Episode 1053 - Danny Huston

Episode 1053 • Released September 12, 2019 • Speakers detected

00:00:00Marc:All right, let's do this.

00:00:11Marc:How are you?

00:00:11Marc:What the fuckers?

00:00:12Marc:What the fuck buddies?

00:00:13Marc:What the fuck nicks?

00:00:14Marc:What's happening?

00:00:15Marc:I'm Mark Maron.

00:00:15Marc:This is my podcast WTF.

00:00:18Marc:How's it going?

00:00:19Marc:Are you okay?

00:00:21Marc:Yeah, I know.

00:00:21Marc:It's bad.

00:00:22Marc:Yeah, I know.

00:00:23Marc:I know.

00:00:24Marc:I know.

00:00:24Marc:It's going to get worse.

00:00:26Marc:I get it.

00:00:27Marc:I get it.

00:00:28Marc:The storms, the heat, the water rising, things dying.

00:00:33Marc:I get it.

00:00:34Marc:It's all going to... There's no stopping it now.

00:00:38Marc:How's it going?

00:00:39Marc:Good morning.

00:00:40Marc:Welcome to the show.

00:00:42Marc:We'll adapt, right?

00:00:45Marc:Hey, look, you know, and I don't want to be a dick about it, but...

00:00:49Marc:I've never been happier not to have children.

00:00:54Marc:Maybe that's a song.

00:00:55Marc:Is that a character in a musical?

00:00:57Marc:I've never been happier not to have children.

00:01:00Marc:I've never been happier not to have children.

00:01:06Marc:So, I don't know, man.

00:01:08Marc:I apologize.

00:01:09Marc:Good luck with what you're doing.

00:01:11Marc:I hope everything's okay.

00:01:13Marc:Today on the show, Danny Houston, the actor, Danny Houston, Angelica's brother, right?

00:01:20Marc:Danny Houston, John Houston's son.

00:01:24Marc:So Danny's here.

00:01:25Marc:He will be here in a minute.

00:01:27Marc:You can hear him talk to me about he's got this new film out.

00:01:31Marc:That's it's heavy, but it's beautiful.

00:01:33Marc:It's a film called The Last Photograph.

00:01:35Marc:And we talked about that and about other things about being a Houston person.

00:01:39Marc:How about some updates?

00:01:40Marc:You want some updates on things?

00:01:42Marc:I can fucking do that.

00:01:43Marc:Not a problem.

00:01:47Marc:I guess I am now at 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.

00:01:51Marc:18 days.

00:01:54Marc:off of nicotine.

00:01:56Marc:And I think it's all mental now, obviously, but it's powerful.

00:02:00Marc:The mental thing is power.

00:02:01Marc:There's just these moments where there are moments that happen where my brain just sort of like, shouldn't we do, shouldn't we be doing something right now?

00:02:09Marc:Shouldn't you, shouldn't we, shouldn't you be doing one now?

00:02:12Marc:Shouldn't what's going on now?

00:02:13Marc:This, we've got a free second here.

00:02:16Marc:It's time to, to, to get a feeling.

00:02:19Marc:We've got a freeze.

00:02:20Marc:I got an open second.

00:02:22Marc:Let's fill it with something.

00:02:23Marc:Or take it down a notch or jack it up.

00:02:27Marc:Where's the substance?

00:02:30Marc:Where's the stuff in that free second?

00:02:35Marc:So that happens occasionally.

00:02:36Marc:And I'm just trying not to feed all those free seconds with food.

00:02:39Marc:I've been doing a lot of cooking here at the house.

00:02:42Marc:I find that very comforting.

00:02:44Marc:It's a meditative quality.

00:02:48Marc:It's creative.

00:02:48Marc:It's engaged.

00:02:50Marc:And I get to eat things at the end of it.

00:02:52Marc:Nothing like cooking for three hours and eating whatever you made in seven minutes.

00:02:58Marc:But I've been doing a lot of food prep around the house, you know, trying out new things right now.

00:03:02Marc:I'm kind of festering about a marinade for some chicken thighs.

00:03:05Marc:What's going to happen with the chicken thighs in the fridge?

00:03:07Marc:Look, I know.

00:03:08Marc:I know things are not great.

00:03:12Marc:I don't know how they get better.

00:03:13Marc:I'm sorry.

00:03:15Marc:But I do know that by the end of the day, I will figure out a marinade for my chicken thighs that doesn't have too much sugar in it.

00:03:23Marc:That I know is going to happen.

00:03:25Marc:So little things, folks.

00:03:27Marc:Also.

00:03:29Marc:Thank you for all the mail, the email about clearing up.

00:03:33Marc:Got some email about the Seattle shows that there was a massive thunder lightning storm.

00:03:38Marc:I knew that.

00:03:39Marc:I think I might have told you about that with the lights going on and off and the ghosts.

00:03:43Marc:But then someone sent me an email saying that there there's there's some indication that perhaps the more theater is built over a graveyard of settlers that had been moved.

00:03:55Marc:So it could be a poltergeist situation over there.

00:03:58Marc:Then somebody sent me an email about all the people who sweat on that stage and the spirits therein, including William Burroughs, Chris Cornell, Kurt Cobain, cats like that.

00:04:12Marc:Place has been around a long time.

00:04:13Marc:Some of these vessels, some of these structures have a bit of a...

00:04:19Marc:A bit of a spiritual residue that they collect.

00:04:23Marc:Kind of like a giant orgone box.

00:04:26Marc:Except they're not holding orgone energy.

00:04:29Marc:They're holding just the psychic shrapnel of the creativity that happened in the structure.

00:04:35Marc:Now, either you buy into that shit or you don't.

00:04:38Marc:Some days I do, some days I don't.

00:04:41Marc:You dig?

00:04:42Marc:Yeah, so I'm okay, man.

00:04:45Marc:And everything's settling down.

00:04:47Marc:My dopamine receptors, all the things, the synapses are leveling out.

00:04:52Marc:They're leveling off into what's really me.

00:04:55Marc:And physically, I'm back in my body with no way out except for the way out, which I'll just wait for.

00:05:06Marc:No rush on that one.

00:05:07Marc:So that's okay.

00:05:09Marc:As far as therapy goes, the EMDR sessions are interesting, and I believe they are working.

00:05:16Marc:I do.

00:05:16Marc:I believe that the EMDR, as we hold the buzzers, start to target some trauma, hang with that, buzz, buzz, buzz.

00:05:25Marc:Then where are we at now?

00:05:28Marc:Dish that out.

00:05:29Marc:Buzz, buzz, buzz.

00:05:30Marc:Where are we at now?

00:05:31Marc:That arc of process through the sort of re...

00:05:35Marc:reintegrating of the trauma or whatever, dissipating it.

00:05:38Marc:The EMDR is having an effect.

00:05:41Marc:I think it's okay.

00:05:42Marc:I think I'm going to be all right.

00:05:44Marc:Cats.

00:05:45Marc:Cats are all right.

00:05:46Marc:Maybe somebody can give me some insight.

00:05:49Marc:My older cats are shrinking.

00:05:54Marc:They're getting very skinny.

00:05:56Marc:Monkey's very skinny.

00:05:57Marc:He's getting very fragile.

00:05:59Marc:He's 15 years old.

00:06:01Marc:Is there something I should be doing?

00:06:02Marc:They're eating a lot.

00:06:03Marc:Everybody's running around.

00:06:05Marc:Everybody's having a good time.

00:06:07Marc:But apparently they have a hard time as they get older absorbing protein.

00:06:11Marc:They're on a very high-protein diet, and they're eating it.

00:06:14Marc:But he seems to be just diminishing before my eyes, though he's got a lot of personality still, and he's running around.

00:06:20Marc:Energy, everything's fine.

00:06:21Marc:He's just very...

00:06:23Marc:He's skinny.

00:06:25Marc:Does anybody know?

00:06:26Marc:Don't speculate here.

00:06:29Marc:I need some real advice.

00:06:30Marc:I could Google it.

00:06:31Marc:I did.

00:06:32Marc:I guess I could call the vet, but I don't know.

00:06:36Marc:Is there a way to fatten him up?

00:06:38Marc:I think I'm kind of blessed to have skinny cats.

00:06:41Marc:That's that's who I am.

00:06:42Marc:I can project my body dysmorphia on to cats like I'm very happy that all my cats are lean and has something to do with what I feed them.

00:06:51Marc:Buster is is a large cat.

00:06:53Marc:He's not fat, but he's the younger one.

00:06:55Marc:But I just don't know if I'm doing the right thing.

00:06:58Marc:Maybe I shouldn't ask you.

00:06:59Marc:You know, maybe I should just do what everyone else does and do the proper research.

00:07:05Marc:I've really just been here at home, you know, trying to enjoy my life on a few days down.

00:07:13Marc:For some reason, I started rewatching Breaking Bad.

00:07:16Marc:I watched most of Bill Burr's new special last night at Royal Albert Hall.

00:07:23Marc:And I'm starting to realize, though, even after watching Burr's special, it's like I am definitely not as fucking angry as I used to be for no reason.

00:07:30Marc:Like the general flow of rage is different for me.

00:07:34Marc:I don't know if it's early onset dementia or I'm generally working through things.

