Latest / Legally Brunette / Killer Thriller Docu: He Stole a Plane with Zero Experience...Then Took Off
Transcript
- 0:13Speaker 1: Hi, guys, Welcome back to Killer Thriller DOCU Edition. I'm
- 0:17Speaker 1: your host, Jen Fessler. So today we are talking about
- 0:20Speaker 1: the new Hulu documentary sky King. You guys, this was
- 0:24Speaker 1: unlike a lot of the true crime documentaries that I've
- 0:28Speaker 1: watched and that we've talked about here on the pod.
- 0:32Speaker 1: August tenth day after my birthday, twenty eighteen, and I
- 0:35Speaker 1: remember this. A Horizon airplane was stolen from Seattle Tacoma
- 0:38Speaker 1: International Airport by twenty eight year old Richard Russell. Everybody
- 0:42Speaker 1: called him Bibo and a Horizon Air ground service agent,
- 0:46Speaker 1: so he had no piloting experience.
- 0:49Speaker 2: He was the guy that you.
- 0:50Speaker 1: See in the orange vest taking the luggage off the plane,
- 0:54Speaker 1: putting the luggage back on the plane. So he was
- 0:58Speaker 1: an incredible guy and he performed this unauthorized takeoff and
- 1:02Speaker 1: SeaTac air traffic control made radio contact with him.
- 1:06Speaker 2: He was the only guy on the plane.
- 1:07Speaker 1: He stole the plane, and he started to talk to
- 1:10Speaker 1: air traffic control. He described himself as a broken guy.
- 1:13Speaker 1: He said, I got a few screws loose, I guess,
- 1:16Speaker 1: which was heartbreaking because when you watch this you see
- 1:18Speaker 1: that this guy was the kindest, warmest most hard working,
- 1:25Speaker 1: devoted guy.
- 1:27Speaker 2: So I don't know.
- 1:28Speaker 1: I fell in love with him watching it, and he
- 1:30Speaker 1: had everything going for him, but he ended up stealing
- 1:33Speaker 1: this plane. He does what's called a barrel roll in it,
- 1:36Speaker 1: which is basically an impossible thing to do, and these
- 1:39Speaker 1: were his last moments of life, and he, you know,
- 1:41Speaker 1: purposefully crashes the aircraft into the Katron Island. And you know,
- 1:47Speaker 1: he wanted to die by suicide and this was the
- 1:49Speaker 1: way that he wanted to go and there were no
- 1:50Speaker 1: other collateral human injuries.
- 1:52Speaker 2: He was a soul fatality.
- 1:54Speaker 1: But the film is so incredible and such a fabulous
- 1:58Speaker 1: commentary on not just you know, suicide, but men's roles
- 2:04Speaker 1: in today's culture and how difficult it can be to
- 2:07Speaker 1: provide for your family, you know, mental health, mental illness.
- 2:11Speaker 1: And we're about to bring in the most incredible director.
- 2:13Speaker 1: Her name is Patricia E. Gillespie. Patricia High.
- 2:17Speaker 2: Welcome. We are so happy to have you, all right,
- 2:19Speaker 2: you guys, so welcome.
- 2:21Speaker 3: Patricia, Hi, thank you so much for having me. I
- 2:24Speaker 3: really appreciate it.
- 2:25Speaker 1: Patricia, thank you so much for coming. I have to
- 2:28Speaker 1: tell you, and I was telling my producers before we
- 2:31Speaker 1: had you on this story and we do a lot
- 2:35Speaker 1: of true crime. That's sort of the nature right of
- 2:36Speaker 1: the podcast is true crime doc And I know that
- 2:38Speaker 1: this was a crime, and it could have been an
- 2:41Speaker 1: even worse crime, but there the heart of this felt
- 2:45Speaker 1: like so utterly sad and so it was, I mean,
- 2:50Speaker 1: so poignant. And you know, usually when I'm done watching
- 2:54Speaker 1: one of the crime docs, I'm completely freaked out and
- 2:57Speaker 1: can't sleep and the hairs. This was more like just sadness,
- 3:01Speaker 1: but not in a way. It was such a fascinating
- 3:03Speaker 1: documentary and I feel like something that so many people
- 3:04Speaker 1: can There's so much to take from it, so not
- 3:07Speaker 1: just sadness, also some admiration I think for him and
- 3:11Speaker 1: some and lots of empathy, but and for his family.
