Latest / Therapy Thursday with Ellen K / Billy Zane Joins Therapy Thursday Part 2

Transcript

Billy Zane Joins Therapy Thursday Part 2 · Therapy Thursday with Ellen K

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Young girls who saw that movie, you know, a hundred
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: times in the theaters. Thank you very much, by the way.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Who were all, you know, Team Jack, you know, get
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: a little older and their priorities change. Chaos plus talent.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, I love that.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: It's my favorite cocktail.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: Chaos plus talent equals Billy Zane.
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: Look out, people.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: There's your equation.
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: That's a great equation.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: I think that's the.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Title of this episode.
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: I love it.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Chaos plus.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: That's filmmaking. And here we're going to segue back to movies.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, let's do it.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Filmmaking, my favorite. Those are critical on set because it's
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: always chaos. You have contingency. You plan for it. You
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: have to be prepared. Right. But then get ready, if
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: not worthy of, the beautiful accidents. Half of it's a spreadsheet,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: the other half's a dream catcher. And you're like, come on,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: bring it, what do you got? Blindside me. What can't
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I do? What are we not able to do anymore?
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: What just flooded, broke? Who didn't make it? We gotta what,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: cast the FedEx guy? Sure, what, you know. We broke
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: the one prop that we have, we have to do
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: something else. And when you commit to these choices, Without blame,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: without melting down, because that's often what's done is people
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: who are in position of authority are not confident.
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: And deflect, can't handle the idea of even momentary failure publicly.
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: So they're grasping for control.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Grasping for control, lash out, look for blame, melt down.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: grab control with maybe, you know, bombacity, you know, cruelty
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: even without even maybe knowing it. And then you look,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: you know, you lose your crew. Fear is no way to,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: you know, run an army. And it is a military operation.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: You need, you need chain of command, but you need to,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: you need a good, good leadership and good leadership shows
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: that you are unflappable. And like, And you're going to
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: noodle it. You're going to, all right, you solve for X.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Here we go. I find as it's, you know, the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: stakes are a little different when you're making art, you know,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: and certainly it's a, there are financial repercussions and you're,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: you have to deliver. You have a fiduciary responsibility to
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: make the day. However, you get to your crew through
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: their stomachs, you feed them well and you treat them
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: well and, and, and humor and bravery and a, and a,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Easiness that allows for being open to the best idea,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: which might come from the person who is the last
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: on the call sheet and not expected to speak up,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: who might come through with, you know.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: With the thing.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: How many, you know, grim fairy tales were there about,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: you know, was it, I don't know, the kid with
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: the finger in the dike or something like that? You're like, hey,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the tune's funny. Stick your finger in there.
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: Save the time. Good one, kid.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Well, Billy Zane, when I hear you speak just of
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: everything that you do, like you're just the perfect human
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: for this Caltech marriage because I feel like you just
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: love to be alive.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: It's just like how many people do you pass in
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: a day where you're like, that person just loves to
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: be alive? If we could all just be– if we
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: could all just show that, like I love to be alive.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Like I guess it's loving what you're doing.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Or doing what you love.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: Oh, doing what you love.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I'll take both, but thank you. That's very kind of you.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: That's what I hear when I hear you talk about your.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: And then taking it a step further to go, if
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: you understand that that's possible, like I'd like to live
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: like that, then you make it so.
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: That is a decision.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: It is a decision. So that's what I've learned over
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: these years was live the biography in real time. Well documented.
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: Speaking of biographies, can we talk a little bit about
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: waltzing with Brando?
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Surely. Yeah.
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: Extraordinary. You inhabited him.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: How? He inhabited me, but thank you. I mean, that
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: was the, that was the, that was the invitation to dance.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: That was the only way to approach that was to,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: you know, invite him in.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: Can you tell me a little bit about the origin
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: of the project?
