'Hollywood In Toto' creator and film critic Christian Toto joins P.K. to discuss where actors and filmmakers whose values do not align with established Hollywood orthodoxy find outlets to showcase their work and productions.
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Speaker 1 (00:25):
We wear many hats in our day to day lives,
but the most important hat we will ever wear is
standing up for humanity against tyranny. And now here is
your host? He Ca Stein, Mark Stevenson.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Oh, hello, everybody, Welcome, Hey, Ry, how are you hey?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Hanging in there and really excited about tonight's guest.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
I know him well, I.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Know a good friend of yours, and so I hope
I do you good.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I'm no doubts and he is a professional. He knows
how to handle himself.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Okay, So I want to start with our quote open
criticism is better than unexpressed love Roverbs twenty seven. And
as I was researching him, you know, our real people,
real stories thing, it seemed like when I was listening
to how he was critiquing and his podcasts and stuff,
he had this manner of critique. I felt that was
(01:12):
laced like with constructive compassion and concern. It was just cool.
I just never listened to him that much in that
close But then when you introduced me to him, I
went after it. And so I'd like to introduce our guest.
Tonight is professional and award winning in every sense of
the word. He is a film critic and journalist. In
(01:34):
this present world of one sided this, he offers the
other side in fairness. His podcast, Hollywood in Toto steps
into the most egocentric and self absorbed world of megalomaniacs,
handling them and their work with a Midas touch. Hooray
for Hollywood went the wayside. In his book Virtue Bomb,
(01:55):
How Hollywood Got Woke and Lost its soul, Virtue is
displayed throughout the entirety of his work and to us
that makes him the Bomb. Welcome Christian Toto. Thank you
for being here.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Oh, my pleasure to be here. Thanks for very nice introduction.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Oh you're welcome. I just want you to tell us
a little bit our listeners, a little bit about yourself
and how you got into this, the film critics and
the journalism and everything. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Well, the trick is to get three different art degrees
and never use them and then sneak your way into
a career as a journalist and a film critic. That
was That was my secret plan, and it worked perfectly
because I got where I wanted to go. But it
took a little while to get here. You know, I
always wanted to be a film critic. But when the
(02:44):
art stuff didn't really pan out. I thought I'd try
that because you had the inter journalism, and then you know,
see what kind of will happen after that. So I
just kind of gently elbowed my way into the field
and worked at a couple of different newspapers, and then
as the industry was changing slash dying, I went solo.
And then along the way, I thought, you know, I
am a right of center person. That's the way I
(03:04):
view politics in the world, and there are very very
few critics who really reflect that point of view. My
peers lean to the laps. I'm aggressively, so you can
see it in the writing and the reporting and the reviews.
And I thought, well, let me just be different because
it's authentic to who I am. And that's what I've done.
So I've been added for a while now, too long perhaps,
And I contribute to the Oily Wire and The Blaze
(03:27):
and NewsBusters and some other websites and forums as well.
And yeah, I'm tickled pink I can do what I do.
And of course it's the kind of job where, because
I'm my own boss, I work seven days a week,
which is less fun, But yeah, I am grateful to
kind of be able to kind of shape a career
and be a quasi stay at home dad and make
it all work. It ain't easy, but it's fun.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
It's amazing how you do it. It's you know, and
what you're doing is really needed. Do you realize half
of America is not on the side of this woke
and we were never represent it. And in old Hollywood
we had a little bit of that, and they even
had ways to protect kids with all of the ratings
and things, you know, and I you know, it was
the church who kind of helped them with their ratings
(04:12):
that went with the wayside. And then, so give us
your impression of old Hollywood versus the new Hollywood.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
Oh gosh, I mean, old Hollywood was radically different in
so many ways. I guess I'm much more familiar with
a new model, and I think it's exciting and interesting
and frustrating. But I think the real problem that I've
seen over the last but maybe twenty or so years
is a bit of a disconnect between the studios and
the artists and the people themselves and what we want
(04:41):
to see. And sometimes they still hit the target and
make movies that are amazing and fun and exciting, but
I think there's been that a lack of understanding about
what's of interest to us, and then also there's sort
of a condescension that hey, we know what's good for you,
we're going to hear you this, and that we're not
going to listen. So I think it's one of the
frustrating things I've found in my career is that it
(05:03):
got into this whole silly business. Because I really love movies,
and I love the actors for entertaining us, and I
appreciate the work they do. At the same time, someone
them just kind of flat out insult me and people
who think like me, and I really think that's obviously
not the way to go. I don't think it's a
proactive or pragmatic approach. I mean, once you go in
that direction, you're insulting your customer base. And I think
(05:24):
we're seeing the fruits of that disrespect right now across
the culture and as Hollywood struggles to kind of make
ends meet.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
And you know, it seemed like years ago they were
really trained. They trained hour after hour and day after day,
and today it's like, if you just adapt their philosophy
and you do what they tell you to do, they'll
make you a billionaire. So you sell yourself to the
devil your soul and then you're a billionaire, and you
really I don't think those people even know who they
(05:52):
really are, to be honest with you. And I don't
know if you sense that, but I think the talent
or the lack of talent is really evident today as
opposed to the old days.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
Yeah, but you know, I mean, there are so many
actors out there, and there are genuinely gifted people, and
the ones who aren't they may get lucky, they may
get a roll and they get a sitcom part, and
then they kind of fade away because they don't have
the talent to sustain it. And I do think I
think sometimes the artists are a little bit tortured. Maybe
their upbringing was in pristine, and I think they're a
(06:25):
little bit lost at times. And I think that they
had this passion for the arts, and I respect that,
but I also think that they I wrote in my
book Virtue Bombs, it's an industry different by fear. It's
a fear of getting older, it's a fear of not
getting the right jobs. It's a fear of losing the
right jobs. It's a fear of do I still have it?
Have I made the right moves? I mean, there's so
much fear built into it. And I think a lot
(06:46):
of artists are desperately trying to fit in. And I
think that kind of goes a little bit with the
group think, where an artists won't feel badly about insulting
me or you, and they'd rather genuflect to their peers
because then they can think, well, I might get the
next role because if I say the right things, then
I may be more approachable, I may be more terrible,
(07:08):
you know. And that's something to Nick Cercy, the actor
Great Actors, has kind of indirectly taught me about how
this works. You know, when the actors use the virtue signaling,
it's not often about what they care about. It's actually
what the signal they're sending to their colleagues, like you know,
I'm one of you. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
It's like they're this big family and they all have
the same political slant and bent on the world, and
when they say it, that's it, and nobody else has
even taken into consideration. And just now you did exactly
what I was telling you, Christian, you that I saw
(07:44):
with the way you interview. I asked you a question
and you had such consideration with how you answered it
when a lot of us think, you know, Hollywood's a joke,
and you gave it a lot of consideration and concern,
and I like that you lace your answers with that,
and I don't know if you can see that, but
that's what I saw.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
Oh well, thank you, you know. And one of the
reasons why I say that is because I have a
lot of empathy for the actors. It's a brutal business,
and for every brad Pit, there are hundreds, if not
thousands of actors who don't get work and are unemployed
and are struggling, and they have a lot of talent
and may be just as good an actor as a
brad Pit, but they just never had that moment, They
never had that chance. So I just have a lot
(08:24):
of empathy for them in that regard. And again, they
you know, at their best, they make our lives more entertaining.
They distract us, they entertain us, you know, So that's
that's the part of it as well, or they didn't get.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
The part because they didn't fall along with the group think.
You know. You also mentioned in about the Oscars being unwatchable,
and I remember, like the last time I watched the
Oscars was when Brando brought the American Indian Girl on stage.
I was young, gosh, and that's the last time I
watched them.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
And I haven't missed much.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, And that's what I was gonna say. How do
you feel like after I regarding I didn't miss much?
Why do you feel that way?
Speaker 5 (09:01):
Well, I mean, listen, I guess my growing up period
was in the maybe late eighties early nineties, the Dealete
Crystal years and and how he was such. He was
kind of let's put on a show kind of a situation.
And I think that the industry in recent years has
lost that moxie, has lost that spirit. So I think
at one point the Oscars were fairly entertaining and fun
(09:22):
and different in novel. But for a lot of different reasons,
we're not very anymore. And you know, part of it
is that overexposure at the stars. Part of it, as
we're there's different things that we can be entertained by.
So there's a lot of different reasons. But also the
shows got kind of lectury and got full of themselves,
and it was a real disconnect.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
You know, they made us feel like we weren't as
smart as they were, and they were lecturing us because
it's like they have to bring us up to, you know,
thinking properly, and it rules the whole thing. I want
to ask you about that old adage that goes does
art imitate life or does life imitate eight art? What
do you think it is today?
Speaker 5 (10:03):
Oh gosh, And I think it's always it's always a
push and pull of both, Okay, I mean, you know,
I mean it could be always go back to the
heard the Rachel haircut from the nineties, how everyone wanted
the Rachel haircut. You know, we can see things in
pop culture and we could be influenced by them or
even just the you know, Al Gore's movie, and it
can be in truth. But now that we think about
global warming, movie rocks the culture. It had an impact,
(10:24):
It started conversations and you know, so that's that's important.
And but at the same time, you know, the the
real world influences the art we see it. I you know,
I think it just kind of goes back and forth. Honestly, Well, what.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Do you think about the old adage of the communists
being in Hollywood from years ago and that whole experience
that Hollywood went through, and now we're finding out that, yes,
maybe that was true.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
So yeah, it's interesting to look at that. I feel
from a scholarly point of view, I don't know enough
about that to really weigh in a really investigative way.
But what I find fascinating is that Hollywood has been
reliving the McCarthy era and you know, making movies and
TV shows and plays and all these different productions around it.
(11:14):
And I understand it. It infected them directly. You know.
It was a freedom of speech. And yet in today's
Hollywood there's a new blacklist and it's it's aimed at
conservatives and doesn't get enough attention. I've been danging the
drum about that for about twenty years now and talking
to actors and talented people who are on the right
and who either are brave enough to say so and
(11:35):
they face the consequences or there the aff and ath me,
please don't mention the fact that I'm right of center,
because I could get punished for it from a professional
point of view. So it's that I know much more about,
and that's more shocking, and it's something that we should
all be talking about and is dreadfully unacceptable, and yet
that's the system that works in Hollywood right now. It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
And so then you have somebody like Mel Gibson who
just really doesn't give up flying rick what anybody has
to say, and he's calling them all out, and you know,
it makes people like us that are their fans respect them.