00:07:39Marc:Maybe it's the EMDR.

00:07:40Marc:I don't know.

00:07:41Marc:But I'm just not, you know, I do get seething and I do get angry and I do get anxious and I do get full of a certain amount of dread.

00:07:49Marc:But I'm not about to pop anymore.

00:07:53Marc:I don't know why that happened or whether I'm going to assume it's good.

00:07:57Marc:I don't know what to tell you in terms of how it happened, but it happened.

00:08:04Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:08:04Marc:Before I forget, all you Phish fans, Betty has not given me a Phish playlist.

00:08:10Marc:Sometimes people say things on this show and they don't manifest.

00:08:15Marc:I, on the other hand, have to figure out how to use Spotify.

00:08:19Marc:That's my project for the week as the temperatures rise and the water rises and species drop dead around us.

00:08:29Marc:You know, I think we're kind of lower on that list, but we're definitely on that list.

00:08:34Marc:I'm going to figure out how to make a Spotify playlist.

00:08:37Marc:Now I'm going to try to integrate my Instagram and my Spotify.

00:08:42Marc:As the world burns...

00:08:45Marc:Rights are denied.

00:08:47Marc:People are caged.

00:08:50Marc:Hate blossoms.

00:08:52Marc:I'm going to be diligently trying to put together a Spotify playlist.

00:08:58Marc:Right?

00:08:59Marc:That's doing something right.

00:09:02Marc:Fucking fuck.

00:09:04Marc:Chicken marinade.

00:09:05Marc:Thinking limes.

00:09:06Marc:I got a lime tree out back.

00:09:08Marc:I'm thinking limes.

00:09:09Marc:Gonna start with limes.

00:09:11Marc:So here, what do we cover today?

00:09:13Marc:Cats are okay.

00:09:14Marc:Everybody's good.

00:09:15Marc:Old cats are a little lean.

00:09:17Marc:I'm well into no nicotine.

00:09:19Marc:14.

00:09:20Marc:15, 16, 17, 18 days.

00:09:22Marc:I'm doing okay.

00:09:23Marc:Leveling off.

00:09:24Marc:EMDR, working pretty well.

00:09:26Marc:Do not know what to marinate my chicken thighs in.

00:09:29Marc:World is ending.

00:09:31Marc:Betty Gilpin did not give me a fish playlist.

00:09:35Marc:The ghosts at the Seattle Moore Theater are probably there, but I think I summoned lightning.

00:09:41Marc:It wasn't just goes, I summoned lightning.

00:09:44Marc:I'd like to, I'll make it about me.

00:09:46Marc:I'd like to think I have that much power.

00:09:48Marc:Some of this stuff I'm doing is a little dicey, a little button pushing.

00:09:52Marc:I've gotten some emails about my final bit.

00:09:54Marc:Some concerned fan emails are just sort of like, we were laughing through it, but it felt wrong.

00:10:01Marc:Hey, you know what I mean?

00:10:02Marc:Come on.

00:10:03Marc:They're just words.

00:10:04Marc:Huh?

00:10:06Huh?

00:10:06Marc:A little less angry.

00:10:08Marc:Working on it.

00:10:09Marc:Working on stuff.

00:10:10Marc:So, Danny Houston is here.

00:10:12Marc:Danny Houston made a nice movie.

00:10:14Marc:He's been in a lot of movies.

00:10:14Marc:He's also on Succession this season.

00:10:16Marc:That show, I love that show, by the way.

00:10:18Marc:Oh, yeah, and I started Breaking Bad again.

00:10:20Marc:Okay.

00:10:21Marc:Up to speed.

00:10:22Marc:Everyone's here.

00:10:23Marc:This movie, The Last Photograph, is a touching, dark movie.

00:10:27Marc:I don't know if it's dark.

00:10:28Marc:It's just heavy emotionally, but it's poetic.

00:10:31Marc:It's one of those movies that grownups like me enjoy seeing.

00:10:35Marc:It is a beautiful, deep, moving, sad, independent film, but that movie, The Last Photograph, is now in theaters and on demand, and this is me talking to the star and director of that movie, Danny Houston.

00:10:53Guest:Thank you.

00:11:08Guest:Mine's a rickety old house in the Hollywood Hills that certainly has a life of its own.

00:11:15Guest:Oh, so you've been up there a long time?

00:11:17Guest:Yeah, probably about 15 years.

00:11:19Marc:Yeah?

00:11:19Marc:Yeah.

00:11:21Marc:That's a whole different life up there, it seems.

00:11:23Marc:I mean, that's the life that people think of when they think of...

00:11:27Marc:Hollywood.

00:11:28Guest:Well, I'm literally under the Hollywood sign.

00:11:31Guest:I mean, I can't see it, but if you're looking at me, I can extend my arms wide open and hold it in the back of my... I can't see it, but you can.

00:11:42Marc:So if somebody's looking at you in front of your house, I get it.

00:11:46Marc:Well, that's fucking nice.

00:11:48Marc:So 15 years, where were you before that?

00:11:49Marc:New York?

00:11:51Marc:No, I was near Laurel Canyon.

00:11:53Marc:Oh.

00:11:54Guest:Oh, near Wonderland.

00:11:55Marc:Oh.

00:11:56Marc:Yeah.

00:11:56Marc:Wonderland, the street?

00:11:58Marc:Mm-hmm.

00:11:59Marc:The infamous street.

00:12:01Marc:The horrible slaughter street?

00:12:03Marc:Yep.

00:12:04Marc:That's weird.

00:12:04Marc:That's the point of reference.

00:12:06Marc:It's sort of like, I'm up by the old Tate House.

00:12:08Marc:You didn't mention the charming school.

00:12:14Yeah.

00:12:14Marc:That's what Hollywood's known for.

00:12:16Marc:Did you see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?

00:12:18Marc:I loved it.

00:12:19Marc:You did, right?

00:12:20Guest:Oh, God, I loved it.

00:12:21Marc:Because you grew up in some of that, right?

00:12:23Marc:I mean, in a way?

00:12:24Guest:In a way.

00:12:25Guest:In a way.

00:12:27Guest:Really, I grew up in Ireland.

00:12:30Guest:Lucky bastard.

00:12:31Guest:You lucky bastard.

00:12:32Guest:Cheers.

00:12:33Guest:And Italy.

00:12:35Guest:And then I went to school in England.

00:12:37Guest:I came to Hollywood late.

00:12:39Guest:My father, he lived in Ireland and then later in Mexico.

00:12:43Guest:But L.A.

00:12:45Guest:was always a sort of stopping point.

00:12:47Marc:The Mexico period.

00:12:48Marc:It's so weird that the generation of your dad's, those guys, they just went to Mexico.

00:12:57Marc:Right.

00:12:57Marc:You know, it's like Peckinpah.

00:13:00Marc:They had this romantic... I'm sorry, that's what I always associate the family, the Houston family, with this kind of strange adventuring thing.

00:13:09Marc:Yeah.

00:13:10Guest:International.

00:13:11Guest:Well, I mean, growing up, I wasn't...

00:13:15Guest:Well, I guess I was clear that he was a director.

00:13:18Guest:But he'd come from faraway countries bearing gifts.

00:13:24Guest:And it was like a pirate coming to visit the house.

00:13:29Guest:And with tall tales.

00:13:31Guest:And yeah, I mean, a sort of swashbuckling kind of guy.

00:13:37Guest:And Ireland, he left sadly after about four or five marriages, I guess.

00:13:44Marc:Where do you fall in?

00:13:46Marc:How is it like, because I had your half-sister, she's your half-sister, right, Angelica, here.

00:13:50Marc:Angelica, yeah.

00:13:51Marc:Your mother was which wife?

00:13:52Guest:My mother was, she wasn't a wife.

00:13:57Guest:My mother was in between wife number four and five, or either between five and six.

00:14:04Yeah.

00:14:04Marc:But you had a relationship with everybody.

00:14:09Guest:Oh, yes, yes.

00:14:10Guest:No, and my father and my mother were tremendous together.

00:14:13Guest:And they were very close.

00:14:18Guest:Yeah.

00:14:19Guest:But, yes, there was a lot going on.

00:14:22Guest:Yeah.

00:14:25Marc:Always.

00:14:25Marc:But now, like, things have, I guess, settled down.

00:14:28Marc:But, like, when you started...

00:14:30Marc:Where'd you grow up?

00:14:32Marc:You were in Italy, like right in Rome?

00:14:34Guest:I grew up in Rome because my father was making a film based on a rather well-known book called The Bible.

00:14:43Guest:Oh, yeah, right, yeah.

00:14:44Guest:And it was a long pre-production and post-production.

00:14:47Guest:The whole thing took about three or four years, and so I happened to be born there.

00:14:52Guest:I like to say that I was conceived, if we're using his films as a measuring stick, I was conceived during Freud, born during the Bible, and teethed on Night of the Iguana.

00:15:07Yeah.

00:15:07Guest:And, you know, so I spent some time on the set of the Bible, and I remember watching the first cut.

00:15:19Guest:And, you know, one's father is a god probably for every son and daughter.

00:15:29Guest:But in this particular case, the film starts, and I hear, in the beginning...