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Sure. Um, it was a book. Um, like a manuscript
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: of sorts, by Bernard Judge, who was an architect who
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: came out of the Buckminster Fuller School of progressive West
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Coast architects in the 50s and early 60s. He was
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: designing geodesic domes in the day. Those were kind of
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: mod housing. And he was in Tahiti on an assignment
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: to build a hotel for someone, and Marlon was living there.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: And they had met, and... They became friends, and Marlena
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: then revealed to him he bought this island and wanted
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: him to help realize his dream of a sustainable compound,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to get power and water
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: to the island without using fossil fuels. And this was
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: 1969 when no one was having that conversation. And leave
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: it to Brando. to have, you know, certainly complex and, and,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: you know, genius, um, filled with contradictions and all sorts of.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: You know, there's a playfulness to him.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: That shows up in the film, which was unexpected for me.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: That was the love letter we wanted to make. So
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the origins of the movie to credit where credit's due,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: it was, um, you know, it was, the book was
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: written and found by a director, um, and, uh, writer
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: who adapted it, Bill Fishman, who I had known and
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: worked with back in the day with the Actors Gang,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: which is a theater company I joined early on that
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Tim Robbins had started. They're still doing wonderful shows over
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: at what was the power station on Washington and Venice
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: down near West Side. Great company, rooted in commedia dell'arte
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: and very satirical, political, just a great group. And it
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: really informed me as an actor. I owe much to it.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: and Bill had directed some really fun comedies, mostly, and
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: we were reconnected after about 15 years, but I had
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: always wanted to play, I mean, the Brando thing has
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: been kind of hovering around me for years, but I
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: was always fascinated by this Tahitian period, for whatever reason.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: A wonderful director named Matt Amato showed me some footage
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: of of Marlon on French TV doing Tahitian dancing. And
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: he looks so damn happy. And he was in the
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: studio just doing it. And he looked, he just like, great.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: He just was right in his happy time. You know,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: what a cool cat. And I thought, wow, look at
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: the joy there. Yeah. What a wonderful period. And then
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: I did, you know, you hear stories, um, and this
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: was the time when he was, you know, making the
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Godfather and Last Tango in Paris. And, But he had
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: moved to Tahiti to kind of get away from Hollywood, really.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: He wasn't a big fan of the process or, you know,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: maybe even acting at that point. I think he was
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: just fascinated by humanist pursuit. And, you know, the man
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: walked the walk for civil rights when no one did
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: in Hollywood. He was the first real Hollywood activist and
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: not for any self-grandizement. all, you know, and he really
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: walked the walk. He put his money where his mouth was,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: walked the walk for civil rights.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: So at that time, people were not having that conversation.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: No.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: He put himself in harm's way. He was, you know,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: marching with Martin Luther King. He was his best friend,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: you know, broke his heart when he died and gave,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: you know, 10% of his earnings to his foundation upon
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: his murder and went on the Carson show and got
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Johnny to write a check. You know, it was like,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: he would go on to cavit and bring the first
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: nation during a big standoff with, uh, you know, at
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: wounded knee with the FBI and just bring that, bring attention.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: The whole idea of like turning down the Oscar was
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: to bring attention to a conflict, a live firefight that
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: was happening. And it had the effect that the president
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: was watching and said, the world is watching, pulled the
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: perimeter back. Lives were saved. No one knew this stuff.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: So we wanted to tell the story about this man.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: who was known for so many other things, and just
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: simply see the downtime of what a curious, puckish, playful,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: you know, just funny man.
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: He teases Bernard.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, he's a practical joker extraordinaire. So we made
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: this film that was a love letter. I produced it
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: with Bill, and we reunited. I found out he was
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: making it. We said, okay, well, let's get this together.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: I brought in a financer. Dean Bloxham, who came in
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: to put part of the money in, but eventually put
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: all of it in because he just loved the story
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: and wanted to see me in it, bless him. And
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: that was like the rarest of breeds, a single source
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: equity investor in Hollywood. Impossible for that budget. Crazy. And
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: we made this movie. And we made it during... We
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: started right at beginning of COVID. We were probably one
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: of the first, if not the first COVID compliant production,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: which cost a fortune to do all the testing and everything.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: And then we had to shut down for a bit
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: because we weren't able to go to Tahiti during that
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: time and then picked it up again and, um, finished
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: the movie and you can see it on Amazon prime,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: I think Fandango or a few, any platform kind of like, um,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: and I'm very proud of it because more so, almost
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: more so as a producer than even the actor, because
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: I wanted to make a film to our earlier point
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: that was free of trauma, where it's a series of
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: pleasantries and information that you'd never knew while serving up,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: you know, meticulous recreation of things we all know and certain,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: you know, Interviews and performance moments, frame by frame.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: But there is a lightness to it.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: And that's beautiful.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: And that's what we wanted to do, was just show
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: a part of him no one knew. Yeah. And create
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: a sense of relief. I remember the trailers that preceded
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: it when we were in the theaters. Every movie had a,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: you know, was a vengeance play, was a comeuppance, was,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: you know, thriller horror or crass comedy built around some
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: traumatic event. And this was just, you know, this was
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: a sociological experiment as much as the island was to him.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: It was like, let's make a movie where everything goes right,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: more or less. And you don't leave with any baggage.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: You leave better for it with a series of, you know, again,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: it was just a cool drink of water. It was
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: lightning of the load. So I'm really happy with the film.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I'm very proud of the movie because it's, I don't know,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: I think it's healing in some way. And to play
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: him was a great honor and a huge responsibility. It
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: was not lost on me.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: You say he inhabited you.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah. Because I figured the only way to approach
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: it with accuracy was not to you know, bow at
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: the altar of Brando like every actor, including myself, up
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to the point of playing him. We all take a
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: knee and go, you know, the master, right? I couldn't,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: and which, you know, he loved as much as hated
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and hated as much as he loved, I'm sure, you know.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: And we'd be the first to tell you that it
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: was an emasculating job and kind of a horrible gig.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: You know, you're just confused actors who would, you know,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: it's like, why do you want to be an actor?
