Episode 1239 - Quentin Tarantino

Episode 1239 • Released June 28, 2021 • Speakers detected

00:00:00Marc:all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuck nicks what's happening how's it going did you get that thing fixed how much did it cost was it more than you thought did they rip you off did you lose the uh the receipt what's going on are you okay

00:00:27Marc:I mean, it's OK to throw a dish away, you know, if it's chipped or it doesn't matter.

00:00:31Marc:Just throw it away.

00:00:33Marc:I know you're attached to it, but you can just throw it away.

00:00:35Marc:It doesn't matter.

00:00:36Marc:It's seriously nothing fucking matters.

00:00:38Marc:Do you understand?

00:00:39Marc:Is your kid all right to get through that thing?

00:00:41Marc:Surgery go good.

00:00:43Marc:How's your toe?

00:00:44Marc:How's your finger?

00:00:45Marc:How's that thing on your neck?

00:00:47Marc:Is your back all right?

00:00:48Marc:Where are you at?

00:00:49Marc:Hey, hey, don't freak out.

00:00:51Marc:Don't freak out.

00:00:53Marc:Relax.

00:00:54Marc:Most of it is in your head.

00:00:56Marc:Probably almost all of it is in your head.

00:00:58Marc:I'm in your head right now.

00:01:01Marc:And I'm saying relax.

00:01:04Marc:How's everybody?

00:01:04Marc:Big day today, I think, for a lot of people.

00:01:06Marc:For me, it was a pretty big day when this happened.

00:01:11Marc:I interviewed Quentin Tarantino last week.

00:01:15Marc:And it was a big day is a big day in the sense that he's a big personality, a big presence in the culture, a big talent, a guy who's said everything you would think he'd had to say.

00:01:28Marc:Not many stones left unturned, I guess.

00:01:31Marc:You know, I'm not an obsessive person about people generally.

00:01:35Marc:I enjoy Quentin's work.

00:01:37Marc:I've always liked his work.

00:01:39Marc:I believe I've seen all the movies at least once, except for one.

00:01:44Marc:But it was a little nerve wracking.

00:01:47Marc:only because it's one of those things where it's like, I don't know where to start with that guy.

00:01:52Marc:Is that guy going to let me talk?

00:01:55Marc:Is he going to steamroll me?

00:01:57Marc:Is it going to be a conversation?

00:01:58Marc:Do we have to go movie to movie?

00:02:00Marc:That seems to have been done to death.

00:02:02Marc:He seems to have said his piece about everything about him that there is to be said.

00:02:07Marc:So what do we do?

00:02:07Marc:Where do we go?

00:02:08Marc:And he was out pushing this book.

00:02:11Marc:Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a novel.

00:02:14Marc:So I get this book in the mail.

00:02:15Marc:The book is in an old-school kind of trade paperback, the kind you used to see in the 70s that your mom would read if you're my age.

00:02:24Marc:Big book, but the little paperback type with the pictures on front.

00:02:27Marc:It's all done to look like one of those books

00:02:30Marc:that I saw my mom reading in the 70s.

00:02:32Marc:Yeah, she probably still reads them.

00:02:33Marc:I'm sure they still have these type of books available, but it looks like a book from that time with the lettering and everything.

00:02:40Marc:So I'm thinking it's based on the movie, which it is, but then it becomes unclear from some of the information I got.

00:02:46Marc:Did he write some of it before the movie?

00:02:48Marc:Did some of it get filled after?

00:02:49Marc:Whatever the case...

00:02:51Marc:You know, there was a non-disclosure agreement.

00:02:53Marc:Don't even say that the book exists.

00:02:55Marc:So I thought you should poke around in the book.

00:02:57Marc:You know, just see what the deal is.

00:02:59Marc:You know what?

00:02:59Marc:Maybe watch the movie again.

00:03:02Marc:So I started reading the book and I was like, holy shit, I can't stop reading this book.

00:03:08Marc:And I'm not here to push the book.

00:03:10Marc:He's here to push the book.

00:03:12Marc:I don't read a lot of books, especially not books of people that are my guests unless they're friends.

00:03:18Marc:Like Tom's going to be on here in a second.

00:03:20Marc:I read his book before it came out.

00:03:23Marc:But like Quentin, I'm like, yeah, we'll just talk about the whatever and the movie and this and that.

00:03:26Marc:But the book is totally different than the movie.

00:03:29Marc:And it's totally entertaining.

00:03:31Marc:Quentin Tarantino is an entertaining motherfucker.

00:03:34Marc:There's no way around that.

00:03:35Marc:Everything he does is entertaining.

00:03:37Marc:He's entertaining.

00:03:38Marc:The movies are entertaining.

00:03:40Marc:Now, the book's entertaining.

00:03:41Marc:Whatever you say about his his approach is sort of like homage driven, frenetic collage approach.

00:03:50Marc:to some of his films, despite his genius, which could have gone a different way, always entertaining.

00:03:58Marc:And the book is entertaining.

00:03:59Marc:A lot more backstory on Cliff and Rick.

00:04:03Marc:And in the middle, it kind of breaks off into a Western novel.

00:04:08Marc:It's just good.

00:04:10Marc:And I didn't expect that.

00:04:12Marc:I didn't expect to read the whole book.

00:04:13Marc:And then I watched the movie again.

00:04:16Marc:And neither one of them distracted from the other.

00:04:19Marc:And that fucking movie is a masterpiece.

00:04:22Marc:Maybe I've thrown that word around.

00:04:23Marc:I haven't.

00:04:24Marc:I don't throw that word around too much.

00:04:25Marc:I can name the masterpieces I've named.

00:04:28Marc:Over the years, some people disagree with me.

00:04:30Marc:Hail Caesar, I thought was a masterpiece.

00:04:32Marc:I got a lot of pushback from that, from Coen Brothers nerds.

00:04:35Marc:But fuck them.

00:04:36Marc:We think what we think.

00:04:38Marc:But Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is truly a masterpiece.

00:04:43Marc:I don't think I have kind of laugh-cried that much during a movie.

00:04:50Marc:in a long time fucking DiCaprio's performance is insane in the pace of the thing whatever you guys know it's Tarantino but heading into this I was you know I don't it's not I'm not nervous to meet people it's not that like I'm in awe or that I'm intimidated really I just get anxious because I don't know if we're going to be able to engage people

00:05:18Marc:I never know that.

00:05:20Marc:I never know that.

00:05:22Marc:I never know if it's going to be a conversation.

00:05:24Marc:And sometimes it doesn't work out.

00:05:26Marc:They're usually all okay.

00:05:29Marc:Some of them are great.

00:05:31Marc:Some of them suck for some people, but very few of them suck for me.

00:05:34Marc:But I know when I can't get over the hump.

00:05:36Marc:I know when the thing didn't engage.

00:05:39Marc:I know when I was hoping they would fill in more of their life than they do.

00:05:44Marc:And I try to leave that open.

00:05:47Marc:But ultimately, I just want to engage.

00:05:49Marc:And I just didn't know, you know, he's a bigger than life presence culturally.

00:05:55Marc:He drove up in a yellow Ford Mustang GT500, the same car that was in Death Proof.

00:06:06Marc:And we got at it.

00:06:10Marc:We got into it.

00:06:11Marc:I got that book in the mail and I'm looking at it and I just fucking, I read it.

00:06:15Marc:Loved it.

00:06:16Marc:Got me all re-excited.

00:06:18Marc:Re-engaged with the Quentin.

00:06:21Marc:And you'll hear, man.

00:06:24Marc:You guys be the judge.

00:06:26Marc:It was pretty... We had a good time.

00:06:30Marc:We had a good time.

00:06:31Marc:For a lot of reasons.

00:06:32Marc:You'll hear them.

00:06:33Marc:You'll hear them.

00:06:36Marc:Also, I want to throw some love to Kimmy Gatewood, one of my co-stars on Glow, because we wanted to book her, but it hasn't happened yet.

00:06:45Marc:But she has this film out that she directed.

00:06:47Marc:It's her first movie.

00:06:49Marc:It's called Good on Paper, and it was written and stars another guest, someone I see a lot at the Comedy Store, Eliza Schlesinger.

00:06:58Marc:But it's her movie, and it's on Netflix now.

00:07:01Marc:OK, here's another thing.

00:07:03Marc:My friend Tom, who I've talked to, this will be the third time you do understand, right, that we're doing a thing.

00:07:10Marc:I mean, I know that I've built up some credibility with this show.

00:07:13Marc:But please, please, people.

00:07:16Marc:Please know or try to know when a bit is a bit.

00:07:20Marc:You should probably know about a third of the way into the bit happening.

00:07:24Marc:But this is the third segment.

00:07:27Marc:And I just want you to know that Tom and I talk a lot.

00:07:31Marc:And you should know when a bit is a bit.

00:07:34Marc:You know what I'm saying?

00:07:37Marc:Okay, this is a...

00:07:39Marc:Sharpling has a book coming out and it's a good book and there's interesting stuff about Sharpling.

00:07:45Marc:I know some of you don't know Sharpling, but I think you could take our word for it or my word for it.

00:07:49Marc:He's a very funny man.

00:07:50Marc:He's done great work.

00:07:51Marc:Go check out the best show.

00:07:53Marc:All right.

00:07:54Marc:Get that box set.

00:07:56Marc:Sharpling and Worcester, the best of the best show.

00:07:59Marc:That is some of the funniest radio shit that has ever happened on radio.

00:08:04Marc:Go check that out.

00:08:04Marc:If you don't want to go listen to the best show, which is at the the best show dot net.

00:08:12Marc:then go get that Sharpling and Worcester box set, The Best of the Best Show.

00:08:18Marc:It is fucking timeless, hilarious radio comedy because Tom is a radio personality of the funny ilk.

00:08:29Marc:And this is me talking to Tom about the book that he's got coming out.

00:08:38The Best of the Best Show.

00:08:49Marc:Folks, that's the music.

00:08:51Marc:How often do I get to say that on this show?

00:08:53Marc:How often?

00:08:53Marc:When was the last time we had a recurring segment on this show?

00:08:57Marc:It's been since the beginning.

00:08:59Marc:And they failed.

00:09:00Guest:All of them failed.

00:09:03Marc:At the beginning, when we were...

00:09:05Marc:We're like, we got to make a structure for the show.

00:09:08Marc:But this segment is maybe you've gotten used to it.

00:09:11Marc:I don't know.

00:09:11Marc:Maybe it'll never go away.

00:09:13Marc:But this is the last one for now.

00:09:14Marc:Get to know Tom, where we all learn a little bit more about Tom Sharpling, our friend and author of the new book.

00:09:20Marc:It never ends.

00:09:21Marc:Available for preorder at Tom wrote a book dot com.

00:09:25Marc:So.

00:09:27Marc:All right, so let's get on it.

00:09:29Marc:I know the last couple of times, maybe I pressed too hard to get stuff that's in the book.

00:09:34Marc:We all want to get an exclusive.

00:09:36Guest:No, I understand.

00:09:37Guest:I understand.

00:09:37Guest:Look, it's a book.

00:09:38Guest:I wrote basically the story of my life, and it has a lot of funny stuff in it, and it's got a lot of not funny stuff in it.

00:09:48Guest:a lot of not funny stuff that is funny look the last time i feel like i aggravated you and uh because i was just pressing but you know but i i respect i respect where you're coming from because you want people to get the book you know yeah i mean i i worked on it for a long time and it took uh it took years for me to be ready to do it yeah i want the book to kind of no i tell the story yeah i mean i i kind of feel like i feel like i was pushy and i don't usually do that

00:10:13Marc:It's not really who I am, you know what I mean?

00:10:15Marc:It's like I let people kind of do their thing.

00:10:19Marc:So how long did it take you to write this thing?

00:10:22Guest:A couple years overall.

00:10:25Guest:I took breaks, but then kind of

00:10:28Guest:Really, really powered through last year, closed it out during the beginning of the pandemic, which was kind of nice.

00:10:35Guest:I was like, oh, here's a great writing opportunity.

00:10:37Guest:Yeah.

00:10:38Guest:Everybody else is like.

00:10:39Guest:Oh, that's right.

00:10:40Guest:Because you were kind of pounding away.

00:10:42Marc:Yeah.

00:10:42Marc:Freaking out.

00:10:42Marc:You had deadlines.

00:10:43Marc:I remember because we were having dinners and you nailed it.

00:10:48Guest:Yeah, I was going around the clock.

00:10:50Guest:I would ride this dry erase board that I would just write 2,000 words on and just leave the date.

00:10:56Guest:And then it was the greatest moment.

00:10:57Guest:It was when I could wipe the date off because then it meant I did it.

00:11:01Marc:And you tell some good stories that some people who know you would know the Patti Smith stories in there, right?

00:11:08Marc:Yeah.

00:11:08Guest:Like the classics.

00:11:10Guest:Yeah, the Patti Smith story, me being...

00:11:12Guest:Seeing her over and over in San Francisco.

00:11:15Marc:Yeah, that's funny.

00:11:15Marc:That's funny.

00:11:16Guest:And then just finally confronting her in an elevator.

00:11:18Marc:Yeah, that's just enough for a tease for people that don't know the story that everyone else... What did I say to her?

00:11:24Marc:How did Tom make a fool out of himself in that particular situation?

00:11:32Marc:But come on, just be...

00:11:36Marc:I mean, this is the third one of these, and I think I've been a good sport.

00:11:39Marc:No, I appreciate you doing this.

00:11:40Marc:Can't you just give me... You don't want to talk about the thing at the place with the guy, right?

00:11:46Marc:You don't want to talk about what happened there, and you don't want to talk about... Yeah, but can we just... Give me one juicy one.

00:11:57Marc:Give me one that no one knows.

00:12:00Marc:Okay.

00:12:01Marc:Well, you're in the book.

00:12:03Guest:that was great it's great so you want to tell you go ahead please yeah tell the story this is great at this point in my life i'm living in new jersey i'm working at a sheet music store yeah i kind of want to start doing other things but i don't it's that point where you don't even know where to start like who do i talk to what do i do you've hit a wall yeah just like i don't know what to do stuck in your life yeah but i want to try something but i don't even know where to start right

00:12:27Guest:My friend Joe Ventura, he's working at MTV.

00:12:31Guest:He's writing and directing commercials, and he's on his way now.

00:12:37Guest:And then we would go every Monday night down to the Lower East Side.

00:12:41Guest:Is that the Lower East Side?

00:12:42Guest:Yeah.

00:12:43Guest:And we would go to Eating It, which was a Monday night show.

00:12:47Guest:Right, Luna Lounge.

