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September 22, 2024 14 mins
Original Air Date: September 22, 2024

School Of The Visual Arts grad Simon Hacker is out with his first feature film starring Michael Zegen, who played the “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” hubby and Robert Klein. How did he do it?
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
I want to introduce you to a virgin. He is
a virgin film feature filmmaker, that is, and he is
Simon Hacker and his movie Noticed Quit is opening next
weekend now for those who are fans of the marvelous
Missus Masl, which would be me. Michael Ziegan who plays

(00:35):
Missus Mageles Masl's ex husband. He is the star of
this movie. It is his first leading role, so that
makes him a no longer virgin as well. And Robert Klein,
who hasn't been a virgin in a very long time,
he also has a role. So this is a comedy

(00:56):
or dramedy and it's set in New York basically in
all the burrows of New York, but only taking place
over the course of one very hot, humid New York
City day, the kind where you wouldn't want to be
on that subway platform to save your life. And Michael

(01:19):
Ziegen's character is a would be actor, but he's making
his money by being a New York City rental agent
and not a high end rental agent and some other
stuff on the side, which is kind of sleazy, and
he's caught in his own eviction notice. And this is

(01:40):
when his daughter, ten year old daughter appears unannounced on
his doorstep and she and her mom are on the
verge of leaving town and she's not too happy. So
you have this setup. So this came out of the
head of Simon Hacker, Right, Simon, where do where do

(02:00):
you start with this?

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Oh Man? For me, I think it started, you know,
been living in New York for and fifteen years and
I bounced around you know, eight nine, ten different apartments
in that time, and I kind of dealt with you know,
the kind of for lack of better word, con artists
charlottean kind of rental agent brokers who are kind of

(02:23):
always pushing the you know, crappy shoe box apartments salt
throughout the city. And I think this was born from,
you know, I met these guys and they always had
this kind of amazing pride and in what they were selling,
even though it was just a dump. And I think
that that kind of contradiction of character, them believing so

(02:45):
much that you know, this place is amazing it's going
to go tomorrow, and you know quite literally, you know,
the painted peeling off the wall, that the plumbing's not working.
I just I felt that this was just an amazing
kind of contradiction of character. I think that was the
creative well spring for Andy Singer.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
But were you ever evicted?

Speaker 3 (03:06):
I was not evicted personally.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
No.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
I managed to keep a roof over my head. That said,
I did do a fair share of couch surfing in
my day to kind of bounce around in between. And
so I was fortunately never evicted. I never received a
notice to quid, right.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
And then you see, I couldn't figure out. I didn't
know notice to quit is an eviction notice.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, that's the proper legal terminology. You know, there's ton
there's different kind of variations of it. They can give
you like an immediate notice to quid. You can get
a fourteen day kind of evacuate the premises, and yeah,
that's what it's called. When a landlord serves a tenant
and eviction notice. It's a notice to quit.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Now, Michael Segen is a perfect choice for this. I mean,
I really can see almost nobody else in this role.
He just fitted, you know, like a glove. So how
did you come by him because this is his first
major movie.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Absolutely. Yeah. I was really lucky to land Mike. And
it actually came through another actor in the film, Michael Cavino,
who plays Jed Uh. They actually shared an agent. I
was working in an office building where Cavino was and
he helped me get this script to Zigan, And you know,
it was it was definitely, you know, me kind of

(04:24):
punching up above my weight, I think, just being a
first time director and Michael being on one of the
most popular TV shows of the last decade or so,
and you know, I was super excited when he you know,
he wrote back almost immediately that he loved the script
and he found it funny, and you know, it was
it was really exciting for me because I think, you know,
he's one of these guys who can play the kind

(04:45):
of really intense and I don't want to say the
word dark, but you know, the heavy moments and kind
of have that incisive or a cerbic tone to what
he's saying, and then at the same time, you know,
make the turn in a matter of twelve hours. So
he's redeemable for us because he's a really likable guy,
and yeah, I was. I was really just thrilled when