00:15:35Guest:And it's my father doing the voiceover for God.

00:15:39Guest:And then the next thing I knew, he was Noah.

00:15:43Guest:And there were animals following him into the ark.

00:15:46Guest:And this was just fantastic for me.

00:15:49Guest:And then my mother was also in it, and she plays Haga.

00:15:53Guest:Yeah.

00:15:54Guest:And she's in the desert.

00:15:56Guest:Is that Noah's sister?

00:15:58Guest:Abraham.

00:15:59Guest:Abraham.

00:16:00Guest:And she's in the desert, dying of thirst.

00:16:03Guest:And suddenly, this kid appears, who's her son, and he's not me.

00:16:09Guest:Right.

00:16:09Guest:At that point, I got very confused.

00:16:12Guest:And I've had that problem, really, all my life, trying to differentiate fiction from reality.

00:16:17Guest:It's hard, right?

00:16:18Guest:It is.

00:16:20Yeah.

00:16:20Marc:Like I interviewed, there's a guy, who's the guy that wrote the big book on your family?

00:16:25Marc:Larry Grobel.

00:16:26Marc:Yeah, Grobel.

00:16:27Marc:I interviewed him a while back.

00:16:29Marc:He was very, you know, he's the big interview guy.

00:16:33Marc:And I remember I set out to interview the interviewer and it went on a long time.

00:16:37Marc:And I'm not sure what I was looking for.

00:16:39Marc:I just, I know that.

00:16:40Marc:Like he came back again.

00:16:42Marc:Did you like that book?

00:16:46Guest:Yes, I think we all liked it.

00:16:49Guest:It at times delved possibly a little too deeply with interviews with others, I felt.

00:17:00Guest:But my favorite book biography was a book called An Open Book that my father wrote.

00:17:09Guest:And it's a wonderful collection of stories.

00:17:12Guest:About the family or short stories?

00:17:14Guest:It's a collection of stories from his life.

00:17:17Guest:And they're just marvelous.

00:17:20Guest:And we used to kid around saying, it's anything but an open book.

00:17:26Guest:Because it doesn't reveal the sort of things that Larry Grobel.

00:17:29Marc:Well, yeah.

00:17:31Marc:I didn't dent it.

00:17:34Marc:It's a big book.

00:17:36Marc:And I will eventually get it.

00:17:38Guest:You know, it's great.

00:17:40Guest:You learn a lot about Walter Houston.

00:17:43Guest:Your grandfather?

00:17:44Guest:My grandfather.

00:17:45Marc:I remember him from The Devil and Daniel Webster, right?

00:17:48Guest:The Devil and Daniel Webster, that's right.

00:17:50Guest:And he was born in Toronto and his struggles.

00:17:54Guest:And it's an interesting book from sort of...

00:17:59Guest:from my point of view, as a sort of piece of family history.

00:18:02Marc:Sure.

00:18:02Marc:Well, yeah, it sort of fills in all the gaps, I would imagine, for you, if someone else is doing the research.

00:18:08Marc:Yes.

00:18:08Marc:Like, I just did that show, Finding Your Roots, where they do your genetic thing, and then they do the research on it.

00:18:16Marc:And it was interesting, but you had a guy do thorough research and talk to everybody involved and incorporate it into the history of show business.

00:18:24Marc:That's a nice thing to have as a point of reference.

00:18:27Marc:It is.

00:18:27Marc:Even if he digs up some bad shit.

00:18:29Marc:sometimes you gotta there's bad shit there yeah yeah it's better it happened then than now yeah i think it's it creates a dramatic read so why when did you realize that show business was the thing i i felt somewhat doomed uh yeah um you know we just mentioned walter uh my father and

00:18:53Guest:Angelica.

00:18:54Guest:Yeah.

00:18:54Guest:My cool, cool sister, Angelica.

00:18:56Guest:Yeah.

00:18:57Guest:How much older is she?

00:18:58Guest:About 10 years.

00:18:59Guest:Okay.

00:18:59Guest:So she was in it and you were like, whoa.

00:19:01Guest:She was, I mean, as a kid, you know, she was, she still is incredibly cool, but she was friends with like the Rolling Stones.

00:19:10Guest:Yeah, I know.

00:19:12Guest:Yeah.

00:19:13Guest:And Jack Nicholson.

00:19:14Guest:Right.

00:19:14Guest:So this was, you know, incredibly exciting for me.

00:19:19Guest:But, yeah, and my nephew, Jack Houston, it's kind of like the family business.

00:19:24Guest:So, I mean, I resisted it for a while.

00:19:26Guest:I like to paint and I sometimes saw my father struggle with the whole process.

00:19:34Guest:circus act that's around filmmaking and the money involved.

00:19:41Guest:And I could see that it caused him trouble from time to time, even though he knew how to play the game so beautifully.

00:19:54Guest:I mean, he was just a poker player.

00:19:56Guest:Really?

00:19:56Guest:Yeah.

00:19:57Guest:He'd bluff and just...

00:20:00Marc:Like in what situations?

00:20:01Marc:What was the education?

00:20:03Guest:Well, I'll give you an example.

00:20:06Guest:I remember when he was making Pritzy's Honor.

00:20:09Guest:Oh, great movie.

00:20:10Guest:With Angelica.

00:20:11Guest:Yeah.

00:20:11Guest:And Jack, actually.

00:20:14Guest:He...

00:20:15Guest:A guy from ABC came up and said, Mr. Houston, it's incredible.

00:20:19Guest:You're using such a low amount of footage of film.

00:20:26Guest:You're saving us so much in the budget by doing so.

00:20:30Guest:And he said, thank you very much.

00:20:32Guest:It's very kind of you.

00:20:34Guest:And then when the gentleman left the room, my father said, idiot.

00:20:41Guest:Yeah.

00:20:41Guest:He doesn't understand that they can't cut it any other way.

00:20:46Guest:So it was a control thing.

00:20:48Guest:Yeah.

00:20:49Guest:He'd be cutting in the camera so that- So they didn't have any where to go.

00:20:53Guest:Any option, yeah.

00:20:54Guest:Oh, that's smart.

00:20:55Guest:That's the kind of thing that's sort of trickery.

00:20:58Marc:When you were coming up, so you started as a painter?

00:21:02Guest:Did you go to college?

00:21:03Guest:I went to art school.

00:21:04Guest:I went to film school.

00:21:05Guest:Oh, yeah?

00:21:06Guest:In Europe?

00:21:07Guest:In London, yeah.

00:21:09Guest:And then I had this moment when he was making a film called Under the Volcano.

00:21:15Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:21:16Guest:Albert Finney?

00:21:16Guest:Albert Finney.

00:21:17Guest:Yeah.

00:21:17Guest:Based on Malcolm Lowry novel.

00:21:20Guest:And he was struggling with the title sequence.

00:21:25Guest:I used to make him cocktails or drinks.

00:21:29Guest:Depending what country he was in, it would be a different drink.

00:21:31Guest:In Mexico, it was Cuba Libre, rum and coke.

00:21:36Guest:And I brought him a rum and coke, and it upset him.

00:21:40Guest:He said, no, no, no, no.

00:21:41Guest:The coke should only color the rum.

00:21:44Guest:I went back and poured him a large one.

00:21:48Guest:And then we watched the rushes.

00:21:51Marc:For Under the Volcano.

00:21:52Guest:For Under the Volcano.

00:21:53Guest:And he was struggling with this title sequence because it was paper mache dolls, but they didn't move.

00:22:01Guest:So, the shots were very static for the title sequence.

00:22:04Guest:So, he turned around to me and he said, Danny...

00:22:08Guest:You've been to film school and stuff, right?

00:22:12Guest:Direct the title sequence.

00:22:15Guest:And it was almost a moment of horror for me.

00:22:18Guest:But he handed over Gabriel Figueroa, who was a wonderful cinematographer.

00:22:25Guest:And I shot the sequence using a camera that moved around the dolls to try to create some movement.

00:22:34Guest:And he was delighted.

00:22:36Guest:And that was my first...

00:22:37Guest:That was it.

00:22:38Marc:That was the first job.

00:22:39Marc:And were you hooked?

00:22:40Marc:I mean, pleasing your dad's obviously a great thing.

00:22:44Marc:He dumped this thing on you.

00:22:46Marc:You couldn't say no.

00:22:48Marc:And he showed up and you nailed it.

00:22:51Guest:I like to think I did.

00:22:53Guest:But I did come out of film school and stuff.

00:22:56Guest:So it was kind of my secret ambition.

00:22:59Marc:Oh, yeah, you just didn't know how it was going to unfold, where the confidence was going to come from?

00:23:04Marc:Yeah.

00:23:05Marc:And then he produced the... How long before you did the first feature?

00:23:13Guest:The first feature I did with him was based on a Thornton Wilder.

00:23:18Guest:And you directed that, right?

00:23:19Guest:I directed that.

00:23:20Guest:It was called Mr. North.

00:23:21Guest:Right.

00:23:22Guest:And I had a wonderful cast.

00:23:23Guest:It was a big cast.

00:23:24Guest:I remember.

00:23:25Guest:Anthony Edwards.

00:23:26Guest:Anthony Edwards, yeah.

