Episode 248: An Evening with Seth Landau - Take Out - Ellissinema Podcast

Episode Transcript
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(00:38):
All right, Ellis send him aback, another a dish. How we
doing out there? Good? Great, gray yand dy Yan wonderful as you
see on your screen your dial.However, you choosing to join us today,
we appreciate you. Take Out Takeoutstarring Seth Landau, Kevin Cole,
Judd, Oben, Jenny Alvarez,Daniel Roebuck, Justin Walker, Kerrie Maroney

(00:59):
and Or Edited by Greg Robbins,music by Dan Silver, cinematography by Vincent
Pascal. I probably ruined that PascoPascal. Anyway, Takeout is a biting
out of chain restaurants satire that's sofucking stupid. I don't know why I
wrote that. Taking as a bitingsatire about Zach Turk, a reporter that

(01:19):
gets Violin told to be a foodcritic for the Arizona Tribune. Zach starts
pounding the pavement, shedding light onthe sad truth behind chain restaurants. News
flash, They're fucking bad, allof them, and they haven't gotten any
better. If you asked me,if like we were talking when this movie
was made until now, nothing ain'tshit change, ain't shit changed. I

(01:40):
tell you what anyway, Ah,but you probably wouldn't, you know,
take advice from me. You probablywouldn't listen to me, Like, there's
no way he doesn't eat fast food. Look at him, he's fat as
hell. He probably eats fast foodall the time. No, I actually
look this way because I house araca oreos every night. That's it.
I don't really frequent the fast foodsthat we're going to. You know,
do any bashing here on the show? We might never can tell what's going

(02:05):
to happen between me and our guest, which I hope you like him.
I know that our past shows havegotten amongst some of the most listens that
we've had. But anyway, todayon the show scoring a hat trick of
appearances similar to Dean Youngblood hat trickof appearances and also rare territory. I

(02:25):
usually don't have people on more thantwice as kind of my limit unless I
really enjoy talking to the person.And I talked to this dude off Mike,
you know, in my free time, so it's not always business,
which is why getting him on todayit's a pleasure for me. And I

(02:46):
tell you what, he's insightful.He gives you a perspective that you may
not know about anyway members of theaudience. Producer, actor, writer and
director of Takeout Sethland joining the Elisentumapodcast for the third time. My friend,
hooray, thanks for having me back. Appreciate it. How are you

(03:08):
doing, my I mean for you, I'm good. Last time you and
I talked, that was on themic. We I think we did something
unprecedented if you're asking, If youask me, we did a three hour
and some change review on young Blood, which is an eighties film, in
an eighties hockey film. I don'tthink that's that's never been done to that

(03:32):
point, and it's never going tobe done, is what I think.
I'll go. I'll take that tomy grave absolutely. I still tell well
spent, thank you. Yes,I still tell Like my stepdad, who
loves hockey, loves the movie youngBlood. He's just like, yeah,
I'm on, it's been what likea year since we've done that one,
and he's like, yeah, I'mI'm about it. The hour and a

(03:53):
half mark, I'm at the twohour mark. I'll get there. I'll
get there. So Takeout, sir, This this has some history behind it.
This is this has come. Thisis a long time coming. Before
the audience. You can see thisfor free now on tub on tub for

(04:13):
free. No fucking excuse, butyou made this film back in two thousand
and five, sir, and nowit's getting the streaming release that it deserves.
How in the hell were you thatfucking patient? I was sced to
be a patient. So I wantedto get this movie in the Book of
Guess Guinness Book of World Records fortaking the longest amount of time from wrap

(04:38):
of production, post production to release, because sometimes in the indie space you
get maybe like a year or twoor three or four or five, maybe
six not whatever. This has beenwhat seventeen something along almost two decades,
So we shot it in four Wewrap post production in two thousand and five.
At first IMDb was confused because theymade it a twenty It was released

(05:00):
last year finally twenty twenty two,So IMDb says, take out twenty twenty
two, because why else would amovie be on twenty on two B and
Amazon or whatever else it was onthat was that old. So the tech
Narati was was tricked and now it'sback to being properly listed as two thousand
and five. So at the time, I was inspired by the independent cinema

(05:26):
stars of the time, Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith, et cetera. A
lot of these guys were doing lowbudget film that was heavy on content and
not necessarily loaded with a B oreven seamless stars. So in this world
that we live in today, ithas to be into in property. The
IP has to be strong, andit has that movies are et cetera,
or a pop star something right.So back in the day when cant phrase,

(05:49):
the IP has to be right.What the hell is happening? Does
you know what I'm saying? Whynot? Even Yeah, I apologize for
using jargon, but so I wasinspired by those, you know, micro
budget filmmakers who ostensibly got by onthe strength of their content. Now was
that the case or was there publiclyspun story? Who knows. They probably

(06:11):
had some friends behind the scene andsome pieces of the machine working for them.
But me on the outside, notgoing to film school, not coming
from a Hollywood family, even thoughthe name Landau is all over Hollywood,
none of my Landews. Oh actuallyokay, so quick story. When I
first moved to La I called someof the Landaus to see if they would
have coffee with me, just onthe strength of my name. Ridiculous,

(06:33):
I know, but you get desperatewhen you move to LA and you're poor
and you're in a twelve hundred dollarsbachelor pad in Westwood with no job,
and you got to figure sit out, right. So I called James Cameron's
producer, John Landau, and Iplayed it kind of cool. I called
what is it? They're office inSanta Monica. I forget the name Lightstorm,

(06:54):
So I called Lightstorm and I talkedto John Landill's assistant and I say,
Hey, I'm wondering if would meetwith me to talk about, you
know, just you know, someproductions movies I want. At the time,
I was an actor. I wantedto get in front of people who
could cast and hopefully throw me abone. So she said, oh,
yeah, sure, Seth. Couldyou know Seth Landau absolutely is. I

(07:16):
forget the day, but like,what is Wednesday? And noon? Good?
Sure? And then that was itand she hung up. I'm like,
all right, I'll see you thereat this day and this time.
Right. I'm like, I can'tbelieve how easy that was. I was
amazing. Five minutes later, Igot a call back and she says,
yeah, what did you want totalk to John about And then I got
to explain myself. She realized Iwasn't related. She said, no,

(07:40):
we're not going to give you ameeting, but if you want to submit
a script or something. At thetime I did. I wasn't a writer,
but I thought of can I whipsomething up? If you want to
submit a script or something, youcan send it to our development and they'll
look at it anyway. So yeah, Ny Takeout was inspired by the independent
filmmakers of the day did micro stuffwith no stars. I did the same

(08:01):
thing, although I was lucky tohave a pretty strong cast in mind,
even though it was literally like athirteen thousand dollars movie. So those reports
are true. A lot of reportsabout movies are not. That is actually
true. After it was done,we had a screening in Hollywood and we
invited friends and family. It wentreally well, and I remember certain people
telling me at the time, yeah, you know, we think this is

(08:22):
going to get bought or distributed whatever. The emotions were very positive at the
time, just you know, Iguess the content fit the time, and
you know, the audience response waspretty good. I remember to this day
places where that audience laughed in thepicture, and then I proceeded to submit
it to every film festival. Almostevery single one of them said no,

(08:45):
so it was rejected by nearly everyfilm festival. I then just jumped to
distributors, and I submitted it toevery single distributor, and some of them
were semi interested. In fact,I remember the lines come from company in
particular, wrote me back, andusually they're pretty close to the vest.
They don't really release anything when theysay no because they don't want it to

(09:07):
be used against them, either legallyor a publicity or anything. Really.
But the guy said something like,hey, this is really funny, but
it doesn't have stars on it.We can't do anything with this, and
thing filmed. A couple other onesof the time had a rarely will they
even grain you that. Usually whenyou submit material in Hollywood, again mainly

(09:28):
for probably legality purposes, they can'tsay anything other than thank you no,
or they won't even look at itunless it's solicited. So I was,
for whatever that is worth, luckyenough to get a little bit of positive
feedback, but essentially rejected by everybody, even though some of the people who
saw it, whether it was anadvanced review or something like that. At

(09:48):
the time, I sent it outto a few of the blogs fear People,
and they really liked it. Itjust didn't have the star power.
I kind of missed that wave whereyou know, let's say it's good for
the sake of this podcast, butlike good content minus really famous people has
a shot to be mass distributed inHollywood. I missed that boat. I

(10:09):
mean, like Swinger his clerks,El Mariachi, I was making this past
two thousand, I'm at four fivesixty, industry was already starting to change
to where it is today, whereit is just completely a machine. Those
already days of the sixties and seventiesand depended sentiments, et cetera. It's
just it's a bunch different. Ifeel like I kind of caught that change

(10:31):
over right at the wrong time.And basically what happened was that just sat
there. I uploaded to YouTube lowdef SD version in about twenty twelve or
so. At that time, thereweren't a bunch of free full length movies
on YouTube. So it has overhalf a million views on YouTube from that
time because it was a bigger deal. He's here's a new movie for free

(10:54):
on YouTube. In twenty twelve.That was not common today it is so
I think because of that and thecomments of the movie. It's still on
my YouTube page to this day.I left it there. Actually I made
it dark when this premiered, andthen a year after this premiered, I
turned the lights back on it becauseit's like, nobody's gonna watch this shitty
SD version of my movie when theycan go for free right now and watch

(11:18):
it on TV right But you cansee the comments on it from back in
the day. I mean like Ireally felt gratified that the way that people
responded to it was exactly how themovie was supposed to connect with people.
And then the reason why it's outthere now in a professional way is because
the other movie I made around thatsame time, Brian Loves You, was
given the blue Blu ray release,and clearly you've seen that because we've done

(11:41):
a show on it and is behindyou. And the distributor said, who's
very independent filmmaker friendly. He said, hey, whatever happened on Takeout?
Because he had heard of it wayback when I said nothing. He said,
let's put it out there. Sohere we are. Thanks to Brian
Loves You, Takeout has life.Well, so the big question because I

(12:01):
saw I and I and I'm I'msure I'm probably wrong, but I I
actually think it didn't get picked upbecause you went after people. Man.
I think I think that this wasone of those things where people were like
I, I, yes, ofcourse we it doesn't have star power,
so we can't make it. LikeI understand that, But I also think

(12:24):
maybe and maybe you do, maybeyou don't. I don't know if you
realize how biting of a sattire youmate, sir like and and I guess
I'll lead into this question why,I mean, why the subject matter was
this something that you felt strongly about? By the way, that's my favorite
part of the movie. I don'tI know that that's so funny. You
always get the new ones. I'lltell you what, Ella cinema that is

(12:48):
fascinating, and most people don't getmy new show or ones. God,
dude, Like I still like andI even like we were talking about you
know, our our our new girlfriendsearlier and we were and like I rewound
it and like like, oh,this is my favorite part of the fucking
movie. Like, I don't knowif this is just something about how it's
fucking delivered. But anyway, whythis was this something at the time in

(13:11):
your life that you were going throughor was it just something that you wanted
to tackle? And when when Isay going through, was like, were
you just like like a vegan whereyou just like, I don't eat the
chain rescue crazy vegan? Are you? Are you one of those crazy vegans?
But like, was it something?Here? We're still here, We'll
just keep the audio rope and whatthe best part is, I'm going to

(13:35):
fill the space while you come backto me because you're frozen. See you're
frozen. You know is coming through. But before I answered that question,
okay, now you're back here.Did you hear me the whole time?
The whole time? And the bestpart was you froze on you like this?
Laugh you laughing. But as longas the people, as long as
the masses can hear us, youkeep it going. Yes, if we

(13:56):
freeze because this is for them afterall. Yes, Okay, so good
question. I will get to thatreal quick. Shout out to the new
girl, Hi kitty. But somethingabout her watching of Takeout that I think
it's interesting is she she's not likea she's more into true crime as mentioned,
you know before we started the show. She's not hugely in the comedies

(14:18):
like I am, although we laugha lot, but for some reason,
in cinema for her doesn't connect asmuch as it does for me. And
she watched Takeout and she liked it. But as a filmmaker and as a
creator, as an artist, Ithink anybody can relate to this. When
you make something and somebody that youknow and or care about watches it,
you're really onlike you know, likeon edge. When you get the feedback,
you so desperately want them to havea deep under appreciation or understanding kind

(14:43):
of like you do. But noteverybody is in Ali cinema. And so
she said, yeah, I thoughtit was funny, and I'm like,
and she's like, she's she shesaid, I like the part where the
girl at the restaurant said there wascome in the CD player. And I
said, that's e exactly what mychick said, dude, that's funny.

