December 8, 2025 • 48 mins
No joke, you’ll never guess what the genius behind blockbuster comedies like ‘Bridesmaids’ and ‘The Heat’ did before hitting it big. He takes Kate and Oliver through his humble beginning to his big break moment and reveals the project that STILL gets more buzz than all his box office wins. Plus, what he calls the true tragedy of comedy and whether audiences will see a sequel of his latest thriller ‘The Housemaid.’
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hi am Kate Hudson, and my name is Oliver Hudson.
We wanted to do something that highlighted our relationship and
what it's like to be siblings. We are sibling.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
RAILVALI no, no, sibling.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
You don't do that with your mouth.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Revelry.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
That's good. It's so gorgeous in that I got out
of here. I was so happy.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
First first trip to the Dead, trip to the de
I'm jealous.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
The boys are trying to come down there. Yeah, Wilder's coming. Yeah.
I was like, call her and t kad, call mom.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
It's like he writes me these long, like manipulative messages.
I'm like, stop, just say you want to come stay.
He's like, I have my friend. It's like, okay, I
haven't gotten a hold of go go.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I'm like, Wilder, just call me, just call me, and
he's like, March thirteenth, it's high. Well, I'm excited.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, Paul Figue is in our waiting room. He's done
some amazing things. His life is very interesting. Only child.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
He wrote Freaks and Freaks and Geeks. I didn't know that. Yeah,
oh yeah no, that's where he was.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Sorry set him on his path and then he's promoting
this new movie with Sydney Sweeney.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
That is a departure.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I know, yeah, I know, I'm excited. I think he's Honestly,
he's wonderful. And obviously he produced and co wro Snatched,
which Mom was in.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yes, yes, and and I mean he's done.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I mean we could go on and on, but this
is fun and I love Talking Shop, so let's just
talk Shop.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah. Hello there, my goodness, so good to see you.
Nice to see you.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Look at how dapper you are, sir me a, you
know this, this whole thing, this.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Old welcome to our podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I'm excited because these are always my favorite ones talking
I said to Allie to Talking Shop.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah you're here. I love it. No, it's really it's
great to meet you. And Kate.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
I go way back having watched you because my one
of my closest friends is Betsy Beers, who produced two
hundred cigarettes.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Oh my god, Betsy, And when.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
I saw when she showed me the first time, I
was like, who was that woman. That's the funniest woman
I've ever seen in my It was you.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So you were just so great.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
I was just talking about that movie with my with
my middle son, because he's turning into quite the cinephile,
wants to watch everything. And I was like, two hundred cigarettes,
don't sleep on that movie.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
It's such a great fun movie, and it really was.
It holds. There's so many people. Yeah, who's the cast?
I mean, wasn't Chappelle in that as well? Paul Rudd
Paul Rudd right, and Courtney Courtney Love.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Courney Love, Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck Right, Elvis Costello.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
I was gonna say, cameo by Elvis Costello, who said
gang wait mate or something you walk past camera?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Gabby Christina Ricci like it was. It was a crazy cast.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Yeah, who's who? Directed by Risa Raymond Garcia. Yeah, casting
director at the time.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
You know, so she wasn't so funny because my son Wilder,
who's eighteen now he wants to be an actor and
he took her class because Reesa is now teaching.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Oh really, that's cool. He took's class. She's great.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Women in film. At luncheon just the other day, they
were like, who's been the most influential women in this
industry for you? And I said, you know what, it's
the casting directors, like the women along the journey for me.
That were my biggest cheerleaders were you know, Mary Renew,
Gail Levin, like all of these great female casting directors
(04:16):
that were really like in your corner.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
They were there. I mean they're sort of not spoken
about enough.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Do you know Alison Jones, Yeah, yeah's Elson's my verson.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
She is the best. I mean, Wyatt knows her well,
Alison's cast.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Wyatt and a couple of things. Yeah, she's casting me
in a couple of things. Yeah, she's the greatest.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
I call her the mother of modern comedy.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Is she has i mean, didn't she cast Freaks and Geeks? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:46):
She won the first Casting Emmy for casting Freaks and Geeks.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yes, that's right, Freaks and Geeks is the best they well, Paul,
let's start from the Let's start from the beginning, like
where were you raised?
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And right outside Detroit in Michigan, Mount Clemens, Michigan. It
was called, yes, and you know, very blue collar. My
dad owned an army surplus store.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
So there you go. Wow, only only child, right, only child? Yes,
that's how this happens exactly.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
And my mom was she was a working woman until
she met my dad and then when they had me,
she she just became a full time mom until I
got to my early early teens, and then she went
back to work for my father, working at the store
in the back office. But she always loved working women.
(05:40):
Her working women were her heroes, and she she Yeah,
I think she always kind of, you know, not resented,
but regretted that she gave up her career to you know,
but she didn't really. I mean she she worked for
the phone company in Canada because she was Canadian. So
so I am a half Canadian officially half Canadian.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Two passports, you're you're the one of the lucky that
my son is English. So he's got two passports and
he's about to get his third because he's also Irish.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Oh oh god, so you can get three.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, he's going to get three, which I'm like to
try to get ours and the works.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
It's with the consulate. Yeah, there you go. We're trying
to get our Italian citizenship. Yeah. I think there's there
are towns where they pay you to come and live there. Exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
We'll give you one year old to buy this dilapidated building.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
But it's funny because then there are these stipulations. Well,
if you do you have to invest x amount of
dollars into the economy. I think there are these little
yeah loopholes.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Another simple favor we shot in Italy and the cat
tail is don't work where you normally vacation really well,
I mean it's great, but it's also still like you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
No, it's true Italians like to chill out. Yeah, no,
very much. So it's a thing like.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I think, like culturally there's certain there's different areas that
are just the way they work. Like now that I've
worked all over the world, like the craziest place for
me for crew that like worked hard and played hard
both was Australia.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Like to me, they're like they.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Work crazy hard and then they're just like wasted by
like ten thirty pm.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Which is not a bad not a bad way to
work to get up and they charge.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Oh yeah, they're just they were like they were like,
you know, it's they have that mentality, that power through mentality,
whereas Italians are like, I'll take a two.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Hour break, all right.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
What is what we found in Italy is a four
nosy for anything anything you asked for, No, we can't possibly,
well why not because it's not done that well why not?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And then finally okay, my producing partner.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Laura Fishery in the Lesson the Hard Ways, it's like,
don't they realize we can get anything we need if we.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Just learned you? Where did you shoot? In Italy? In
Rome and Capri.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Oh's my favorite place in the world, and that was
where it's like, oh, shoot, why am I working here?
Because my brain thinks I'm on vacation and now everybody
hates me too because we're blocking the road.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Or now you go back, They're like, no, you need
to leave. Now they like me again because they like
the movies. Well, so Detroit, like growing up, what was
it like in Detroit?
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Were you still in sort of the working class heyday
of Detroit before?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Yeah, I mean it was it was the you know,
I was born in sixty two, so I kind of
grew up through the late sixties and early seventies and seventies,
all the seventies there, and it was very I mean,
that was when the auto industry was completely collapsing, and
so there's a lot of depression and my father, owning
an AR and B surplus store, kind of catered to
people that had no money. So ironically, his store did
(09:03):
really well selling cheap goods. But it was an interesting time,
you know, and show business was just like another planet.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
You know.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
When my dad and my dad's friends, who thought I
was going to take over his store, like heard I
was going to go to California to try to be
in showbiz. It was just like, why are you running
off to the circus. You have this wonderful business here,
you know. They just thought it was a pipe dream,
like I was crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, I couldn't have been more different. How old were
you when you made this decision?
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Well, I mean I wanted to do it since I
was like five years old. But then when I was seventeen,
that's when I kind of said I'm going to go.
So I called Universal Studios. I called all the studios.
A friend of my dad's was out in Hollywood and
he sent us a copy of Variety, and so I
went through the production list and called all the main
numbers of the studios asking if they needed actors, and.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Of course no, they did not.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
But finally got to Universal last and they said, well,
we need tour guides, and if you can get here
in two days, we're doing auditions for the tour guide
and so jump put my next neighbor in the car
and we drove out.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
And wow, so you drove. You drove to California to
become a Universal Studios tour guide. Yes, I did. And
did you get the job? I did?
Speaker 4 (10:22):
I did, I got, I got put into the training
program for two weeks and then but then you it
still wasn't guaranteed you were going to get the job.
But they gave me the job and they said, Okay,
we're going to hire you, but you have to sit
out in the sun every day because my acne was
so terrible. You've got to get some color and get
rid of that acne.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
So not really.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
What means you want to be an actor? Like, what
was it that was the thing that drew you to it?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I just always wanted to.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
When I was five years old, I was the elf
in a Christmas pageant and my father dressed me and
this kind of army surplus clothes to look like an elf.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
It was a ridiculous costume.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
And the minute I walked on stage, the whole place
went crazy laughing and they're laughing at me. But all
I heard was, Wow, I just made all these people laugh.
I want to do this for the rest of my life,
and honestly.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
It never left me.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
That was the wow, the first shot of Heroin, if
you will, just going like I got to get in
and do this thing.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Was there any history in your family of like anyone
that was in the arts.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Or no, it was my parents were both wannabes. My
dad was obsessed with like jokes, but like you know,
old time jokes that take five minutes to tell you,
which I can't do.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
But he was like a rack on tour.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
He could just tell an old joke and keep the
whole table kind of like wrapped until he got to
the you know, punchline. It was funny the whole way through.
And then my mom just liked silly stuff like she
was really I know, her claim to fame was she
played Charlie Chaplin at some party once and that was
you know, and she imitated him, so she thought that
was the greatest thing ever. So she like really goofy,
(12:09):
dumb humor. And then my dad like really smart kind
of wordsmith ory and so I think that's why I'm
kind of I'm sort of high and low with my comedies.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
But it's really unbelievable because you obviously.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Just explained your comedy, you know, I mean, because someone
is shitting in the street, but at the same time,
there is that smart, intellectual shit that goes on with that.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
There you go. Yeah, that's what I love, you know.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
I it's you know, when I did freak some geeks,
there is kind of this feeling of like, oh I
was sort of classier than I am. It's like, guys,
there's like a fart joke in every episode, so you know,
but I did like things to be real, you know.
