Blockbuster Brothers: James & Sean Gunn

The Gunn brothers are behind some of the highest-grossing superhero films in history, and now they are flying high as 'Superman' hits theaters. 
Hear how the creative geniuses behind the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' franchise are putting their stamp on the DC Comic character who started it all! 
Plus, what are their brotherly superpowers? What is their kryptonite? And can their vision of Clark Kent spur an even bigger appreciation for the 'Man of Steel?' 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hi.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
I am Kate Hudson and my name is Oliver Hudson.
We wanted to do something that highlighted our.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Relationship and what it's like to be siblings. We are
a sibling, Railvalry, No, no, sibling.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
You don't do that with your mouth, Vely. That's good. Okay,
Well this is fun. We've got coming on right now.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
We have James and Shawn James and Sean gun and
the cool last name. Did James direct the episode pow
is In? I mean the episode the Guardians Guardians?

Speaker 5 (00:54):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
It's a good question. I'm not sure. Yeah, we got
to ask him that. Uh yeah, he's got Superman coming out.
He's an incredible director. I think he was married to
Jenna Fisher for a minute, who I worked with. Oh yeah, yep.
And I'm excited to learn about how you know. And

(01:15):
I think Sean has been in a bunch of his movies.
He's an actor. I think let's just bring him on
and talk to him.

Speaker 6 (01:21):
Hi, Hey, what's up. What are you? I'm good? Good there,
Sean Gunn.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Hello, Sean.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Hey, So you guys, you guys grew up with the
coolest last name ever. I mean Jesus a lot of
pressure to become cool.

Speaker 5 (01:39):
Well, there was a source of a lot of puns
in grade school and so forth. You know Tommy gunn
bb gun, ray gun everything, but y son of a Gun.

Speaker 7 (01:48):
Was a really hilarious one.

Speaker 8 (01:51):
Ye.

Speaker 5 (01:53):
Hey, we have some connections, guys, connections, you know. So
I'm you know, we're friends with I'm friends with Meredith
and Wyatt. Yes, because Meredith was in a movie that
I produced called bright Burn and she's lovely and I
met Wyatt through her.

Speaker 6 (02:10):
And then Oliver, did we meet one time with Kurt uh?

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Well, yeah, because did you directed his guardians?

Speaker 6 (02:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (02:18):
I directed his guardians and we met in passing somewhere
for two seconds.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
And so but then you were also married to Jenna.

Speaker 6 (02:24):
And I was also married to Jenna, who I.

Speaker 5 (02:26):
Worked with for two Yes, that's right, that's right, yes,
so yes, so, yes, So we have many connections.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
A lot of connections.

Speaker 8 (02:33):
Jenna and I.

Speaker 6 (02:34):
Are still very close.

Speaker 5 (02:35):
She's a great person we have I was talking to
her yesterday for a long time.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, I know the buck all the bucks yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's all the Saint Louis connections. Everyone knows everyone.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, you had a really big family.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, we have a big family.

Speaker 5 (02:51):
There are well, there's four siblings between me and Sean.

Speaker 8 (02:56):
Yeah, we're bookends.

Speaker 5 (03:00):
There's six and a sister who passed away, so there
would have been five between us and uh yeah yeah,
there's there's seven years between us.

Speaker 6 (03:08):
We had eight kids or six kids, seven kids in
seven years.

Speaker 8 (03:14):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (03:14):
I didn't have them, my parents had them.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
Wow. Okay, so let's get into that. Okay, go ahead, Kay.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
So what so like, so, so, what what was your family?

Speaker 8 (03:25):
Like?

Speaker 2 (03:25):
What are your mom and your dad?

Speaker 8 (03:26):
So?

Speaker 2 (03:26):
How old for so, how old was your mom when
she had Are you the first one?

Speaker 5 (03:30):
I'm the first one? She was twenty five when I
was born, and so you know.

Speaker 8 (03:34):
She was Yeah, she was thirty three when I was born. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, so by the time she was thirty thirty.

Speaker 8 (03:40):
Three seven yeah, not quite sixty yeah yeah, not quite.

Speaker 6 (03:45):
Yeah, she was thirty a month yeah yeah, yeah, thirty
two yeah.

Speaker 8 (03:48):
Yeah, all of us in that time.

Speaker 5 (03:50):
We have two siblings that like my how far are
Patrick and then Beth are like eleven months?

Speaker 7 (03:57):
Yeah, you're familiar with an Irish twin where there's if
there's less than twelve months that separates you know, siblings.

Speaker 8 (04:04):
They call them an Irish twin.

Speaker 7 (04:06):
My sister Beth is an Irish twin on both sides,
so god she So brother Prick was born, you know,
eleven months before her, and then our brother Brian was
born month was born ten months after her.

Speaker 5 (04:23):
Yeah, she was born in February, and then Brian, who
was born with a twin had was born in December.

Speaker 8 (04:31):
Yeah, there were women.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
Women who have families like this are just they're like superhero.
I can't even imagine, Like I have three, right, I
couldn't imagine having ye then and then raising them.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
Well, at some point, I'm Deshaun, did you eventually have
like just fend for yourself. It's like I've done this
a million times. Like you're good.

Speaker 8 (04:58):
I think.

Speaker 7 (04:58):
At some point, you know, there's like a little bit
of a pack mentality takes over and we're like our
our mom is doing so much work raising everybody, but
we're But my older siblings also started to help share
the load. So I'm also getting you know, help and

(05:20):
advice and things like this from all of all of
my older siblings. So yeah, it's not like I felt
neglected by my parents, but I also I felt very
much uh you know that that my older siblings were
very much part of Were.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
There some older siblings that were more nurturing than others?

Speaker 8 (05:41):
You know, you want me to name names.

Speaker 6 (05:48):
From most in order, most of who you love the most.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Let's let's start with who who did not give a
ship about Sean.

Speaker 8 (05:59):
I'm going to say with the worst.

Speaker 7 (06:03):
He's the next he's the next oldest from me, so he,
you know, like he's not doing his share of the
work raising me. If anything, he's picking on me too much.
But no, you know, honestly, it's like the it's it's
very interesting being the youngest in a in a big
family like this, because I have little different things that

(06:24):
I've that I've learned from each one of my siblings,
and and you know, I could, I could go through
and parse it all out, but I feel like there
are elements of all of them in my personality, which
is sort of a strange feeling.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
Mm hmmm.

Speaker 4 (06:46):
You're a you're a mix imamiz well line of work
where your parents in.

Speaker 5 (06:53):
My dad was a lawyer and my mother was a homemaker.
My mother took glean the house obsessively. With six kids,
it was always completely spotless. Wow, and my next door
neighbor never saw my mother without full makeup on until.

Speaker 6 (07:07):
She was probably in her sixties.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Wow. Wow, so mom was on fire.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Mom's type like was very structured households.

Speaker 5 (07:21):
Uh No, not really, because we kind of were left
to our own devices. We just kind of did what
we wanted. And I think it was a unique environment
to grow up in because we were each other. You know,
there were six kids. We were very close, and we
played together a lot, and we laughed together a lot.
And I think other families are sort of competitive in
terms of you know, academics or sports or things like that,

(07:44):
and for us, it really was just making each other laugh, Like.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
That was humor was a very big, sort of important piece.

Speaker 5 (07:54):
Incredibly that that was absolutely all we did was make each.

Speaker 7 (07:58):
Other were and and and sharing pop culture, sharing movies,
sharing TV music, sharing TV shows and yes, to repeat
what James said, It's like, I think if there was
anything really unique about our family, it's that we, for
whatever reason, we were not competitive with one another and
still aren't to this day.

Speaker 8 (08:18):
I think we always rooted for one another completely.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
What do you what would you attribute that to or
is it just genetics in the way it is or
was there something else.

Speaker 5 (08:28):
I don't know for Sean, but for me, my dad
and his siblings were a little bit competitive and I
saw that as a as a really a young kid,
and it made me incredibly sad because they were this
close family and everybody loved each other, but there was
some competition among them in terms of they were all
lawyers and my dad was very successful, and they were

(08:52):
all different levels of success. But it made me feel sad,
and I think that affected me from an early age
that I just never felt like that with with my
with my siblings, you know.

Speaker 7 (09:04):
And also to like I agree with that, and I'm
not even even though my dad was part of it,
I'm not sure he liked it so much being competitive
with his siblings, and so I think that he he
actively would have would have liked to foster that change
in his own kids, you know that. You know, our

(09:27):
parents were really were really cool. They They've had a lot,
they had a lot to deal with, and they made
a lot of mistakes. But I think they learned from
their mistakes frequently, which is pretty amazing.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
And I would assume that they were as funny as
you guys were, and they wanted to make you laugh
as much as you guys wanted to make each other laugh.