00:23:27Guest:And again, my...

00:23:29Guest:My father, I mean, we were like two hustlers.

00:23:36Guest:I remember presenting the script to Lauren Bacall, and there was a long flight of stairs.

00:23:41Guest:Did you write the script?

00:23:43Guest:No, he did.

00:23:43Guest:Oh, your dad did?

00:23:45Guest:Yeah, he did with Janet Roach, who actually also wrote Prince's Honor with him.

00:23:49Marc:was that was he intending was it one of the things that he was intending to direct or how did that like uh no i gave it i oh you gave him the idea he said all right i'm gonna write this yeah and you're gonna direct that's right interesting and so yeah so so we we uh we got this great cast together and and uh yeah lauren bacall i was she's literally on standing on top of a flight of steps outside the uh the

00:24:11Guest:Westwood Marquis.

00:24:12Guest:Yeah.

00:24:13Guest:And I carried his oxygen tank up the steps.

00:24:16Guest:What did he have?

00:24:17Guest:Emphysema?

00:24:18Guest:Yeah.

00:24:18Guest:I carried the oxygen tank up the steps towards Lauren Bacall.

00:24:21Guest:Yeah.

00:24:22Guest:And he turned around and winked at me and said, no way she's going to refuse this.

00:24:26Guest:And then, and sadly, while we were making the film, he called me, he was meant to act in it, and he called me, he said, Danny, if I were to fall ill, is it okay if I get Robert Mitchum to stand by, just in case?

00:24:44Guest:I said, well, look, I'm sure you're gonna be fine, but yeah, sure, of course.

00:24:48Guest:And then, he did become ill, and checked into the hospital in Newport, Rhode Island,

00:24:56Guest:While you were shooting.

00:24:57Guest:While we were shooting.

00:24:58Guest:And Robert Mitchum arrived, came to the hospital.

00:25:05Guest:They spoke.

00:25:07Guest:And Mitchum said, you know, I'm sorry about the circumstances, but I'm here.

00:25:14Guest:And when Mitchum left the room, my father lowered his oxygen tank, looked at me and said, biggest hoax I ever pulled.

00:25:26Guest:And, you know, he considered Mitchum one of the greatest actors and couldn't believe that he got him.

00:25:37Guest:But this was also a show of bravado and a show of support.

00:25:43Guest:And he was such a gentle man in that regard.

00:25:46Marc:Did he get well or was that...

00:25:48Guest:He got welled for a short time.

00:25:52Marc:And so what sort of fascinates me about the choice in something like even like Mr. North and then again with the new movie which I watched, The Last Photograph.

00:26:06Marc:Yes.

00:26:06Marc:You know, is that there and even in some of the movies your father made that were is that these stories are very are very specific.

00:26:14Marc:They're not mainstream stories necessarily.

00:26:17Marc:They're stories because I have this big rant going on actively in public about.

00:26:23Marc:The limitations of mainstream cinema because of the bullying element of comic book movies and what independent film means and where it can go.

00:26:33Marc:And I realize that some of this stuff, like your dad and even like, I think Mr. North did okay, right?

00:26:40Marc:Because he had good actors in it.

00:26:43Marc:Absolutely, yeah.

00:26:43Marc:But then as you move forward, like watching the last photograph, I was like, this is a powerful movie.

00:26:49Marc:It's very moving.

00:26:50Marc:It's beautiful to look at.

00:26:52Marc:It's challenging in a lot of ways.

00:26:55Marc:But it's not like a story that you just don't.

00:26:58Marc:These type of movies, they're hard to see anymore, like in movie theaters.

00:27:04Marc:Isn't that true?

00:27:05Marc:It's true.

00:27:06Marc:Yeah.

00:27:06Marc:But, I mean, I thought it was an amazing movie, and I'm glad I watched it before you came.

00:27:11Marc:But, like, even with something like Mr. North, you know, and then something like this thing, The Last Photograph, which you wrote and directed and acted in.

00:27:20Marc:How do you like, you know, how do you decide to commit to that story?

00:27:25Marc:You know what I mean?

00:27:25Marc:It's sort of like it always baffles me when I talk to directors where where they have this thing and it's sort of like there because it's going to take years.

00:27:33Marc:Yeah.

00:27:34Marc:And you've got to lock in.

00:27:36Marc:I mean, obviously, you're acting and doing other things.

00:27:38Marc:But what was it that that sort of what was it about that story?

00:27:42Marc:Like, let's talk about the last photo, the last photograph, the newest movie.

00:27:45Guest:Yeah.

00:27:48Guest:I know exactly what you're saying, by the way.

00:27:55Guest:Again, my father was just spectacular the way he'd be able to make wise blood.

00:28:02Guest:And Fat City, too.

00:28:03Guest:Fat City and Under the Volcano, but in between all those three, he got in Annie.

00:28:08Guest:Right.

00:28:09Guest:So he really knew how to play, you know, giving one to them and keeping a couple for himself.

00:28:15Guest:Right.

00:28:16Guest:Keeping himself interested in new material.

00:28:24Guest:Yeah.

00:28:24Guest:Trying to figure out new ways to make films.

00:28:27Guest:And the last movie, what, The Dead...

00:28:29Guest:Yes.

00:28:30Guest:Spectacular.

00:28:31Guest:But also able to throw out, you know, Annie.

00:28:35Guest:The Bible.

00:28:35Guest:Escape to victory.

00:28:37Guest:Dino de Laurentiis, the Bible.

00:28:38Guest:He was also able to.

00:28:39Guest:So he was really able to play that game.

00:28:41Guest:Right, right.

00:28:42Guest:And so with the last photograph, it was an idea that a friend of mine, Simon Astaire,

00:28:50Guest:gave me as a gift, really, as a beautifully written screenplay.

00:28:58Guest:And with that... Oh, it was his screenplay.

00:29:01Guest:Yeah, it was Simon Astaire's screenplay.

00:29:03Guest:And I...

00:29:05Guest:I saw it as an opportunity to play, get back in the saddle and play with different mediums, not necessarily for stylistic reasons, but for reasons of necessity.

00:29:20Guest:And so I used a Canon still camera to shoot London during Christmas.

00:29:27Guest:I then used

00:29:28Guest:With film?

00:29:30Guest:No, digital.

00:29:31Guest:A little digital.

00:29:32Guest:And then I used a 16 millimeter for the scenes with the kids in the park.

00:29:39Guest:I used probably about six or different types of equipment.

00:29:43Guest:Was that on film, the 16?

00:29:44Guest:Yes, it was.

00:29:45Guest:Of course, yeah.

00:29:47Guest:Technology is so advanced that you can make anything look like anything.

00:29:52Guest:But I liked the idea of actually holding equipment that was older and it forcing me to see things possibly slightly differently.

00:30:04Marc:And your character has that element to him, too, that he's stuck in the past a bit in grief, but also, it seems, in his shop as well.

00:30:13Guest:Yeah, exactly.

00:30:14Guest:And the different formats also allowed me just to not to have things like place cards or dates and stuff like that.

00:30:22Guest:And hopefully, emotionally, the film is at times possibly a little languid.

00:30:27Guest:I could keep the emotion, stretch the emotion, without giving you more information on it.

00:30:32Marc:Well, I thought that was very effective because, you know, there's a good chunk of the movie where you don't really know what happened.

00:30:37Marc:Exactly.

00:30:38Marc:There's pieces given to you, kind of, but it's really about the poetry of grief, right?

00:30:48Marc:And the maintaining of...

00:30:49Marc:of that and moving through it.

00:30:52Guest:Yeah.

00:30:53Guest:And this guy, you know, he owns a bookshop.

00:30:55Guest:He's a curmudgeonly, probably unpleasant kind of guy.

00:30:59Guest:Yeah.

00:30:59Guest:And this photograph is stolen.

00:31:02Guest:And he spirals.

00:31:06Guest:He just goes into complete panic.

00:31:09Guest:And then...

00:31:10Guest:While he's searching for this photograph, the film becomes a sort of a tapestry, a collage of memories that lead one to this sort of fateful night, which December 22nd, 1988, when flight Pan Am 101 exploded over Lockerbie.

00:31:33Marc:Right.

00:31:34Marc:Yeah, and it's like, the whole thing is sort of like, I just had a conversation with somebody else about human beings and about how we avoid the sort of realities of death.

00:31:49Marc:You know, like we do, in terms of that conversation was about how old people don't, elderly people don't die in the homes anymore.

00:31:57Marc:Everything's sort of geared towards not paying attention.

00:32:03Yeah.

00:32:03Marc:So when you see, you know, a man, this character you played, kind of like not being able to let go and having death hoisted upon him, you know, in such a dramatic and public and, you know, shocking way, it was surprising.

00:32:18Marc:For me, it was just, it was very sort of emotionally satisfying in its sadness because you really play it all the way through.

00:32:26Marc:I mean, you know, enacting that, I mean, that must have been somewhat difficult.

00:32:31Marc:Was it for you?

00:32:32Guest:Well, yes.

00:32:35Marc:And also to direct at the same time.

00:32:37Guest:That was a little schizophrenic.

00:32:39Guest:Yeah, you're talking about death.