I find you know, life is funny because it's serious
and then it's hilarious and then it's serious again.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
And yeah, I was reading and you said something interesting,
which I totally which is, you know, of course there's
punchline comedy, but it comes from empathy. Yeah, yeah, makes
total sense.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
You know. It's that it's that relatability. It's that oh
my god, I feel you.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
I feel that, yeah, because I mean I love clever humor,
you know, and words, wordsmith ory and all that. But
I think especially now because of YouTube and the fact
that we're watching so much like real life stuff, you know,
people getting hitting the balls and but you know, things
that is captured on film, and it's it's so human
(13:34):
to us that I think when if something feels too
kind of overwritten, I think people can appreciate it, but
they don't necessarily go like wow, I really relate to that.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
It's also like I feel like the at least the
comedians that I know a lot of them, not all
of them, but a lot of them are there. There
they are actually like, well, not what I'm thinking about it.
There are some that aren't very amp.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
I'm like, wait a minute, comedians are there. There are
kind of two.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Types of Yeah, I'm like, there's some that have no
embassy and then some that are so empathtic. There's such
empathis that's the only way out for them is to
find humor in it.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Well, it's like it.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
I just was at a woman in a film event
last night and Kristen Wigg was there, who I hadn't
seen it a little while, and it was just so
nice to.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Catch up with her.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
But she is she's so empathetic, but her comedy comes
from the fact that she's just like dying inside, you know,
trying to do the right thing and trying not to
upset anybody.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
And I loved her so much. I realized the other
day my mom.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I went with my mom on a deep dive with
all of her characters because my mom had never really
seen them, and she it was like, what is this, Like, Mom,
you've got you can't believe you haven't really done a
deep dive on Kristen, Like she's hilarious. I got her
character where she didn't is no or she was like,
don't make me sing and they.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Make this thing. Oh, it's my favorite. But that's interesting
about Kristin.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
There's there's there's like tragedy there all where there's like
something like yearning or you know, it's like there's it's
it's so it's it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Yeah, just characters that are barely holding themselves. Yeah, yeah,
you know, and that's really fun. We we our heart
bleeds for them, and yet we like to laugh with them.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
I'm a little biased about this, and maybe it's a
projection of just my own like thing of loving to
do comedy and then feeling like it's very underappreciated in
terms of like being a serious actor. Yeah, and and
I actually find that the people who can be comedic
are usually my favorite overall actors, whether they're dramatic or
(15:58):
comedy like they can hit there there there's a different
kind of connection to timing and understanding of like humanity
for some reason in comedic actors that make their dramatic
work so wonderful when you see it.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Yeah, well, I mean, okay, let's let's talk about this
because this is the the you know what upsets me
about the industry, And yet I don't care. Ultimately, you
know that the the funny people get so written off
as just being well, they're just funny, you know. I
Mean my example I always bring up with this is
(16:34):
Steve Carell never won an Emmy for the for the Office, That's.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Never won an Emmy for it.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
And I would talk to voters about that, whin They go, well,
he just he shows up and he's crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I'm like, yeah, are you fucking out of your mind?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Yeah, you have no idea how hard that is and
how much that is not Steve Carell is not Michael
Scott at all in real life. Are the intelligence that
it takes to actually be able to create a character
like that exactly.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
But the reason you don't want awards is it looks
easy if you do it right, it looks easy and
so then you get no credit for it, and as
we know, it's really it's one of the hardest things
in the world.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I feel like that was women and when women are charming,
Like there's certain women who have this innate charm that
somehow people just go like, oh, well that's just an
easy Yeah, that's and you're and you're and you I
know a lot of them, and you're like, it's so
underappreciated that it's actually sectually yea, a part of the craft.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Going back to the Steve Correll thing, I would love
to get the nominees together and say, okay, you do
the office. Now, Steve, you do this show. See see
who's who's what's the most difficult, and I can guarantee
you no one could do what Steve did, and Stee
could probably do what some of these other people totally.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
You know, Steve lost almost every time to Alec Baldwin.
It's like, look, Balden was really funny. I'm thirty rock,
but it was just more of a like an obvious
kind of yes, you know, no shade to Alegs of course,
not like but at the same time, because I'm cheam Steve, so.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Those things do become like it can be trivial when
you're inside of it. Sometimes the whole you know experience
of like you know, whether it be critical or like
the you know it it's and I think from the
creative place, you just it's so hard to get anything made,
(18:28):
let alone anything good, like you know, so it's kind
of it's and then and then sometimes you wonder why,
kind of like fine art, you wonder why something becomes
so big and so popular or somebody does. Yeah, when
you're looking around and you're seeing so much talent.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
There's a lot of luck there too. Yeah, it's very
interesting business to like hang your hat.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
It is a little annoying in that way because it's
kind of like throughout the year used to go, Okay,
it's these ten things have been anointed or these six
things have been anointed for award season, and as we're
just going to hear about those a whole time, you know,
And I always, I always feel like I waste my
my Academy votes. But at the same time, I vote
(19:16):
for the movies that I really like that I know
aren't gonna get votes, just because you know, I like
those movies and they do what they're supposed to have done.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
They entertained an audience.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Yeah, you know, and that's so kind of discounted as
being like, Okay, well you're just pandering. It's like, I'm
not paying I'm making the movies. The reason that the
studio wants me to make these movies is to entertain people,
and that's why I want to do it.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Does I agree?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I feel like and as I really think that one
of the things that sometimes we lose sight of is
what it is to make a movie that makes you
feel something and that people want to see, meaning like
that it can have everything. It can be funny, it
can be it can be inspiring, it can be big
(20:04):
an epic, and that that is if you look at
the best pictures of the year, that it should also
incorporate in a sense of like what is moving people
as a as a whole, not just a sort of
internal understanding of you know, whether it be I think
(20:25):
there's a place for all of it. But there has
been a huge shift, like when you start to see
in the sort of twenty ten the shift of.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Best picture, well then they well, now now best picture
is just seven thousand of them. It's like every every
film that was made that year is nominated.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
There's a lot of them, but it did shift a
little bit, you know, because we sort of somewhere along
the line felt like that the bigger movies weren't necessarily
the best crafted films. What in fact, like making a
big movie that people want to go see is so hard,
you know, and I think maybe the Marvel World kind
of shifted that a little bit for everybody.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
But yeah, I mean.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
People start to resent, you know, movies that make a
lot of money, and then look, and I get that
awards are great for kind of supporting smaller films at
the same time, but look, you know, like a movie
this year like Sinners, giant movie, and it's gonna win
a ton of awards, and it so deserves it because
it worked on every single level, you know, and that's
what I really admire.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
And if it was up to me, also, Weapons would
be up for Best Picture. I just watched that. Well,
I watch yeah, and huge movie too, Okay done.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
I mean, yeah, Weapons was great, but the the ending
was abrupt for me. I mean, I wasn't expecting that
it was funny. Oh my god, Oh it was so funny.
Oh my god, it was so great.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Oh I saw Sinners. I loved it.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
What's the name Craiger's right, yeahach, yeah, he's uh that
last sequence when she's you know, the kids are chasing her,
it was hysterical.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I was like allmost it turned into like a French farce.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
The sound design is the fluest party.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
So I was watching with my daughter. This is another story.
Who's twelve, but she loves horror and she loves scary
and when you know, you know, and he did his
job when she just starts.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Cracking up exactly. She was laughing her ass off, and
she horror is the new comedy, you know, it really is.
That's why all of us, all those comedy guys are
going into thrillers and horrors and all horror movies, just
because it's a second way to get a reaction out
of an audience.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yeah, that's what Oliver was saying, Like, we love this
departure for you. You know, it's like not what you
would expect as we know your work.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
But before before we get into that, I'm curious what
started like your desire you know, you came to act,
but then where did the sort of writing and you know,
the itch to write and produce and create.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Well, it was all kind of part and parcel because I,
you know, I when I was a kid, I remember
reading about Woody Allen and then like he was like, wait,
he stars and he writes and he directed, like he
does it all. I was like, how do you do that?
Then Albert Brooks, you know, all these people. So I
was kind of like, well, I want to do that.
I want to kind of do it all. So it
was always part and parcel with it all. And so
I went to film school still as an actor, kind
(23:22):
of thinking I'm going to be able to direct myself
and make movies of myself, and then also thought I'll
be better on set because I'll understand how movies made
and stuff like that. And then it just kind of,
you know, acting kind of chased me out of it
because you know, I was doing really well for a
character actor for fifteen years. You know, I was a
regular on like five different TVs network TV series, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
But they all got canceled after the first first season.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
And then finally when I was on Sabrina the Teenage
Witch and it was finally a hit, and you know,
I did one season on that and then they wrote
me out. It's like I was like, I maybe the
writing's on the wall, Like I got to get out
of this. My wife had been saying to me for
a few years, like maybe you should start thinking about,
you know, going behind the camera. Which always nice to
hear your wife say that.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
She was right, She was right.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
I would like I was very limited in what I
could do, you know, I was I was funny, but
I was funny either being a total goofball or being
the sarcastic.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Underplayed guy. And that was kind of it. So you know,
so I'm very happy that I.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Got and and what what what kind of work that
you saw when you were younger to kind of defined
like who you wanted to be as an artist, Not
that it doesn't shift and change, but like, for instance,
for me, and I think for all of too, like
Parenthood when we were kids like that kind of like that,
that kind of tone was all Oliver, and I was like,
(24:45):
that's what we want to do, you know, we want
to make movies like that or Oliver loved also like
you know, Evil Dead and.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
The greatest comedies of all time. It was incredible comedy.
It's amazing.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
I mean, for me, it was a weird road because
when I was an actor, you know, in coming up
as a kid in Michigan, movies to me weren't something
you made. They were examples of what you wanted to be.