Speaker 5 (09:49):
Funny, my mom is very funny. Yeah, my mother's very funny.
She's she's really funny.

Speaker 6 (09:54):
You know.

Speaker 5 (09:55):
My father was always funny. But my my father had
this big heart. He was just as a guy, and
he had a lot of issues growing up, and he
changed and got better as he got older, which is
how I think he impressed me the most. Was somebody
who was open to change, and he.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
Got interesting changed that like later on in his life,
meaning later on.

Speaker 6 (10:14):
In his life.

Speaker 5 (10:15):
Yeah, I mean he got he quit drinking at a
certain age, and then he quit doing other chemicals and
stuff at a later age, and uh, and he just
and he you know, he started out very closed minded
about things, and then you know, years later he's he's
he's incredibly open minded and very supportive.

Speaker 3 (10:33):
And it's interesting, like as a child of someone who
was dealing with some substance and stuff. You know, as
you get older, how to relate to your that that parent,
you know, because you want to be a nurture, you
want to help. At the same time, there might be
some disdain or some anger. Yeah, you know, Yeah, don't
know how I don't know how old you guys are.

Speaker 5 (10:53):
Well, I got I got sober when I was very young,
and I went through rehab. And at that time, my
dad then had to be a part of like these
family groups and he would come in and Sean would
come in and he was a kid at the time,
and uh, and that's my dad got then went through
rehab himself, and then my brother went through, and then
my other brother and so it was, you know, and

(11:16):
we've all nobody's ever relapsed and all this.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
You sort of kicked that off, yes essentially.

Speaker 6 (11:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, Yeah, that's.

Speaker 4 (11:24):
Pretty oh wait les, but that's like I said, but again,
that just shows like how close all of you are
that that you going through that process was became your
dad kind of looking at himself and that must have been.

Speaker 6 (11:37):
Yeah, I think it was.

Speaker 5 (11:38):
I think it was also because my dad had quit
drinking and went to AA for a short while, but
he was still using a ton of this.

Speaker 6 (11:46):
Is he's he's passed away, So I'm.

Speaker 5 (11:48):
Not like, you know, and he would he would actually,
he would love the fact that I'm sharing the story
that h he was on tons of prescription drugs, tons.

Speaker 6 (11:57):
And he he was you know, he was a lawyer.

Speaker 5 (12:00):
He represented doctors, and so he had access to anything
he wanted. And I think when he went when I
went through treatment, he saw that all of those things
were connected and his prime addiction was not alcohol. His
prime addiction was drugs and pills, and so that, you know,
led him to make a change. And I think he

(12:20):
didn't really see it like that before. He thought he
was an alcoholic who quit drinking.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
Yeah, that's that's that's really interesting, you know, And it was.

Speaker 7 (12:30):
And from my perspective, like I was, I'm right at
the age where for James he had gone you know,
James got sober when he was young, but he was
still at least a young adult, you know, who had
like who had you know, was in his you're eighteen.

Speaker 8 (12:46):
Nineteen nineteen, yeah, yeah, nineteen, yeah.

Speaker 7 (12:49):
But I mean and so I was, I was eleven
or whatever or twelve, O god, and so I saw
it like the other the other side of it, and
I had of you know, even though we're very close
in age, I had a different father at the ages
of fifteen and sixteen than James haf you.

Speaker 5 (13:10):
Know, there's a very big difference in the first half,
in the second half of the family.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, we talk about this a lot. This happened in
our podcast.

Speaker 4 (13:19):
It's been so interesting because we've we've interviewed so many
people that have especially when there's a an age difference,
like how different the parenting was and that their experience
was just completely different.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
Yeah, raised by almost two different people.

Speaker 5 (13:33):
Yeah, And so my family was more dysfunctional than Seawan's
family in a way. And my family was definitely less
well off than John's family was. So my dad started
to make more money. I mean, because he was twenty
five when I was born, so he was a young lawyer.
He was you know, making, he was surviving. He bought
a house, but I was you know, first lived in

(13:55):
an apartment and then a very small house, and then
we moved out to the suburbs house where my parents
still live and that or my mom still lives. But
they got you know, they just had a lot more
Patrick and I had to work. I paid for my college.
It was just a much different situation for me than
for Matt and Sean.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
So, Sean, you didn't have to pay for college.

Speaker 7 (14:17):
Right, Yeah, No, I'm nodding, by the way, you can't
see me noting. That's true, And I'll tell you the truth.
I wouldn't have paid for college. I would have just
I don't know where I would have landed.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
This is just interesting, like if you could have self analysis.
This's just sort of how you guys are different based
on how you were raised and how different that might be.
You know, what did like James? What did you might
gain that Sean didn't? Sean? What did you gain maybe
James didn't know? Is there a grit that you have
James that Sean didn't you know? Is there a secure

(15:00):
that Sean has a James die?

Speaker 8 (15:02):
I think I.

Speaker 6 (15:02):
Think my desperation is more than Sean's.

Speaker 5 (15:05):
Yeah, which is, you know, desperation and ambition go hand
in hand.

Speaker 6 (15:09):
For me, and so those things are very connected.

Speaker 5 (15:13):
But I but I also I also think that you know,
and they talk about this a lot in psychology, that
the biggest determining factor of any person's psychology is the
birth order and how they are among their peers. And
Sean and I are oldest and youngest of a large family.
And I also know and Seawan and I are very
close to this day, and we've worked together more than

(15:33):
any of the other siblings, and we really rarely ever
have any sort of conflict, and it's like those two
those most of my friends in my life are like
the youngest of large families. There's those something about those two.
We make up completely.

Speaker 6 (15:49):
Different parts of the personality spectrum.

Speaker 7 (15:52):
Yeah, and I would say that, you know, it's definitely true,
like if you reverse engineer this, it's definitely true that
Age has always kind of worked harder than I have
as a as a professional and.

Speaker 8 (16:05):
Out in the world.

Speaker 7 (16:06):
Like he's more first of all, working less than James
is a is a low bar to clear it. He's
a crazy. He works like a maniac all the time.
But I also I have less I have less drive
and less focused in some ways, which which is maybe
partially informed by our birth order. But there's also baby,

(16:30):
you know, there's tons of factors and personality.

Speaker 6 (16:32):
There's personality. I mean it's yea where.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
Yeah, I mean, look, if we just if we just
go off of your backgrounds right now, it's easy to
tell you know what I mean, Like, you've got the bar,
you're in Mexico, We've got we've got some amazing pains.

Speaker 8 (16:49):
And you know.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Churchill, you so so who introduced you to the arts.

Speaker 5 (17:05):
I think it was going well, my parents, I mean
my parents, Yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah, that's rather my
older brothers.

Speaker 8 (17:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (17:15):
Sorry, Well, my parents brought me to movies when I
was very little, and like I just, I mean, I
love the magic of the movies.

Speaker 6 (17:23):
We always liked We were raised by the television, like
a lot of kids in the eighties, you know, it's just.

Speaker 5 (17:28):
And we also were and we all they also took
us to plays in theater and they loved were we
grew up with the love of theater and musicals and
things like that. So my parents, my grandparents met on
sort of a vaudeville They were, you know, my grandfather
was a lawyer and his you know, his his wife
was a homemaker. But they met acting on the vaudeville

(17:51):
on like the sort of off vaudeville circuit when they
were young. And and so it's in our blood. It
was always my dad acted in plays, you know, in
high school. Always in our blood show business. It just
was it was like it was like the recessive gene.
And then somehow it became dominant in our family because
you know, all of our my my sister is a lawyer,
but the five brothers.

Speaker 6 (18:12):
Are all in the entertainment industry.

Speaker 5 (18:14):
You know, my brother Brian is a screenwriter who has
written a bunch of movies. My brother Matt has been
one of the main writers on The Bill Mahershow for
the past.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
Twenty years, favorite show on TV, and uh and uh.

Speaker 5 (18:30):
And then my uh, my other brother Patrick sort of
on the business side of film.

Speaker 8 (18:34):
He's you know, no one knows what Patrick does. Let's yeah,
nobody's we don't.

Speaker 6 (18:37):
You know, I haven't.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
He's like, yeah.

Speaker 7 (18:43):
My earliest memories in some ways are of going to
like going to see theater in this like small repertory
company down in Leco's our Missouri, and being a little
kid and watching watching plays and and feeling like I
want to be up there. I'm going to be up
there on the stage performing.

Speaker 8 (19:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (19:06):
Yeah, that was like a weird thing.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
Yeah, I talk about that because there was always like,
you know, when did you know? It's like, I'm not
so sure. It's not even like did you know. It's
like no, that you it's like a you're like drawn.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
To a stage.