00:12:48Guest:Luna Lounge.

00:12:49Guest:Yeah, and you were a mainstay of that.

00:12:51Marc:Yeah, that was like the first big New York City alternative comedy show.

00:12:56Guest:Yes, and everybody would go up there and do their thing.

00:12:58Marc:Yeah, and I was always fucking worked up and trying to be in the moment and angry.

00:13:03Guest:Yeah, and sometimes you'd go and you'd be like... So I just signed a development deal for a thing.

00:13:08Guest:Be like, and then...

00:13:10Guest:A couple weeks later, you're like, is that development deal all fucked up?

00:13:16Marc:It's like, it was the early, it was the narrative.

00:13:19Marc:Yeah.

00:13:20Marc:I was preparing for this show.

00:13:21Marc:But we were getting a week-by-week update.

00:13:23Marc:It was beautiful.

00:13:24Marc:Yeah, and all the horrible things.

00:13:25Guest:And I was doing blow.

00:13:27Guest:Yeah.

00:13:28Marc:in that awesome luna lounge bathroom oh i'm trying to remember that was terrible bathroom it was up front in the club in between yeah like it was like just outside of the showroom but originally it was all one club and then i think they built a wall eventually at some point so you could have a separation sure yeah what what a shit show that was yeah

00:13:48Guest:And then I remember we were there one week.

00:13:51Guest:And I was so frustrated with my life at that point.

00:13:53Guest:And you were on stage.

00:13:54Guest:And I didn't know you.

00:13:55Guest:No, did not know.

00:13:57Guest:Me and Joe were there.

00:13:58Guest:And you were saying something to the effect.

00:14:02Guest:You were making some sort of comparison between two people.

00:14:04Guest:And I'm working at a music store.

00:14:06Guest:Joe's working at MTV.

00:14:07Guest:And you said, yeah, it's kind of like...

00:14:09Guest:the difference between somebody who is working at MTV and somebody who works at a record store or a music store.

00:14:16Guest:And I was just like, oh my God, this guy, if he had designed, if somebody had hired Mark to hurt my feelings, he would have come up short than what he just did now.

00:14:29Guest:And it's worse that he doesn't even know I exist.

00:14:32Guest:And he nailed me so hard.

00:14:35Guest:And I was like,

00:14:36Guest:Wow, what do I do with that?

00:14:39Guest:That hurt.

00:14:40Guest:It rattled me.

00:14:42Guest:Yeah, but then it kind of made me be like,

00:14:45Guest:I got to figure something out.

00:14:46Guest:Yeah.

00:14:46Guest:I can't feel that again.

00:14:48Guest:Pivotal moment.

00:14:51Guest:It was foundational.

00:14:53Marc:You shook me to my core.

00:14:55Marc:Oh, that's great.

00:14:56Marc:So I tell you, and not to be weird, but I always laugh at, like, I've never heard that story before.

00:15:03Marc:And I've heard it many times.

00:15:05Marc:I'm just so happy it made the book like that.

00:15:07Marc:Yeah.

00:15:07Marc:Oh, now that's-

00:15:09Marc:I got to be honest, I know people who write things and people that do things, and I find, generally speaking, I'm not given enough credit for their life.

00:15:24Guest:So I really appreciate you.

00:15:25Guest:No, I'm giving you full credit for being a motivational force through... Sometimes people talk about just like the...

00:15:36Marc:carrot yeah or the stick right you gave me the stick and that forced me into action i didn't need any more carrot i was getting carrots at cats's yeah that was the cat yeah right yeah eat yeah eat and go right around the corner and then just go get well that's like this is like the a great book and i appreciate you you including me made me feel good no of course that was enough that's just the right amount of me because you have a big life you

00:16:01Marc:Yeah, you'd be weirded out if I put more.

00:16:04Marc:It's just one chapter called Mark, M-A-R-C.

00:16:08Marc:You'd be just like, what's the goal with this?

00:16:10Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:16:11Marc:Because this doesn't sound good.

00:16:12Marc:Yeah.

00:16:13Marc:Like, this part is a nice story, but this part, I don't know this part.

00:16:15Marc:It doesn't sound good.

00:16:16Marc:Yeah.

00:16:17Marc:Yeah.

00:16:17Marc:No, but I do appreciate it.

00:16:20Marc:And people...

00:16:21Marc:Now that you know that I'm in it, that's going to move some product.

00:16:26Marc:We're going to move some copies.

00:16:28Marc:The book is It Never Ends.

00:16:31Marc:It's a memoir by Tom, who we've been talking to over these last three segments.

00:16:37Marc:We've got to do another Mark and Tom show.

00:16:38Marc:Yeah, let's do it.

00:16:40Marc:But you can preorder it at tomwroteabook.com.

00:16:43Marc:Or I don't even know, by that point, are we done?

00:16:46Marc:You can get it.

00:16:47Marc:You can still get it there.

00:16:48Marc:You can always.

00:16:50Guest:Then you're just ordering it.

00:16:51Marc:You always get it.

00:16:53Marc:And I'm in it.

00:16:54Marc:I'm in the book.

00:16:55Marc:And also, all the stuff about that time in high school.

00:16:59Marc:Yeah, well, let's see if they can get it.

00:17:01Marc:All right.

00:17:02Marc:Good to see you.

00:17:03Marc:Thanks, Mark.

00:17:07Marc:There you go, me and Sharpling.

00:17:08Marc:Again, you can buy the book at tomwroteabook.com.

00:17:12Marc:It's called It Never Ends, A Memoir with Nice Memories.

00:17:15Marc:It comes out July 6th.

00:17:17Marc:And in it, you will find out what Tom's real name actually is, what happened to him in high school that he was going to take to his grave before writing this book, how his life almost ended on election night in 2016, why he auditioned for The New Monkees.

00:17:32Marc:Yes, for real, he auditioned for The New Monkees.

00:17:34Marc:But you'll also get to enjoy Tom's writing and his humor and his very real and very true underdog story.

00:17:41Marc:It's about living a life in comedy while managing trauma and mental illness.

00:17:46Marc:And the big thing is rising above whatever bad hand life has dealt you.

00:17:51Marc:It's a very Tom book.

00:17:53Marc:So if you don't know Tom, you know him a little better now.

00:17:56Marc:And now that you know that it's a bit, maybe you appreciate his humor better now.

00:18:01Marc:But this book is very Tom and enjoy it.

00:18:05Marc:OK.

00:18:05Marc:OK, so now moving on to Quentin Tarantino, you know what?

00:18:11Marc:All you gossipy freaks and all you obsessed, shallow people really want to know about anybody.

00:18:17Marc:You have to understand like and but this for fans, too.

00:18:22Marc:that the best that can happen here on my show is people are who they are.

00:18:27Marc:And I felt we had a couple of, we had some prolonged moments, me and Mr. Tarantino, and I hope you enjoy this conversation.

00:18:35Marc:This is me talking to Quentin.

00:18:38Marc:The book, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a novel, comes out tomorrow, June 29th.

00:18:45Marc:This is me and Quentin.

00:18:57Marc:Holy mackerel.

00:19:00Guest:Did you get a chance to read the book or scum through it or something?

00:19:03Guest:I read the whole book.

00:19:03Guest:Oh, you did?

00:19:04Guest:Oh my goodness.

00:19:05Marc:Yeah, I read the whole book.

00:19:06Guest:Wow.

00:19:07Guest:Okay, well, you officially make the 10th person I've met so far who has read the book.

00:19:12Marc:Oh, really?

00:19:12Marc:But out of how many, though, already?

00:19:14Guest:It's not out.

00:19:15Guest:No, you're literally the 10th person I've met who has read it.

00:19:17Guest:Right.

00:19:18Guest:And eight of them work for me.

00:19:21Marc:So they had to.

00:19:23Guest:They had to.

00:19:25Guest:So you're the first person to read it that doesn't have skin in the game, you know?

00:19:31Marc:Well, I'll tell you.

00:19:32Marc:Oh, hold on a minute.

00:19:34Marc:Comedy store veils.

00:19:35Marc:Hold on.

00:19:37Marc:Didn't I just meet you at the store?

00:19:38Guest:I'm sure you did, yeah.

00:19:39Marc:Like you were in the back?

00:19:40Guest:Yeah, yeah, uh-huh.

00:19:41Marc:Yeah, all in all week.

00:19:43Marc:I've been back at it.

00:19:44Guest:Oh, great.

00:19:45Marc:You can move that thing in.

00:19:46Marc:Okay, go.

00:19:46Guest:Yeah.

00:19:47Guest:Hey, I have to also let you know.

00:19:49Guest:Yeah.

00:19:49Guest:Your whole, it's been years since I've done, like at parties or at a dinner, done a comedian's entire routine.

00:19:57Guest:Uh-huh.

00:19:58Guest:All right.

00:19:59Guest:And I've been known to do that for all my life, but it's been a year since I've done it.

00:20:02Guest:Yeah.

00:20:03Guest:The whole hat routine.

00:20:04Guest:Yeah.

00:20:04Guest:Oh, the hat.

00:20:05Guest:I can do that.

00:20:06Guest:I can do the whole fucking thing.

00:20:07Guest:I can do the whole fucking thing.

00:20:10Guest:I do it good, all right?

00:20:12Guest:And I did it at a fucking dinner of Israelis, and they were fucking laughing their asses off.

00:20:18Guest:You killed with my hat bit?

00:20:19Guest:I killed with your hat bit.

00:20:21Guest:It might as well have been my hat bit as far as they were concerned.

00:20:24Guest:Well, I think that's great.

00:20:26Guest:I love that bit.

00:20:27Guest:I love doing that bit.

00:20:28Marc:It's great.

00:20:29Marc:Yeah, the children's story.

00:20:30Marc:Someone made a children's book.

00:20:31Guest:they asked me like do you want me to write the book i'm like sure go ahead write the book well here's the thing is you know how you know you have such a good routine oh when somebody memorizes it from hearing it once yeah yeah yeah yeah that's actually how good it is that you can actually say it after only hearing it once yeah i only needed to hear a carlin bit once yeah do it but don't you have like a miraculous memory

00:20:56Guest:I've got a good memory, but nevertheless.

00:20:58Marc:Yeah.

00:20:58Marc:I mean, because I tried to, there's some bits that I remember.

00:21:01Marc:I remember a few old jokes, but for me, it's not the whole bit usually.

00:21:05Marc:If someone has a good turn of phrase or a good punch line, because to me, that's what kind of, it kind of blows your mind.

00:21:11Marc:You know that thing.

00:21:12Marc:It's like a turn of, you do it in films.

00:21:14Marc:Like all of a sudden you're like, what?

00:21:15Marc:How did that happen?

00:21:16Marc:How did we get here?

00:21:17Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:21:17Guest:Well, yeah.

00:21:18Guest:I can't do Carlin's entire euphemism.

00:21:20Guest:Sure, sure.

00:21:20Guest:But I can do like sections.

00:21:22Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:21:23Guest:But, like, his AM-FM and... Oh, yeah, sure.

00:21:27Guest:Oh, no, I can do bits.

00:21:28Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:21:29Guest:That bit, like... I've heard them a zillion fucking times.

00:21:32Guest:I thought he was the smartest man I'd ever heard in my life when I was a kid.

00:21:35Marc:Yeah, was he your comic guy?

00:21:37Marc:Absolutely.

00:21:37Guest:Really?

00:21:38Guest:Absolutely.

00:21:38Guest:Him and Richard Pryor, but I would put him above.

00:21:40Marc:But were you always a comic fan?

00:21:42Marc:Because I know that there were people like I remember Kathy Griffin showed up in Pulp Fiction.

00:21:46Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:21:47Marc:But you don't use a ton of comics, but they're kind of around.

00:21:50Guest:No, but especially then, though, I did.

00:21:52Guest:I mean, that was one of the weird things.

00:21:53Guest:That's one of the funny things about Pulp Fiction is you're watching and there's John Travolta and there's Bruce Willis and then this random Groundlings guy.

00:22:00Guest:Yeah.

00:22:01Guest:Yeah.

00:22:02Guest:And there's this random Groundlings girl.

00:22:04Marc:Were you going to the Groundlings a lot?

00:22:06Guest:Yeah, I actually had... I was friends with Julia Sweeney at the time.

00:22:08Guest:Right.

00:22:09Guest:And Kathy Griffin.

00:22:10Guest:Yeah.

00:22:10Guest:And they were all involved with the Groundlings.

00:22:12Guest:So I actually did the little Groundlings show.

00:22:14Guest:Oh, you did?

00:22:14Guest:Their Sunday show, yeah.

00:22:16Marc:You got on stage and did it?

00:22:17Guest:Yeah, yeah, uh-huh.

00:22:18Guest:I was a guest.

00:22:18Marc:Did you do well?

00:22:19Guest:Yeah, I did really good.

00:22:20Marc:You liked to improvise?

00:22:21Guest:Yeah, well, especially since the thing about... Actually, I got one of the best compliments I ever got.

00:22:25Guest:Yeah.

00:22:26Guest:All right, which was...

00:22:28Guest:I wanted to join the Groundlings back when I first moved to Los Angeles, trying to be an actor to some degree.

00:22:35Guest:Yeah.

00:22:36Guest:But I wasn't a millionaire, so I wasn't able to join those ridiculously expensive classes.

00:22:41Guest:Right.

00:22:41Guest:I mean, you have to be a fucking millionaire to afford those classes.

00:22:43Guest:Right, right, right.

00:22:44Guest:And so I couldn't do it.

00:22:46Guest:And then they also were discouraging.

00:22:47Guest:They were like, because I was thinking, oh, hey, maybe if you do good, then you get to be in the group.

00:22:52Guest:All right, so you got to jump through all these two.

00:22:54Guest:And they're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:22:58Guest:If you're the greatest comedian ever and there's not a room for you, fuck you.

00:23:02Guest:Well, fuck you.

00:23:04Guest:So I never went.

00:23:05Guest:And then I'm going to do the guest bit on their Sunday show.

00:23:09Guest:And literally it was the time of Pulp Fiction.

00:23:13Guest:So it was like a big deal.

00:23:14Guest:And so Kathy Griffin was teaching an improv class.

00:23:19Guest:And so the whole class came down to watch the show.

00:23:22Guest:And then after it was over, she goes, well, Quinton, you did so good.

00:23:26Guest:I had to lie to them and tell them you had improv experience.

00:23:33Guest:That was like, yes!

00:23:35Guest:What a compliment!

00:23:37Marc:So, yeah.

00:23:38Marc:So, the thing about, like, I read the whole book and then I re-watched the movie.