(05:08):
he came aboard.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
And you have a newcomer playing his daughter, Casey Bella
Suarez tell us about her.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
She's amazing, brilliant. I think she's going to be a superstar.
We were really lucky, you know, my casting her. There's
they put like a hundred kids in front of me.
We were watching tapes and I remember, I was, I
really remember, it's crystal clear. She came on and within
like seven seconds, I was like, this is Anna and

(05:37):
she just for confidence, you know, being on a film
set for the first time, because this was her first role.
She had done some commercials, but never a feature film before.
I mean, she was a true discovery. And you know,
the pressure cooker up shooting in New York City on
loud and busy streets on thirty five millimeter film, in
condensed time and limited resources. She just she showed up

(05:58):
and just you know, she could stand on our own
two feet Now.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Wasn't it more expensive to shoot on thirty five millimeter film?

Speaker 3 (06:08):
Ww know what, Well.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
I'm not in the filmmaking business.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Sure we had yeah, well you know this, not to
get too technical, but yeah, so first we had a
ton of support from Kodak. Kodak gave us a lot
of support, they donated a lot of film to us.
So we're really grateful to our partners over our Kodak
and Ari as well, because they supported this. They knew
this was an independent film and they got behind us.

(06:36):
So that kind of alleviated some of those heavier costs.
But you know, I think it's a choice of if
you want to get into the kind of nuances of it,
it's you know, you're either going to spend it up
front with your film and scanning it, or you're going
to spend it later on in post when you shoot
digital and you end up trying to make it look
like film. So you know, for us, it was a

(06:58):
really fortunate thing that we had Kodaks say okay, we're
willing to help you and get behind us. And you know,
I think it was really important for the story, which is,
you know, we wanted to capture the kind of scope
and scale of New York and have that kind of
texture and grit to it, and there's no better way
to do that than on film.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
I am speaking with Simon Hacker. He is the writer
director of the movie Notice to Quit, which is opening
next weekend. And notice to quit, as we heard, is
the legal term for being evicted, but it's also kind

(07:34):
of a description of the relationship between this father and daughter.
He's not been the best dad in this door situation.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
No, no, very messy father. You know, I think that
also kind of came to be. You know, Ziegan plays
at pitch perfect and he kind of finds the balance,
And yeah, I think you're exactly right. I mean that's
there's almost that double meeting with the title because Andy
kind OF's on a notice to quit himself, the fact
that his ex wife and daughter they're moving to Florida,

(08:09):
and you know, he's basically getting this one day to
try to make amends, to make right, to be a
presence in her life, and you know the actions of
the past, and you know him trying to fight and
be resilient amidst all the kind of craziness that's going
on in his professional life. You know when he takes
stop of what really matters, and you know that being

(08:30):
his daughter, I think you kind of that's really what
it's all about.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
But this, you know, this being your first movie, you
have an interesting backstory because you basically have this movie
coming out thanks to a basketballer.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
I very very yes, I do. NBA All Star Gordon Hayward.
He's my partner, he's a producer on this film. Yeah,
I couldn't be. You know, he's the best, He's the best.
He We met years ago when I was I made
it kind of documentary charting his rehab when he broke
his foot playing for the Boston Celtics. We made kind

(09:09):
of a little web series with the players Tribune and
the Athletic and Gordon and I. You know, we spent
a year together during that time and we became very close.
And to Gordon's credit, he's kind of a centophile in
his own right. He spent a lot of time on
buses and planes in his years on the NBA, just traveling,
watching movies on his laptop or iPad. And you know,

(09:29):
when we got to know each other, it was a
very common bond.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
So you went to the new school, right.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
I went to SVA School of Visual Arts.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
School of Visual Arts. So how many of your fellow
students actually became filmmakers like you. I mean, this is
a very big deal, your feature film debut. This is
a very very big deal and not opening you know,