(15:03):
She had the exact same comment thatthat was what she liked about taking Out
that one part. No, no, the one part. Like, So
we were talking about it and Iwasn't going to get into this, but
I actually had like a little miniviewing party for this movie. The other
night. I had a few interestingthan I had a few friends. I
was going to save this towards theend, but you know how we do
we you and I just kind ofget going but reflowing. Well, I

(15:24):
had people over and after we hadhad so First of all, something that
you should know about my movie nights. When everybody comes in, I always
say, hey, when the creditsroll, you need to get the fuck
out of my house. Like it'sjust that's like the shovel. There's something
about you and you have a hardtime ending things. Do you want people
to just disappear? Yes, yes, including myself, including myself. But

(15:48):
this was one of those times whereI had said that in the beginning,
Like when everybody walked in, Iwas like, Hey, I'm going to
show you this dude. I knowhe's going to be coming on my show,
he's been on my show before,blah blah blah, but this is
a film that he did. Anyway, they watched the film. First of
all, everybody's laughing, which iswhen I really yeah, well not only
that, dude, but they werelaughing consistently, and I guess that's where

(16:11):
I kind of yeah, I dit holds up it well in here's this
is for real. These are peoplewho have no emotional connection to me or
the movie or anything. They literallyand liked it. Well nope, I
mean my chick does not listen toany of my podcasts. But I but
I also think that that's just becauselike if you hear me this moment,
yeah, moment movie, yeah,I'm sorry they laughed at your movie.

(16:34):
And but but I think what surprisedme the most is that they laughed consistently
throughout it. Not to say thatit's not funny, because to me,
it surprised me because the movie wasn'tthat funny, but for some reason they
were laughing, I kidding, joking, joking. So for me, I
just thought, well, I thinkit's funny because and I don't hopefully you
don't take this as a dig.But to me, it was a ninety

(16:55):
minute SNL sketch a better but I'veheard that so so the movie's eighteen years
old. I've definitely heard that atleast one, but to me, it's
still it's still worked. And thenwhen I saw them watch it, because
like I was almost I guess likemaybe even subconsciously watching it on your behalf,
you know, like like I'm sittingin Seth today and everybody was laughing,

(17:17):
and I could tell this is thisis when I knew that the movie
was legit. They were actual laughs, because like sometimes I'll bring I'll bring
people over, I'll show them likean old cheesy eighties horror film or whatever,
and I'm laughing and you'll get alot of like, you know,
like it's not it's not their thing, but it's sort of laugh laugh supportive
laughter exactly. But here is whatI think really turned the tide is that

(17:38):
when the credits rolled, it sparkeda conversation about how I mean not that
it was an intellectual conversation, butwe basically went on for fifteen twenty minutes
about fuck the rich, fuck thesechains, blah blah blah. And then
that's when I was like, Idon't know if Seth No is just like

(18:02):
and that's why I'm saying like maybelike not blackballs, not the word,
but like when people saw this,they were like, bore I even become
any name whatsoever. That's what I'msaying is like your first non famous person.
But that's kind of how I felt, is like if they're feeling about
this now two decades later and they'regoing, yeah, Man, to me,

(18:22):
that means when people saw this,they were like, yeah, it's
funny. Okay, it may nothave stars, but we can't ruffle any
feathers with this movie. And Istill think that you do. Twenty years
later, I still think that thisruffles feathers. That the only thing that
bums me out is that not alot has changed since then. You know,
like we're it's still about the dollar. It's still people changed, you

(18:44):
know, throughout history, they're prettymuch the same. Yeah, and that,
And I I remember thinking, like, after everybody had went home or
whatever, going, did Seth makesomething that was so good that people were
like, no, that's it.It was too good to be distributed.
That's why it down. But that'swhat I think, dude, Like,

(19:07):
I'm not just listen. I Ithink you know my tendency to blow smoke.
I don't know if you've listened tothe other shows. I wouldn't,
but like I do, I'm prettyI'm pretty straightforward with my with my reviews
or takes on ship because I hateto call myself a critic, I really
do, but I I feel likeat best on PR, So I definitely

(19:29):
wouldn't say you're PR. I wouldsay you're an analyst or a researcher.
That yeah, I do, Ido do some research. But that's when
I kind of went and and Idon't. Between Takeout and Brian loves You,
it kind of upsets me that wedon't talk about you more often because

(19:51):
and here's why take the fucking moneyout of the mix. I think it's
the your perspective and your take onstuff. So let's rein it back into
Takeout. There's multiple times in therewhere not only your humor, your humors
specifically for me, like I mean, whether it be you know, like
going to the hostess that your girlfriendlike you just go high and like waiting

(20:15):
to be to be greeted, andit's stuff that like it and that dry
delivery will always work for well,I shouldn't say we'll always work. It
depends on who's fucking doing it.But you're you're doing it, sir.
You're you're like making me laugh consistentlythroughout, which I had also wrote down
here, and we're spiraling out ofcontrol as I usually do. I kind

(20:37):
of am upset that I don't seeyou acting more. If I'm being honest
with you, I'm gonna put youon the spot. I'm kind of that
kind of annoys me. Man,Well, I appreciate that. When I
first moved to LA, I wantedto be an actor. The reason why
I got into producing things is becauseit's just not sustainable. I mean,
unless you're somebody's relative, friend,whatever. There are only so many roles.

(20:59):
And even back then, I meanI remember a lot of the things.
You're lucky if you even get toaudition for TV and film in these
days, probably like you know Webas well, but like back then,
I mean, like commercial was whateverybody got to auditioned for, and there
was like an abundance of that asfar as auditions and agents and actors,
but not jobs. Still hard toget a commercial gig and paid much better
than film and like the like thehighest level is going to be film and

(21:26):
TV. Everybody wanted a theatrical agent. Very few people had it. And
even if you do or don't,you get in a door to interview,
you're lucky just to get that far. Then to even get I mean you've
seen Entourage, right, Johnny Drama, the character I mean, like that
that's an actor. If anybody wantsto know what is an actor's journey,
watch Entourage, Watch Johnny Drama.That is an actor's life. It captures

(21:48):
it perfectly because not most people aren'tvinced the star of the show, who's
the A List star. Most peopleare if they're lucky Johnny because he gets
to work. Most people don't evenget to work. So I tried,
you know, I read for somethings and then I not only do I
get a lot of them, becausemost actors don't get most things, but
I wasn't really inspired by the scriptsI was reading. I just thought I
can write better than this. Thisis really not good. Granted, there's

(22:12):
you know, a lot of auditionsfor a lot of bad stuff, so
I'm not saying I was auditioning forlike Scorsese or anything, but but yeah,
I wish at that time that Igot more gigs because I think,
I just think I'm a natural entertainer, right, So if my path were
meant to go that way, Iprobably would have I don't know mean to

(22:33):
have. I would have had moresuccess maybe. And there's just little shit
that you're doing throughout the film thatI love just and and obviously we I
will try to keep it as spoilerfree as possible. I want to talk
more about kind of like the makingof but whether it's you twirling out of
scenes with spinning like yeah, justlittle shit like that. I'm just like

(22:56):
laughing, and like people are kindof like I shouldn't say people like my
girlfriend definitely laughed when you spun overthe crime scene tape and I was just
like, listen, strap in becausethis is this is how this is and
I don't that's my humor, dude, like or like, yeah, just
goofy weird, like like most peopledon't get subtlety, and I'm like all
about it, And like so manytimes when I'm watching TV and film,

(23:18):
I was like, did you seehow he like, you know, twitched
his eyebrow a little bit there,Like I love subtlety. I'm a huge
fan of it. Even back tothe why even texts at one point switches
his voice as well after he goesinept. Yeah, I mean I say,
you know, and that's after ineptinept. But so jud was insane.

(23:42):
I loved Judd well. And that'skind of so we can we can
kind of build off of that.What we should talk about this. Yeah,
I know, man, there's due. I believe it on this one.
Like, I had several questions.Most of the time my limit is
five, Like I'll just be likefive, it's fucking whatever. But I
had several questions. So to thatpoint, what was it like working with

(24:06):
jud Oman Daniel Rob The way thatjud came into the movie was we had
the same manager, if you canbelieve that. I think the only explanation
for that is he may have burnedsome bridges in his career, which is
why me and he had the samemanager. And I mean that as a
compliment to him, because he's atruly great actor. I think he just

(24:26):
got uh jiggy with some people inthe work environment. And by that I
mean just you know, uh no, you don't have to you don't angry.
He may have gotten angry with somepeople in the work environment, and
and he he didn't seem to kindof like play the game as much as
your standard Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, whatever actors that are always working,

(24:52):
always, you know, just beinga company guy, which is how you
have to be in the workplace tosucceed. Whether it's movie or retail or
finance, doesn't matter, right,so essentially, I don't think my interpretation
not speaking for somebody else, butI don't think he really played the game
as much as he could have,because every time I've seen him anything,
he's so good. But we metthrough my manager at her I think it

(25:18):
was her Christmas party. I justremember sitting on a balcony with Judd,
and at the time I knew Iwas gonna make Takeout and was kind of
casting it or about to. AndPV's Big Adventure is one of my favorite
movies of all time. In fact, just last night I fell asleep because
I was exhausted. Fella sleep too. Red Letter meters Red Letter Media's review
episode of Pee Wee's Big Adventure,which is for a fan, it's great,

(25:40):
you know, well those guys,I hate those guys. It was
just a good episode of like beinga fan and diving into this movie that
was, you know, one ofthe best independent films ever made, because
that really was an independent film TimBurtenham directed, and anything T. B.
Herman wasn't a no name. Yes, it was made through Warner Brothers,
but if you ever listened to anyof the commentary or interviews about that
movie, you see it's like aessentially a studio indy anyway, So you

(26:02):
know, growing up and seeing himinteracting with P. B. Hermant one
of my childhood favorite characters. Isee him on the balcony, I'm like,
I'm going to go shout out thisguy. And really all the young
actors of the party wanted to talkto Judd because he was one of the
few people at the party who you'dseen him in stuff. And especially this
is way back in the early twothousands, so it's not that far removed
in the eighties in the nineties,so still like pretty impressive to see like

(26:23):
one of the signature characters from oneof the most popular comedies of the past
couple decades chilling on a balcony talkingabout adventures in Thailand and shit like that.
So, and he was a wilddude. He had a lot of
interesting, crazy stories that I willnever have in my entire life. And

(26:44):
then I probably asked him then andhe probably started send me a script.
I remember he took it, andthen he's really he was really method.
So I remember, in particular heasked me, which I did not have
until he asked me to do it, can you write a bio for the
character of Text Whitmeyer, and becauseyou know, he really wanted to live
and breathe a character. He wasone of those, right, But you

(27:07):
know what, his performances are amazing, so hey, whatever it takes to
get you there. Sure, SoI wrote this bullshit one page thing off
the top of my head. Andthe character of Text Whitmeyer was like a
hybrid of an old editor of mineat a newspaper in Houston. Text and
write down to some of the mannerismslike this, aforementioned newspaper editor would walk
down the hallway. It was almostmenacing. He was such a weirdo.

