Yeah, how did you connect with Lee Daniels for The Butler?

Speaker 7 (54:24):
So I wrote The Butler. I was hired to write
The Butler, which would never happen today, but it was
they had this idea that they thought I would be
the right writer for it. I loved the material right away,
and then I wrote the movie. And this was all
for Sony Pictures and her producer named Wura Zisken, who's
a real legend. She passed away very tragically from cancer,

(54:46):
but before she passed away, she started stand up to cancer.
So then I wrote The Butler and then turned it
into my agent, and then my agent called me.

Speaker 4 (55:01):
So I turned it in I.

Speaker 7 (55:01):
Don't know, maybe on a Thursday, and then to my
agent and to Sony. So Monday morning I get a
call from my agent and she said, hey, so, I
don't know what's going on with Sony if they've read it.
I don't think they have because it was not a
high priority project for Sony, she said, but I gave
it to Steven Spielberg and he read it and he

(55:24):
thinks he might want to do it because one of
the reasons of all, you know, Steven Spielberg is the
King of Hollywood for a thousand different reasons, but he
also wants to know what's going on with scripts before
anybody else. So if there's a hot script that the
agency thinks is a hot script, they give it to
him first and he reads it immediately. So Sony gets

(55:46):
the phone call, Hey, have you guys read The Butler yet? Oh,
because Steven Spielberg has read it and he thinks he
wants to do it. So now this script that's super
low priority becomes the big prior already, right, And then
I guess people in Hollywood all found out that Steven
Spielderberg maybe wants to do the butt Were next, and

(56:07):
so it was instantly a hot script. And then Lee
Daniels read it during that period and he basically was
waiting in the wings for Stephen to pass and so
and then it was about four or five months later
and then one of the reasons why Stephen backed off
the project was he decided to do the movie Warhorse first,

(56:29):
which was within his own film studio, DreamWorks, and he
didn't want to slow the project down because he knew
Wara Ziskin had cancer and he knew how was doing
because normally he might have hung on to it a
longer to maybe do it next, right, So he backs
off the project, you know, very generously, and then the
next day Lee Daniels was waiting in the wings to

(56:53):
do it. And so that's how that's how that all began,
was that was on the Buttler and so then Lee
was on the project and and it took four years
to get the movie made.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
Wow, nothing's fast in this town is now.

Speaker 4 (57:09):
It's a tough racket. Yeah, it's it's really a tough racket.

Speaker 5 (57:13):
You also have such a diverse range of genres that
you have done. You also did Hunger Games. How do
you how do you switch gears to be able to
kind of go back to back to back with such
different genres.

Speaker 7 (57:28):
Yeah, it's a goofy career, right, you know, I mean
because I do film, TV and I do stage musicals.

Speaker 4 (57:35):
Right, So it's sort.

Speaker 7 (57:36):
Of all it's kind of all over the place, and
it's it's literally it's just whatever I'm into.

Speaker 3 (57:43):
You know.

Speaker 7 (57:43):
There's not a big sort of master game plan at all.
It's it's literally just Oh that's that's you know. And
I'm always guided by the same sentence, Oh that could
be really good. I just get excited about something. I think,
oh that could be really good, you know. So and
then whatever I'm working on that day is just what
I'm working on, you know, it's not a big it's

(58:04):
not a big emotional shifting gears. I try to stick
within one project for whatever phase.

Speaker 4 (58:12):
I happen to be in on that project.

Speaker 7 (58:14):
Right, So, if I'm outlining something, I try to finish
the outline before I get pulled off onto something else.

Speaker 4 (58:21):
Yeah, constant.

Speaker 7 (58:22):
I'm usually writing three or four different things at one
time in every different you know, genre is you know
and so and so. I just try to complete whatever
task it is. But I find working on multiple things
is really helpful because then I set something down, I
go on to something else, and it makes me completely

(58:42):
forget about that pfect. So when I come back to.

Speaker 4 (58:45):
It, it's a fresh eyes.

Speaker 7 (58:48):
And that's huge because part of the biggest challenge for
me is not being able to sort of know what
to do with it at a certain point because it's scale.
The more that the fresh eye, I can keep fresh eyes,
but then at a certain point something just becomes stale,
and that's and that's when I know it's time to
hand it to something.

Speaker 4 (59:05):
Get some reads.

Speaker 3 (59:06):
Did you Did you have any trouble with Hunger Games,
especially when it's something like, okay, we have to do
a PG thirteen version of kids slaughtering each other?