00:32:46Guest:The more mass shootings that we see, you see on the news channels, these photographs.

00:32:53Yeah.

00:32:53Guest:that come up.

00:32:54Guest:And each one representing an individual story.

00:32:59Guest:And that's what I found interesting about the concept that Simon Astaire brought to me.

00:33:06Guest:I knew from a directing point of view,

00:33:09Guest:I knew that me, Danny, would be available as an actor.

00:33:15Guest:Right.

00:33:15Guest:And that I could shoot.

00:33:17Guest:It's an easy casting.

00:33:18Guest:Yeah, and that I could shoot at different moments, different times.

00:33:22Guest:So I could shoot London in the winter, and I could shoot London in the summer, and I knew that I had me.

00:33:31Guest:Yeah.

00:33:32Guest:So that's one of the reasons I cast myself.

00:33:34Guest:Right.

00:33:35Guest:Probably the primary reason I cast myself.

00:33:37Guest:Right, you're scheduling issues.

00:33:38Guest:Yes, I do.

00:33:39Guest:I wouldn't have to get on the phone and say, hey, man, can you do me a favor?

00:33:45Guest:I didn't have to do that.

00:33:45Guest:That was me.

00:33:48Guest:But he's a hard character to take home because the state of...

00:33:58Guest:post-stress superstition situation.

00:34:01Guest:And the grieving is such that it's hard to shed.

00:34:07Guest:And one's bombarded with new glass photographs all the time.

00:34:15Guest:So it just became something that I was very aware of.

00:34:21Guest:And now that I talk about it, it's something that's...

00:34:23Guest:I can conjure back.

00:34:26Guest:We've all lost friends, sadly, and family, etc.

00:34:31Guest:We all have that last photograph.

00:34:34Guest:And so it's a hard thing to continue performing.

00:34:40Guest:But from a directing point of view, it was exhilarating because I could use these different...

00:34:45Guest:I could dance around.

00:34:47Guest:I could shoot stuff in London.

00:34:49Guest:I could drive up to Scotland and shoot in Scotland.

00:34:53Marc:That was an insane scene where he's just in shock.

00:34:55Guest:Yeah, but I could play from a directing point of view.

00:35:01Guest:It's a little bit of an experiment, the film.

00:35:05Guest:Also, I was interested in creating a situation, an emotional thread that could lead me into live news footage without having to superimpose my character into the scene or something like that, but actually create a situation where we didn't feel that we were cutting away to a news report.

00:35:30Marc:You mean when that guy came out and made the announcement?

00:35:32Marc:Yeah.

00:35:33Marc:Yes.

00:35:33Marc:No, it worked really good.

00:35:34Marc:Yeah, the nurses arriving, the ambulances, et cetera.

00:35:37Guest:That's all real footage.

00:35:38Marc:Yeah, no, it's great because it even looked like the same room that you were in.

00:35:41Marc:Exactly.

00:35:42Marc:Almost.

00:35:42Guest:Yeah, yeah, that's by design.

00:35:44Marc:Oh, yeah?

00:35:45Marc:Yeah.

00:35:45Marc:No, that was great.

00:35:46Marc:Yeah, and also the sort of relationship with... There was a line in there that the actress... Suta Chowdhury.

00:35:56Marc:Yeah, yeah, who I hadn't seen in a while.

00:35:58Guest:Yeah.

00:35:58Marc:And you made this, it's a couple years old this time, right?

00:36:00Marc:It just took a while to find its way?

00:36:02Marc:It did.

00:36:04Marc:But that line where she says, I believe it was her, where she says, you know, he was in love and he wanted more.

00:36:11Marc:You know, it's really kind of like, there's something about the poetry of the script that's pretty...

00:36:16Marc:You know, kind of like, you know, at every juncture, you know, you sort of feel it's sort of her outreach to your character to frame this as something that, you know, wasn't your fault, number one.

00:36:28Marc:And number two, you know, there's no way to explain it.

00:36:30Marc:There's no one to blame after a certain point.

00:36:33Marc:How do you let that go?

00:36:34Guest:Yeah, because he's guilt ridden because he bought the ticket.

00:36:37Marc:Yeah.

00:36:38Marc:And then the dynamic with the girl.

00:36:40Marc:with the girlfriend who only knew him for three weeks is very profound as well because that she's going to carry that weight on a different level.

00:36:48Guest:Yes, yes.

00:36:49Guest:Oh, my God.

00:36:50Guest:I know.

00:36:50Guest:And I don't know whether – I've discussed this with the writer Simon a couple of times, but when she returns back –

00:37:01Guest:in the story after years have passed.

00:37:05Marc:Oh, and meets him at the church.

00:37:07Guest:I'm not sure whether he's imagining that or not.

00:37:11Marc:Yeah, well, that's one of those things, right?

00:37:13Marc:Because it's actually in a joke I'm doing on stage now because I'm a comic.

00:37:16Marc:Where I talk about, you know, like about the difference between, you know, these big, huge Marvel movies.

00:37:24Marc:But like they're pushing us all to we have to drive 25, 30 miles to, you know, to see grown up movies, you know, in a in a theater situation where we can all have the experience together and walk out confused by the ending as one group of people.

00:37:41Marc:And that's, you know, what happened to those days?

00:37:44Marc:Did he die?

00:37:45Marc:Did she die?

00:37:45Marc:What happened?

00:37:46Marc:I don't know what happened.

00:37:47Marc:Why didn't they tell us?

00:37:48Marc:I think the director wants us to have this conversation.

00:37:53Marc:It was so one of those movies for me where, no, it was a poetic ending, but, oh, so that was it.

00:37:59Marc:Like, you know, it's to create some, did he imagine, did he not imagine, was it real, was it not real?

00:38:05Guest:Yes.

00:38:06Guest:And does he, is he looking, I hate the word closure, but is he looking for some sort of peace within himself by imagining her and releasing her back to the love affair that she was having with his son?

00:38:21Marc:Yes.

00:38:23Marc:Yeah.

00:38:24Marc:Yeah.

00:38:24Marc:And does he because there, you know, that shot of you at the end is not comforting.

00:38:27Guest:No, the film is not a comforting film.

00:38:31Guest:It is not a Friday night popcorn movie.

00:38:34Guest:It is absolutely the antithesis of that.

00:38:37Marc:But I'm really trying to, for myself, assess this kind of stuff and put it into... Because I think I'm about your age.

00:38:47Marc:I'm going to be 56.

00:38:49Marc:And you start to think about, well, what am I taking in?

00:38:52Marc:Why am I taking it in?

00:38:54Marc:What is important?

00:38:55Marc:What is art?

00:38:55Marc:What is an art?

00:38:57Marc:And when I saw how your movie started, I was like, all right, well, this is what we're going to do here.

00:39:02Marc:This is something I'm going to have to sit with.

00:39:06Marc:And I'm going to have to allow and I don't, you know, because in terms of the narrative, the story, it's really a poetry movie because, you know, the story is you don't really, you don't ever think you're going to find the photograph.

00:39:21Marc:Right.

00:39:21Marc:It's a series of revelations that deepen the character's grief for the viewer.

00:39:32Marc:But I really thought that through that and the way that you shot it, the way that you shot their romance, the kids' romance,

00:39:39Marc:And your relationship with the woman who works across from you and even your old friend that, you know, these become very loaded.

00:39:47Marc:And there is sort of small bits of relief and bits of connection that we all can have around the emotional process this guy is going through.

00:39:56Marc:And that is what it should be.

00:39:58Marc:You know, that is what the feeling should be.

00:39:59Marc:It doesn't have to be about like, well, how does the story end?

00:40:02Marc:Or what, you know, that is the poetry of film if you let it happen.

00:40:07Guest:Yeah, and it's the reflective nature of it, I believe.

00:40:14Guest:Of film.

00:40:15Guest:Yes.

00:40:17Guest:I mean, we were talking earlier about my father in Ireland, and he'd get the projector out, and there's always a big sort of palava about the film ripping or not, and then we'd project these films on the wall, and my grandfather, who I never met...

00:40:34Guest:was in Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and he was a gold prospector, and that's who I thought he was.

00:40:41Guest:I thought my father was Noah.

00:40:44Guest:So film kind of lies, but also tells truths at the same time.

00:40:49Guest:And what I thought was interesting was this drive to the airport, driving my son to the airport.

00:40:55Guest:And it's really quite a banal conversation.

00:40:59Guest:We're not saying anything that carries any great

00:41:00Marc:That's where it starts, the movie.

00:41:02Guest:Yeah, in a way it's the spine of the film.

00:41:06Guest:But then as we are informed, as the audience is informed, we see this conversation in a different way.

00:41:14Guest:And I find it interesting how we find more symbolism or we are more...

00:41:28Guest:or intrigued by a conversation when we are informed what will happen.

00:41:36Guest:How many features have you directed?

00:41:38Guest:Three.

00:41:39Guest:The third one?

00:41:39Guest:Yeah.

00:41:40Guest:I mean, I started with a small one-hour film, fresh out of film school, after I directed the title sequence, called Mr. Corbett's Ghost.

00:41:49Guest:And my father was in it.

00:41:50Guest:Oh, where's that?

00:41:51Guest:Can you get it online?