00:23:43Marc:Sort of like alongside of it.

00:23:44Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:23:44Marc:A bit.

00:23:45Marc:But, like, the book is so fucking good.

00:23:47Marc:Oh, thank you.

00:23:48Marc:Like, I mean, it's really entertaining.

00:23:49Marc:Even after, like, because when I got it, I'd seen the movie, and I'm like, well, what is it going to be?

00:23:53Marc:But it's its own thing.

00:23:54Marc:Yeah.

00:23:54Marc:It's totally its own thing.

00:23:56Marc:And the backstory on Booth, on Cliff, is so, like, how, like, I watched Brad Pitt's performance, but there's no way to know just the depth of that guy.

00:24:08Marc:Did you know that before you wrote the script?

00:24:11Guest:Oh, that's, some yes, some no.

00:24:13Guest:I knew about his war record.

00:24:15Guest:I knew about the war thing.

00:24:17Guest:I hadn't asked myself the questions about how did he get Brandy.

00:24:20Guest:All right.

00:24:20Guest:That was a book.

00:24:21Guest:That's like a whole chapter.

00:24:22Guest:The dog.

00:24:22Guest:Well, that's one of the best chapters in the book.

00:24:24Guest:It's great.

00:24:25Guest:It's great.

00:24:26Marc:And also it leads to the, I don't want to spoil too much, but it is established that not only did he kill in the war, not only did he kill his wife, but there might be a couple other ones.

00:24:35Yeah.

00:24:36Guest:He's actually a murderer.

00:24:38Marc:A murderer, yeah.

00:24:39Marc:And one of it sort of revolves around the dog a bit, right?

00:24:42Guest:Yeah, absolutely.

00:24:43Guest:Well, part of my idea, since he's such an enigma in the movie, was to flesh out his character in the book where you go to these little chapters that go back in time.

00:24:54Guest:And each of those chapters is like a little pulp novel unto itself starring Cliff.

00:24:58Marc:Yes, right.

00:25:00Marc:But then you almost do the entire Lancer story from the show.

00:25:07Marc:So you get this whole backstory that's pretty rich, and almost like you go into those characters, but not as if it were the show.

00:25:14Guest:No, but like it's a real... All of a sudden you're reading a Louis L'Amour Western novel.

00:25:19Guest:Exactly, right.

00:25:20Marc:You go through the whole thing of that.

00:25:22Marc:But there are some bits... That was just my...

00:25:24Guest:I thought it was just an interesting thing to break it up and also thought it would be fun to try to write a Western novel and cram it into this one.

00:25:32Marc:Right.

00:25:32Marc:And it doesn't end like the movie.

00:25:34Marc:It's a sweet ending.

00:25:36Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:25:37Guest:Yes.

00:25:37Marc:And it's sort of, you know, I mean, okay, here's a couple of things that I just need to know.

00:25:43Marc:Because you've been talking a lot about, you know, this is it.

00:25:47Marc:I mean, I spent the entire quarantine just being like, I don't really need comedy.

00:25:50Marc:Maybe I'm all better.

00:25:53Marc:Maybe, maybe your wife is, maybe I fixed it and I don't have to do it.

00:25:59Guest:I'm healed.

00:26:00Guest:Yeah, exactly.

00:26:01Marc:Like, wow.

00:26:02Marc:If you, if no one's doing nothing, then that's off the table.

00:26:05Marc:Right.

00:26:06Marc:Like usually, I don't know about you, but I'm driven by a certain amount of spite.

00:26:09Marc:Yeah.

00:26:09Marc:Like, but you know, it's like, I'm not doing anything.

00:26:11Marc:Then you have that moment during the pandemic.

00:26:13Marc:No one is.

00:26:14Guest:Wow.

00:26:14Marc:I can really take some time to myself.

00:26:16Marc:Right.

00:26:17Marc:What'd you find out about yourself?

00:26:18Guest:Oh, gosh.

00:26:20Guest:Well, it was weird for me because I couldn't be not reflective in that way because my pandemic literally coincided with the first year my child was born.

00:26:35Marc:But that's different for you.

00:26:36Guest:You have no control over that.

00:26:38Guest:Yes, exactly.

00:26:39Guest:So I was looking on the inside, but not just because I was stuck in the house.

00:26:43Guest:I was like now reliving my childhood through this baby.

00:26:47Guest:Were you?

00:26:47Guest:Is that what happened?

00:26:48Guest:Yeah, exactly.

00:26:49Guest:It's interesting.

00:26:50Guest:He's like 15 months right now.

00:26:52Marc:Because that was one of my questions.

00:26:54Marc:It's like maybe one of the reasons he keeps talking about retirement is he might want to spend time in real life.

00:26:59Guest:Yeah, no, that is part of it.

00:27:02Guest:Yeah.

00:27:02Guest:That is part of it.

00:27:03Guest:You know, the first half of the year that I was there was me finishing the book up.

00:27:07Guest:Right.

00:27:08Guest:Great.

00:27:08Guest:I'm in my room.

00:27:09Guest:I'm typing away.

00:27:10Guest:Doing what you do.

00:27:11Guest:Doing my thing.

00:27:12Guest:And then when I stop, oh, hey, look at what he's doing over here.

00:27:16Guest:Quentin, come in here quick, quick, quick.

00:27:18Guest:He's doing this.

00:27:19Guest:He's pointing and he means it.

00:27:21Guest:So you run in there.

00:27:23Marc:He's pointing and he means it.

00:27:24Guest:It's not just gas.

00:27:26Guest:Yeah, right.

00:27:28Marc:That's exciting.

00:27:29Guest:That was really exciting.

00:27:30Marc:So what is your experience as a grown man now?

00:27:34Marc:I don't know who you are emotionally, but it seems like you obviously, it's no leap of logic to think that you live in a fantasy world on some level.

00:27:46Marc:Because I don't have kids, and you're my age, and you did it.

00:27:50Marc:So is it great?

00:27:51Guest:Yeah, well, I mean, the thing about it is,

00:27:53Guest:From hearing you talk, both on this show and then in your routines, before I got married, we were probably ridiculously similar.

00:28:02Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:28:02Guest:All right.

00:28:03Guest:Just like, you know, it's been me and me alone.

00:28:06Guest:And I'm okay, though.

00:28:07Guest:And I'm okay.

00:28:08Guest:I was okay.

00:28:09Marc:I was very happy.

00:28:10Marc:I mean, people came and went.

00:28:11Guest:Yeah, yeah, exactly.

00:28:12Guest:No, people came and went.

00:28:13Guest:That's exactly what me.

00:28:13Guest:People came and went.

00:28:14Guest:Yeah.

00:28:15Guest:The people I paid stayed.

00:28:18Yeah.

00:28:18Guest:The ones who read the book.

00:28:22Guest:Yeah, exactly.

00:28:23Guest:The ones who have read the book before you.

00:28:25Guest:And I was very happy with that.

00:28:29Guest:And I spent my time watching the movies, going down whatever little cinematic rabbit hole I wanted to do, because that was all I had to do until I made a movie.

00:28:37Guest:Then I was off doing something.

00:28:39Guest:And then in between those times, I was living the life that I would have lived in my 20s if I had the money to.

00:28:46Marc:But I have a hard time imagining what that is sometimes because I read, did you read that book?

00:28:51Marc:What's that guy's name?

00:28:52Marc:By Stratton, the Wild Bunch book?

00:28:55Marc:Oh, no.

00:28:56Marc:It's a book about the making of the Wild Bunch.

00:28:58Guest:Oh, no.

00:28:58Guest:I don't think I have.

00:28:59Marc:But it's sort of amazing because I assume you mentioned Peckinpah here and there.

00:29:03Marc:You mentioned certainly the guys who were in Peckinpah movies.

00:29:05Marc:Yeah.

00:29:06Guest:Definitely Peckinpah.

00:29:07Marc:I love Peckinpah.

00:29:07Marc:So good.

00:29:09Marc:But in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, your passion and love for just not only the community of show business at that time and up through the 70s, but the lives of these guys.

00:29:22Marc:Directors, not you, but Peckinpah was like, how did he even wake up

00:29:27Marc:to do the fucking movie.

00:29:29Marc:And what does he do?

00:29:30Marc:He's out there beating people up, drinking, they're up on... And then he rents a Mexican town and you don't even know if it... But you don't live that life.

00:29:40Guest:No, no, no.

00:29:41Guest:Well, I'm not...

00:29:43Guest:In the book, there's a talk about that to some degree or another.

00:29:48Guest:About how alcoholism was kind of accepted back then.

00:29:54Guest:Because these were men that had hard lives.

00:29:58Guest:That's right.

00:29:59Marc:You made the connection that it was accepted because when they came back from the war, because of PTSD, that they had to do something.

00:30:05Guest:They had to do something.

00:30:06Guest:And then it's like, you know, and if it wasn't from the war, then like they grew up in a fucking coal mining town or they did this or that.

00:30:12Marc:Or just it was their dad.

00:30:14Guest:Yeah.

00:30:14Guest:And, you know, I'm not talking about Cary Grant, but I'm talking about rough men.

00:30:19Guest:Yes.

00:30:19Guest:That were actually acted in movies and starred in TV shows that were badass motherfuckers.

00:30:23Guest:We don't have anybody like that now.

00:30:24Marc:No, because it's not allowed.

00:30:26Marc:How are you going to get away with it?

00:30:28Marc:There's no balance.

00:30:28Guest:No, I don't even mean the alcoholism.

00:30:31Guest:I mean just that breed of man.

00:30:33Marc:There's people that want to think they are.

00:30:34Guest:There's no Lee Marvin walking around.

00:30:35Guest:There's no Charles Bronson walking around.

00:30:37Guest:No, no.

00:30:37Guest:I mean, not even close.

00:30:39Marc:No, no.

00:30:39Right.

00:30:39Guest:Charlize Theron is closer to Charles Bronson than any man out there.

00:30:46Marc:Isn't that weird?

00:30:46Marc:Because there's so many of these men that aspire to some strange sense of alpha or some strange sense of masculinity, but none of it has the grit that those guys did because we're too far away from it.

00:30:56Guest:Yeah, I mean, look, it's kind of ridiculous about the idea that...

00:31:01Guest:Robert Aldrich goes to cast the Dirty Dozen.

00:31:04Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:31:05Guest:He throws a rock in a tree.

00:31:07Guest:Yeah.

00:31:08Guest:And Charles Bronson and Telly Savalas and John Cassavetes fall out.

00:31:13Guest:He throws another rock.

00:31:14Guest:Jim fucking Brown falls out of the tree.

00:31:18Guest:Yeah.

00:31:18Guest:He throws another rock.

00:31:20Guest:Yeah.

00:31:20Guest:And it's boom, boom, boom.

00:31:21Guest:Okay.

00:31:22Guest:You couldn't cast one of those guys now.

00:31:25Guest:Now you get, you know, a grown-up guy who used to be on the OC.

00:31:28Right.

00:31:28Yeah.

00:31:28Marc:Who you used.

00:31:31Marc:You used Luke Perry.

00:31:32Marc:Beverly Hills 90210, right?

00:31:34Marc:That was him.

00:31:34Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:31:36Marc:I had to go back twice to realize, oh, that's Luke Perry.

00:31:38Marc:That's who that is.

00:31:39Marc:And then you used those old guys.

00:31:42Marc:There's certain things that keep coming back to me from the movie.

00:31:44Marc:And I know they're sort of like, where's Waldo for film nerds?

00:31:48Marc:But the Maltese Falcon was sitting there on a counter.

00:31:51Marc:And that's an easy one, right?

00:31:52Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:31:53Marc:So you were just sort of like, I'm just going to stick this here?

00:31:55Guest:Well, no, it's a bookstore.

00:31:56Marc:Okay.

00:31:56Guest:It's a famous book.

00:31:57Marc:Okay.

00:31:58Guest:Okay, that's actually something.

00:31:59Marc:So it's not necessarily the real Maltese Falcon, if there ever was one.

00:32:02Guest:They're saying that it's the real Maltese Falcon.

00:32:05Guest:All right, it's not.

00:32:05Guest:However, we could have used the real Maltese Falcon because Leo owns the real Maltese Falcon.

00:32:11Guest:It didn't occur to me.

00:32:13Guest:It wasn't necessary.

00:32:14Guest:After we shot it, I said, hey, could we have used you really?

00:32:16Guest:Of course you could have.

00:32:18Guest:I go, that would have been fucking awesome.

00:32:20Guest:But instead we just bought like a replica.

00:32:23Guest:Well, that would have been more authentic to the store than they would have the real Maltese Falcon.

00:32:27Guest:Arthur's Bookstore would have not had the real Maltese Falcon.

00:32:30Marc:Does the real one have the marks on it from Sydney Greenstreet?

00:32:33Guest:No, I think they threw that one away.

00:32:36Guest:But the real one, the real one's not totally black.

00:32:39Guest:The real one, because it was made for black and white film.

00:32:42Guest:The real one has a reddish tone to it.

00:32:45Marc:Yeah.

00:32:45Marc:Now, like, you know, I had Mark Harris on the show.

00:32:49Guest:My favorite film writer.

00:32:50Marc:The best.

00:32:51Guest:My favorite film writer.

00:32:52Marc:Like I read that book, Pictures at the Revolution.

00:32:54Guest:I know.

00:32:55Guest:Magnificent.

00:32:56Guest:The best film book I've read in years.

00:32:58Guest:All the levels.

00:32:59Guest:Yeah.

00:32:59Marc:Like somehow he's able to capture just, you know, not the filmmaking, but the politics and the production politics, like all of it.

00:33:05Guest:And then the idea that of all those five films.

00:33:08Guest:Yeah.

00:33:09Guest:It was Dr. Doolittle that had the most wackadoo shoot.

00:33:12Marc:Dude, when you read that, didn't you think someone should make this movie?

00:33:16Guest:Yeah.

00:33:17Marc:Right?

00:33:17Marc:The movie about the making of Dr. Doolittle?

00:33:20Guest:Yeah, exactly.

00:33:20Guest:I mean, that actually you could put along with the making of Easy Rider, it seems like.

00:33:25Marc:crazy with the bugs yeah just the whole thing the animals that vicious fighting with his wife constantly through the production oh yeah rex harrison yeah and then that weird sea monster that they had to drag out there yeah though with the uh the jail the giant snail yeah oh geez man i fucking loved it but was that because there's been a couple of books written about you know this period that you capture in the book and in the movie you know i guess easy riders raging bulls and whatever that

00:33:49Marc:But then the pictures of the revolution really kind of, it really illustrates the transition.

