Latest / Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach and Donald / Blockbuster Musicals with Jon M. Chu + Myron Kerstein of Wicked

Transcript

Blockbuster Musicals with Jon M. Chu + Myron Kerstein of Wicked · Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach and Donald

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna say it. Go ahead, how did this happen?
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I'm very excited. I think a Zach made it happen.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Zach's a dream maker.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Listen, for any of you out there, this is like
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: the freaking Avengers Infinity Saga of Guests when it comes
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: to musical theater. Yeah, this is someone who made it
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: so that when you go to the movies as a straight,
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: heterosexual male, nobody's gonna question you for wearing green skin,
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: green paint.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: A hat and a dress. Nobody's gonna question you.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: This is more about how you saw this movie. But okay,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: this is the.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Man that made it okay for anyone in the audience
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: before Cynthia Arriba goes to you know, when it reaches
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: crushindo as they call it in musical theater, climax. Climax
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: allows anyone in the audience to go.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Oh my god. I had to turn down my headphones. Sorry, audience.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: This revolutionized theater for musical movie theater theater for twenty
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: twenty four, twenty twenty five.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Well, it's quite a movie and it's a good get.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: We're also going to be joined audience by Myron Kirstine,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: who was nominated for an Academy Award for editing Wicked.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: He's the reason we got to John was because Myron
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: has cut most of my movies. He cut Garden State,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: he cut I Wish I was here. He cut a
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: movie I made called Going in Style. So we've been
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: friends a very long time and his career has been
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: on the up and up and up. And this is
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: second Oscar nomination.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: He's going to get. He's going to get nominated again.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: When nominated for Out the the Andrew Garfield musical that
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: I loved? What was that called? Joel Netflix One?
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: No, the one that got nominated for in the movie theater.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Lin Manuel directed it like Boom something or Tic Tic
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Boom Boom. I love that movie.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: It's a great one.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: Did Lin Manuel get nominated for directing that movie, Bardie Chance?
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: I don't know, but I bet you Joel Monique could
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: look at it.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Should have.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: It was a Netflix movie. I like, Yeah, Tictic One
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: was a Netflix movie. The director Violin.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: For Netflix movies. Now that's right, I forgot about that.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I love that movie. By the way, can we digress
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: for a moment. Are y'all watching this new Netflix show
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: called adolescentscence.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: Adolescents see the first episode, but wow, Donald, it's every
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: episode is a wonner.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: And I'm not talking to wonner with fake wipes. I'm
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: talking like they choreographed the most insane wonners. And you
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: get to the end of the episode and you're like,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: I cannot believe there has not been a cut They've
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: been Episode two takes place all around this whole school
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: with like hundreds of kids, and they're here, and then
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: they're there, and then there's a fire drill, and then
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: they're chasing one kid and they get them down. And
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: then at the end of the episode. Sorry this is
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: not a spoiler, maybe it is, but at the end
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: of the episode, the fucking camera takes flight. They clipped
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: it onto a drone and it flies to another location
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: and lands.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: It's fun gonna put it out there.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: I truly believe that in some ways this can be
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: construed as a wonner. But there's no way that they
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: can risk that much money and get to like the
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: last five minutes.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Of the show.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: There's somebody go, fuck, what's my line, and them have
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: to be like, all right, we're taking it from the top.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: That's what they what they did i'dy, I'm trying to
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: there's you can watch the behind the scenes shit on YouTube.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: I I I I'm trying to watch them because as
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: a filmmaker, I'm so obsessed with how they executed this.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: But also I don't want any spoilers because I'm only
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: I'm only two episodes in out of four. But it's
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: it's the I mean, they just rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: and they it was like rehearsing a play, except then
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: they started folding in the camera and it's like the
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: cameraman's like a like a dancer who basically I mean,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: at moments he's just going around and then at moments
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: I saw from the behind the scenes he likes getting
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: on it. He like steps onto a golf cart, and
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: then the golf cart takes it a tracking shot and
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: then I mean the pilot.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: It's all done on steady cam.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Obviously, no it's not steady kim, it's a it's a gimbal.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: It's a handheld gimbal. But it's I mean, first of all,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: the the the technical production aspects of it are one thing,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: but also it's brilliantly acted and it's the number one
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: show on Netflix. I really really recommend it to everybody.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Amazing.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: How's everybody doing when we haven't been together and so long?
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: I miss y'all.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: You've been working, man, You've been working up a storm.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: I've been directing Han Solo.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: I don't know if he likes people calling him that.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm gonna be honest
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: with you. If I said if I met him, and
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: I was like, I mean, I haven't met him, but
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: if when I saw him, I was like, holy shit,
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: Han Solo, he'd be like, I will never.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Be You wouldn't like that from you.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: No, I don't think he likes that from you. I've
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: been directing Hans Solo.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't say I wouldn't say that to Han,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: but if him. Sometimes I call him, I'll say something like, okay,
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: mister Ford, you're standing here, and he goes, mister Ford's
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: my father.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I love it. I love that Harrison Ford is still like,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: I'm a young man you call me.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: That's at the moment, like there was this moment where
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: something was broken on the set, like a piece of
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: molding or something, and he the grips are trying to
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: put back in place. He goes, let me do it
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: and starts kicking it. He goes, I was a carpenter.
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: That's a duful.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: He's like one of the most famous.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: He's like one of the fam most famous former carpenters
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: in the history of.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Cars and Jesus, one of the most famous.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: Did you know that Hans Solo was a carpenter before
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: he became Han Solo.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: That's the that's the thing. Harrison Ford was a carpenter.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: He was actually laying freaking uh uh it sighting in
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: the in the in the office when he was asked
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: to audition every human being on the planet is like, yo,
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: maybe I can Harrison port it someday him. Daniel day
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: lewis most famous shoemaker other than freaking John Madden.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Freaking most famous.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: I say John maddocause John Maddon stole so many shoe
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: I did. But I'm not saying Daniel Dan. But my
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: point is, got it. All I gotta do is read
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: Daniel's face. Daniel's face is always the one.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, Danield's a good read. I can't have question.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Daniel's a good read. For when you say something that
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: we don't know what you're talking about. Danil's face tells
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: us that we don't know what you're talking about. But
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: uh so anyway, Yeah, I've been directing Shrinking. It's so fun.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: I just really like the cast. Everyone's so cool. It's
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: such a good show. Everybody who loves the show. You're
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: gonna be blown away by season three. It's really really good,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: really fun.
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: Did you get on the pit set? I know that
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: was a goal of yours.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: I did. I got a tour of the pit set.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: You know, it's incredible because it's enormous. It's a huge,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: huge set of an er And what they do is
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: they everything is controlled. They don't bring any in any
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: film lights. Everything is practical lighting within the hot spittal set.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: And so the way they shoot the show, they choreograph
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: it and then they don't wait on almost every other
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: thing that's made. You then go and light it and
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: bring in lights on stands and flags and and and
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: all sorts of things to shape and cut the light.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: But on this show they don't do that at all.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Everything is lit from the actual practical lights that are
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: built into the er set. So it's really cool. From
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: someone who's a geek of film production. It was a
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: cool thing to see.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: If you're the not the D I guess the DP,
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: how do you it's just camera setups, then that's it
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: it is.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: I think, like, yeah, every single thing. I'm sure they
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: have some lighting guys on in case they have to
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: adjust something, but everything's in the lighting board. So if
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: the if they want more light on the person, they'll
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: just bring up the dimmer on that little area, you know,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: almost like a play. I think. Then they told me
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: they have a couple of little cheap tricks they do
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: where they can they can sort of snap something into
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: one of the ceiling lights and that and that will
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: bring light further down. There's all these little things, but
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: it's just really really incredible and what a great show
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: that is. If you're not watching the pit, that's just
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: fucking incredible.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's I mean, my mind's going crazy right
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: now because all I can think of is that what
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: we're going to do when and if we do scrubs.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: I really hope so, by the way, Donald, because it
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: gives you so much more time to particularly the stuff
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: that's just hospital like if and scrubs, if when you
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: get into fantasies and all that stuff. Of course that's different,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: but and specialty shots. But you know, with scrubs, the
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: camera is such a character, whereas this is where is
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: the pit. It's made to feel almost like a documentary.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: But I got to tell you, when we're just doing
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: straight if and when it happens and we're just doing
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: straight hospital stuff, we'd have so much more time in
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: your day to not be waiting for all these these
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: lighting set up changes. So I would love to I
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: would love to convince whomever the DP is to do
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: it that way. I guess it would come from Bill.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Bill would just tire someone to say, do it that way.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: You took the tour on your own, or you you
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: and Bill went how to go?
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: No, So.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Shrinking also has just incredible sets for those of you
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: who love the show. All of those interiors are sets there.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: They have houses in the real world that are the exteriors,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: but the office set, Liz's house, Jimmy's house, just Gabby's house.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: All of the big interiors are all built huge sets
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: on stage. And the construction coordinator, sorry, there's an ambulance
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: some in New York City. The construction the head of
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: construction for Shrinking also did the pit and he was like,
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: someone told me you like the pit, go Yeah, man,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: can I get a tour of the set because they're
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: not shooting right now, but the set is so massive
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: they left it up and he's like, of course, So
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: he arranged for me to get a whole tour, and
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: I thought it was just gonna be him, but he
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: brought like the art director, the production designer, and like,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: they gave me this amazing walkthrough. They were so kind.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: They gave me merch. They gave me fucking pit merch.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: I got a pit ski hat. Whew.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: That's how you know you're on a hit show when
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: they're like, listen, we're just gonna keep the sets up
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: for the summer. We're gonna keep it up for the
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: whole year. We're gonna just rent out the stage. The
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: stage is ours, don't even worry about it. We're just
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: gonna leave it up. That's how you know you're coming
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: back next year.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Well, some of these sets are just so I mean,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: it's crazy. One of those shrinkings, big sets. They moved
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: stages and when you see this thing, you're like, I
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: can't believe the amount of work it must have taken
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: to fucking take this all down and put it back
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: up on a different soundstage. It's really really cool. There's
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: some great work happening on that show, really good stuff.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Can we get into a little bit of Star Wars.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but let's keep it brief because we love all
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: those things, all of us love all those things.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: But but have you seen this? Is how long it's been.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: Have you seen the trailer for and Or?
• 12:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah?
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: No, are we not ready for this this? Have you
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: seen the most recent trailer for and Or? Yeah?
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: Okay, it's delightful. I'm very excited. I was curious about
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: the pomp and circumstances of the first trailer where they
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: were like, all the critics love it, but I get
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: that they're trying to get people to see it. Disney
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: recently released I think all the episodes on YouTube, or
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: at the very least the pilot is available on YouTube.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: They're like, please, for love of God, watchings in one
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: and come check out season two. So they believe in it.
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: I'm excited about it.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: This looks like it looks more Star Wars than anything
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: I've seen, and are really like, it looks like great,
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: it looks.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Like it's a lot like they made the Empire strikes
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: back again.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: Dude, Like, that's what it looks like, at least that's
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: what it looks like to me, the color tone, all
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: of that stuff.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Are you excited about Thunderbolts?
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm gonna be honest with you ahead and
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: being honest. I just right now Marvel is putting out
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: things that I'm I'm excited for Fantastic four. Let's put
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: it that way.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: We'll see, Okay, okay, Joel, Are you excited for Thunderbolts?
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: I am. Here's why Marvel has had a bit of
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: a it's been rough over there. We can't lie, but
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: it's clear they believe in this film. It's clear that
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: Disney's trying to do some new stuff. They have a
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: wild wonky schedule for and or they were like, listen
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: a twenty four freaks, y'all have cinema, Come see this.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: It's gonna be movies in a big way here. So
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: that makes me excited. Plus, you know, we got love
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: for Florence in this house. She's talented. There's a lot
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: of good names.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Up in there.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: So I'm really thought, I don't know if they did
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: it off of they cut that trailer there was basically like,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: this is an eight four movie. And I thought that
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: was really clever. I don't know if you know, I
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: thought that was really good marketing because that kind of
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: went to viral.