Speaker 1 (59:16):
Well, like, how do you do that?

Speaker 4 (59:18):
Really on me?

Speaker 1 (59:19):
You know?

Speaker 7 (59:19):
They so I did Mocking j Part one and two.
They had already done two movies, right, you know, so
they had already done the first Hungry Games, which I
loved and I hadn't read the books. I had just
seen the first movie, thought fantastic, yeah, and they yeah,
Well I did eventually read them when they when they
approached me, but so they they approached me for it,

(59:42):
and I was incredibly flattered just to get to ask
to pitch on it. And they told me we're going
to ten writers. They were sort of very open, We're
going to ten writers. We're trying to find one writer
to do you know, part one and part two. And
they were in the middle of shooting catching Fire at
the time, or were just about to I don't totally remember,

(01:00:03):
but so that was so as far as the tone
of it, it had already been set. And it was
one of those jobs where every job, every script, has
its own set of rules creatively politics surrounding the production.
You know, there are all of them that are their
own ecosystem with their own sets of issues. And in

(01:00:26):
the case of Hunger Games, it was the It was
an adaptation in which everyone rightfully so wanted to stick
as close to the book as possible because the book
was so the books were so widely popular, they were
so beloved, they were super hot. In that moment. It
wasn't as if they'd come out a decade earlier. Right,

(01:00:46):
They just were red hot, you know, with this passionate
fan base. And Suzanne Collins, who wrote them, was a
big part of the team making the movies, so it
wasn't as if she wasn't She was in the swimming
pool and was a key collaborator with them. So it
was in some ways one of the more simpler jobs
I've ever had, because they didn't want they didn't want

(01:01:11):
anyone to come create a lot of stuff. They just
wanted to stick really close to the books.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
That's what I'm asking, how do you pitch that? Isn't
it just ten people holding up the book going I
want to write this.

Speaker 7 (01:01:20):
That what you're asking is exactly what I went through
and I was asked to pitch.

Speaker 4 (01:01:25):
I thought, well, how do you pitch this?

Speaker 7 (01:01:27):
Yeah, I don't really know how to pitch this, but
I'll just I think I need to pitch it out completely.
That was that was what I said, was I need
to pitch this out completely. I'm just going to pitch
them exactly what I'm going to do with the first movie,
beat by beat, And that's what I did, and it
was all straight from the book. You know, sort of

(01:01:48):
like an editing job. I mean, in some ways, that's
what that job was. It was an editing job. It
was a pairing down and then sure enough they you know,
maybe other people weren't doing that, maybe my skills as
an actor helped the process. Is we were talking about earlier,
but then it was me and one other writer that

(01:02:08):
were the final two. I actually don't even remember who
it was. And then we flew to Atlanta because that's
where they were shooting the movie. So I flew to Atlanta.
I did the pitch. They said wait here and then
then and then the producer walked out and she said
you got the job, and I was like, this is crazy, Yeah,
it was.

Speaker 5 (01:02:27):
It was it was a feeling.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
Yeah, I'm so curious, Danny, because you've had such an
amazing career and like, but I also feel like every
everybody in Hollywood, like you get you end up having
huge successes for stuff that you kind of like don't
care that much about or you know, like you're your
own version of success is often different than like the
world's version of success. So I'm curious, like, what are
you most proud of? Is it Spielberg reading your script?

(01:02:51):
And liking it is it is there like a moment
that you can say like, oh, this is this is
my personal accomplishment that makes me feel great.

Speaker 7 (01:02:59):
You know, I don't know, it's sort of tough to answer.
I mean, I try to, for the most part, work
on projects that I feel have some sort of societal
cultural impact, you know, that have something to say on
a big macro level about something, you know, where I

(01:03:19):
want to talk about something that I think is important
to talk about. And and you know, for a few reasons. One,
it's just as hard to write something that doesn't do
that as it is to write something that does do that.
So I find it a better use of my time
to be working on something that I feel like is
saying something important for me. That's what I feel like

(01:03:43):
what art is for, although I think that there's lots
of art that I enjoy that doesn't do that, and
that's fine too. You know, some of it's just pure
entertainment and it's funny and you know, scary, and there's
not a big metaphor or something being told at the
heart of it. But for me, that's what I personally
really like to do. But I think there's something else

(01:04:03):
at play too, which is I think it makes it
a better movie or a better TV show or a
better stage musical. I think it adds a level of
depth and power to it that increases the entertainment value
as well. So it's not just altruistic but I but
for me, it's what I like. I just like art

(01:04:26):
that does that. As an audience member too. You know,
my favorite movie is or you know I you know,
like when I mentioned Chinatown, that's one of my favorite
movies of all the time, right, you know, Yeah, it's
about corruption. You know, all the President's men, it's about corruption.
I guess I like things about corruption. You know, these
are just the different. So so one of the projects
that I guess you know that I just had such
a wonderful experience making, which is weird because it was

(01:04:50):
so dark, but I had so much joy in making
it was I did a limited series called Dope.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
Sick, Oh God, Michael Keaton.

