Paulina Chats With Director Chuck Russell: 30th Anniversary of Eraser

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today we're talking with legendary filmmaker Chuck Russell, director of

(00:03):
some of your favorite most iconic movies the last decades.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
So we're talking in the Mask, a Nightmare on Elm Street.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Three, The Blobs, Scorpion King, and of course we're talking
at Eraser. It's celebrating its legacy. So congratulations to sixteenth
that's like but thirty.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Years crazy, but yes, thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
So I was four when that came out, so I
need to I think it's time to bring it back
in this household because now I have to.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Enjoy it right in my thirties. But I love it.
I love it, and I love that you're here with
us today.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
I really quickly would just love to know, right thirty
years later, what's surprises you most about Eraser, and you
know it still resonates to the audience.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
What surprises you the most about that?

Speaker 3 (00:40):
About the film itself, the scope of it.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
I hadn't seen it in years, so we were Excuse me,
we were very ambitious. Those are real physical stunts. That
was the end of an era where we used real locations,
real action. Maybe some CGI enhancements, but what you what
you see is what we did, so it was a
little bit breathtaking, and seeing it in this new I

(01:05):
helped colorize it again. I helped get the new sound
mixed done. I'm delighted with the results. It's bigger and
better than ever. So I was impressed with all of
our work in the show, to be perfectly honest, especially
surprised again by Vanessa Williams did a great job.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Oh absolutely. And what about when it comes to the
creative decisions, I'm sure a lot of them were made.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
I mean, I work on a radio show and I
make a one decision today and I'm just exhausted.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
So I could't even imagine a film like this. I know,
what was the hardest.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Creative decision that you had to make on Erasa that
nobody would notice?

Speaker 4 (01:38):
Well, the greatest opportunity was the casting, and we got
a wonderful I wanted to get a cast you didn't
expect to see in an Arnold action movie. So I
think we got a smarter, more amazing cast with Jimmy
Kahn and Vanessa and James Coburn and Robert Pastarelli. James Cromwell,

(02:00):
who had only played a comedy farmer with a pig previously,
has ended up playing really edgy, bad guys as well
since so the cast really elevated it. What people don't
know The original script was a The concept was a
more economical Arnold movie. It was only handguns and fistfights.

(02:21):
But True Lies had come out and I didn't want
to make an Arnold movie that was anyway not living
up to his brand. So Arnold joined me in approaching
the studio about getting the three big action scenes we
felt we needed, and fortunately they approved it.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
So it's it's a more epic movie with a good,
solid central story.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, absolutely, And what is something? And a lot of
us are curious what it's something.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
That people misunderstandable Arnold maybe even at that time.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
I don't know. This is sweetheart. A lot of these.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
Big, big guys literally big guys, very softhearts and are
very sweet on the insight. So Arnold has a sweet side.
He is a tough, competitive guy. Watched the documentaries on him.
That's what you get also, but his sense of humor
saves it. I mean you can he will challenge He's
challenged me a few times, but if you respond with
a sense of humor, you win every time.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
With Arnold, I love that. Well, it's a great note.
It's a great note to share. And I'm curious just
I want to get a little more personal with you.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
But who has personally kind of taught you the most
in your career, which You've had an amazing career.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
It's thetroductory is incredible to movies but without realizing they
were actually teaching you. Who was that for you?

Speaker 4 (03:37):
Well, for me, it was Harold Ramis and it wasn't
really on a racer, but Harold helped me when I
was a producer on Back to School and Harold.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
And I were doing rewrites on that script.

Speaker 4 (03:48):
Ramis the audience knows from Ghostbusters, but he's a wonderful
comedy writer and director over the years, and he's passed
away now, but he was my mentor. He read the
script from the Metal, He read the script for the
Mask for me at the at the end of our
writing that that was very, very helpful. So Harold rave

(04:10):
was in particular, and a lot of people were mentors,
particularly some of the stunt coordinators. When I was a kid,
I got coffee for stunt men. There was a guy
named Alan, a guy named Alan Gibbs with Stunts Unlimited,
who was teaching me stunt craft and wanted me to
be a stunt man, but I was a little scared
of that career. I didn't go that way. That's an
interesting question. Interesting question.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, Oh well, maybe I was always so curious.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
I didn't get to know people that you are creative, right,
and there's so much to you.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
And that's kind of why my last question for you is,
I know that you've spent your career kind of creating
worlds of escape for us, right, the audience. I'm curious,
what does Chuck Russell do? Like what is your escape right?
Is it movies as well? Like i'd know how ours are?