- 3:15Speaker 1: But anyway, I'm sorry. I just I thought it was
- 3:17Speaker 1: so that it was so moving. It was really just
- 3:22Speaker 1: a fabulous just congratulations, fabulous work, very welcome.
- 3:26Speaker 3: I'm glad you enjoyed.
- 3:27Speaker 2: It, I really did. I mean, you always feel weird
- 3:29Speaker 2: saying you enjoyed it, right.
- 3:31Speaker 1: Of course, yeah, yeah, but I did. I have to say.
- 3:35Speaker 1: So let's I'm just gonna ask this question right off
- 3:38Speaker 1: the bats. We can get it over with, why Bibo
- 3:40Speaker 1: where does that come from?
- 3:42Speaker 4: So Bibo, I'm probably gonna call him Bibo through this
- 3:45Speaker 4: whole thing, but I'm realizing a lot of the press
- 3:47Speaker 4: is Richard, but I've just debowed him for years.
- 3:51Speaker 3: Yeah, so Bibo was.
- 3:52Speaker 4: Actually a name that he got when he was a baby.
- 3:56Speaker 4: He was named after his father, whose name was also Richard.
- 4:00Speaker 4: And I asked Karen, I said, where where does that
- 4:02Speaker 4: word come from? And she says, look at the videos
- 4:04Speaker 4: to him as a kid, he just looks.
- 4:05Speaker 3: Like a little bebo.
- 4:07Speaker 4: And I remember going through all those images and seeing
- 4:09Speaker 4: his cute little.
- 4:10Speaker 3: Nose and it was the cutest. I get it.
- 4:12Speaker 4: It's sort of an automotia for how adorable he was.
- 4:15Speaker 1: And he was so adorable, Yeah, he really was. Like
- 4:19Speaker 1: that actually was striking to me too. I mean most
- 4:21Speaker 1: kids that h are adorable, but he was so so
- 4:24Speaker 1: freaking cute and.
- 4:26Speaker 2: Sweet, yeah, and sensitive and all of it.
- 4:29Speaker 1: So, you know, I obviously I've read up on you,
- 4:32Speaker 1: and I know that you do like to tell stories
- 4:35Speaker 1: that involve an underdog and maybe somebody who's it's marginalized
- 4:40Speaker 1: the right word. I don't know, but I so is
- 4:43Speaker 1: that what drew you to this story? Did you feel
- 4:46Speaker 1: like he was an underdog. What was it that wanted
- 4:48Speaker 1: to make you tell the story?
- 4:50Speaker 3: You know, this story in particular was really personal to me.
- 4:54Speaker 4: I grew up working class, and I remember hearing this
- 4:57Speaker 4: audio along with everybody else's little snippets that were sort
- 5:00Speaker 4: of floating around out of context on social media when
- 5:03Speaker 4: this happened, and like so many other people.
- 5:07Speaker 3: It just grabbed me, grabbed me right part and the gut.