So like when I saw a close Encounter of the
Third cond I was like, Oh, I want you fos
to come and take me, you know.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
So it was kind of a weird then that way.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
And then I was also just way into like the
Marx Brothers and you know, uh, you know Specter Clusseau,
those you know, Pink Panther movies and all that. So
I think I just wanted to be kind of like
a clown, but like a realistic clown. You know. That's
why when Steve Martin hit the scene, he wasn't just
my be all and end all. I wanted to be
(25:42):
Steve Martin the Seminal Seminal movie from Yeah, like that
was probably what I.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Wanted to do more than anything. Is my version of this.
Do you ever put yourself in your movies? Yeah? I
occasionally I'll do a thing or two.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Like if you see the movie Spy, there's a drunk
guy who walks into the wall and falls down, that's me,
you know.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I played a doctor in the heat.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
But the problem, Oliver is that as a director, you've
got so much power, you know, and then the minute
you step in front of the camera, all your power
goes on, and then all the people you're telling what
to do on screen suddenly see that you're not that good,
and it's kind of like they're like, this guy's give
me directions for you. Yeah, so I've kind of pulled back,
(26:29):
but I will pop up here and here and there.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
So did you write Freaks and Geeks? It was that
your first thing? And was it just a spect you wrote? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
I wrote it as a spec.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
I was out on the road trying to promote this low,
low budget independent film that I wrote direct and start
in that never got released, and was just out on
this college tour with it and thought, he's got to
write something. I was always writing. I mean, I'm constantly
writing scripts and yeah, I've always always wanted to do
something about my high school experience. And wrote its back again,
send it to Jed who was an old friend, and yeah,
(27:04):
they picked it up. So, I mean it was crazy.
So I created this show thinking it was probably the
one I thought that wasn't going to go like all
the other things I wrote, and I was so you know,
into because they were all these movie scripts. And this
was the first time I went like, maybe I'll write
like an hour TV show because my friend Matt Reeves
had just done Felicity with JJ and he sent that
to me. I go, the hour format, that's kind of
(27:25):
like a movie, So I'll write it for that. And
then suddenly I had a show in the air.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Wow. Cool. And you were closes, like you've been close
with jud for a long time. Yeah, I've on him
got We.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Were all stand ups together, so him since he was
like sixteen or seventeen years old.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
I love that whole crew, like you every I I
love that when you find these sort of clusters of
like drive talent, especially comedy. You know, I'm working with
Ike right now, Baron Halts, we love it, and Mindy
and and like you know, you sort of lean on
(28:01):
each other and all these things, and everybody has their
kind of.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Role, you know, and like their their strong suit.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, when you get everybody together, especially in like a
writing room or on set or whatever, it's just there's
nothing more fun.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Well, comedy actors are great because their team players. Because
you have to be because you can't do it by yourself.
It's not like stand ups sometimes aren't great, you know,
just because there's so much about being in control of
themselves and getting the laugh and there are ones that
can be really good. But I find in general is
more people come from the improv world tend to be
(28:38):
the best and tend to be the best actors too.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I we're working with Drew Tarvor, who's like a great
like he does it was it called ss.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
SSPC is it UCB.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Yeah, he's so great, he's so like working with him,
it's one of the great joys of my working life
so far because he just can make any literally something
out of anything.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
Yeah, those are people I like to hire, like, especially
in you know, small roles that are nothing roles, because
they know they're going to show up and make it
into a something role. You know, it's gonna even if
it's one moment, it's a memorable moment that's not wasted
of just somebody going like yo, they're over there, you know,
it becomes something.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Yes, Yeah, it's it's been great. When you started working
on the office, how did that come about?
Speaker 4 (29:28):
I it was, well, the backstory and that was actually
after you know, Ricky Jervis's show you Know, had been done.
They were trying to get everybody to do it, and
they came to me to develop it for television.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
I was like, forget it, I'm not touching that.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
That shows so classic and great, like who who what
mad person would go in and do that? And of
course Greg Daniels comes in and makes it brilliant. No,
that was I was just directing a lot of television
at the time and doing Arrested Development and things like that,
and uh yeah, God. They contacted me about doing an
episode in that in the in the first full season
(30:04):
because they did those six one offs and I wasn't
evolved in that. But the irony was I was doing
a pilot at the same time as they were doing
the pilot for The Office, and where they were editing
is where we were shooting. So a scene and Greg
Daniels came over to me and it was Rodney Rothman
and Jonathan Groff and said like, come in here, I
(30:25):
need your advice on something. And he was trying to
figure out what the opening music for the show was
going to be, and so he played a couple of
songs and then when the one that they end up using,
were all like, oh, that's the one. That's really cool.
So it was like this big team effort of all
of us going like that's it. So every time I
hear it, it's like, Wow, we were kind of in
that decision.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
That's kind of cool. That's cool. Now You're so right.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
That's what's so great about comedy is just how collaborative
it all is, you know, and those egos. Obviously, you know,
there's competition. You hear all these SNL stories about you know,
people competing, but at the end of the day, you
can you only make each other better, you know, and
if you can let go of those eat that ego.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Yeah, well, I think SNL gets hardcore because they're fighting
to get what they wrote on the air. And I
think once it's you know, with a movie or a
television show, it's all set, so now people are just
showing up to make it the best it can be.
And that's then then it tends to be pretty you know,
everybody going in the same direction.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Yeah. Are you big on improv and letting everyone just
go off the rails? Well, yeah, I mean I do.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
We do a lot of that, But at the same time,
it's it's controlled chaos. You know, the script's very tight,
the scene structure is very tight, and then it's within
the scene where we go we can play with that punchline,
we play with that joke, play with that connective tissue there,
and so that's where we play around a lot.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yeah, Paul, do you only direct the things you write
or do you direct things?
Speaker 1 (31:51):
No? I. I that was my goal.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
And then I just realized if I'm just going to
sit around and write, I'm not going to get enough
movies made because the ideas don't come to me that fast.
And I get more inspired by like a script that
is a great idea or is kind of great but
needs work. That's when I get excited because I find
my way in and then I can kind of make
it my own and do a lot of rewriting on stuff.
(32:16):
But no, I, you know, I was very driven by
I read that Fellini's last words, or one of his
last words on his deathbed, were I wish I'd made
more movies. And I really understand that because if you
sit around waiting for the perfect thing all the time,
you know, it's just fun to be working.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
You know.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Obviously I'm making things you don't think are good. But
if you can find your way into something and make
it your own and then it becomes a passion for you,
that's exciting.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
And it's also feels like it's just such a muscle,
like you have to be working it all the time.
That's like anything, you know, it's like, yeah, you know,
I find out about acting. It's like when you get
on a set and you haven't been acting for a while, like,
oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
That's the weird thing about when you make a movie
because you know, there's so much time for prep and
then you got your you know, two three, four months
of production and then it's another year of post. So
every time you get back to a set, you're like, wow,
it's been a year since those here, even though I
do it all the time.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
So that's what I love about being a TV director.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
When I was doing it, it's just you're just going
from set to set to set, genre genre, and you
learn so much because one day you're doing a medical drama,
the next day you're doing a mockumentary. The next day
you're doing like it's spal about a drug dealer, you know,
and it's yeah, I learned a lot I learned how
to be very versatile by doing that.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Are you doing any TV?
Speaker 4 (33:34):
We have a TV, our TV division, and we're developing
a lot of television. You know, there's a bunch of
pilots I'm supposed to direct. But yeah, movies are my
bread and butter. Yeah, yeah, of the most.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Let me ask you a quick question just about comedy
in general, from when you started until now. I mean,
where have you seen the evolution of it?
Speaker 1 (33:50):
I mean, is it where it was?
Speaker 2 (33:53):
No?
Speaker 4 (33:53):
Comedy is so evolving, you know it was. It's kind
of gone from being very broad to being very behavioral.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
And I even though I.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
Love broad comedies as a kid, they aren't what I
want to make. So like the nineties were very broad
and make a gun like the Jim Carrey stuff, which
was very you know, it's very funny. It's just that's
kind of not what I wanted to do. I want
a little more not grounded, but I wanted a little
more authenticity. I think out out of the characters.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
And I really.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Credit again going back to what I was saying about YouTube,
I think the rise of that kind of like you know,
seeing videos of things that actually happened or very raw
kind of people just talking to the camera kind of
stuff made people like behavioral more than they like overproduced
(34:49):
kind of comedy. So for me, it's kind of a
nice time. But look, it'll shift again, it always does,
and suddenly the broadest of broad comedies will suddenly be popular.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
I have this because when we're doing our show, like I,
I'm not a broad comedian like I, everything I do
has to feel like it's coming from somewhere real, you know,
just because it makes more sense to me. But then
every life so much respect for people who can just
be broad like yeah, you know, because it takes like
(35:20):
this insane amount of like it's almost insane like.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Commitment, commitment, and oh it's it's just so you have.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
To be a smart performer to be brought. It's it's
almost like, you know, you have to be a great
singer to sing badly. You know, they always say, because
you could if you. You know how many times we've
seen over the over the decades, like certain celebrities will
host SNL and they're just trying so hard to be
funny and you're just like, oh man.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Please dial it back, please dial it back.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
So then you really appreciate people who can just go
for it and be big and be hilarious.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Yeah, it's it's definitely like my my favorite.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Like when I see someone able to do that, it's
the stand up comedian is having a moment right now,
just in general, you know, with the podcasts of course,
which is promotional, but also these specials, you know, because
you know, I have a production company myself, and you know,
I'm trying to get some of these guys into these shows,
but it's not monetarily advantageous to be on a television
(36:22):
show is only going to take money away from them
now one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
I mean I was a stand up for five years,
you know, back in the eighties and loved it, and
I'm just glad to see that it's doing well, you know,
right now, because it's I think it's kind of the
purest art form in a weird way, because it's a
microphone and a person, you know, and doing a obsensibly
a one person show, and you know that is a
(36:48):
real craft to do that and be great at it.