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: Mm hmm.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: There's no way this movie is gonna is A twenty four.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: This shit, and halfway through.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: When you do you see the trailer.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: I'm talking about absolutely halfway through the movie, everybody's going
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: to be like, holy shit, this is like more special
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: effects than any of this is a this is an
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: Avengers movie.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: This is an Avengers level.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: But I think that I think the level of marketing
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: was we didn't just hire I mean, I'm just I'm
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: just seeing what they're selling. And they're saying we hired
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: a lot of people from all of these A twenty
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: four movies that you love, and these are the people
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: executing this particular Marvel Meet. It might be a bit
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: different because it's been made by these people.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: I think that's a I think that's a bonus if
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: anything too.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so today that's why they're cutting trailers about.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm gonna say and I will say this also,
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: I feel like, and this is me predicting the future.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: I feel like this universe is dying, and that's why
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: the colors are starting to turn into this Also.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: I think we're going to I think we're going.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: To experience a new a new reality in the Marble
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: Cinematic Marble Universe to combine all of these characters within
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: the next five years.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: I think that's where this is going.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Well, let me tell you some underbolts. I think you
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: can bet on Florence Pew anytime.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: I will bet on her anytime. Anything.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: You're gonna buy stock, taking to buy stock, you could
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: buy stock in Florence, save Florence.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Bet. That is a safe bet.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: When is this going to air? This episode too? Well,
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: because my event is coming up next Tuesday. And next Tuesday, okay, well,
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: my event for the midnight mission, which is a celebration
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: of the music from the Garden State soundtrack twenty years Later,
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: is coming up again March twenty ninth. Oh my goodness,
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: that's this weekend, buddy. That's not this weekend. That's next weekend. Please,
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: I got a lot to do. It's this weekend. It's
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: this weekend when people are and I wanted to I
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: wanted to make sure everyone knows that if you're unable
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: to come. We've partnered with the company called veeps dot
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: com v E E p s dot com and you
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: can buy the stream of the show starting April six,
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: which is my birthday. And thanks to our good pals
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: at T Mobile, every single cent of the money you
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: spend to buy the stream goes directly to the midnight mission,
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: which is really really cool, great time, because these things
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: all cost a lot of money, so to be able
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: to have T Mobile offset the production cost so that
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: every cent of you buying the stream from anywhere in
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: the world, anywhere in the world goes directly to the
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: midnight mission. So check it out. We're gonna have a
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: lot of special guests, including spoiler for you podcast listeners only,
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: Donald Fazon I will be there. You know who else
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: is going to be there. I'm going to spoil another
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: one for the podcast audience. Sarah Chalk.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's going down.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: I have a feeling there's gonna be a whole lot
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: of Scrubs people at this event.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: They are They're all coming, but only you two are
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: going to be on stage introducing a band with me.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Is there going to be a teleprompter?
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: There will be a teleprompter, but I'm also going to, uh.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Write your cuff. We could go off the cuff if
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: you want.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Well, you know the bit we're gonna do. I'm going
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: to talk about how you said are there any black
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: people in this movie?
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Right? And then I'm gonna say, are there any black
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: people in this at this concert?
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: No, don't do that.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Don't do that. No, you can't do that. Okay, damn No,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: I don't think that goes that joke.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: That's why I don't want you going off the cuff.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: That's why I don't That's why I don't want you
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: going off the cuff.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Bro.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: You're sticking to the script of all people that are
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: going to be on that stage. I need you to
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: be sticking to the prompt. Why because you go rogue
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: and say stupid ship?
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: That's not stupid. It's a good question.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Remember when Doja Cat left you hanging?
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I do remember that. That was that was me
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: going rogue and doing some stupid ship.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: He's just trying to Doja Cat at some event and
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: he went to like do like a high five with
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: her and she didn't see him. She wasn't like being rude.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: But then Donald left his hand up there and you
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: didn't know what to do with it. So then he
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: started high five in it himself.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: It was high five, dude, that's all I know. You
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: didn't I did yourself?
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Are you? And then you hit it? Yeah, don't even
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: try it.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: It was sometimes I think about that.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's called to the script.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's sometimes I think about that in the shower
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: and I shiver. You don't, but cat left you hanging.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: I know you would shiver. I know you would shiver.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: If I said that ship about how many black people
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: are performing at your show, you'd be like, that'd be
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: twenty weeks later in the shower.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Oh god, I remember that.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: He's don't say anything that's going to make me shiver.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: I don't like it when you go off script. I'm
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: gonna put your lines in the prompter in bold with
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: an underline Sarah. Sarah's gonna get a regular font. You're
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: gonna get bold and underlined.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: No, wait, is John here?
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: He is?
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: Yes, we have both guy, Myron Kirstine.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Here both myn nervously. What are you nervously? Donald, don't
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: embarrass me.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna embarrass you.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: I wish you had a teleprompter right now.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: First question, how do I get in your next.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: No, don't do that. I wish we guy, I wish
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: just start chill, okay, okay, Joelle, I wish we had
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: a teleprompter for Donald.
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: On this fucking zoom Callanel's face, rely on Donald face, Daniel,
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: Donald wants channel's face.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: Five six seven eight.
• 19:54
  Speaker 7: I'm not sure we made about a bunch of he said,
• 20:02
  Speaker 7: he's the stormy net so YadA here yeada.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, yeah, let's gosh.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: I can't believe we did this.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: This is the best.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Okay they are. Listen you guys. I've been I'm down
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: to be chill.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: I've been, I've been prompted to be chill and not
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: act crazy. But we have freaking cinema royalty, in my opinion,
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: in the motherfucking.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: You guys. Good to see you, Good to see you.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Welcome Myron and John. That's our engineer, Daniel and our
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: producer Joel. And I know you know there are a
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: lot of fans of the movie Wicked, but probably the
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: number one fan in the universe up there is Donald
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Faison right there, who who has already sung some of
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: the songs for our audience before you've joined us.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: I said, I wouldn't do it when you're on the air.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to embarrass myself. Listen, we need to
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: stop now. Just Zach proceed because.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: You just calm down.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Coming up, it's coming up.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: John, John, I'll be the more calm voice and say, uh,
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Donald and I love musicals, and we that's one thing
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: we've shared in comments is the day we met. We
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: we You know, it's funny because he's into sports and
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: so many and Marvel and Star Wars and so many
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: things I'm not into. And but one thing we overlap
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: with is our just love of musicals. And we both,
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: from the bottom of my hearts, think you did the
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: most fantastic job with this.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Both of you did. We I'm gonna get to Myron.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: I'm starting with John. Myron, I'm going to get to
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: but John, I just think you absolutely crushed it. I
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: loved it. It was my favorite Mooey of last year.
• 21:58
  Speaker 8: Thank you.
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: I appreciate that. Appreciate that. And it's been a long
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: time coming for all of us to be together. I mean,
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: I've heard stories of you for so long from Myron.
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: He's given me all the secrets of how you've done things.
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: So it's been perfect.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: I trained him, So for those of you who don't know,
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: I think I mentioned it briefly in the intro, but
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Myron cut Garden State and he was really, you know,
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: just absolutely incredible editor, but particularly with music. I mean,
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: the reason so much of what worked in Garden State
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: with music was because of Myron and how he plays songs.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: And I was just thinking the other day, Myron, and
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: how you know, I had always imagined that ecstasy party
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: scene to be to be like something like that, but
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: I just didn't know how the hell we're going to
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: execute it. I remember you came to set one day.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: It was it was so long ago. I think he
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: may have even brought like a VHS tape and put
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: it in my trailer, in the in the in the
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: in the in the VHS player, and I just was
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: so floored. I was like, oh my god, I never
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: thought it was going to be as good as that.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: So Myron, and from the very beginning of me meeting him,
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: it's been someone so gifted, uh with music and and heart.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: So you guys are such a perfect marriage for each
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: other because this is like the epitome. I mean, a
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: movie cannot get bigger when it comes to music and
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: heart than what you guys made.
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: Oh that's so nice, and you know, you know the
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: only reason, because we've got paired together.
• 23:20
  Speaker 8: I never on Crazy Wit Jasions.
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: I was looking for another editor and someone suggested him
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: and the one credit that brought him into my life
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: was Garden State Seeing. I mean, obviously that soundtrack was
• 23:34
  Speaker 5: became a part of my life. That movie became a
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: part of my life. I was like right in the
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: pocket of who you were speaking to in that and
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: so it was, it's been, it's been, and it awoke
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: me to two different artists and things like that. So
• 23:48
  Speaker 5: and how you can make a movie where music is
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: the power using the power of music, which is where
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: you were where it says so much more than what
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: words ever could. And it can be expressed cinematically, visually
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: in ways and in cuts in ways that no other
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: medium can do.
• 24:06
  Speaker 8: So it was really it was.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: Music always a part of your life because you you you.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry to ask. I know you've been on a
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: mega press tour and some of these questions you've been
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: asked a zillion time, So I promise I have some
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: original ones, but it's hard not to ask you as
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: someone who's so gifted? I mean you started with dance,
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: right with the Dance movie? Yeah, yeah, they step up
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: and then, but like, how was it always? Are you
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: a dancer? Do you dance at all?
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: No?
• 24:30
  Speaker 8: I mean I've taken dance when I was a kid.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: How did you get in? How did like, how did
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: like step up? Land? Like, how did you know you
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: were the right guy for that? Well?
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: Well, I grew up in the Bay Area and I'm
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: the youngest of five kids, and my parents are immigrants
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: from China, and they wanted all us kids to be
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: as Americanized as possible so they could be the opposite
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: of what they came when they came here, because they
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: didn't speak a word of English. So they put us
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: in dance classes. I took tap for twelve years because
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: I had to be with my sisters basically when they
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: were taking it. I took drum, saxophone, violin, guitar. I'm
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: not good at any of these things, but I took it.
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: And every weekend my parents would take us to the
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: theater in San Francisco musical musical season, opera season, ballet season, like.
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: We would be there all the time. Of course, we'd
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: watch movies all the time. TV was always on our
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: on in our house, so it was just sort of
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: a part of me. And when I started actually working
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: with the camera and editing with my little VHS camera.
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: At that time, all my friends were dancers or musicians,
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: and so I was the guy with the camera, and
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: so that's where I was. I was sort of theater
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: kid adjacent. I was part of theater but not great
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: at it, but I could. I knew them well enough
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: that I could try to communicate what I knew from
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: the film side into what they.
• 25:56
  Speaker 8: Wanted to say.
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: And that's where it sort of all started. And first
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: step up that came to me, and I did not
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: want to do it because it was a direct to
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: DVD movie, and I called my mom. I was like,
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: I can't have my first movie be a direct to
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: DVD movie. I was discovered by Spielberg from my student
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: short like this is not right, and my mom's like,
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: when did you become a snob? I was like, if
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: you are a storyteller, you can tell a story in
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: any medium, in any way. You could be by a campfire,
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: you could be in a car, like prove yourself. And
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: I was like, you're right, I'm going to make the
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: best damn direct to DVD dance movie sequel of all time.
• 26:32
  Speaker 8: And that's where it's all sort of started.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: And you did, right, and then they changed it to
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: not go directed to DVD. Right.
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah, became a theatrical two weeks after I joined, and
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: I repitched it in a way that I thought a
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: dance movie should be. Instead of five numbers, I wanted thirteen.
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: And all these different Disney who distributed the first movie
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: came around, was like, hey, let's listen to your pitch.
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: And twenty minutes later they're like, we have a slot,
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: but it's in nine months. Can you get it done
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: in nine months?
• 26:57
  Speaker 8: And we did.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: That's strung me off.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Wow, So listen to your mom, listen to you.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: I know that a lot of the kids from that
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: movie went on to do several of the sequels too,
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: So yeah, like that and are very and I looked
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: at as high levels in the dance community. Also, do
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: you still use any of them when you're doing other projects?
• 27:17
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean amazingly.
• 27:19
  Speaker 5: One of our actors in it, Christopher Scott, is one
• 27:22
  Speaker 5: of the dancers in it. He plays his bit part.
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: He auditioned for us in Baltimore because that's where he's from.