(27:29):
He would just walk down the hallwayand go deeple d deeedle ded d and
he would he would hum this andespecially if he was like mad at you,
he would like have kind of likea like a like a twang to
it. Was he was. Hewas a very passive, aggressive newspaper editor
who was very Texas. He smelledlike Texas. He was the most Texas
man I'd ever met in my life. So anyway, Text was a combination

(27:52):
of him and some of the othercorrupt individuals that I met covering news stories
in Texas. So were some politiciansand business owners and such. So really
text with Meyer was was an amalgam, is an amalgam or a malgamation,
amalgamation, whatever the proper word is. He was. He was the combination
of probably a lot of my Texasexperience also with a little bit of my

(28:15):
real uh other news hip, notreal but other newspaper editors in Arizona,
I should say. And working withhim was great. He was like truly
insane in the best way, andhe gave really amazing performances. And yeah
we had some so we had somecharacters in the movies, but in that
way, well you did. AndI just want to go back a minute

(28:36):
there, because you're talking about kindof like he even smelled like Texas,
So I I want to go togentleman, the actual newspaper editor who text
with Myers based office smelled like Texas. So I want to go to the
boardroom. So this is another thingthat I don't know to you and I,
who you know, aren't pieces ofship. It probably comes it comes

(29:00):
naturally. But do you even realizethat you subtly tackled toxic masculinity without it?
Before that was even a fucking phrase, like do you even yeah,
did I do that? I wasnot aware of that. Well, your
disdain for how they talk to thewomen, You're disdain for how they talk
to women. Well, even inthe first scene, like obviously I was

(29:22):
the the your your co worker's namewho was always talking about fucking getting blow
jobs and shit like that. JustinWalker Christian Solvis from Clueless y Yes recognized
him, Yes, yes, yes, and you it's it's you blow it
off so quickly that just like notonly that, but like you eat this

(29:44):
shit. And then like when they'retalking how they do in the boardroom,
you aren't about that, And meand my chick were talking about that,
like I don't even know if didyou realize that you were doing that?
Or is that just exactly because that'swho you're not a piece of shit?
That's kind of I would say.I'm generally averse to labels, right,

(30:04):
so I'm not a big fan.I'm saying Democrat, Republican, left,
right, And so when you saidthat, I'm like, did I do
that? So me, I tryand avoid labels just in general in life.
Do I stereotype all the time?Of course, it's part of like
sarcasmis card. It's part of humor. But I just don't like labeling things
or people, you know, becauseI think that everybody is a soul,
and everybody's complicated, and everybody's likea mix of different things, and so

(30:27):
I'm real loath to even say that, you know, when it comes to
politics, for example, I'll say, I just like good ideas. Of
some of these good ideas, I'llsupport it. If they have bad ideas,
I won't so the way that Iwould put what you call toxic masculine
masculinity as I would probably say.I guess I've just always been sensitive to
people treating others well. I justthink people should be treated well. I

(30:51):
like to be treated well. Ilike to treat other people well. And
in the workplace, maybe because moresupervisors and people in positions of authority few
male over the years. Granted,things are changing now with like all the
you know, gender equality, diversity, like things are leveling off. I
guess you could say like to equality, right, But back years ago,

(31:12):
ten, twenty thirty, whatever,it was kind of like what what is
mad Men portray? Or like whatare the shows where it's like a lot
of male bosses and Larry like homogeneousthinking in that upper ranks being pushed down
to the worker bees and so,like I think, to me, it
was more that it was It wasreally just probably representation of workplaces that I've
been. And so for example,you know, he was a champ doing

(31:34):
it. But Justin Walker, whoplayed Don Libishitz, Justin's a great guy
and he played that role with somuch you know, passion that I love
it. I don't even know ifI can be that much of a scumbag
in a movie. But you know, I don't think I'm as good of
an actor as he is. Youknow, he's a better actor than I,
and that's why he's able to takethat and make it his own and
like be completely believable. So youknow, I almost felt bad for him

(31:59):
because all he does is just harassthe qtie pie female reporter who he sits
next to. And so the funnything is that was based off of a
reporter that I worked with. Itwas based off a columnist in Arizona.
I won't go, you know,any further than that. I don't want
to impugne anybody, but there waslike a real kind of sleazy guy at

(32:20):
the newspaper that I worked at.He was like a local media star,
and he was occasionally in this actuallyexisted the media gossip columns for like,
oh so and so was caught inthe parking garage doing something like lude with
a young editorialistsent or whatever. Sothe New Times, which was like the
alternative newsweekley in Phoenix, they usedto run something called the Flash, which

(32:42):
was like gossip about the media.So that's how large the commercial media used
to be. I mean, nowthere's barely newspapers, but back in the
day, in the nineties, whenI was working in newspapers, really it
was more of like almost like acelebrity culture. So Don Libitschitz in Takeout
is based off of a newspaper starlet's call him who would you know hit

(33:04):
on all the women? And Iremember I was really close with another low
not low level, but like young, I should say, another young reporter
just starting out and like kind ofknew the to the newsroom, and her
good friend was hooking up with thisguy, and I think he had sent
her a message that said something alongthe lines of do you want lessons on

(33:24):
how to give blowjobs? Which isverbatim in Takeout. So and ironically,
this person who it's based off ofis still around, you know, my
city and not working in that capacityany longer, but definitely a public facing
figure in the communications world. Wellthen you kind of touched on one of

(33:46):
the other questions that I had washow much of this did you kind of
pull from real life? Because someof it and I don't know a lot.
Yeah, and I don't mean thethe two dudes receiving sardines because they
the number, the numbers. Ithought of this stuff forever, but like,
because there's a couple of moments inthere, well there's more in a

(34:08):
couple, but there's moments in therewhere I'm going he lived this because I
obviously when we had talked before,I know, I knew that you worked
for the paper, and I waslike, there's no way that all of
this shit is just him off thetop not there at least twenty five percent
he experienced at one point when hewas working with the paper. Yeah,

(34:30):
and let me just go back.I saddle voice just said love that movie,
and somebody's saying, oh yeah,look at this ego mania. He
loves his own film so much.It's like that what I'm what I mean
is like that's takeout is probably likein my life, my my the favorite
project I've ever done, Let's putit that way. So I love it
in a sense where it was fun, not saying it was so great,
but I just I love the experienceof Miki. I'm sorry. What was

(34:52):
the actual question. We'll get backto it. I don't know. I
just how much of that was Ithink you already answered it. I was
saying, how much of that didyou really? Just? How much was
real? Most of it? Ithink pretty much. I mean in everything
I've done. The short film Idid before Takeout, Apu, r Pot
and Underwear that Justin Walker was actuallyin that that was somebody else's story.
I had a neighbor with a reallyinteresting life, and I took one of

(35:14):
his stories I made it into ashort film. But ever since, most
of this and I've written, youknow, several of the scripts that have
not been made yet anyway, buta lot of it takes from my personal
life. Even if it's like likean action movie, like the lead character
is probably gonna be all out likeme. But Takeout and Brian Loves You
were like straight up my experiences.Brian Loves You was more like me growing
up in Arizona Takeout was me beinga member of the media, and you

(35:37):
know, the all the characters andthey were real, so like I basically
play a more acerbic version of myself. And then my girlfriend at the time
was like a hybrid of some ofthe other crazy women that I dated at
the time. And then of courseI had like the soft hearted, like
confidant at work that I would,you know, really confide and played by

(35:57):
Yenni and so I think her characterswas Amy. Was it Amy anyway?
So my confident, yeah, itwas great that I don't know that right,
but my confident on in the moviewas like very again that was very
true to life, where you know, I put this on me. I'm
only gonna play it myself. Butwhen I was younger, I was with
a couple of different women who werelike kind of you know, not nice
women. Were they like were theylike Carrie Moroney's partner, she was way

(36:24):
over the top. But that wasan extrapolation of what I was with.
And then some of the things thathappened that Okay, So for example,
one of the one of the girlsI was and so if you remember outside
the barbecue restaurant, I kind ofsay something offhand and then she just snaps
and she turns to me, shesays, what what did you say?
And that stuff like that would reallyhappen to me, and I'm thinking what

(36:45):
am I doing with myself? Andlike somebody would put put the focus back
on me and say, Seth,what are you doing in this situation?
And they would be right, Iwas wrong for staying in these bad relationships.
But you know, as as ayoung man, I don't think we
are as a depth at typically.I think we're more susceptible to being taken
advantage over by women because women arenew to us and we're really enchanted by

(37:08):
all the good parts of a relationship, and if we're hen pecked, I
think we may ignore that more inour younger years, and as we get
older, we're a lot less likelyto put ourselves in that situation. And
I was probably like a lot ofother young men who were with very attractive
women who did not know how tofucking behave, and you know, just

(37:30):
got swept up in a tornado ofcrazy sometimes. And I'm not saying anybody
that I was literally crazy. Theywere all good women, and like most
people, they were like balanced,they were complicated. But sometimes the women
that I was that I was within my past tended to kind of like,
you know, lay the smack downverbally, and I would kind of

(37:50):
put up with it because either I'ma patient person or a stupid person or
whatever issues I was dealing with atthe time. But yeah, I mean
a lot of that stuff with Carrie, who did a great job with that
role as Connie. I mean mostof that stuff really happened to me.
The only thing that didn't happen unfortunately, but I didn't walk out of the
door when something ridiculous happened. Istayed in it way too long because I'm

(38:12):
an idiot. Did you ever turnto an imaginary camera and say can you
believe this shit? After? Sometimes? Probably? And that was ad libs.
I remember the crew was, youknow, more straightforward film school graduates,
and it's like, this is howyou make a movie. You set
up the camera here, and andI remember when I did that, everybody
was what, he just broke thefourth wall, bro, you know,

(38:36):
and it's like, yeah, whynot? And then I think we actually
did maybe another take. But thecinematographer, Vinnie Pasco, who was really
good, very talented, he wasdoing a lot of film at that time
in Phoenix. I think he's nowin Los Angeles, still working in you
know, cinematography or camera at least. But he he helped a lot make
that movie. He really knew howto shoot a movie. I didn't,

(39:00):
you know, I walked on Takeout. I had had pa Roles, I
had been a producer and writer ofa short film, but I really had
like crew members who knew what theywere doing. But yeah, I broke
the fourth ball. And in lifeand in cinema, Well, let's kind
of talk about that a little bit, like working with the crew that you

(39:21):
did, like people that are youknow, film students through and through and
you're kind of doing your own thing. Was there anything that was really hard
to overcome or that you just saidfuck it on Takeout because of perhaps limitations?
Well, I mean a thirteen thousanddollars movie, you're obviously going to