00:33:53Guest:Well, that's the year.

00:33:54Guest:That's the year it starts.

00:33:55Guest:I mean, New Hollywood basically starts with 1967 with Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate.

00:34:05Guest:And to some degree, something like Dirty Dozen, which was looked at as an answer to, even though I don't think Aldrich meant it, as an answer to Vietnam.

00:34:13Marc:That's interesting about your movies, I noticed too, about this one.

00:34:15Marc:You don't mention Nixon ever.

00:34:16Marc:You don't really do politics, do you?

00:34:18Guest:How do you see it?

00:34:19Guest:Yeah.

00:34:19Guest:Oh, no.

00:34:20Guest:Well, it's just it just never kind of came up with those characters.

00:34:23Guest:I guess.

00:34:23Guest:Those characters are pretty.

00:34:24Marc:I hear you talking about Bobby Kennedy on the radio in one scene.

00:34:28Guest:Oh, no.

00:34:28Guest:In the thing.

00:34:28Marc:Yeah.

00:34:29Guest:Yeah.

00:34:29Guest:Well, the Manson girl mentions like, you know, who wants to watch stupid movies where people are being murdered every day in Vietnam?

00:34:38Marc:The Manson rabbit hole.

00:34:41Guest:Actually, I do mention one thing in there.

00:34:42Marc:What?

00:34:43Guest:When it is revealed about what happened with Cliff and the hippies at the House, how Rick becomes a bit of a hero to Nixon's silent majority.

00:34:54Guest:Oh, right.

00:34:55Marc:Oh, that's right.

00:34:55Marc:That's right.

00:34:56Guest:Even though he's a Democrat.

00:34:57Marc:Right.

00:34:57Marc:Yeah.

00:34:58Guest:That's right.

00:34:58Guest:Yeah.

00:34:59Guest:And he's like down with it.

00:35:00Guest:Okay.

00:35:01Guest:As long as I'm a hero somewhere, I'm good.

00:35:03Marc:You know, I was very grateful for is that you do explain the weird chunk of Billboard.

00:35:08Guest:Yeah.

00:35:08Marc:Like in the movie, you don't, do you?

00:35:11Marc:No.

00:35:11Marc:In this, it's like the whole backstory of that.

00:35:13Marc:What the fuck is this?

00:35:14Marc:What the fuck is that?

00:35:16Marc:You never know.

00:35:17Marc:But there's a full explanation and backstory to the piece.

00:35:20Marc:I didn't even know it was his face.

00:35:22Marc:Yeah.

00:35:23Marc:Did you think about that when you're putting the movie together?

00:35:25Marc:Like, I'm not explaining this.

00:35:27Guest:Well, you can explain everything and you don't need to explain everything.

00:35:30Marc:But it takes up so much of the frame.

00:35:31Guest:Yes, I know.

00:35:32Guest:But it's like, fuck it.

00:35:33Guest:Do you have to explain everything that's in your house?

00:35:36Guest:All right.

00:35:36Guest:I come by.

00:35:37Guest:I can, I guess.

00:35:38Guest:And you could.

00:35:38Guest:Right.

00:35:38Guest:Yeah.

00:35:39Guest:I could, but I don't need you to.

00:35:41Guest:All right.

00:35:41Guest:What's the deal with that painting?

00:35:43Guest:Yeah.

00:35:44Guest:Exactly.

00:35:44Guest:I get it.

00:35:45Guest:I get it.

00:35:45Guest:Where did that fucking weird statue of the nymph?

00:35:48Marc:But I'll tell you where that came from.

00:35:50Marc:The lady who lived here before left it.

00:35:52Marc:And I mean, I'm not quite embarrassed about it, but I got to do something with it.

00:35:55Guest:Also, I had a lot of story to tell.

00:35:56Guest:So, you know, I didn't need to spend 10 minutes on the billboard.

00:36:01Guest:But you asked yourself the question.

00:36:03Guest:No, but to ask yourself that even more, though, is.

00:36:07Guest:I actually think it seems real and full of vermissitude that you don't explain stuff, that it's just there because he has a life.

00:36:14Guest:Right.

00:36:14Guest:And there is an explanation, but I'm not telling it to the audience.

00:36:17Guest:Sure.

00:36:17Guest:But he knows.

00:36:18Marc:Yeah.

00:36:18Marc:No, I agree with that.

00:36:19Marc:It was just sort of wild to me because from right at the beginning of the movie, this thing has taken up a lot.

00:36:24Marc:It's like its own part.

00:36:26Marc:Yeah.

00:36:26Marc:And you're sort of like, the fuck is that?

00:36:27Marc:And every time you see it, you're like, the fuck is that?

00:36:30Guest:Which is fine, you know.

00:36:32Yeah.

00:36:32Guest:I'm sure if I drove around your neighborhood, I would find at least four houses and you would say, what the fuck is that?

00:36:38Marc:Oh, sure.

00:36:38Marc:Or how about when you drive around and you're like, was that always there?

00:36:41Marc:Yeah.

00:36:42Marc:The laser tag place?

00:36:43Marc:Who's at the laser tag place?

00:36:44Marc:Does anyone go there?

00:36:46Marc:So Ned Beatty just died.

00:36:48Marc:You didn't work with him.

00:36:49Guest:No, I never did.

00:36:50Marc:You loved him though, right?

00:36:51Guest:I loved Ned Beatty.

00:36:52Marc:He was so great.

00:36:53Guest:Yeah.

00:36:53Guest:And you remember that place on, what's it, Beachwood or whatever?

00:36:58Guest:He lived right across the street from that cafe.

00:37:01Guest:Oh, yeah, way up there.

00:37:01Guest:On Beachwood.

00:37:02Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:37:02Guest:And every once in a while, you'd see him and his kids out on the front lawn while you're eating your breakfast.

00:37:06Marc:It's like a craftsman, right?

00:37:07Marc:Yeah, uh-huh.

00:37:08Marc:Yeah, I mean, because I think we have a similar experience.

00:37:11Marc:When I was a kid...

00:37:13Marc:my grandparents were in town and for some reason, they took me and my little brother to see Deliverance when it was first showing.

00:37:21Marc:All I remember is their looks of concern leaving the theater.

00:37:27Marc:I saw it when I was eight.

00:37:31Guest:What did it do to you?

00:37:33Guest:Well, here's the thing.

00:37:33Guest:Not only did I see Deliverance that night, my mom was on a date and she took me.

00:37:39Guest:We saw Deliverance on a double feature with the Wild Bunch.

00:37:44Guest:Oh, that's so good.

00:37:45Guest:I mean, it's one of the greatest nights in movies in my life.

00:37:48Guest:Right.

00:37:48Marc:It defined who you are.

00:37:49Guest:Yeah.

00:37:50Guest:And that was where it was all laid out.

00:37:52Guest:Yeah.

00:37:52Guest:I mean, as far as I was concerned, when I was watching The Wild Bunch, as far as I was concerned, they slashed Angel's throat.

00:37:58Guest:I mean, how else could you do that?

00:37:59Guest:Right.

00:38:00Guest:They just slashed your throat.

00:38:01Guest:So you thought that.

00:38:01Guest:Yeah.

00:38:02Guest:And the blood like hit the fucking lens.

00:38:03Guest:Yeah.

00:38:04Guest:Right.

00:38:04Guest:Yeah.

00:38:06Guest:When I saw Deliverance scared the fuck out of me when I saw it.

00:38:12Marc:Hillbilly monsters.

00:38:13Guest:Yeah.

00:38:13Marc:It was sort of like creepy hill people.

00:38:14Guest:After I saw it, for a while, I didn't want to go camping.

00:38:19Guest:Because I thought that that could happen.

00:38:21Guest:Yeah, of course.

00:38:22Guest:The way people were scared of the beach after Jaws was how I was scared of camping.

00:38:26Guest:Now, living with a single mom, I didn't really have to worry about that.

00:38:30Guest:She's not going to buy a bunch of Coleman stoves and go camping with me.

00:38:35Guest:So I need not worry.

00:38:36Guest:But that was the thing.

00:38:38Guest:But here was the thing about it, though, also, watching Deliverance.

00:38:41Guest:I didn't know he was being fucked up the ass.

00:38:45Marc:Me too.

00:38:46Marc:Until I watched it again recently.

00:38:48Guest:Well, I've known since then.

00:38:50Guest:Yes.

00:38:50Guest:But when I was a little boy, I didn't know he was sticking his dick up his ass.

00:38:55Guest:Right.

00:38:55Guest:All right.

00:38:56Guest:I didn't even know what sodomy was at that time.

00:38:59Guest:Right.

00:39:00Guest:But I knew he was being humiliated.

00:39:03Guest:Yeah.

00:39:04Guest:Yeah.

00:39:04Guest:And he was being humiliated.

00:39:05Guest:All right.

00:39:06Guest:He was being dominated.

00:39:07Guest:Yes, he was.

00:39:08Guest:I knew that.

00:39:08Guest:Well, any kid can understand that because you've had some situation with somebody humiliating you and trying to dominate you.

00:39:14Marc:He felt bad for the fat man in his underpants.

00:39:16Marc:Yes, exactly.

00:39:17Marc:Yeah.

00:39:17Marc:Because I was sort of surprised by what we can register and what we can't register, because I watched it again recently.

00:39:22Marc:And it's like, not only is he fucking him in the ass, but he's really fucking him.

00:39:25Marc:I mean, it's clear that's what's happening.

00:39:28Marc:But my childhood memory is just sort of like, why are they hurting the fat guy in his underwear?

00:39:32Guest:Yeah, no, it's like... And also, those guys are shitty.

00:39:35Guest:Yeah.

00:39:36Guest:Oh, scary as fuck.

00:39:37Guest:Yeah.

00:39:37Guest:All right.

00:39:38Guest:But the thing is, though, the sodomy went right over my head.

00:39:42Guest:Of course.

00:39:42Guest:But the meaning of the rape was right there.

00:39:45Guest:Right.

00:39:46Guest:Domination.

00:39:47Guest:Right.

00:39:47Guest:Humiliation.

00:39:48Guest:Right.

00:39:48Guest:That is what it's about.

00:39:50Guest:Right.

00:39:50Marc:Yes.

00:39:51Guest:Right.

00:39:51Guest:The rape is a byproduct of that.

00:39:53Marc:So you knew that.

00:39:54Guest:So I knew what was going on without knowing the particulars.

00:39:57Marc:Right.

00:39:57Marc:And it's haunting.

00:39:58Marc:But what was more haunting was that guy's teeth.

00:40:00Marc:But that whole scene, I didn't remember any of it.

00:40:03Marc:I watched it maybe even during the pandemic.

00:40:05Marc:I wanted to watch it again.

00:40:07Guest:I watched it during the pandemic with a couple of guys from Israel who had never seen it before.

00:40:13Guest:And they had no idea what was going to happen.

00:40:14Guest:right yeah so it was great watching it was great watching it with two grown men this is no good who don't know where this is gonna go and the movie does not the movie no the movie lets you know something is going to happen right but it doesn't hint at all yeah what's going to happen yeah i mean you think it's probably going to be a mishap right right you know and then like there's that piece of meat hanging out of bert's leg yeah oh i know yeah

00:40:40Marc:This is like giant flank of meat hanging out of his wetsuit.

00:40:47Guest:He's our guy.

00:40:47Guest:How can he be sidelined?

00:40:49Marc:He's down.

00:40:50Marc:And then when they find what's his name, like all bent up.

00:40:52Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:40:55Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:40:56Marc:So that was sort of defining.

00:40:57Marc:And I noticed towards the end of the book, you put that man in there.

00:41:00Marc:You put Curtis in.

00:41:02Marc:Was he your stepdad?

00:41:03Marc:He's my stepdad, yeah.

00:41:04Marc:And he was the guy that brought you to that movie.

00:41:06Guest:Yeah, no, he was gone by that time.

00:41:09Guest:Now my mom was divorced by this time and she was dating.

00:41:13Guest:And she took me on a date.

00:41:14Marc:So what was Curtis like?

00:41:15Marc:Because in the book, is that bar real?

00:41:17Guest:Yeah, it's a real bar.

00:41:18Guest:What's it called?

00:41:18Guest:The Drinker's Hall of Fame.

00:41:20Marc:Yeah.

00:41:20Marc:Is it still there?

00:41:21Guest:No, I'm imagining it's not there.

00:41:24Marc:Right.

00:41:24Guest:It was in San Gabriel.

00:41:26Guest:I remember it.

00:41:26Guest:I remember I thought it was like so cool.

00:41:28Guest:All the cool.

00:41:29Guest:Oh, you went with him?

00:41:30Guest:Yeah, he took me there a couple of times.

00:41:31Guest:So Curtis, what's his last name?

00:41:32Guest:Curtis Astapil.

00:41:33Marc:So he played piano and guitar, and he worked at that bar.

00:41:37Guest:Yeah, he worked at that bar.

00:41:38Guest:He worked at a few bars.

00:41:39Guest:Two that I remember that had great names was the Drinker's Hall of Fame and one called My Old Kentucky Home.

00:41:44Marc:Oh, yeah?

00:41:45Marc:And was he a good musician?

00:41:46Marc:Yeah, he was good.

00:41:47Marc:And you'd consider him a stepdad?

00:41:50Guest:Oh, he actually was my stepdad.

00:41:51Marc:Because he was there for the longest?

00:41:52Guest:Yeah, absolutely.

00:41:53Guest:And he was there at the really formative, formative time.

00:41:57Guest:But he helped form you.

00:41:58Guest:Yeah, exactly.

00:41:59Guest:Two to seven or eight.

00:42:01Marc:Yeah, and what was it about him that really kind of wired your brain?

00:42:05Guest:Well, one of the things about it, well, there's a couple things.

00:42:08Guest:One is the fact that his presence, he was there.

00:42:11Guest:He was there.

00:42:12Guest:And one of the things was my mom was a nurse.

00:42:16Guest:So she was working.

00:42:17Guest:So before I started going to school, she was working during the day.

00:42:21Guest:He worked at night.

00:42:22Guest:Yeah.

00:42:22Guest:Because he was a piano bar musician.

00:42:23Guest:So he was home all day long.

00:42:25Guest:Right.

00:42:25Guest:So I was with him all day.

00:42:27Guest:What'd you do?

00:42:28Guest:Play piano?

00:42:30Guest:We did a zillion things together.

00:42:31Guest:No, he never taught me an instrument.

00:42:32Guest:But it was like, he did all kinds of things.

00:42:34Guest:And he took me with him whenever.

00:42:36Guest:We went to diners and we had lunch.