You know, you got to earn respect for people to
want to keep coming back and watching it. And when
you don't do that, it's like you don't even want
(12:18):
to watch him anymore.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Yeah, you know, Mel is a unique case because he's
just so good. I mean, he's a terrific A list actor,
he's a he's a top flight director, and I know
he's had his problems and his demons, but at the
end of the day, he's just really good at what
he does. And he's been able to survive in a
very tough industry even though he kind of swims against
the tide in many ways culturally. But he is no Gibson.
(12:43):
He is he brings it every time. So, yeah, he's
a new case. But then you know there are others
who don't maybe rise to his level of talent and
they will struggle that they don't kind of toe the line.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
M Well, do you feel like when they tow the
line they lose a little bit of themselves?
Speaker 5 (12:57):
Though? Oh, you know, the great Andrew Claven, who I
think of, I think the world of, and has pontificated
on this far better than I have. He he talks
about how he essentially wrote himself out of Hollywood. He
was doing a lot of screenwriting work, and of course
he's a great writer. And he said, you know, when
I stuck to my principles, that basically ended my career.
And he said, I but then I look at the
(13:18):
people who were still there and still working and still
kind of subjecting themselves to the system and kind of
swallowing hard or as their their moral compass, you know,
spins like a top and they He's like, I don't
even know them anymore. They just they've lost themselves in
a way. So I think, you know, when you don't
stand up for yourself, there's something significant lost.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Well, you know, I happened to watch that exact podcast,
I believe it was Kevin Roberts Show, and you and
Andrew Claven was on it. You guys were talking about
how the way to change this is, you know, to
tell great stories, but to not let them take the
values that we have and miss, you know, take them
(13:59):
out and act as if something else can replace them,
because you just can't replace the values of like Christianity
and the real values that hold a society get together.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
What say you, yeah, I mean well, I mean I
think also when you stick to your values and you
don't bend, and you kind of stand up for yourself,
there are consequences and you lose things. What I've noticed
in recent years is that several people did variations of
just that and ended up on top again. Tyler Fisher
as a comedian, I think he's involved in a lawsuit
where his agency said, I can't we can't represent you.
(14:33):
You're a straight white male. It's not working this point,
and he fired back at them. You know, he defied
the COVID rules at times, and you know, I think
he a lot of opportunities were slammed shut for him,
but he kind of worked around and did his own thing,
hit the Road, did a podcast, and he's able to
kind of build his own career on his terms and
he can look himself in the mirror. Gema Carano is
(14:55):
the same situation. I mean, she just settled with Disney.
I'm sure she got paid a pretty penny that whole
situation where they fired her for the Mandalorian because she
said something they deemed defends them and it wasn't remotely offensive.
So she's someone else. So I actually I met her,
interviewed her, and she just said I couldn't stay silent,
I couldn't betray my own principles. And she suffered. I'm
(15:15):
sure she lost many jobs, but you know, she can
hold her head high and now I think she's going
to move forward in a way that's good for her career.
So I think it's a struggle when you stand up
for yourself, and I think there are opportunities that go away,
but I think new doors open, and I think that's exciting.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Well.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I kind of like how some of the conservatives said, well,
we don't need Hollywood and they stepped out and they're
creating and doing their art on their own, and there's
all this independent stuff and independent movies and a lot
of them are just as good. In fact, they have
a better storytelling as he was talking about, you know
on that show, and you were that it's about telling
(15:52):
great stories and that you don't want to polarize everybody
in these movies, and it's like, if you but real
values in there, the people will show up like crazy.
And I really agreed with you. I thought that. So
could you elaborate on that.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
Yeah, I mean look at Sound of Freedom that came
out a year or two ago, and that was a
movie that literally sat on a shell for several years.
Disney owned it, didn't know what to do with it,
and then Angel Studios came along and said, you know,
we see something pretty special in this movie, and it
was one of the biggest hits that year. It actually
outgrows major franchises like The Fast and the Furious, and
I think the Indian and Jones movie it out eclipped
(16:29):
them as well. So that's exciting. But I think all's
exciting to me is that because the technological barriers are falling,
because we can now make movies on a much smaller
budget that look great and sound great, and because we
distributed them in ways that were never possible before with
the Internet and YouTube and rumble, I think that opens
(16:50):
up a lot of opportunities for people who either are
on the right or just you know, or just unorthodox
in their views, and they want to tell a story
their way, and I don't want to follow the system
or the mold, and so I think that's what the
next ten twenty years would be. And that's why it's exciting,
because you can get all these different voices that haven't
been heard, that have been silent, and all of a sudden, hey,
you can't silence us anymore. We're going to get out
(17:10):
there and we'll see what happens, and we'll see bad
movies from that and good movies from that and everything
in between. But it'll be fresh and different.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Well, I think they're real thorn in the side of
the media and movies and everything has been the alternative media.
You know, it's got more conservativism in it. You know,
it's not all this regurgitated, robotic, agenda driven, repetitive, over
and overlying persuasion that the media gives you. You know,
(17:39):
it's like, no, it's the alternative media. There are people
out there telling you this is how it is and
wake up everybody.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
Yeah, And that's a system that in theory could support
these newer projects. And you know, if a Michael Moore
comes out with a movie tomorrow, then he's going to
be in the Variety and Hollywood Reporter and Deadline and
all these different major publications. But if it's a Ben
Shapiro movie, then there's a chance that he could be
(18:09):
on the Daily Wire, he could be on the Federal List,
he could be a National Review, he could be on
The Blaze. I mean, that's the potential. But having settled that,
I have founded very frustrating because often there's such competition
within the conservative rank and file that they often don't
support each other.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
That's what I was going to ask you, is it
really you see some I've noticed as I watch and
I do my deep dives and you know, go down
the rabbit hole, I find that they are kind of
antagonistic towards it, even with one another, you know, and
it's like, why why aren't we all in this together?
Aren't we a family?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Or you know.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
Yeah, it's frustrating. As you're right and it's happening, there
are some signs of it breaking down, and maybe there
is more or partnerships than you would think. I write
for The Blaze, and I know my editors are often
very supportive, and when I pitch them a project that
maybe come from another comes from another conservative platform or outlet,
and that I've enjoyed that experience writing the stories, pitching
(19:06):
those stories, getting them successfully accepted. So maybe that's changing,
but it has been a real problem because you need
that kind of uniformity because if there's a documentary, there's
something coming soon called Generation COVID. It's about how the
pandemic and the lockdowns really dramatically impacted kids learning their
(19:27):
social skills and goes on and on. So that's the
movie that you will never see talked about in variety.
You will never see that on Good Morning America. So
all these places where you would normally get that message
out there are closed, completely closed. So they're dependent on
the daily wire. And you know, my side is Hollywood
(19:47):
and Toto and all these different platforms that are atypical, unconventional,
different and that's how they're going to succeed and give
it you because it doesn't matter how great a movie is.
If you people don't know about it, they're not going
to see it. I think that's a problem that's been
existing on the right. I do think it's getting better
to a certain degree, but it's got to get much better.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
And I think we're going to come to a point
now where the COVID situation is going to show greater
ramifications than you think. I was just listening to some
people today and they were talking about Fauci and how
they hadn't planned on putting COVID out Hillary if Hillary
would have won. And then they said, but everybody who's
been exposed to it or did have the shot. Okay,
(20:28):
because we're all exposed to the mRNA, but whoever had
the shot, they said, there's a thirty percent lesser chance
of life longevity. And that's a lot, you know when
you think about it.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
Yeah, and the media would never, really, the majream media
would never kind of you know, investigate those kinds of
stories because it goes against the narrative. So that's where
the old that's where the new media comes in. They've
got to do the heavy lifting. And you know, that's
that's not easy and a lot of that work you're
talking about, there's a lot of investigative research that's not easy.
It's not cheap, and it's harder to do, you know,
(21:07):
But that's that's part of the new landscape. And so
one of the reason why you don't you know, many
people don't trust the mainstream press because they they have
certain stories, certain art, and certain truths that they share
and doesn't matter if they're flat out.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Faults exactly, and if it's false, they don't care. They'll
still say it and it misleads people and it hurts people.
And yet they don't have any like compassion or any empathy.
It's like they lack what it means to be human.
And it's almost like all of the arts in the
media have become a tyranny against us.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
You know it's yeah. Jimmy Taylor is a really great comedian.
He works at Fox across America. He calls it the
death of shame and a lot because he's right, that
is great. You should be ashamed. If you're a journalist
and you get your story wrong, fix it, improve on it,
make amends, tell your reader you strewed up, and doesn't
(21:58):
grow all human. We all make this. If I get
something wrong on my website, I go and correct it
and I put an editor's note there. I let people know, hey,
I got it wrong. If I put up a tweet recently,
I got some wrong information, I took it down and said, hey,
I just put out something. It was wrong. I mean,
we will accept apologies, we will accept mistakes, but it's
got to be framed in a way that's you know,
(22:19):
authentic and transparent. And if you're getting these things wrong
again and again and again and there's no apologies and
just keep up going down, well you don't want our trust.
You want to tell us a story it's not the truth.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Well Ryan's great. I just kind of fell into this
podcast deal. But I love listening to everybody's stories, and
he allowed me to say whatever I wanted to say.
And I have done years and years of deep research
and everything that I told Ryan was going on, and
he listened. He was if he was suspect, he looked
(22:54):
it up himself. But all of these things are coming
true about the election, about COVID, about you know, all
these different things, and you've got to have people like
him who will allow that to come out. And when
it comes true, what now, what happens after all this
stuff is proven true? How do they apologize?
Speaker 5 (23:15):
I don't know. I don't think they're any interested in
doing that. So I get answer that question. Because they
didn't apologize for coming up the president's anility, then I
think any on for everything is exactly incapable exactly. I mean,
if you could be a Jake kaeper and defend and
chase away anyone who suspects that the president had some
cognitive decline, and then you go out and write a
(23:37):
book about said decline and cash those checks, and clearly
there's a there's not a person who could be shamed
into telling the truth and apologizing and being humble. I mean,
I guess he could have maybe said I'm going to
write this book and I'm going to send all the
proceeds to an Alzheimer's charity. I'd respect that a little bit.
But these are basically professional liars at this point to
(23:58):
a certain degree. Right now, that's a certain supporters and
that's just the way it is. And it's up to
us is the public to say, hey, we see you,
and we're going to move on to different news sources,
or we can say we'd like to lie keep lying.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Okay, great, We're going to take a break here and
I want to come back and ask you so much more.
Speaker 6 (24:14):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Oh, Ryan was just reminding me that I was a
young gal when that song came on, and not.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
More importantly, it was the band Toto.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Toto exactly the band Toto. So we have Christian Toto.