Speaker 4 (19:21):
It's literally like oh, you're like no, that's where I need.
I need to go there.

Speaker 7 (19:26):
I feel exactly the same way. It's like when people say,
when did you know It's like, no, it's it's you're
getting in the wrong order.

Speaker 8 (19:33):
When did I like, like I knew.

Speaker 7 (19:36):
Before I I knew, like my consciousness like fully developed.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
Do you guys have any recollection of the moment where
it was like, holy shit, like this whatever I've just
watched has inspired me to say, bang, this is what
I want to do with my life.

Speaker 5 (19:52):
I think I can say that in different ways. But
for me, a way in which Sean and I are
incredibly different is that Sean I did at the age
of seven or whatever that he was going to be
an actor and he never wavered from that. He never
thought and whereas I was always just more of an
artist and I was like kind of like, however, it's
going to happen. It's going to happen. And you know,

(20:15):
I played in rock bands. That was like the main
thing I did when I was younger. But I drew comic.

Speaker 6 (20:19):
Strips that were published all over the place. I did, what.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
Do you play?

Speaker 2 (20:24):
Do you play guitar?

Speaker 6 (20:25):
I sang, I sang in a band. I sang in
a couple bands.

Speaker 8 (20:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (20:28):
The icons and the pods people can go listen to
the icons and here are you know, thousands of views.
But I've also written a bunch of songs. You know,
I have a song in coming up in Superman, but
I also have written songs for a bunch of different places.

Speaker 8 (20:40):
Cool and and so.

Speaker 6 (20:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (20:43):
So I was more of just like, I just liked
entertaining and telling stories in show business. And however it
worked out, I was going to be happy because I'm
just happy spending my day being creative and I don't
really care how. And I happen to be good at directing,
like I kind of fell into it, you know, in
a weird way, like this is my backup job. This

(21:04):
is my directing is plan B. Plan A was playing
in band, and then I sort of fell into the
film industry. But at the same time, it's hard to
say that because I started making movies.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
When I was away Wit James, we have a similar thing.

Speaker 4 (21:17):
My plan A just never even happened because I just
started getting where I was. Like, my planning was always
to sing. Oh yeah, I always wanted to sing and.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Write and write music.

Speaker 4 (21:29):
But of course I was like you like, I just
wanted you know, anything creative, anything perform performance. But I
wanted to be on a stage and then I just
started getting movies and I was like, well, I guess
I'm yeah.

Speaker 6 (21:41):
Because you were you were so young when you started acting.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
I was so young, Yeah, twenty or nineteen.

Speaker 6 (21:48):
Yeah, that's crazy, that's kind. So but you're like the
female Eddie Murphy. This is what I This is what
I mean by that.

Speaker 8 (21:59):
I'm sure I've heard that many many times.

Speaker 5 (22:01):
Yeah, because I'm always it's a little less so now,
but a Murphy seems to have been around since I
was a little child.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
Yeah, and you know he's.

Speaker 8 (22:12):
Not that old.

Speaker 6 (22:14):
I was around since he was nineteen.

Speaker 5 (22:17):
You're still so young, and yet you've been around for
so long.

Speaker 8 (22:21):
You know.

Speaker 6 (22:21):
It's like it's these people that you're so surprised.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
I had this.

Speaker 4 (22:25):
I did this like retrospective the other day, and it
like I like shocked to myself. I was like, yeah,
oh my god, Like I was I started so young
that I think people think I'm like sixty five years exactly.

Speaker 6 (22:41):
There are many actors your age getting their first stab intself.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
I know, I mean, I know, I'm like it makes
me really happy, and like I was just thinking about
it today like that, I actually like my show did
really well, and I was like thank god, I'm still working,
Like I thinks, I'm just greatful that it's still going,
you know.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Okay, so what was so?

Speaker 4 (23:04):
What was like did you have a definitive movie that
was like your all the kids were like like you
went home and like you pull, like your imagination went wild.

Speaker 8 (23:16):
I love this question. It's so good because.

Speaker 6 (23:19):
There's a couple of them. Yeah, yeah, there's a couple.

Speaker 8 (23:23):
I mean, do you want to name it? Come to
mind for me?

Speaker 6 (23:26):
Star Wars?

Speaker 5 (23:27):
Yeah, well, yeah, okay, that's yeah, I mean, come on, yeah,
of course I was.

Speaker 8 (23:33):
I was jumping.

Speaker 7 (23:34):
I had a few years from that, but because I
was I was three when Star Wars.

Speaker 8 (23:38):
Okay, but yeah, but like yeah, Greece, Greece, Greece.

Speaker 5 (23:44):
Yeah, because we used to perform summer nights and for
the family.

Speaker 6 (23:48):
Yeah yeah with me and my sister. Is kind of creepy.
But yeah, if.

Speaker 7 (23:54):
You sip ahead a few years, yea like to win,
to win, you James, more of it like early teens,
but I was also getting a little older.

Speaker 8 (24:04):
There's movies like The Flamingo Kid.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
Yeah, and like Bertie and the Wanderers.

Speaker 8 (24:12):
The Wanderers.

Speaker 7 (24:13):
Yeah, like these movies, I'm going more like artists, Like
what makes you want to be like like the the
oh that's art, you know, when you're like years old
and you're like, I'm looking at art.

Speaker 4 (24:27):
Yeah, stand By Me was like I remember watching stand
By Well. First of all, I was in love with
every single one of those boys. But yeah, but I
just remember watching River Phoenix and I remember the scene
where he was crying about his life, and I was like,
I need to be in like a female.

Speaker 3 (24:44):
Stand When were you old enough to appreciate the older,
classic incredible movies as a director and as an actor,
when you were watching for.

Speaker 6 (24:52):
Me as a as a kid.

Speaker 5 (24:53):
I remember watching on PBS when I was probably thirteen,
the hum Free Bogart Film Festival, and it played NonStop
over a weekend, and I watched it the whole thing
and fell in love with those older, you know, Humphrey
Bogart movies. And then that led into like Preston Sturges,

(25:15):
who I still would say is like my biggest influence.
And you know, all these you know, but also all
the Altman films, you know, Becave and Missus.

Speaker 6 (25:23):
Miller Long Goodbye, all of that stuff.

Speaker 5 (25:26):
We just we always had a love for that stuff
from a pretty young.

Speaker 7 (25:30):
Age, I saw Chinatown and The Godfather, And when I
was like eight years old, I saw those movies because
my because I had the older siblings and I got
to got to see movies like that. And then by
the time I was just a little bit older, I
had siblings in college. When I was still in middle school,
and I was getting introduced to like Chaplain and Keaton

(25:52):
and Preston Sturges and and just always took on as
much as I could.

Speaker 5 (25:59):
I think for me it was seeing Bonnie and Clyde
for the first time and it was on TV when
I was very young, and when they get you know,
rattled with bullets at the end of the movie spoiler.

Speaker 6 (26:09):
Sorry I should have said that first.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
I was like, holy cow, a movie can do anything.
It can end in any way, it can take any
twister turn because until then I had really only seen
Disney movies.

Speaker 6 (26:24):
I don't know what my dad was even letting me
watch this movie for.

Speaker 5 (26:27):
And it was just it was so incredible and so
Bonnie and Clyde was a huge one for me.

Speaker 4 (26:33):
You know, so interesting, isn't it, Because like, movies can
completely change your life. I mean, I know that sounds
really dramatic, but I feel like it. It's like the
movies that really if you're a creative person and you
won't enter a world of a storytelling right, Like there
are certain like Bonnie and Clyde would have never been

(26:53):
that movie for me, right right, but it was for
but like for me, like when I saw you know,
Postcards from the Edge or Terms of Endearment, it was
like it was like, oh my god, this movie like
Terms of Endearment was like you can make stuff like that.
It's so hard to make people feel that way and

(27:14):
to have that emotional experience in a in a film.

Speaker 6 (27:18):
You know me.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
For me, it was like some like Summer School with
Mark Harmonds.

Speaker 8 (27:29):
Can I make a detour? God? I don't know if
I say this, but I won't. I don't want to
name names.

Speaker 7 (27:34):
But when I first moved to Hollywood, I like one
of the actors from that movie I bumped into in
the middle of the day in a bar and he
was really like, not in great shape, and he was
just talking about how Hollywood would spit me up and
swallow me out, me off and spit me out and

(27:55):
then I should quit now and move back to Chicago.

Speaker 8 (27:59):
Mom one of the Summer School.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
Funny.

Speaker 8 (28:07):
Well, by the way, the Thing was a huge movie.

Speaker 6 (28:11):
That's a big gun family movie. It's one of my
favorite movies.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
Truly an incredible movie.