(39:43):
have pretty run of the middle equipmentand not many backups. I will say
this to any aspiring filmmakers out there, don't use a broomstick with a mic
duct taped to it as your boommic because what's gonna happen is you're gonna
get a lot of of noise thatis gonna infiltrate your film and it's gonna

(40:05):
not have things sound the way theyshould. So you know, everybody,
all of our crew, they theyall met, well, we were.
It was. It was that rareinstance. And that's why at the very
very end of the movie that's ashot of mainly like the crew and maybe
a few key people. I thinkKen Coble's in that shot because you know,
he was in so many scenes andI think he was shooting the last
day. But it was really likesummer camp. I mean I recently read

(40:29):
a book about the making of Daysand confused a bunch of interviews with a
lot of the key people in linkLater's film, And when I was reading
that book, I related so muchto Take Out. Granted, that's an
iconic movie that will be remembered untilthe end of time. That really moved
the needle. I'm not putting mymovie and the pantheon of that, but
I'm saying I definitely related to thestory of how everybody looks back like it

(40:52):
was the most fun time ever.It was summer camp. It didn't seem
like work, and for us,I mean especially with like no money.
Obviously they're and have to have agood time. So what do I do?
You know, I keep the attitudelike fun light. I don't overwork
them. We have good food onset, you know, every day.
I mean, obviously we're making amovie with food is essential. Bad food

(41:12):
as a central theme as to whatnot to do in life. So me,
I've always tried to skew healthy andso you know, just having like
a good comfortable environment, because filmis uncomfortable. You work long hours,
you're hot, you're cold, you'retired, you're stressed. You know,
it's it's I recently did a projectmore in the real world that was a

(41:35):
high stress project that reminded me ofmy films and what it's like doing that.
And I really think if you evermake a film on your own and
independent production, really nothing in theworkplace will ever be able to challenge you
because there's nothing like it. Soyou're starting from nothing the air, and
you're creating a script, and you'recreating all the people to act up aparts

(41:57):
and film the parts and record theparts, and then when that's done,
you're sitting in rooms with people whoare like piecing it together and making it
look amazing. And if you canmake a film, I really think a
business, you can do anything,because the odds are so against you to
not only have the papers, butget the money to hire the peoples to
do the things. And then afterthat, if you're able to like even

(42:19):
have a finished product, to getit to a place where people in the
world can see it. It's almostlike I think I've mentioned this before in
another interview. I don't want tobe redundant, but I mean it's almost
impossible. So the point of thatis we had a lot of fun,
you know, and we were allyoung. I mean this was two thousand
and four, so I was inmy late twenties. Most of my crew
was younger than me. I remembergoing back and like scouting the local area

(42:42):
of film schools and taking meetings,and I lucked into a couple of good
people who brought others with them,and it was just the kind of thing
where like we were having a lotof fun. And summer of two thousand
and four in Phoenix, nothing's goingon because it's Phoenix and it's one hundred
and fifty degrees and if you wantto do some movies near an Arizona's there's
not a lot of options, soyou got to get with this Landout kid

(43:05):
because he's doing one and we werejust we were like the only game in
town. So yeah, I meanit was good times. But as far
as like I had a great DP, I had not great rest of it.
Because anybody will tell you that knowsproduction, the hardest thing to find
is production sound. Having a goodsound mixer is much harder to find than
anybody than a cinematographer, gaffer,lighting, electrician. It's such a such

(43:30):
a small niche in the world tobe able to do it well and clear
and affordable. I mean, soour production sound was done by somebody who
was a really great guy, butyou know he was just like a jack
of all trades production guy, right, so he wasn't technically a sound recordist.
Then when we get to our professionalpe Daniel Newman, who is the
audio mixer and sound editor for Takeout, he's like, what the fuck did

(43:54):
you do? Because he he's professional, He had his own home sound stage.
The only reason why I take Outis actually out there. I shouldn't
say the only reason. One ofthe only reasons is Dan Newman. Because
production sound was almost unlistenable. Andto this day when people watch the movie
and they don't say anything about thesound, it's amazing to me because I

(44:15):
know every little thing that happened,and I remember editing it and looking at
the sound waves and seeing all thefucking like noise and pops that we had
to like meticulously take out and postproduction and watching Dan Newman like look at
me and like, really, doI have to remove that? Yes?
I can hear it's not supposed tobe in a movie. If I'm hearing
this, like we need to takethat out, you know. So it's

(44:37):
a lesson for the rest of mylife. I will be like so sensitive
to to like good quality sound speaking. Which, so I just messed my
microphone along. So two things therethat you actually talked about. Yeah,
so two things that you had actuallysaid there. So one thing that we
didn't talk about before we went on, Mike. I also attended the Los
Angeles Film School, And for allyou aspiring film makers out there, first

(45:00):
of all, you don't need filmschool, just like that's that's straight you.
No, you don't. But don'tlisten to this man seth here,
because if if I could go backand do it, and I was still
going to go to film school.It would have been sound all day.
I'd still be fucking working if I'mlike rich Man, Yeah, dude,

(45:20):
I I fucked up. And Iand like, what's really fucked up?
Is like I kind of knew thateven before I graduated, Like it was
like months before I graduated. I'mlike, why did I fucking major in
directing and writing? Everybody wants tobe an Everybody wants to dude, why
do you get more of a chance? Absolutely, but yeah, everybody wants
to be a director. You weretalking about craft services there. I have

(45:43):
a I have a I have aserious question for you. Did you feed
your cast and crew takeout? Yes, but not from a fast food restaurant.
We did have some takeout, butit was from like the higher end
and my mom cater's of the Iremember my mom made these like chicken salad
wraps that everybody went crazy for.It was really like camp. We were

(46:06):
all in our mid to late twentiesfor the most part on the crew.
Some of the casts were older,but it really was. It was like
it was such a great experience andI think some of the best independent films
you'll hear them talk about that becausereally independent art, the money's not going
to be there unless it's like astudio in d like a PP's Big Adventure.
And they weren't rich or anything,but they they could afford things right,
and they still had duct tape hollingsome of this stuff together, but

(46:29):
like a different level. And incidentally, so the aforementioned Vinnie Pasco, this
is me and him. So Ibrought one of my I still have this
to this day, like so Ihave a cup from Chief Beef, I've
got one of the amicas from ShalomeBagel, I got one of the actual
papers using the movie, Like thishas just been like a thing that I've
kept in my home office ever since. And then there's also the thrill of

(46:52):
the chase signed by Chase Masterson.What do you think of that? Jealous
kind of mad that you don't havethe menu for City You Down and Stuff
of your Face City Down, SuffiaFace. Yeah, so that's that's basically
Bookoa Beppo And like everything in themovie is something so uh, City of

(47:12):
Down Stuffia Face is Boka Beppo,Bob Bob Barbacue Texas Theater. I think
it's just a typical like that thatmight not be something specific, but that's
a traditional Texas steakhouse. Then chalonebagel. Well, okay, I shouldn't
say everything something some of them orsomething. Some of them are fictional,
but they're all like, you know, it's like an Einstein's kind of thing,
just over the top, Jude outyou know. I will tell you

(47:38):
one of my favorite beef. Yeah, yeah, he beef. One of
my favorite moments in City You downand stuff of you face. It is
actually off screen and it's only it'sonly briefly, but somebody, somebody in
the background yells pizza and then youhear a guy go, I'm gonna tell
you. So, we did alot of ADR because we had such ship

(48:01):
production sound and again not trying,not trying to like, why is my
think keep going down? I thinkmy my new mic is self regulating.
You sound I really okay? Great? Good to hear. Yeah, but
we did a lot of ADR justto fill in the space and the productions.
That wasn't that bad, but itcould have been much better. Sorry,

(48:24):
No, you're fine, You're fine. I actually I And then I'm
gonna go wait, did you evenanswer the question whether or not you were
fighting the good fight. When youwhen you wrote this film, were you,
Yeah, so I would say,uh, way, my mic is
back, so sorry for the equipmentmalfunction, So yeah, I kind of.

(48:45):
I mean, so, I thinkthe favorite thing I've ever written in
my life has been that was thatscene on the Golf Chorus between Dan rope
Buck and Ken Colt. So tothis day, yeah, yeah, I
mean that's to me, And I'mreally proud of myself for writing that because
I wrote that when I was inmy mid to late twenties, before I
knew even a fraction of what Iknow now, and I still know nothing,

(49:07):
but I'm a work in progress likeeverybody. I'm learning. But but
I mean, I'm really proud ofmyself for like seeing the world so clearly,
even at that younger age. AndI think I was just trying to
express myself and just I wasn't tryingto do anything necessarily. I think I
was just trying to portray the worldthat I saw in comedic terms to make

(49:30):
to have a Catharsism be able tolaugh about it because it's so ridiculous.
And I just think in life sometimesyou have to laugh or you're gonna cry
or get depressed or it's just areally good coping mechanism. And so I've
just always kind of I always feellike an alien. I don't feel like
I'm human a lot of the timein a sense where like humans and the

(49:51):
earth and the way things are arejust they seem so ridiculous to me so
many times, like how do peopledo the things they do to each other?
Sometimes? Right, we are shockinglysimilar, sir, shockingly similar.
I don't feel the line I alwayslike, yeah, I do. The
line that I say weekly is Idon't feel a part of this world anymore.

(50:13):
I just I don't like, Idon't understand. I just and like
you said, I I think asyou get older, I don't know if
you submit to it or whatever thecase may be. Is for me,
I know it's ignoring. Like II ignore the political stuff way more now,
cause like when you're all yeah,when you're all charged up in your

(50:34):
mid twenties, you know you're you'reready to fight. And now it's like,
oh, that's right. If Idon't have billions of dollars backing me
a bulletproof soapbox, then I'm probablynot making a dent, you know,
unless I'm super fucking talented, whichI'm not so you you kind of just
turn the other way, like I'lljust I'm gonna enjoy myself while I'm here

(50:55):
and then and then move on.But I do want to talk about that
scene that you would wrote, specificallyworking with Kevin, who is one of
my favorite characters in the movie thatI still think holds up today, which
is Kevin was his name, KevinColb Oh Ken ken Cole came, Oh
Kevin, tell me what do youthink about him? Because I have something

(51:16):
I want to throw by you andsee if you agree. I still love
it. Like I like that stupidNew New York Day, I like I
like that my grandfather, dude.I like Levy Model, my grandfather.
Oh my goodness, is it reallyKent? It's Ken and cold? So
Ken Cole. He was like apart time actor in most of his life.

(51:38):
I think I think he experimented inHollywood. I met him again through
my manager, my my manager theunfortunately the part of Janice Hansen RP.
She had a lot of good relationshipswith with talent, and she knew a
lot of talented actors and a lotof them from Janice are in uh takeout.
So Ken was local based in basedin Phoenix. He has his own

(52:01):
private business. He does it verywell and went to the military, was
marine, got out, got intohis business that he's in to this day.
I think he's retired now. Buthe did very well for himself in
business. But he loved acting andhe'd be in movies here and there.
And one of the movies he wasin Cold ghost Town, I found for

(52:21):
free on either YouTube. I justfound it in the corner of the Internet.
And he plays this really creepy likeghost cowboy, I mean ghost Town
and he's just he's great. Thereare so many great performers in the world
that you'll ever hear of, butuh yeah, he he basically played my
grandfather. That was that was anaccelerated version of my grandfather, who was

(52:42):
just like the kind of guy whowas successful and kind of care free and
wasn't really in touch with his emotions. I'd like to keep things really surface.
How's it going great? All right, Well, I'll talk to you
later. It's like you barely getanything out. And I think that's the
parent of the movie. And youknow, I loved my grandfather and I
think, you know, sometimes youkind of apply satire to the ones you

(53:05):
love. So yeah, and thenso the funny thing to me, one
of the funniest jokes in the entiremovie is when he says, talk to
your grandmother, and it's like asixteen year old girl, and I say,
hi, grandma, right, Sobasically that was an accidental laugh because
I was trying to cast somebody whomirrored his age. I wanted a legit
grandmother, but I couldn't. Icouldn't. It's harder to find older actors,

(53:30):
right, they either make a certainamount of money, but I was
younger actors easy, peasy. Goto any city. You'll find a million
younger actors to fill any role youwant. Harder when you get niche or
you need a specialist or a stuntguy or girl or old. So basically,
just like, because of the independentnature of the film, would have
cost more money and I didn't knowanybody who could to play that role.