And this has really been so much it'sn't been enlightening
to talk to somebody like you who's been there and
done that. You hear a lot of comments, but a
lot of people haven't been in the trenches. And you've
been in this film business and you know, in the
(25:15):
journalism business in the trenches. And so you made a
statement though on one of your when I was reading
about your book and reading through it, you said that
we will we ever see a woke free tomorrow. You
said it could get much much worse before it gets better.
Explain that, well.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
I mean, I think there's a momentum to things in
life sometimes and that you know, plays out, So you know,
I think now I think we're seeing that improvement, which
I was. I didn't expect honestly, So that's exciting. But yeah,
I don't know. I mean, you know, at the time,
(25:56):
it seemed like things were just getting worse and worse,
and I didn't think that there would be a salvation,
and I was really kind of pessimistic about it. But
I think now we're seeing real progress in this front.
You know, I was very pessimistic for a long time.
Where things were going. But now I think it's a
common frame phrase you hear on social media. Nature is healing.
(26:19):
There has been a change, It is getting better, and
so that's a positive sign. You know, we're seeing storytellers.
Your studio is kind of backpedaling on some of this
kind of identity politics. So I thought the woke would
get worse and worse, but I think there is I
(26:39):
think that people have finally spoken, and I think that
the studios, the power players, the executives have finally listened
and said, hey, this is losing us a significant amount
of money. We can't keep doing it the way we've
been doing it so well.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
I know, Mel Gibson said until people are aware of it.
I think a lot of people weren't aware of how
bad it was really getting. And he said, until you're
aware of all these evil and terrible things that are happening,
you can't do anything about it. But now people are
standing up because they aren't going to have this stuff
shoved down their throats with this group think. And that
(27:11):
was my next question. It's like this attitude that these
people have, you know, it's like they have just pride
themselves on you know, they pride themselves on this that
their intellectual prowess is so much grander and greater, and
their thoughts and their viewpoints and opinions are so much
greater than the rest of the world. And I think
that's really really condescending, and it also it makes for
(27:36):
a nauseating type of you know, situation, if you.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
Know what I mean, Yeah, I mean, I listen. You know,
artists and actors specifically, they build on empathy where they
can understand different characters and different life experiences. And an
actor can play a villain or a monster or just
a terrible human being. But the actor will often say, yeah,
I understand that the characters a monster, but I have
(28:02):
to empathize with him or her. I have to understand
maybe the glimmer of humanity within them, or I have
to understand that they think that they're actually being good
and noble, even if they're doing dastardly deeds. So I
think when you get that sort of lockstep mindset where it's, uh,
you know, it's condescending, it's one dimensional, it's it's it's
(28:22):
lacking in nuance and lacking in complexity, you get the
storytelling isn't as good that the acting isn't as good,
the the themes aren't as profound. I think when you
have nuance and shades of gray, that's where you get
something that's more more entertaining.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Well, and just even with you. The way you do things,
and this is amazing to me, is you can critique
and you're not you know, challenging them, and you're not
looking down on them. You critique them, but you still
have that empathy. You still have that you know, everybody's
working hard. It's a brutal business, you know, so you're
(29:00):
not just cutting them down, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
Yeah, I mean, first of all, I mean I'm a
writer of center critic, but if I watch a movie
with progressive values and it's entertaining, I've got to say
that that would be insulting to the filmmakers. It would
be inauthentic, and I would do doing the people who
read or watch me at a service. So you've got
to be honest. You got to be a straight shooter
about all of this. So that's part of it. And
(29:26):
this is art, and art can be compelling, and you know,
a conservative can watch a film with progressive values and
maybe learning something or maybe even you know, mentally think
about how they would disagree with some of the conclusions
of the film. And often, you know, even if a
movie disagree with my worldview, it could be a rischer experience.
If the themes and the messaging and the conversations are
(29:49):
really delicately woven into the story, it makes it a
more profound experience. I mean, there are many horror movies
I enjoy, but if you watch something by Georgie A. Romero,
he's got something to say about culture and life, and
again I may not agree with it, but it makes
a little bit more of a full bodied experience. It's
not just blood and gore and guts. He's trying to
say something about the human experience and we can go
(30:10):
from there. One of the best horror movies the last
decade was get Out, which was made by a very
progressive filmmaker and had some progressive values and things I
disagreed with, but it was beautifully crafted, with great performances,
and had thoughtful ideas and was challenging. How could you
not love that?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
And I found too that some of the b movies
that they're making that you see you on if you
want to watch a movie on dish or pay for
a movie. A lot of the A listers have not
been in a lot of movies lately, so they have
all these other people, but there's always a message. As
crazy as these movies are, there is a message in
(30:48):
what they're saying, either about human trafficking, drugs, relationships. They
have these little messages. And somebody said, how do you
watch them? And I said, it's better than watching those
people at the top and they're just saying the same
thing over and over and over again.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Yeah, you know, I kind of stripling back to something
you said a little while ago. One of the reasons
why I think Hollywood is changing and backing off on
some of this overt lecturing is that there is competition
out there. You know, you could watch a late night
TV show and get a very one sided point of view,
where you can go on YouTube and watch a comedian
(31:23):
like Tim Dillon who hits everyone makes fun of the left,
makes one of the right. And I think that's one
of the thing that's going on right now is that
Hollywood is feeling that pressure that, hey, we don't have
it all to ourselves anymore, and we've got these new
storytellers and these new joke tellers and these new artists
who can challenge us and put out content that is
as interesting as what we do less for much.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Yeah, and I know what they're more scared about is
the money. You know, it's all about the dollar in
Hollywood and all about this. A lot of people do it,
I think altruistically to get a message out and they
just love the arts, but bottom line, it's the money.
And when they started losing money and that pendulum started swinging,
(32:04):
I think that's why we're seeing this bit of a change.
And like you get people like Jim cavezl who lives
their faith in Sound of Freedom, and you know he
lives his faith. He would die, he said in an
interview with Sean Ryan, he would die to help one
of those kids. That's his faith in action, you know
(32:24):
what I mean. And when you have people like him
saying these things, you have no respect for these other
type actors who will take any role just for the book.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (32:37):
You know, Jim Cavizel is a very special kind of
actor and special kind of talent. So that's he is
the exception, you know, And I would imagine that a
lot of actors, you look back at their past you know,
Brad Pitt wasn't always Brad Pitt, and Renees Olviger wasn't
always Renetes Olberger. At one point they were at a
work actors, striving to get by. And you know, they
may not be spiritually sound, but they loved what they
(32:59):
did and they for you know, help bent on getting
success and fame and fortune and roles. And I give
them credit too, because they may not be Christians in
a traditional sense, but they saw what they wanted and
were willing to sacrifice and put put huge hours in
and train and suffer and get rejected on auditions. And
that's another thing. You know, It's I have a lot
(33:21):
of respect for that as well. It's just it's it's
a brutal gig and it's hunt of pressure, and it's
never easy, and your your one bomb movie away from
becoming box office poisons. So it's it's very hard. But
you know, the Jym Cabesels who will do what they
need to do for their art and for their faith
and for the humanity. They they're special. They're just special, and.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
It seems like they have so much to offer that
you just kind of lean towards them. You don't lean
towards the other people, you know, And this whole thing is,
you know, in the old days, the movie stars, they
didn't talk about their private lives. You know, you just
only saw what they wanted you to see about them.
And then when they come out with their autobiographies or
(34:01):
their biographies, it was like, oh my god, you did that,
and then you think, then it changes your attitude and
your feeling about them. You know, today it's all out there.
I think the worst thing that ever happened is reality TV,
because it's like, is there anything that's precious in this world? Nothing?
(34:24):
I don't know, what do you say?
Speaker 5 (34:26):
Well, you know, it's funny you mentioned that, and now
the actors didn't, didn't you know, wax poetically about politics
or this or that or their beliefs. You know, back
in the day, they were micromanaged by the studios and
they were movie stars, so we didn't know anything about them.
They were mythical, they were magical, they were beautiful, They
had all these sort of interesting, you know, aspects to them.
(34:50):
But they were a mystery. They were a blank slave.
And I think that's why we cared about the movie
stars so much. And it was such a magical experience.
And today, you know, I'll see you know what, Tom
hangs on the wing the Hot Ones show where he's
eating hot wings, and I'll see them on a YouTube show.
Then I'll see them on Jimmy Kimmel, and then I'll
see him on Instagram. And it's not as special and
(35:12):
magical and wonderful as it once was. The mystique is gone.
So that's one of the reasons why the death of
the movie star is real. And also then they shove
their values and their thoughts down their throats in a
way that is often unappealing, so exactly and different reasons
why the start today is different than yesterday.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Yeah, and it's hard to take. You just don't can't
eat it. But but you look back even too about
the political thing. You know, nothing was funnier and there
wasn't any more greater talent than what's sat on those
Dean Martin Rose, you know, and they loved each other,
those people, they even would tell you that, I mean
even later on when you talk, they all said they
(35:49):
were all good friends, and they talked about their race,
and they didn't cause all this trouble. Today, it seems
like this liberal attitude in all the movies and everything,
and this leftist attitude, it just they push it to
where they want to initiate violence and hatred among people,
(36:10):
whereas years ago that didn't happen.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
Yeah, no, I mean, the divisiveness is a real thing,
and you know, I think the actors do it to
a lesser extent because they don't speak every night. But
like the late night shows, I mean, you know, Stephen
Colbert doesn't just trash Trump. He's essentially trashing all his voters,
and he's also intinuating that they're bad people that they
(36:33):
chose this monster to support. I mean, it's it's it's
it's not a you know, it's not like connecting dots
that are a million miles apart. You know, he's saying,
how could you support this person? And he's doing it
in a way that's very dismissive, and he also is
not you know, poking fun at the other side, and
it's also very mean spirited, and you can tell he's
trying to draw you know, rhetorical blood with this comment,
(36:56):
so that that doesn't really help the country. You know,
sad in that live gosh, maybe eight or nine years ago,
did a fake Trump ad and they had all bunch
of different Trump supporters saying I like what he has
to say, and I think he supports us, and then
the camera would pan out and the person ironing a
shirt was actually ironing a white hood like the ku
(37:16):
Kluck client. Yeah, and another one was wearing a Nazi insignia.