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: He came back after shooting, and we all became friends
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: because we're all young, we're all our first movies, and
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: he would just hang out at the edit room. And
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: now he's the choreographer of Wicket, and he choreographed in
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: the Heights, and so I watched him transition from dancer
• 27:41
  Speaker 5: to choreographer. He watched how I pitched movies, and I
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: taught him how to use certain things and photoshop and
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: keynote and whatever, and he used those skills to get
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: his first choreography jobs.
• 27:52
  Speaker 8: And so now we get.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: To it together.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Well, the choreography in this movie was just absolutely incredible.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, what has it been with you? We have
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: so many questions for you, But how does it feel
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: when you watch these kids and all these videos of people,
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: you know, doing the choreography like it's meant This movie
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: has meant so much to people of so many different ages.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, we're fifty years old and we're walking around
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: singing it, and then you've got the little kids walking around,
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: you know, doing the dance moves on TikTok. I mean
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: that just must be so gratifying for you, guys.
• 28:24
  Speaker 8: That's the best. It's the best.
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: And Mayron and I share, you know, we're texting each
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: other videos, TikTok videos back and forth of people doing it.
• 28:32
  Speaker 5: You know, we all, you know, especially as storyteller, if
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: we want our stories to be seen and to be
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: accepted and for them people to like dig in even deeper.
• 28:40
  Speaker 8: And learn the choreography.
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: I mean, that's how I learned watching all the Michael
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: Jackson videos and you know, recording it, recording MTV on
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: my VCR, just watching it over and over and over
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: against studying.
• 28:53
  Speaker 8: Like to me, that's like that's the ultimate goal from it.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: So heat is so when you just if we can
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: just begin to break down, Well, first of all, I
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: just wanted to say, how did it come to Cynthia
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: and Ariana. I'm sure every woman of who's the right
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: age and can sing audition for you, both famous and
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: not famous. We can tell why you chose them, because
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: they're both absolutely brilliant. But what was that process?
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: Like?
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: Did you I read in my notes that you that
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: you initially thought you'd hire unknowns.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: I thought Wicked was big enough that you could we
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: could actually like break somebody, and I was I didn't
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: want any anything, uh, sort of dictating how the movie
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: should feel or be because there's some big star or
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: the studio wanted that. And so when I came in,
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: it was very clear that studio knew that Wicked could
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: be big enough that we could do that, and so
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: that was sort of the staate, like whoever's best for this,
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: and and in my head it was like, well, we're
• 29:54
  Speaker 5: going to discover someone so Wicked is its own thing,
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: and of course you're getting We got inundated with calls
• 30:01
  Speaker 5: from everyone around town to come, and we said there's
• 30:04
  Speaker 5: no offers. Everyone has to come in and read, and
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: everyone starts at the same spot. And we saw a
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: lot of people and all really really good. I mean,
• 30:14
  Speaker 5: everyone prepared. Everyone was so amazing. But you know, there's
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: a moment where someone just takes it from your lap.
• 30:22
  Speaker 5: And we had been down the road of seeing a
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: lot and sort of debating. What we realized is, you know,
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: we had to get experienced people because these songs are
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: way more difficult than I thought they were. People come in,
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: their voices are breaking.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: They're double black diamond songs.
• 30:38
  Speaker 8: Absolutely, you know, I have a funny memory.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Just to digress for a moment, I was reading in
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: New York at Bernie Telsey's casting office. I don't know
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: if Bernie cast this, didn't.
• 30:46
  Speaker 8: He Bernie did.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And for those who don't know, Bernie Telsey is
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: by far the biggest Broadway casting directors, particularly musicals. He's
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: he's almost got a monopoly on Broadway musical casting. And
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: he's a brilliant guy. And I was auditioning. This was
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: many years ago, but I was auditioning for the production
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: of Angels in America. And next to me in the
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: next Versus studio, they were auditioning women to replace Alphaba.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: And to replace Nadel Nazine.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: No, not Adel. This was after Adele Deseine. I think
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: it may be in for a tour. I don't know.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: I don't know the specifics. All they know is that
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: while I was waiting, they have gotten this down to
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: such a science that they really just have them come in.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: And these girls were just women were walking in and
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: they were like basically like, oh, like, just can you
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: hit the fucking note or not? And then then we'll
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: talk to see if you can hit the note.
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: And I don't get a ramp ump nothing, huh no
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: read it.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: It was basically it may have been like it may
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: have been like two bars before the note. I don't know,
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: but but it was brutal because they were just like next, next, next,
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: And I was shocked how many of these women walked
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: into this audition, like, you know, if you could hit
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: it or not, why why are you here?
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: There's that one chance that God will bless me right
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: now at this moment.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: Yes it will come out exact.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: Yes I have never hit it before, but I will
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: hit it at Bernie Telsey's.
• 32:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it was an intimidating lobby because you could hear
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: everybody going for it, and that would be any if
• 32:31
  Speaker 5: you're an actor walking in.
• 32:32
  Speaker 8: And we did not just say you had to be
• 32:34
  Speaker 8: able to sing.
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: I mean this is a movie, and so we needed
• 32:37
  Speaker 5: them to be able to act and the camera need
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: to be able to be two inches from their face
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: and then and give layers to this character and not
• 32:44
  Speaker 5: be imitation of what we've seen before, but something fresh
• 32:47
  Speaker 5: in news.
• 32:47
  Speaker 8: There's a lot to ask.
• 32:50
  Speaker 5: Of them, and there were people who were like, you
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: know what, don't even worry about the big notes. Just
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: go do what you can if it. If you fail,
• 32:57
  Speaker 5: it's all good. There's things we can do that can help.
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: And but but when those two ladies came in, it
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: was just like they had the full package.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: You know, it's it's.
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: Timid hold up, but you know it's intimidating when Cynthia Rivo,
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: who is known for singing very well and killing it
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: and is known for being such a phenomenal actress, had
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: to walk into the audition with a blanket tied around
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: her neck and a damn and a damn broom.
• 33:24
  Speaker 8: In the ninety nine cent store from.
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: Anti store to freaking get a leg up on this audition.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Man. You know, it's really feel when somebody who is
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: a comment she is.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: Would walk I would like to walk into audition rooms
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: with the confidence of Cynthia Revial walking into sing defying gravity,
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: because she must have been like, I got this.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: Well, we know when she walked in with a blanket
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: and a broom.
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: Let me let me let me clarify that she it
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: was a I think that was like a jacket that
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: she had on earlier. She had taken that off because
• 33:58
  Speaker 5: we sang Wizard and I first, and she was singing
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: opposite another big actor and that actor was like.
• 34:05
  Speaker 8: You know, she was like awestruck by Cynthia.
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: She's like, you know, she just sang at a sold
• 34:11
  Speaker 5: out a Disney concert hall last night at like nine pm,
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: and she's here this morning. She's like, you know how
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: many people would pay for tickets to be sitting here
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: in this room right now to watch her sing defying gravity?
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: And so already you could feel that vibe. And she
• 34:25
  Speaker 5: sang wizard and I first. And when she sang those
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: first words, did that really just happen? She became a
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: little girl. She became not the Cynthia Rivo on the
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: big stage of the sold out show. She became a
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: dreamer in their dorm room. And I felt so connected
• 34:42
  Speaker 5: with that little girl singing, and then watched her grow
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: in that song to hit those final notes. It was
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: very clear, very quickly that she was our Alphaba.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: You must have been so excited. I mean, when I'm
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: auditioning people, you know, people think people don't know this,
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: but you're really quite nervous. You don't know if you're
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: going to find the person. You know, you're like, I
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: hope we find the person. And when she when she performed,
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: you must have been like, oh my god, we found
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: the person.
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: Hold on, you mean you got how often is it
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: that directors and production settles and says, you know what,
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: we didn't find a person, but we've found somebody close
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: enough to just tell this story.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: How often does that happen? Hold on? This opens up
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: a new conversation for me.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't know.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: How you feel, like, oh, I got the part, but
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: the possibility that I wasn't right for it.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: But they just settled because they could tell the story.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: Now, I don't know if it's settling. It's we're out
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: of time and and and I for me, I might
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: can only speak for me, not John, but we're out
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: of time and this person is great. They might not
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: be exactly what I pictured, but maybe they'll be better
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: than I could have imagined. But we need to go
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: and we need to start now. That's you know what
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: John and Myron are engaged is something that's eighteen months
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: of pre production. So you certainly have a whole lot
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: more time to make sure you find the right person
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: for your gargantuan movie.
• 36:08
  Speaker 8: But there's always but there's always a leap of faith.
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: It's always there's always like a section that you're like, well,
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: I think that I have confidence they can get there
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: in these areas because they haven't dug into obviously the
• 36:18
  Speaker 5: text and all that stuff. So it's always just a
• 36:20
  Speaker 5: little bit of like, trust your instincts, Myron.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: How how often are you like, look, all right, it's good,
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: but I could fix it in post.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Don't worry about it. I'll fix it. I can fix this.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: Don't worry about it. I mean, you're like freaking Scotty.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: You're asking him to answer that in in front of you.
• 36:37
  Speaker 6: Your daily is Donald, I'm always like, I could fix this.
• 36:39
  Speaker 6: I don't worry about it.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: Right, you become Scotty.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: I'm giving you.
• 36:47
  Speaker 6: Now what I What I love is that you know
• 36:50
  Speaker 6: every actor is bringing on the day and then I'm
• 36:52
  Speaker 6: there to be the next collaborator to bring my own
• 36:57
  Speaker 6: take to it, and everyone's going to do the best job.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: And and what.
• 37:01
  Speaker 6: Was so nice about Wicked is that I was privy
• 37:04
  Speaker 6: to see some of these auditions, so it was very
• 37:07
  Speaker 6: it was it was a real gift to see John's process.
• 37:13
  Speaker 6: And then when you did see Cynthia and Ari step in,
• 37:16
  Speaker 6: You're like, oh my god, this this is on another level.
• 37:19
  Speaker 6: And you know, of course I think that you know
• 37:23
  Speaker 6: there's there's a different version of every movie that with
• 37:27
  Speaker 6: a different cast in there. But then when you actually
• 37:29
  Speaker 6: see it together and you're like, oh, this was inevitable,
• 37:31
  Speaker 6: this is exactly it was supposed to be.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Let's take a break.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after these fine words. Did you
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: guys always plan to have it be to films? I
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: wanted to ask you that what was that? Was that
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: from the get go? Or because I'm so glad you did,
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: because it's so much movie the idea of trying to
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: cram that whole story into one, But but was that
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: always a plan?
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: Well?
• 37:59
  Speaker 5: When I came in, you know, they had been they
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: had been developing scripts, many scripts for the past I
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: don't know, twenty years before I ever came in, and
• 38:09
  Speaker 5: those scripts weren't ready, and the big question was can
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: you make this into one movie? And so when I
• 38:17
  Speaker 5: stepped in, the debate was already in progress. And for me,
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: it was like, if you are debating this, then you're
• 38:27
  Speaker 5: never going to make two great movies. You're always going
• 38:30
  Speaker 5: to be in between, and you might as well just
• 38:32
  Speaker 5: shove it all into one and that's a whatever four
• 38:34
  Speaker 5: and have five hour movie. Or if you're going to
• 38:36
  Speaker 5: get it into let's say you want to get into
• 38:38
  Speaker 5: a three hour movie that you're ripping out half the songs,
• 38:44
  Speaker 5: and then is that Wicked?
• 38:45
  Speaker 8: And it became very clear it was.
• 38:47
  Speaker 5: There's almost no question that in order to do Wicked properly,
• 38:50
  Speaker 5: you needed to break it up. And then we needed
• 38:52
  Speaker 5: to make that decision fast. Usually when you come in
• 38:54
  Speaker 5: as a director and something's been sort of half developed,
• 38:57
  Speaker 5: then you have about two weeks as the honeymoon period
• 38:59
  Speaker 5: you can do whatever you want. And so I knew
• 39:02
  Speaker 5: you have to make big, bold choices right from the beginning,
• 39:04
  Speaker 5: and that choice of I don't want We're not going
• 39:06
  Speaker 5: to debate this anymore two movies. Let's focus in to
• 39:09
  Speaker 5: make each movie the best singular movie we can and
• 39:13
  Speaker 5: every piece of architecture that we need to do in
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: this story in order to make that happen is what
• 39:17
  Speaker 5: we need to do, and that's what we need to
• 39:18
  Speaker 5: be focusing on.