Speaker 7 (28:18):
It's astonishing, and it's one that I saw when I
was like, I was just young enough that it made
a massive impression on me, but old enough that it
didn't scare the daylights out of me.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
John Carpenter.

Speaker 8 (28:31):
One of the amazing Yeah.

Speaker 5 (28:34):
Yeah, I got to work with him when I first
came to town. My brother Brian and I pitched a
TV idea to John Carpenter that he wanted to do,
and I don't remember what happened. I got distracted and
do something else.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
He was my first big audition.

Speaker 7 (28:48):
I think it's one of those rare movies that that
holds up better is not only is a hold up,
it's almost better now than it was when it came out.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, the themes in it are
are are ever green. You know, it's it's you will
never the themes of the thing, just that that those
can just play throughout time.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
Just the increasing paranoia. Also also like hummorm you know,
also since if humor, that great like moment when the
head is, you know, crawl crawling across the floor and
the guy looks and goes, you gotta be.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
You got so good?

Speaker 4 (29:41):
Were you guys like us in the sense like you'd
get inspired and then you'd make your movies like did
you ever?

Speaker 6 (29:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (29:47):
No, I started making movies when I was eleven. Yeah,
Sean was often the star of these movies.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
This is what we did, the same thing.

Speaker 6 (29:54):
One of the.

Speaker 5 (29:55):
First things I did was have my brother Matt, you know,
I like, I saw Nie Little Thing Dead, which was like.

Speaker 6 (30:02):
Blew my mind because it seems like you could make a.

Speaker 5 (30:04):
Movie for two dollars, and that in Fright of the
Thirteenth and those movies that started seeing those of my
you know, when I was eleven, twelve, thirteen, and so
I started trying to make these like slasher movies and
they didn't go very far. And I made animated movies
with playmobile figures, and Sean was in that.

Speaker 6 (30:22):
He killed my brother Patrick. There was always always done.

Speaker 3 (30:25):
Yeah. My best friend and my now producing partner as well.
You know, what's all we he's a director as well.
But that's all we did was make movies, and it
was slasher based. We were obsessed with horror. We were
obsessed with Friday thirteenth to nightmar on Elm Street and
I Spit at Her Grave and all those blockbuster titles
that we used to go in and being like, oh

(30:46):
my god, you know we.

Speaker 6 (30:47):
Were you shooting on Super eight or what we what
we know?

Speaker 3 (30:50):
We had we had well, yeah, we had v We
had those big, big cameras that were like fucking this big.
We got filters, we had this. We all was all
in camera editing. You know. It was like ship like
erasing right there and then tape over it. I mean
that's how we And then we would have blood and
knives and latex all the thing. Yeah, we would do

(31:13):
these things where we would put in a zip lock
bag we'd mix like a blood mixture and water and
then we'd put it under a shirt and then we
cut little holes in it and take fucking fire works
and put it in the thing and light it and
the guy the actress with the gun going like se.

Speaker 6 (31:43):
Realistic were every weekend.

Speaker 4 (31:48):
It makes me sad that our kids don't get to
have the experience of like having to make their imagination,
like to actually get their imagine nation, to like work
with their hands to create these things versus like it
in their phone.

Speaker 9 (32:08):
I mean, I my my my friends in high school
were called the Splicers because we made Super eight films
and we each had our own little you know, editing bay,
the little tiny scenes, and I would cut and splice
my own movies.

Speaker 5 (32:22):
So I would edit on actual eight millimeter film and
on when it was when it was Super eight and
it was video. It was hard because the film strip
goes further than the picture. So it was always really uh,
you know, it was fun. And I had just fell
in with this group of kids that all did the
same thing.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
You should do a passion project called splicers. It's going
to be a horror movie on Super eight and you're
going to splice it.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
Well, no, the murder weapon is an actual little splicer.
They just like slit people's little jugulars.

Speaker 5 (32:57):
Yeah, I mean I was. I came in my first
movie ever. We actually cut on film. That's the only
movie I've ever cut on film, and it was because
it was in a low budget studio. I mean, Avid
was already the way people were cutting things.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
And you know, yeah, what was that movie.

Speaker 6 (33:14):
It's a movie called Tromeo and Juliet.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
How many films have you done now it's direct directed.

Speaker 5 (33:22):
I think this is a this is a but I've written,
like I don't know how many movies.

Speaker 7 (33:29):
I was just talking about Tromeo and Juliet last night
because I was in that movie and I was telling
the story of how my character gets punched in the nose.
Oh yeah, and how I actually got punched in the nose,
and the sound, the popping sound you hear in the
movie when I is the actual sound in my nose

(33:49):
breaking job.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
It actually broke.

Speaker 6 (33:53):
It was a blast.

Speaker 8 (33:54):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was.

Speaker 6 (33:56):
It was our friend Val. Yes.

Speaker 5 (33:58):
Trauma, if you don't know, is the oldest independent film
company in the world and they've been around for I
don't know, fifty sixty years now, and they they create
all sex and violence, very low budget movies. And that's
where how I got my start in filmmaking, was writing
the screenplay for Tromeo and Juliet for one hundred and

(34:20):
fifty dollars and then and then just became involved in
the movie and sort of just inserted myself until I was,
you know, directing actors and you know, choreographing sex scenes
and all of that stuff, and brought all my friends
in like Sean and my friend Val saw our friend

(34:41):
Val to act in it, and yeah, and it's still
It played for a year in the.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
Yeah, isn't it?

Speaker 10 (34:47):
Isn't it?

Speaker 3 (34:48):
Isn't that so great? I know we'll talk about Superman
in a second, But obviously you're doing these big ass
action movies and there's the artists and you will always
be there. But there's also this sort of that sadness
but how free it all was, where you could just
go do whatever the hell you wanted to do.

Speaker 8 (35:06):
But I'll.

Speaker 6 (35:08):
Definitely because I can do anything I want.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
Now, but you've reached that point right to where that
studio is not going to fuck with you really and
you can kind of do whatever you want.

Speaker 5 (35:18):
I know, but I'm an idiot. I've always treated myself
like that, like I've never I've always every movie I've
made is a movie that i've directed.

Speaker 6 (35:26):
Now writing is a different story.

Speaker 5 (35:27):
Writing was pretty hellish for me because I'd have to
write and turn it over and then sometimes I got
a good director and sometimes.

Speaker 6 (35:33):
I didn't, and it must be so different. It's so frustrating.

Speaker 5 (35:36):
No, I know, I know, but as a director, like
I could imagine like when I made super My you know,
my second film I directed. I had all these action
sequences in my head that I wanted to do that
I couldn't afford to do, you know, And so I
can do all of that with Superman. I could do
all that with Guardians of the Galaxy, you know. And

(35:58):
then I go and I do TV. So I do
like the Peacemaker series, which you know, comes to second
season in August, and I can do that's like as
you know, are rated as we want it to be
and have action and drama and comedy and everything, and
there's no rules to that.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
What's yeah, that's pretty great.

Speaker 6 (36:14):
I get that.

Speaker 3 (36:15):
I know what you're saying.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
I guess also, I think you get you when you
have like a really clear vision too. I would assume
that you end up working with the people and the
executives and people in the studio system that like you know,
that you trust, that trust you back, so you have
sort of a nice yeah, you know.

Speaker 5 (36:35):
I think I always survived in the Hollywood system by
being the non squeaky wheel. So even from the first
movie I directed, Slither, I'm very influenced by the thing. Now,
even from that, from that movie forward, I just was
always responsible, under budget, made my days, made sure the
dailies look good, and there was always another Marvel the

(36:58):
same thing. There was always another project that was causing
more problems that the studio was involved in, and so
I never had I never have ever had any interference
whatsoever from any.

Speaker 6 (37:10):
Studio I've ever worked with.

Speaker 5 (37:13):
So I hear all the time people talking about studio
interference and getting upset with that, and I know it exists.
I have friends that's happened to but it just never
has happened to me. I've always been able to do
my thing, and I'm incredibly fortunate in that respect. But
I also choose good I'm really good at choosing people,
whether it's people that work for me, or whether it's
partners that I'm going to, you know, like you know,

(37:34):
dealing with you know, Kevin Figy at Marvel or you know,
Dylan Clark on my first movie Slither, or whoever it
is the studio who I'm dealing with.

Speaker 6 (37:42):
I'm good at that as well.

Speaker 4 (37:43):
I think that's such a good lesson for people who
really have strong like drive and vision to want to
be to work with people like I think so many
people are, like, well, how did you succeed or how
do you get like to actually be someone who shows up,
says what they're going to do, get like, gets it
done on time, on budget, creates like not doesn't doesn't

(38:08):
isn't the problem, isn't the isn't the problem maker.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
But always the problem solver.