I mean, it's wildly insulting. And listen, I'm all for
free speech, and there's you can punch up, you can
punch down, but it's hard not to see that as
anything but divisive. And I think it was deeply unfair
to the people who voted for him. It's part of
the caricature that they helped create that is inauthentic and wrong.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
And they don't realize that those very people they're trashing
are the very people that are waiting on them in
a restaurant, that are helping them in a store, that
are creating goods or creating things for them to have,
and watching their kids and doing things and you know, teaching,
and it's like, what's wrong with you? You know, they're
bringing your food to the table, and you're trashing these
(38:01):
people just because they have a different opinion.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
Yeah, you know, Tony, I just watched the new movie.
It's called The Elephant in the Room, and it's a
story about a very liberal woman and she starts to
date a fellow and he's handsome and he's gracious and
he's charming, and then she finds out that he voted
for Trump, and it's all about, you know, can they
get past those differences? And you know, I think Hollywood
has hurt us in a way where it's dividing us
(38:27):
and telling us that we can't trust our neighbors and
we should be angry at our neighbors. And you know,
the end of the day, the people who disagree with
you and I, they may have a different vision of America,
and hopefully they have their best in the country's best
interest of heart at times, but they think there's a
different path. I don't think we could hate people. You
could have a robust disagreement and we could vote differently,
(38:48):
and we could have great conversations and we could say
many the best ideas win. But I think Hollywood has been,
you know, a thorn in our collective side. And you know,
it's films that have one's point of view. It's speeches
at Oscar's Night which are insulting. I just don't think
that's good for the country.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
No, it isn't. And actually I think that there was
a determined effort to go in and place an agenda
in America through media, through the arts and entertainment, and
give this one idea and you've got to believe it,
and if you don't, you're not worth it, damn. And
(39:27):
that is a sickening way to think. That's how America,
land of the free speech, home of the brave, has
to live with that kind of attitude.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
Yeah, one of the things I've been really disappointed with
has given my career is that I can disagree with
a lot of actors politically, and that's fine, we could
have a good robust debate or whatever. But I really
thought that they would stand up for free speech. Over
the last five, six, seven years, there's been a lot
of different attacks on free speech across the culture, and
to sum it up, physically, they haven't had boom. And
(39:57):
now there's been a lot of talk, Oh, Trump is
canceling free see beach, and that's not accurate. And there are
things you could say about him that you could disagree with.
Or maybe if this or that I'd been willing to
have those conversations for sure, But where were you? Where
were you during the Twitter files? Where were you when
big tech platforms were you know, censoring comedians? And where
were you when the Biden administration was looking to censor
(40:18):
points of view on covid? And where were you on
YouTube was shutting things down because you had the wrong opinion?
I mean, you were silent? And where were you during
cancel culture? And where were you when they get sensitivity
readers who are clipping out quotes and pages and passages
from Ian Fleming books and I get the Christie and
ul Dahl. You didn't say anything? Why didn't you stand up?
(40:40):
You know, George Clooney, where were you? We needed you?
You could have really done something good for the culture.
But they didn't say anything. But now when they have
a bugaboo, when they have someone make an attack, which
is Trump, they say, oh, free speech is under attack.
And you know, they fired Colbert because he's losing forty
million dollars a year And that's the worst thing, you know, No, no,
that's the last thing.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
That could happen, because it just shows that people are
sick of their mantra. They're just sick of it.
Speaker 5 (41:04):
Yeah, And I mean where were they?
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Like you said, yeah, well where were they?
Speaker 5 (41:10):
Where everyone they just fired?
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Yeah, exactly. And it's like when you were saying, where
were they when the doctors that wanted to give alternative
ways to conquer this COVID they wouldn't allow them, and
they were jailing them and muzzling them. You talk about,
you know, free speech being stifled, it was right there
in front of us. And I didn't see any of
these so called intellectual elites speaking up against that.
Speaker 5 (41:36):
Nope.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
And but I want to ask you, give me okay,
tell me what you uh, why you liked Trump? And
then I want to ask you a couple of questions
about your early years.
Speaker 5 (41:48):
Yeah. You know, it took me a very long time
to warm up to the president, and I still have issues,
for sure, But I think he's done more for the
country than I ever could have expected. And I think
anyone who has come under fire like he has, the
literal bullets, the law fair, the media is round the
(42:09):
clock lies about him, and the fact that he survived
and thrived and didn't quit and didn't cower and didn't
say I'm out of here, and didn't say, you know,
I can't take it anymore. It's genuinely remarkable.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
It is. And I think also that the fact that
he didn't he didn't power to them, and he didn't
change who he was in order to please them. Yeah,
you know that takes a lot of guts.
Speaker 5 (42:37):
He's a politician, he's flawed. He does things that I
don't agree with. But boy, look ticket step back. It's
just shocking what he's been able to do. And you know,
in an odd ways, he exposes people for their flaws.
I mean, you know, he's pro enforcement, he's anti crime,
and all of a sudden, those are the wrong issues
(42:58):
to a certain part of the country. It's fascinating to watch.
Its depressing too.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
And So when you grew up, how did you grow up?
How are your parents? What lessons did you learn? What
were some of the things you'd like to tell that
you brought along with you from childhood that you would
pass on to your children and others.
Speaker 5 (43:19):
My childhood was boring, and I said that in a
pretty good way. It was no real drama, thank goodness.
And my parents loved me unconditionally. You know, I think
that they I probably learned the most from watching them
go about their business. And the way they interacted with
people and the way they treated other people, and you know,
the conversations we had around the dinner table. I mean,
(43:40):
I think those are all kind of really important in
forming who I am, and you know, the kind of
person I am. And I can see elements of my
mom and me. I can see elements of my lay
father and me. So yeah, it's I guess there's nothing
that you think about directly, but I often think that
the modeling part of parenthood is the most important at times. Know,
(44:01):
it's great if you if my dad went to church
every day, but then if we went to the local
hardware store and he paraded the guy behind the counter
because he made a little mistake, then you know, that
doesn't that doesn't vibe with me. You know, you got
to got to keep those values constant, that kind of thing.
So you know, I just saw goodness of my parents
and generosity, and I hope, hope I capture some of
that as an adult.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Yeah, so they live their values, and it is this
action speaks louder than words when you're looking to teach
kids values.
Speaker 5 (44:29):
And then they were very funny. I you know, if
I if I'm ever funny I can kind of credit
down because they had good quick sense as a humor.
We grew up in New York. It's sort of sort
of part of your DNA when you grow up in
that kind of environment. So I appreciate that, Yeah, most
of all.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
I mean, my roommate at Texas was from New York
and she was a scream and all we did was laugh,
and so I really enjoyed it. But also now I
want to ask you this, in your heart of hearts,
what kind of faith and spiritual keeps you grounded and
(45:03):
keeps you? You know, you have a really unique way
about you. I have really really enjoyed learning about you.
So what is it about your faith?
Speaker 5 (45:17):
Very complicated question. I don't even know if I could
sum it up. Honestly, that's something I didn't really think about.
I think the way I've lived my life is to
kind of make the small gestures in life. The little
kindness is the opening the door letting people in on traffic,
just as little things that make life better and easier
(45:38):
on everyone. No, I think I've often focused, and I
don't know that's the spiritual thing, A courteous thing, a
purposeful thing. I think it's kind of all of the above, honestly,
but I think there's sort of a goodness that you
want to have in life and in culture and in society,
and that's that's always matter to me. So I don't
think it's a direct question answer to your question. But
(46:00):
are you a Christian or are you I'm a Catholic Catholic.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
I grew up Catholic too. Were you a cradle Catholic?
Speaker 5 (46:08):
Yeah? Yeah, and you know, and as an adult, I
have not been to church in a while either, Yeah,
and I don't I'm not proud of that per se.
But I'd like to think the value so I live
or what's important And I may get sense, but uh,
I think the.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Church did play a role in forming a lot of
people's lives. But when you started finding out about the
church and about the situation in today's world, all this
evil that's coming out and everybody's being away, you know,
everything hidden is being shown and everything secret is being told.
What do you think about this? And where do you
(46:48):
think America is going to be in the next couple
of years.
Speaker 5 (46:52):
Yeah, that's an interesting question. And it's funny because I
I think when I was younger, or I didn't give
as much credence to good and evil. I mean, Hitler
was evil. There were certainly monsters in the world, and
I thought that was very cut and dried, but as
far as people and day to day operations, I kind
(47:13):
of cut them a lot of grace and a lot
of slack. And in recent years, I feel like I've
witnessed some behaviors beyond the obvious monsters of the world
that strike me as almost flat out evil. So that's
been something that's been an odd education within me, if
that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Yeah, we grew up learning about good and evil, but
now we're seeing it right in front of our eyes,
and it's.
Speaker 5 (47:36):
Like, yeah, it takes my breath away.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
It takes your breath away, but it also takes General
Flynn's breath away. I mean, here's a guy who continually
says I've seen evil, but all of this is beyond evil.
And so I think we're at that point and I
hope God comes and you know, helps get us out
of it. And with people like you who can talk
(47:58):
about both sides without getting angry, without inducing violence and hatred,
we need more people like you, and that's what I noticed,
and I really thank you for coming on this show.
I was anxious to question you and listen to you,
and especially since you're Ryan's buddy, I was like, Wow, Ryan,
to give me a chance to interview your buddy.
Speaker 5 (48:21):
You know. It's funny. I get lots and lots of
questions about entertainment and culture and politics and the media,
and I'm very good at that, but I don't ever
get asked about my faith or my feelings or my spirituality.
So I feel like I stumbled to that one. I
just because it's not something that I directly am questioned
about or I don't know. It's sort of who I am,
(48:42):
but I don't vocalize it honestly.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
Yeah, but you know what it really is you and
it shows and it comes through. I can sense it
when I listen to your podcast and the way you
talk about are just critiquing a movie to chart your
choice of words, the atmosphere around how you said it.
You just have a really, really cool manner about you,
and Ryan can be glad he can call you a friend.
Speaker 5 (49:06):
And vice versa.
Speaker 4 (49:07):
Well, and now you've heard why and one day, baby,
we'll see why. And Christian's going to be in studio
with me tomorrow as he usually is just want to
give a little plug there for the right side of Hollywood.
That's Friday's at two pm. You can listen live.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
On six point thirty k out here in the Denver market,
or we post podcasts as well, and a reminder that
you can subscribe, download and listen to Christian's podcast, Hollywood
and Toto on your favorite podcast platform and his website.
You can find all of his reviews there his content
at Hollywoodintoto dot com.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
And maybe I'll be lucky enough to meet you one day.
So thank you for being here. God bless you in
yours and take care as we leave with our quote
tonight and say good night. As a face is reflected
in water, so a person is reflected by his heart,
Proverbs twenty seven nineteen. That's the kind of guy I
(49:57):
think Christians.