And it's really I love watching great stand up comedians.
I don't miss doing it at all. Literally, you have
put a into my head to go do it again.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
I know.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
It's funny though, because you have these huge comedians who
have become huge stars, but they'll always go back to
what they love. I mean, Sandler's a very good friend
of our families, and he actually bought my childhood home.
But the guy is just epic and iconic. But he'll
go from doing this movie to then get winning an
(37:21):
Academy Award and doing a crazy comedy and then he
has dates. He's been on the road for the last
three months, and it's like, dude, are you serious. It's crazy,
can't stop.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
I want to get to The Housemaid. Yes please? This
is your first psychological thriller.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it's a simple favor a
little bit, but this is much more in that direction.
And it was a book, yeah yeah, The Housemaid. It's
it's still a bestseller list. It's like it's been this
New York Times for like two years.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
So how did this come on your death? Like, how
was this something that you were drawn to do?
Speaker 4 (38:09):
It was I was doing another simple favor for lions Gate,
who I did the first one with, and it was
going really well and they're really happy with how it's going.
And then, unbeknownst to me, my business partner, Laura Fisher,
had been kind of chasing this project that they had
over there because she knows I love thrillers. I mean
that's all I kind of watch. I don't watch much comedy.
I really just watched thrillers and horror movies and and
(38:32):
it just seemed like the perfect fits. So they they,
you know, sent it to me, and and Sydney was
already attached, Sidney Sweeney, who I'd been wanting to work
with a lot, and yeah, I read it and just
like I know how to do this.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I see this very clearly. It's so much fun. It's
very hitchcock.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
And I guess like when you go into something like this,
like I know, casting, like did you did? You clearly
got who you wanted. I mean, Sidney was our already
attached to it. And then Amanda, how did Amanda come
on board?
Speaker 4 (39:03):
Well, Amanda, i'd had a meeting. Well we actually had
like giving.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Who I love by the way I love it. We
just spent a night together and had so much fun.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Oh she's the best.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
Now. We'd had like coffee like ten years prior of
kind of a general meeting and just really hit it off.
And it was like we got to do something and
just could never find the right thing. And then just
the nature of this story, it seemed like the kind
of physical similarities and size between Sydney and Amanda would
really work really well. And also knowing just how brilliant
(39:37):
Amanda is as an actor, it was just kind of like,
let's go for Amanda for this. And then with Brandon's Glenar,
he'd been doing it ends with us with my buddy
Blake Lively, and when we were shooting another Civil Favor,
she just kept saying, like, I'm working with this guy.
He's so amazing. His name is Brandon and he's like
funny and handsome and blah blah blah, and so I
was like okay, And then met with him and the
(39:59):
ammunity walk into the Tower bar for us to have
lun shows. It's like, oh, hired, Like I mean just
this big physical presence and funny and everything, and uh yeah,
so I really kind of got my dream cast. And
then Mikayla Maroney was in another simple Favor with me,
who I cast out of Italy, and it's just like
literally like the part was written for him, so brought him.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
There is there comedy infused into this. It is it's
got a quirk.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
Yeah, well, you know this this one is I would
never call it a comedy, you know, though I always
say that all my movies are comedies.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Ultimately, they're just are very.
Speaker 4 (40:31):
Very dark, and this is the it's the let's say comedy.
It's the great reaction from an audience of enormous release.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Let's just say so.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
It's kind of what it's kind of in the way
the weapons did you know, you're kind of terrified for
for the first you know, two thirds, and then you're like, oh,
I'm just gonna relish what's happening now? And so we
got a we got a big response out there, like
the audience is very interactive with this.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Oh that's great, especially like the third act.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
I'm sure you've seen it, but but what about you've
seen happiness Todd Salon's.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Oh my god, yeah, yeah, total.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
I mean that movie was incredible to me. Kurt and
I were in the theater watching that and we were
laughing our assets off, and they were the theatergoers were like,
not happy with us because it's such dark subject matter,
but it was unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (41:24):
But you know, that's what he's going yeah, of course,
it was like welcome to the dollhouse. Someone was seeing
that just going like, oh my god, but that happened.
I was in Palm Springs at the theater with only
a few other couples watching weapons, and I'm laughing my
ass off in the third act, and people are turning
around like, hey, this is very serious. Like you guys,
you don't know what this filmmaker was doing in the
editing room. They were laughing their asses off too.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
I guess. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
It's so, It's says a humor is such an interesting thing,
isn't it, Because yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
It's like it's such a like.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
The idea, like how you identify with your sense If
here just says everything about the rest of your life
and all the people that you end up, it's huge.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
But that's why it's so hard to make a successful comedy,
because everybody's got different sets of humor. Everbody can agree
what's scary, what sad, what's you know, but thrilling, but
nobody can agree on what's funny.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
It's true, she Lackman says, only you can't lie at
it's how to make someone laugh, Like either make a
laugh or you don't you know, manipulate.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
It can't fake a laugh. If you can't, you're really good.
You're such a horror buff.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
I grew up on horror, love horror, and my kids
are obsessed with horror and thriller. But here's the interesting thing.
They're so desensitized to the old school movies. Like back,
I was like, let me show you Diamon on elm Street,
you know, let me show you Last House on the Left,
let me show you Spit on My Gray.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Let me show you all of these. And they're like, Dad,
like this is lame, you know, like.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Lame, even Texas Shane Saw, which is a class. It's like, okay,
you know, it's so funny. They don't look at that
those but you.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Should show them more psychological thrillers, not like this horror horror.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Yeah, not a terror Terrorizer three exactly. But those movies
are too much for me.
Speaker 3 (43:14):
Those guys, do you have like a do you have
some favorites like horror, like just iconic horror films for you?
Speaker 1 (43:19):
And I mean I'm I'm a fan of the old
James Whale movies. I mean, right, I live in his house.
Oh my god, you're kidding kaya I live in the
I live in the real house.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
Oh my god, wait, please invite me over. I'll just
walk around and just soaking the vibes.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
He is there.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Wow, I or either that or his lover I don't know,
but but but there's definitely an energy in that house
that remains great.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
I love so we grew up in too as kid.
I bought it back. Yeah, I bought it back from
That's incredible. I did not I did not know that. Yeah,
he built it.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
It was in the thirties and I was about to
tear it down, and then the fires happened and I
was like, no, I can't, I can't.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
I'm going to restore it. So I'm a restore in
there so much history. Do you ever find, like, you know,
Frankenstein props in the walls or no, but it doesn't
get into the walls. We're about to make I have to.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
I can't wait because I feel like there's things I'm
going to end up seeing.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
I would hope, so I would. Okay, howsmade book has
a sequel?
Speaker 2 (44:18):
Are is it already like, are you already thinking about
making a sequel or is this something you're going to
have to wait for?
Speaker 4 (44:25):
Well, the hope would be if the movie does really well,
we could slam into a sequel, just because I really
had a lot of fun doing this, and you know,
and Frida's books are really great and the second book
is really fun.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
So yeah, fingers crossed.
Speaker 4 (44:37):
Well, it's up to the audience December nineteenth, show up
on that nineteen, and it's only in theaters the greatest way.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
What we need's so.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Exciting, I know, I'm really like, really, it's It's kind
of nerve wracking, isn't it, because you really want people
to go see it because we want to be the
collective experience is everything.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
It totally is. You know.
Speaker 4 (45:00):
That's all my movies have been up until the last
three because it's starting with the pandemic. I did three,
you know, streamers, which has been fantastic for me because
I got to keep making movies and God bless them
for let me do it.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
But I'm so heavy back in theaters because you.
Speaker 4 (45:14):
Know, because we when I'm doing my streaming streaming, hit
my mind, hit my mic As I doing my streaming movies,
we test them the same way we go to theaters,
you know, recruit audiences. Two hundred fifty three hundred people,
and so we engineered for that and then we have
a premiere and it goes everybody goes crazy for it,
and then it just goes on on TV and you're like,
we don't get experiences like driving around opening weekend, like
(45:36):
let's go to the bag of theaters.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Way about glass Onion, because we only had a week
in the theater and it was such a it's such
knives out, it's such a theater going experience.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Yeah, it's interactive, you know, that's and it was huge.
So we're like, oh my god, how did this not
end up in the theater. You know, just you get stuck.
Speaker 4 (45:58):
You get stuck in the business model and you yeah,
they can't break out of it, so you know, and
I understand it, and you know, I'm.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Not slaming about it. It's just it's just like it
just feels better. It's exciting. Well, thanks for coming on,
polic everybody. Go on and see House Maide December nineteenth.
Yes and tell your mom I said, hi, I love
her dearly. I mean, you did snatch your mom. And
you also did one of my favorites, Bridesmaids. Oh thank you,
(46:27):
which was a great. It was an amazing thing. For women.
I tried to do that with movie Wars.
Speaker 4 (46:32):
My first successful bok okay, third, third, third, actual actual movie.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
When when we went in to sell Bride Wars, we
we had to rated our comedy about women fighting over
this wedding, and it just got it just got slowly
like a HAUSPEPG thirteen, it has to be PG. And
I was like, women are we can we can laugh
at ourselves, we can be rated R. And I would
try to say, like, look at like all of the
(47:00):
comedies in the eighties with female driven comedies, they were
rated our comedies like week you know, and and when
you guys came out and were able to do it,
it did it so much for women, and so it was.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
It was a big deal.
Speaker 4 (47:14):
It was quite a efforts, very it was very lucky
to be to be involved.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
It was awesome. But thanks Paul, and we'll see you
all appreciate. Talk to what a dapper man. He's so great.
He's so sweet. Is so great too, talking like this.
It could be like a radio guy. He's like, yeah, Casey,
case I love it.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
I love talking movies so much because I love making
them and I love doing it and it's so fun.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
And it's like we're so lucky and and and and
anybody was a theater guy.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
So oh that was so great. And I love the
girls in it. I've been spending actually time with them,
so I've been spending time. I've seen Sydney quite a bit,
and I've seen Amanda, and they're both so great and
so sweet and everybody should go see these movies. There
are movies. There's a couple of them coming up with
(48:12):
this one looks really fun. So all right, great, love you,
love you,
Hi am Kate Hudson, and my name is Oliver Hudson.