(53:51):
So my cousin Brooke played it.At the time, I don't even remember
what age she was, but mycousin Brooke played Irish Turk and she at
the time wanted to be an actress. And she's really good. She's like
She's always been very dramatic and shewas legit a good act a good actress.
I think she went to New Yorkand she succeeded in one of their
good acting schools. So it's just, you know, a family member stepped

(54:14):
into that role, but had alot of family, right, You had
a lot of family members in this. I think I counted at least three
or four Landaus in it, unlessit was kind of unless they all duped
you and they were like, hey, Seth, I'm a Landau too,
and then you so okay. Sowhat happened was my my my then girlfriend

(54:35):
is in it, but she's creditedas Landau because she didn't like her last
name because she had some family she'sgoing on at the time. She just
didn't want to publicize her name.So she wasn't you know, married to
me or anything. She just tookmy name for the credits and then so
she was in it, and mysister was in it during the during the
Connie breakup scene, she was oneof the girls. So yeah, there

(54:58):
were there were a few, youknow, like when you do the in
the film, like even in Swingers, you know Jon Favreau and I think
Jon Favreau's grandmother was at the blackjacktable, and it made Vincent Vaughan's dad
was the football coach, you know, like, that's just what do you
do now? They're cheap? Thatscene that you wrote with Ken and Daniel
did that? Did that scene propelyou to form the relationship with Daniel after

(55:23):
the fact, because I know youand him still remain close if I remember,
relatively still chat Dan Roebuck. Yes, So Dan Roebuck is a really
good friend of my friend Dan Schweiger. So that's our mutual connection. Dan
Roebuck is also just he's a reallynice guy. You know. He he's
one of the one of the peopleyou meet in Hollywood who is just.

(55:44):
He's a real guy. Uh anda lot of people seem fake. That's
why I say real. I meaneverybody's real. But you could talk to
him like he would just somebody inany other city. You know, He's
just He's a nice person who wantsto support artists. And you know,
George Went was like that with withwith Brian and Loves You, where he
believed in the project and he's like, all right, I normally make way

(56:04):
more money than this, but sure, kid, you know, I'll throw
you a bone. So so DanRoebuck, I remember having a conversation with
him to offer him the role.I didn't have an audition, if you
can believe that, he just gotan offer. So I was. I
was in my mom's condo and Gilberthaving a conversation with him. And you
know how sometimes you remember where youare when you talk to somebody on the

(56:27):
phone. Uh. So I wastalking to him on the phone and he's
like, yes, Eth, He'slike, I'll be in your movie,
but can you put a tentative yeson it? Because he said this,
I remember this these words. Youknow, if like the big Enchilada comes
he said that for BAITI I rememberthat, then I might have to like
take it, which I'm like,yeah, there, if you get a
studio offer with something that pays youten you know, hundreds of hundreds of

(56:49):
thousands of dollars or more, yes, totally understand. So but I mean,
of course, you know he thatwas like if I get my my
Austin powers or you know what Imean something like that. But uh but
yeah, he was. That's howthe relationship started with him. Dan Schweiger
brought Dan Roebuck into the Fall becauseit was like a you know, a
credible actor who he knew and DanSchwiger I think is Gon take out three

(57:10):
times? Yeah yeah, yeah,yep. Uh He's he's big Willie style,
the guy who gets the party thrownfor him. He's the crazy person
who says put the bitch down inthe background that you would never notice.
And he's another role he's he's inthere like a few times. I remember
he is in uh oh, well, he's the he's the he's the the
casanova too. He's in one ofmy favorite movies of all time, which

(57:34):
is Bubba. Yeah, Bubba forsure, and just just because this is
what we do and I like informingmy audience. He's also in Phantasm Ravager,
which I think is actually not abad installment in the Phantasm franchise.
Out of out of the ones thatexist, that's actually one of the better
ones. But anyway, Anywayga andactually one of one of the people that

(57:57):
was in the the film actually likewent on to do like better call Saul.
Who was that Jelen Vanover I thinkJeloon, Yeah, so Jeloon.
I also meant through Jane Janice Jeloanplayed Rody I think his name wasn't Brian
loves You. My my crazy roommatecellmate in Brian Loves You, And he
played a really hilarious barbecue waiter inTakeout. And I always told him,

(58:22):
like I saw something in Jelon whereI'm like, man, if you stick
with it, you're gonna You're gonnabreak You're He's great. I'm not sure
if he had kind of the breakthat I envisioned yet, I mean,
he's still may. I think he'sa great performer. I'm he should be
a household name. Let's just putit that way. And I still believe
if he sticks with it, heeventually will do. Sometimes people make it

(58:43):
in their teens, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties. You know,
I don't even I'm imagining he's stillacting. But he was definitely one of
the best performers I've ever worked with. Yeah, I'm still hoping. I'm
I'm in my forties and I'm lookingfor my big break as an actor.
Forties is still young, it reallyis. Yeah, I seen Hollywood,
but for you, I mean thatthere. I know Hollywood's about youth,

(59:04):
but there are a lot of youknow, mature actors who have very strong
careers. I mean, well,the problem with you and I is is
that we're white. Anyway, we'renot tackling that. Today. We did
mentionage Jewish, so I got thatcard if you were, if you were
discriminated against and picked on for morethan ten years, you get to play
the Jewish card. So I'll whipthat out any day. So we had

(59:25):
mentioned Brian Loves You a couple oftimes. What did you if anything?
And you can just be like nothing, I fucking it took nothing. What
did you take from Takeout into BrianLoves You? Whether it be I'll never
fucking do that again, or Iknow it seems kind of like a cliche
question, but like, as youknow you've been on the show before,

(59:46):
there's a lot of people that don'twant to make the same mistakes. Say
perhaps you and I did you knowif they move forward with trying to make
their own film. Yeah, Idefinitely took a lot of things take Out
and the Brian Loves You. Ithink anybody would you know playing with no
budget and then you know, forme, Brian Loves You was almost like

(01:00:07):
double I went from thirteenery to twentyfive ish so it still wasn't a lot,
but I was able to afford alittle bit more and call in less
favors. I would say that,I would say almost say the scope of
Takeout is much grander than Brian LovesYou. It is a bigger cast.
It at more locations and then foodlocations. You know how hard it is
to get restaurants. Yeah, butwhat I took away from it was make

(01:00:31):
sure you have enough money to paymoney for the key crew positions that you
need. So, for example,we had a professional sound recordist for Brian
Loves You. The DP on Takeoutdirector of photography was still professional, but
he was young. He happened tobe good again on Brian Loves You.
I made sure I had somebody whois good, incredible. We had enough

(01:00:55):
equipment, even though it was barebones, we still had enough. We
did not on Takeout, and Ilearned make sure you put actors in the
movie who distributors will care about.Not to say that we didn't have a
lot of great actors in Takeout,but when it came time to selling the
movie, you need certain names init. So a distributor will say,
okay, I'll release this, andtypically who's it. The questions you hear,

(01:01:20):
what's it about? Who's in it? First? Two? Always?
So how important do you think thatis? Well, even from a technical
aspect, did with the exception ofsound, which we already kind of touched
on, did you walk into BrianLoves You within the back of your mind?
Because I do happen to agree withwhat you said. I think the
scope of Takeout, which is ironicbecause it's your first film and then you

(01:01:43):
went to Brian Loves You, thescope of Takeout much larger than Brian Loves
You. And I think, likeas much of a horror fan as I
am, I think I tend tolean towards Takeout more just because of the
comedy element. At the end ofthe day, I just like goofy fucking
comedies and that I think the hitson all fucking levels. But like,

(01:02:05):
was there anything like like I'm notI won't do again that you walked in
with Brian Loves You. Some areyou saying did I have a bad experience
and Brian Loves You? Or justa lesson that I know, A lesson
that you a lesson that maybe youtook from Takeout into Brian Loves You?
Like oh, I can't do this. Sorry. Um so the aforementioned that

(01:02:27):
I just said that that would apply. Uh. But also I probably more
carefully vetted the actors because I'm I'ma trusting person by nature, you know,
Like I don't steal, I don'ttake advantage of people. I don't
I don't I don't do things I'mnot supposed to in general, right,
and I definitely don't hurt people.So I think sometimes when you are like

(01:02:47):
that, there's some kind of inherentnaivete that exists in most of our ilk
where you think the other people arelike that. So Takeout was really my
first experience as an adult where Iwas in charge of the company. I
hired everybody, I created everything,and when you make your own company,
you want everybody to have fun andbe a family and enjoy. And yes,

(01:03:08):
Takeout was, like I said,it was like summer camp. It
was a family. But there weresome problem children in that stable, and
a couple of the actors really kindof like made my life difficult. And
not that they were trying to dothat, it could have been like I
need your help for this thing tohelp the movie along, and they just
like didn't address it. And theytook their sweet time, and it really

(01:03:30):
like stressed me out. Or therewas another actor who got upset because they
showed up to set hungover, stillgave a good performance, and then asked
for another plane ticket out because Ididn't want to get on a plane later
that day when they were supposed tobe after they wrapped, and I said,
I'm sorry, I can't, that'snot on the budget. So they

(01:03:52):
started bad mounting the production to SAGAnd then I got a call from SAG
and they're like, hey, areyou guys abusing extras? Like abusing X
for is? What does that mean? Like? How Like it was such
a weird turn of phrase. Andso basically I spoke to SAG. I
told them what was going on.They came out, They're like, yeah,
you look all good. But theactors caused problems because of their own

(01:04:15):
issues. It wasn't anything necessarily thathappened on the set that just brought their
drama to my world. And thatwas my first time dealing with that.
I had never really been a bossbefore. I had never been a supervisor,
I had never been in charge ofall these things. So I just
thought like, Okay, everybody's likeme. They care about this just as
much as I do. They're justas responsible as me. No, So,
going into Brian Loves You, Idefinitely I was more careful. Not

(01:04:38):
to say that there were no problems, but I was a lot more careful
with who I let into my world, both on the crew and in the
cast. Especially with a small production, you really can't afford to have flare
ups. And I'm surprised we gotthrough Takeout like we did because you know,
there were some challenges on the backend that were thankfully resolved. And
the thing is, when you dealwith problem personality in the workplace, everybody

(01:05:01):
wants to just be a smartass andjust like say, ah, fuck you,
you suck. You can never dothat. You always have to be
the bigger person. You always haveto like take it. They're gonna like,
you know, talk and you know, like verbally abuse or whatever.
You And it's like, Okay,I understand, what if we do it
this way, because you to deescalate a situation, you have to be