Speaker 4 (50:07):
At the
Speaker 2 (50:37):
Distas
We wear many hats in our day to day lives,
but the most important hat we will ever wear is
standing up for humanity against tyranny. And now here is
your host? He Ca Stein, Mark Stevenson.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Oh, hello, everybody, Welcome, Hey, Ry, how are you hey?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Hanging in there and really excited about tonight's guest.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
I know him well, I.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Know a good friend of yours, and so I hope
I do you good.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I'm no doubts and he is a professional. He knows
how to handle himself.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Okay, So I want to start with our quote open
criticism is better than unexpressed love Roverbs twenty seven. And
as I was researching him, you know, our real people,
real stories thing, it seemed like when I was listening
to how he was critiquing and his podcasts and stuff,
he had this manner of critique. I felt that was
(01:12):
laced like with constructive compassion and concern. It was just cool.
I just never listened to him that much in that
close But then when you introduced me to him, I
went after it. And so I'd like to introduce our guest.
Tonight is professional and award winning in every sense of
the word. He is a film critic and journalist. In
(01:34):
this present world of one sided this, he offers the
other side in fairness. His podcast, Hollywood in Toto steps
into the most egocentric and self absorbed world of megalomaniacs,
handling them and their work with a Midas touch. Hooray
for Hollywood went the wayside. In his book Virtue Bomb,
(01:55):
How Hollywood Got Woke and Lost its soul, Virtue is
displayed throughout the entirety of his work and to us
that makes him the Bomb. Welcome Christian Toto. Thank you
for being here.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Oh, my pleasure to be here. Thanks for very nice introduction.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Oh you're welcome. I just want you to tell us
a little bit our listeners, a little bit about yourself
and how you got into this, the film critics and
the journalism and everything. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Well, the trick is to get three different art degrees
and never use them and then sneak your way into
a career as a journalist and a film critic. That
was That was my secret plan, and it worked perfectly
because I got where I wanted to go. But it
took a little while to get here. You know, I
always wanted to be a film critic. But when the
(02:44):
art stuff didn't really pan out. I thought I'd try
that because you had the inter journalism, and then you know,
see what kind of will happen after that. So I
just kind of gently elbowed my way into the field
and worked at a couple of different newspapers, and then
as the industry was changing slash dying, I went solo.
And then along the way, I thought, you know, I
am a right of center person. That's the way I
(03:04):
view politics in the world, and there are very very
few critics who really reflect that point of view. My
peers lean to the laps. I'm aggressively, so you can
see it in the writing and the reporting and the reviews.
And I thought, well, let me just be different because
it's authentic to who I am. And that's what I've done.
So I've been added for a while now, too long perhaps,
And I contribute to the Oily Wire and The Blaze
(03:27):
and NewsBusters and some other websites and forums as well.
And yeah, I'm tickled pink I can do what I do.
And of course it's the kind of job where, because
I'm my own boss, I work seven days a week,
which is less fun, But yeah, I am grateful to
kind of be able to kind of shape a career
and be a quasi stay at home dad and make
it all work. It ain't easy, but it's fun.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
It's amazing how you do it. It's you know, and
what you're doing is really needed. Do you realize half
of America is not on the side of this woke
and we were never represent it. And in old Hollywood
we had a little bit of that, and they even
had ways to protect kids with all of the ratings
and things, you know, and I you know, it was
the church who kind of helped them with their ratings
(04:12):
that went with the wayside. And then, so give us
your impression of old Hollywood versus the new Hollywood.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
Oh gosh, I mean, old Hollywood was radically different in
so many ways. I guess I'm much more familiar with
a new model, and I think it's exciting and interesting
and frustrating. But I think the real problem that I've
seen over the last but maybe twenty or so years
is a bit of a disconnect between the studios and
the artists and the people themselves and what we want
(04:41):
to see. And sometimes they still hit the target and
make movies that are amazing and fun and exciting, but
I think there's been that a lack of understanding about
what's of interest to us, and then also there's sort
of a condescension that hey, we know what's good for you,
we're going to hear you this, and that we're not
going to listen. So I think it's one of the
frustrating things I've found in my career is that it
(05:03):
got into this whole silly business. Because I really love movies,
and I love the actors for entertaining us, and I
appreciate the work they do. At the same time, someone
them just kind of flat out insult me and people
who think like me, and I really think that's obviously
not the way to go. I don't think it's a
proactive or pragmatic approach. I mean, once you go in
that direction, you're insulting your customer base. And I think
(05:24):
we're seeing the fruits of that disrespect right now across
the culture and as Hollywood struggles to kind of make
ends meet.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
And you know, it seemed like years ago they were
really trained. They trained hour after hour and day after day,
and today it's like, if you just adapt their philosophy
and you do what they tell you to do, they'll
make you a billionaire. So you sell yourself to the
devil your soul and then you're a billionaire, and you
really I don't think those people even know who they
(05:52):
really are, to be honest with you. And I don't
know if you sense that, but I think the talent
or the lack of talent is really evident today as
opposed to the old days.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
Yeah, but you know, I mean, there are so many
actors out there, and there are genuinely gifted people, and
the ones who aren't they may get lucky, they may
get a roll and they get a sitcom part, and
then they kind of fade away because they don't have
the talent to sustain it. And I do think I
think sometimes the artists are a little bit tortured. Maybe
their upbringing was in pristine, and I think they're a
(06:25):
little bit lost at times. And I think that they
had this passion for the arts, and I respect that,
but I also think that they I wrote in my
book Virtue Bombs, it's an industry different by fear. It's
a fear of getting older, it's a fear of not
getting the right jobs. It's a fear of losing the
right jobs. It's a fear of do I still have it?
Have I made the right moves? I mean, there's so
much fear built into it. And I think a lot
(06:46):
of artists are desperately trying to fit in. And I
think that kind of goes a little bit with the
group think, where an artists won't feel badly about insulting
me or you, and they'd rather genuflect to their peers
because then they can think, well, I might get the
next role because if I say the right things, then
I may be more approachable, I may be more terrible,
(07:08):
you know. And that's something to Nick Cercy, the actor
Great Actors, has kind of indirectly taught me about how
this works. You know, when the actors use the virtue signaling,
it's not often about what they care about. It's actually
what the signal they're sending to their colleagues, like you know,
I'm one of you. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
It's like they're this big family and they all have
the same political slant and bent on the world, and
when they say it, that's it, and nobody else has
even taken into consideration. And just now you did exactly
what I was telling you, Christian, you that I saw
(07:44):
with the way you interview. I asked you a question
and you had such consideration with how you answered it
when a lot of us think, you know, Hollywood's a joke,
and you gave it a lot of consideration and concern,
and I like that you lace your answers with that,
and I don't know if you can see that, but
that's what I saw.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
Oh well, thank you, you know. And one of the
reasons why I say that is because I have a
lot of empathy for the actors. It's a brutal business,
and for every brad Pit, there are hundreds, if not
thousands of actors who don't get work and are unemployed
and are struggling, and they have a lot of talent
and may be just as good an actor as a
brad Pit, but they just never had that moment, They
never had that chance. So I just have a lot
(08:24):
of empathy for them in that regard. And again, they
you know, at their best, they make our lives more entertaining.
They distract us, they entertain us, you know, So that's
that's the part of it as well, or they didn't get.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
The part because they didn't fall along with the group think.
You know. You also mentioned in about the Oscars being unwatchable,
and I remember, like the last time I watched the
Oscars was when Brando brought the American Indian Girl on stage.
I was young, gosh, and that's the last time I
watched them.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
And I haven't missed much.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, And that's what I was gonna say. How do
you feel like after I regarding I didn't miss much?
Why do you feel that way?
Speaker 5 (09:01):
Well, I mean, listen, I guess my growing up period
was in the maybe late eighties early nineties, the Dealete
Crystal years and and how he was such. He was
kind of let's put on a show kind of a situation.
And I think that the industry in recent years has
lost that moxie, has lost that spirit. So I think
at one point the Oscars were fairly entertaining and fun
(09:22):
and different in novel. But for a lot of different reasons,
we're not very anymore. And you know, part of it
is that overexposure at the stars. Part of it, as
we're there's different things that we can be entertained by.
So there's a lot of different reasons. But also the
shows got kind of lectury and got full of themselves,
and it was a real disconnect.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
You know, they made us feel like we weren't as
smart as they were, and they were lecturing us because
it's like they have to bring us up to, you know,
thinking properly, and it rules the whole thing. I want
to ask you about that old adage that goes does
art imitate life or does life imitate eight art? What
do you think it is today?
Speaker 5 (10:03):
Oh gosh, And I think it's always it's always a
push and pull of both, Okay, I mean, you know,
I mean it could be always go back to the
heard the Rachel haircut from the nineties, how everyone wanted
the Rachel haircut. You know, we can see things in
pop culture and we could be influenced by them or
even just the you know, Al Gore's movie, and it
can be in truth. But now that we think about
global warming, movie rocks the culture. It had an impact,
(10:24):
It started conversations and you know, so that's that's important.
And but at the same time, you know, the the
real world influences the art we see it. I you know,
I think it just kind of goes back and forth. Honestly, Well, what.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Do you think about the old adage of the communists
being in Hollywood from years ago and that whole experience
that Hollywood went through, and now we're finding out that, yes,
maybe that was true.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
So yeah, it's interesting to look at that. I feel
from a scholarly point of view, I don't know enough
about that to really weigh in a really investigative way.
But what I find fascinating is that Hollywood has been
reliving the McCarthy era and you know, making movies and
TV shows and plays and all these different productions around it.
(11:14):
And I understand it. It infected them directly. You know.
It was a freedom of speech. And yet in today's
Hollywood there's a new blacklist and it's it's aimed at
conservatives and doesn't get enough attention. I've been danging the
drum about that for about twenty years now and talking
to actors and talented people who are on the right
and who either are brave enough to say so and
(11:35):
they face the consequences or there the aff and ath me,
please don't mention the fact that I'm right of center,
because I could get punished for it from a professional
point of view. So it's that I know much more about,
and that's more shocking, and it's something that we should
all be talking about and is dreadfully unacceptable, and yet
that's the system that works in Hollywood right now. It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
And so then you have somebody like Mel Gibson who
just really doesn't give up flying rick what anybody has
to say, and he's calling them all out, and you know,
it makes people like us that are their fans respect them.