- 5:10Speaker 4: And he sounded like so many of the people I
- 5:12Speaker 4: grew up with, and he was trying to articulate something
- 5:15Speaker 4: I think that I think a lot of men, but
- 5:20Speaker 4: non exclusively men, people feel about the realities of working
- 5:24Speaker 4: life in the US, about the difficulty to talk about
- 5:26Speaker 4: how you're feeling to get the help you need, and
- 5:30Speaker 4: I wanted to know more. I also heard his voice,
- 5:34Speaker 4: and he sounded so familiar, but also was doing something
- 5:36Speaker 4: so out there, so intense, so unfamiliar, right stealing a plane,
- 5:41Speaker 4: And I wanted to square this really kind voice that
- 5:45Speaker 4: I was hearing with this very dramatic act and sort
- 5:48Speaker 4: of try to cut through some of the politicization and
- 5:51Speaker 4: sensationalism that had come to plague the story and figure
- 5:57Speaker 4: out who really was this guy underneath it all and
- 5:59Speaker 4: what led him to that moment?
- 6:01Speaker 1: That was the part that was one of the many
- 6:03Speaker 1: parts that was so fascinating to me was that the
- 6:05Speaker 1: you know, reading about how it had been politicized, and
- 6:08Speaker 1: not just reading about it. I mean, you know, his
- 6:10Speaker 1: brother talked about it, his friend talked about it, how
- 6:12Speaker 1: frustrating that was for them, and that you know, people
- 6:16Speaker 1: were using it, using his story to their own advantage
- 6:20Speaker 1: and maybe even monetizing on it, which just is so
- 6:24Speaker 1: heartbreaking and just awful. And I that was like a
- 6:28Speaker 1: whole different part of the story that you know, was
- 6:31Speaker 1: very sort of upsetting, and the aftermath of it and
- 6:34Speaker 1: what his family and his friends had to deal with.
- 6:37Speaker 4: Yeah, I think we live in a really intense media
- 6:39Speaker 4: environment and a lot of times when something when a
- 6:43Speaker 4: story that that sort of grabs attention comes out, it's
- 6:46Speaker 4: there's a temptation to sort of take your stand right
- 6:49Speaker 4: away or like use it to enforce a point. And
- 6:52Speaker 4: one of the things that I think became really clear
- 6:54Speaker 4: to me, and I hope it's clear to audiences making
- 6:57Speaker 4: this story, is that when when you do that, when
- 7:01Speaker 4: you do your hot take and you pump that out
- 7:04Speaker 4: sometimes you miss the human story at the center, and
- 7:07Speaker 4: that human story can have a deeper, more important story,
- 7:10Speaker 4: which in this case was I think a pretty clear
- 7:13Speaker 4: story about class and about what it means to try
- 7:15Speaker 4: to succeed in you know, the changing American economic landscape
- 7:19Speaker 4: that sort of got glossed over in favor of this
- 7:22Speaker 4: discussion of Izia terrorist Asney a terrorist? Did this statement
- 7:26Speaker 4: or that statement mean he was a white nationalist? Or
- 7:28Speaker 4: was this something else? And I'm not seeing those aren't
- 7:30Speaker 4: important conversations to have and to look into. But when
- 7:34Speaker 4: that becomes the only conversation and we calcify into sort
- 7:38Speaker 4: of these black and white positions one and the other end,
- 7:41Speaker 4: we miss a lot of nuance.
- 7:42Speaker 1: Which is which is feels even more relevant now than
- 7:45Speaker 1: it was in twenty.
- 7:46Speaker 2: Eighteen, is that when it happened? Yeah, it feels even
- 7:49Speaker 2: more relevant today. Right.
- 7:51Speaker 4: This film took a long time to make, but you know,
- 7:54Speaker 4: just it's I feel, in this weird way that we're
- 7:57Speaker 4: right on time.
- 7:58Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I one hundred percent agree with you
- 8:00Speaker 1: because that's exactly what happening. What's happening now, right, It's
- 8:03Speaker 1: just about sides. It's not about humanity. We've lost, you know,
- 8:08Speaker 1: all touch with the human story, and it's just about
- 8:10Speaker 1: what's going to work for this narrative as opposed to
- 8:13Speaker 1: that narrative.
- 8:14Speaker 3: I think another thing that like really.