00:42:39Guest:Did he smoke?

00:42:40Guest:yeah oh yeah like a chimney yeah all right but like you know he had buddies so he went and saw his buddies and just took me with him yeah you know um we went to see a ton of movies we had a thing that we went to we had a whole thing that went on for as long as i was with him at a certain point that we went to the movies every monday night oh that's every single monday night no matter what yeah to all those movie theaters that you had in this book yeah exactly yeah and then like you know and if there was nothing else playing we saw something we liked again wow so what part of hollywood or los angeles were you living in

00:43:06Guest:Uh, that was, uh, uh, it started when I was like living in Alhambra.

00:43:12Marc:Okay.

00:43:12Guest:Yeah.

00:43:12Guest:All right.

00:43:13Guest:Uh, and then we moved to El Segundo.

00:43:15Marc:Okay.

00:43:15Marc:But so you had to drive into the city.

00:43:17Marc:It was a thing.

00:43:18Guest:Yeah.

00:43:18Guest:No, no, no.

00:43:19Guest:We saw like, like in, uh, when we lived in Alhambra, we went to like the theaters that were in that, uh, uh, area in that East LA area, Montebello area.

00:43:29Guest:Yeah.

00:43:29Guest:Montebello and El Monte area.

00:43:31Guest:And then I can remember the name of all of them, frankly.

00:43:34Guest:Yeah.

00:43:34Guest:And then when we moved to El Segundo, then we went to, like, particularly there was, like, two cinemas right by where the LAX is.

00:43:41Guest:Okay.

00:43:42Guest:There was one cinema.

00:43:44Guest:They're still there.

00:43:44Guest:They're just office buildings now.

00:43:45Guest:There was the Loyola on one end of Sepulveda and the Paradise on the other end of Sepulveda.

00:43:51Guest:Right, right.

00:43:51Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:43:51Guest:Every once in a while, we'd drive into Marina del Rey and go to the UA Marina del Rey Theater, which was a multiplex.

00:43:57Yeah.

00:43:57Guest:Yeah.

00:43:58Guest:A little projector thing.

00:44:02Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:44:07Guest:Right?

00:44:08Guest:You know what?

00:44:08Guest:That's actually called funky fanfare.

00:44:11Guest:And it is a funky fanfare.

00:44:13Marc:That was the coming attraction scene, right?

00:44:14Guest:Yeah, the coming attraction thing, yeah.

00:44:15Guest:We play that in front of every movie at the New Beverly, yeah.

00:44:19Marc:Right, that's where I saw it recently then.

00:44:21Guest:Every movie starts with that.

00:44:23Marc:You gotta have that, right?

00:44:24Marc:You gotta have it.

00:44:25Marc:And don't you have the concession stand thing, the little short?

00:44:27Marc:Oh yeah, yeah, we always have one little concession stand store, yeah.

00:44:30Marc:So this guy was around for a while.

00:44:33Marc:Because I was trying to figure out, because when I was a kid, for some reason I had an obsession with old Hollywood.

00:44:39Marc:But it wasn't because I watched movies.

00:44:41Marc:I was literally obsessed with the pictures of old actors.

00:44:44Marc:And I don't even know why, but I could name a lot of them without knowing their movies.

00:44:48Marc:And I found it so compelling, just the black and whites.

00:44:51Marc:And I remember I got obsessed with these tabloid magazines I used to have.

00:44:55Marc:The Fatty Arbuckle thing.

00:44:56Guest:The Hollywood Confidential things like that.

00:44:58Marc:Those kind of things, because they used to have them at the Skaggs drugstore next to the True Detective stuff.

00:45:02Marc:But I never became a full-on old movie guy, but for some reason I became really enthralled with just the way they looked.

00:45:09Marc:Like that these guys were all dead.

00:45:11Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:45:12Marc:You know, like there they are.

00:45:13Guest:Well, when I was like around that time in the early 70s, 71, 72, 73,

00:45:18Guest:I was really connected, especially when it came to movie stars and all that kind of stuff.

00:45:22Guest:Yeah.

00:45:23Guest:I was really connected to one, the Universal Monsters.

00:45:26Guest:Yeah.

00:45:27Guest:And I was really connected to the old time comedians.

00:45:31Guest:Especially W.C.

00:45:32Guest:Fields.

00:45:33Guest:I was really, really, really into W.C.

00:45:34Guest:Fields and I was really, really into Abbey and Costello.

00:45:36Guest:But I also really liked Laurel and Hardy.

00:45:39Guest:And I...

00:45:39Guest:I didn't love the Marx Brothers that much.

00:45:42Guest:I like them, but I didn't love them.

00:45:43Marc:I still don't.

00:45:44Marc:I tried again.

00:45:45Marc:There's some part there.

00:45:46Marc:Do you ever have those things?

00:45:47Marc:I don't know if you suffer from that where you're like, I should like this.

00:45:50Guest:Yeah.

00:45:50Guest:Well, I love Groucho's running bits.

00:45:53Guest:All right.

00:45:54Guest:Groucho's mile a minute bits are fantastic, especially when he's with the woman.

00:45:58Guest:Yeah.

00:45:59Guest:All right.

00:45:59Guest:The battle axe woman.

00:46:00Guest:Yeah.

00:46:01Marc:But.

00:46:02Marc:W.C.

00:46:03Marc:Fields was your guy.

00:46:03Guest:Yeah, but W.C.

00:46:04Guest:Fields was my guy.

00:46:04Guest:I don't know what it was about W.C.

00:46:06Guest:Fields.

00:46:07Guest:I just thought he was hysterical.

00:46:09Guest:I loved him in the movies.

00:46:11Guest:I loved a cartoon of him.

00:46:13Guest:I loved statues of him.

00:46:15Guest:I remember those statues.

00:46:16Guest:Any kind of caricature of W.C.

00:46:20Guest:Fields, I just thought was the greatest thing ever.

00:46:22Marc:Because he was snotty to kids.

00:46:23Marc:Yeah.

00:46:24Guest:I don't even know if I understood what he was saying.

00:46:29Guest:I just thought I liked him.

00:46:31Marc:Isn't that weird?

00:46:32Marc:Because it's like this weird cranky vulnerability.

00:46:34Marc:It's a very strange and unique comic type to be that cranky or that angry, but you can't help but be funny.

00:46:40Marc:There's so few of them.

00:46:41Guest:But then also, I mean, the idea, though, that like something like you never give a second and even break is so ridiculously surreal.

00:46:50Guest:And the idea to be a little boy and to watch that kind of surreal movie.

00:46:55Guest:And it doesn't take place in this any kind of world that we know of with the rules and the laws, you know, that exist just don't apply.

00:47:04Guest:And like, what is going on here?

00:47:07Guest:But then Kurt is laughing hysterically.

00:47:09Guest:So I guess it's okay.

00:47:11Guest:So now I'm laughing too.

00:47:12Guest:At the weird place.

00:47:14Guest:One of the other things with Kurt, though, was I'm positive he wasn't a movie expert, but he knew stuff.

00:47:21Guest:He is an adult man.

00:47:22Guest:He knew movies.

00:47:23Guest:He knew stuff.

00:47:24Guest:He knew actors' names.

00:47:25Guest:Right.

00:47:26Guest:So we'd be watching movies in the afternoon on television, and he would just point out an actor.

00:47:33Guest:He's like, oh, that's Roddy McDowell.

00:47:35Guest:I really like Roddy McDowell.

00:47:36Guest:I really like Roddy McDowell when he's playing an asshole.

00:47:37Guest:Roddy McDowell's a good asshole.

00:47:40Guest:I dig him.

00:47:41Guest:He's playing an asshole.

00:47:42Guest:That's great.

00:47:43Guest:All right.

00:47:44Guest:All right.

00:47:45Guest:OK.

00:47:45Guest:Oh, that's Aldo Ray.

00:47:48Guest:All right.

00:47:49Guest:That's whoever.

00:47:49Guest:All right.

00:47:50Guest:Or something else that he would do is like we went to the movies and we saw the Disney version of Swiss Family Robinson.

00:47:57Guest:Yeah.

00:47:58Guest:All right.

00:47:58Guest:So then we'd be watching a movie and then the actor Thomas Mitchell walks in.

00:48:02Guest:Oh, Thomas Mitchell.

00:48:02Guest:OK, you see that guy, Quentin, he played the father in Swiss Family Robinson in the original Swiss Family Robinson.

00:48:09Guest:Yeah.

00:48:09Guest:So you just point out things like that.

00:48:10Marc:Yeah.

00:48:10Guest:And then you're like, oh, they move around.

00:48:12Guest:Yeah.

00:48:14Guest:There was one before that.

00:48:15Guest:Yeah.

00:48:15Guest:It was like in the 30s.

00:48:16Guest:Yeah.

00:48:16Guest:And that's the father.

00:48:17Guest:He was the father.

00:48:17Guest:Wow.

00:48:18Guest:Yeah.

00:48:18Guest:OK.

00:48:18Guest:So as a little boy.

00:48:20Guest:Yeah.

00:48:22Guest:I thought, wow, one of the things that's so good when you become an adult is you become an expert on movies.

00:48:28Guest:You know every actor who's done, who's in every movie you watch, you know everything they've done and you're an expert.

00:48:36Guest:Wow, I can't wait to be an adult so I can be an expert on movies.

00:48:40Guest:I better start paying attention now.

00:48:42Guest:Yeah.

00:48:42Guest:Okay, well, little did I know that, no, you don't become, most people don't become an expert on movies when they become an adult.

00:48:49Guest:But I did because I was like boning up for it all.

00:48:53Marc:Right, but that's what stuck.

00:48:54Marc:You're like, this is what I want to do.

00:48:56Marc:Yes.

00:48:56Marc:Like it was that compelling.

00:48:57Guest:But I just thought it was a rite of passage.

00:48:58Marc:Right.

00:48:59Marc:In your brain.

00:49:00Guest:Yeah.

00:49:00Guest:Right.

00:49:01Marc:Because some kids are like sports or whatever.

00:49:03Marc:But you're like, no movies.

00:49:04Marc:Yeah.

00:49:04Marc:This is like it never ends.

00:49:06Marc:Yeah.

00:49:07Marc:But at that time, did you know that your real dad had set out to be in movies?

00:49:13Guest:No, I didn't really quite.

00:49:14Guest:They had tried to explain it to me.

00:49:16Guest:But since Kurt was so much as far as I was concerned, my father.

00:49:19Guest:Right.

00:49:20Guest:their explanation didn't make any sense it was just mush right and so i just like that there was another guy yeah i didn't really get it yeah i mean there was i remember um uh because i was born tarantino his name was zastapil but he actually adopted me okay so i would have his last name yeah and i remember them taking me to the uh adoption process that i had to talk to the judge

00:49:44Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:49:45Guest:And they go, okay, so Quentin, here's what this is about.

00:49:48Guest:And so they explain it all to me and da-da-da-da-da.

00:49:52Guest:And then they bring, and I remember this, they bring me into the office and I meet with the judge.

00:49:55Guest:Okay, so now, Quentin, do you know why you're here?

00:49:58Guest:No.

00:50:01Guest:What the fuck?

00:50:02Guest:We just spent 15 minutes explaining to you.

00:50:06Guest:Well, Quentin, let me tell you why you're here.

00:50:09Yeah.

00:50:09Guest:What the fuck was that?

00:50:13Guest:What the fuck was that?

00:50:15Marc:These people kidnap me and I don't know what they're trying to do, judge.

00:50:20Guest:But yeah, so I didn't really.

00:50:22Guest:So it wasn't until a bit later that when I got a little older that I realized, oh, OK, he's my stepdad and my mom.

00:50:30Guest:And but I never went by that.

00:50:33Guest:I didn't even know about the name Tarantino really at that time.

00:50:35Guest:You didn't?

00:50:35Guest:I was Zastapil.

00:50:36Guest:That was my name.

00:50:37Guest:All through, I was always known by that.

00:50:40Guest:That's how I learned to write.

00:50:42Guest:That's what I learned.

00:50:43Marc:When I first learned to write, I learned to write.

00:50:44Marc:That's a good one to learn to write.

00:50:46Marc:Yeah.

00:50:46Marc:I mean, as far as training yourself to write things.

00:50:48Guest:I mean, actually, I've always liked, that's almost the Ellis Island spelling.

00:50:52Guest:Zastapil?

00:50:53Guest:Yeah.

00:50:53Guest:The real pronunciation is Zastupil, which I think is cooler.

00:50:57Marc:What kind of name is it?

00:50:58Guest:I think it's Czechoslovakian.

00:50:59Marc:Oh, really?

00:50:59Marc:Yeah.

00:51:00Marc:So the Tarantino thing didn't happen until later.

00:51:03Guest:Yeah.

00:51:03Guest:And I never knew him at all.

00:51:04Guest:So when I took the name Tarantino of around 18 or 19, it was simply because it sounded cool.

00:51:13Guest:It was Italian.

00:51:15Guest:Quentin Tarantino sounded like a cool name.

00:51:17Guest:It had nothing to do with him.

00:51:18Guest:It had nothing to do with the family.

00:51:20Guest:It was simply just, I thought it was a cool sounding name.

00:51:22Guest:Right.

00:51:22Guest:But it is your name.

00:51:23Guest:Yeah.

00:51:23Guest:And it is my name.

00:51:26Guest:But it also had the benefit of reinvention because I had never used it.

00:51:29Marc:Right, right.

00:51:30Marc:Exciting new thing.

00:51:31Marc:But you're one of the few guys that creates a stage name that's actually your actual name.

00:51:35Guest:Yeah, exactly.

00:51:35Marc:Because you had Zestapul, which would not have been as compelling as Tarantino, probably.

00:51:40Guest:Well, if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't use the name Tarantino.

00:51:43Guest:If I had to do it all over again, I would- Call yourself Burt Reynolds?

00:51:47Guest:No, no.

00:51:47Guest:I wish.

00:51:50Guest:I would use my middle name, which is Jerome, as my last name.

00:51:53Guest:I would be Quentin Jerome.

00:51:54Marc:Really?

00:51:55Marc:Yeah.

00:51:56Marc:Huh.

00:51:56Marc:I think he made the right choice.

00:51:59Guest:I get it.

00:52:00Marc:But when did you, did you at some point investigate your real father?

00:52:03Guest:No.

00:52:05Guest:All right.

00:52:05Guest:Because, yeah, well, he had...

00:52:09Guest:30 fucking years to find me, all right?

00:52:11Guest:And he never did.

00:52:12Guest:But then when I became famous, he crawled out of the woodwork.

00:52:14Guest:Did he?