00:41:53Guest:Probably.

00:41:54Guest:Yeah.

00:41:55Guest:And he plays a collector of souls, typecasting.

00:41:59Guest:Yeah.

00:42:00Guest:And I have Paul Schofield in it, and I had Burgess Meredith.

00:42:05Guest:Oh, wow.

00:42:05Guest:Wonderful.

00:42:06Guest:And then I moved on to Mr. North where Lauren Bacall, Robert Mitchum, Harry Dean Stanton, David Warner, Mary Stewart Masterson, Virginia Mattson, a great, great cast.

00:42:16Guest:And then I made a film called The Maddening with Burt Reynolds and Angie Dickinson.

00:42:23Guest:And then I made another film called Becoming Colette about Colette with Klaus Maria Brandauer.

00:42:28Guest:And by that point, I'd lost my father, who was my friend, my collaborator.

00:42:36Guest:And then...

00:42:38Guest:I found myself in a sort of rather seasonless state in Los Angeles.

00:42:45Guest:Without your old man.

00:42:46Guest:Without my old man.

00:42:48Guest:I mean, years were going by.

00:42:51Guest:Lots of meetings and phone calls and trying to get stuff going.

00:42:54Marc:But you were acting, no?

00:42:55Guest:No, I wasn't.

00:42:56Guest:I was in a complete funk.

00:42:58Guest:I was sort of flatlining, and I couldn't get anything off the ground.

00:43:04Guest:And waiting for this eternal green light.

00:43:08Guest:So the plan was directing.

00:43:09Guest:The plan was directing.

00:43:10Guest:And then fellow directors, friends, because of their kindness, really started casting me in small parts.

00:43:21Guest:Right.

00:43:22Guest:And then the parts got bigger.

00:43:23Guest:And suddenly I realized, oh, wow, I should take this seriously.

00:43:27Guest:I guess I'm acting.

00:43:29Guest:The reason I said yes was because I was interested because most of my film experience was on my father's film sets.

00:43:39Guest:So I was interested in experiencing how other people worked.

00:43:45Guest:And I worked with Mike Figgis and with Bernard Rose, who were more experimental in their approach.

00:43:52Guest:Figgis on which one?

00:43:55Guest:Time code.

00:43:55Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:43:56Guest:Oh, that's right.

00:43:57Guest:Yeah, where we had a quadrant.

00:43:58Guest:Right.

00:43:59Guest:And we were writing the script.

00:44:00Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:44:00Guest:I was writing the script on music sheets.

00:44:02Marc:Yeah.

00:44:03Marc:And you did, but you knew Figgis.

00:44:05Marc:He put you in Leaving Las Vegas as well?

00:44:07Marc:Yes, I was waiter number two.

00:44:09Marc:And that was the first, like that was a, he was throwing you a lifeline with that.

00:44:13Marc:Yes, yes.

00:44:14Marc:He's like, you know, Danny's in trouble.

00:44:16Marc:Yeah.

00:44:16Marc:We got to throw, you can't keep him, you got to keep his health insurance.

00:44:20Guest:Exactly, get him apart.

00:44:21Guest:Seems sad.

00:44:22Guest:Yeah.

00:44:22Guest:And then, you know, and then Bernard Rose and I, he just, I worked with him on a version of Anna Karenina.

00:44:33Guest:And he said he was having trouble with the cut on the film.

00:44:38Guest:And we were both in a very depressed state, moaning, groaning about the film business.

00:44:45Guest:And his girlfriend at the time said, you know, you guys are really boring.

00:44:51Guest:Why don't you just go out and make a film?

00:44:53Guest:And we were like, no.

00:44:54Guest:You don't understand.

00:44:55Guest:It's far more complicated than that.

00:44:57Guest:You can't just go out and make a film.

00:44:58Guest:And she was like, well, I have.

00:44:59Guest:And she was a documentary filmmaker.

00:45:01Guest:And so we tried this new camera out, this Sony digital camera that Sony lent us.

00:45:06Guest:The red?

00:45:08Guest:No, earlier.

00:45:08Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:45:10Guest:And they used this as a sort of testing tool.

00:45:14Guest:It was a trial.

00:45:15Guest:And we shot this film in our backyard, basically, and it's called Ivan's Ecstasy, based on the death of Ivan Illich.

00:45:23Guest:And it was a bit of a sort of poison letter to Hollywood, but basically we stayed true to Tolstoy as best we could.

00:45:32Guest:It's actually quite a faithful adaptation.

00:45:34Guest:And it became a success.

00:45:39Yeah.

00:45:39Guest:It got independent film spirit nominations, and it sort of propelled me as an actor.

00:45:47Guest:The next thing I knew, I was working with Scorsese and Nicole Kidman and a film called Birth, and I was like, wow, I gotta take this seriously.

00:45:57Guest:Not that I wasn't, but I mean, I was like, this is actually happening to you.

00:46:00Guest:But had you had any training at all?

00:46:02Guest:None whatsoever, no, none.

00:46:04Guest:Life, life was my training.

00:46:06Guest:And story.

00:46:07Guest:Story.

00:46:08Guest:That's what it's all about.

00:46:09Guest:I consider myself a storyteller.

00:46:10Marc:Sure, of course.

00:46:11Marc:Yeah, no, no, I know.

00:46:12Marc:I talk to more actors than I used to, you know, because I've been doing it a bit myself.

00:46:17Marc:But, you know, many of them come down to storytelling.

00:46:22Marc:They're honoring a story.

00:46:23Marc:And then other people get caught up in the nuance of acting, you know, in terms of, you know, tools they use or what have you.

00:46:32Marc:But you just show up.

00:46:33Guest:I try to show up.

00:46:35Guest:But yes, yes.

00:46:36Guest:So basically from that point on I was an actor.

00:46:42Guest:And what I love about it is my credo basically is try to work with people that I respect.

00:46:50Guest:And so from an acting point of view, I mean you mentioned this earlier about how much time it takes to direct, but from an acting point of view I can be like a...

00:47:02Guest:like a bee or something.

00:47:05Guest:I can go and I can taste the nectar from different flowers.

00:47:09Guest:I can make three or four films per year if I'm lucky.

00:47:12Guest:Acting.

00:47:14Guest:Acting, I can maybe do a couple of TV shows or guest appearances, but I can keep active and I can be working on many stories at the same time.

00:47:23Guest:Now this grinds to a halt when one is directing.

00:47:28Guest:Right.

00:47:29Guest:Because you're turning other stuff down, possibly, and you are just single-mindedly directing this.

00:47:38Guest:I mean, the last photograph, like you mentioned, it's two and a half years ago.

00:47:43Guest:Right.

00:47:43Guest:I finished it.

00:47:45Guest:I started making it and finished it in a rather unconventional way.

00:47:50Guest:But it's taken a long time, and you need that dedication and that gumption to just keep writing it until it gets seen.

00:48:04Guest:That's from the point of conception to the point of release a lot of time.

00:48:08Marc:On some level,

00:48:10Marc:There, there, there's some element of rationalization in, you know, when you're taking, you know, four or five acting roles a year and you're sort of framing it as like, well, I get to experience how other directors work and stuff that when you actually have to direct and focus your own energy on not doing any of that just for two years, there's gotta be moments where it's sort of like, I just, can I get a job just to not finish this?

00:48:36Yeah.

00:48:36Guest:But yes, and at that point, the idea has possibly become a little tired for you, but you've become utterly obsessed.

00:48:45Guest:Right.

00:48:45Guest:Oh, that's good.

00:48:46Guest:You have to.

00:48:46Guest:Yeah.

00:48:47Guest:You can't let it go.

00:48:48Marc:So when you're also like, well, you're in succession this season.

00:48:54Marc:I noticed you.

00:48:55Marc:I just started watching it, whatever, a couple weeks ago.

00:48:59Marc:That must be great to work with those guys.

00:49:01Guest:It's fantastic.

00:49:02Guest:It's fantastic.

00:49:03Guest:Did you know Brian Cox?

00:49:05Guest:I met him because we both played General Stryker in the X-Men.

00:49:11Guest:So it was a very funny meeting in Edinburgh in Scotland where it was like, I'm playing you.

00:49:16Guest:No, no, I'm playing you.

00:49:18Guest:And we look completely different.

00:49:21Guest:So it was great to see him again.

00:49:23Guest:And I love working with Brian.

00:49:27Guest:Where's he from?

00:49:29Guest:Is he British?

00:49:30Guest:He's Scottish.

00:49:31Guest:He's Scottish.

00:49:32Guest:Yeah.

00:49:34Guest:Comes from a hard Scottish background.

00:49:38Marc:Oh, yeah?

00:49:39Marc:Yeah.

00:49:40Marc:Like most of them, I guess.

00:49:41Guest:I mean, we were in Dundee, and he showed me the apartment or the house where he grew up.

00:49:51Guest:It was seven families in one block, maybe two, three floors, and an outhouse that they all used.

00:50:02Guest:Right.

00:50:03Guest:They all had to use.

00:50:04Marc:So when you do, like over this process of doing, obviously growing up a bit on your father's sets and then working a bit with Scorsese, with Fegas, who are some of the other people that, how do you, what do you integrate into your directing craft from these experiences?