(01:05:24):
the bigger person. You have tobe calm, you can't lose your shit.
And then it's like, man,I wish I can be an asshole.
I wish I could just act likea crazy bastard because I felt like
it because I'm hungry or I'm I'mwhatever. You know, I'm not gonna.
I'm just gonna, like, youknow, just like but but I
don't, you know, and youwant to say, like, bro,

(01:05:45):
fuck you. You know, likeyou're causing me problems. I don't have
time for it. You can't.You know. When you're in a managerial
position, you're responsible, you know, and you have to just like really
keep a professional demeanor. And andyeah, I don't know what the point
is with that, but I thinkit's just like a side note to anybody
doing a film or really any creativeproject or any project. It's like,

(01:06:10):
you know, you just you haveto have the strength to be the bigger
person always because the one time youslip up, it's going to be probably
held against you forever. So justdon't slip up. Just be a be
strong. And sometimes this is ayoga phrase, but be comfortable being uncomfortable.
If somebody's making your world uncomfortable mine, you can deal with it.
There's always a path forward. Ireally think most people can be reason with

(01:06:33):
now. Granted, there is someextreme circumstances where somebody cannot be reason with.
But that's more of like a criminalelement. In a normal work environment,
when tempers flare and personalities get getyou know, nuts, there's usually
a smart path forward to resolve thesituation. And so I guess the point
of that is I had to dothat with takeout or I just wanted to

(01:06:56):
like, oh, give the middlefinger. Yeah, man, you can't.
Can't afford it, because as soonas you throw gasoline on that fire,
fire gets bigger. Being the biggerperson, I think is a good
lesson when it comes to independent art, because if you don't, there were
just so many pitfalls that can snagyou. That's that's something you don't need

(01:07:17):
on top of the normal reasons whyyou won't succeed. So out with the
negative vibes, in with the positive. A couple a couple of your favorite
moments about making this film, somethingthat maybe even you carry with you this
day, something that you learn thatwas positive. Favorite moments on set.

(01:07:38):
I almost fell asleep driving home fromset one day. I remember that the
only time in my life where I'vealmost ever fallen asleep on the wheel at
the wheel, and I've never Idon't drink I never even drank drunk drunken,
but I've had SIPs of things likeit. Basically all the alcohol I've

(01:07:59):
con seen in my life can probablyfit into this. So and then when
I was going through college, Iwould like I would pretend to sip beers
and stuff, and then people wouldcome on my table, waiters or whatever,
and they'd like pull it up,thinking was empty, and I was
like, whoa, you still gota lot of love in there. I'm
like, I know, thanks forblowing my cover, you know, because
because you want to fit in solike I would kind of mm, yeah,

(01:08:19):
oh yeah, we're having a greattime. I'm enjoying this beverage,
you know. And I'm a goodactor, right, so I can I
can pretend like, yeah, I'mchilling, we're partying, we're getting crunk,
you know, you know, likebecause I'm I'm crazy enough without substances.
I don't need them. I'm creative. I can go off, you
know, like in a good way, in a creative way. I don't

(01:08:40):
need like the stimulation, like I'vegot it in here anyway. Yeah.
So I was so tired because youknow, I had never been in charge
of a film set before, andtypically with a film set, you have
ten to twelve hour days. Itake pride and always wrapping prior to twelve.
Most people who were production think,Okay, I'm gonna be working for
twelve to fifteen hours, and that'sboth. That's when most of the productions

(01:09:01):
that I've been on because a productionday is twelve hours, so most even
go over a little bit whatever.And I take great pride in rapping early,
just being planning and being efficient.So you're wrapping around nine to eleven
somewhere in there, which you stillget a lot done, and people really
appreciate that. Nonetheless, even thoughmy days were shorter, you know,

(01:09:25):
you're sleeping between one to four hoursa night when you're in production on a
micro budget movie, especially your firstmovie with a cast of like five thousand
or whoever Poweer minute was in it. But yeah, I had this rental
white Volvo because I used to havea nineteen ninety six Civic DX when I
lived in La So whenever i'd visitArizona, I'd get a sweet, sweet
deal from Enterprise Rental Car where I'dget a baller car and I'd drive that

(01:09:49):
home for the weekend. And soback then I had good relations with my
people at Enterprise, right, soI'd get infinities and merchades and all kinds
of cool car. So like takeback to Arizona and feel like a big
play it coming in from California withthe plates, driving around the Hillbillies and
Gilbert and NASA Arizona, you know. So, So I had this rental

(01:10:11):
when I was on take on,and they would do they would do long
term rentals, right, you takethe car for a month to get like
a price break or whatever. SoI had this really cool white Volvo during
that production setting. I was drivingthat fine automobile somewhere in Scottsdale, and
I'm like, oh, that's notgood. I almost just fell asleep.
So that's a memory. Yeah,but that's not good. We might have
not got fucking Brian loves you ifif that would have went the other way.

(01:10:34):
But but I you know, Ithink that that means you did a
job well done. If you askme that that means you know, you
busted your ass that date. Nowobviously, no, you don't want to
be falling asleep behind the wheel,But that means like I produced something today
so much so that I'm fucking aboutto fall asleep at the goddamn wheel here

(01:10:54):
I'll tell you, Okay, Sothe best memories I have of that where
my aunt and uncle back then hada rental house in Scott's a really nice
condo in a nice part of ScottsSell. Anybody who's not familiar with Arizona,
Scott Celle, it was like thenice part of town, you know,
And so we had it wasn't likethat rich, but it was just
it was a nice part of townwith amenones and all the restaurants you need.
And they had a condo that waskind of like home base for our

(01:11:15):
production because they let me use itfor the duration of the production. So
if I were staying in a hotel, i'd have some of the actors from
ount of town stay at the condo. And every night, i think we
shot for about eighteen days. Everynight after we would wrap, we go
back to the condo and we watchdailies, and so it would be,
you know, the usual suspects wouldbe sound camera, some of the actors,

(01:11:36):
and so that I think that tome is my favorite memory of making
takeout. Was like the end ofthe day dailies that we would consume at
the condo which was like the homebase. The garage doubled as like you
know, a storage for equipment,and you know at least one or several
people were were staying there, andsomething else I should mention so we don't

(01:11:57):
drop it. I think this isa weird fact about Takeout. Of weird
things about take It. It's justit's a unique movie in a lot of
ways. Let's not forget Sean Baker, though we have to mention him.
He had another Takeout. Okay,so two quick things, and I want
to forget this because I know withus we get to yap in where a
couple of old yents over here beforeyou know what, it's like five hours.

(01:12:17):
So, uh, what was it? What was I gonna say?
Oh? Yeah, There are severalactors who Take Out was their last movie,
and I don't know how many moviescan claim like several. So Mike
Hunger for RP. It was avery good character actor. He was in
some things he had He was inbig movies with like really small parts,

(01:12:38):
and he was a really nice guy. He was a really good friend of
my friend Tom Noga, who playedlike again ten roles in the movie.
Tom was the power guy at thebeginning he was the bodyguard who didn't speak.
And I was also in Uh LovesYou? But did you have an
Austin Powers bit with Tom at onepoint at towards the towards the end of
Takeout? Yeah, with the cartYeah. Yeah. So unfortunately, Mike,

(01:13:04):
Who's along with Us? That washis last movie. Unfortunately rip again,
Danny Zorn, that was his lastmovie. Danny Zorn was most known,
I think for his turn at theend of the Home Improvement TV show,
but he was in other studio moviesin like smaller roles that he was
a New York actor that was friendswith Justin Walker. Justin Walker his last
appearance in a movie. And whenTakeout was released in twenty twenty two,

(01:13:30):
and we sent out some advance knownas to media, the Hollywood Reporter,
no shit was going to do hisstory on Takeout being released. The Hollywood
Reporter does not do stories on directto video director streaming whatever videos that are
thirty years old. But because JustinWalker was in it, and because there
was the interest at the time,you know, not that long ago,

(01:13:50):
last year or two years ago,twenty two, they wanted to say,
Hey, the guy from Clueless isin something else, and so we went
back and forth with the Hollywood Reporterand I reached out to Justin I found
him. Justin is the kind ofguy who's like really hard to reach,
even back in the day when hewas acting in La I met him.

(01:14:11):
This is wow, things come fullcircle. I met Justin Walker through the
film critic at the hour Zona Republicin the nineties because he was friends with
Justin's family, and so I rememberthe thing when I when I when I
first met Justin Walker, he wasa host on The X Show, which
was kind of like a pre coswit to The Man Show or something like
that, and I remember I calledhim when I got out there, and

(01:14:31):
like, what I remember about JustinWalker is he was like real smooth,
real slick, you know, heycat daddy, kind of like his character
and clueless. He's like he's alwaystalking like real job, real hit,
real fast. And I felt likesuch a nerd talking to this guy because
he had the lingo down, baby, you know. He was like talking
Hollywood smooth, and he would hangup without saying goodbye. It freaked me
out. He would always do that. We'd be talking and then he's like,

(01:14:54):
all right, I talk to youlater, like okay, by Claike,
he's already gone. People who don'tsay goodbye freaked me out. He
would never say goodbye. It waslike, I'm not that cool. I
can't hang up on somebody without sayinggoodbye or peace or something right, So
so justin I remember I called himwhen I was doing takeout or No.
I called him when I was doingthe short film and I was like I

(01:15:15):
was describing to him. He's like, oh, is it an indie?
I'm like, uh, yeah,I didn't know. I'd never heard that
term before. I was so newwhen I name a short film, I
didn't know what he meant by that, but yes, it was an indie
and so so he because he hadthat signature role in clueless the Hollywood reporters
to do something. So I reachedout to him and I said, hey,
man, can you do this interview? And unfortunately he was interested so

(01:15:39):
uh for some reason that I don'tbegrudge it. I don't begrudge him.
He had his reasons and I respecthim, and of course he taught me
and he and he he of course, like tracking him down was really difficult.
I had to like stalk him andthen like email him several times and
call him and text him and hewould finally respond to me. So frustrating.
But so we were going to bein The Hollywood Reporter. Unfortunately we

(01:15:59):
were not because one of our singisfor actors declined to the Bull City,
which again completely is right, Itotally understand. And then there were a
few others, but yeah, therewere several actors. So I don't know
if that's a if that's exactly aringing endorsement for the movie the last movie
will ever be in you want tobe in it? Well, yeah,
I actually had that written down,but then like the more I kind of

(01:16:23):
like went over my notes, Iwas like, you don't want to bring
that up, man, But likebring up anything, I don't mind.
I mean, you know, likeI I really don't hide from any IM
ever done in my life, youknow, like I think everything has been
with good intent. So even theembarrassing things, I'm fine talking about.
Okay, so let's let's search onthis real quick. So, being a
former member of the Meteor myself,like I know how to like do the

(01:16:45):
press and stuff right, and Ialways I always think and Kevin Smith,
I remember back in the day wasreally good about this. He was the
filmmaker who was the best with thepress. So if you ever look at
his his old talks that were onDVD that are now on YouTube or wherever
where his college course and stuff,he'd always tell vignettes about, you know,
his relationship with the media and press, and you know, he he
was the most savvy filmmaker I've everseen in my career that just knew how

(01:17:09):
to do it. Yeah, exactly, there you go. I consume those
talks a lot. My favorite KevinSmith stories weren't Prince and John Peters the
best. If anybody's out there,just just YouTube search Kevin Smith, John
Peters, j O. N.Peters or Kevin Smith, Prince great stories.
I'll watch them like I watch movies. So funny, what was point