00:52:15Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:52:16Marc:Oh, what was that like?

00:52:17Guest:Fucking horrible.

00:52:18Marc:Really?

00:52:18Guest:Yeah, it was a drag.

00:52:19Guest:It was a drag.

00:52:20Guest:What'd he do?

00:52:20Guest:Well, he just- Hey, buddy.

00:52:23Guest:Yeah, he tried to reach out to me.

00:52:26Guest:I wasn't interested.

00:52:27Guest:And then all of a sudden, this woman named Jamie Bernard wrote a book about me, the first biography about me.

00:52:35Guest:I had done two movies.

00:52:39Guest:And the book was called Quentin Tarantino, The Man and His Movies.

00:52:42Guest:Two movies.

00:52:42Guest:Both of them.

00:52:43Marc:With just Reservoir Dogs and... Yeah, Pulp Fiction.

00:52:47Guest:So it's like The Man and His Movies.

00:52:48Guest:A little premature.

00:52:49Guest:Yeah, both of them.

00:52:50Guest:There you go.

00:52:51Guest:So she was kind of the expert on me at that moment in time.

00:52:55Guest:And all of a sudden, he...

00:52:57Guest:Got in contact with her.

00:52:59Guest:And then she's like, oh, my God, I'm talking to the father.

00:53:03Guest:Right.

00:53:03Guest:No one's ever talked to before.

00:53:05Guest:So she does this whole interview with him.

00:53:10Guest:Who knows who I've never met.

00:53:12Guest:Yeah.

00:53:12Guest:Who I've never met.

00:53:13Guest:Yeah.

00:53:13Guest:And they print it big piece in Premiere magazine.

00:53:19Wow.

00:53:19Guest:It was so fucked up.

00:53:21Guest:I mean, it's like you can't even say that he was like a bad dad.

00:53:26Guest:And maybe, you know, that reflected on Quentin's life.

00:53:31Guest:No, he was not there.

00:53:32Marc:Did he manufacture a story?

00:53:34Guest:Well, he just he just talked about himself and talked about himself.

00:53:38Guest:Yeah.

00:53:38Guest:And and then the and the picture of him is him dressed in a black suit like a reservoir dog.

00:53:44Guest:Oh, my God.

00:53:45Guest:Pointing a gun.

00:53:46Guest:Oh, my God.

00:53:47Guest:Yeah, it was pretty tasteless.

00:53:50Marc:So did you have a confrontation with the guy?

00:53:53Marc:No, I just wanted him to go away.

00:53:55Marc:But you never talked to him?

00:53:56Guest:Look, one time- Yeah.

00:53:59Guest:One time- Did he ask you to be in a movie?

00:54:00Guest:No, no, no.

00:54:01Guest:Okay, that's something else.

00:54:03Guest:Okay, that's something else.

00:54:04Guest:Oh, it is.

00:54:05Guest:Okay, so-

00:54:07Guest:He wanted to be an actor a long time ago, and then sometime in the 90s.

00:54:12Guest:Him and Al Pacino's estranged father, Sal Pacino, hooked up.

00:54:20Guest:And they started doing these straight-to-video movies.

00:54:23Guest:Really?

00:54:23Guest:Starring them.

00:54:25Guest:So you could actually put on the video box Pacino and Tarantino in Silver Dudes with Guns or whatever that was called.

00:54:36Guest:And so they started doing these straight-to-video movies.

00:54:39Guest:Did you watch them?

00:54:40Guest:No, I never saw them.

00:54:41Guest:I didn't even want to know what the guy looks like.

00:54:43Marc:It's hilarious.

00:54:45Marc:The only movies you won't watch.

00:54:47Guest:Yeah.

00:54:47Guest:I mean, oddly enough, I actually think there is something... Look, I'm not into this dude.

00:54:57Guest:Right.

00:54:57Guest:But I actually think there is something kind of sweet about the idea that...

00:55:03Guest:The son that he never saw ever allowed him to have somewhat of a semblance of the career that he was never able to get on his own.

00:55:12Guest:I actually think there's something sweet about that.

00:55:14Guest:Right.

00:55:14Guest:I mean, it's done as exploitively as possible.

00:55:18Guest:But nevertheless, he was able to end up living his dream doing these straight to video movies, acting and playing roles.

00:55:24Guest:And my fame gave him that.

00:55:26Guest:I mean, I'm compassionate enough to appreciate that.

00:55:30Guest:Yeah.

00:55:30Guest:I think that's actually kind of a good thing.

00:55:32Guest:Yeah.

00:55:32Guest:If he had been cool and hadn't tried to horn in and he had just had some class, I would actually be all down.

00:55:39Guest:I might have even looked him up if he had had class.

00:55:42Guest:Right.

00:55:43Guest:So then one day I was in a cafe and I'm in a cafe.

00:55:50Guest:I'm ordering something and all of a sudden he's just there.

00:55:55Guest:Yeah.

00:55:56Guest:And he's like, hi, it's me.

00:56:00Guest:And I look up and I recognize, yeah, I knew exactly who it was.

00:56:03Guest:Yeah.

00:56:04Guest:Does he look like you?

00:56:05Guest:No.

00:56:06Guest:No, he doesn't look like me.

00:56:07Guest:Okay.

00:56:07Guest:Not that I think.

00:56:08Guest:Okay.

00:56:09Guest:And I go, ugh.

00:56:12Marc:Yeah.

00:56:13Marc:This is it.

00:56:13Guest:I knew.

00:56:14Guest:Yeah.

00:56:15Guest:I knew this day was going to happen.

00:56:17Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:56:18Guest:And he goes, yep, that day is today.

00:56:21Guest:And he goes, may I sit?

00:56:24Guest:And I just looked at the table and I waved him away with my hand.

00:56:30Guest:I just looked down.

00:56:30Guest:I didn't want to look.

00:56:31Guest:I looked at him when I said, uh.

00:56:33Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:56:34Guest:And then I just looked down at my plate, and I just waved him away.

00:56:37Guest:Yeah.

00:56:37Guest:I just, just go.

00:56:39Guest:Right.

00:56:39Guest:Just go.

00:56:40Marc:Just go.

00:56:41Marc:Yeah.

00:56:41Guest:And he went.

00:56:41Marc:And that was it.

00:56:42Marc:That was it.

00:56:43Marc:Huh.

00:56:43Marc:You don't know if he's alive or dead?

00:56:45Guest:I'm sure he's alive.

00:56:46Marc:Yeah.

00:56:46Guest:He's done enough that when he dies, they'll write about him.

00:56:49Marc:Oh, right, right, right.

00:56:49Marc:He'll get a variety piece?

00:56:51Guest:Oh, I'm sure.

00:56:52Guest:I'm sure.

00:56:54Guest:I'm not saying it's going to be front page, all right?

00:56:58Marc:So what was the relationship like, you know, not unlike Deliverance, you know, when did... Because Manson plays pretty heavy in everything, in your brain.

00:57:06Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:57:06Marc:And mine too.

00:57:07Marc:But I don't know that I have specific recollections of it when I was a kid.

00:57:13Marc:It might be there, but I don't.

00:57:14Marc:I remember body counts and more footage, and I remember Deliverance, but I don't really remember the Manson events.

00:57:21Guest:Well, okay, I don't remember.

00:57:23Guest:I remember Manson, the name, but I don't remember the events, but I actually remember it very clearly because I'm looking at this hammer because it's making me think of what I'm talking about because there was a thing between, I guess, 69 and 70 where I was sort of watching the news with my parents, but the only things that grabbed me were violent murders.

00:57:47Guest:Sure, of course.

00:57:48Guest:Because you can understand that.

00:57:49Guest:Yeah.

00:57:50Guest:Shanghai Shack and Phnom Penh.

00:57:52Guest:I don't know what any of that is.

00:57:53Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:57:54Marc:Yeah, but like this guy killed these people.

00:57:55Guest:Yeah, but then there was a guy who was running around Southern California killing people with a hammer.

00:58:00Guest:I've never heard about him ever since, but it was a big deal then.

00:58:02Guest:Yeah.

00:58:03Guest:And I think it only lasted a few months, but in a weird way, I was into this hammer guy as if it was a movie or a TV show.

00:58:10Guest:Right, right, right.

00:58:10Guest:What happened with the hammer guy?

00:58:11Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:58:12Guest:It was another thing with the hammer guy.

00:58:13Guest:Yeah.

00:58:13Guest:And then after they caught the hammer guy, then there was somebody else doing something that was intriguing enough that I was kind of glued to the TV.

00:58:21Guest:And then all of a sudden, those guys went away, and then it was about Manson.

00:58:24Guest:And it was just a name.

00:58:25Guest:I didn't understand anything that went on or anything.

00:58:28Guest:It was just a name.

00:58:28Guest:Manson, Manson, Manson, Manson.

00:58:31Guest:And I heard the name enough.

00:58:33Guest:And I don't know if I even had visual imagery going with it, but I heard the name Manson enough that at one point I asked Kurt, I go, who's this Manson guy?

00:58:42Guest:And he was like, no, you don't need to know that.

00:58:44Marc:Wow.

00:58:45Marc:Yeah.

00:58:46Marc:Well, did you like in order to get this, because I just became obsessed with the idea.

00:58:50Marc:Like I was like, I got this weird when I was, you know, years ago when I cocaine myself into psychosis, you know, things got pretty mystical.

00:58:58Marc:So I needed some answers.

00:58:59Guest:Right.

00:59:00Guest:Yeah.

00:59:01Marc:I needed to know about the credibility of witchcraft, the history of it.

00:59:04Marc:So, you know, you start reading about this.

00:59:06Marc:But the thing about the movie and the book, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is that effectively, you know, Manson was the catalyst for the death of the 60s, period.

00:59:16Guest:Yes.

00:59:16Marc:And, you know, that and speed, right?

00:59:18Guest:Yeah, right.

00:59:18Marc:So like and he was a witch, you know, and he did have a sort of weird agenda, but like not unlike I think the thing I love about the ending of the movie that, you know, that this was clearly, you know, not unlike Hitler in the other movie.

00:59:33Guest:Yeah.

00:59:33Marc:You were like, I just need to correct.

00:59:35Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:59:36Guest:Right.

00:59:36Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:59:36Guest:Absolutely.

00:59:38Marc:This story doesn't end right.

00:59:40Guest:Yeah.

00:59:41Guest:Oh, actually, I have to say, one of the things that was a name drop for two seconds.

00:59:45Guest:All right.

00:59:46Guest:I'm friendly with Dan Aykroyd and his wife, Donna.

00:59:49Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:59:50Marc:Oh, my God.

00:59:51Marc:I can't imagine you two in a room.

00:59:52Yeah.

00:59:53Guest:Drink a lot of vodka.

00:59:55Guest:A lot of talking.

00:59:56Guest:They went and saw the film when it came out, and he left this cool message on the machine.

01:00:02Guest:It's particularly great about Dan Aykroyd leaving a message on your answering machine.

01:00:06Guest:And he leaves a message on the answering machine.

01:00:08Guest:Hey, Quentin, just to let you know, me and Donna saw Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

01:00:13Guest:It was fantastic.

01:00:14Guest:We loved it.

01:00:15Guest:You don't have to call back.

01:00:16Guest:Just letting you know that we loved it.

01:00:17Guest:And boy...

01:00:19Guest:Those hippies sure picked the wrong fucking house that night.

01:00:26Marc:Well, and the fact that you like, but see the detail you got and in the book even more so about him and about the nature of that guy.

01:00:33Marc:I mean, there's been a lot of books written about him, but did you read that like that Newell Emmons book?

01:00:38Marc:Like Manson and his own words?

01:00:39Guest:Oh, yes, I did, yeah.

01:00:40Guest:By the guy, his stomach?

01:00:42Guest:I don't think I read that one from chapter cover to cover.

01:00:45Guest:Yeah.

01:00:46Guest:But I read, obviously I read Helter Skelter, which is basically bullshit.

01:00:49Marc:Did you read Nicholas Schreck's thing, the Manson file?

01:00:51Marc:Any of that stuff?

01:00:52Guest:No, I read The Family.

01:00:53Marc:Oh, yeah, the family.

01:00:54Guest:I read Helter Skelter, which is mostly bullshit.

01:00:57Guest:Right.

01:00:58Guest:And I read that new book that came out, Manson, which was fantastic.

01:01:00Marc:Was it?

01:01:01Guest:It was, I mean, fantastic.

01:01:02Guest:The best one.

01:01:03Marc:That's where you got most of the information.

01:01:04Guest:Yeah.

01:01:04Guest:Well, that was, well, no, that just gave you more, it was more of a biography about him.

01:01:09Marc:Yeah.

01:01:10Guest:And it had like stuff that hadn't been in the other ones.

01:01:12Guest:But then the Tom O'Neill tops them all.

01:01:13Marc:The Tom O'Neill book tops them all.

01:01:14Marc:Which one's that?

01:01:15Guest:That's the new one, Chaos.

01:01:16Guest:Oh, Chaos.

01:01:16Guest:I mean, that's just.

01:01:18Marc:That's it?

01:01:18Guest:That's the one.

01:01:19Marc:Okay.

01:01:20Guest:Okay.

01:01:20Guest:That's the one.

01:01:20Guest:All the other ones are preambles to that one.

01:01:24Marc:Well, what do you hinge your fascination on that guy with?

01:01:26Marc:Because there's elements of him in a couple of female characters.

01:01:30Guest:Well, you know, I actually exercised my fascination with him by doing the movie and everything.

01:01:38Guest:But I think there is an aspect.

01:01:40Guest:You can't be from Southern California.

01:01:42Marc:And not be fascinated.

01:01:44Guest:Especially our age, our generation.

01:01:46Guest:He really had something, especially for the Gen Xers.

01:01:49Marc:Yeah.

01:01:51Guest:There was something mythological.

01:01:52Marc:Well, yeah, that's the position he holds.

01:01:54Guest:Yeah.

01:01:55Marc:Do you know I'm the guy that told Paul McCartney that he was dead?

01:01:58Guest:Oh, what?

01:01:59Marc:Yeah.

01:01:59Marc:When I interviewed Paul, you know, I just sort of brought up this idea that's sort of like, how'd you guys handle the whole hell?

01:02:05Marc:Oh, yeah.

01:02:06Marc:And he's like, well, we didn't have a press strategy, you know, because it didn't exist then.

01:02:10Marc:And I'm like, you know, he died.

01:02:11Marc:He's like, I didn't know that.

01:02:12Marc:Like, I told Paul McCartney that Manson died.

01:02:15Guest:Oh, really?