- 8:17Speaker 4: Stood out to me was how there are a lot
- 8:19Speaker 4: of in the people that are in this film, there
- 8:21Speaker 4: are a lot of different opinions about you know, just
- 8:23Speaker 4: different walks of life. You have a doctor, you have
- 8:26Speaker 4: you know, an age faca, you have all these different
- 8:29Speaker 4: sorts of people. You have old people, young people, men, women,
- 8:32Speaker 4: different political opinions.
- 8:34Speaker 3: But if you stop and listen.
- 8:37Speaker 4: And you approach the story from a place of curiosity
- 8:39Speaker 4: rather than judgment, you realize all these people who the
- 8:43Speaker 4: media lines people would tell you couldn't agree on anything,
- 8:46Speaker 4: I actually agree very much about just the realities of life, success, work,
- 8:50Speaker 4: mental health in the US. And those are conversations I
- 8:53Speaker 4: think we need to consciously create a space to have
- 8:56Speaker 4: at a time when we things can feel so polarized.
- 9:00Speaker 1: Absolutely, I love everything that you just said, and I
- 9:02Speaker 1: think about it.
- 9:03Speaker 2: I think about that often.
- 9:04Speaker 1: Hard to even watch the news anymore, because that's all
- 9:07Speaker 1: I see is, you know, the picking apart of very
- 9:10Speaker 1: human issues and how polarizing everything is anyway, Okay, so
- 9:15Speaker 1: tell me something. I know that it was the first
- 9:19Speaker 1: time that the family and that his friends heard the audio.
- 9:22Speaker 1: That must have been so hard, not just for them,
- 9:25Speaker 1: but for you. I mean that it was chilling to me,
- 9:27Speaker 1: like the fact that they when they put on the headphones,
- 9:29Speaker 1: you know, and you heard what they were hearing, especially
- 9:33Speaker 1: at the end when he said he wanted to kill
- 9:35Speaker 1: himself and you just and his poor aunt and sister.
- 9:38Speaker 2: It's just awful.
- 9:39Speaker 1: But that was that hard for you to watch them
- 9:42Speaker 1: go through that? And did it happen over the course
- 9:44Speaker 1: of a day?
- 9:45Speaker 4: He So we everybody you see in the film that's
- 9:49Speaker 4: full in the interview set up in the listening said
- 9:51Speaker 4: that was a full day. We left a lot of
- 9:53Speaker 4: time for them because it's the kind of thing you
- 9:55Speaker 4: might have to start or stop, or yeah, might spark
- 9:58Speaker 4: a very deep conversation, or it might you might need
- 10:01Speaker 4: to just step off and step away, right, So everybody
- 10:05Speaker 4: had a day where we discussed and listened. Yeah, I
- 10:09Speaker 4: think it's look. I knew that this had to be
- 10:12Speaker 4: a part of this film because at the end of
- 10:16Speaker 4: the day, you're dealing with a suicide, and a suicide
- 10:20Speaker 4: that had been sort of unfortunately glamorized, and I needed
- 10:24Speaker 4: to make sure that at every moment in this film
- 10:28Speaker 4: it was clear to audiences that this isn't glamorous, that
- 10:32Speaker 4: even though there's this idea that suicide ends someone's pain,
- 10:36Speaker 4: the reality is that pain gets passed on to the
- 10:38Speaker 4: people that love that person.
- 10:40Speaker 3: And I knew we needed this to be sort of
- 10:42Speaker 3: front and center.
- 10:43Speaker 4: Most of the family had heard little pieces of audio,
- 10:46Speaker 4: because like I said, there were snippets.
- 10:47Speaker 2: Already right, people had.