(09:59):
streaming opening in theaters. How many people get that opportunity.
And I know you're kind of a hustler yourself because
you have to do so much yourself to get this
done right.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
Definitely, you know that's kind of the whole thing with
this movie and the team that we put together. We
you know, everybody on this work extremely hard, and you know,
it was important for us to be in theaters in
place that lots of people could see it. You know,
we didn't just want to you know, dump it on streaming.
It's it was shot on film. We mixed it at
Skywalker Ranch. It sounds incredible, and you know it was

(10:36):
really important for us to make sure it had that
playability to be on the big screen. And you know,
I'm just very fortunate that I'm getting it out there.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
But how many of your fellow students are are are
actually in the business, is what I'm getting at.

Speaker 3 (10:53):
Yeah, you know, that's a it's a good question. I
know that there's a lot of friends in mine that
are working. You know, a lot of edits producers, designers, mixers,
so there's a lot of folks that kind of are
making their way, you know, it's it's a tough business
to crack, for sure, and I think, you know, getting
to make the movie, you know, being a director and

(11:15):
writing it is a is a difficult thing. So you know,
there's I think I don't know how many Italy probably
not that many. But uh, you know that's not for
any lack of talent that was around me at SVBA.
There it was tons of kind of brilliant kids, and
you know, it's just a it's a tough business. You
just got to kind of persevere.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
Did you grow up in the business or what are
your parents?

Speaker 3 (11:39):
No? No, I'm from Delray Beach, Florida. My parents are
and my dad's a position. Oh so did he.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
Was he like upset that I'm going to be a filmmaker.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
There was emotional support, There was emotional support. You know,
they were okay. You know, I think it was a
bit of a I started at the University of Florida
and I left halfway through and I moved to New
York and I kind of talked my way into getting
into SBA, and I was a kind of late applicant

(12:15):
or student there, and you know, I think they might
my parents were probably scared because I kind of just
just went up and left, uh kind of moment's notice.
But no, they're you know, they're very proud, and they're
so excited. They're telling all their friends and letting them
know the theaters it's going to be, and so they're
they're excited for me.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
Did you grow up wanting to make movies?

Speaker 3 (12:37):
You know it's interesting. Yeah, I mean I love movies
and film. I think being from you know, the suburbs
or just South Florida, it's it's not a conventional career path.
I mean, you're you're not surrounded by the industry, so
it's a bit of a reach. You don't think it's
something you can do. It's it's just, you know, it's

(12:57):
not in front of you. You know, you see any
kind of jobs, but making movies. It's just it's not
present down there.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
So, okay, we only have like two minutes left. What
have we not touched on with the movie Noticed to Quit,
which is opening next weekend. And don't forget Robert Kline
also Robert Cline.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
Yeah, he's amazing. I mean, Robert Clin, that was just
what an honor to have him kind of join us.
You know, Michael as Egan made the call. He had
a friend who was close with Robert, and you know
we were always talking about who's going to play Harold,
who was going to play Andy's dad? And it needed
someone with that warmth but with the wit as well.
And you know, Robert just so sharp, brilliant guy. You know,

(13:40):
he worked. He was with us for about two days
and it was just amazing. I mean, we we just
kind of I remember at lunch, we all just sat
around listening to him tell stories and you know, he
just it was it was a privilege.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
And where was that lunch?

Speaker 3 (13:56):
It was probably similar to just sitting outside of the sidewalk.
We had a tent out there, and you know it's
an indie film, limited resources, limited budgets, so we were scrappy.
We were scrappy.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Okay, well, all right. The movie Notice to Quit starring
Michael Ziegan who we love so much, and the marvelous
Missus masl Robert Klein, newcomer Casey Bella Suarez. And congratulations
to you, Simon Hackery.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
You've been listening to Sunstein sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
of New York's classic rock Q one O four point
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