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: You know, it's like, no, no. Shattered dreams. It was
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: very funny. But the only way to be him was
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: to do nothing. Do no research. To do research was
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: to be other than him.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Was to be us. Yeah. So I read nothing. Wow.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: I stressed not. I tapped into as much of me
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: as possible, which was not far from his process as
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: an actor. I'm not a method actor, and I don't
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: really think he was.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: Oh, okay.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I think he liked improvisation, and he liked being blindsided
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: by events, and that was the first time we saw
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: that naturalism. It required an actor-director like Elia Kazan to
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: recognize it and in Dean, we wouldn't have had those
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: performances if we didn't have Kazan who knew to let
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: the actor and these free actors find things rather than go,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: oh no, no, no, don't pick up the glove, do
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: it again, start again, as opposed to let Marlon pick
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: up Eva Marie Saint's glove and start putting it on
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: his hand in the middle of a scene and just
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: watching her be surprised by that gesture while they let
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: the scene play and everyone talks about this as a,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: revolutionary breaking point in Hollywood where suddenly we witnessed something
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: that was unplanned.
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: So you're tapping into an energy rather than just creating him. Yes.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Oh gosh. Yeah. It was literally, I was like, look,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: we're telling you a story, man. Come on in. It
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: was like slipping on a leather jacket.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: What do you got?
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: What do you want?
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: I love how you talk about like letting it happen.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: I had to, which didn't mean I was walking around
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: doing his voice and being him on set. I, waited
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: until the last minute to drop in on it. And
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: it was me, you know, picking up Apple boxes and moving,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: which are, you know, props on set that, yeah, everyone's
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: got an Apple box. It's like a, might as well
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: be a light stand or a cooler. But you're always
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: hauling crap out of the way and moving things out
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: of frame or taking care of, you know, making sure
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: those extras shoes are period and not from 1989. You know,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: I was, I would busy myself up right to the
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: point I had to Be him. Be him and then
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: switch right over as opposed to lock myself in the trailer,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: have to be called Marlon, don't look at me. I
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: hate that crap, but whatever works for you.
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Everything about it was counterintuitive, but seemed to be pulling
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: from his playbook. Wow. To diminish the preciousness.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: While understanding it's the most precious thing. It's the most
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: responsible thing. It was a gamble.
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: Well, the performance is extraordinary.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: It really is.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it. It was fun. It was... A lot
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: of actors will tell you how hard things were. It
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: was easy. It was weird. Everything about it was not
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: what you expected.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: See, that goes back to Billy Zane loves life. You know,
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: what actor would say that about playing one of the
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: greatest actors?
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: Billy Zane would. He loves it.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: He's like, it was easy. You'd be mining the awards.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Oh, I would.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: I would research for days. And I was talking to Paul,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: and he mentioned The Phantom, one of my favorite characters.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: And then he mentioned Brando. And I said, which do
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: you think required more preparation? And he goes, well, and
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: it's actually through the decision tree and deductive reasoning. He's like, well,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: typically you would assume it was Brando, right? But based
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: upon the fact that you're asking that question, I'd have
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: to say the Phantom. I said, you're right. You know,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: I trained for that for over a year physically.
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: And had to kind of will that to happen by
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: researching things. the comic and the character. And like I
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: had been exposed to it, but wanted to play him
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: so badly.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: There's such purity to him.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: That's why I, I connected with what made this, it
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: was so important to play a hero who disarmed and
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: didn't kill.
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: Cause he's not really ambiguous. We were talking about the
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: morally gray and embracing that, which is beautiful, but he's pure.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: He's, you know, we have a gray area in our, um,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: In our role models, I think. In our definitions of heroism.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: It was maybe considered corny at a time when post-modern,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: post-post-modern interpretations of anti-heroes and, you know, dark.