01:02:15Guest:Yeah.

01:02:16Guest:Oh, my God.

01:02:16Guest:In front of people.

01:02:16Guest:Oh, I thought you were talking about the Paul is dead thing.

01:02:18Guest:No, no, no.

01:02:19Guest:Like, the real Paul McCartney didn't know he was dead.

01:02:22Guest:Okay, by the way, we're talking about being a little kid.

01:02:24Guest:When I was a little kid around that time.

01:02:26Marc:Yeah, yeah.

01:02:27Guest:My dad believed the Paul is dead story to be true.

01:02:30Guest:Who, Curtis?

01:02:31Guest:Yeah, Curtis believed the Paul is dead thing.

01:02:33Marc:Really?

01:02:33Guest:Everybody believed it for a while.

01:02:35Guest:I mean, I didn't know everybody.

01:02:37Guest:I was a little kid.

01:02:38Guest:But I mean, that was taken really, really seriously for about two years.

01:02:43Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:02:43Marc:And my dad- So he listened to the I Buried Paul story.

01:02:46Guest:Yeah, well, the whole thing.

01:02:48Guest:Oh, and he's barefoot, crossing a happy road.

01:02:51Guest:Yeah, a happy road, right, right.

01:02:53Guest:And I go, what do you mean he's dead?

01:02:55Guest:I was ridiculously skeptical about the whole thing.

01:02:58Guest:Right, right, right.

01:03:00Guest:And then he started explaining it because he listened to watch this show and listened to this radio thing or whatever.

01:03:06Marc:That's interesting.

01:03:07Marc:It's how some people explain your movies.

01:03:08Guest:Yeah, right.

01:03:09Guest:what that's about.

01:03:12Guest:I mean, people took the Paul is Dead thing ridiculously seriously.

01:03:16Marc:Well, look at the world we live in now.

01:03:17Marc:People will believe anything.

01:03:19Marc:And it doesn't matter if it has any foundation in reality.

01:03:22Marc:It seems sometimes that the more it doesn't have a foundation in reality, if it's interesting and it gives them a sense of control and mystery, they'll fucking buy it.

01:03:30Guest:Well, look, okay, I have been known in my life to tell outrageous whopper lies to get out of shit.

01:03:37Guest:Yeah.

01:03:37Guest:And I learned really quickly, the more outrageous the lie, the more people will believe it because like, well, what kind of fucking lunatic would come up with that?

01:03:45Guest:Right, right.

01:03:46Marc:And then it just becomes part of your person.

01:03:47Marc:Like you're that guy.

01:03:48Marc:Yeah.

01:03:49Marc:You've told the lie and like the lie becomes real.

01:03:51Guest:If I was going to tell a boss a fucking lie, it's going to be a big one.

01:03:56Guest:You literally have to call me a liar to my face.

01:04:01Marc:And that is how you started to craft stories.

01:04:05Marc:Well, there was another interesting moment in this book where you kind of summed up all of the, you know, like I thought I underlined it.

01:04:11Marc:I underlined weird things.

01:04:13Marc:There was a couple of things like it was a small fucking town.

01:04:16Marc:When I talk to like Begley or Walter Hill or any of the old timers, Nick Nolte.

01:04:22Marc:Yeah, yeah.

01:04:22Marc:I'm always fascinated with the idea that that community of that time, of the people that you're sort of paying an homage to in the book and in the movie, it was really a small community of people that all kind of knew each other.

01:04:35Marc:Everybody was sort of around.

01:04:37Marc:Like, you know, all that stuff about... The thing about Manson's access to the music business was because it was a small town.

01:04:43Marc:It was a small town, absolutely.

01:04:44Marc:And Dennis Wilson was like, you know, oh, this guy seems cool.

01:04:46Marc:Yeah.

01:04:47Marc:But I kind of love...

01:04:49Marc:Like, I feel a nostalgia for that.

01:04:52Marc:You and I didn't live it, but I always like talking to those guys, you know, who, like, you ever talk to Begley?

01:04:58Guest:Yes, I have.

01:04:59Guest:Yes.

01:04:59Marc:Like, he'd been to Spawn Ranch, dude.

01:05:01Marc:Oh, wow.

01:05:02Marc:He didn't meet Manson, but he went out there one night with some friend of his.

01:05:05Guest:Yeah, like Cliff.

01:05:06Guest:Like, went down there and saw some girls, yeah.

01:05:08Marc:Yeah, yeah.

01:05:08Marc:The girls.

01:05:11The girls.

01:05:12Yeah.

01:05:12Marc:But I really appreciated that whole part of it.

01:05:15Marc:And the other thing I wanted to bring up was you summed up what the story structure is for most movies, most plays.

01:05:22Marc:I can't remember the paragraph.

01:05:23Marc:You know what I'm talking about?

01:05:24Guest:Which one?

01:05:24Marc:It was just sort of like, this is what happens in almost all stories.

01:05:27Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:05:29Guest:Is that me wrapping up the Gunsmoke episode?

01:05:31Guest:Yeah, maybe.

01:05:32Guest:What was it, though?

01:05:33Guest:Do you remember?

01:05:33Guest:Well, yeah, it was about the idea that...

01:05:36Guest:Once the James Stacy character kills this guy, well, now you know that at the end of the episode, Matt Dillon's going to shoot him.

01:05:43Guest:And now you're just sitting there waiting for that to happen, even though you like the guy.

01:05:48Guest:But that is going to be how it ends.

01:05:50Guest:And now you're just waiting for that to happen.

01:05:52Marc:And that's like almost all stories.

01:05:54Guest:Yeah, exactly.

01:05:55Guest:Well, it's definitely all gun smokes, but you could apply that to a lot of genre.

01:05:59Marc:Shakespeare.

01:06:00Marc:Yeah.

01:06:01Marc:What's the other thing?

01:06:02Marc:Oh, I like the Pauline Kael quote.

01:06:03Marc:And then I just like, the way you sort of pull apart Manson, and the bit that I was thinking of, do you remember the Sam Kennison bit?

01:06:09Marc:It's one of my favorite bits of his.

01:06:11Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:06:11Marc:Glad to see you fuckers can handle your high.

01:06:13Guest:Yes, exactly.

01:06:14Guest:Oh, you're leaving right now?

01:06:16Guest:Right, right.

01:06:16Guest:You still have time to shove a chainsaw up my ass.

01:06:20Guest:Yeah.

01:06:21Marc:Yeah.

01:06:21Marc:But that line, glad to see you fuckers can have erased all of what he represents.

01:06:26Guest:Yes, absolutely.

01:06:27Marc:And it was genius.

01:06:28Marc:And you did it with Cliff.

01:06:29Guest:Yeah.

01:06:30Marc:Where you're like, you know, where he goes, no, that ain't it.

01:06:32Marc:Where he goes, I'm the devil and I'm here to do the devil.

01:06:35Marc:No, something stupid.

01:06:38Guest:No, it was something dumber than that.

01:06:41Marc:Yeah.

01:06:41Marc:It's like the greatest fucking comic beat.

01:06:44Marc:I love it.

01:06:45Marc:I love all of it.

01:06:47Marc:Now, what is all this about that might be your last movie?

01:06:50Marc:Where's that coming from?

01:06:52Guest:That's coming from the way...

01:06:55Marc:Was that just a day?

01:06:56Guest:No, that comes from the way the press handles stuff.

01:06:59Guest:You do it to a podcast.

01:07:00Guest:You say something.

01:07:01Guest:There's obviously a giggle in your voice.

01:07:03Guest:And then 134 outlets pick it up because they don't want the giggle in the voice because that's not clickbait.

01:07:10Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:07:11Marc:Right.

01:07:11Marc:I get it.

01:07:12Marc:So it was just taken out of content.

01:07:13Marc:You have no intention to quit working.

01:07:15Guest:No, no, no.

01:07:15Guest:I still got another.

01:07:16Guest:Is there a part two of this?

01:07:19Marc:It looks like there's a lot of outtakes in that trailer.

01:07:20Guest:Yeah, there is.

01:07:23Marc:How much footage wasn't used?

01:07:25Guest:No, I think if I were to put it all together in a way where I would use everything I wanted and didn't have to worry about time or something, it'd probably be about three hours and 20 minutes or something.

01:07:37Guest:Really?

01:07:37Guest:Yeah, yeah.

01:07:38Marc:But it's really interesting, some of the choices you made, because it's clear that in that trailer for the book- Yeah.

01:07:42Marc:You know, some of the things that you didn't put in, like, you know, Manson's goofy dance when he sees a cliff.

01:07:48Marc:Like, you don't need that.

01:07:50Marc:Yeah.

01:07:50Marc:Like that Manson.

01:07:51Guest:Well, no, look, that was good.

01:07:53Guest:And like Brad is still, I think, annoyed that I didn't have that in there because it was like it wrapped up everything.

01:07:58Marc:In what way?

01:07:59Guest:Well, it wrapped up the entire encounter.

01:08:02Guest:He shows up at the house, and then they look at each other.

01:08:06Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:08:07Guest:That's a great Manson bit, the little goofy dance he does.

01:08:10Guest:Fuck you, Jack.

01:08:10Guest:Yeah, yeah.

01:08:13Guest:We were saying, fuck you, Jack.

01:08:14Marc:I used to do a bit about Manson, about how he's become sort of the old vaudevillian of serial killers.

01:08:22Guest:Yes, exactly.

01:08:23Guest:Still doing that bit.

01:08:23Guest:Hey, man.

01:08:25Guest:Yeah, exactly.

01:08:25Guest:He's the Georgie Jessel of serial killers.

01:08:28Marc:So you just didn't put that in because you wanted to keep it tight, a tight two and a half?

01:08:33Guest:Well, it was even more than that.

01:08:35Guest:Yes, I did.

01:08:36Guest:But the thing is, especially when you're doing a long movie where, okay, now here's this guy's story, and now we have to go to her story, and now we have to go to this guy's story.

01:08:45Guest:Right.

01:08:46Guest:But throughout the whole thing, you're pacing it.

01:08:48Guest:You're pacing it.

01:08:49Guest:And you can't wear out your welcome.

01:08:52Guest:We're like, yeah, I can have that in here now, but will that wear out the welcome on this sequence coming up here?

01:08:57Guest:So I thought I needed to cut it shorter because then I thought the scene between the little girl and Rick would run too long.

01:09:04Guest:Right.

01:09:04Guest:So you just have to, so it's just the pacing thing is the audience has just got to keep up with you.

01:09:09Guest:Right.

01:09:09Guest:All right.

01:09:09Guest:And if you're just stay here too long, if you stay here too long, it's not going to be because you stayed too long in the scene you're watching.

01:09:15Guest:It's because you stayed too long in an earlier scene.

01:09:17Guest:Okay.

01:09:18Guest:Right, right, right.

01:09:18Guest:And now it's catching up with them.

01:09:20Marc:But you also have a sense of when the thing is drooping.

01:09:22Guest:Absolutely, yeah.

01:09:23Marc:Yeah, because all that stuff with DiCaprio, he's sort of unlike anybody, isn't he?

01:09:30Guest:Yeah, he is.

01:09:31Marc:I mean, when I was watching that, the amount of laugh, sort of almost crying I did, just watching him wrangle that dude, it's crazy.

01:09:41Marc:But in the book, this is Cliff's book.

01:09:45Guest:Yeah.

01:09:45Marc:Don't you think?

01:09:47Yeah.

01:09:47Guest:I think it can appear that way because there's those isolated chapters about him.

01:09:55Marc:But it just seems like the depth of Dalton is relative to his experience as an actor, which is, you know, he's... But that's him.

01:10:05Guest:I get it.

01:10:06Guest:I get it, right?

01:10:07Marc:But the depth of Cliff, you know, is something that, you know, goes further back.

01:10:14Marc:And also there's no childhood things in here.

01:10:17Guest:No, there's no childhood things.

01:10:19Guest:But there was an interesting section, though, because when I first handed the book in to my editor, and he's looking at it, he goes, you know, Quentin, for the last four chapters,

01:10:33Guest:We don't have any Cliff.

01:10:34Guest:I mean, Cliff's in the bar with them at the Drinkers Hall of Fame, but he's not talking.

01:10:40Guest:I'm really kind of missing him.

01:10:42Guest:I go, well, I don't want to just hop to him going back to Pasadena or something like that, or Van Nuys.

01:10:48Guest:I don't want to just hop to that.

01:10:50Guest:But then I remembered I had that Aldo Ray chapter that I'd written a long time ago.

01:10:54Guest:And I go, well...

01:10:56Guest:I can stick something in here there and that will be like a hop forward.

01:11:00Marc:And that's like one of those weird kind of like, I don't know all the names, so I don't know who's real and who isn't.

01:11:04Marc:But like the Aldo Ray thing and its foundation in actual events and history is really like a weird little kind of a true Hollywood history.

01:11:15Guest:Oh, it absolutely is.

01:11:17Guest:And then it plays with the novel because it's like, well, that's what Rick could become if he lets his drinking get too bad.

01:11:23Marc:But it's so weird that the balance of your fascination with that era of Hollywood where you had all these studio players that were still around.

01:11:31Marc:Some of them isn't the guy in the bookstore, one of the old timers.

01:11:34Marc:Oh, yeah.

01:11:35Marc:Yeah.

01:11:36Marc:So, like, you know, you have this, you know, this this kind of like respect.

01:11:41Marc:And and and but but all the subterranean story, the the dark side of all this stuff is equally happening.

01:11:50Marc:Yeah.

01:11:51Marc:And it's all part of it.

01:11:52Marc:The yin and yang of Hollywood, the illusion and what's behind the illusion and the sort of terrible kind of tragic, you know, existential sad stories.

01:12:00Marc:Yes.

01:12:01Marc:That happen.

01:12:01Guest:No, no.

01:12:02Guest:I mean, like you've got, you know, you know, you've always had in Hollywood, you've had

01:12:06Guest:Great success standing right next to great failure.

01:12:10Guest:Right.

01:12:10Guest:Constantly.

01:12:11Guest:And so, like, you look at Aldo Rey, one of his big movies that's a classic, a film noir classic.

01:12:16Guest:Yeah.

01:12:17Guest:It's the film Nightfall.

01:12:18Guest:Right.

01:12:18Guest:And then, okay, so you look at him, and in that movie, he's starring opposite Anne Bancroft.

01:12:23Guest:Right.

01:12:24Guest:Okay.

01:12:24Guest:So now you look at Anne Bancroft's career in 1969.

01:12:26Guest:Right.

01:12:27Guest:And you look at Aldo Ray's career in 1969.

01:12:30Guest:Right.