Speaker 4 (38:14):
Yeah, yeah, it's a lot easier said than done, like
I think it is.

Speaker 6 (38:17):
Yeah, it's easier.

Speaker 5 (38:18):
But I think the other thing that I think is
necessary for a filmmaker is listening to people. You know,
so a studio exact comes in and they tell you
their ideas. Now, there's those people out there that take
it all as the word of God and do whatever
they want, and that leads to issues, you know, and
then there's other people that are like, Nope, fuck off,

(38:40):
and then it's then they are a problem. But if
you can sincerely listen to someone consider the idea, people
sense that in you. They know that you're listening and
considering what they're saying, and then you have the ability
to say, if you're honest, say listen, I thought about it,
but I don't think it works as well as what
I'm thinking. Because of this and this and this, they

(39:02):
usually are very amen you know, they listen to that.

Speaker 6 (39:07):
Relationship.

Speaker 4 (39:07):
And I think when you're the listener, like you know
that people will be incredibly respectful when they know you're
taking in everything and that you're honoring everything they're bringing
to the table. Yes, that when it comes time for
you to say this is what you need, yes, they yes.

Speaker 5 (39:30):
Yes, and and and also you know what, it's just
good for you as a filmmaker. I mean we you know,
we look at these great filmmakers of the seventies and
a few of them kept making good movies, but most
of them made a couple of good movies and then
made shit.

Speaker 6 (39:47):
And I don't know what the reason for that is.

Speaker 5 (39:50):
Some people just don't like they You're a man that
is a part of society, and you listen to other people,
and you go to work and you buy milk, and
then all of a sudden, you're in this place where
you're not connected to other people. And then people bring
you ideas when you're like, no, I'm the greatest, I'm
gonna do whatever I want, and you get eaten up
by that. And it's so it would be so easy

(40:10):
for me to make a movie without listening to anyone,
and it would be to the detriment of the film itself.

Speaker 7 (40:19):
And I think that some of this is how you
it's how people identify as artists that like the you know,
we're all artists, but for some people, to them, being
an artist means it's all my vision and that's all
my vision all the time, as though they're a painter
or something like that, and they forget the the idea

(40:39):
that film and television and you know, storytelling is a
collaborative art.

Speaker 8 (40:45):
Yes, so it has to be.

Speaker 7 (40:46):
You can't just be the person who's you know, has
a singular vision all the time.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
But it's a great point because you actually you're actually
leading into what I was actually going to say, which
is working with actors and eat goes and you know,
situations where you know there are collaborative sort of disagreements potentially,
how do you navigate that world.

Speaker 5 (41:11):
I can't deal with it, you know, I can deal
with actors who are difficult, but if they are disrespectful
to people or they're trying to ascertain authority over the
directorial vision, it's just not it won't happen.

Speaker 6 (41:26):
I you know, some actors have a lot of questions.

Speaker 5 (41:29):
I just don't with Superman both David and Rachel have
a lot of questions.

Speaker 6 (41:33):
Your dad has a ton of questions, so many questions
question the actor.

Speaker 3 (41:38):
Oh my god.

Speaker 6 (41:41):
But they're good to the they're good to the crew,
they're good to people.

Speaker 5 (41:46):
You know, your your dad was so nice and so
good to people, constantly putting that son of a bitch
Chris Pratton's place.

Speaker 6 (41:53):
And there's a great story about your dad where Chris
is like Chris is, by the way, Chris prat is
one of my best friends.

Speaker 5 (42:02):
Chris was in the trailer and he's, you know, we
just finished shooting for the day and he's sitting there
and uh, he's he's going through his post post shooting
routine with like the cucumbers literally cucumbers in his eye
and getting all his space the makeup, taking all the
space and all the little, you know, pieces of the

(42:25):
costume and is getting you know, getting taken apart after all,
by the way he took it. Chris Pratt took more
time than depaties to get ready every morning.

Speaker 6 (42:36):
And he's the best, and so they oh, that's why
you worked with him on Glass, Chris.

Speaker 5 (42:41):
Yeah, okay, so Chris, he's getting taken apart.

Speaker 6 (42:45):
Your dad comes into the trailer.

Speaker 5 (42:47):
He's getting his you know, he's getting his makeup off
or his beard or whatever he had on.

Speaker 6 (42:51):
And uh, and he's like, you know, Chris goes to
your dad. He says, uh, uh, you know what time is?

Speaker 5 (42:58):
Call time tomorrow to Kurt and uh and he goes
and Kurt says, uh.

Speaker 8 (43:06):
You know.

Speaker 5 (43:07):
Kurt says, oh, I think it's at whatever seven a m.
And that was like eleven and a half hours from
the time. And he goes, what what what are we
you know, he says, you know, he says, yeah, we
were off the.

Speaker 6 (43:17):
Clock a half hour ago. And Chris says, what I'm
not working.

Speaker 8 (43:20):
Now goes, oh, this is working.

Speaker 3 (43:27):
Oh look at how hard work. I want to talk
about Superman. But what's it like directing your brother? And
Sean was like being directed by your brother. Has there
ever been pushed back where Seawan's like, yeah, like chance
now that they can't do that?

Speaker 6 (43:41):
Only on humanity?

Speaker 8 (43:43):
You know, yeah, I tried that. Let's talk about that. Well.

Speaker 7 (43:50):
I say, first of all, the fact that he's the
oldest of six and I'm the youngest of six helps,
you know, that helps the dynamic on set. There's an
idea of like of like you're not really the boss
of me, but you're kind of the boss of me.
That is uh. That that I think is uh that

(44:11):
I think is useful for our jobs on set. And
it's like it's just comfortable.

Speaker 8 (44:17):
It's like.

Speaker 7 (44:19):
He's a director and I'm an actor, and it's always
been that way, so us working together, we slip right
into our roles.

Speaker 8 (44:30):
Quite easily.

Speaker 7 (44:32):
And I, you know, part of my whole philosophies and
actors that once I do my work with my character,
once I'm on set, I'm a soldier. So I'm like
I'm doing whatever this, whatever the story takes, once I'm there.
And and I think James actually really respects, you know,

(44:53):
not just me, but actors who are who are like that.
And so I've always felt like collaborating with James is
actually easier than with anyone else I've ever really worked with.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
I love that.

Speaker 4 (45:03):
I don't think I've ever heard anybody say it like that,
Like I'm like a soul. I'm like a soul drum set.
I feel similar, Like I always feel like I'm there.
You do the prep, you do the work, but I'm
there to facilitate the vision.

Speaker 8 (45:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (45:18):
I always feel like there's two parts to my job.
The first part is being true, is that my first
boss is the character I'm playing, right, So there I
have to tell their story truthfully or I'm not doing
my job.

Speaker 8 (45:33):
That's number one.

Speaker 7 (45:34):
But once I feel capable of doing that, then I'm
at the mercy of the storyteller and of the people
on set, of the director and co workers.

Speaker 6 (45:44):
Sean is literally my favorite actor to work with.

Speaker 5 (45:48):
And I just you know, I just never have I mean,
I really don't have to direct you very much. You know,
sometimes I guide them because I have a better sense
of what the overall story is or it's happening in
the scene, or how this scene relates to the next scene.

Speaker 6 (46:04):
But it's always just kind of tonally moving things around.

Speaker 5 (46:07):
It isn't it's about dialing, it's not about changing anything
doing or there's very rarely a moment when I go
the way you said that didn't work.

Speaker 7 (46:15):
And I have a pretty good sense for like I
can finish a take and look at his face as
he's sitting at the monitor and no, no, like and
and and just cut to the chase, and like, what's
not working, This isn't right?

Speaker 8 (46:29):
What do we tell just yeah, shortcut.

Speaker 4 (46:42):
Is it super professional on set when you guys are
working together, because I know that if it was like
me and Ollie was directing, I'd be like, have Oliver
tried to direct?

Speaker 2 (46:50):
And be like no, no, I just be like, I
just be cracking.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
If you want to be great, listen to him. If
you want to be good.

Speaker 5 (47:00):
They're really I mean really, It's just never like that.
I mean, I think you know, you know, everybody trust me.
I mean, so it's like I work with with with
the same actors again and again, and I'm really comfortable
with that because you know, you get to know them
inside and out. You know, I'm going on the uh
you know, press tour stuff for Superman and I'm writing

(47:23):
Chris every day because I miss I miss him so
much because he was my partner for so many years
in this stuff and it was so fun.

Speaker 6 (47:30):
Being around him.