You know, you got to earn respect for people to
want to keep coming back and watching it. And when
you don't do that, it's like you don't even want
(12:18):
to watch him anymore.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Yeah, you know, Mel is a unique case because he's
just so good. I mean, he's a terrific A list actor,
he's a he's a top flight director, and I know
he's had his problems and his demons, but at the
end of the day, he's just really good at what
he does. And he's been able to survive in a
very tough industry even though he kind of swims against
the tide in many ways culturally. But he is no Gibson.
(12:43):
He is he brings it every time. So, yeah, he's
a new case. But then you know there are others
who don't maybe rise to his level of talent and
they will struggle that they don't kind of toe the line.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
M Well, do you feel like when they tow the
line they lose a little bit of themselves?
Speaker 5 (12:57):
Though? Oh, you know, the great Andrew Claven, who I
think of, I think the world of, and has pontificated
on this far better than I have. He he talks
about how he essentially wrote himself out of Hollywood. He
was doing a lot of screenwriting work, and of course
he's a great writer. And he said, you know, when
I stuck to my principles, that basically ended my career.
And he said, I but then I look at the
(13:18):
people who were still there and still working and still
kind of subjecting themselves to the system and kind of
swallowing hard or as their their moral compass, you know,
spins like a top and they He's like, I don't
even know them anymore. They just they've lost themselves in
a way. So I think, you know, when you don't
stand up for yourself, there's something significant lost.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Well, you know, I happened to watch that exact podcast,
I believe it was Kevin Roberts Show, and you and
Andrew Claven was on it. You guys were talking about
how the way to change this is, you know, to
tell great stories, but to not let them take the
values that we have and miss, you know, take them
(13:59):
out and act as if something else can replace them,
because you just can't replace the values of like Christianity
and the real values that hold a society get together.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
What say you, yeah, I mean well, I mean I
think also when you stick to your values and you
don't bend, and you kind of stand up for yourself,
there are consequences and you lose things. What I've noticed
in recent years is that several people did variations of
just that and ended up on top again. Tyler Fisher
as a comedian, I think he's involved in a lawsuit
where his agency said, I can't we can't represent you.
(14:33):
You're a straight white male. It's not working this point,
and he fired back at them. You know, he defied
the COVID rules at times, and you know, I think
he a lot of opportunities were slammed shut for him,
but he kind of worked around and did his own thing,
hit the Road, did a podcast, and he's able to
kind of build his own career on his terms and
he can look himself in the mirror. Gema Carano is
(14:55):
the same situation. I mean, she just settled with Disney.
I'm sure she got paid a pretty penny that whole
situation where they fired her for the Mandalorian because she
said something they deemed defends them and it wasn't remotely offensive.
So she's someone else. So I actually I met her,
interviewed her, and she just said I couldn't stay silent,
I couldn't betray my own principles. And she suffered. I'm
(15:15):
sure she lost many jobs, but you know, she can
hold her head high and now I think she's going
to move forward in a way that's good for her career.
So I think it's a struggle when you stand up
for yourself, and I think there are opportunities that go away,
but I think new doors open, and I think that's exciting.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Well.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I kind of like how some of the conservatives said, well,
we don't need Hollywood and they stepped out and they're
creating and doing their art on their own, and there's
all this independent stuff and independent movies and a lot
of them are just as good. In fact, they have
a better storytelling as he was talking about, you know
on that show, and you were that it's about telling
(15:52):
great stories and that you don't want to polarize everybody
in these movies, and it's like, if you but real
values in there, the people will show up like crazy.
And I really agreed with you. I thought that. So
could you elaborate on that.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
Yeah, I mean look at Sound of Freedom that came
out a year or two ago, and that was a
movie that literally sat on a shell for several years.
Disney owned it, didn't know what to do with it,
and then Angel Studios came along and said, you know,
we see something pretty special in this movie, and it
was one of the biggest hits that year. It actually
outgrows major franchises like The Fast and the Furious, and
I think the Indian and Jones movie it out eclipped
(16:29):
them as well. So that's exciting. But I think all's
exciting to me is that because the technological barriers are falling,
because we can now make movies on a much smaller
budget that look great and sound great, and because we
distributed them in ways that were never possible before with
the Internet and YouTube and rumble, I think that opens
(16:50):
up a lot of opportunities for people who either are
on the right or just you know, or just unorthodox
in their views, and they want to tell a story
their way, and I don't want to follow the system
or the mold, and so I think that's what the
next ten twenty years would be. And that's why it's exciting,
because you can get all these different voices that haven't
been heard, that have been silent, and all of a sudden, hey,
you can't silence us anymore. We're going to get out
(17:10):
there and we'll see what happens, and we'll see bad
movies from that and good movies from that and everything
in between. But it'll be fresh and different.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Well, I think they're real thorn in the side of
the media and movies and everything has been the alternative media.
You know, it's got more conservativism in it. You know,
it's not all this regurgitated, robotic, agenda driven, repetitive, over
and overlying persuasion that the media gives you. You know,
(17:39):
it's like, no, it's the alternative media. There are people
out there telling you this is how it is and
wake up everybody.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
Yeah, And that's a system that in theory could support
these newer projects. And you know, if a Michael Moore
comes out with a movie tomorrow, then he's going to
be in the Variety and Hollywood Reporter and Deadline and
all these different major publications. But if it's a Ben
Shapiro movie, then there's a chance that he could be
(18:09):
on the Daily Wire, he could be on the Federal List,
he could be a National Review, he could be on
The Blaze. I mean, that's the potential. But having settled that,
I have founded very frustrating because often there's such competition
within the conservative rank and file that they often don't
support each other.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
That's what I was going to ask you, is it
really you see some I've noticed as I watch and
I do my deep dives and you know, go down
the rabbit hole, I find that they are kind of
antagonistic towards it, even with one another, you know, and
it's like, why why aren't we all in this together?
Aren't we a family?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Or you know.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
Yeah, it's frustrating. As you're right and it's happening, there
are some signs of it breaking down, and maybe there
is more or partnerships than you would think. I write
for The Blaze, and I know my editors are often
very supportive, and when I pitch them a project that
maybe come from another comes from another conservative platform or outlet,
and that I've enjoyed that experience writing the stories, pitching
(19:06):
those stories, getting them successfully accepted. So maybe that's changing,
but it has been a real problem because you need
that kind of uniformity because if there's a documentary, there's
something coming soon called Generation COVID. It's about how the
pandemic and the lockdowns really dramatically impacted kids learning their
(19:27):
social skills and goes on and on. So that's the
movie that you will never see talked about in variety.
You will never see that on Good Morning America. So
all these places where you would normally get that message
out there are closed, completely closed. So they're dependent on
the daily wire. And you know, my side is Hollywood
(19:47):
and Toto and all these different platforms that are atypical, unconventional,
different and that's how they're going to succeed and give
it you because it doesn't matter how great a movie is.
If you people don't know about it, they're not going
to see it. I think that's a problem that's been
existing on the right. I do think it's getting better
to a certain degree, but it's got to get much better.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
And I think we're going to come to a point
now where the COVID situation is going to show greater
ramifications than you think. I was just listening to some
people today and they were talking about Fauci and how
they hadn't planned on putting COVID out Hillary if Hillary
would have won. And then they said, but everybody who's
been exposed to it or did have the shot. Okay,
(20:28):
because we're all exposed to the mRNA, but whoever had
the shot, they said, there's a thirty percent lesser chance
of life longevity. And that's a lot, you know when
you think about it.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
Yeah, and the media would never, really, the majream media
would never kind of you know, investigate those kinds of
stories because it goes against the narrative. So that's where
the old that's where the new media comes in. They've
got to do the heavy lifting. And you know, that's
that's not easy and a lot of that work you're
talking about, there's a lot of investigative research that's not easy.
It's not cheap, and it's harder to do, you know,
(21:07):
But that's that's part of the new landscape. And so
one of the reason why you don't you know, many
people don't trust the mainstream press because they they have
certain stories, certain art, and certain truths that they share
and doesn't matter if they're flat out.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Faults exactly, and if it's false, they don't care. They'll
still say it and it misleads people and it hurts people.
And yet they don't have any like compassion or any empathy.
It's like they lack what it means to be human.
And it's almost like all of the arts in the
media have become a tyranny against us.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
You know it's yeah. Jimmy Taylor is a really great comedian.
He works at Fox across America. He calls it the
death of shame and a lot because he's right, that
is great. You should be ashamed. If you're a journalist
and you get your story wrong, fix it, improve on it,
make amends, tell your reader you strewed up, and doesn't
(21:58):
grow all human. We all make this. If I get
something wrong on my website, I go and correct it
and I put an editor's note there. I let people know, hey,
I got it wrong. If I put up a tweet recently,
I got some wrong information, I took it down and said, hey,
I just put out something. It was wrong. I mean,
we will accept apologies, we will accept mistakes, but it's
got to be framed in a way that's you know,
(22:19):
authentic and transparent. And if you're getting these things wrong
again and again and again and there's no apologies and
just keep up going down, well you don't want our trust.
You want to tell us a story it's not the truth.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Well Ryan's great. I just kind of fell into this
podcast deal. But I love listening to everybody's stories, and
he allowed me to say whatever I wanted to say.
And I have done years and years of deep research
and everything that I told Ryan was going on, and
he listened. He was if he was suspect, he looked
(22:54):
it up himself. But all of these things are coming
true about the election, about COVID, about you know, all
these different things, and you've got to have people like
him who will allow that to come out. And when
it comes true, what now, what happens after all this
stuff is proven true? How do they apologize?
Speaker 5 (23:15):
I don't know. I don't think they're any interested in
doing that. So I get answer that question. Because they
didn't apologize for coming up the president's anility, then I
think any on for everything is exactly incapable exactly. I mean,
if you could be a Jake kaeper and defend and
chase away anyone who suspects that the president had some
cognitive decline, and then you go out and write a
(23:37):
book about said decline and cash those checks, and clearly
there's a there's not a person who could be shamed
into telling the truth and apologizing and being humble. I mean,
I guess he could have maybe said I'm going to
write this book and I'm going to send all the
proceeds to an Alzheimer's charity. I'd respect that a little bit.
But these are basically professional liars at this point to
(23:58):
a certain degree. Right now, that's a certain supporters and
that's just the way it is. And it's up to
us is the public to say, hey, we see you,
and we're going to move on to different news sources,
or we can say we'd like to lie keep lying.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Okay, great, We're going to take a break here and
I want to come back and ask you so much more.
Speaker 6 (24:14):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Oh, Ryan was just reminding me that I was a
young gal when that song came on, and not.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
More importantly, it was the band Toto.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Toto exactly the band Toto. So we have Christian Toto.