We wanted to do something that highlighted our relationship and
what it's like to be siblings. We are sibling.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
RAILVALI no, no, sibling.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
You don't do that with your mouth.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Revelry.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
That's good. It's so gorgeous in that I got out
of here. I was so happy.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
First first trip to the Dead, trip to the de
I'm jealous.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
The boys are trying to come down there. Yeah, Wilder's coming. Yeah.
I was like, call her and t kad, call mom.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
It's like he writes me these long, like manipulative messages.
I'm like, stop, just say you want to come stay.
He's like, I have my friend. It's like, okay, I
haven't gotten a hold of go go.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I'm like, Wilder, just call me, just call me, and
he's like, March thirteenth, it's high. Well, I'm excited.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, Paul Figue is in our waiting room. He's done
some amazing things. His life is very interesting. Only child.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
He wrote Freaks and Freaks and Geeks. I didn't know that. Yeah,
oh yeah no, that's where he was.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Sorry set him on his path and then he's promoting
this new movie with Sydney Sweeney.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
That is a departure.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I know, yeah, I know, I'm excited. I think he's Honestly,
he's wonderful. And obviously he produced and co wro Snatched,
which Mom was in.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yes, yes, and and I mean he's done.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I mean we could go on and on, but this
is fun and I love Talking Shop, so let's just
talk Shop.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah. Hello there, my goodness, so good to see you.
Nice to see you.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Look at how dapper you are, sir me a, you
know this, this whole thing, this.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Old welcome to our podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I'm excited because these are always my favorite ones talking
I said to Allie to Talking Shop.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah you're here. I love it. No, it's really it's
great to meet you. And Kate.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
I go way back having watched you because my one
of my closest friends is Betsy Beers, who produced two
hundred cigarettes.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Oh my god, Betsy, And when.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
I saw when she showed me the first time, I
was like, who was that woman. That's the funniest woman
I've ever seen in my It was you.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So you were just so great.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
I was just talking about that movie with my with
my middle son, because he's turning into quite the cinephile,
wants to watch everything. And I was like, two hundred cigarettes,
don't sleep on that movie.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
It's such a great fun movie, and it really was.
It holds. There's so many people. Yeah, who's the cast?
I mean, wasn't Chappelle in that as well? Paul Rudd
Paul Rudd right, and Courtney Courtney Love.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Courney Love, Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck Right, Elvis Costello.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
I was gonna say, cameo by Elvis Costello, who said
gang wait mate or something you walk past camera?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Gabby Christina Ricci like it was. It was a crazy cast.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Yeah, who's who? Directed by Risa Raymond Garcia. Yeah, casting
director at the time.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
You know, so she wasn't so funny because my son Wilder,
who's eighteen now he wants to be an actor and
he took her class because Reesa is now teaching.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Oh really, that's cool. He took's class. She's great.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Women in film. At luncheon just the other day, they
were like, who's been the most influential women in this
industry for you? And I said, you know what, it's
the casting directors, like the women along the journey for me.
That were my biggest cheerleaders were you know, Mary Renew,
Gail Levin, like all of these great female casting directors
(04:16):
that were really like in your corner.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
They were there. I mean they're sort of not spoken
about enough.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Do you know Alison Jones, Yeah, yeah's Elson's my verson.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
She is the best. I mean, Wyatt knows her well,
Alison's cast.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Wyatt and a couple of things. Yeah, she's casting me
in a couple of things. Yeah, she's the greatest.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
I call her the mother of modern comedy.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Is she has i mean, didn't she cast Freaks and Geeks? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:46):
She won the first Casting Emmy for casting Freaks and Geeks.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yes, that's right, Freaks and Geeks is the best they well, Paul,
let's start from the Let's start from the beginning, like
where were you raised?
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And right outside Detroit in Michigan, Mount Clemens, Michigan. It
was called, yes, and you know, very blue collar. My
dad owned an army surplus store.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
So there you go. Wow, only only child, right, only child? Yes,
that's how this happens exactly.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
And my mom was she was a working woman until
she met my dad and then when they had me,
she she just became a full time mom until I
got to my early early teens, and then she went
back to work for my father, working at the store
in the back office. But she always loved working women.
(05:40):
Her working women were her heroes, and she she Yeah,
I think she always kind of, you know, not resented,
but regretted that she gave up her career to you know,
but she didn't really. I mean she she worked for
the phone company in Canada because she was Canadian. So
so I am a half Canadian officially half Canadian.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Two passports, you're you're the one of the lucky that
my son is English. So he's got two passports and
he's about to get his third because he's also Irish.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Oh oh god, so you can get three.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, he's going to get three, which I'm like to
try to get ours and the works.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
It's with the consulate. Yeah, there you go. We're trying
to get our Italian citizenship. Yeah. I think there's there
are towns where they pay you to come and live there. Exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
We'll give you one year old to buy this dilapidated building.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
But it's funny because then there are these stipulations. Well,
if you do you have to invest x amount of
dollars into the economy. I think there are these little
yeah loopholes.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Another simple favor we shot in Italy and the cat
tail is don't work where you normally vacation really well,
I mean it's great, but it's also still like you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
No, it's true Italians like to chill out. Yeah, no,
very much. So it's a thing like.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I think, like culturally there's certain there's different areas that
are just the way they work. Like now that I've
worked all over the world, like the craziest place for
me for crew that like worked hard and played hard
both was Australia.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Like to me, they're like they.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Work crazy hard and then they're just like wasted by
like ten thirty pm.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Which is not a bad not a bad way to
work to get up and they charge.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Oh yeah, they're just they were like they were like,
you know, it's they have that mentality, that power through mentality,
whereas Italians are like, I'll take a two.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Hour break, all right.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
What is what we found in Italy is a four
nosy for anything anything you asked for, No, we can't possibly,
well why not because it's not done that well why not?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And then finally okay, my producing partner.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Laura Fishery in the Lesson the Hard Ways, it's like,
don't they realize we can get anything we need if we.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Just learned you? Where did you shoot? In Italy? In
Rome and Capri.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Oh's my favorite place in the world, and that was
where it's like, oh, shoot, why am I working here?
Because my brain thinks I'm on vacation and now everybody
hates me too because we're blocking the road.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Or now you go back, They're like, no, you need
to leave. Now they like me again because they like
the movies. Well, so Detroit, like growing up, what was
it like in Detroit?
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Were you still in sort of the working class heyday
of Detroit before?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Yeah, I mean it was it was the you know,
I was born in sixty two, so I kind of
grew up through the late sixties and early seventies and seventies,
all the seventies there, and it was very I mean,
that was when the auto industry was completely collapsing, and
so there's a lot of depression and my father, owning
an AR and B surplus store, kind of catered to
people that had no money. So ironically, his store did
(09:03):
really well selling cheap goods. But it was an interesting time,
you know, and show business was just like another planet.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
You know.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
When my dad and my dad's friends, who thought I
was going to take over his store, like heard I
was going to go to California to try to be
in showbiz. It was just like, why are you running
off to the circus. You have this wonderful business here,
you know. They just thought it was a pipe dream,
like I was crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, I couldn't have been more different. How old were
you when you made this decision?
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Well, I mean I wanted to do it since I
was like five years old. But then when I was seventeen,
that's when I kind of said I'm going to go.
So I called Universal Studios. I called all the studios.
A friend of my dad's was out in Hollywood and
he sent us a copy of Variety, and so I
went through the production list and called all the main
numbers of the studios asking if they needed actors, and.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Of course no, they did not.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
But finally got to Universal last and they said, well,
we need tour guides, and if you can get here
in two days, we're doing auditions for the tour guide
and so jump put my next neighbor in the car
and we drove out.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
And wow, so you drove. You drove to California to
become a Universal Studios tour guide. Yes, I did. And
did you get the job? I did?
Speaker 4 (10:22):
I did, I got, I got put into the training
program for two weeks and then but then you it
still wasn't guaranteed you were going to get the job.
But they gave me the job and they said, Okay,
we're going to hire you, but you have to sit
out in the sun every day because my acne was
so terrible. You've got to get some color and get
rid of that acne.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
So not really.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
What means you want to be an actor? Like, what
was it that was the thing that drew you to it?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I just always wanted to.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
When I was five years old, I was the elf
in a Christmas pageant and my father dressed me and
this kind of army surplus clothes to look like an elf.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
It was a ridiculous costume.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
And the minute I walked on stage, the whole place
went crazy laughing and they're laughing at me. But all
I heard was, Wow, I just made all these people laugh.
I want to do this for the rest of my life,
and honestly.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
It never left me.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
That was the wow, the first shot of Heroin, if
you will, just going like I got to get in
and do this thing.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Was there any history in your family of like anyone
that was in the arts.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Or no, it was my parents were both wannabes. My
dad was obsessed with like jokes, but like you know,
old time jokes that take five minutes to tell you,
which I can't do.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
But he was like a rack on tour.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
He could just tell an old joke and keep the
whole table kind of like wrapped until he got to
the you know, punchline. It was funny the whole way through.
And then my mom just liked silly stuff like she
was really I know, her claim to fame was she
played Charlie Chaplin at some party once and that was
you know, and she imitated him, so she thought that
was the greatest thing ever. So she like really goofy,
(12:09):
dumb humor. And then my dad like really smart kind
of wordsmith ory and so I think that's why I'm
kind of I'm sort of high and low with my comedies.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
But it's really unbelievable because you obviously.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Just explained your comedy, you know, I mean, because someone
is shitting in the street, but at the same time,
there is that smart, intellectual shit that goes on with that.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
There you go. Yeah, that's what I love, you know.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
I it's you know, when I did freak some geeks,
there is kind of this feeling of like, oh I
was sort of classier than I am. It's like, guys,
there's like a fart joke in every episode, so you know,
but I did like things to be real, you know.