• 39:20
  Speaker 8: Of course, in the back of my mind, I'm always like, well,
• 39:22
  Speaker 8: we're going to shoot too.
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: If it's better to be one movie, then we'll figure
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: that out later. But we had to make bold, very
• 39:28
  Speaker 5: specific choices, intentional choices from the very beginning. So that's
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: where it started.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Can I say ask, just say something, yeah, something that
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: I really love.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: To raise your hand. It's your podcast you now.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you like to talk too.
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: So what I really loved is that you didn't shy
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: away from the fantasy part of this story. And a
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: lot of people focus mainly on Okay, let's focus on
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: the music. Let's focus on let's focus on the dancing.
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: Usually when musicals are made, let's focus on that part.
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: And then the part that's always left out is either
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: the surrounding area, like how the story looks, or the
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: or the heart. And you tackled all of them at once,
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: and that was for me as a moviegoer. Like he
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: said earlier, I love Star Wars, I love Marvel, and
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: was great to see all of those genres but flipped
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: upside down with music coming through also, and you don't
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: really see you. You never see that, to be honest
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: with you, Even the biggest movie musical before this, it
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: didn't have it. I think what was it grease is
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: that the you know what I mean, it has numbers,
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: but it's relying on the dance, it's relying on the singing.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: And everything like that.
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: You have great performances and musical numbers, but the movie
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: also hits fantasy dead on, and I really really appreciate it.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: As a fantasy lover, I really.
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: Appreciated that, and so that's one of the reasons why
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: this movie sticks with me so well. It's like I'm
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: going to see Star Wars, but I'm also getting a
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: nice show out of it too, a good song and
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: dance out of it too.
• 41:03
  Speaker 5: That's great, I think because also, like I said, I'm
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: theater adjacent, a theater kid adjacent I'm not.
• 41:08
  Speaker 8: I didn't come from theater, so.
• 41:10
  Speaker 5: I am definitely of the film side, and yet I
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: love it.
• 41:13
  Speaker 8: Those are my friends, are my family.
• 41:15
  Speaker 5: That's where I enjoy watching stories, and so I think
• 41:19
  Speaker 5: we could bridge that gap. There was funny thing because
• 41:21
  Speaker 5: and I realized with Wicked that oh, this was a
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: property that has opportunities to do the thing that no
• 41:27
  Speaker 5: other musical could do. The world of oz was as
• 41:31
  Speaker 5: important as the music of Wicked, and that we were
• 41:36
  Speaker 5: bringing cinema lovers back to a world that they had
• 41:40
  Speaker 5: fallen in love with cinema maybe in the first place,
• 41:43
  Speaker 5: and that there was a great responsibility with that. And
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: at a time after COVID, when cinemas were hurting, and
• 41:50
  Speaker 5: at a time when people are doubting the scope and
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: scale of what cinema can do. And we're at a
• 41:55
  Speaker 5: time where representation is such an important thing and in
• 41:59
  Speaker 5: works of timeless art, that we if we could incorporate
• 42:04
  Speaker 5: a physically disabled actor, truly disabled, playing a disabled person
• 42:09
  Speaker 5: in the in there, we could We could have people
• 42:12
  Speaker 5: of all shaped, the size, colors, ages, and and have
• 42:16
  Speaker 5: the music as not as a separate piece, but as
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: a as an integral part of the expression of that
• 42:23
  Speaker 5: in a timeless world. And by the way, that timeless
• 42:25
  Speaker 5: fantasy world maybe one of the first that has accessible
• 42:28
  Speaker 5: ramps for the characters and things like that, that we
• 42:30
  Speaker 5: can do that, and we and because ultimately the story
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: is digging at truth. If we could at these actors
• 42:35
  Speaker 5: could could portray the truth, and of course Meyern digging
• 42:39
  Speaker 5: that out.
• 42:39
  Speaker 8: Then we had something.
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: That was very unique in Wicked that I'd never gotten
• 42:43
  Speaker 5: that opportunity.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: I think, he's I love I love what you said.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: And from my perspective, I don't go to these you know,
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: most of the bockbusters, with these budgets and these scale
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: of production are there not made for me. This was
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: the first movie in a long time I can remember
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: like where I thought, Oh, I get to enjoy the
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: spectacle that Donald gets to see in these Marvel movies
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: that he enjoys, but in a world that's interesting to me.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, I can't think of a movie that that Yeah,
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: reiterating what you're saying, that that that gives me a
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: musical theater lover scope and scale and and fantasy and
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: just I mean, I I can segue into into this
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: into a question in you built so much of these
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: sets practically. I mean, this could have been such a
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: It wouldn't have been nearly as beautiful if this had
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: been a green screen so much as a green screen.
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: I know, obviously you have some green screen in it,
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: but yeah, but you built so many practical sets. Was
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: that hard to convince the studio to spend the money
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: on building those worlds? Because I know you built some
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: pretty epic sets. We can tell from watching the movie.
• 43:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's it still goes to today. You know,
• 43:56
  Speaker 5: the amount of money it takes to Mount Oz is
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: a lot, and the commitment it takes, I mean today
• 44:05
  Speaker 5: is a lot easier than it was five months ago.
• 44:07
  Speaker 8: But when you were building these sets, very that.
• 44:10
  Speaker 5: Was part of the concept, you know, how I said, like,
• 44:12
  Speaker 5: you get two weeks to do whatever you want. Like
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: what I knew is I had to sell this idea
• 44:17
  Speaker 5: that in order to have us revisit Oz, that we
• 44:21
  Speaker 5: had to take the physical attributes of the Wizard of
• 44:24
  Speaker 5: Oz of the nineteen thirty nine.
• 44:25
  Speaker 8: Movie and break the matte painting.
• 44:28
  Speaker 5: And actually, if this movie was about truth, then we
• 44:31
  Speaker 5: needed to believe that this place actually exists, that it
• 44:33
  Speaker 5: was not in a dream, and so that the grass
• 44:36
  Speaker 5: had to be real, the walls had to be high,
• 44:38
  Speaker 5: the physicality of it had to be there, and so
• 44:42
  Speaker 5: we wanted this. I always sold this, like Lawrence of
• 44:44
  Speaker 5: Arabia as Cleopatra, as one of those things that we
• 44:48
  Speaker 5: only get once in our lifetime to really build. And
• 44:50
  Speaker 5: so by pushing that hard in those first two weeks,
• 44:53
  Speaker 5: I sort of like held their feet to the fire
• 44:55
  Speaker 5: every time.
• 44:55
  Speaker 8: Questions would come.
• 44:56
  Speaker 5: And then you get someone like Nathan Crowley, our amazing
• 44:58
  Speaker 5: production designer who who is a big trouble maker, builds,
• 45:03
  Speaker 5: loves to build. He you know, he worked with Nolan
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: for many years and did great, great showmen, and he
• 45:09
  Speaker 5: he he's the one who's like John, we're gonna plant
• 45:11
  Speaker 5: nine million tulips. John, We're going to build the train
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: and it's gonna move. John, We're gonna make that lake
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: in front of the in front of the school. And
• 45:22
  Speaker 5: I was like, they're gonna kill us. And he's like,
• 45:25
  Speaker 5: you don't worry.
• 45:26
  Speaker 8: You just keep moving and we'll make it happen.
• 45:29
  Speaker 5: He's like, by the way, the tulips are already planted,
• 45:32
  Speaker 5: so that's no choice.
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: I love a guy like that. I love someone like that.
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: Do you think it's because it's Wicked that people feel
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: this way? Like Wicked changed Broadway? You know, there are
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: not a lot of shows that come into Broadway and
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: are sold.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Out for two years straight.
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: I think Wicked was What's the other one that that
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: Josh gadd was a part of the Book of Mormon
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: is another movie that was sold out for you couldn't.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: Get tickets for two years.
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: Do you think the response that you're getting from all
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: of these these are the creatives that you are collaborating with,
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: is because it's such a special piece, Like.
• 46:05
  Speaker 5: Absolutely absolutely, I think that I think it was on
• 46:08
  Speaker 5: multiple fronts. I would think of of course, Wicked, the
• 46:11
  Speaker 5: show that the work that Kristin Adina, Joe, all these
• 46:14
  Speaker 5: people did on the uh.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: Try to call her adele.
• 46:17
  Speaker 8: I'm sorry, yes, sorry, yes, yes.
• 46:21
  Speaker 5: The work that they did was was huge obviously lifting
• 46:26
  Speaker 5: I mean it said it, and it only allowed us
• 46:29
  Speaker 5: to do what we could do. What we were able
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: to do is then take that and and and use
• 46:33
  Speaker 5: them as excuses to then crank it up and to
• 46:37
  Speaker 5: actually build it into a cinematic world, which is which
• 46:40
  Speaker 5: is a very different thing. But absolutely Stephen Schwartz Winnie
• 46:43
  Speaker 5: Holtsman that everybody who worked on that show for twenty years,
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: who honed those jokes, who honed the thing, they deserve
• 46:51
  Speaker 5: huge amounts of credits because we you don't get this
• 46:53
  Speaker 5: kind of uh, this kind of opportunity without the show itself,
• 46:57
  Speaker 5: of course, no doubt.
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: Let me ask you something I was wondering. This is
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: an example with the library dance sequence. So you built
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: this insane set that is just so beautiful, and then
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: you have choreography that's specific to the moving library stacks,
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: which was in stunt people. And I've literally watched behind
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: the scenes stuff. That's the level of geeking out I've done.
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: But how do you how what's the chicken or the
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: egg with that? Does your production designer say, hey, John,
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: What if there were these circular spinning library stacks and
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: then you go to the choreographer, Okay, what could you
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: do with that? How did that, just as an example,
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: evolve because I've never directed anything, you know, even with choreography,
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: well maybe one tiny thing with choreography, but I've always wondered,
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: how how youse a director evolve something like that?
• 47:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's well, I have some amazing collaborators, of course,
• 47:54
  Speaker 5: and we've done this for many years, so we have
• 47:57
  Speaker 5: a process. And this may not work for everybody, but
• 47:59
  Speaker 5: for us. Myron's in on that process. Alice our DP
• 48:03
  Speaker 5: is in on that process. Chris Scott, our choreographer who
• 48:06
  Speaker 5: I've known for so long, is in process. By the way,
• 48:09
  Speaker 5: Alice our DP I've worked with since college. So she
• 48:12
  Speaker 5: shot my college musical. So we can get in a
• 48:15
  Speaker 5: room and usually the script is very basic in terms
• 48:18
  Speaker 5: of the description of what's happening within the dance. I
• 48:22
  Speaker 5: ask them not to go too into detail because I
• 48:25
  Speaker 5: then take all the pieces and I'll break them out
• 48:29
  Speaker 5: and start to sort of I don't just sort of
• 48:32
  Speaker 5: riff off of what I think could happen. And I'm
• 48:36
  Speaker 5: there with Chris and so then Chris adds on to
• 48:38
  Speaker 5: that and says, well, and this is all just part
• 48:40
  Speaker 5: of the discussion, Well what if you did that? What
• 48:42
  Speaker 5: if they're if everything is circular? We start with like
• 48:45
  Speaker 5: the themes of the of the movie. Okay, so Oz
• 48:48
  Speaker 5: is everything is circular. Everything's been constructed to be perfect circles.
• 48:52
  Speaker 5: And yet in order to be a perfect group that
• 48:56
  Speaker 5: the cracks need to happen, The sharp edges the z
• 48:58
  Speaker 5: in Oz needs to happen. And that's where alpha but
• 49:00
  Speaker 5: comes in. So at shiz, everything has been perfectly circled.
• 49:04
  Speaker 5: We need to create some cracks in that. And this
• 49:08
  Speaker 5: is where the young generation first starts to like let
• 49:10
  Speaker 5: loose in their movement. So Chris starts to work on
• 49:13
  Speaker 5: like what movement could look like then, and then when
• 49:15
  Speaker 5: I bring up this, like what if this is turning bookshelves?