- 10:49Speaker 4: Made super cuts, but there were things that no one
- 10:52Speaker 4: had ever heard that. I'm very lucky my husband's an
- 10:55Speaker 4: archive producer, and so we were able to work on
- 10:57Speaker 4: this together, sort of piecing it together out of these
- 10:59Speaker 4: many little its of audio we got from the fagainst
- 11:01Speaker 4: the black Box transcript. You know, there was there were
- 11:08Speaker 4: moments that they didn't expect to hear, and I think
- 11:11Speaker 4: those always sort of shocked me because you don't know
- 11:13Speaker 4: what someone has or hasn't heard, and I think those
- 11:16Speaker 4: became some of the most powerful moments in the film.
- 11:18Speaker 4: One thing that surprised me was a lot of times
- 11:20Speaker 4: for me I found in the edit, it's not even
- 11:23Speaker 4: what they say that's so powerful, it's how they react
- 11:27Speaker 4: or the look on their face, like it just speaks
- 11:28Speaker 4: in such an immediate human way.
- 11:31Speaker 3: Not that what they say isn't brilliant and important.
- 11:33Speaker 1: No, it's watching their face. It's watching the pain on
- 11:36Speaker 1: their face. That really, that's what you know, what got me.
- 11:40Speaker 2: It's yes.
- 11:41Speaker 1: And afterwards, of course there are tears and there's discussion,
- 11:43Speaker 1: but that look on their face hearing this person that
- 11:46Speaker 1: they love talk about you know that he was ending.
- 11:51Speaker 2: It was just so.
- 11:52Speaker 1: Sad and awful and his mom and I just was
- 11:55Speaker 1: so drawn to his mom. She seems just like such
- 11:57Speaker 1: a wonderful woman and strong, right, and has she listened
- 12:03Speaker 1: to the audio at all?
- 12:05Speaker 3: She actually so did.
- 12:07Speaker 4: She chose not to listen to it at the time
- 12:08Speaker 4: we were making the film, which was a decision I
- 12:10Speaker 4: totally respected. I think, to listen to the last seventy
- 12:12Speaker 4: minutes your son's life like that is unbearable, unbearable.
- 12:16Speaker 3: She came to we.
- 12:17Speaker 4: Premiered the film it south by Southwest of Film Festival,
- 12:19Speaker 4: and she came and she'd said, I don't know that
- 12:24Speaker 4: I'm going to sit for the movie.
- 12:25Speaker 3: So I was like, all right, we'll go to this premiere.
- 12:27Speaker 4: You know, and Karen and I will take a great
- 12:29Speaker 4: walk around Austin while everybody else watches it, and we'll
- 12:32Speaker 4: come in at the end and she'll be able to
- 12:33Speaker 4: see people coming out and them responding, and she's surprised
- 12:37Speaker 4: that she wanted She sat for it, and she watched
- 12:40Speaker 4: the film, and she sat between me and al my fella,
- 12:43Speaker 4: and you know, obviously it's tragic to watch her see this,
- 12:48Speaker 4: but it was also, in a in a bittersweet way,
- 12:52Speaker 4: very beautiful because I think what she did here was really,
- 12:55Speaker 4: really brave. I think that everyone in this film who
- 12:59Speaker 4: loved him coming forward to tell this story, they didn't
- 13:02Speaker 4: do that to get something off their chest. They were
- 13:04Speaker 4: engaging with something incredibly painful because they wanted to help
- 13:07Speaker 4: other people. And there's this this lie that depression can
- 13:11Speaker 4: tell folks that that people are better off without them.
- 13:15Speaker 4: And I think their participation and what they offered audiences
- 13:19Speaker 4: in listening to this and engaging with this and revisiting this,
- 13:22Speaker 4: is such a clear statement that that's not the case.
- 13:26Speaker 4: No one's you know, you're you're they're not better off
- 13:28Speaker 4: without you.
- 13:29Speaker 2: They all said, they said, I wish if I could
- 13:31Speaker 2: have if I would.
- 13:31Speaker 1: Have known, if he would have shared with me where
- 13:33Speaker 1: he was at, and I you know, could have said no, no,
- 13:37Speaker 1: like stay with us, this is going to pass and yeah.