I find you know, life is funny because it's serious
and then it's hilarious and then it's serious again.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
And yeah, I was reading and you said something interesting,
which I totally which is, you know, of course there's
punchline comedy, but it comes from empathy. Yeah, yeah, makes
total sense.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
You know. It's that it's that relatability. It's that oh
my god, I feel you.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
I feel that, yeah, because I mean I love clever humor,
you know, and words, wordsmith ory and all that. But
I think especially now because of YouTube and the fact
that we're watching so much like real life stuff, you know,
people getting hitting the balls and but you know, things
that is captured on film, and it's it's so human
(13:34):
to us that I think when if something feels too
kind of overwritten, I think people can appreciate it, but
they don't necessarily go like wow, I really relate to that.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
It's also like I feel like the at least the
comedians that I know a lot of them, not all
of them, but a lot of them are there. There
they are actually like, well, not what I'm thinking about it.
There are some that aren't very amp.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
I'm like, wait a minute, comedians are there. There are
kind of two.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Types of Yeah, I'm like, there's some that have no
embassy and then some that are so empathtic. There's such
empathis that's the only way out for them is to
find humor in it.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Well, it's like it.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
I just was at a woman in a film event
last night and Kristen Wigg was there, who I hadn't
seen it a little while, and it was just so
nice to.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Catch up with her.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
But she is she's so empathetic, but her comedy comes
from the fact that she's just like dying inside, you know,
trying to do the right thing and trying not to
upset anybody.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
And I loved her so much. I realized the other
day my mom.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I went with my mom on a deep dive with
all of her characters because my mom had never really
seen them, and she it was like, what is this, Like, Mom,
you've got you can't believe you haven't really done a
deep dive on Kristen, Like she's hilarious. I got her
character where she didn't is no or she was like,
don't make me sing and they.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Make this thing. Oh, it's my favorite. But that's interesting
about Kristin.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
There's there's there's like tragedy there all where there's like
something like yearning or you know, it's like there's it's
it's so it's it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Yeah, just characters that are barely holding themselves. Yeah, yeah,
you know, and that's really fun. We we our heart
bleeds for them, and yet we like to laugh with them.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
I'm a little biased about this, and maybe it's a
projection of just my own like thing of loving to
do comedy and then feeling like it's very underappreciated in
terms of like being a serious actor. Yeah, and and
I actually find that the people who can be comedic
are usually my favorite overall actors, whether they're dramatic or
(15:58):
comedy like they can hit there there there's a different
kind of connection to timing and understanding of like humanity
for some reason in comedic actors that make their dramatic
work so wonderful when you see it.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Yeah, well, I mean, okay, let's let's talk about this
because this is the the you know what upsets me
about the industry, And yet I don't care. Ultimately, you
know that the the funny people get so written off
as just being well, they're just funny, you know. I
Mean my example I always bring up with this is
(16:34):
Steve Carell never won an Emmy for the for the Office, That's.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Never won an Emmy for it.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
And I would talk to voters about that, whin They go, well,
he just he shows up and he's crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I'm like, yeah, are you fucking out of your mind?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Yeah, you have no idea how hard that is and
how much that is not Steve Carell is not Michael
Scott at all in real life. Are the intelligence that
it takes to actually be able to create a character
like that exactly.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
But the reason you don't want awards is it looks
easy if you do it right, it looks easy and
so then you get no credit for it, and as
we know, it's really it's one of the hardest things
in the world.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I feel like that was women and when women are charming,
Like there's certain women who have this innate charm that
somehow people just go like, oh, well that's just an
easy Yeah, that's and you're and you're and you I
know a lot of them, and you're like, it's so
underappreciated that it's actually sectually yea, a part of the craft.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Going back to the Steve Correll thing, I would love
to get the nominees together and say, okay, you do
the office. Now, Steve, you do this show. See see
who's who's what's the most difficult, and I can guarantee
you no one could do what Steve did, and Stee
could probably do what some of these other people totally.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
You know, Steve lost almost every time to Alec Baldwin.
It's like, look, Balden was really funny. I'm thirty rock,
but it was just more of a like an obvious
kind of yes, you know, no shade to Alegs of course,
not like but at the same time, because I'm cheam Steve, so.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Those things do become like it can be trivial when
you're inside of it. Sometimes the whole you know experience
of like you know, whether it be critical or like
the you know it it's and I think from the
creative place, you just it's so hard to get anything made,
(18:28):
let alone anything good, like you know, so it's kind
of it's and then and then sometimes you wonder why,
kind of like fine art, you wonder why something becomes
so big and so popular or somebody does. Yeah, when
you're looking around and you're seeing so much talent.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
There's a lot of luck there too. Yeah, it's very
interesting business to like hang your hat.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
It is a little annoying in that way because it's
kind of like throughout the year used to go, Okay,
it's these ten things have been anointed or these six
things have been anointed for award season, and as we're
just going to hear about those a whole time, you know,
And I always, I always feel like I waste my
my Academy votes. But at the same time, I vote
(19:16):
for the movies that I really like that I know
aren't gonna get votes, just because you know, I like
those movies and they do what they're supposed to have done.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
They entertained an audience.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Yeah, you know, and that's so kind of discounted as
being like, Okay, well you're just pandering. It's like, I'm
not paying I'm making the movies. The reason that the
studio wants me to make these movies is to entertain people,
and that's why I want to do it.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Does I agree?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I feel like and as I really think that one
of the things that sometimes we lose sight of is
what it is to make a movie that makes you
feel something and that people want to see, meaning like
that it can have everything. It can be funny, it
can be it can be inspiring, it can be big
(20:04):
an epic, and that that is if you look at
the best pictures of the year, that it should also
incorporate in a sense of like what is moving people
as a as a whole, not just a sort of
internal understanding of you know, whether it be I think
(20:25):
there's a place for all of it. But there has
been a huge shift, like when you start to see
in the sort of twenty ten the shift of.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Best picture, well then they well, now now best picture
is just seven thousand of them. It's like every every
film that was made that year is nominated.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
There's a lot of them, but it did shift a
little bit, you know, because we sort of somewhere along
the line felt like that the bigger movies weren't necessarily
the best crafted films. What in fact, like making a
big movie that people want to go see is so hard,
you know, and I think maybe the Marvel World kind
of shifted that a little bit for everybody.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
But yeah, I mean.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
People start to resent, you know, movies that make a
lot of money, and then look, and I get that
awards are great for kind of supporting smaller films at
the same time, but look, you know, like a movie
this year like Sinners, giant movie, and it's gonna win
a ton of awards, and it so deserves it because
it worked on every single level, you know, and that's
what I really admire.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
And if it was up to me, also, Weapons would
be up for Best Picture. I just watched that. Well,
I watch yeah, and huge movie too, Okay done.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
I mean, yeah, Weapons was great, but the the ending
was abrupt for me. I mean, I wasn't expecting that
it was funny. Oh my god, Oh it was so funny.
Oh my god, it was so great.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Oh I saw Sinners. I loved it.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
What's the name Craiger's right, yeahach, yeah, he's uh that
last sequence when she's you know, the kids are chasing her,
it was hysterical.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I was like allmost it turned into like a French farce.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
The sound design is the fluest party.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
So I was watching with my daughter. This is another story.
Who's twelve, but she loves horror and she loves scary
and when you know, you know, and he did his
job when she just starts.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Cracking up exactly. She was laughing her ass off, and
she horror is the new comedy, you know, it really is.
That's why all of us, all those comedy guys are
going into thrillers and horrors and all horror movies, just
because it's a second way to get a reaction out
of an audience.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yeah, that's what Oliver was saying, Like, we love this
departure for you. You know, it's like not what you
would expect as we know your work.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
But before before we get into that, I'm curious what
started like your desire you know, you came to act,
but then where did the sort of writing and you know,
the itch to write and produce and create.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Well, it was all kind of part and parcel because I,
you know, I when I was a kid, I remember
reading about Woody Allen and then like he was like, wait,
he stars and he writes and he directed, like he
does it all. I was like, how do you do that?
Then Albert Brooks, you know, all these people. So I
was kind of like, well, I want to do that.
I want to kind of do it all. So it
was always part and parcel with it all. And so
I went to film school still as an actor, kind
(23:22):
of thinking I'm going to be able to direct myself
and make movies of myself, and then also thought I'll
be better on set because I'll understand how movies made
and stuff like that. And then it just kind of,
you know, acting kind of chased me out of it
because you know, I was doing really well for a
character actor for fifteen years. You know, I was a
regular on like five different TVs network TV series, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
But they all got canceled after the first first season.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
And then finally when I was on Sabrina the Teenage
Witch and it was finally a hit, and you know,
I did one season on that and then they wrote
me out. It's like I was like, I maybe the
writing's on the wall, Like I got to get out
of this. My wife had been saying to me for
a few years, like maybe you should start thinking about,
you know, going behind the camera. Which always nice to
hear your wife say that.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
She was right, She was right.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
I would like I was very limited in what I
could do, you know, I was I was funny, but
I was funny either being a total goofball or being
the sarcastic.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Underplayed guy. And that was kind of it. So you know,
so I'm very happy that I.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Got and and what what what kind of work that
you saw when you were younger to kind of defined
like who you wanted to be as an artist, Not
that it doesn't shift and change, but like, for instance,
for me, and I think for all of too, like
Parenthood when we were kids like that kind of like that,
that kind of tone was all Oliver, and I was like,
(24:45):
that's what we want to do, you know, we want
to make movies like that or Oliver loved also like
you know, Evil Dead and.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
The greatest comedies of all time. It was incredible comedy.
It's amazing.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
I mean, for me, it was a weird road because
when I was an actor, you know, in coming up
as a kid in Michigan, movies to me weren't something
you made. They were examples of what you wanted to be.