• 49:19
  Speaker 5: We knew that everything in Oz couldn't be had to
• 49:21
  Speaker 5: be bespoke, had to be a little bit delightful. If
• 49:24
  Speaker 5: the Wizard's sort of whole plan is to distract people
• 49:27
  Speaker 5: with delight so they didn't have to worry about and
• 49:29
  Speaker 5: they could always feel happy and didn't have to worry
• 49:31
  Speaker 5: about worry or anything like that, then he could be
• 49:35
  Speaker 5: in full control. So so okay, let's let's make the
• 49:38
  Speaker 5: bookshelves not straight but delightfully circular. And of course when
• 49:42
  Speaker 5: that starts to spin, we had done in the Heights
• 49:44
  Speaker 5: a spinning number on a fire escape.
• 49:49
  Speaker 8: We had just experienced that.
• 49:50
  Speaker 5: So what if this whole thing was circular, and what
• 49:52
  Speaker 5: if there's a little nod to two thousand and one,
• 49:54
  Speaker 5: like what if it had all these elements to it.
• 49:56
  Speaker 5: We wanted to do nods to American movies because we
• 50:00
  Speaker 5: were also sort of kicking the tires on the American story.
• 50:02
  Speaker 5: So there was this idea that how would the dancers
• 50:06
  Speaker 5: do that? And so then we have to convince this
• 50:10
  Speaker 5: so that I pitch it to our group, all our
• 50:11
  Speaker 5: heads of departments, and we have boards that Alice and
• 50:15
  Speaker 5: I work on. We don't know any actual choreography yet.
• 50:18
  Speaker 5: Chris doesn't even know what the dancers are able to
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: do in a spinning wheel because he doesn't have a
• 50:23
  Speaker 5: spinning wheel to actually doesn't know if he needs to
• 50:25
  Speaker 5: hire parkour people, chimnysts or bay boys or whatever or combination.
• 50:32
  Speaker 5: And so then our engineers start to build our physical
• 50:35
  Speaker 5: special effects. People start to say what they can build
• 50:38
  Speaker 5: and then Nathan starts to build around it how the
• 50:42
  Speaker 5: whole library is sort of circular, and then we deal
• 50:46
  Speaker 5: with the insurance, which is a whole other issue, and
• 50:47
  Speaker 5: at some point Chris goes into all the choreography before
• 50:51
  Speaker 5: getting into the wheel. We got the wheel and we
• 50:54
  Speaker 5: videotape it with iPhones or whatever we can. We start
• 50:57
  Speaker 5: cutting it together with boards or whatever, and then when
• 51:00
  Speaker 5: we got the wheel. We got the wheel about two
• 51:02
  Speaker 5: weeks before shooting because it was so expensive, there was
• 51:05
  Speaker 5: a lot of fights of getting it done. There's such
• 51:08
  Speaker 5: huge elements of engineering to actually complete it. Two weeks
• 51:12
  Speaker 5: before is when Chris started to actually choreograph within that.
• 51:15
  Speaker 5: So this we could have shipped the bed like, we
• 51:17
  Speaker 5: could have spent all this money and it wouldn't have
• 51:19
  Speaker 5: been good. We had no idea, but Chris and I
• 51:21
  Speaker 5: just sort of looked at each other and we're like,
• 51:23
  Speaker 5: you just fucking figure it out, because I don't want
• 51:26
  Speaker 5: to have to turn to my line producer and say, sorry,
• 51:28
  Speaker 5: it doesn't work. But we knew that there was that risk,
• 51:31
  Speaker 5: and we just don't tell everybody else.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: That Ron, you must no doubt.
• 51:36
  Speaker 5: And then we just dump it on Myron, Ye say Maron,
• 51:39
  Speaker 5: you must have great rhythm, like when the dance parties happened,
• 51:43
  Speaker 5: you must be front and on the dance floor.
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: Because literally, like from Garden State to Wicked bro like,
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: everything has a rhythm and everything is you know, we've
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: been listening to John and we've been listening to Zach
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: talk about the process of making and everything. But then
• 51:59
  Speaker 3: you're given this huge puzzle and of course you have
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: help from the directors and everything, and it's now here's
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: my vision. Make it work.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: Well, you know what I mean, make it, make it.
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: When I watch it, I wanted to feel like I
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: wanted to feel like how I saw it in my head.
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: That is so much pressure, dude, so much pressure. Well
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: can you talk about that, just to rewind a little bit.
• 52:19
  Speaker 6: You know, when I when I met Zach, I was
• 52:23
  Speaker 6: so excited by the script he had written because I
• 52:26
  Speaker 6: felt this emotion, I felt this this kinship with this character.
• 52:31
  Speaker 6: And while making the film, it was first about the
• 52:34
  Speaker 6: heart and wearing your heart on your sleeve, and then
• 52:37
  Speaker 6: the music was secondary. And of course I loved musicals
• 52:41
  Speaker 6: growing up. I loved, you know how Ashby films. I
• 52:45
  Speaker 6: loved films that had a lot of source of music
• 52:48
  Speaker 6: John Hughes films all that, But it was first about
• 52:51
  Speaker 6: the heart. And so when I got to work on
• 52:54
  Speaker 6: Garden State and I get to apply my love for music,
• 52:57
  Speaker 6: it was mostly about how does that support the motion?
• 53:01
  Speaker 6: And then when I got to work on more complicated
• 53:03
  Speaker 6: things like In the Heights and Crazy Rich Asians and
• 53:06
  Speaker 6: then Wicked, it all started with a heart and then
• 53:09
  Speaker 6: the rhythm and all that stuff afterwards just came from
• 53:12
  Speaker 6: out of the emotion of like what what what was
• 53:14
  Speaker 6: I trying to evoke emotionally through dance or through character
• 53:19
  Speaker 6: or through music. And and so Zach came at the
• 53:23
  Speaker 6: right time of the career, you know, he did train
• 53:26
  Speaker 6: me in some ways, and then and then and then
• 53:30
  Speaker 6: when I found when I found John, it was this
• 53:34
  Speaker 6: further exploration about how do I, how do I sincerely
• 53:38
  Speaker 6: like express heart without it feeling cynical or something I
• 53:42
  Speaker 6: don't know what it was. But then to use dance
• 53:45
  Speaker 6: and music, and then the rhythm just comes out of
• 53:48
  Speaker 6: something internally that has to do with just expressing this emotion.
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: It has, But you must get so much, like just
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: to stick with the library example, there must be so
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: much much footage. I can't believe how you you know,
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: on an indie there's a finite amount of footage. I'm
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: just imagining it's so challenging for you to go, well,
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: all of these shots, I mean so many of these
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: shots are beautiful for this moment. How do I decide
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: what to go to where?
• 54:18
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean John shoots a lot of he has
• 54:22
  Speaker 6: sometimes in some of these big numbers who have three
• 54:24
  Speaker 6: cameras going at once, just to just to make sure
• 54:28
  Speaker 6: he's not missing something or has a little piece that
• 54:30
  Speaker 6: we can use somewhere in the edit. And again it's
• 54:33
  Speaker 6: just I really pride myself of just watching everything and
• 54:37
  Speaker 6: just being really patient with learning the footage, and because
• 54:41
  Speaker 6: there is some kind of nugget or kernel. I remember
• 54:43
  Speaker 6: when we first worked togere Zachaus, It's like, you got
• 54:45
  Speaker 6: to make sure you watch everything because there might be
• 54:48
  Speaker 6: just that one little piece of improv.
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: Or so what I always do what I always do,
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: And I'm directing Shrinking now, and I'm still worried about it.
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: When I'm directing Shrinking even is like we just we
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: keep the camera rolling and we're riffing around, and I'm
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: always worried that the editor is going to miss something
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: that's it's at the end of take seven, and it
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: was just one take of it. And so I'm always like,
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: you watched everything, right, you watch everything.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: Let's take a break.
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after these fine words. One thing
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: I wanted to ask you with a number, like defining gravity.
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: You know, so much of this movie was practical, but
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: in Defining Gravity you obviously have a lot of visual effects.
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: How do you cut something so effectively when so much
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: of it isn't going to be there until you've locked picture?
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: Do you know what I mean? Like that whole sequence
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: in the mirror and all of that, the whole all
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: the whole climax of the end of the movie, how
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: do you how do you cut that with so much
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: green screen footage and and stuff you know isn't going
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: to gonna You have to use your imagination, really use
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: your imagination.
• 55:59
  Speaker 6: You really have to imagine in the building in the background,
• 56:03
  Speaker 6: you know, moving with her. But at the end of
• 56:06
  Speaker 6: the day, you know, you again, you're really focused on performance,
• 56:09
  Speaker 6: you know, and focused on you know, you know, Cynthia,
• 56:14
  Speaker 6: and then looking at this this one, I forget the
• 56:17
  Speaker 6: the cast members named the little girl looking at her, Yeah,
• 56:21
  Speaker 6: and then you know, just focusing on the performance and
• 56:24
  Speaker 6: then imagining everything else. And then you're of course pacing
• 56:28
  Speaker 6: that stuff out, and then you know, you start to
• 56:31
  Speaker 6: get things like post viz in there, and you get like,
• 56:33
  Speaker 6: you know, really crappy versions of a building flying in
• 56:36
  Speaker 6: the background, or you know, a cutout version of a
• 56:40
  Speaker 6: monkey chasing her. But ultimately it's just again just really
• 56:44
  Speaker 6: focusing on the performance and then just trying to use
• 56:47
  Speaker 6: your imagination. I mean, you you Donald, you talk about
• 56:50
  Speaker 6: all these films like Star Wars or Empire Strikes Back,
• 56:54
  Speaker 6: and I was always thinking about these movies when I
• 56:58
  Speaker 6: was cutting this movie, you know, just like I was
• 57:00
  Speaker 6: just so happy I finally got a chance to work
• 57:05
  Speaker 6: with a s geeky side in myself that I've always
• 57:07
  Speaker 6: wanted to do these movies, these really big epic films,
• 57:10
  Speaker 6: and now I get this chance. I was like, Okay,
• 57:13
  Speaker 6: what would Spielberg do, what would Lucas do? Like what
• 57:16
  Speaker 6: you know, what, you know, what kind of shot would
• 57:18
  Speaker 6: he want to cut to?
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: You?
• 57:20
  Speaker 6: You know, when the balloon is going up in the
• 57:21
  Speaker 6: air and then the you know cascades, you know, uh,
• 57:25
  Speaker 6: you know, fiery down to the ground, and.
• 57:27
  Speaker 5: I just I would be like, what would you do Myron?
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: Do you ever do you ever call maron you were cutting?
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: I'm assuming while they were shooting, do you ever call
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: John and be like, hey, you know'd be great. You
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: don't have this, it'd be great if you got this.
• 57:47
  Speaker 5: I mean, it's usually a series of texts that I ignore.
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, what's what is nice?
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 57:54
  Speaker 6: I was in London for eight months during the shoot,
• 57:56
  Speaker 6: and it was over one hundred and fifty five days,
• 58:00
  Speaker 6: and you know, to be there and then I can
• 58:03
  Speaker 6: actually walk downstairs to the set and say, hey, can
• 58:07
  Speaker 6: I show you this piece? And you know, I think
• 58:10
  Speaker 6: we might be missing here or are you okay if
• 58:13
  Speaker 6: I ask second unit to pick up something, you know,
• 58:17
  Speaker 6: And sometimes like on the balloon chase scene, we're kind
• 58:20
  Speaker 6: of like figuring that scene as John was still shooting,
• 58:23
  Speaker 6: Like he shot one version of this of the scene,
• 58:27
  Speaker 6: and then we were like, maybe there should be a
• 58:29
  Speaker 6: ticking clock with the with the roof closing, So then
• 58:32
  Speaker 6: we we, uh we kind of I developed it with
• 58:35
  Speaker 6: the effects and then I presented to John and John's like, okay,
• 58:39
  Speaker 6: this kind of works, this we could change and then
• 58:41
  Speaker 6: we then he shot principal and second unit again, and
• 58:44
  Speaker 6: so it's nice to be there, to be able to
• 58:47
  Speaker 6: not affect production but just be involved.