And this has really been so much it'sn't been enlightening
to talk to somebody like you who's been there and
done that. You hear a lot of comments, but a
lot of people haven't been in the trenches. And you've
been in this film business and you know, in the
(25:15):
journalism business in the trenches. And so you made a
statement though on one of your when I was reading
about your book and reading through it, you said that
we will we ever see a woke free tomorrow. You
said it could get much much worse before it gets better.
Explain that, well.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
I mean, I think there's a momentum to things in
life sometimes and that you know, plays out, So you know,
I think now I think we're seeing that improvement, which
I was. I didn't expect honestly, So that's exciting. But yeah,
I don't know. I mean, you know, at the time,
(25:56):
it seemed like things were just getting worse and worse,
and I didn't think that there would be a salvation,
and I was really kind of pessimistic about it. But
I think now we're seeing real progress in this front.
You know, I was very pessimistic for a long time.
Where things were going. But now I think it's a
common frame phrase you hear on social media. Nature is healing.
(26:19):
There has been a change, It is getting better, and
so that's a positive sign. You know, we're seeing storytellers.
Your studio is kind of backpedaling on some of this
kind of identity politics. So I thought the woke would
get worse and worse, but I think there is I
(26:39):
think that people have finally spoken, and I think that
the studios, the power players, the executives have finally listened
and said, hey, this is losing us a significant amount
of money. We can't keep doing it the way we've
been doing it so well.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
I know, Mel Gibson said until people are aware of it.
I think a lot of people weren't aware of how
bad it was really getting. And he said, until you're
aware of all these evil and terrible things that are happening,
you can't do anything about it. But now people are
standing up because they aren't going to have this stuff
shoved down their throats with this group think. And that
(27:11):
was my next question. It's like this attitude that these
people have, you know, it's like they have just pride
themselves on you know, they pride themselves on this that
their intellectual prowess is so much grander and greater, and
their thoughts and their viewpoints and opinions are so much
greater than the rest of the world. And I think
that's really really condescending, and it also it makes for
(27:36):
a nauseating type of you know, situation, if you.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
Know what I mean, Yeah, I mean, I listen. You know,
artists and actors specifically, they build on empathy where they
can understand different characters and different life experiences. And an
actor can play a villain or a monster or just
a terrible human being. But the actor will often say, yeah,
I understand that the characters a monster, but I have
(28:02):
to empathize with him or her. I have to understand
maybe the glimmer of humanity within them, or I have
to understand that they think that they're actually being good
and noble, even if they're doing dastardly deeds. So I
think when you get that sort of lockstep mindset where it's, uh,
you know, it's condescending, it's one dimensional, it's it's it's
(28:22):
lacking in nuance and lacking in complexity, you get the
storytelling isn't as good that the acting isn't as good,
the the themes aren't as profound. I think when you
have nuance and shades of gray, that's where you get
something that's more more entertaining.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Well, and just even with you. The way you do things,
and this is amazing to me, is you can critique
and you're not you know, challenging them, and you're not
looking down on them. You critique them, but you still
have that empathy. You still have that you know, everybody's
working hard. It's a brutal business, you know, so you're
(29:00):
not just cutting them down, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
Yeah, I mean, first of all, I mean I'm a
writer of center critic, but if I watch a movie
with progressive values and it's entertaining, I've got to say
that that would be insulting to the filmmakers. It would
be inauthentic, and I would do doing the people who
read or watch me at a service. So you've got
to be honest. You got to be a straight shooter
about all of this. So that's part of it. And
(29:26):
this is art, and art can be compelling, and you know,
a conservative can watch a film with progressive values and
maybe learning something or maybe even you know, mentally think
about how they would disagree with some of the conclusions
of the film. And often, you know, even if a
movie disagree with my worldview, it could be a rischer experience.
If the themes and the messaging and the conversations are
(29:49):
really delicately woven into the story, it makes it a
more profound experience. I mean, there are many horror movies
I enjoy, but if you watch something by Georgie A. Romero,
he's got something to say about culture and life, and
again I may not agree with it, but it makes
a little bit more of a full bodied experience. It's
not just blood and gore and guts. He's trying to
say something about the human experience and we can go
(30:10):
from there. One of the best horror movies the last
decade was get Out, which was made by a very
progressive filmmaker and had some progressive values and things I
disagreed with, but it was beautifully crafted, with great performances,
and had thoughtful ideas and was challenging. How could you
not love that?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
And I found too that some of the b movies
that they're making that you see you on if you
want to watch a movie on dish or pay for
a movie. A lot of the A listers have not
been in a lot of movies lately, so they have
all these other people, but there's always a message. As
crazy as these movies are, there is a message in
(30:48):
what they're saying, either about human trafficking, drugs, relationships. They
have these little messages. And somebody said, how do you
watch them? And I said, it's better than watching those
people at the top and they're just saying the same
thing over and over and over again.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Yeah, you know, I kind of stripling back to something
you said a little while ago. One of the reasons
why I think Hollywood is changing and backing off on
some of this overt lecturing is that there is competition
out there. You know, you could watch a late night
TV show and get a very one sided point of view,
where you can go on YouTube and watch a comedian
(31:23):
like Tim Dillon who hits everyone makes fun of the left,
makes one of the right. And I think that's one
of the thing that's going on right now is that
Hollywood is feeling that pressure that, hey, we don't have
it all to ourselves anymore, and we've got these new
storytellers and these new joke tellers and these new artists
who can challenge us and put out content that is
as interesting as what we do less for much.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Yeah, and I know what they're more scared about is
the money. You know, it's all about the dollar in
Hollywood and all about this. A lot of people do it,
I think altruistically to get a message out and they
just love the arts, but bottom line, it's the money.
And when they started losing money and that pendulum started swinging,
(32:04):
I think that's why we're seeing this bit of a change.
And like you get people like Jim cavezl who lives
their faith in Sound of Freedom, and you know he
lives his faith. He would die, he said in an
interview with Sean Ryan, he would die to help one
of those kids. That's his faith in action, you know
(32:24):
what I mean. And when you have people like him
saying these things, you have no respect for these other
type actors who will take any role just for the book.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (32:37):
You know, Jim Cavizel is a very special kind of
actor and special kind of talent. So that's he is
the exception, you know, And I would imagine that a
lot of actors, you look back at their past you know,
Brad Pitt wasn't always Brad Pitt, and Renees Olviger wasn't
always Renetes Olberger. At one point they were at a
work actors, striving to get by. And you know, they
may not be spiritually sound, but they loved what they
(32:59):
did and they for you know, help bent on getting
success and fame and fortune and roles. And I give
them credit too, because they may not be Christians in
a traditional sense, but they saw what they wanted and
were willing to sacrifice and put put huge hours in
and train and suffer and get rejected on auditions. And
that's another thing. You know, It's I have a lot
(33:21):
of respect for that as well. It's just it's it's
a brutal gig and it's hunt of pressure, and it's
never easy, and your your one bomb movie away from
becoming box office poisons. So it's it's very hard. But
you know, the Jym Cabesels who will do what they
need to do for their art and for their faith
and for the humanity. They they're special. They're just special, and.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
It seems like they have so much to offer that
you just kind of lean towards them. You don't lean
towards the other people, you know, And this whole thing is,
you know, in the old days, the movie stars, they
didn't talk about their private lives. You know, you just
only saw what they wanted you to see about them.
And then when they come out with their autobiographies or
(34:01):
their biographies, it was like, oh my god, you did that,
and then you think, then it changes your attitude and
your feeling about them. You know, today it's all out there.
I think the worst thing that ever happened is reality TV,
because it's like, is there anything that's precious in this world? Nothing?
(34:24):
I don't know, what do you say?
Speaker 5 (34:26):
Well, you know, it's funny you mentioned that, and now
the actors didn't, didn't you know, wax poetically about politics
or this or that or their beliefs. You know, back
in the day, they were micromanaged by the studios and
they were movie stars, so we didn't know anything about them.
They were mythical, they were magical, they were beautiful, They
had all these sort of interesting, you know, aspects to them.
(34:50):
But they were a mystery. They were a blank slave.
And I think that's why we cared about the movie
stars so much. And it was such a magical experience.
And today, you know, I'll see you know what, Tom
hangs on the wing the Hot Ones show where he's
eating hot wings, and I'll see them on a YouTube show.
Then I'll see them on Jimmy Kimmel, and then I'll
see him on Instagram. And it's not as special and
(35:12):
magical and wonderful as it once was. The mystique is gone.
So that's one of the reasons why the death of
the movie star is real. And also then they shove
their values and their thoughts down their throats in a
way that is often unappealing, so exactly and different reasons
why the start today is different than yesterday.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Yeah, and it's hard to take. You just don't can't
eat it. But but you look back even too about
the political thing. You know, nothing was funnier and there
wasn't any more greater talent than what's sat on those
Dean Martin Rose, you know, and they loved each other,
those people, they even would tell you that, I mean
even later on when you talk, they all said they
(35:49):
were all good friends, and they talked about their race,
and they didn't cause all this trouble. Today, it seems
like this liberal attitude in all the movies and everything,
and this leftist attitude, it just they push it to
where they want to initiate violence and hatred among people,
(36:10):
whereas years ago that didn't happen.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
Yeah, no, I mean, the divisiveness is a real thing,
and you know, I think the actors do it to
a lesser extent because they don't speak every night. But
like the late night shows, I mean, you know, Stephen
Colbert doesn't just trash Trump. He's essentially trashing all his voters,
and he's also intinuating that they're bad people that they
(36:33):
chose this monster to support. I mean, it's it's it's
it's not a you know, it's not like connecting dots
that are a million miles apart. You know, he's saying,
how could you support this person? And he's doing it
in a way that's very dismissive, and he also is
not you know, poking fun at the other side, and
it's also very mean spirited, and you can tell he's
trying to draw you know, rhetorical blood with this comment,
(36:56):
so that that doesn't really help the country. You know,
sad in that live gosh, maybe eight or nine years ago,
did a fake Trump ad and they had all bunch
of different Trump supporters saying I like what he has
to say, and I think he supports us, and then
the camera would pan out and the person ironing a
shirt was actually ironing a white hood like the ku
(37:16):
Kluck client. Yeah, and another one was wearing a Nazi insignia.
I mean, it's wildly insulting. And listen, I'm all for
free speech, and there's you can punch up, you can
punch down, but it's hard not to see that as
anything but divisive. And I think it was deeply unfair
to the people who voted for him. It's part of
the caricature that they helped create that is inauthentic and wrong.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
And they don't realize that those very people they're trashing
are the very people that are waiting on them in
a restaurant, that are helping them in a store, that
are creating goods or creating things for them to have,
and watching their kids and doing things and you know, teaching,
and it's like, what's wrong with you? You know, they're
bringing your food to the table, and you're trashing these
(38:01):
people just because they have a different opinion.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
Yeah, you know, Tony, I just watched the new movie.