So like when I saw a close Encounter of the
Third cond I was like, Oh, I want you fos
to come and take me, you know.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
So it was kind of a weird then that way.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
And then I was also just way into like the
Marx Brothers and you know, uh, you know Specter Clusseau,
those you know, Pink Panther movies and all that. So
I think I just wanted to be kind of like
a clown, but like a realistic clown. You know. That's
why when Steve Martin hit the scene, he wasn't just
my be all and end all. I wanted to be
(25:42):
Steve Martin the Seminal Seminal movie from Yeah, like that
was probably what I.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Wanted to do more than anything. Is my version of this.
Do you ever put yourself in your movies? Yeah? I
occasionally I'll do a thing or two.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Like if you see the movie Spy, there's a drunk
guy who walks into the wall and falls down, that's me,
you know.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I played a doctor in the heat.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
But the problem, Oliver is that as a director, you've
got so much power, you know, and then the minute
you step in front of the camera, all your power
goes on, and then all the people you're telling what
to do on screen suddenly see that you're not that good,
and it's kind of like they're like, this guy's give
me directions for you. Yeah, so I've kind of pulled back,
(26:29):
but I will pop up here and here and there.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
So did you write Freaks and Geeks? It was that
your first thing? And was it just a spect you wrote? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
I wrote it as a spec.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
I was out on the road trying to promote this low,
low budget independent film that I wrote direct and start
in that never got released, and was just out on
this college tour with it and thought, he's got to
write something. I was always writing. I mean, I'm constantly
writing scripts and yeah, I've always always wanted to do
something about my high school experience. And wrote its back again,
send it to Jed who was an old friend, and yeah,
(27:04):
they picked it up. So, I mean it was crazy.
So I created this show thinking it was probably the
one I thought that wasn't going to go like all
the other things I wrote, and I was so you know,
into because they were all these movie scripts. And this
was the first time I went like, maybe I'll write
like an hour TV show because my friend Matt Reeves
had just done Felicity with JJ and he sent that
to me. I go, the hour format, that's kind of
(27:25):
like a movie, So I'll write it for that. And
then suddenly I had a show in the air.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Wow. Cool. And you were closes, like you've been close
with jud for a long time. Yeah, I've on him
got We.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Were all stand ups together, so him since he was
like sixteen or seventeen years old.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
I love that whole crew, like you every I I
love that when you find these sort of clusters of
like drive talent, especially comedy. You know, I'm working with
Ike right now, Baron Halts, we love it, and Mindy
and and like you know, you sort of lean on
(28:01):
each other and all these things, and everybody has their
kind of.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Role, you know, and like their their strong suit.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, when you get everybody together, especially in like a
writing room or on set or whatever, it's just there's
nothing more fun.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Well, comedy actors are great because their team players. Because
you have to be because you can't do it by yourself.
It's not like stand ups sometimes aren't great, you know,
just because there's so much about being in control of
themselves and getting the laugh and there are ones that
can be really good. But I find in general is
more people come from the improv world tend to be
(28:38):
the best and tend to be the best actors too.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I we're working with Drew Tarvor, who's like a great
like he does it was it called ss.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
SSPC is it UCB.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Yeah, he's so great, he's so like working with him,
it's one of the great joys of my working life
so far because he just can make any literally something
out of anything.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
Yeah, those are people I like to hire, like, especially
in you know, small roles that are nothing roles, because
they know they're going to show up and make it
into a something role. You know, it's gonna even if
it's one moment, it's a memorable moment that's not wasted
of just somebody going like yo, they're over there, you know,
it becomes something.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Yes, Yeah, it's it's been great. When you started working
on the office, how did that come about?
Speaker 4 (29:28):
I it was, well, the backstory and that was actually
after you know, Ricky Jervis's show you Know, had been done.
They were trying to get everybody to do it, and
they came to me to develop it for television.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
I was like, forget it, I'm not touching that.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
That shows so classic and great, like who who what
mad person would go in and do that? And of
course Greg Daniels comes in and makes it brilliant. No,
that was I was just directing a lot of television
at the time and doing Arrested Development and things like that,
and uh yeah, God. They contacted me about doing an
episode in that in the in the first full season
(30:04):
because they did those six one offs and I wasn't
evolved in that. But the irony was I was doing
a pilot at the same time as they were doing
the pilot for The Office, and where they were editing
is where we were shooting. So a scene and Greg
Daniels came over to me and it was Rodney Rothman
and Jonathan Groff and said like, come in here, I
(30:25):
need your advice on something. And he was trying to
figure out what the opening music for the show was
going to be, and so he played a couple of
songs and then when the one that they end up using,
were all like, oh, that's the one. That's really cool.
So it was like this big team effort of all
of us going like that's it. So every time I
hear it, it's like, Wow, we were kind of in
that decision.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
That's kind of cool. That's cool. Now You're so right.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
That's what's so great about comedy is just how collaborative
it all is, you know, and those egos. Obviously, you know,
there's competition. You hear all these SNL stories about you know,
people competing, but at the end of the day, you
can you only make each other better, you know, and
if you can let go of those eat that ego.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Yeah, well, I think SNL gets hardcore because they're fighting
to get what they wrote on the air. And I
think once it's you know, with a movie or a
television show, it's all set, so now people are just
showing up to make it the best it can be.
And that's then then it tends to be pretty you know,
everybody going in the same direction.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Yeah. Are you big on improv and letting everyone just
go off the rails? Well, yeah, I mean I do.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
We do a lot of that, But at the same time,
it's it's controlled chaos. You know, the script's very tight,
the scene structure is very tight, and then it's within
the scene where we go we can play with that punchline,
we play with that joke, play with that connective tissue there,
and so that's where we play around a lot.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yeah, Paul, do you only direct the things you write
or do you direct things?
Speaker 1 (31:51):
No? I. I that was my goal.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
And then I just realized if I'm just going to
sit around and write, I'm not going to get enough
movies made because the ideas don't come to me that fast.
And I get more inspired by like a script that
is a great idea or is kind of great but
needs work. That's when I get excited because I find
my way in and then I can kind of make
it my own and do a lot of rewriting on stuff.
(32:16):
But no, I, you know, I was very driven by
I read that Fellini's last words, or one of his
last words on his deathbed, were I wish I'd made
more movies. And I really understand that because if you
sit around waiting for the perfect thing all the time,
you know, it's just fun to be working.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
You know.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Obviously I'm making things you don't think are good. But
if you can find your way into something and make
it your own and then it becomes a passion for you,
that's exciting.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
And it's also feels like it's just such a muscle,
like you have to be working it all the time.
That's like anything, you know, it's like, yeah, you know,
I find out about acting. It's like when you get
on a set and you haven't been acting for a while, like,
oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
That's the weird thing about when you make a movie
because you know, there's so much time for prep and
then you got your you know, two three, four months
of production and then it's another year of post. So
every time you get back to a set, you're like, wow,
it's been a year since those here, even though I
do it all the time.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
So that's what I love about being a TV director.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
When I was doing it, it's just you're just going
from set to set to set, genre genre, and you
learn so much because one day you're doing a medical drama,
the next day you're doing a mockumentary. The next day
you're doing like it's spal about a drug dealer, you know,
and it's yeah, I learned a lot I learned how
to be very versatile by doing that.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Are you doing any TV?
Speaker 4 (33:34):
We have a TV, our TV division, and we're developing
a lot of television. You know, there's a bunch of
pilots I'm supposed to direct. But yeah, movies are my
bread and butter. Yeah, yeah, of the most.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Let me ask you a quick question just about comedy
in general, from when you started until now. I mean,
where have you seen the evolution of it?
Speaker 1 (33:50):
I mean, is it where it was?
Speaker 2 (33:53):
No?
Speaker 4 (33:53):
Comedy is so evolving, you know it was. It's kind
of gone from being very broad to being very behavioral.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
And I even though I.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
Love broad comedies as a kid, they aren't what I
want to make. So like the nineties were very broad
and make a gun like the Jim Carrey stuff, which
was very you know, it's very funny. It's just that's
kind of not what I wanted to do. I want
a little more not grounded, but I wanted a little
more authenticity. I think out out of the characters.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
And I really.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Credit again going back to what I was saying about YouTube,
I think the rise of that kind of like you know,
seeing videos of things that actually happened or very raw
kind of people just talking to the camera kind of
stuff made people like behavioral more than they like overproduced
(34:49):
kind of comedy. So for me, it's kind of a
nice time. But look, it'll shift again, it always does,
and suddenly the broadest of broad comedies will suddenly be popular.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
I have this because when we're doing our show, like I,
I'm not a broad comedian like I, everything I do
has to feel like it's coming from somewhere real, you know,
just because it makes more sense to me. But then
every life so much respect for people who can just
be broad like yeah, you know, because it takes like
(35:20):
this insane amount of like it's almost insane like.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Commitment, commitment, and oh it's it's just so you have.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
To be a smart performer to be brought. It's it's
almost like, you know, you have to be a great
singer to sing badly. You know, they always say, because
you could if you. You know how many times we've
seen over the over the decades, like certain celebrities will
host SNL and they're just trying so hard to be
funny and you're just like, oh man.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Please dial it back, please dial it back.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
So then you really appreciate people who can just go
for it and be big and be hilarious.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Yeah, it's it's definitely like my my favorite.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Like when I see someone able to do that, it's
the stand up comedian is having a moment right now,
just in general, you know, with the podcasts of course,
which is promotional, but also these specials, you know, because
you know, I have a production company myself, and you know,
I'm trying to get some of these guys into these shows,
but it's not monetarily advantageous to be on a television
(36:22):
show is only going to take money away from them
now one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
I mean I was a stand up for five years,
you know, back in the eighties and loved it, and
I'm just glad to see that it's doing well, you know,
right now, because it's I think it's kind of the
purest art form in a weird way, because it's a
microphone and a person, you know, and doing a obsensibly
a one person show, and you know that is a
(36:48):
real craft to do that and be great at it.
And it's really I love watching great stand up comedians.
I don't miss doing it at all. Literally, you have
put a into my head to go do it again.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
I know.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
It's funny though, because you have these huge comedians who
have become huge stars, but they'll always go back to
what they love. I mean, Sandler's a very good friend
of our families, and he actually bought my childhood home.