00:50:22Guest:Well, the experience of making about four or five adaptations with Bernard Rose, Tolstoy adaptations.

00:50:31Guest:We did Ivan's Ecstasy, which is- That was your big break.

00:50:35Guest:I don't know that I remember seeing the movie.

00:50:37Guest:Well, that's the death of Ivan Illich.

00:50:40Guest:Right.

00:50:40Guest:Then we made Boxing Day, which is Master and Man.

00:50:43Guest:Then we did the Kreutzer Sonata.

00:50:45Guest:We did the two jacks, which is the two hussars.

00:50:49Guest:I did that with my nephew.

00:50:51Guest:But what I really took from Bernard is his sort of unapologetic manner.

00:50:59Guest:He doesn't wait for anybody to tell him whether he can make a film or not.

00:51:03Guest:He just starts.

00:51:04Guest:And then he tries to raise some money here and there.

00:51:08Guest:But he's kind of like a punk rocker in that sense.

00:51:12Guest:Yeah.

00:51:12Guest:He's like you starting these interviews in your garage.

00:51:15Guest:You just do it.

00:51:17Guest:You just do it.

00:51:18Guest:You stop the concern about who's going to release it and how the backing is arranged financially.

00:51:28Guest:But that makes it difficult because you then need to get it out there.

00:51:34Guest:But it's a great unapologetic approach.

00:51:38Guest:And Mike Figgis was the same.

00:51:39Guest:And so that's what I got from them.

00:51:41Guest:My father had to play the studio system.

00:51:45Guest:It was like his legacy.

00:51:46Guest:Yeah.

00:51:47Guest:But we don't have to do that anymore.

00:51:48Guest:If you've got a guitar and you've got a good melody, bash it out in the garage and send it out.

00:51:54Guest:If it's good, it'll probably hit.

00:51:56Guest:Maybe.

00:51:56Guest:Maybe, yeah.

00:52:00Guest:But you've done it.

00:52:01Marc:I mean, it's a good question.

00:52:03Marc:You've done it.

00:52:04Marc:That's true.

00:52:04Marc:You've completed it and you've done the work of your heart.

00:52:08Marc:Yeah.

00:52:09Marc:But it is an interesting question about the way the fragmented media works now and this sort of this ability to self-generate and put things out in the world is that the idea that like, well, if it's great, it will find its place.

00:52:24Marc:But I wonder how many... Not necessarily.

00:52:25Guest:You're right.

00:52:26Marc:I wonder how many geniuses are out there submerged.

00:52:28Marc:Not necessarily.

00:52:29Guest:You're absolutely right.

00:52:31Guest:And the stars do need to align.

00:52:34Guest:Yeah.

00:52:34Guest:And sometimes they don't, and the work is still possibly remarkable.

00:52:39Guest:I mean, how many great painters are out there that we don't know?

00:52:42Guest:How many Vincent van Goghs are out there that we don't know?

00:52:44Marc:It's wild, right?

00:52:46Marc:But there is a lack of gatekeepers now, and they were the ones that determined things.

00:52:51Marc:But also, the other side of that, unfortunately, is...

00:52:55Marc:not unlike some painters that, you know, if something exists out there in the world, you know, at the time it was released or created, it may not get any recognition, but you never know 15, 20 years down the line, someone finds it and, like, this guy was a genius, died destitute.

00:53:11Marc:Yes.

00:53:12Guest:But what a gift.

00:53:13Guest:Yes, also true.

00:53:14Guest:Right.

00:53:14Guest:Also absolutely true, yeah.

00:53:16Guest:But, you know, when you have the machinery in place, I have a film out these past couple of weeks,

00:53:25Guest:called Angel Has Fallen.

00:53:27Guest:And that's with Jerry Butler.

00:53:29Guest:And that's a franchise.

00:53:31Guest:And it's like a freight train.

00:53:35Guest:Really?

00:53:36Guest:You can't stop it.

00:53:39Guest:Which is wonderful to be part of that.

00:53:41Guest:It's great to be in a number one film

00:53:44Guest:uh for a couple of weeks what is it is it a marvel movie or something uh no it's it's a uh uh he plays a uh security security for the president and this is the third installment you had olympus had fallen london has fallen now it's angel has fallen no shit and uh you know i don't even look at this cast i don't even know what this movie is where am i living

00:54:07Guest:And it's a huge movie?

00:54:09Guest:It's a huge movie.

00:54:10Guest:It's a huge success.

00:54:11Guest:In movie theaters?

00:54:14Guest:That is actually my point.

00:54:16Guest:It's in practically every movie theater.

00:54:19Guest:And my film, The Last Photograph, is playing in one theater nationwide.

00:54:26Guest:Santa Monica at the Lambly Theater.

00:54:29Guest:That's your strategy?

00:54:31Guest:For one week.

00:54:32Guest:You got to fly in.

00:54:33Guest:For one week.

00:54:34Guest:And then it'll go on the video demand and all the digital platforms, et cetera, which I'm perfectly happy with this film because there's something quite private about the experience.

00:54:47Marc:experience of that movie i think that might be true yeah and i i'm not yeah it kind of goes against my sense of what what it should be but it is it is and i'm you know i'm delighted that it's going to be up on the big screen for a week for for a week or so no yeah i was just in a movie like that where you like it just to be in a theater at all i guess yeah it's an exciting thing so there's no chance that it will pick up more theaters or you don't

00:55:10Guest:I don't think so.

00:55:11Guest:I think it's all geared towards the one-week theatrical release and then into your home.

00:55:18Marc:So what was the journey of this movie, though?

00:55:20Marc:Why did it take so long?

00:55:22Marc:Did you do the festivals?

00:55:23Marc:What was the process of the last photograph?

00:55:25Guest:We did the festivals.

00:55:27Guest:We did Edinburgh Film Festival, which was a very, very poignant evening with Alistair Stewart, who was one of the newscasters who announced the Lockerbie panel.

00:55:40Marc:I guess it is really sort of relevant in how there are these tragedies that happen through acts of terrorism that seem to require the victims, the survivors, live in a sort of blame to find some sort of justice.

00:56:01Marc:It's relevant because these shootings, like you said, because there's so many things like this that create these type of families of victims.

00:56:10Marc:Yeah.

00:56:12Guest:Yeah.

00:56:13Guest:The Pan Am 101 fight was complicated.

00:56:16Guest:We don't really know where the blame lies.

00:56:20Guest:I know.

00:56:20Guest:Very many conspiracy theories.

00:56:24Guest:It was attached to Libya initially, right?

00:56:26Guest:Yeah.

00:56:26Guest:Well, you know, finally, I believe it was Cheney who negotiated a deal with Gaddafi where Gaddafi gave money to the families of the victims as a means to lift sanctions.

00:56:39Guest:Right.

00:56:39Guest:And then Blair and Bush were able to have business with Libya again.

00:56:50Guest:So, you know, Gaddafi accepted the blame by paying the families but never actually said it was him.

00:57:02Guest:So we don't really know.

00:57:05Guest:There was a man who was prosecuted in Scotland who was released and brought back home to Libya because he was dying of cancer, I believe.

00:57:16Guest:And we don't really know.

00:57:17Guest:We don't really know.

00:57:19Guest:But what we do know is that this was one of the first terrorist hits of that size.

00:57:31Guest:Many Americans, I think the biggest terrorist act over English soil.

00:57:38Guest:And it was the beginning of what has happened.

00:57:45Marc:Sure.

00:57:45Marc:Okay, so you do the event with Alistair in Monroe.

00:57:48Guest:Yes, that was magical.

00:57:49Guest:And then the other event was a screening at Mill Valley, which was during the fires.

00:57:56Guest:Last year?

00:57:57Guest:Yeah, so that was tough, but everybody was very, I don't know about willing, but they were open to a film about loss.

00:58:09Marc:Yeah.

00:58:10Marc:Interesting.

00:58:11Marc:And then, like, so then what is the process of, like, I don't know.

00:58:17Marc:Like, I've talked to Sophie Huber about her recent documentary, the Blue Note documentary.

00:58:23Marc:Then I sort of talked to her about that to help her, because I love the movie, get it out there in the world.

00:58:28Marc:And I work with Lynn Shelton, independent film director, who's great.

00:58:32Marc:We did a small movie.

00:58:34Marc:So it goes to festivals, then you try to sell it or get a distributor?

00:58:38Guest:Yes, exactly.

00:58:39Guest:It goes to festivals.

00:58:41Guest:Who financed it originally?

00:58:44Guest:Private financing.

00:58:45Guest:That came through Simon Astaire.

00:58:47Guest:Oh, okay.

00:58:47Guest:A man called Hans Rousing.

00:58:49Guest:Yeah.

00:58:52Guest:Just an investor?

00:58:53Guest:Yeah, an investor.

00:58:55Guest:Rather charitable investor.

00:58:58Guest:I think they all are when it comes to independent film, right?

00:59:01Guest:Yeah.

00:59:03Guest:The film didn't cost a lot of money, but still, you need money to make it.

00:59:10Guest:Yeah, you hope that you garner good reviews, that the audience is supportive, and that there may be a few people there that might decide to pick up the film.

00:59:24Guest:Right.