Speaker 5 (47:32):
But you know, whether it's him or John Cena, or
you know Linda Carlini, or you know, you know my
wife Jen who's on Peacemaker, or you know Sean Stevie
Blackheart who's been in almost every single one of my films.
You knownthan Fillion, Michael Rooker, Like I like working with
the same people because you know, directors are difficult and
it takes me, you know, and I make long movies,

(47:54):
so I make movies that usually are shooting for like
four or five months, right, and it takes me about
half of a movie to figure an act out, you know,
to see what works in what doesn't. You know, you know,
should I do this person's coverage first, or should I
do this person's coverage second, you know, and it's all
you know, like when I first worked with Chris Pratt

(48:16):
and Zoe Saldana, Zoe was the bigger star at the time,
and so I shot her coverage first and then Chris's.
But I found out that Zoe gets better and better
with every take. And Chris is a crazy you know,
he was especially early on he was more you know,
crazy and like kind of started off hot and then

(48:37):
went down and then came back, and so you know,
as time went on, then I started with Chris's and
then when he started to falter, I'd turned around to
Zoe and then he'd come back, and I turned around
and get him again. Yeah, and you know, you don't
know that for it takes a couple of months.

Speaker 3 (48:52):
That's that's that's such a beautiful thing about directing, especially
directing actors. Is this the nuance that goes into all
of that stuff that people don't get to really see
a director. Do they see what's on the screen, But
those little things which can which can change performance, which
can elevate performance because you know how to unconsciously sort

(49:15):
of manipulate it is you know that that's the ship,
that that's that's the sauce that people don't get to see.

Speaker 4 (49:21):
Just it's also like the magic of just being in
the circus, like all together.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
It's just like fun.

Speaker 8 (49:28):
It's the great.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
You have good people that are smart, and you're you know, I.

Speaker 4 (49:35):
You just have this like I don't know, it's it's
it's like the most beautiful, weird rollercoaster and everyone starts
to get to know each other. And if it's good
people and there's good energy, there's just nothing better.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
It's just like you think, oh, it's the most fun.
That's the best place to be.

Speaker 6 (49:52):
I hated it until a couple of movies ago.

Speaker 5 (49:55):
Did you really Yeah, Yeah, I loved pre production and
then I loved post production. I hated shooting because it
was I was a madman and it was so intense
all the time and so but over the past few movies,
I think since the Suicide Squad, Guardians two was like
the height of like, I have to change the way
I'm living otherwise I can't do this for the rest

(50:18):
of my line, you know, because it takes too much
out of.

Speaker 6 (50:21):
Me, and I'm too insane.

Speaker 5 (50:23):
I don't sleep, and so something changed and I've had
more and more fun on every project since that time.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
You did you have to like do a like did
you have to create a different routine?

Speaker 6 (50:36):
I did? I did.

Speaker 5 (50:37):
I can't, you know, I can't work. I work a lot.
I work seven days a week in my normal life,
but I can't. I have to come home and actually
have a little bit of a life after shooting. If
you're going to shoot as much as I shoot, I
mean I'll shoot sometimes, you know, you know, for you know,

(50:58):
two hundred you know days.

Speaker 8 (51:00):
Out of the year.

Speaker 6 (51:01):
So it's like, I can't.

Speaker 5 (51:03):
I have to have a life, you know, when you
when I started out and I'm making a movie every
three years or whatever, because that's when you get the
opportunity to do it, and you're always trying, and then
you get to do it, then you can know, you
can live like a mad person and not sleep and
then just do nothing else but that for the time
you're doing it.

Speaker 6 (51:20):
When I was also only shooting for you know, thirty days,
forty days, forty five days as opposed to ninety days,
one hundred days, one hundred and ten days.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
Is it fair to say that you had a great
time shooting Superman?

Speaker 5 (51:34):
I did had I had the best time shooting Superman.
I think that was the greatest time I've ever had
shooting anything.

Speaker 3 (51:40):
Because it looks fucking great. By the way, and I'm
not just blowing smoke right now, but I saw I
was actually watching Wyat's movie Venter Bolts, Yeah and good
first trailer with Superman, and the audience was just taken
it back. It's this cool sort of throwback feel for me,
Like I was just like, Wow, it just had a
different quality to it that looked really really exciting and

(52:05):
really really fun.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
Who shot it? Who do you? Who do you work with?

Speaker 5 (52:09):
Henry brad is his name? So Henry shot starting with
Guardian two.

Speaker 6 (52:14):
He shot all of all of my movies. Cool and he.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
Who's who's the Superman? What's his name?

Speaker 6 (52:20):
His name is David corn Sweat and he is a.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
Great he looks amazing.

Speaker 8 (52:25):
Okah, actually amazing.

Speaker 4 (52:26):
I have something to say about this? Is it Twister?
I'm watching Twister. I was at the I went to
the London in London to the premiere. I turned to
my agent who.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
Is with me, and I go, that guy's a movie star.

Speaker 6 (52:40):
Wow, that's so funny.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Yeah, and she goes, oh my god, he's the new Superman.

Speaker 8 (52:44):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (52:45):
I just immediately was like, who is he?

Speaker 5 (52:48):
I just like I had the similar I saw him
in Pearl, my my friend Ty West's film, Oh God,
a magnificent little horror movie. Again has a small role
in that, and it's not that small, it's a medium
sized role in that. And I'm like, oh this guy, Shoot,
could this guy be Superman? And so I wrote our

(53:09):
casting director because I was just starting at that time
to put things together and like make sure this guy,
David Corn sweat auditions for the movie.

Speaker 6 (53:17):
And it was actually like the second audition I saw.
Really yeah.

Speaker 5 (53:22):
I mean we went through hundreds after that, rare screen tested,
you know. But I was really lucky, lucky that he
was like the second person I saw auditions, and Rachel
was like the tenth Lois Lane. I saw Wow, So
I kind of knew that I had these, you know,
really good options early on.

Speaker 7 (53:42):
You know, I think both of them, they're they're both
both Davity and Rachel, Like their performances are just astonishing,
and I think that I always try to point out
that to a lot of just regular viewers, it's hard
to understand the degree of difficulty of playing it and
I because it just seems like, oh, movie stars, superhero role,

(54:04):
like all you got to do is look good, but
it seems it looks easier than it is. And they're
both they both give it such incredible layers of death.

Speaker 8 (54:15):
They're really both, they're really really great.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
Great for it, and the aesthetic looks great of the
whole movie, at least in the trailer, and then he
looks amazing. He's almost like this cross between Reeves and
Tom Welling in a weird way.

Speaker 6 (54:26):
Oh yeah, yeah, I see that they are his parents.

Speaker 5 (54:30):
Those are his parents actually, So I knew I was
on his own a little.

Speaker 6 (54:34):
He's a little that many people know.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
Do you get stressed out about the performance of the
movie and all that ship or do you kind of
let it go?

Speaker 5 (54:45):
I work it, letting it go and I get stressed
out about it. Yeah, yeah, definitely, I mean.

Speaker 8 (54:49):
Have dressed out about.

Speaker 3 (54:50):
It, get stressed out about it.

Speaker 4 (54:59):
I mean, I think anybody who has high stakes, I
mean there's this is like, you know, hundreds of millions
of dollars.

Speaker 8 (55:07):
Yeah, it's part of the job, you know.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
Yeah, you're.

Speaker 6 (55:12):
Right, Yeah, I know it is.

Speaker 5 (55:14):
I mean, you know, it's it's it's part of it,
and it's it's stressful. And we've you know, Peter and
I took over d C. So it's this whole thing,
you know, But also one of one of the I'll
tell you one of the most stressful things about it
is that people have these expectations that are so much
higher than what my expectations.

Speaker 6 (55:37):
Yes, we're an expensive movie.

Speaker 5 (55:39):
We certainly aren't as expensive as like Guardians of the
Galaxy Volume three, and so we don't have the same
requirements in terms of, you know, we're creating a you know,
a superman in the world that you know, it needs
to make a certain amount of money. But when people
come up with these outlandish ideas about what that's supposed
to be, I'm like, guys, it's just like, don't put

(56:01):
that on me, you know, and it's also like you know,
you know, articles come out and they're like, you know,
talking about some aspect of Warner Brothers and like everything
rides on Superman.

Speaker 6 (56:12):
I'm like, no, it doesn't.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
It doesn't.

Speaker 8 (56:15):
Know.

Speaker 6 (56:16):
We are taking care of us. DC Studios is fourteen.

Speaker 5 (56:20):
People, you know, yeah, and we have you know, we're
taking care of DC. We're not, you know, taking care
of all of Warner Brothers, which, by the way, has
had a magnificent year.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
So dude, with Minecraft, you know, Jesse irmans my best in.