Speaker 7 (01:04:58):
Michael Keaton, Yeah, I did a few of them, and
so so I was incredibly kind of micromanaging hands on
on that one, and I felt like it was a
it was a massive piece of muck raking that I
was exposing the actions of Purdue Pharma that was micromanaged,
known being you know, it was owned by the Sackler family.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Right, say it's a Sackler family's of Connecticut. Yeah, that's yeah, right.

Speaker 7 (01:05:23):
And it told the story of what happened beat by
beat in a way that the general public, you know
that had been in books, but that the general public
didn't fully understand how the opioid crisis happened. And then
it was totally manufactured by this company seeking profit. So
that was that was That was a project I really

(01:05:45):
loved making, and to be honest with you, was sort
of you know, a little gun shy afterward of what
to do next? Now, although I have written several things
since then, but but you know, it was very much uh,
you know, what do I do next? Because it was
such an incredible experience for me. Yeah, yeah, making that show.

(01:06:08):
I really loved it. And we shot it in the
height of the pandemic, pre vaccine, you know, no vaccine
in sight, so it was that was just an you know,
there's so there were no executives there. The producers didn't
come out. You know, one of our producers came out
for a few days and he was like, I'm out
so it was me and this line producer Jane bartle May,

(01:06:30):
and we were just all alone on this set on
a very very complicated production because it wasn't a bubble set.
We had hundreds of principles, thousands of extras, you know,
so it was it was a very intense, very intense
process as well.

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
Any any chance of going back to comedy.

Speaker 7 (01:06:51):
I try and infuse comedy and some of my dramas,
you know, I don't know about doing a straight up comedy. Also,
they're they're tough to get made now. It's it's a
really challenging genre. I mean, Scary Movie had a huge
opening weekend, so and it's doing really well, so maybe
you know, and Jen Apato is making a big comedy

(01:07:13):
with Glenn Powell right now, so you know, and.

Speaker 4 (01:07:15):
I hope that's really successful.

Speaker 7 (01:07:16):
So the comedy has been a tough racket for the
last you know, four or five years, and so you've
seen huge comedy figures or just you know, streaming TV
and they're killing it and doing wonderful work.

Speaker 5 (01:07:28):
So yeah, well I want, I can't. We can't let
this interview go without me mentioning that you collaborated with
Lee Daniels again for a little show called Empire, which
obviously became a phenomenon. Where did the idea of writing
about the music industry come from?

Speaker 7 (01:07:45):
So, so that came from I was driving around Los
Angeles and so I was back in LA and I
was listening to the radio, which I never do in
New York because you don't listen to the radio in
New York, you know. You just listened to Spotify, and
there was this news piece on the radio about Puffy

(01:08:07):
Sean Comb's closing some huge deal, and I just thought, God,
why isn't there some huge piece on hip hop? Hip
Hop is so dynamic, you know, it's such a fascinating
cultural force. And so that's how that started. I'm like,
what about And then I thought what would I do

(01:08:30):
if I were to do a hip hop story? And
then you know, like sort of the recount, you know,
anecdote I told you where the idea instantly came to
my head. The same thing happened with Empire, where I
instantly thought when I asked myself, what would I do?

Speaker 4 (01:08:44):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (01:08:44):
What about the line and winter in a hip hop empire?
So the line of Winner is a play that's also
a movie. That's about King Henry the Second and his
three sons all battling who's going to take over his empire.
And the whole play takes place when his wife that
he keeps in prison, eleanorat Aquitaine, he lets her out
for Christmas once a year. Yeah, he was such a

(01:09:07):
good husband for Christmas and she just wrecks.

Speaker 5 (01:09:10):
Havoc as women do.

Speaker 4 (01:09:14):
Is that so? Literally? I thought, Oh, what about the
wine and winter in a hip hop empire? Okay? So
and then I just broke it down. I'm like, okay,
so let's say you have jay Z.