01:12:30Guest:Then you look at Aldo Ray's career in 1977 when he's actually acting in a porn movie.

01:12:36Guest:And you look at Anne Bancroft's career in 1977.

01:12:38Guest:But there was a time that they sat on a bar stool together and they were leads.

01:12:42Marc:Yeah.

01:12:42Marc:Crazy.

01:12:43Marc:Crazy.

01:12:43Marc:It's crazy because like there's something that dark seedy part of Hollywood informs the good part and they're inseparable after a certain point.

01:12:52Marc:And it's part of the allure and the charm of it.

01:12:54Marc:And I think it's also part of, you know, what we were talking about at the beginning that there are no, none of those men anymore.

01:13:00Marc:Like, you know, Lee Marvin or Bronson because they embodied that.

01:13:03Marc:They embodied it.

01:13:04Marc:And now everybody is so self-aware and so careerist and that, you know, the platforms and the possibilities have been spread so thin that there's no sense of community and no sense of real heroes of film anymore.

01:13:19Guest:Well, just that whole changing of the...

01:13:22Guest:the whole changing of the zeitgeist at that time.

01:13:25Guest:I mentioned a thing in there where it's just a mind fuck for Rick.

01:13:31Guest:He's like, okay, wait a minute now.

01:13:34Guest:People like me are passe.

01:13:37Guest:And then it's like people like Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson and Lee Van Cleef who were bad guys in every fucking single Western TV show out there.

01:13:47Guest:They're now the stars.

01:13:49Guest:Yeah.

01:13:49Guest:What the fuck is this world we're living in?

01:13:51Guest:Yeah.

01:13:51Guest:And me and Ty Harden are on our fucking ass?

01:13:54Guest:What's going on?

01:13:54Marc:And also, right, but also that focus on the outfit that they wanted him to, as a Dicatu, they wanted him to look more like a hippie.

01:14:03Marc:Yeah, yeah.

01:14:04Marc:Like he couldn't quite accept it or process it, but eventually he gets the hang of it because the kid thinks it's cool.

01:14:09Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:14:10Guest:Well, I even like the idea when he's like looking at the mirror himself and he's like, somewhere along the line, the pompadour became him.

01:14:16Guest:Right.

01:14:17Guest:And he just doesn't, that became an image.

01:14:20Guest:Yeah.

01:14:20Guest:But when he's like wearing the long wig with the droopy mustache and he's looking at himself, he sees a guy he's never seen before.

01:14:27Guest:Right.

01:14:28Guest:Yeah.

01:14:28Guest:And all of a sudden, oh, wow.

01:14:30Guest:He kind of sees what Marvin Shores was saying the other night.

01:14:33Guest:Yes.

01:14:33Guest:Oh, okay.

01:14:34Guest:It dawns on him.

01:14:34Guest:This guy doesn't look like an Eisenhower relic.

01:14:37Guest:That's right.

01:14:37Guest:This guy could be in a Peckinpah movie.

01:14:40Marc:Yeah.

01:14:40Marc:Yet he still calls the fucking hippie in the car Dennis Hopper.

01:14:44Marc:Yeah.

01:14:44Marc:He still identifies that.

01:14:47Marc:So do you find like because now we're at another paradigm shift, right?

01:14:51Marc:Or about 10 years out from one.

01:14:52Marc:Do you do you ever feel because I feel it and, you know, and I was never that relevant.

01:14:57Marc:But do you feel that you struggle to maintain relevance?

01:15:01Guest:No, not really, because I guess if this movie came out and people were like, quitting who?

01:15:09Guest:I guess I was like, oh, okay, I guess the parade has passed me by, all right?

01:15:13Guest:I guess there was an expiration date.

01:15:15Guest:Right, right, right.

01:15:15Guest:But no.

01:15:16Guest:It seemed like it was a big deal.

01:15:18Guest:And the fact that people think me retiring is still a big deal, that they're talking about it all the time, I guess it makes me think that my place is pretty good.

01:15:28Marc:You still got your own float in the parade.

01:15:31Guest:I'm not underdog.

01:15:35Guest:I'm still Bart Simpson.

01:15:38Guest:I have Bart Simpson's position at the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

01:15:40Marc:Yeah.

01:15:41Marc:But like when you think about like the kid, like in your new life and you seem pretty grounded and more well adjusted than I think maybe you've been in the past.

01:15:52Guest:Yeah, probably.

01:15:53Guest:Well, you know, getting married to the right woman, having a good kid, you know, all of a sudden being surrounded by people who love you as opposed to sycophants and weirdos smoking pot all day and night in your room.

01:16:05Marc:Yeah.

01:16:06Marc:Yeah.

01:16:06Marc:Did that help you?

01:16:07Guest:I enjoyed it.

01:16:09Marc:Yeah.

01:16:09Guest:I enjoyed it.

01:16:10Marc:Yeah.

01:16:11Marc:It's amazing.

01:16:11Guest:I enjoyed it too much because it was like, well, what's going to be better than that?

01:16:15Guest:Yeah.

01:16:16Marc:It's an easy.

01:16:17Marc:Yeah.

01:16:17Marc:It always sort of fucked with my memory a little bit.

01:16:20Marc:My memory is not holding up as well as I'd like it to anyways.

01:16:24Marc:But it felt like the reason why I kind of focused on those statements about possible retirement, because it feels like

01:16:30Marc:That this somehow, this was kind of like an homage, a love letter, a farewell.

01:16:34Marc:This was like, to me, the most honest movie about what was your passion your entire life.

01:16:41Marc:That you owed it to that generation of guys to do that.

01:16:45Guest:That's very well said.

01:16:46Guest:And it was also one of those weird things where...

01:16:49Guest:And the book was able to even go even further with it.

01:16:54Guest:It's like, look, I am an expert about this stuff because, like I said, I've been filling my brain with it.

01:17:00Guest:And then to actually write this movie, like, oh, my God, I finally have a narrative thing I can do where I can use this expert knowledge.

01:17:09Guest:And I don't need to...

01:17:11Guest:Take everybody along with me when I do this.

01:17:14Guest:I'm just going to bombard you with all this terminology and this stuff and you get what you get.

01:17:19Guest:But I mean, I always liked it in movies where like something like Bull Durham, you go see Bull Durham and you walk out, you feel like you're a bit of an expert on the minor league baseball because they're talking above your head.

01:17:29Guest:But they know what the fuck they're talking about.

01:17:31Marc:Sure, sure.

01:17:32Marc:But there's enough to the game that they know that, well, the people that just like baseball.

01:17:38Guest:But even people who don't know shit about minor league baseball, you walk out feeling a bit like an expert.

01:17:44Right.

01:17:44Marc:And also, I think it inspires people to sort of engage on a different level.

01:17:49Marc:Absolutely.

01:17:49Marc:I think that because of you,

01:17:51Marc:You know, you've say you've salvaged or introduced a lot of people to all different types of movies from all different parts of the world.

01:17:58Marc:Yeah.

01:17:58Marc:And, you know, that's a great thing for cinema in general.

01:18:00Guest:Absolutely.

01:18:00Guest:Look, I agree.

01:18:01Guest:I mean, I've had some, you know, I've it's been very gratifying the fact that especially as a guy who worked at a video store whose job was was recommending movies to people and trying to get them to walk in the wild side a little bit.

01:18:12Guest:Yeah.

01:18:14Guest:There's almost now, about 30 years down the line, almost two different generations of people who got into my movies and read my interviews and heard the things that I liked.

01:18:29Guest:Spaghetti Westerns, Italian horror films, kung fu movies, martial artists, samurai shit.

01:18:33Guest:And then went, oh, he likes that?

01:18:36Guest:Well, let me give that a shot.

01:18:38Guest:Oh, wow, that's really cool.

01:18:40Guest:Oh, Mario Bava, he's really neat.

01:18:42Guest:Let me see another Mario Bava movie.

01:18:43Guest:Dario Argento, who's that?

01:18:45Marc:Right.

01:18:45Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:18:46Marc:Yeah, you did that for people.

01:18:48Marc:Now, are you nervous about the challenges of filmmaking post-COVID, or do you think you'll be able to do a movie on the scale of something like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood again?

01:18:59Guest:Yeah.

01:19:01Guest:I think it remains to be seen.

01:19:03Guest:I think it remains to be seen.

01:19:10Guest:I am not sure right now we could make a $95 million movie like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and release it theatrically and have it make $300 million simply by asses and seats.

01:19:27Guest:I don't know that.

01:19:28Guest:In fact, I would guess not.

01:19:30Guest:It might become that way again.

01:19:32Guest:Yeah.

01:19:33Guest:But but I mean, not simultaneously streaming, not where any other money is coming from any other where other than an ass in a seat.

01:19:40Marc:Yeah.

01:19:41Guest:And that was the case with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

01:19:44Marc:Right.

01:19:44Marc:And it was a nice build, too.

01:19:46Marc:It kept going.

01:19:46Guest:It did.

01:19:47Guest:Yeah.

01:19:47Marc:Two two roles.

01:19:48Marc:Right.

01:19:49Guest:Yeah.

01:19:49Guest:I think there actually was, you know, I as of now, we'll see what happens as of now.

01:19:55Guest:Twenty nineteen.

01:19:57Guest:was the last year of movies as we know it.

01:20:01Guest:Right.

01:20:01Guest:The way we've known it.

01:20:02Guest:Right.

01:20:03Guest:I think there is an aspect that, like, I literally, me in 1917 and we, Joker, we threw in the, we threw in, we threw through the fucking window just before it slammed shut.

01:20:15Guest:Right.

01:20:15Guest:Our tail feathers practically got caught in the wood.

01:20:19Guest:Yeah.

01:20:19Guest:I don't know if a movie can make as much as the Joker just by asses and seats the way that did.

01:20:24Guest:I mean, that was fucking phenomenal.

01:20:25Marc:Yeah, I was in that movie.

01:20:27Guest:I know that.

01:20:29Marc:I'd like to think that I put at least eight of those asses.

01:20:33Marc:Yeah, I think so.

01:20:35Marc:I think I was good for $112 out of the half a billion that it made.

01:20:39Guest:Oh, I have to let you know, actually.

01:20:41Guest:Early on in the pre-production of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, I flirted around with the idea of... I couldn't be happier with what Dakota Fanning did.

01:20:53Guest:She was one of the best performances in the movie.

01:20:55Guest:I think she's amazing as Squeaky Fromm.

01:20:57Guest:She becomes Squeaky Fromm.

01:20:59Guest:But early on, I investigated the idea of Jennifer Lawrence.

01:21:03Guest:yes playing squeaky yeah and so she came down to the house yeah to uh read the script because i wasn't letting it out yeah so she came down to the house and i just gave her the script okay go in my living room or go outside by the pool and read it and so she read it and then afterwards we talked about it a little bit and she was interested in doing but then something it didn't work out yeah uh but she's a very nice person yeah and i respect her as an actress

01:21:23Guest:But she actually, she goes, can I just make a recommendation, all right, for somebody to cast?

01:21:28Guest:And I go, oh, yeah, sure.

01:21:30Guest:You know that agent guy that talks to Rick at the beginning?

01:21:32Guest:Why don't you cast Marc Maron for that?

01:21:34Guest:I think he would be really, really good.

01:21:35Guest:I was like...

01:21:36Guest:Well, I'm actually kind of thinking that Marvin Schwarz should be significantly older than Marc Maron, but I actually see what you mean.

01:21:46Guest:If I wasn't basing it on that older a fellow, yeah, he could do a good job with that part.

01:21:52Marc:Oh, that is very nice.

01:21:54Marc:She was in there pitching for you, man.

01:21:56Marc:Well, good.

01:21:57Marc:Now I have my great escape story.

01:22:00Guest:Yeah.

01:22:02Marc:I wouldn't say I was close to getting the part, but I was on a list.

01:22:05Marc:Yeah, you were sort of on a list.

01:22:07Guest:I think you could legitimately say.

01:22:10Marc:Well, thanks, man.

01:22:10Guest:Metaphoric list.

01:22:11Guest:Well, thanks, buddy.

01:22:12Marc:It was great talking to you.

01:22:13Guest:You too, man.

01:22:14Marc:Thanks for coming.

01:22:15Guest:Hey, thanks for reading the book.

01:22:17Marc:I really appreciate it.

01:22:17Marc:I loved the book.

01:22:18Marc:And I burned through it because I wanted to, not because I had to.

01:22:21Guest:Good deal, man.

01:22:22Guest:Thanks a bunch.

01:22:22Guest:Good times.

01:22:23Marc:Good conversation.

01:22:23Marc:Thanks, man.

01:22:29Marc:There you go.

01:22:30Marc:There you go.

01:22:32Marc:He had to go.

01:22:33Marc:He had to drive off.

01:22:34Marc:He had to drive off in his yellow GT500 Ford Mustang with the black stripe.

01:22:41Marc:He had to get on to another thing.

01:22:42Marc:Uh...

01:22:45Marc:But that was great.

01:22:47Marc:It was humbling and flattering to me, but also it was great to get to know him.

01:22:53Marc:And when he was leaving, it was hilarious because Brendan told him, he said, I've only come out for two interviews from New York, President Obama and you.

01:23:04Marc:And he was very...

01:23:06Marc:flattered and humbled by that but it was interesting because he he really had a good time and he thought it was great he was like he was beside himself he couldn't believe it was just a natural conversation he kept saying that we just it was just a conversation uh yeah and he was very excited to get the uh the mug

01:23:24Marc:the brian jones hand thrown cat mug and uh and and again i can't uh not that he needs bread or that i need to sell this it's not on me to sell it but i enjoyed the book a lot once upon a time in hollywood by quentin tarantino if you read the book and then watch the movie again there's a depth to the movie that you know can't really be seen or even imagined i don't know they both feed each other nicely but the book stands on its own

01:23:49Marc:As does the movie, obviously.

01:23:52Marc:And it also sounds a little like there's a director's cut.

01:23:56Marc:You know, like a second one.

01:23:57Marc:Like a real director's cut somewhere happening.

01:24:03Marc:I guess more will be revealed, as they say in the racket.

01:24:08Marc:Okay.

01:24:09Marc:Enjoy.

01:24:11Marc:Enjoy your lives.

01:24:11Marc:Enjoy your day.

01:24:13Marc:I'm going to play some guitar.

01:24:19Guest:guitar solo

01:24:55guitar solo

01:25:32Guest:guitar solo

01:26:13Marc:Boomer lives.

01:26:21Marc:Monkey and La Fonda.

01:26:24Marc:Cat angels everywhere.

01:26:45Bye.