Speaker 6 (56:33):
All the greatest guy.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, and he basically Minecraft is his
I don't care what anyone else says. I'll say it's stressed.
Like he shepherded that movie from the beginning for a
long time when people didn't want It's been twelve thirteen
years in the making, and you know a lot of
people were saying no, no, no, we don't want it anymore,
and he's like, no, this is gonna be, this is
gonna happen.

Speaker 6 (56:55):
Yeah, that's my boy Minecraft.

Speaker 5 (56:57):
I mean, first of all, Jesse is one of those
great guys that, yeah, you know, the head of a
you know, is a very powerful executive. Yeah, but everyone
loves he's the best and he's such a good guy.
But but beyond that, Minecraft Final Destination, Sinners have extraordinarily Wellner,
it's a really it's it's good.

Speaker 6 (57:16):
It's a good time for the movie.

Speaker 3 (57:17):
Well, for the record, I did do the voice of
Plastic Man in an animated show. You I am throwing
my hat in the ring for a forty eight year
old Plastic perfect live action. But I've got a decent
Wings fan, you know, I know, you know, CG. But
I can help you out with with some of my lankiness.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
Is there a gun gun family trait?

Speaker 4 (57:52):
Like, is there something that when you see it, it's
just like creatively that your family's like, oh, that's so
our family.

Speaker 8 (58:03):
What is it?

Speaker 3 (58:04):
Sean, Uh, it's got to be humor based some way.

Speaker 8 (58:10):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 6 (58:13):
We disagree on so many movies.

Speaker 8 (58:16):
And so.

Speaker 6 (58:19):
My brother Brian is an artiste.

Speaker 5 (58:21):
Like he does not you know, he finds flaws and things,
you know, you know, I love you know, for.

Speaker 6 (58:28):
Instance, Wicked, like he hated Wicked.

Speaker 5 (58:30):
You know, it's like it's very much like that that
type of thing, you know.

Speaker 7 (58:36):
I think it's fighting, Like like we said earlier, we're
not competitive and We're not competitive, but we will fight
to the death on what we on, what we like
and what we're what movies we think are good and
like probably the angriest I ever get at my siblings
or in movies that they liked that I think are terrible.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
Yeah, you guys would be a fun like screening party.

Speaker 4 (59:01):
Yeah, just like Academy Academy time, like fall just all
watch at the Gun.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
At the Gun family.

Speaker 7 (59:09):
We definitely all like sticking I mean James, all James
movies are like this, but we.

Speaker 8 (59:14):
All like like.

Speaker 7 (59:16):
Sticking off for the little guy having the like the
sort of band of misfits things.

Speaker 8 (59:22):
Outsider. Yeah, yeah, you know, like we.

Speaker 7 (59:25):
All grew up in you know, outside the suburbs, outside
of Saint Louis, Missouri, and we all, I think all
of us to some degree felt like outsiders a little bit.

Speaker 8 (59:34):
So some things.

Speaker 7 (59:35):
That champion outsiders he is probably a through line for
all of us.

Speaker 5 (59:39):
Yeah, we definitely were outsiders in terms of Los Angeles,
like in terms of Hollywood, you know, we you know,
I remember one time as a little kid seeing Danny
k walking by in the airport with glasses, surrounded by bodyguards,
and I was like, holy shit, that's like a magic man,
you know. And to me, it was always it was this,

(01:00:00):
It was a pipe dream. It seemed like a pipe dreams.
I never knew anybody in the entertainment industry like it
would have been amazing to be a morning DJ like
that was the biggest I thought was possible.

Speaker 6 (01:00:12):
So the fact that we're doing what we're doing now
is just it's.

Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
Crazy, pretty awesome. Yeah, Well, a couple more questions because
I love talking to you guys so much like the same, same,
But okay, really quickly going back to Superman. It's such
an iconic brand and we've seen all these different sort
of iterations of Superman, like how does James gunn? What
did you do to sort of put your own spin

(01:00:36):
on it, to put your twist on it? What did
your own nuances to Superman? Did you have an idea
of like here's how I want to just be a
little bit different.

Speaker 6 (01:00:44):
Well, I think it wasn't.

Speaker 8 (01:00:45):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:00:46):
It doesn't so much come from a matter of how
can it be different? Because if it was the same
and good, I'm fine, you know, But for me, how
like looking at it afterwards and what is different about it?
And what do what really interested me was bringing I
grew up with comic books, right, I love comic books.

(01:01:07):
As a kid, I started reading with comic books, and
so back in the say, even when I came to
comic books and I'm reading Superman, he always came with
a world of superheroes and metahumans and you know, all
these different people.

Speaker 6 (01:01:20):
It was a universe. It was a DC universe that
was a.

Speaker 5 (01:01:23):
Different reality and alternate reality to the one we lived in.
So I wanted to create Superman in a different universe
where there were these other heroes. Just like when I
came to comics and started reading those, I didn't have
to learn where he came from and all that everybody
knows where he came from. So I wanted to come
into the story at a different place with Superman as
a young man, at the beginning of his relationship with

(01:01:44):
Lois Slaine, at a part of his life that we
hadn't necessarily seen yet. And it also surround him with
these big science fiction things that we don't normally see
in Superman movies. There's a flying dogs and robots and
giant monsters and all these things are up part of
this world. But then at the same time, I always

(01:02:04):
asked myself, and this is like when I first started
doing Guardians of the Galaxy and they first pitched it
to me, and I went, oh my god, how am
I going to do this? This is like bugs Bunny
in the middle of the Avengers. I don't know, you know,
you know, it's talking raccoon. And then I said, okay,
we'll stop. Wait a minute. What if the raccoon was real?

Speaker 6 (01:02:23):
Right?

Speaker 5 (01:02:24):
And I thought, Oh my god, that means he's totally
he was created by this person. He was completely alone.
He's the only one of his type in the world,
and he's the saddest being in the universe. That, to me,
became the engine for the entire Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy,
and why to me, Rocket was always a secret protagonist,
and why the ending of that movie was where it

(01:02:46):
was leading from the very beginning.

Speaker 6 (01:02:48):
It was about a.

Speaker 5 (01:02:48):
Character finding his finding his humanity, finding you know, God
in one respect, you know, And so for me, it
was like, okay, well, what if Superman is real? So
that leads to a whole bunch of different things that
are completely true to the character. I mean, he's got
glasses that hide his identity. How does that work? You know,

(01:03:10):
he's got this relationship with Lois Lane. Well, what does
that exactly mean if you're in a relationship with somebody
who can you know, squash buildings? What how? What are
the what are the problems with that? He's completely a hero.
He believes in saving lives no matter what.

Speaker 6 (01:03:25):
And what is that? What does that ideologically? How does that.

Speaker 5 (01:03:28):
Play when you're a journalist and she sees things in
a little bit more balanced way, a more utilitarian way,
and so what is that relationship like? And so it's
about taking these broad, big concepts and bringing them to
the screen in the most comic booky movie of all time,
but simultaneously having the humans be as.

Speaker 8 (01:03:47):
Real as possible.

Speaker 6 (01:03:48):
Yeah, and having the characters be as real as possible.

Speaker 5 (01:03:50):
So we have an interview scene with Clark and lowis
that lasts for ten minutes?

Speaker 8 (01:03:53):
Wow?

Speaker 5 (01:03:54):
It's about the It is both about her interviewing him
and Superman and we find out what he did, where
he came from, what's going on, But also it's about
their relationship and there's different ethics and different moralities.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
Did you ever take the piss out of the glass thing?

Speaker 8 (01:04:08):
Meing? Like?

Speaker 3 (01:04:08):
How no one knows it's him.

Speaker 8 (01:04:10):
Is that is it?

Speaker 6 (01:04:11):
We explained it in the movie if you see.

Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
You Do.

Speaker 6 (01:04:15):
Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah, we explain it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
I feel like there's this it's like taking over DC.

Speaker 4 (01:04:22):
And then there's the whole Marvel kind of you know,
people calling it like Marvel fatigue and and you.

Speaker 2 (01:04:29):
Know, box office declines and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:04:32):
It's like, how what you're saying, you know, is like
there's this thing that you sort of I wonder, Well,
I guess my question would be, like, how do you
approach d C as as the world so that you're not.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
You know, going down kind of that path of like oversaturation.

Speaker 5 (01:04:56):
Well, I think it for me it isn't so much
you know, superhero fatigue as it is people get bored
with seeing the same things again and again, you know,
And so it's about, you know, focusing on script first
and foremost. And the thing I missed the most in
Hollywood from when I started out is that even back

(01:05:16):
when I was like writing Scooby Doo right, that screenplay
didn't it didn't. That movie did not get greenlit until
the studio was happy with the screenplay. This is like
nineteen ninety nine. Today it doesn't work like that.