Speaker 7 (01:09:24):
He's a little older, he has three sons, and his
ex wife is in prison for selling drugs. But the
drug money is what started the empire, and the movie
would open with her getting out of prison. And that
was literally what I thought. And then I thought, oh,
that's kind of cool. You know I should I should

(01:09:46):
tell Lee Daniels about this, because we were in post
on The Butler post production, and all through post production
Lee just kept saying, Danny, we're magic together, We're magic.

Speaker 4 (01:09:55):
Let's what do we doing next? We do next?

Speaker 7 (01:09:57):
And here I had an idea, So I and I
worked out a little bit more and then I met
with him and I pitched him, you know, this idea
for a movie, and he called me a week later
and he said, I can't stop thinking about it, but
what if we did it as a TV show instead?
And I said, you're absolutely right, because it's about a

(01:10:19):
family at war with itself. Sounds like a TV show
to me. And I said this could be historic, it
could be like Black Dynasty. And he started screaming, yes, Darling,
Black Dynasty, Darling, Yes, Darling. And so that was the
beginning of a That was the beginning of Empire.

Speaker 5 (01:10:36):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 4 (01:10:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:10:38):
And I never I never thought it would get on
the air. You know, the show, the movie The Butler
came out and it was a really big hit, and
I thought, oh, well, we could probably sell this. But
I think this is a real long shot to get
on the air because I don't think there had been
a mainstream black soap opera right in nineteen seventies. Yep,

(01:10:59):
you know. So I so, you know, we just we
just took the project out and then sure enough it
actually came together very quickly. And gotta you know, it
was one of those things where it was the opposite
of making the Butler, which took four years.

Speaker 4 (01:11:12):
It just it just happened really fast.

Speaker 7 (01:11:14):
And that was one where Lee and I were sort
of kindred spirits and that we liked to do, you know,
entertaining projects that also were infused with social issues that
had something to say, and so Empire, you know, particularly
season one was you know, it was all about homophobia,
it was all about mental illness. You know, there were

(01:11:36):
so many elements of the story that were really provocative
subject matter for a broadcast soap opera, and we just
leaned into it, and I think it really elevated the show.
I think it's partly what made the show entertaining, because
we had this bombastic hip hop musical, but also that
was really in your face and social issues, and it

(01:11:58):
added this sort of base of drama to it that
I think, you know, just elevated the whole the whole thing.

Speaker 5 (01:12:18):
You are now focused on Broadway and musicals, another medium
for you to conquer. What made you look to the stage.
I mean, you've mentioned play, so you've obviously loved it,
ye your whole life.

Speaker 7 (01:12:30):
Yeah, So I had been I started as a stage actor,
so I had been in fifty you know, plays and musicals,
and what's impressive about all the musicals I've been in
is have a terrible singing voice a disaster. I can
dance a little bit. I'm when you cook, who moves
you know? So I was, although now I can't do

(01:12:52):
any of the above, but so I but I just
so I love theater. I mean that was sort of that.
That's how I that's where it all started for me.
So when when I moved to New York, I wanted
to see if I could get into the theater community
and write a stage musical. And I was so it
was something I was actively pursuing when I moved to
New York. And then a friend of mine, who was

(01:13:14):
a composer, lyricist, songwriter, he said, I have this idea
about a musical about Galileo. And I knew a bit
about Galileo because I had looked into doing a movie
about Galileo. So and I instantly thought when he said
I want to do a musical about Galleo, I just thought, well,

(01:13:35):
that's a great idea. It should be a musical, it
shouldn't be a movie. And I said, well, can I
write it? And he went, oh, you want to write it?
And I said yeah, I said, I haven't writen a
musical before, but I'm such a fan of the genre
and i've been in several I think I might be
able to do it.

Speaker 4 (01:13:49):
And he said, okay.

Speaker 7 (01:13:51):
And that was fourteen years ago, and it's going to
Broadway this November. Wow, fourteen years to get Galileo to Broadway.

Speaker 5 (01:14:02):
Oh my god, Oh my gosh.

Speaker 7 (01:14:06):
Please anyone listening or watching, please go see Galileo.

Speaker 5 (01:14:10):
Galileo on Broadway.

Speaker 7 (01:14:12):
And it's just called Galley.

Speaker 4 (01:14:17):
And the music's great.

Speaker 7 (01:14:19):
It's sort of kind of a kind of a rock score,
but not purely a rock score, and and it's a
powerful show because it's a powerful story. I mean, the
Street of Galileo is a really epic, powerful tale.

Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
Well, you said you could you couldn't sing, But were
you a musician at all?

Speaker 1 (01:14:33):
Do you play instruments?

Speaker 2 (01:14:34):
Do you?

Speaker 7 (01:14:34):
But I'm an anti musician. I have no musical ability whatsoever.
When I was in musicals, I couldn't stay on pitch
unless they plunked out my melody in the song. And
even then I could barely stay on pitch, you know.
I just had no feel for it. And then I
took singing lessons for two years because I was so

(01:14:55):
into it and and just you know, point you gotta
it's just going because you know what, I don't think
I'm gonna play for the NBA.

Speaker 4 (01:15:03):
I don't think. I don't think I got right.

Speaker 5 (01:15:06):
Yeah, Well, you have entered such a cool phase of
your career where you've been very successful in a lot
of different fields and genres, and now you have complete
control to pick and choose what comes next. So what
is left? Is there anything haunting you that you still
want to get done?

Speaker 7 (01:15:26):
Just this podcast, this one, this one, just want this
to be well, You're welcome being haunted. No, this has
been awesome, by the way. You know, there's so many
It's kind of an endless list of things. And it's
funny because I certainly can kind of pick or choose
what I want to write. That doesn't always mean someone's

(01:15:48):
gonna buy it, which sometimes they don't, but it does
not mean it's going to get made. It is so
hard anything made except for a few people and industry,
and it's just this uphill battle. But I make it
harder for myself by the things that I choose to do.
You know, I sort of i've because I've gotten you know,

(01:16:10):
a number of cool things made. I'm sort of now
in a point and there have been times when I've
worked on things for the paycheck right where I thought, Okay,
I'm gonna do that one for the money, and I'm
really trying to not do that anymore. You know, I
feel like I'm getting older and I have less time
to spend on I don't know, you know, maybe I'm
being silly about it, but I but nonetheless, I'm just

(01:16:31):
trying to be more really more laser focused on trying
to do projects that I think I really love, that
are really ambitious, and so that's what I'm doing. I mean,
the stuff I'm writing, it's just a great slate of projects.
I love them all. I think they're so cool and
they're so hard to get made.

Speaker 4 (01:16:51):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:16:52):
Can you tell us about your favorite one, like the
what's the one that right now, like you're all you're
focused on, and it's, man, this, I need to get
this this movie made.

Speaker 7 (01:16:59):
You know, I don't really have a favorite one. I'm
just sort of whatever i'm working on that day. I'm
writing a movie for Spielberg right now, which I love
the project and I love working with Steven, and so
that's exciting.

Speaker 4 (01:17:11):
Yeah, that's see.

Speaker 5 (01:17:13):
Hopefully we'll see that one someday. Hopefully that makes it.

Speaker 7 (01:17:16):
I wrote a movie for Scorsese a few years ago
that was in pre production and then it didn't go.

Speaker 1 (01:17:23):
Oh no, and.

Speaker 7 (01:17:24):
It was I mean, we were deep in prep and
all of a sudden it just didn't happen. I mean,
that's just how hard this business is, right, that's.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
Crazy to me, Like, those are the two people that
when you said like there are some people who can
just get things, man, I'm like, really, those are the
two that I would have thought.

Speaker 4 (01:17:40):
Yeah, I mean I think I think they can.

Speaker 7 (01:17:42):
The reason why and I can't go into the details
on why the Scorsese movie didn't happen, but it just
it was a real That was one of the bigger
sucker punches I've had in a while, you know. And
it's as we all know, right, it's nothing but disappointment
in this business.

Speaker 4 (01:17:58):
And that was that was.

Speaker 5 (01:17:59):
Up there, that's very high up there.

Speaker 7 (01:18:01):
And Marty called me, you know, and was like, come
to my office, and then and then you know, he
told me he doesn't think it's happening, and I just, yeah, I.

Speaker 4 (01:18:13):
Just couldn't believe it.

Speaker 7 (01:18:15):
So it was a big bummer, but but an amazing
life experience is getting to spend time with these guys.

Speaker 4 (01:18:21):
Yeah, true, true.

Speaker 5 (01:18:22):
Honor well, Danny, that's very much how we feel about
spending time with you today on this podcast. Thank you
so much for taking so much time out of your
very busy schedule. Your career and your success is so admirable.
And yeah, thank you for giving us all this education
today and telling us about what your life is like.