Speaker 4 (04:51):
Uh yes, But I mean at the point in my
life where it's it's my wife and my kids and
even my ex wife are still pretty close friends, that
is my.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Escape is and I recommend that to everybody.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
I've I've filmed in some of the most beautiful exotic
places in the world, so I create my own escapes.
I chose to do a movie on Maui because it
was Maui and it was it was John Travolta and
Bruce Willis, and I thought, what could go wrong?

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Let's do it right. But I'm not. I don't blame you.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Malians loved it.

Speaker 4 (05:27):
The movies that well, you I know, I'm going to
get to work with the local people. So the filmmaking
becomes an escape for me, is to work in different cultures,
work with local people. I shot an entire film in
the Hindi language. I did a film called Jungly that
I was invited by a Bollywood group to do. I
couldn't resist because it was about protecting elephants, and I

(05:48):
stretched and we shot it all in Hindi and there
thereby the actors are bilinguals so it wasn't that tough.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
But that's what I love the films themselves.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
As hard as they are, they become my escape, especially
when I get to work in different cultures.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Very cool. Oh, I love that, Chuck.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
So our show of the Front show we are Chicago based,
right or Chicago's show this is the mother Ship, but
we are syndicated in twelve other cities.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
So I just have to ask you though you are
from Chicago. Yeah, I got there. I love it. I
love it.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
So now I'm going to ask you, Okay, deep dish
or tavern style pizza.

Speaker 4 (06:22):
I just have to deep dish, No, chalk.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Absolutely absolutely, that's a lasagna you're eating alazagno.

Speaker 4 (06:31):
But I can't get it in la So that's the Chicago.
I forget the name of the one very famous place,
but but j.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Arnold's I cannot say gian Arno's. I'm from here.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
I think that was it.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
I mean, it may have been all back in the
day too, but getting that deep dish, I'm hungry from
one right now.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
I know it's a mess. I know, I know it.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
Fix you out is like that crispy New York style.
But that's one of my fond memories about Tricca.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
That in Lincoln Park.

Speaker 4 (06:56):
I don't know if the scene is still there, but
there was a Theatre of Coffee out house seen on
Lincoln Park West. I got to figure I got a
fake ID to hang out there when I was a kid,
and I learned more about comedy, improv and screenwriting probably
in those years than anyplace else.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
That is so cool. Yeah, Lincoln Park is still still
the move. So I love it and then correct me
if I'm wrong. Now, did we attend u IC No?

Speaker 4 (07:20):
I went to University of Illinois and Southern Illinois and
then that was that was my state school. It was fun,
but as soon as I finished, I just got in
my chefy Malibu and drove to La on a wing
in a prayer.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
I love it. I love it.

Speaker 4 (07:38):
Check.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
I feel like I'm so funny.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
But I did the same thing as they went to
Uce here in Chicago, and then I moved to Holland
to LA for like.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Two years, worked in radio, came back home. But you
know what, though, it's home, so I'm I'm happy to
be here.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
You can't.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
You can't be Chicago, so Chuck, when can we stream
eraser right?

Speaker 2 (07:57):
And where can we do all that? During sixteenth?

Speaker 4 (08:01):
I think everywhere it's going to be digital. I mean,
you'd have to ask our hosts. But the all I
can tell you is it's worth the experience I was.
I personally worked on it, and sometimes the technicians will
make things too bright and too brassy, and I want
to keep it dark and edgy.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
And it sounds better.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
It looks better than ever, and the performance is just
the performances really hold up Jimmy Convi, James Colburn, and Arnold.
It raised Arnold's game. You know, I have to be
true to his brand because it's Arnold's right. But then again,
I can put him against a tougher, smarter female lead
and see what happens with the chemistry. And I think

(08:41):
that's part of the fun of the movie. Check check
that parachuting scene, folks, it's it. It still makes me
breathless because I know what it took to make it.
So these were the days where we really did the deeds.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
I love it. Chuck, Thank you all for being here
with us today. We appreciate you.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
Thank you good to be here.