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: In it, you know, to have money. That's all that
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: is rich people, I know.
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: I mean just for those of for our listeners who
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: don't know film production, I mean, this is just filmmaking
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: on the largest scale. Second unit is a whole other
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: unit that's shooting stuff that doesn't involve the stars. So
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: forming to be able to like, hey, do you mind
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: if I have second unit go off and shoot this?
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: That's pretty bougie.
• 59:16
  Speaker 5: But I'll tell you what the best part about working
• 59:19
  Speaker 5: with someone like Mayra and you really did, Zach. I
• 59:21
  Speaker 5: don't know how you guys got to this, but finding
• 59:25
  Speaker 5: those little in between moments intakes like that's to me
• 59:29
  Speaker 5: was what I've been always looking for because I love
• 59:33
  Speaker 5: finding things with our actors.
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 59:35
  Speaker 5: The hardest part I think about directing is getting used
• 59:39
  Speaker 5: to not being in control all the time. When you're
• 59:42
  Speaker 5: making your little things, you are literally in control all
• 59:45
  Speaker 5: your time. I'm telling my friends to grab the thing
• 59:47
  Speaker 5: at this time and whatever itever. But when you start
• 59:49
  Speaker 5: to get into the bigger movies, you need you need people,
• 59:52
  Speaker 5: and you need them to make it better than you
• 59:54
  Speaker 5: ever could. If it's what you could imagine in your bedroom,
• 59:57
  Speaker 5: then it's not good enough, and so you're con instantly.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 5: I think you have to have the fundamentals right, your
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 5: intention of the story, where what the architecture is.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 8: How you want these characters unfold.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 5: Then if you're going to be truly collaborative, the actors
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 5: bring a whole new perspective to that.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 8: At a certain point.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 5: I always say, like, we can plan, plan, plan, but
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 5: when you start making the movie, the movie starts speaking
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 5: back to you, and you better be listening. And that's
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 5: where Myron comes in, because he's the ultimate listener. He's
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 5: getting footage that I haven't even shared how I think
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 5: it's being cut. He hasn't even seen boards of some
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 5: of these things that's in my head. I don't even
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 5: share boards with people on set, really because I just
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 5: want to feel like we're just playing in most instances,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 5: and I want the freedom to be able to do
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 5: that and not have checkboxes. But then I dump it
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 5: to Myron and he has to actually figure it out
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 5: himself and go where instinctually it feels right in the
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 5: performances themselves, or with the camera work or whatever it is,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 5: and so for me that reset and you have to
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 5: do that reset several times in this movie to find
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 5: the best version. Is takes experience, It takes trust with
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 5: each other, within you yourself.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 8: But that's my favorite part is that you just don't know.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And one thing you're saying that it applies to
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: all filmmakers who are listening, whether you're about to direct
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 2: a several hundred million dollar movie or you're going to
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: direct your first short film. And you've spoken a lot
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: about this, John, is reliance on your collaborators and trust
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: in your collaborators and not needing to be the one
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: who has the best idea. That's something I really had
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: to grow into when I made Garden State. I was like,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: I have to be the one. This is my movie,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: I wrote it. I have to be the one who
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: has the best idea. And little by little, you know,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: Larry Sure, the legendary DP would be like, you know,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 2: I know you want to put the camera here, but
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: look at it over here, and I'd be like, wow,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: that is cool. Or Myron would cut some sequence and
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: I'd be like, holy shit, that's not how I didn't
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 2: think you were going to put I didn't I wanted
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: to put the Simon and Garf Fogus song on the movie.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: I didn't think it was going to go here. That's
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: I've got goosebumps all over my whole body. And what
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: you're saying with all your collaborators on set, that's that's
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: something I'm still I'm still doing. We were improving a
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: scene and shrinking the other day and we had cut
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: and as we were moving on to change the setup,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: the DP riffed a punchline to a joke and I went,
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: that's the why didn't you fucking see that earlier? That's
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: the funniest joke we've come up with. And and he
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: was like, ah, it's too late. I go, no, no, no,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: roll it again. We're gonna go again and do the
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: dp's joke. And that does take a lot of time
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: for you to get to a place where I can
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: where I can have my ego be relaxed and be
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: open to like whoever has the best idea wins, you know.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 5: And it's a balance too, because you know, you do
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 5: have to lead the group of course a horizon, and
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 5: yet you have to be open enough to discover the
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 5: better things that come about and that's that is a
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 5: difficult thing, and I you know, you struggle with it
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 5: the whole time, no matter what, like even when score
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 5: comes in and the score isn't exactly what you've lived
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 5: with in the temp and then you start to feel like,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 5: well I really wanted that be. But then they're offering
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 5: you something and if you're not listening to it, and
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 5: maybe they're wrong, and you have to be aware when
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 5: they're wrong and get you back on course.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 8: But there are but there are plenty of moments.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 5: Where where they're actually itching at something that or a
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 5: symptom of something that you need to address.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna say too that are probably going to get
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: me in a lot of trouble too.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: Oh god, see he's gotten comfortable. Wait you need Daniel. Wait, Daniel,
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: come back on when when Donald, when Donald says something inappropriate,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: U Daniel shakes his head and he knows the stop
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: with one.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 3: Thank goodness for digital chip in the camera now instead
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 3: of film because all of these things that you guys,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 3: Daniel don't do.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 2: That that's not controversial.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: Because all of these things that you guys are I thought.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: You're going to be like, can I get Cynthia's number?
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 3: No, but thank goodness for that because now you can
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: afford to go back and do things that you couldn't
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 3: do before, back in the day when it was film
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 3: and you had this is the amount of film we
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 3: have for the for the for the movie, yo, So
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 3: we can't just go back to the other setup and shoot.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: That's one, Zach, you told me a story once.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 3: This is the other thing that I thought was amazing
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 3: and is when you were filming Going in Style and
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 3: Alan Arkin Arkin was called Alan Aldo, that's the dude
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 3: from ash Alan Arkin. He was on the bench and
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 3: they with the love interest in the show, and they were, uh,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 3: you know, going back and forth. They had a line
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 3: and you didn't know if you got it or anything
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 3: like that.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: And some of the.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 3: Magic was actually in the in between takes where they're
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 3: just talking as the camera is you know, settling and
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: they're getting shots and everything like that, and he's looking
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 3: at her and he's giving her looks and she's giving
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 3: him looks. And a lot of that information wasn't present
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 3: while you were shooting the thing, but actually came after
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 3: it was shot, and those things wound up in the movie.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: Well, that was that was that scene you're talking about
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: it was an example where I when it was over,
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh Jesus, I didn't I didn't crack
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: the scene and were out of time, and I was
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: not operating on a Wicked like budget where it was like, well,
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: we're going to reshoot that next week and figure it out.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 2: So I handed it off to Myron and was like,
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: I don't know, can you make something out of this?
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: And Myron did. Myron found those moments, And I think
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: that there's so much there's so much to be found
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: in the unexpected and just letting the camera roll and
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: letting people continue to talk and riff. And that example
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: you're giving is is that they had such a nice
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: banter and friendship those two actors on set that there
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: were little magical moments in just watching them interact that
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: we actually ended up using in a cut of that scene.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 5: I'm interested to know, Like for you, Zach too, is
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 5: because you're you've been on both sides, Like when you
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 5: started directing, did that change the way you saw acting,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 5: what your role was as an actor on set of
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 5: being present and what you are trying to control, or
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 5: did that make you more aware of like, oh shit,
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 5: my performance could be changed very dramatically.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 2: That's a great question. Uh. What I felt was, you know,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: sometimes I just need a shot of you looking out
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: the window, like like, you don't need to do all
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: this thinking you're doing and overthinking and get tears in
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: your eyes because your dad screamed at you, just like
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 2: I just need a shot of you looking out the
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: window and I and that really helped me as an
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 2: actor because it is such a collaborative collage on the on.
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 2: On the other side of things, there's times where I
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 2: thought I really brought it, and I see a cut
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: of my performance and I think, oh, you you you
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: didn't make me. I remember the pilot of Scrubs, Bill
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 2: was cutting the Lawrence was cutting out air from a
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: dramatic moment to make the show so tight, And I
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: was like I even had the audacity at that, at
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: that young of an age to be like you, you
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: made me look like not as good of an actor,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 2: because the right thing to do there is to take
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 2: a pause and digest that information and not just speak
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: right away. So there are moments where where you're like,
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: why did you You know? It does make me as
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: an actor when I'm sometimes feel like there's a better
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: performance than the one you cut of me, and I
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: can sometimes I'm in a position where I can say, hey,
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: why didn't you use that take? Or hey, when you
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: play that on my back, I think it's weird or
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: a lot of times with comedy, because I do think
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: that's the thing I have the most experience on. I
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: promise you that joke will play better better if you
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: cut to me for the reaction or cut to the
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 2: other person. The joke doesn't land on the person saying,
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 2: it's going to land on the reaction for the other person.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 2: That kind of thing just has become natural in my body.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean that also has so much of like
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 5: what if myron doesn't know how to cut a joke,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 5: then the joke will not work. It doesn't matter how
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 5: good the performance is. Or you set back and you
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 5: let the actor play the joke out and then you know.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 8: So it's always like.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: It's funny when you go down and you test somebody
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: test a comedy and you go, why isn't that joke working?
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: It was so funny on set. And then it can
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: literally be removing some frames or it can be literally
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: what I'm saying, where you're trying to play the joke
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: on the person who said the funny thing, whereas then
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: you discover the audience laps way harder when you cut
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: to the dead pan reaction of the person listening and
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: you just didn't see it that way. By the way,
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 2: were you able to test this movie or because it
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 2: was so high profile? Was that helpful to you? The
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 2: testing process?
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 6: It was? It was, It was really helpful because you know, well,
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 6: first of all, we do a series of smaller screenings,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 6: like almost like any other film, you know, where you're
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 6: testing it on your friends and like groups of like
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 6: five and ten and fifteen, and then you're you get
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 6: more confident over time, and then you're testing on like
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 6: two hundred really close friends. Yeah, close friends. But and
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 6: then and then you go out to like we went
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 6: out to Arizona and Vegas and San Diego and you
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 6: know they had to you know, sign in DA's and
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 6: all that stuff. But uh, you know, we wanted to
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 6: make sure that the film was going to work for
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 6: a general audience. And I think that was really brave
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 6: of Mark Platt and Universal to allow us to do that.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 2: And yeah, it's so helpful, and you know, I know
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: a lot of times are these huge movies, these huge ips.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 2: They don't want to do it just because they don't
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: even want to risk anything anyone going online and saying
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: I saw an early cut and all that stuff. But
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 2: I think I think it would be so helpful for
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 2: you guys to get the feedback, especially with a musical comedy.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 5: I think some directors don't like to share because they
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 5: want their work and that's what it is. And and
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 5: I just think for us, I think it's it's not
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 5: necessarily what the audience says back because most of their.
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 8: Solutions are not good.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 5: They don't know the architectures, they don't have solutions, but
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 5: the consistency of the symptoms of something, whether they don't,
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 5: oh they don't, they're not rooting for this character. So
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 5: it's not necessarily in that scene that's the problem. It's yeah,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 5: well we need to like empathize with that character way earlier.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 5: So I think we need that data in order to
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 5: find solutions.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: I think it's the most valuable thing is just sitting
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: with the audience. I mean, you can feel when they're lost,
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: you can feel when they're bored, you can feel the
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 2: jokes that aren't playing, And that's more valuable than anything
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: they write on the cards.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's part of my question. When do you know
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 3: you did it? You know, when do you know? So
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 3: you completed the.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 2: Movie Friday night of opening weekend? Probably right?
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 3: Really is that when it happens? Okay, So here's an example.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 3: I remember when I saw I Remember the Titans for
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 3: the first time. I got to show were you in that?
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: Donald?
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: I was. It's a little movie by the day.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 2: It is Denzel Washington in that.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 3: Denzel Washington is the star of it. I'm in it
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 3: also with Denzil I have quite a few scenes with them.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: By the Yeah, I've heard about that.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: I hold my own, John, I hold my own Anyway.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: The point is.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 3: I remember holding a small group of people in a theater.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 3: Jerry Bruckheimer and then were nice enough to allow me
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 3: to have my family come and see the movie. Some
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 3: of my cousins and my parents were in a big
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 3: musical theater. They were in a theater growing up for
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 3: me growing up, So I watched my parents.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: Do musical theater. That's what I should say.