- 13:41Speaker 1: And then interestingly, like when I heard him saying how
- 13:45Speaker 1: he knew that he was going to hurt a lot
- 13:47Speaker 1: of people and that he wanted to apologize to them,
- 13:49Speaker 1: but he didn't really get specific, right. He didn't say
- 13:52Speaker 1: my mom, he didn't say my wife. I feel like
- 13:55Speaker 1: he'd already just distanced himself in a way from it,
- 13:58Speaker 1: right from really like thinking about his mom, thinking about
- 14:01Speaker 1: his wife. He was it seemed to me by the
- 14:03Speaker 1: end he was going to do what he was going
- 14:05Speaker 1: to do. There was no you know, there was no
- 14:07Speaker 1: turning around really, so speaking of his wife. So I
- 14:12Speaker 1: know obviously Hannah didn't want to participate. You know, she's
- 14:15Speaker 1: seen the movie.
- 14:17Speaker 3: I don't you know.
- 14:18Speaker 4: We reached out to her and actually her father a
- 14:22Speaker 4: number of times and we just we never heard back,
- 14:25Speaker 4: and I think our heart goes out to her. I
- 14:28Speaker 4: can't imagine how painful this was. I know the media
- 14:34Speaker 4: that sort of sprung up in the immedia aftermath, I
- 14:37Speaker 4: think a lot of that was very unfair and judgmental
- 14:39Speaker 4: and untrue. But we ultimately, like we respect her right
- 14:43Speaker 4: to privacy, we respect her right not to comment, sure,
- 14:46Speaker 4: and I hope the audiences do that too. But I
- 14:49Speaker 4: want to say we never found anything that suggests anything
- 14:52Speaker 4: other than these were two people that loved each other
- 14:54Speaker 4: very much.
- 14:55Speaker 1: Yeah, that was the only part that I was wondering
- 14:56Speaker 1: about at that point, at the towards the end, you know,
- 15:00Speaker 1: and her family seems that they were not pleased with
- 15:05Speaker 1: his ability to provide for her. I'm sure that, you know,
- 15:08Speaker 1: paid its toll on him.
- 15:11Speaker 4: I do want to be clear about that. I don't
- 15:12Speaker 4: think it's about individuals. I don't think it's about her family.
- 15:15Speaker 4: I think it's about the society that we live in.
- 15:18Speaker 4: And you know, I come from a culture where many people,
- 15:22Speaker 4: especially those who have a more traditional view of the world,
- 15:25Speaker 4: that is what they expect, right. The guy's got to
- 15:28Speaker 4: come in and you know, be a provider, be a man,
- 15:31Speaker 4: you know, stuff it. And I don't think that's like
- 15:34Speaker 4: an individual behaving in a bad way.
- 15:36Speaker 3: I think that's a cultural reality for a lot of people.
- 15:38Speaker 4: And it doesn't match what happened to the American economy,
- 15:42Speaker 4: to the landscape of work, to the era we're living in.
- 15:45Speaker 4: And so you know, I think pat Bibo's aunt says
- 15:48Speaker 4: it really well in the film. She's like, you know, kids,
- 15:51Speaker 4: Bibo's age, who's my age. He's a millennial, came up
- 15:55Speaker 4: with the idea of the American dream and it sort
- 15:57Speaker 4: of fell apart, and they can end up feeling like
- 16:00Speaker 4: it's their fault when they can't attain it, but it's
- 16:03Speaker 4: it's something much bigger. So I don't think this is
- 16:05Speaker 4: about Hannah or Hannah's family. I think this is a
- 16:08Speaker 4: really common struggle that's cultural great and we need to
- 16:12Speaker 4: talk about.