00:59:24Guest:And we were lucky enough to find Freestyle who are releasing it for us.

00:59:30Guest:Wow.

00:59:31Marc:And that was a two-year process or so.

00:59:34Marc:Yeah, if not longer, yeah.

00:59:36Marc:It's crazy.

00:59:36Marc:Probably longer.

00:59:37Marc:All right, so let's talk about these Marvel movies for a minute.

00:59:45Marc:Certainly.

00:59:47Marc:So you were in X-Men Origins of Wolverine.

00:59:52Marc:Mm-hmm.

00:59:53Marc:All right.

00:59:53Marc:So, you know, when you get one of these roles, like a role like that and or I think the other ones.

00:59:59Marc:Oh, by the way, I loved I loved Stan and Ollie.

01:00:02Marc:I'm so I think anybody involved in film should see that movie.

01:00:07Guest:Yeah.

01:00:07Marc:And you were great as Hal Roach.

01:00:09Marc:It was not it's not a huge part, but it's a good part.

01:00:11Guest:Yeah, I know.

01:00:11Guest:Again, as far as tasting the nectar off of different, that was a perfect example of me being able to go there, work for two or three days, and see these two guys who just were remarkable.

01:00:26Guest:Yeah.

01:00:26Guest:Crazy.

01:00:28Guest:And, you know, from the prosthetics to their movements, it was, I was gobsmacked.

01:00:37Guest:I forgot my dialogue because they were just, they looked so unbelievable.

01:00:42Marc:I couldn't believe it.

01:00:44Marc:And the mannerisms.

01:00:46Marc:Yes.

01:00:47Marc:I mean, both of them, but Coogan was like the detail.

01:00:51Guest:Yes.

01:00:51Marc:Because Stan Laurel was like this twitchy, I mean, it was a tricky business.

01:00:56Marc:Yeah.

01:00:56Marc:and it's heartwarming isn't it I loved it I love that movie so when you get these like as an actor cause like maybe I'm wrestling with my own trip here

01:01:12Marc:But whatever you may think of movies or what their place in culture is or if they're doing actual damage to the form, as an actor, you make a choice as an actor, right?

01:01:25Marc:I mean, there's money involved, but I mean, we're not talking a fortune, but you want to work.

01:01:30Marc:And, you know, I guess not unlike your father directing, you know, movies that he may not have wanted to direct in order to stay in the game and do the stuff he wants to do.

01:01:41Marc:You know, you'd somehow, I guess, show up with as much as you as possible and engage in it as you know, as an artist that you are without judging it.

01:01:54Guest:Yeah, but, okay.

01:02:01Guest:The number of people I've met who've said, oh, Annie was, when I was a kid, I loved that movie.

01:02:10Guest:Sure, yeah.

01:02:11Guest:You know, the entertainment value that film has to lift you out of your daily possibly dull or life where you're suffering.

01:02:26Guest:You need a little lightness.

01:02:28Guest:You need something to lift you up a little bit.

01:02:30Guest:And I think to judge these films too harshly is possibly unfair.

01:02:40Guest:What I try to do from an acting point of view is I just try to find the key into the character.

01:02:46Guest:Yeah.

01:02:46Guest:With Wonder Woman, for example, General Ludendorff, yes, in story terms, he basically wants to exterminate mankind.

01:03:01Guest:But in truth, he was a real man.

01:03:04Guest:He existed, Ludendorff.

01:03:06Guest:He was humiliated in battle.

01:03:10Guest:He lost his son on the German front.

01:03:14Guest:And it's all about, which we're seeing a lot of today, that nationalistic pride.

01:03:25Guest:And I spoke to Patty Jenkins about this.

01:03:28Guest:And once we started to get our head around this guy,

01:03:31Guest:and understand him, understood the machinations, then I was able to portray the horror in a more entertaining way and go a little bit more arch with him.

01:03:50Marc:Once you understood his own heartbreak.

01:03:52Guest:Yes.

01:03:53Guest:Yes.

01:03:54Guest:However sinister that may have been.

01:03:58Guest:That's one way to go.

01:03:59Guest:Yeah.

01:04:01Guest:And I had a line on a film that I did called The Constant Gardener where my character says, well, those patients would have died anyway.

01:04:09Guest:And he's talking about African Kenyans who are dying of AIDS and they're experimenting drugs on them.

01:04:16Guest:Yeah.

01:04:17Guest:And I found that line so horrific.

01:04:20Guest:But if I could say it and mean it, then maybe I'd have the character down.

01:04:28Guest:So that's what I'm looking for.

01:04:29Guest:I'm getting a scalpel out and dissecting and prodding and seeing how these guys are and how they feel.

01:04:37Guest:And not necessarily...

01:04:41Guest:honoring their evil doings, but understanding where it comes from.

01:04:49Guest:And I think that great novels, paintings, poetry is able to do that.

01:04:57Guest:You're able to understand other than you.

01:05:02Guest:Or break down this thing of them and us.

01:05:06Guest:And I find that fascinating.

01:05:10Guest:Fascinating from a psychological point of view as well.

01:05:13Marc:Right.

01:05:14Marc:So you just rise to the challenge and figure out when you get offered these roles that are broad, what the guts of it is.

01:05:21Guest:Yeah.

01:05:22Guest:But I mean, to do justice for the film primarily, I have to figure out a way in.

01:05:31Guest:If I can't find it, then I can't really do it.

01:05:34Marc:I shouldn't be doing it.

01:05:35Marc:And that's interesting, though, because it comes down to sometimes just a script reading, a line in the script.

01:05:39Marc:Like, if I can wrap my brain around this.

01:05:42Guest:Yes, yes.

01:05:44Guest:A story of my father's with Catherine Hepburn when he was making African Queen.

01:05:48Guest:Catherine Hepburn couldn't figure out the character, really, because she was having trouble with it.

01:05:53Guest:So she goes up to my father.

01:05:54Guest:She goes, John, I don't know.

01:05:57Guest:I don't know who this woman is.

01:05:58Guest:So my father paused a moment and looked at her and said, Eleanor Roosevelt.

01:06:07Guest:And sometimes that's all an actor needs.

01:06:10Guest:It's just a little key into who they're portraying.

01:06:16Marc:Okay, so now I'm going to... I think I've got to just go out and watch some of these movies.

01:06:25Marc:I've been pushing back on them.

01:06:27Marc:Now, Angel has fallen.

01:06:29Marc:That's a whole franchise, no idea it even existed.

01:06:33Marc:Right.

01:06:33Marc:You're in all of them?

01:06:34Guest:No, only this last one.

01:06:37Guest:Did you see it?

01:06:38Guest:I saw it, yeah.

01:06:39Guest:You like it?

01:06:40Guest:Yes, I like it.

01:06:41Guest:It is...

01:06:43Guest:As I said, the antithesis of the last photograph.

01:06:46Guest:This is a fun shoot-em-up movie.

01:06:49Guest:But what I liked about it, my key into that, actually, and what a lot of the other actors are portraying are men that are damaged from war.

01:06:59Guest:Men that cannot become part of what we consider a civilized environment.

01:07:07Guest:They've been trained to be lions and they do not understand a peaceful state.

01:07:16Guest:They need the adrenaline to feel alive.

01:07:21Guest:Wheat or grass moving in the fields for them is a potential enemy that's lurking below.

01:07:28Marc:right right um they're on another level um and that was what was interesting to me cool all right well that okay so that i seem to be moving towards this uh engaging in this in these movies and and just being i think what i'm afraid of is i'll just be like i'll just love them well that's right and then i'm gonna be that guy the guy who railed against them and i'm like these are so fun yeah

01:07:56Marc:I don't want to be the fun guy.

01:07:58Marc:Well, I'll tell you, it's been great talking to you, Danny.

01:08:01Marc:It was great talking to you.

01:08:02Marc:Thanks for coming, and I will share the love of that movie, of your movie.

01:08:08Marc:Thanks.

01:08:08Marc:It's great hearing these stories, and we'll see where it ends.

01:08:11Marc:We don't know where it's going to end up after the film.

01:08:14Marc:It'll be on iTunes and Netflix.

01:08:16Guest:It'll be on all the digital.

01:08:18Guest:Yes, exactly.

01:08:18Guest:It'll be on pay-per-view and DirecTV, and then it'll go to Hulu.

01:08:22Guest:The streaming stuff?

01:08:23Guest:Yeah, and all the usual streaming stuff.

01:08:26Marc:tremendous well thanks for coming over thank you very much for having me

01:08:34Marc:Okay, again, the last photograph, now in theaters.

01:08:37Marc:And now I will play my Stratocaster for you.

01:08:41Marc:For those of you asking me about settings on this thing, I'm really just going straight into the old 58 Fender Deluxe with an Echoplex pedal and different levels of volume.

01:08:54Marc:But no Echoplex pedal on what I'm about to do now.

01:08:58Marc:Just a Crybaby, straight up Crybaby wah.

01:09:01Marc:A no frills wah, wah.

01:09:04Guest:Thank you.

01:09:38.

01:09:40.

01:09:40Guest:.

01:09:56Boomer lives.

01:10:19Marc:Boomer lives.

01:10:20Boomer lives.