(01:17:32):
of that? So basically, sothis rich kid in New York, Sean
Baker, who's now like a prettywell known director, you know of NDI's
and studio or whatever. He's inthere. He's he does things. He
makes his living as director, andI'm quite happy that he gets to do
that because it's it's a rare professionto succeed at. So, you know,

(01:17:53):
good for him, but at thetime we were both from about the
same place where we were like kindof low budget filmmakers. But he was
a rich kid from New York.I'm calling him a fucking rich kid because
he had a lawyer send me aletter. So, like, I was
in post production on Takeout, andI don't know how he found I think
he found like my pr guy,because it went to some general like takeout

(01:18:15):
movie at Yahoo dot com, Emelda, something weird like that, but it
was something that was I was monitoring, and it was a seasoned desist letter
from some relative of his that waslike a lawyer in New York, and
it said, we are aware thatyou are making a film with the title
of Takeout, and you can't dothat because we got it first mind my

(01:18:35):
title. You can't do it,me do it. So that's not what
it said, but it basically saidthat. It said, essentially, please
cease and desist with this title becausewe feel that you're going to adversely affect
our film's prospects of success, whichis fucking stupid. And you're an idiot
for saying that so, and you'rea jerk off for sending an independent filmmaker

(01:19:00):
her a seasoned to sist you richasshole. So so basically that was sent
you know on behalf of that filmmakerand his like his like moody uh you
know, drama about to take outdelivery on a guy in a bicycles journey
through New York. It's like,so, you know, so dark to
moody and so dramatic. So sobasically I took that letter. I remember

(01:19:26):
my girlfriend at the time was likesuper afraid of everything, like, oh
no, you better changed his title. I remember her reaction and I'm like,
what's that. I said, Hey, I got one of those.
Yeah. So, and there's nothingwrong without I mean, you need you
need a balance, right, that'salways a good thing. But absolutely she
keeps me grounded, right. ButI think this was a little bit fearful.

(01:19:48):
I'm like, you know, anylawyer can sue anybody for anything.
It's not that big of a fuckingdeal. It's like, you know,
just because you say it doesn't haveto do it. Do you think they're'm
going to be afraid because of you? Somebody who passed the bar was smart
enough to draft a letter and sendit to an email that I received,
like, no, you have tohave a stronger argument, then we own

(01:20:09):
the words takeout and you don't nottrue. So essentially what I did was
I forwarded that letter to a bunchof media and I said, hey,
you know, you guys interested inthis. It is like, you know,
can you believe this? Like oneindependent filmmaker is trying to you know,
harsh the buzz of another. Andso basically the La Times did a
story on it. To this dayyou can find it on Line's not that

(01:20:30):
hard. The La Times did astory on it, and it got take
out like quite a bit of press. At the time, back when more
way more people read the hard copypaper you would see in an offices and
stuff. It was like the likeif entertainment was like the D section or
whatever or E it was like theE two story. It was teased on
the cover of the Entertainment section andit was like right inside. So it

(01:20:51):
was that story was prominently placed ona workday in the La Times. I
also put two outlests that were thisclose to doing a story on it,
Wall Street Journal and New York Times. I should you not, So they
didn't. They didn't end up doingthe story. But that's how it works
on homes and the media. It'slike, you know, you peauk the
reporter's interest, they run it byan editor, or they got other stuff

(01:21:13):
that comes up. But I rememberit was sorry to me to like,
I just tap the thing. Ishould know better than that because it affected
the audio. Always think about theaudio. It's alright, it's quite alright.
So I think it was like SharonWaxman at the New York Times was
going to do a story and Iforget the name of the gentleman the Wall
Street Journal, but they were interestedbecause it's like, you don't see this
very often, right, and bothof our movies, you know, his

(01:21:36):
I think was further along and mayhave had distribution yet did his had distribution
at the time. Mine didn't havedistribution. But you can look at IMDb
and see the are real actors init, so it looks legit, right,
you have jed Omen, Dan Roebug, Justin Walker, because even then
that wasn't that far a move fromClueless, So Justin Walker was definitely had
way more attention back then, andthat would have been really his second role.

(01:21:59):
Well, no, he was insome other like low Budgen of these,
but that was I don't know,like it was more of a name
back then, let's put that way. So yeah, and so like we
got some media attention for some someof the other film blocks picked it up.
And to this day that's on Wikipedia. It's on his Wikipedia, it's
on my Wikipedia, and it's wrong. For the record, what's all.

(01:22:19):
Wikipedia is completely wrong because on hisWikipedia it says something like they decided to
release the movie later because of adispute with the film Takeout from seth Lando
of the same name. There wasno dispute, there was nothing going on.
My movie had nothing to do withanything that the Takeout Delivery Boy movie

(01:22:41):
did. It's just it's part oftheir story if they want to have an
excuse for something or other. Butthere was nothing. It was. It
was a superfluous letter sent to apoor filmmaker who was savvy enough to flip
it and just send it to themedia and say, hey, you want
to give me some free promotion forthis, and they did not that it
helped me so much because the movietook eighteen years to be distributed. But

(01:23:04):
you know, I'll definitely poke funat myself all day long, you know,
but I'll also poke fun at otherpeople who do stupid shit, and
I think that was just dumb.And to this day, because of the
way the Internet works and because ofthe way Wikipedia works, it's like it's
just wrong and so on mine,it says Seth Landau had like a problem
with Michael Sergio. I only knowthat name because it's all my It was

(01:23:26):
on my Wikipedia for so long.I have no idea who Michael Sergio is.
It sounds like somebody who owns anItalian restaurant in Manhattan. That's what
it sounds like to me. Ihave no idea who this person is.
Maybe like sit down and stuff ofyour face, maybe like that. Anyway,
So the point is not to getto a wound up about this,
but I've never been able to talkabout it on any kind of form,
but not that anyone cares. Butit does live online and for the record,

(01:23:50):
it's all wrong. It was asimple season desist that was pointing out
for being stupid and there you go. Well, I think you can kick
that around for another indie. Ithink that would be an intriguing indie film
about two indie filmmakers getting litigious witheach other. I think that would be
funny, funny, just like thelogic there, like, who gives a

(01:24:12):
shit if there are two movies withthe same name. I mean, I
would never even cross my mind toask them to change their title. But
what do I know? I wouldlike to wind our interview down, But
I got some things that I wantto tell you and some things that I
want to ask you. I'm goingto tell you seven things, yes,
at least three or four. Andone of those things is I kind of

(01:24:36):
mentioned it earlier? Can you?And I know you got a new gig
now in your every everything seems tobe flowing. New gig, new girl,
everything's great. Can you do somemore acting? Man? I don't
like if I were to, youknow, write a little something, can

(01:24:58):
I call set an offer? Thisis yeah, I'm putting you on the
spot on cam on air because likeyou look like a dick if you say
no. But sorry, Sean,I just that request. I'm going to
have to pass. I didn't eventell you what it was. It is
yeah, and it sucks. Okay, Sean, if you would have if
you're gonna make something, you'd havemade something by now. But no,
I mean that, like, canI know that that's such a fucking weird

(01:25:21):
thing or a weird way to frameit. But like the gig, what's
going on here? What are wetalking about? Kind of product? I'm
just talking in general, sir,you. I want to see somebody came
to me and say, I wantto give you a bunch of money to
act. Sure, I probably doit. I will. What if it's
I that's gonna happen. What ifwhat if somebody came and said, I'll
give you a little bit of money. I guess I'm more or less just

(01:25:44):
saying that now that I've watched thatmovie twice in you know, the past
three or four days, I'm I'mkind of annoyed with you. And I
know it's not your fault, butI'm just kind of annoyed that I don't
get to see you more and laughat you more, because like it's my
type of humor, dude, likeit one that kind of because you do

(01:26:05):
a great balance I think of beingoutlandish and subtle and dry at the same
time, which I don't. Ifeel. I do feel like a fucking
weak ass critic by saying this,It's not so easy to do, Seth,
and you do it just with ease. I'd like that's what I don't
know who that was. This justsome guy that just what But that's how

(01:26:26):
I feel. That's how I feelwhen I watch you. I'm like,
it's not all that. Like there'speople that can play the dry straight man
and they're really fucking good at it. It's very rare when you can see
both. So it was kind ofme blowing smoke and asking you a question,
like, hey, when can wesee you act again? But I
appreciate that. It was kind ofheartbreaking to leave LA. I mean,

(01:26:47):
like I spent a good approximate thirteenyears there and it was just chasing film
and TV and that's all I didfor that long. I mean I didn't
vacation. I didn't save money.I didn't really make a lot of money.
I made just enough to get toanother day in LA. But yeah,

(01:27:08):
I mean I definitely I tried todo what you were telling me to
do for that many years consecutively,with like not one vacation. I mean,
sure, I went out of towna couple of times, may either
like San Diego or Phoenix or whatever, but that whole time, it was
just like, you know, itwas like fifty cent naked or die trying.
That's all it was. I mean, legit, dude, Like,
I don't think people understand that ifyou're gonna you're gonna be in that world,

(01:27:30):
like you can never say no,and you best believe that you better
be working sun up to sundown everyday until either you fizzle out. Because
like we were talking before, author, I mean, it sucks that it
is a cliche that you kinda you'llget used until at least in my experience
out there, I felt like Igot used until I wasn't worth it anymore,

(01:27:53):
until I broke. And I wouldn'teven say that I broke in a
sense. It was more like,how often do I want to keep calling
home? And my friends have kidsand two story houses and they're paying five
hundred a month and I'm living,you know, at Crenshaw and Martin Luther
King. Our lives weren't the same, and you know, it is what
it is. And I still findit fucking wild that, like you and

(01:28:14):
I probably passed each other at leastonce, at least once in that hole.
I possibly where did you hang outin La Probably North Hollywood the most,
I would say, maybe not then, because I spent a lot of
time on the West Side so mygams in LA were towards the end.
I mean from from about two thousandand eight until when I left in twenty

(01:28:34):
thirteen. I spent a lot oftime at Literati Cafe on Bundy in Wiltshire
and Amandine Cafe at Wilshre and Bundyalso this is my neighborhood. I went
to California Chicken Cafe and Santa MonicaWhole Food in Santa Monica. These are
like food spots. Obviously. Ispent a lot of time will Rogers State

(01:28:55):
Park in Palisades, where I wouldhike and read and they had like a
it was like for anybody in LosAngeles. Well, Rogers State Park is
the nicest spot. It has thebest hiking, It has this beautiful green
belt. They do polo there inthe summer. You can just go and
watch polo. Can you watch Malibouversus Palisades and Polo? Like? How

(01:29:15):
upper class can you possibly feel watchingMalibou Versus Palisades and Polo? Yeah?
I mean I went to Hollywood sometimes, but I think you know, people
stay in their bubble, you know, not you because you weren't in North
Hollywood. But yeah, I hadI had some plays life To this day,
I remember very fondly good spots inclosing. I want to look your

(01:29:40):
dead in the eye while I dothis, Uh seth. I and everybody
that I brought over enjoyed the film. That's that's straight up. There's no
I'm just telling you this, likeand honestly, I was most afraid of
kind of afraid, it's not theright word. I was more afraid of

(01:30:02):
getting upset at my girlfriend because shedidn't find it as funny as I did,
and she was she was laughing outloud. But listen. The sad
fact is, like, you know, it may have been twenty years ago
at this point, but I stillthink you have something that's relevant today.