Speaker 6 (01:05:29):
Today.

Speaker 5 (01:05:30):
People green light ideas and ips without having finished screenplays.
And I'll never allow a movie in DC studios or
make a movie that doesn't have a finished, really good screenplay,
you know, And I think that that is the you know,
obviously IP drives a lot of the business, but at

(01:05:50):
the same time, I think we can be we can
be more. Being a former writer, I try to be
as I like to prop up writers as much as possible.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
Well, actually leading into my sort of last question I
wanted to ask, was will you ever go back and
make smaller movies or something that is not sort of
these IP the DC's and now now you're so ingrained
in that, but is there any desire to sort of
move into or at least do a movie that's not
so massive? And where do you think those movies will

(01:06:21):
ever come back? Those thirty to fifty million dollar movies?
Like where are the comedies now? Where is this all?
Is it going to come?

Speaker 5 (01:06:28):
I think the comedies will come back. I think that
there's a place for watch you know. Right now, it
does seem as if people want to see spectacle films
in studios, whether it's superheroes or Leland and Stitch or whatever,
and they want to see horror movies in theaters always stations,
you know, and then other theatrical experiences. People have great televisions.

(01:06:50):
That's so they're like I can see Hoora at home
and get a lot out of it, which is one
of the you know, it's an amazing film.

Speaker 6 (01:06:58):
Well we're seeing in the theater, by the way.

Speaker 5 (01:07:01):
But I think that that is changing a little bit.
I think comedies are kind of the big question mark
because why have what has happened to the hangovers? Why
are there no big comedies right now? Why are people
staying at home?

Speaker 4 (01:07:16):
I think it's the same thing you said about about
script Yeah, I know in my experience, when it comes
to comedy or rom com it's just talent. It's writing
talent and investing in it, and you know, you find
it's like it's the place where you will find like
new talent or someone who wants to do it instead

(01:07:36):
of like investing in great writing.

Speaker 5 (01:07:40):
I think the other thing is is that when I
came to town, you know, the people that were made
the most money as writers were screenwriters, and then a
handful of big television writers of people who created friends
or you know, you know, whatever law and order you know. Today,

(01:08:01):
it's like it's very hard as a writer to come
to you know, into the industry and be like, Okay,
I can write dribble for films and not get paid
that well, or I can go create do anything I
want and create the craziest I can create, you know,
you know, the craziest show of all time and uh

(01:08:24):
and have it on TV and have complete freedom and
be the boss because I'm the writer.

Speaker 6 (01:08:28):
And yeah, the bosses have help.

Speaker 5 (01:08:32):
And that is a hard you know, with the rise
of premiere television, that is a really hard thing for
a writer not.

Speaker 6 (01:08:39):
To say you know, yes to.

Speaker 5 (01:08:41):
And so I think the screenwriting pool of talented writers
writing for film has gotten smaller. Movies there's not as
many movies, but there are also the writers. It's gotten
smaller because a lot of the best in the brightest
have been you know, our moms to the flame of television.

Speaker 2 (01:08:58):
Yeah, okay, proud this achievement of each other.

Speaker 4 (01:09:02):
There's the two parts mean this question and we'll do
our last question, but the proudest achievements in each other.

Speaker 7 (01:09:11):
Like, so my proudest achievement of yea of James.

Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
Yeah, it doesn't have to be related, but it can be.

Speaker 10 (01:09:20):
But like for me, I think it I think the
thing that comes to mind is really delivering the goods
on the first Guardians movie.

Speaker 7 (01:09:32):
That you know, making that jump from from being a smaller,
sort of niche artist to making an actual great movie
that that has mass appeal is just like though insanely difficult,
and and I think that the degree to which he

(01:09:53):
delivered the goods on all of that is is astonishing.
And there's a lot of elements of James's job in
his career that I think are really impressive and uh
and uh where he really is the best of what
he does in a lot of ways. But but that
first one is the is the one that's kind of like, wow,

(01:10:18):
holy smokes, that really that really threaded the needle, cool James.

Speaker 5 (01:10:24):
Uh. You know, it's interesting because I feel unspeakably proud
of of Sean when we're working together. And you know,
I even said at the end of Guardians three and
and I got emotional when I was giving my speech
to the cast the casting crew that you know the
best part of making the movies was being with my

(01:10:44):
brother Sean, was was having somebody that you trust in
love around you all the time is incredibly important to me.
Without that heart, I just I don't know if I
could do it, you know, But.

Speaker 6 (01:11:01):
I mean, Sean, I don't. I don't really know. I mean,
it's it's Selena's the product I've ever.

Speaker 8 (01:11:06):
Was of you.

Speaker 6 (01:11:10):
But that's another podcast.

Speaker 11 (01:11:13):
Yeah, I mean it's another Sean helped a family member
when they were very very much in need and did
the right thing to a degree that very few people
would and showed what a truly good and caring and
loving human he is and and in a way that

(01:11:34):
none of my other siblings nor me stepped up in
a way.

Speaker 5 (01:11:38):
And uh, and that's that's it's it's that that heart
that he has and that.

Speaker 6 (01:11:42):
True concern and love for other people that makes me
the product.

Speaker 4 (01:11:46):
The first part of the question is, you know, what
is it about your sibling that you would love if
you had more of something you could emulate, uh, that
you wish you could emulate. And then the other part
of it is what's one thing you would alleviate from
your sibling that you think would make their life easier

(01:12:07):
and smoother.

Speaker 7 (01:12:10):
I mean, that's like the one thing that I would like,
I wish I had his energy and focus, Like if
I had, I feel like I would.

Speaker 8 (01:12:21):
I would love to have one quarter of James's energy
and focus.

Speaker 3 (01:12:26):
Can inter up really quickly because I'm like, yeah, if
I had even like a quarter of Kate sort of drive, ambition,
her energy, her focus, I would be George Clooney and
Steven Spielberg. I would be both of them. There is
so much bubbling up inside of this, But I wish
I had just even like a just announce of heer shit.

(01:12:46):
I'm not throw it over to him.

Speaker 8 (01:12:47):
While I think about the second part of question.

Speaker 6 (01:12:51):
I wish I wasn't allergic to cats.

Speaker 5 (01:12:55):
We both love cat, but I have a cat, and
I love my cat more than I think. But yeah,
I think Sean is way more chill than I am,
and so I can be very reactionary.

Speaker 6 (01:13:07):
I react to things immediately way too much.

Speaker 5 (01:13:10):
And if I could have a little bit more of
the sobriety in reacting the situations that Sean has and
take a beat before becoming making an intense It's part
of me that's good as a director, because I make intense,
quick decisions, but when it comes to real life and
just doing that constantly, it's it really.

Speaker 6 (01:13:29):
Is a wear and tear on me. So I wish
that he had.

Speaker 7 (01:13:33):
Well that that sees right into what I would. What
I would, you know, alleviate is I would I would
give you the ability to fully chill at least for like,
you know, two weeks at a time that's when you
needed it or something like that, Like I don't, I don't,
you know you he your your your stress level starts

(01:13:58):
to raise with when and you can get dormant. And
I think, like a little bit more, a little bit
more chill.

Speaker 5 (01:14:04):
I'm going to work on that after after after you know,
Superman and Piecemaker come, I really am.

Speaker 6 (01:14:09):
I'm committed to it. I've told my wife I'm going
to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
That's great, Okay.

Speaker 5 (01:14:14):
I think if I could alleviate one thing from Sean
and said, he's really hard on himself. So I think
that if I could relieve him of just being so
hard on himself, I would.

Speaker 6 (01:14:22):
I would love to see that, you.

Speaker 3 (01:14:23):
Know, right, this is so fun, so fun. Thank you
guys for taking the time. It went long, but it's
just so great talking to you guys.

Speaker 8 (01:14:32):
I love it.

Speaker 6 (01:14:32):
I love it. I hope I see you guys in person.

Speaker 3 (01:14:35):
Yeah, we will go with the movie. Man, I cannot wait.

Speaker 2 (01:14:39):
Good luck, We'll see you around.

Speaker 3 (01:14:41):
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 8 (01:14:42):
Thanks guys.

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
Awesome. That was so great.

Speaker 4 (01:14:47):
I love I learned so much from both of them.

Speaker 3 (01:14:51):
Sean cool cool, He's like me, He's like super chill.

Speaker 2 (01:14:57):
I wish you were more like Sean.

Speaker 8 (01:14:59):
What do you mean we were cool?

Speaker 3 (01:15:00):
Were two pieces of good.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
I loved it. That was so much fun.

Speaker 3 (01:15:04):
I have a good table read. Okay, bye you guys,
Love you.