It's called The Elephant in the Room, and it's a
story about a very liberal woman and she starts to
date a fellow and he's handsome and he's gracious and
he's charming, and then she finds out that he voted
for Trump, and it's all about, you know, can they
get past those differences? And you know, I think Hollywood
has hurt us in a way where it's dividing us
(38:27):
and telling us that we can't trust our neighbors and
we should be angry at our neighbors. And you know,
the end of the day, the people who disagree with
you and I, they may have a different vision of America,
and hopefully they have their best in the country's best
interest of heart at times, but they think there's a
different path. I don't think we could hate people. You
could have a robust disagreement and we could vote differently,
(38:48):
and we could have great conversations and we could say
many the best ideas win. But I think Hollywood has been,
you know, a thorn in our collective side. And you know,
it's films that have one's point of view. It's speeches
at Oscar's Night which are insulting. I just don't think
that's good for the country.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
No, it isn't. And actually I think that there was
a determined effort to go in and place an agenda
in America through media, through the arts and entertainment, and
give this one idea and you've got to believe it,
and if you don't, you're not worth it, damn. And
(39:27):
that is a sickening way to think. That's how America,
land of the free speech, home of the brave, has
to live with that kind of attitude.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
Yeah, one of the things I've been really disappointed with
has given my career is that I can disagree with
a lot of actors politically, and that's fine, we could
have a good robust debate or whatever. But I really
thought that they would stand up for free speech. Over
the last five, six, seven years, there's been a lot
of different attacks on free speech across the culture, and
to sum it up, physically, they haven't had boom. And
(39:57):
now there's been a lot of talk, Oh, Trump is
canceling free see beach, and that's not accurate. And there are
things you could say about him that you could disagree with.
Or maybe if this or that I'd been willing to
have those conversations for sure, But where were you? Where
were you during the Twitter files? Where were you when
big tech platforms were you know, censoring comedians? And where
were you when the Biden administration was looking to censor
(40:18):
points of view on covid? And where were you on
YouTube was shutting things down because you had the wrong opinion?
I mean, you were silent? And where were you during
cancel culture? And where were you when they get sensitivity
readers who are clipping out quotes and pages and passages
from Ian Fleming books and I get the Christie and
ul Dahl. You didn't say anything? Why didn't you stand up?
(40:40):
You know, George Clooney, where were you? We needed you?
You could have really done something good for the culture.
But they didn't say anything. But now when they have
a bugaboo, when they have someone make an attack, which
is Trump, they say, oh, free speech is under attack.
And you know, they fired Colbert because he's losing forty
million dollars a year And that's the worst thing, you know, No, no,
that's the last thing.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
That could happen, because it just shows that people are
sick of their mantra. They're just sick of it.
Speaker 5 (41:04):
Yeah, And I mean where were they?
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Like you said, yeah, well where were they?
Speaker 5 (41:10):
Where everyone they just fired?
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Yeah, exactly. And it's like when you were saying, where
were they when the doctors that wanted to give alternative
ways to conquer this COVID they wouldn't allow them, and
they were jailing them and muzzling them. You talk about,
you know, free speech being stifled, it was right there
in front of us. And I didn't see any of
these so called intellectual elites speaking up against that.
Speaker 5 (41:36):
Nope.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
And but I want to ask you, give me okay,
tell me what you uh, why you liked Trump? And
then I want to ask you a couple of questions
about your early years.
Speaker 5 (41:48):
Yeah. You know, it took me a very long time
to warm up to the president, and I still have issues,
for sure, But I think he's done more for the
country than I ever could have expected. And I think
anyone who has come under fire like he has, the
literal bullets, the law fair, the media is round the
(42:09):
clock lies about him, and the fact that he survived
and thrived and didn't quit and didn't cower and didn't
say I'm out of here, and didn't say, you know,
I can't take it anymore. It's genuinely remarkable.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
It is. And I think also that the fact that
he didn't he didn't power to them, and he didn't
change who he was in order to please them. Yeah,
you know that takes a lot of guts.
Speaker 5 (42:37):
He's a politician, he's flawed. He does things that I
don't agree with. But boy, look ticket step back. It's
just shocking what he's been able to do. And you know,
in an odd ways, he exposes people for their flaws.
I mean, you know, he's pro enforcement, he's anti crime,
and all of a sudden, those are the wrong issues
(42:58):
to a certain part of the country. It's fascinating to watch.
Its depressing too.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
And So when you grew up, how did you grow up?
How are your parents? What lessons did you learn? What
were some of the things you'd like to tell that
you brought along with you from childhood that you would
pass on to your children and others.
Speaker 5 (43:19):
My childhood was boring, and I said that in a
pretty good way. It was no real drama, thank goodness.
And my parents loved me unconditionally. You know, I think
that they I probably learned the most from watching them
go about their business. And the way they interacted with
people and the way they treated other people, and you know,
the conversations we had around the dinner table. I mean,
(43:40):
I think those are all kind of really important in
forming who I am, and you know, the kind of
person I am. And I can see elements of my
mom and me. I can see elements of my lay
father and me. So yeah, it's I guess there's nothing
that you think about directly, but I often think that
the modeling part of parenthood is the most important at times. Know,
(44:01):
it's great if you if my dad went to church
every day, but then if we went to the local
hardware store and he paraded the guy behind the counter
because he made a little mistake, then you know, that
doesn't that doesn't vibe with me. You know, you got
to got to keep those values constant, that kind of thing.
So you know, I just saw goodness of my parents
and generosity, and I hope, hope I capture some of
that as an adult.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Yeah, so they live their values, and it is this
action speaks louder than words when you're looking to teach
kids values.
Speaker 5 (44:29):
And then they were very funny. I you know, if
I if I'm ever funny I can kind of credit
down because they had good quick sense as a humor.
We grew up in New York. It's sort of sort
of part of your DNA when you grow up in
that kind of environment. So I appreciate that, Yeah, most
of all.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
I mean, my roommate at Texas was from New York
and she was a scream and all we did was laugh,
and so I really enjoyed it. But also now I
want to ask you this, in your heart of hearts,
what kind of faith and spiritual keeps you grounded and
(45:03):
keeps you? You know, you have a really unique way
about you. I have really really enjoyed learning about you.
So what is it about your faith?
Speaker 5 (45:17):
Very complicated question. I don't even know if I could
sum it up. Honestly, that's something I didn't really think about.
I think the way I've lived my life is to
kind of make the small gestures in life. The little
kindness is the opening the door letting people in on traffic,
just as little things that make life better and easier
(45:38):
on everyone. No, I think I've often focused, and I
don't know that's the spiritual thing, A courteous thing, a
purposeful thing. I think it's kind of all of the above, honestly,
but I think there's sort of a goodness that you
want to have in life and in culture and in society,
and that's that's always matter to me. So I don't
think it's a direct question answer to your question. But
(46:00):
are you a Christian or are you I'm a Catholic Catholic.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
I grew up Catholic too. Were you a cradle Catholic?
Speaker 5 (46:08):
Yeah? Yeah, and you know, and as an adult, I
have not been to church in a while either, Yeah,
and I don't I'm not proud of that per se.
But I'd like to think the value so I live
or what's important And I may get sense, but uh,
I think the.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Church did play a role in forming a lot of
people's lives. But when you started finding out about the
church and about the situation in today's world, all this
evil that's coming out and everybody's being away, you know,
everything hidden is being shown and everything secret is being told.
What do you think about this? And where do you
(46:48):
think America is going to be in the next couple
of years.
Speaker 5 (46:52):
Yeah, that's an interesting question. And it's funny because I
I think when I was younger, or I didn't give
as much credence to good and evil. I mean, Hitler
was evil. There were certainly monsters in the world, and
I thought that was very cut and dried, but as
far as people and day to day operations, I kind
(47:13):
of cut them a lot of grace and a lot
of slack. And in recent years, I feel like I've
witnessed some behaviors beyond the obvious monsters of the world
that strike me as almost flat out evil. So that's
been something that's been an odd education within me, if
that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Yeah, we grew up learning about good and evil, but
now we're seeing it right in front of our eyes,
and it's.
Speaker 5 (47:36):
Like, yeah, it takes my breath away.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
It takes your breath away, but it also takes General
Flynn's breath away. I mean, here's a guy who continually
says I've seen evil, but all of this is beyond evil.
And so I think we're at that point and I
hope God comes and you know, helps get us out
of it. And with people like you who can talk
(47:58):
about both sides without getting angry, without inducing violence and hatred,
we need more people like you, and that's what I noticed,
and I really thank you for coming on this show.
I was anxious to question you and listen to you,
and especially since you're Ryan's buddy, I was like, Wow, Ryan,
to give me a chance to interview your buddy.
Speaker 5 (48:21):
You know. It's funny. I get lots and lots of
questions about entertainment and culture and politics and the media,
and I'm very good at that, but I don't ever
get asked about my faith or my feelings or my spirituality.
So I feel like I stumbled to that one. I
just because it's not something that I directly am questioned
about or I don't know. It's sort of who I am,
(48:42):
but I don't vocalize it honestly.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
Yeah, but you know what it really is you and
it shows and it comes through. I can sense it
when I listen to your podcast and the way you
talk about are just critiquing a movie to chart your
choice of words, the atmosphere around how you said it.
You just have a really, really cool manner about you,
and Ryan can be glad he can call you a friend.
Speaker 5 (49:06):
And vice versa.
Speaker 4 (49:07):
Well, and now you've heard why and one day, baby,
we'll see why. And Christian's going to be in studio
with me tomorrow as he usually is just want to
give a little plug there for the right side of Hollywood.
That's Friday's at two pm. You can listen live.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
On six point thirty k out here in the Denver market,
or we post podcasts as well, and a reminder that
you can subscribe, download and listen to Christian's podcast, Hollywood
and Toto on your favorite podcast platform and his website.
You can find all of his reviews there his content
at Hollywoodintoto dot com.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
And maybe I'll be lucky enough to meet you one day.
So thank you for being here. God bless you in
yours and take care as we leave with our quote
tonight and say good night. As a face is reflected
in water, so a person is reflected by his heart,
Proverbs twenty seven nineteen. That's the kind of guy I
(49:57):
think Christians.
Speaker 4 (50:07):
At the
Speaker 2 (50:37):
Distas
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