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 3: So a lot of the repertory company came, or a
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 3: lot of the company came, and we're watching it and
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 3: they're so into it, and there was that moment where
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 3: it was like, holy shit, I did it. I did
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 3: exactly what I told my mom I was gonna do.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 3: I left the house and I fucking became an actor,
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 3: and I'm in a movie that everybody's gonna fucking go see.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: I know it for a fact.
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 3: I could feel it right now as just by the
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 3: way everyone in the room is behaving. Some people look
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 3: at when you you know, artists, when musical artists go
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 3: into the studio and they're making a song and there's
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 3: that moment where it's like, oh shit, we made a
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 3: hit before it even hits the radio. They just know
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 3: when at I'm asking all three of you, at what point, Myron, John,
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 3: Zach are you Myron where you're like, Okay, this is
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 3: all I can do. I think this is it. John,
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 3: where you're like, holy fuck, we made it. Zach, where
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 3: you're like there was a point where you saw a
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 3: garden state and you were like, holy shit, everybody's gonna
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 3: love this shit. There's gotta be a moment.
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 2: Well, there's started. That's a great question, and I want
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 2: John to go first, but I'll just say that there's
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 2: two different moments. Really, there's holy shit I made something
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 2: I'm proud of and be holy shit, the audience likes this.
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 2: So John, what was that for you?
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 8: Well?
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 5: I remember it more clearly for crazy rich Asians because
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 5: I did not have any big expectations for that.
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 8: And I love that movie.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 5: I loved making that movie. When we were there, it
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 5: felt like something special was happening. But I still held
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 5: onto the idea that no one's ever seen this movie,
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 5: but what we were doing was the right thing to do.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 8: I when we.
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 5: Showed it to our first when we showed that movie
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 5: to our first audience, and watching them fall in love
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 5: with those characters who did not look traditionally like their
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 5: romantic leads, and they were crying and doing and and
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 5: following along.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 8: These things that felt so specifically to me and my family.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 5: And then they stayed in the lobby for like an
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 5: hour afterwards just talking about it. To me, that meant
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 5: everything we hadn't you know, we hadn't opened yet, but
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 5: it felt like, Okay, we did our thing I think
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 5: for and then in the Heights when we did in
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 5: the Heights, I felt when we were making it, I
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 5: literally said like this is the best I can do,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 5: Like I don't something is really working in this and
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 5: I don't know what it is. And then movie came
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 5: out and nobody went to see it, and so I
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 5: have had and then the critics loved it, and then
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 5: nobody went to go see it.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 8: So I had this like mental whiplash.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 5: And so for Wicked, I made myself very prepared that
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 5: it didn't matter how I felt about after it, that
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 5: I was only focusing on process. I was only focusing
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 5: on getting it to as best as we could. And
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 5: then I had to like shield everything out. It was
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 5: too painful in the heights, to be honest, and so
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 5: I've kept it actually pretty far from me and have
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 5: a second half.
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 8: So it's also like it's not done yet. So I'm
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 8: thinking a little bit ahead.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 5: I think at the AFI luncheon, when they showed the
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 5: clip from they showed the clips from all the Oscar
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 5: nominated movies or whatever, and they showed the end of Wicked,
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 5: and all those scenes were amazing that from all the
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 5: other movies. I was like, Oh, no, they're going to
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 5: show a musical scene from our movie and it's going
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 5: to be like, oh, just a musical number whatever. But
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 5: when they showed the end of Defying Gravity, that audience
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 5: in that room connected so hard, and these are people
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 5: who are jaded, and they clapped so loud and stood
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 5: up what they hadn't done for anyone. And it just
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 5: felt like, no matter what you give us or not
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 5: give us or acknowledge, it makes you feel this. It
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 5: makes you feel And remember the Titans. I remember being
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 5: in that audience, with that audience when they scored a touchdown,
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 5: everybody was standing in the theater.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 8: I'd never felt that.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 5: I was like, we have that with defin if we
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 5: can do that, and I think I said that to you, Myron,
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 5: remember the Titans. There's a moment. If we can get
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 5: people to stand up in that theater, that's like our goal.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 5: We get this beautiful gift to define Gravis. So I
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 5: haven't fully let it in, but I've I left pieces,
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 5: left pieces in yet so far.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. Thank you.
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 6: I mean, it's well, certainly you know this is gonna
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 6: sound silly, but in both Garden State, crazy Rich Asians
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 6: in the Heights and Wicked, it's the same feeling I
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 6: have when I finished the assembly. If I'm crying and
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 6: feeling emotional and I'm feeling the same way on the
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 6: mixing stage and in the theater, like I know, it's
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 6: working and consistently with all those movies. I felt that
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 6: over and over again. You know, of course it's nice
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 6: when they're applauding at AFI, I mean that was an
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 6: incredible experience. Or even at the Oscars, you're.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 2: Like sitularly like, oh my god, they playing a clip.
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 6: At the Oscars, you know, but it really is that
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 6: very pure moment of like what it feels like when
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 6: you see the first movie for the first time and
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 6: you're like, oh my god, I'm just feeling deeply for
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 6: these characters. This seems so special. I remember that first
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 6: my first cup at Guarden State, are going to Sundance
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 6: for the first time. It all felt like the same feeling.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 6: It just was like it just was on repeat. And
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 6: so when that, you know, the first kind of Wicked
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 6: was before John saw. It was on my birthday like
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 6: two years ago, and I just my assistants were in
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 6: the room with me and we're just like just crying,
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 6: and it was like just you know, card saying, you know,
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 6: shot of monkeys missing here. But still it was just
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 6: like this really ultimately just beautiful emotional experience.
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 2: Zachart Well for me, it was you know in Garden State,
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 2: it was you know, Meyern and I cut that in
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 2: my living room and so we were sitting there thinking,
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 2: I think we made something really good, but we had
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 2: no idea. And then I remember it got into Sundance
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 2: and it played at the Eccles Theater and I introduced
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 2: it and I went to the back of the theater
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 2: and I just started sobbing. I just felt like, I
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 2: can't believe this happened. I can't believe we're here. I
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 2: can't believe my first movie premiering at Sundance, and then
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 2: it had such a reaction. It was really one of
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 2: the greatest moments of my life. And you know, with
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 2: my last film, A Good Person, I was so happy
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 2: with it and so proud of it, and then you know,
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 2: it didn't really have the theatrical reaction I wanted, and
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: that was a really disappointing and similar to what John
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 2: is saying about in the Heights, I really was felt
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 2: really sad that it didn't have the theatrical reaction. And
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 2: then when it finally was free on Prime at Christmas,
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 2: it was number one on Prime, and then all of
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 2: these Christmas movies started coming in and I was like, oh,
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 2: this is definitely gonna get kicked out of the top
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 2: ten on Prime because of all these Christmas And it
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 2: stayed in the top ten on Prime with just a
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 2: Good Person and Christmas movies for like two weeks, and
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 2: the well, the executive at Amazon called me. She's like,
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: do you know how many people are watching this movie
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: when you're in the top five on Amazon Prime across
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 2: the So then I finally felt like some vindication for
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 2: it not performing well theatrically. But it's it's it's I
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 2: had two more questions because I know you guys got
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 2: to go, but I just wanted to say, Myron, I
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 2: read that you it was your idea or John it
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 2: was a collaboration. But what was the decision process behind
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 2: not just going hard cut to black after the big note,
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 2: but having that boom boom boom boom, which I loved. Yeah,
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 2: I thought that was rad And I know there's a.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 3: Little story how she takes off don't don't don't don't dun.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 2: I thought that was brilliant. What was the process of that?
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 6: Well? I uh so, okay, so of course you get
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 6: ended on the war cry. I sometimes I.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: Don't know it. I love that you called it a
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: war cry.
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 2: Well that's what we got.
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you. That's what you're saying.
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 2: Oh god, Donalds are not the note Sorry everybody not everybody? Yeah, well,
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 2: at least listener. I think they already shot those part
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 2: two donald.
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so that you know that. Of course, that's where
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 6: you're supposed to end. I think when I was sometimes
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 6: I so John oftentimes would say, you know, do you
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 6: want to know my plan with a film, like how
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 6: to cut a scene together? And I say, no, I
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 6: don't want to know your plan because I want to
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 6: play with the footage and just see, you know what
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 6: do I come up with just that way? If I
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 6: make mistakes or I just discover something from the course
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 6: of editing, then that's great. And one of those things
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 6: was how to end the movie. And I had basically
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 6: had a lot of you know, previews of like you know,
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 6: Alfa but flying and and I was like, I want
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 6: to use some of this footage. And so I during
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 6: my first assembly, I actually went to my music editors
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 6: and said, can we extend the music after the war Cry?
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 6: And the music editors, of course, we are looking at
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 6: me like I don't know if we should do that,
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 6: and we're like no, no, no, just it's just me and you.
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 6: We're just we're just messing around a little bit. And
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 6: it was like, yeah, okay, well are amazing editor music
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 6: editors Jack Dolman and Katherine Wilson, they said, okay, we'll
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 6: try to extend that, and then, of course, you know,
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 6: kind of worked. And then I said, I literally said
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 6: to Jack's like, can we try the two thousand and
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 6: one you know tippany hits to like help? And then
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 6: I said to him, can we can we repeat the
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 6: word down And it's just like no, no, no, we can't
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 6: do any of this, Steven Schwartz, John, Everyone's gonna kill us.
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 6: And I was like, just just try it, and so
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 6: we did it. We workshopped the idea at my assembly stage,
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 6: and then I presented it to John. Little did I know, like,
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 6: you know, eight months later, I'm watching the end of
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 6: Tea at like vidiots, uh, and I'm watching and literally
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 6: John Williams is doing these same Tippany hits like and
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 6: so I think that something just in my my d
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 6: NNA had told me to extend this moment, make it
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 6: feel like this back to the Future Empire strikes Back,
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 6: Cliffhanger ending, and then I presented John and you know,
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 6: there's a lot of debate after you do these things,
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 6: you know whether it's the right idea, but you know,
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 6: it ended up sticking.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 2: I loved it.
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 5: He also was not in the room when I when
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 5: I showed the movie to Steven Spielberg and I'm sitting
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 5: there after in the dark with him and he turns
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 5: to me and he says, I heard those e t TV.
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna say. Steven Spielberg was like, took that from me?
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 8: I was like, mine, where's mine?
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 2: I've never heard you? Did he actually say that?
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 6: Are you making that out?
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: That's the first time.
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 2: That's so wait but wait, John, did you re record
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 2: the orchestra? Are those literally the timpany from No.
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 8: They're not there.
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: We were.
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 7: They were our own orchestra for Suresh Bilboard watching all
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 7: the week and goes, oh, you took that from you?
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 2: So that ship. Oh god, But that's the highest compliment.
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 2: That's the highest compliment when they when they actually know
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 2: what you're doing. It's like, it's all right, last question.
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: That was a great moment.
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 3: That is one of my look there are so many
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 3: moments in this movie that are my favorite moments. I
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 3: was really worried about Popular. I didn't know how you
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 3: were going to be able to do that define gravity.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 3: I you know, you have an imagination that succeeded that
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 3: my imagination, but Popular. I was so worried about, how
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 3: are they going to make this part funny?
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: How are they going hard?
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 5: Good?
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 3: That's funny, But that's the that's the piece in the
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 3: play where if you missed that one, guess.
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 5: What, well, and you're in it and you're stuck in
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 5: a dorm room and now you're really late in this movie.
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 5: If you actually look at the architecture, do you really
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 5: need Popular?
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 2: The song?
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 8: I'm not sure it moves anything for it. So we
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 8: had to give reasons for it to be.
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 5: She had to be fucking on it on every thing
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 5: and not again copying anything of Kristin, and the dorm
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 5: had to have space and room for them to do it.
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: Was a lot.
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 2: When I was watching it, I was in the theater going,
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 2: she's fucking hilarious, She's amazing.