But the guy is just epic and iconic. But he'll
go from doing this movie to then get winning an
(37:21):
Academy Award and doing a crazy comedy and then he
has dates. He's been on the road for the last
three months, and it's like, dude, are you serious. It's crazy,
can't stop.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
I want to get to The Housemaid. Yes please? This
is your first psychological thriller.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it's a simple favor a
little bit, but this is much more in that direction.
And it was a book, yeah yeah, The Housemaid. It's
it's still a bestseller list. It's like it's been this
New York Times for like two years.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
So how did this come on your death? Like, how
was this something that you were drawn to do?
Speaker 4 (38:09):
It was I was doing another simple favor for lions Gate,
who I did the first one with, and it was
going really well and they're really happy with how it's going.
And then, unbeknownst to me, my business partner, Laura Fisher,
had been kind of chasing this project that they had
over there because she knows I love thrillers. I mean
that's all I kind of watch. I don't watch much comedy.
I really just watched thrillers and horror movies and and
(38:32):
it just seemed like the perfect fits. So they they,
you know, sent it to me, and and Sydney was
already attached, Sidney Sweeney, who I'd been wanting to work
with a lot, and yeah, I read it and just
like I know how to do this.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I see this very clearly. It's so much fun. It's
very hitchcock.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
And I guess like when you go into something like this,
like I know, casting, like did you did? You clearly
got who you wanted. I mean, Sidney was our already
attached to it. And then Amanda, how did Amanda come
on board?
Speaker 4 (39:03):
Well, Amanda, i'd had a meeting. Well we actually had
like giving.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Who I love by the way I love it. We
just spent a night together and had so much fun.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Oh she's the best.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
Now. We'd had like coffee like ten years prior of
kind of a general meeting and just really hit it off.
And it was like we got to do something and
just could never find the right thing. And then just
the nature of this story, it seemed like the kind
of physical similarities and size between Sydney and Amanda would
really work really well. And also knowing just how brilliant
(39:37):
Amanda is as an actor, it was just kind of like,
let's go for Amanda for this. And then with Brandon's Glenar,
he'd been doing it ends with us with my buddy
Blake Lively, and when we were shooting another Civil Favor,
she just kept saying, like, I'm working with this guy.
He's so amazing. His name is Brandon and he's like
funny and handsome and blah blah blah, and so I
was like okay, And then met with him and the
(39:59):
ammunity walk into the Tower bar for us to have
lun shows. It's like, oh, hired, Like I mean just
this big physical presence and funny and everything, and uh yeah,
so I really kind of got my dream cast. And
then Mikayla Maroney was in another simple Favor with me,
who I cast out of Italy, and it's just like
literally like the part was written for him, so brought him.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
There is there comedy infused into this. It is it's
got a quirk.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
Yeah, well, you know this this one is I would
never call it a comedy, you know, though I always
say that all my movies are comedies.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Ultimately, they're just are very.
Speaker 4 (40:31):
Very dark, and this is the it's the let's say comedy.
It's the great reaction from an audience of enormous release.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Let's just say so.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
It's kind of what it's kind of in the way
the weapons did you know, you're kind of terrified for
for the first you know, two thirds, and then you're like, oh,
I'm just gonna relish what's happening now? And so we
got a we got a big response out there, like
the audience is very interactive with this.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Oh that's great, especially like the third act.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
I'm sure you've seen it, but but what about you've
seen happiness Todd Salon's.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Oh my god, yeah, yeah, total.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
I mean that movie was incredible to me. Kurt and
I were in the theater watching that and we were
laughing our assets off, and they were the theatergoers were like,
not happy with us because it's such dark subject matter,
but it was unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (41:24):
But you know, that's what he's going yeah, of course,
it was like welcome to the dollhouse. Someone was seeing
that just going like, oh my god, but that happened.
I was in Palm Springs at the theater with only
a few other couples watching weapons, and I'm laughing my
ass off in the third act, and people are turning
around like, hey, this is very serious. Like you guys,
you don't know what this filmmaker was doing in the
editing room. They were laughing their asses off too.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
I guess. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
It's so, It's says a humor is such an interesting thing,
isn't it, Because yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
It's like it's such a like.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
The idea, like how you identify with your sense If
here just says everything about the rest of your life
and all the people that you end up, it's huge.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
But that's why it's so hard to make a successful comedy,
because everybody's got different sets of humor. Everbody can agree
what's scary, what sad, what's you know, but thrilling, but
nobody can agree on what's funny.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
It's true, she Lackman says, only you can't lie at
it's how to make someone laugh, Like either make a
laugh or you don't you know, manipulate.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
It can't fake a laugh. If you can't, you're really good.
You're such a horror buff.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
I grew up on horror, love horror, and my kids
are obsessed with horror and thriller. But here's the interesting thing.
They're so desensitized to the old school movies. Like back,
I was like, let me show you Diamon on elm Street,
you know, let me show you Last House on the Left,
let me show you Spit on My Gray.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Let me show you all of these. And they're like, Dad,
like this is lame, you know, like.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Lame, even Texas Shane Saw, which is a class. It's like, okay,
you know, it's so funny. They don't look at that
those but you.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Should show them more psychological thrillers, not like this horror horror.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Yeah, not a terror Terrorizer three exactly. But those movies
are too much for me.
Speaker 3 (43:14):
Those guys, do you have like a do you have
some favorites like horror, like just iconic horror films for you?
Speaker 1 (43:19):
And I mean I'm I'm a fan of the old
James Whale movies. I mean, right, I live in his house.
Oh my god, you're kidding kaya I live in the
I live in the real house.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
Oh my god, wait, please invite me over. I'll just
walk around and just soaking the vibes.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
He is there.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Wow, I or either that or his lover I don't know,
but but but there's definitely an energy in that house
that remains great.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
I love so we grew up in too as kid.
I bought it back. Yeah, I bought it back from
That's incredible. I did not I did not know that. Yeah,
he built it.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
It was in the thirties and I was about to
tear it down, and then the fires happened and I
was like, no, I can't, I can't.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
I'm going to restore it. So I'm a restore in
there so much history. Do you ever find, like, you know,
Frankenstein props in the walls or no, but it doesn't
get into the walls. We're about to make I have to.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
I can't wait because I feel like there's things I'm
going to end up seeing.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
I would hope, so I would. Okay, howsmade book has
a sequel?
Speaker 2 (44:18):
Are is it already like, are you already thinking about
making a sequel or is this something you're going to
have to wait for?
Speaker 4 (44:25):
Well, the hope would be if the movie does really well,
we could slam into a sequel, just because I really
had a lot of fun doing this, and you know,
and Frida's books are really great and the second book
is really fun.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
So yeah, fingers crossed.
Speaker 4 (44:37):
Well, it's up to the audience December nineteenth, show up
on that nineteen, and it's only in theaters the greatest way.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
What we need's so.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Exciting, I know, I'm really like, really, it's It's kind
of nerve wracking, isn't it, because you really want people
to go see it because we want to be the
collective experience is everything.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
It totally is. You know.
Speaker 4 (45:00):
That's all my movies have been up until the last
three because it's starting with the pandemic. I did three,
you know, streamers, which has been fantastic for me because
I got to keep making movies and God bless them
for let me do it.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
But I'm so heavy back in theaters because you.
Speaker 4 (45:14):
Know, because we when I'm doing my streaming streaming, hit
my mind, hit my mic As I doing my streaming movies,
we test them the same way we go to theaters,
you know, recruit audiences. Two hundred fifty three hundred people,
and so we engineered for that and then we have
a premiere and it goes everybody goes crazy for it,
and then it just goes on on TV and you're like,
we don't get experiences like driving around opening weekend, like
(45:36):
let's go to the bag of theaters.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Way about glass Onion, because we only had a week
in the theater and it was such a it's such
knives out, it's such a theater going experience.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Yeah, it's interactive, you know, that's and it was huge.
So we're like, oh my god, how did this not
end up in the theater. You know, just you get stuck.
Speaker 4 (45:58):
You get stuck in the business model and you yeah,
they can't break out of it, so you know, and
I understand it, and you know, I'm.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Not slaming about it. It's just it's just like it
just feels better. It's exciting. Well, thanks for coming on,
polic everybody. Go on and see House Maide December nineteenth.
Yes and tell your mom I said, hi, I love
her dearly. I mean, you did snatch your mom. And
you also did one of my favorites, Bridesmaids. Oh thank you,
(46:27):
which was a great. It was an amazing thing. For women.
I tried to do that with movie Wars.
Speaker 4 (46:32):
My first successful bok okay, third, third, third, actual actual movie.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
When when we went in to sell Bride Wars, we
we had to rated our comedy about women fighting over
this wedding, and it just got it just got slowly
like a HAUSPEPG thirteen, it has to be PG. And
I was like, women are we can we can laugh
at ourselves, we can be rated R. And I would
try to say, like, look at like all of the
(47:00):
comedies in the eighties with female driven comedies, they were
rated our comedies like week you know, and and when
you guys came out and were able to do it,
it did it so much for women, and so it was.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
It was a big deal.
Speaker 4 (47:14):
It was quite a efforts, very it was very lucky
to be to be involved.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
It was awesome. But thanks Paul, and we'll see you
all appreciate. Talk to what a dapper man. He's so great.
He's so sweet. Is so great too, talking like this.
It could be like a radio guy. He's like, yeah, Casey,
case I love it.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
I love talking movies so much because I love making
them and I love doing it and it's so fun.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
And it's like we're so lucky and and and and
anybody was a theater guy.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
So oh that was so great. And I love the
girls in it. I've been spending actually time with them,
so I've been spending time. I've seen Sydney quite a bit,
and I've seen Amanda, and they're both so great and
so sweet and everybody should go see these movies. There
are movies. There's a couple of them coming up with
(48:12):
this one looks really fun. So all right, great, love you,
love you,
Hosts And Creators
Oliver Hudson
Kate Hudson
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.