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: Knights were emerging. I found it quite moving. I found
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: the purity to be very moving.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Thank you. I think it required context and time to
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: be found. There were the purists who completely got that
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: we were making a, you know, a classic, you know,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: serial Fairbanks, Errol Flynn, Gene Kelly informed, you know, happy
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: hero at a time when we were really starting to
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: paint darker and darker versions and playing to that desire
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: in the audience and maybe our culture. And, and it,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: it suffered in its early days. And, and I think,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: you know, resonated with some purists and then just maybe
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: not with the masses, but over time, this thing has
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: kind of emerged in the kind of fanboy fan space,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: the fangirls who love it. There's something about, again, the differentiator, right?
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: I think we instinctively, maybe in our DNA, know we need,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Characters with compass. Yeah. We need a torchbearer in this,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: you know, someone who understands the fundamentals.
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: Sometimes we don't want an antihero. As interesting as the
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: antihero is, I think sometimes we do just want the
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: pure hero.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: We need it more so than wanty, I would even think.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: I think we need it in ourselves to at least
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: know it's possible and be fearless of joy. be fearless
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: of right and light and, you know, not, not be
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: afraid to line up on that side of, you know,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: binary choice. It may seem corny, but it works and
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: it serves. Um, And I feel like I got that
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: job because I connected with the why. Why it was
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: important to do. And I literally, like that was a
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: conscious effort. I remember before every take, you know, virtually
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: meditating on, on bringing in, you know, light, like an
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: affirmation before every shot, harnessing, you know, um, invoking, knowing
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: that movies are wash over you in many ways, that
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: they do perhaps capture energy and spirit and, not just
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: the words that are said. So that was an interesting experiment.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it's not the role you would think required
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: more research. I had to read a lot of comic books, see?
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Not biographies about Brando. I had to read me some comics.
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: That brings us back to being fearless. That's for you, Sarah,
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: with your painting.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Come on, Sarah, what are you going to paint? Don't
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: say it. It's an improv. It's an improv. Don't answer it.
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: It's an improv.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: We'll go to the hardware store.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: No, you guys got to come to the studio. Orlando.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: Orlando.
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: We decided to go to Orlando.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: You said that in the hallway.
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: And that is about, we talked about embracing the good,
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: but it very much exists in the non-binary. And I
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: think it was revolutionary for 1992, what it embraced. What
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: do you think?
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: I think for when it was written.
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: Oh, God, yeah. Late 20s, 28. Virginia Woolf.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Was it 1920?
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: I think Virginia Woolf wrote it in 28.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Tell the audience what that book's about, Sarah. Oh, God.
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: Ellen, no. It's the story of, I think it begins
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: in Elizabethan Renaissance. Is that correct?
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: That is.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: And Orlando is a gentleman of highborn birth. At that time,
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: he's a gentleman.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: And he.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: He doesn't age. He doesn't die. But what he does
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: do is become the feminine at some point.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: He's at the request of Queen Elizabeth.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Who valued youth above all else in her later years, says,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: don't ever age, Orlando. And as this allegory or metaphor
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: plays out, he doesn't.
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: He keeps his promise.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: And experiences milestones in history, lives, you know. for hundreds
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: of years, or eternally as an immortal of sorts, but
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: wakes up as a different sex one year. But, you know,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: as a male experiences what it means to be a
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: man societally, which is to go to war.
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: And didn't really like that too much. And then wakes
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: up as a woman at a time when women's rights
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: and the home, his grand house he had, was to
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: be taken away from him because he's a, She's a
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: woman now. And it was an interesting examination on gender politics,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: I guess, and through the ages, and was just a
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: really smart and at times humorous look at our culture,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: at society, at the world, men and women. And Sally Potter,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: the wonderful director, writer who adapted it, made the film.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: And Tilda Swinton played Orlando as a young man and
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: a woman.
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: In exquisite androgyny, I must say.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: And it's a beautiful film that won, I think, Best
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Wardrobe for Sandy Pond. Probably her first of her six
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Oscars for doing the costumes. And all of the art
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: directing was by Peter Greenaway's people, so it was all
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: about maximalism you know it just was it looked incredible
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: and for the budget at the time a film like
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: that grand um it was uh it just celebrated I
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: think a 30th anniversary.