Speaker 7 (01:18:45):
Oh my god, it was a pleasure. And by the way,
incredibly well researched. You hit all the all the all
the all the top ones.

Speaker 5 (01:18:53):
We have great producers.

Speaker 4 (01:18:56):
Very good, they're very good.

Speaker 7 (01:18:57):
And and congrats again on your huge, successful podcast. And
thank you again for being so nice.

Speaker 4 (01:19:04):
To me when I did Boy Means World.

Speaker 7 (01:19:06):
I mean, that's not a small deal to be an
actor on basically your third show ever and to have
the stars of the show be so lovely to you,
and you know, Will, all my scenes were with you.
It was so cool and I was just like, Will,
this great guy.

Speaker 1 (01:19:23):
I just can't.

Speaker 6 (01:19:25):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:19:25):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 4 (01:19:26):
Thank you so much, absolutely absolutely so.

Speaker 3 (01:19:28):
Anytime you want to write like a Spielberg kind of
film for me, we gotta do this.

Speaker 1 (01:19:33):
Please feel please feel free, Danny.

Speaker 7 (01:19:36):
Writing comedy, Me and You.

Speaker 5 (01:19:40):
Comedy, red Light District.

Speaker 1 (01:19:44):
I was never there.

Speaker 4 (01:19:45):
I was never in the red Light District.

Speaker 7 (01:19:46):
I don't know what Will was talking the first time
he's thinking of Seth Green, that was that wasn't me?

Speaker 5 (01:19:56):
Thank you so much? Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (01:20:01):
Is he the most successful guest star that has ever
been on board?

Speaker 1 (01:20:06):
Well, I mean you got Adam Scott, I know.

Speaker 3 (01:20:08):
I mean there's a lot of a lot of different
people that in their fields.

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
Spielberg and Marty Scorsese.

Speaker 2 (01:20:14):
It's like, and he's Stephen Stephen working with I'm like,
that's I think is good.

Speaker 5 (01:20:19):
Top of that, Like you talk about, you know, he's
had that level of success directing, he's had that level
of success writing, and he's had that level of success acting.

Speaker 4 (01:20:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:20:31):
Yeah, it's like, so so you're just the top at
everything you do. It's unbelievable. Very cool, just very cool.
What a great conversation I could I could literally talk
to him, Yeah, for many more hours.

Speaker 4 (01:20:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:20:45):
I love that he was He started just talking to
Quentin Tarantino about movies. That's mine at nine years old,
just gonna sit there and just have conversations with Quentin
Tarantino about movies.

Speaker 5 (01:20:54):
I love thinking about a kid, a little kid who
is like after schools, like, Mom, I'm going to the
video store. And imagine the mom because he's like, my
mom thought it was weird. Imagine if Adler was like, Mom,
I'm going to the video store because this guy in
his mid twenties likes talking to me about movies. I'd
be like, Okay, I'm going to go there with you. Yeah,
and I'm going to be involved in this conversation. Just

(01:21:16):
I don't know, it's just what a cool cool souse.

Speaker 2 (01:21:19):
That's a cool meeting of the minds, right, Like I mean,
because neither of them were successful at that point obviously,
so they're just like but clearly there's something there, like
there's some sort of passion for film that they both
are exhibiting on a different ages and to connect and
it's so cool.

Speaker 1 (01:21:34):
So cool, really amazing.

Speaker 5 (01:21:35):
Thank you all for joining us for this episode of
Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on
Instagram pod meets World Show. You can send us your
emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com. And
we've got merch.

Speaker 3 (01:21:46):
If this woman being one seventy two year old heartbeats
away from the presidency doesn't make you want to buy merch.

Speaker 1 (01:21:52):
It should.

Speaker 3 (01:21:54):
Now most of you won't get that, but that's a
line taken directly from Danny Strong. There you go.

Speaker 5 (01:21:59):
Wow, podmeets World Show dot Com. What what line was
that is that from?

Speaker 1 (01:22:04):
It's from Game Change.

Speaker 3 (01:22:05):
There's a there's one of the one of the guys,
it's one of the an actual footage of one of
the biggest political analysts at the time saying if this
woman being one seventy two year old heartbeat away from
the presidency doesn't scare you, well it should. And it's
like you remember watching the movie, just like, oh my god, yeah, crazy.

Speaker 5 (01:22:22):
Oh Man will send us out.

Speaker 1 (01:22:25):
We love you all. POD dismissed.

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Hosts And Creators

Will Friedle

Danielle Fishel

Rider Strong

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