(01:30:25):
I still think that it's weird enough, like you said to where I don't
know that you can with the exceptionof maybe like technical aspects, I don't
think the content feels dated at all, especially even watching it. Like I
said twice in the past few days, I don't feel I'm not like going,
all right, let's wait for likethe scenes that I know I'm waiting

(01:30:46):
for it like there. That's anotherthing too, I think you wrote something
that moves in a way that nota lot of films were moving that day,
like in terms of the beats.Again, this is just just could
be me and I'm you know,infatuated with you. I don't fucking know
at this point, but but tome, you made something that stands the
test of time. The story works, the comedy works, it's relatable.

(01:31:09):
And like I said, I don'tjust say this because we're on the mic
together. I you know, listento my other shit. But after having
a small viewing party where everyone laughed, everyone had a good time, and
it's amazing, it sparked. Yeah, it sparked a conversation which again,
like I like I had mentioned atthe top of the show, it wasn't

(01:31:29):
anything. It wasn't just like themost intellectual conversation. I mean, at
the end of it, it waslike fuck fast food, fuck the rich,
and fuck you know like I mean. But the fact of the matter
is, like you're still invoking thatemotion, sir, so that that's not
something that you should take lightly andI and I don't. I'm not trying
to pull you back in. Iknow you have this life now that you're
loving. But I'm just gonna sayone other thing to you before I let

(01:31:54):
you go. I don't like theidea of you being on the shelf,
so I know that that's it's juststraightforward, man, Like this is now
two films that I I don't know. I just think somebody throws two million
dollars at you, and I thinkthat you make something just well, I

(01:32:16):
think you. I think you're afilmmaker that I I hesitate to use me
as an example, but like someonethat kind of got chewed up in it,
like you know, it's a storythat it's a steros story as old
as time. Yeah, like chewedup, spit out and like unfortunately people
like you and I, well you'remore successful than I am. But that

(01:32:39):
that's that's not an uncommon story,you know. And it's when I talk
to people like yourself, I justgo, this doesn't make any fucking sense
to me. Like there was enoughin Takeout, enough in Brian Loves You.
That if I was perhaps you know, an i Iranian gangster with a
lot of money, I would Iwould throw you, you know, a

(01:33:01):
few wooden nickels and see if youcan't make a profit, turn a profit
for you, boy, so appreciatethat. I mean, something I will
say is I mean, I I'llalways have a connection to I mean a
couple of places. One New Yorkis I'm from there in to LA because
I really grew up there, andyou know, like my I think,
at my heart, I'm an artist, regardless of what I do in my
life and career. You know,I think people are kind of like the

(01:33:24):
essence of something and that is justwhat I am. And you know,
I still, I think for therest of my life, I'll have a
lot of good friends and family inthat town. And they're off the top
of my head. One, two, three, four, four independent filmmaker
types, and I know they're stillthere that have been there the entire time
I was there, and they're stillthere, and they have different degrees of

(01:33:45):
success. One guy is a awardwinning music video guy. He's trying to
be a film guy, but he'syou know, making progress here and there.
Another guy is a lifelong comedian who'slike that close to getting his stuff
made, you know, because hehe attaches people and like some of the
money is there, not all themoney there. And one is just a
true independent filmmaker who does make things, just very sporadically, so you never

(01:34:10):
know what's gonna happen. I meanif if it helps you at all,
I mean, I definitely still haveyou know, reach there, and you
know, I think, I thinkwhen you're a part of a community,
then it's not like something is offthe table. There's always a potential that
you can get pulled back in.You know, do you never know?
But but I didn't. I nevershut the door because it's more than just

(01:34:32):
a vocation and a profession. It'sa life. And so I spend so
much time there doing so much workand meeting so many people and giving so
much myself. I mean I I'veliterally had every job on a set almost
like where everything from PA to producerfor different levels of film, TV,

(01:34:55):
Web, all kinds of productions.And I think when you spend more than
a decade working almost like seven daysa week, it'll never leave you.
So you never know, it's it'salways there. You just don't know when
something tangible will come of it.Damn. That would be a good place
to end it, But I'm obnoxious. I think maybe you and I I

(01:35:18):
don't know, off air, maybewe should start kicking around some ideas,
dude, because with your smarts andmy idiot, there's something there that we
could make like there's something there justbased on like the conversations that you know
what, Sean, don't go ona tangent. This man just said something
fucking good, a good way toend the show. And you're gonna bring
up fucking personal gain. You're afull let me throw in there. But

(01:35:41):
no, I mean, of courseI'm open to that because we're you know,
in contact and you can always reachout for anything. I wish you
a merry Christmas. And I waslike very hesitant to do that, and
now that I know no need youcan. Oh are you saying Are you
saying because we hadn't been touched fora while or because it's Christmas? No?
I think I just yet will thatI like all religion. I'm a

(01:36:03):
man of all religion, Sean.But like I mean, because here's the
thing, like you saying that.As soon as you were just like I'm
Jewish, like blah blah, Iwent, oh my god, I wish
this man merry fucking Christmas last yearyou fuck oh no, no, no,
no, Like I I say thatlike facetiously. It's like I mean
I am technically, but like Ijust don't. I don't feel like you
fit into like the masses when you'relike when you grow up and people are

(01:36:26):
like kind of poking you and proddingyou and asking questions about you, and
like it's just so uncomfortable. Sothe point is you don't feel like the
masss because you're always like you askquestions or treated weird and like people know
whether they can feed your ham orpork or it's like what what am I
an animal? You know? Oram I a man? No? No,

(01:36:46):
you hate chain restaurants. You hateall of that stuff. No one's
feeding you any chicken or beef oranything like that. I like a good
fast casual say that, like thereis some good like in La it was
California Chicken Cafe here and uh Phoenix. You know, wherever you live,
there's always there's a way to dofood a little bit more rapidly. But
it doesn't have to be like dousedin oil and sugars and the salts,

(01:37:09):
and you know, there's a wayto do it. It's the most popular
ones, the ones that are cheapestand most ubiquitous, and to be like
the shittiest food. That's why theyare ubiquitous because they're a business that's highly
profitable why because they have a largeaudience and they spend nothing on their product,
so you know, their margins arehuge. Hence they can spend ten
billion dollars a year advertising on TVand with every major sport and you know,

(01:37:30):
just but one thing I will sayis this, Yeah, not to
backtrack, but this is what wedo. So one of the first questions
you asked that I didn't respond tois like, do you feel like you
were like maybe blackball because of someof the content. And I appreciate the
fact that you brought that up becauseI never in a million years thought of
that, not a million years.I've never in seventeen years thought about that.
I never thought that what I madewas that edgy, because I just

(01:37:55):
thought, like, this is mylife, you know, and this is
just like making a broad comedy,poking fun at some things that are kind
of ridiculous. And to that point, I remember when Idiocracy came out.
I think Mike Judge is genius,you know, and he he received that

(01:38:15):
blowback. Granted, he was,you know, a known entity, so
obviously if he makes a movie,it's gonna get pushed out. But I
remember reading several different things excuse me, and hearing stories about how basically Fox
kind of like really didn't publicize itbecause I mean, it mocked I think
it was Fox Studio that it wasmade at. It openly mocked Fox News.
So but it's the same thing.I mean, it's the same kind

(01:38:40):
of concept where you're kind of likemaking a really strong statement, even if
it's through comedy. And I thinkI was trying to make the statement that
this stuff is funny more than anything. I think I was. I think
I was just trying to make peoplelaugh. But could people have read it
the way that you said, quitepossibly, I mean that could have been
a factor somehow. The whole room, sir, the whole room was like,

(01:39:02):
oh man, Like because I explainedto him, I was like,
he shot this, then it's justnow, you know, well not just
now, but it hit a streetingservice almost twenty years later, and they're
like they almost looked at it.They almost looked at me like, well,
yeah, did you watch the fuckingmovie? And and I had thought
that prior, like it's it interestingbecause you just went I think because of

(01:39:25):
the scope that we talked about earlier, like and again like who the fuck
knows, But I'm not saying thatany one person that you pitched it to
or the festivals or anything like thatwas like, no, he's going after
festter. But I'm not saying everybodydid that. But I think you'd be
silly to think at least one ortwo or five or ten went no,
no, no, no no.We're not to a strong subject, too

(01:39:48):
much of a what would you callit an offensive necessarily, just like don't
come after our money. Don't comeafter our money, sir. Maybe politically,
even though it wasn't politics us,but political in a sense where it's
big business. Maybe there's a partof me that thinks that that conversation on
the golf course is happening right fuckingnow, dude, between two people that

(01:40:12):
are that are looking for the CRISPUShundred dollars bill. I believe that,
Yeah, But I I think partof the fun about writing comedy is you
can just write the craziest shit thatcomes to your mind. And that's and
Brian loves You. So that wasmore suspense. You have to kind of

(01:40:32):
keep at a certain level of seriousand after making Takeout, I remember when
I made Brian Loves You, Iwas really interested in doing something that wasn't
funny at the time, I rememberthinking, I'm really relieved that I don't
have to be funny right now,that I can be serious. And I
don't know, I mean that wasjust because I had just made takeout.
But but to me, that's themost fun is writing comedy because it's like

(01:40:56):
my whole wife. Even when Iwas reporting for newspapers, I would like
write stuff on the side as ajoke and pass around the newsroom and to
the kind of reaction would get.When I was in college and I had
broadcast journalism writing courses, I wouldalways go funny with it just to see
how the you know, instructor orprofessor would you know, would feel and
and uh yeah, I mean there'sIt's so when you talk about that scene

(01:41:16):
on the golf course, I justthought, like, what is the most
ridiculous thing that somebody would say beingbored with one hundred dollars bill because it's
not perfect? So you just likeyou rip it up because it's no good.
I mean that's the beauty of comedy. I mean you could you could
be just like more creative, Ithink than almost any other genre. Yeah,

(01:41:38):
yeah, comedy, comedy and horrorfor sure, Hey, can we
do this again? Can we can? We? Can we fuck around again?
And we got to review something else. It's a review long gone or
something maybe not long gone. That'skind of like there were some cringe elements
of that movie. Yeah, Ithink you and I are do for another
three hour podcasts. I think youand I are do. Find a movie.

(01:41:58):
Yeah, just find a class moviethat's like classically underrated but also good.
Great, we just did one,all right. Just let the silence,
just let the silence, just fuckinglike wait witch. Oh yeah,
I don't even put my movie inthere until somebody like really puts it on

(01:42:23):
right in front of me like that. So I appreciate that, sir,
pleasure as usual. I am gonnachuck you deuces. I thought I thought
Takeout was good. I can attestthat other people that were with me I
thought it was good. And justa goddamn mensch. This guy a mensch.
I tell you, take Out noexcuse streaming on to be as we

(01:42:46):
speak. It's free. It's free, it's free, and how about you
just see it based on the meritof that dude alone. Isn't that dude
great? I fucking love Seth andyou think I'm fucking around by maybe doing
some business with him, maybe workingon something later, And it's just a
testament to his character anyway. EllisCinema, Seth Landau, take Out,

(01:43:10):
Takeout on two. Be right nowand maybe you'll see Seth and I shortly
down the line. Here Ellis Cinema, Takeout, Seth Landau. We got

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Episode 248: An Evening with Seth Landau - Take Out

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 248: An Evening with Seth Landau - Take Out