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: It really is a very very special film and Shell
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: is of course he's Shell tell me what you think
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: about Shell Shell Merdain Shell Merdain um.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Who plays an adventurer there's chapters in the film defined
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: by birth, love, sex, death, like these different chapters. And
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: I think my section was called sex. Orlando as a
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: woman meets an American adventurer in from the colonies who
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: is living in pursuit of liberty and freedom and fighting
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: the good fight, a good guy. But they allude to
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: the fact that he may have been an immortal and
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: had lived, like Orlando was when like meets like. He
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: may have been a woman in another life and woke
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: up as a man. It's very interesting. It's a cool
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: movie for sure.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: So Therapy Thursday, I feel like there's been therapy for
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: all of us.
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: It has been. Art therapy for all of us.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Art therapy all around. Yeah. Do you paint?
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: I do, actually.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: I got into it because my son broke his arm,
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: and he was laid up, and it was his left arm,
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: so he still had his right-handed.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: And we wanted something for him to do while he
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: was healing.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Healing.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: So I did go to the art store. Had I
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: known you, Billy, I would have gone to the hardware store.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: You would have saved a fortune.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: I would have saved a fortune.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: And I got him an easel and paints, and he
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: started painting, and then I started painting. And there's nothing
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: that I've hung up that I've made, but I love
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: doing things that are unplugged. I like things away from electricity.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: I like.
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: Literally, sorry.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Literally. I was in the figurative.
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, literally. I like being away from.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: I was one of six children, and so my entertainment
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: as a child was literally making dirt tracks with my
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: matchbox cars with my brothers. And we used to make
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: these whole worlds. And so I loved being outside with
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: the lily of the valley flowers and the dirt tracks.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: And I find when I'm outside just listening or painting
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: on a canvas or Gardening, playing in the dirt. I
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: loved playing in the dirt. I just like things that
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: are away from, I guess, the best way I could
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: describe is electricity.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: This gardening idea and moving earth, it's like the, I
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: don't know the name of the technique, but the Japanese
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: rock gardens. Oh, right. Yes.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: I just went to Tokyo and- Sand paintings and- I
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: cried when I saw the rock gardens.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Did you see your matchbox cars?
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: I didn't, but my God, the fun I could have.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: I have one at the Huntington. Do you go there?
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Yes, I love the Huntington. See, that's another thing.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Just walk around and you're in nature. I love things
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: like that. But Sarah and I are going to come
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: to your studio.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: We have to see this.
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I would love that.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Come paint. Yeah. It's outdoor behind a.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: I've seen it on Instagram.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like a little... Imaginarium kind of, not a junkyard,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: but it's got like an old car and a stage
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: and some storage for the wonderful shop called Old Focals
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: that my friend Ross Campbell has a shop in South
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Pass on Mission Street there. And he does all the
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: glasses and frames for the movies. So if you ever
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: want a good pair of frames, go to Old Focals.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: But in the back, I have this, you know, this
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: space he lets me work and it's wonderful.
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: That's so cool.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: You can get big and messy. Yeah. And it dries
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: in the sun.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: Big and messy.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: The kids run a little lemonade stand sometimes out front.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Love that.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: I like messy. I like big.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: You've got to bring the clothes, though. And if I
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: had a nickel for every time someone asked me if
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: I was designing my.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: Do you sell those?
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I'll probably start selling.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, you should.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: I have a.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Painted jeans.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and they have paint all over them.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Well, we've... It's funny, in the Brando film, it's the 70s,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: in the 60s and 70s. And there was a lot
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: of bell bottoms that we made and based on some
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: classic pairs. And the costumer, Charlie Altoona, bless him, he
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: just kept getting me up. We were making these, you know,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: go designing what the bells would look like. And after
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: a while, he was like, we've got to do a
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: jeans line. I was like, come on, I don't know.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Only if you call it Billie Jean.
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: Let's do it.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: It's a great idea.
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: I'm waiting for it. You just said it, but you
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: have to do it.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: You have to do it.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: We're toying with the idea.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: Billie Jean, come on.
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: What's holding you back?
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: So you might see some Billie Jean.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: What's holding you back?
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Whether they're going to be paint splattered, I don't know,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: but you might see it.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: That could be the second line.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: You might see a Billie Jean drop. What a hoot.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: Do you remember our equation?
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Where are we looking?
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: Chaos plus talent.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, I was like, do you have a credo on
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: the wall? I'm trying to decipher.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: Your It's our equation for you.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: My equation, chaos plus talent.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: Yep, equals Billy Zane.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Well, you're the talent, I'm the chaos.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: What do we got?
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: What are we doing? What are we tearing down?
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: Let's chop it up. Thank you, Billy Zane.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Thank you, my friends.