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 3: I was watching this going, holy shit, Ariana Grande's doing
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 3: exactly Look okay, so look, my kids love Victorious which
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 3: is a television show that she was on back in
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 3: the day.
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: And if you watch that show now, it's great.
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 3: It's a bunch of great performances from young actors and
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 3: actresses and stuff like that. But the person that really
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 3: stands out is Ariana, you know what I mean. She's
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 3: the comic relief in it. She's the voice in it.
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 3: So she's an actual person who's carrying it with her
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 3: singing and everything. Everybody else is kind of dancing and
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 3: singing too, but she's the star and you don't really
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 3: notice it until you go back.
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: And watch it.
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 3: When I saw that she got this part, I was like,
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 3: she's getting nominated for an Oscar. I was saying that before.
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 3: I was saying that from the gate. Once the trailer
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 3: came out, I was like, she's getting nominated. It's a rap.
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: When that part came up and I was like, all right, now,
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: here's the thing.
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 3: Do you Ariana Grande's situation and you sing it with
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 3: all of his soul and stuff, or do you stick
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 3: to what the way it was? And the fact that
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 3: she was able to find that middle and hit you
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 3: still with the little riff here and there, you can't
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 3: beat it, like I saw somebody say, I don't know
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 3: where I'm going with this. I saw somebody on the
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 3: internet say, look, ladies and gentlemen of the Wicked community,
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 3: those of you who are going to go on and
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 3: do Wicked on Broadway or off Broadway, please stick to
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 3: the way it is originally written. You don't have what
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 3: it takes to do what Arianna and Sydneya did, like
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 3: sickly like.
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: It's just it was so refreshing because we could have
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: and I'm and I'm, and I'm and I'm and I'm
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm. I just love the movie so much.
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: But you can't.
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 3: You can't do the same movie as the play and
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 3: expect everybody to be like, absolutely, you know that you
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 3: did it.
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: It has to be something different. It has to be innovative.
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: There has to, you know.
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 3: George Lucas is the king of saying this. If you're
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 3: doing the same thing over and over again, you're not
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 3: really making good movies. You're just making a movie. You
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 3: gotta make it different in some way, and you found ways,
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 3: thank you.
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 5: And and and. The theater experience is completely different than
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 5: the cinematic experience in terms of the perspective of the
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 5: audience like we had to uncover very early. Uh that
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 5: when the audience sits in a theater, you're in with
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 5: the world that's in front of you.
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 8: You're expecting a musical.
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 5: She comes into the bubble, she's like, Glinda is the
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 5: host for the night, and then this and and then
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 5: the odd girl drops in, the green girl, and then
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 5: you laugh at the green girl, and then and then
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 5: she has to win you over throughout through throughout, but
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 5: you still.
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 8: Have Glinda as the host. In the movie. The audience
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 8: is skeptical from the beginning, like, show me why I
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 8: need to believe in a musical world. I don't even
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 8: like musicals. And so you have this wall already.
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 5: And then the green girl drops in and everyone's singing
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 5: around her, and she's looking around and she's the audience
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 5: being like, what the fuck have I just dropped into?
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 5: And why are all these people singing? And so her
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 5: first words, uh in wizard and I did that really
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 5: just happen? And she starts to sing. You're like, oh
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 5: my gosh, she has a better singing like power than
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 5: anybody in this movie.
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 8: And you're like, then you root for her, And it's through.
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 5: The medium of the actual way you're telling this story,
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 5: and I think all those things. And then the brilliance
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 5: of Ariana Grande is that, you know, you laugh at
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 5: her in this movie because.
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 8: She's silly and crazy whatever. She's fully committed.
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 5: But by the time you get to the os Dust
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 5: and she she sacrifices her own sort of what she
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 5: thinks is important to be there just with her friend
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 5: or this new friend. Then by the time you get
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 5: to Popular, you're not laughing at her anymore. You're laughing
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 5: with her. And that transition because right before she says,
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 5: it's not your fault, and you can see and in
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 5: Cynthia's and this Myron's brilliance is that you see in
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 5: Cynthia's eyes her like falling for this girl, like wow,
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 5: she sees the world so simply and it has value.
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 5: And then Glinda says, oh, look, it's tomorrow, like hope
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 5: in a bottle. And then she gets to sing popular,
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 5: and now you're in love with them. You're in love
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 5: with her, and now popular comes across as like just
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 5: fun and it's driving your their relationship closer. So we
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 5: had to recognize the different medium in order to uncover
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 5: the things we need to do in in this media,
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 5: in this, in this movie, to make it work.
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 2: Actually, when you were such the perfect person for the job.
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 8: I'm so thank you.
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 2: I'm so glad that you I'm so glad you both
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 2: got the assignment. I can't wait to watch the next part.
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 2: I love for good. That song is just one of
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 2: the most beautiful songs ever written.
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 3: I'm excited. Essay these motherfuck is it going to be
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 3: fighting each other and everything?
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: John?
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 2: Did you ever did you ever see the video of
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 2: Kristin Chenowith at the Hollywood Bowl calling up a school
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 2: teacher to sing for good with her?
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 5: No, I've seen some of those kind of videos, but
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 5: I haven't seen that one in particular.
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 2: Well, I think I think it's safe to assume it
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 2: was a plant and she knew because just go the audience,
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 2: go watch this, and John, please admire and watch it.
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 2: It's it's Cynthia Revea at the Hollywood Bowl and she says,
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 2: I need someone to sing for good with me, and
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 2: she calls up a woman from the audience, and the
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 2: woman says, she says, what do you do? She says,
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 2: I actually teach singing. I'm a school teacher. And everyone
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 2: applauds and The woman proceeds to give the most breathtaking
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 2: rendition of the song with Kristen Cynthia Rebo with Kristin Chenniwan.
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah did I say Cynthia. I meant Kristin. Anyway, it's
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 2: just a little thing I wanted to share with you because.
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 5: I will say about the Hollywood bull Is, you did
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 5: a video there for Joshua Raiden and I love that video.
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 2: Oh, John, thank you.
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 8: And there's a simplicity with the light that you did
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 8: with it. I was just so beautiful.
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 5: And I you know in our end credits when we
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 5: talk about the lights, that was part of the inspiration.
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 5: I was like, oh yeah, that like that video, like
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 5: that Zach did. And so anyway that that video stays
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 5: very is in my brain a lot, and you.
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 3: Don't have a lot of them, John, But if you
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 3: want to come to the Garden State concert, I'm sure
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 3: my boy can hook it on.
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 6: Myron.
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's I don't know if you're I don't know
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 2: if you're in La on March twenty ninth, John Chew,
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 2: But Myron's going to be there, and uh, I know
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 2: a fellow that can get you in.
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: Let's see.
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I'll make my I'll make my stage.
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 2: And so I know you like both Garden State and
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 2: things shot and things shot, an outdoor amphitheaters. Last question, Donald,
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 2: and I heard you're doing Joseph, and I know that
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 2: fifty year old men might be too, but listen, Jesus
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 2: no is not in Joseph. She's fucking ruining my pitch already.
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 2: She's a superstar. My bad, My bad, All right now,
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 2: now we're down to forty five seconds. Okay, do you
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 2: want Donald to night audition? Even though we're fifty and
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 2: most of the characters probably aren't fifty, we we would
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 2: love to. I had to pitch that Donald and I
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 2: were going to do Joseph on Broadway and we were
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 2: going to alternate all of the principal roles, and.
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: That is not going to work. He's nodding like he's
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: nodding like, oh, did you really interesting?
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 2: Anyway?
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 5: I love I love Joseph so much, and I want
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 5: to do I I wanted I want to do something
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 5: that is just ridiculous and crazy and and it's south
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 5: and for some reason, I don't know, Joseph has always
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 5: been that for me, but also about a dreamer or
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 5: someone who's dreaming of something for them.
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 2: I also feel like the show is so much better
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 2: than the treatment it gets. It's always been treated like
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 2: it's always been treated like a Vegas act, and and
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 2: I think that the show is so much better and
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 2: smarter than that. So I'm glad it's in your hands.
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna say this, and then we're gonna let you go.
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 2: He's gotta go.
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 3: I say this is Zach all the time. You guys
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 3: both should be directing Star Wars and or Marble. I'm
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 3: just gonna put it out there.
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna put it out there.
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 2: What if I told you that they're onto things that
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 2: are more important to us than that. All right, guys,
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 2: thank you for your time. We know you're so busy.
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, thank you.
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 8: Thank you.
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: Guys.
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 2: Well, we were almost in Joseph and you had to
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 2: ruin it.
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: I didn't ruin anything.
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 2: You had to make a Jesus joke, and then you
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 2: allowed him to pivot off of us.
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: Look, my point is this this back.
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 3: We have to be persistent like the ice If we
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 3: want to be a part of his world, you have
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 3: to be persistent like the fucking ice cream truck and
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 3: consistently be outside his window.
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 2: I want y'all to know that it's fucking March eighteenth
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 2: in New York and the fucking ice cream truck is back. Anyway,
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 2: that was amazing. Huh. That was one of my favorite
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 2: episodes we've ever done. But two people at the top
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 2: of their game.
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 3: I was about to say this, this will go down
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 3: in history ten years from now. Hopefully this age is
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 3: like fine wine and you and I both keep our
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 3: nose clean. But we just had, in my opinion, the
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 3: next big blockbuster director on this podcast, and I think
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 3: in ten years he will do. I look at him
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 3: like Spielberg, and I look at him like, uh, like
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 3: Lucas in a lot of ways, because he's very innovative
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 3: and he's doing something different with musical and fantasy. I
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 3: imagine Joseph in the Technicolored dream Coat is gonna be
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 3: freaking outrageous.
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 2: Bro, He's so smart. I love what he was saying
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 2: when he was talking about how like OZ, everything in
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 2: OZ is meant to be a distraction and it's perfect,
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 2: and then the Z is alphabe it cuts through the
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 2: perfection of OZ.
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 3: I was like, oh shit, it's refreshing to see someone.
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 3: I mean, you're very much like this too. The way
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 3: you talk about directing and everything like that and telling stories,
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 3: you could tell he's a fan of the stories that
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 3: he's telling.
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 2: Let's go back to the fact that my Josh Raiden
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 2: video at the Hollywood Ball inspired him.
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 3: Not only that, dude Wicked being so good, I would
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 3: remember the Titans, bro always remember that.
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: He remember the Titans. If we could have that feeling
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: like that.
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 2: I don't know, did no, no, no? He basically my
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 2: Josh Raiden music video is the reason Wicked was so good.
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 3: I'm going to go and say the reason to remember
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 3: the Titans. Remember the Titans is the reason why Wicked
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 3: was so good because he wanted to get that feeling
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 3: that you got when they scored a touchdown and remember
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 3: the Titans, how the audience stood up in a movie theater.
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: He wanted that for Wicket.
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 2: You know what I think about what you just said?
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: What eat these bowls?
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 2: All right? What a show? Joelle? Thank you for coordinating
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 2: all that. I know it was a tricky to get
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 2: it all scheduled.
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 3: That was most impressive. And the fact that he stayed
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 3: on for as long as he stayed on too. He
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 3: stayed on for over an hour.
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 2: So thank you to Marin Christine and John Chew and audience.
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 2: If you're listening and you're gonna be in La March
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 2: twenty ninth, come check out my benefit for the midnight
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 2: mission the Garden State twentieth Anniversary Concert. And if you
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 2: can't make it, buy a ticket about to stream it
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 2: on starting April sixth, You can buy the tickets right
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 2: now at veeps dot com. Every single cent of your
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 2: streaming ticket purchase goes to the charity. And also you
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 2: can buy merch there. The merchant is even available. This
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 2: is a little podcast insider scoop. The Merchant isn't even
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 2: available to buy yet. If you go to the veep site,
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 2: they've they've they've got it up there, so you can
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 2: buy it already, all right inside scool, I love you guys.
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: What a great show. Eight stories.
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 7: That show we made about a bunch of talks and
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 7: nurses and janitor. I said, here's the stories net you
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 7: all should know. So Ganda round here up, Yander, round
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 7: here up.
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: Seat show wis