- 16:27Speaker 1: Not in any way to villainize Hannah's family, because I
- 16:30Speaker 1: have grandparents that told me that I had to find
- 16:32Speaker 1: a man to support me. I mean, this is not
- 16:35Speaker 1: that's there's something unique about the fact that they are
- 16:37Speaker 1: a traditional family. And I don't mean to even imply
- 16:41Speaker 1: that there's blame to be placed. I just am thinking
- 16:44Speaker 1: from his point of view and his his the way
- 16:48Speaker 1: he sort of received, you know, certain information. I wonder
- 16:51Speaker 1: if that's how they felt, not to not any fault
- 16:55Speaker 1: of their own, but like that's pressure, thinking that your
- 16:57Speaker 1: wife's parents think that you're not enough. And it happened
- 17:01Speaker 1: my mother and father were divorced when I was three,
- 17:03Speaker 1: but that he always talks about that, how my grandparents
- 17:06Speaker 1: made him feel like he was never enough, never good
- 17:09Speaker 1: enough earner, never was going to be able to take
- 17:10Speaker 1: care of her.
- 17:11Speaker 2: You know, those messages are hard.
- 17:13Speaker 4: He loved her like crazy and to give her the
- 17:15Speaker 4: best life he could. And you get a lot of
- 17:17Speaker 4: information about what that is, and I'm not sure that's
- 17:20Speaker 4: always like from culture and I'm not sure that's always accurate.
- 17:24Speaker 1: Yeah, And he worked obviously as hard as humanly possible, right,
- 17:29Speaker 1: I mean that was that was really quite shocking that
- 17:35Speaker 1: he was working, and then I just didn't see it
- 17:37Speaker 1: even then going back to school and like his friends said,
- 17:40Speaker 1: a full time job, full time job, still didn't get
- 17:44Speaker 1: the promotion. And how frustrating, right too, he was he
- 17:50Speaker 1: had his work ethic was unbelievable and working also the
- 17:55Speaker 1: frustration as a viewer of knowing that he wasn't getting
- 17:58Speaker 1: paid minimum wage and you know that he it seems
- 18:04Speaker 1: at the end like that nobody was really even held
- 18:07Speaker 1: liable for that, right, so he was he couldn't how
- 18:11Speaker 1: was he going to make ends me? He was making
- 18:12Speaker 1: twelve something an hour, right, and that he just really
- 18:15Speaker 1: wanted to get the promotion.
- 18:17Speaker 4: He was I'm very expensive in a very expensive city,
- 18:20Speaker 4: and it's a it's a tragedy. I think he was
- 18:23Speaker 4: a guy that was really you know, as I learned
- 18:25Speaker 4: more about him and sort of his life from the
- 18:28Speaker 4: from the time he was born, right, this is a
- 18:30Speaker 4: guy that always stood up and did the next right thing.
- 18:33Speaker 4: Like even circumstances where hard, he's like, Okay, we're going
- 18:35Speaker 4: to bust through it, Like we're going to do the
- 18:37Speaker 4: next right thing. We're gonna get the scholarship, we're gonna
- 18:38Speaker 4: be the homecoming king, we're going to be you know,
- 18:40Speaker 4: we're gonna get the job.
- 18:41Speaker 3: We're going to run the business.
- 18:43Speaker 4: And he brought everything to the table, and the environment
- 18:46Speaker 4: just wasn't there to support that. And I think it
- 18:48Speaker 4: really puts a chink in the armor of like bootstrap theory,
- 18:52Speaker 4: because like Bibo, when you when you really look at
- 18:54Speaker 4: his life, like we should live in a country where
- 18:55Speaker 4: guys like that can win, and this story shows that
- 18:58Speaker 4: we don't anymore, and that's a problem we all have
- 19:00Speaker 4: to get together to fix.
- 19:02Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 19:02Speaker 1: No, I Yeah, there's so many interesting messages in the film,
- 19:08Speaker 1: and I think that that's so interesting, so important. You're right,
- 19:12Speaker 1: like there was no he couldn't fix it, and he
- 19:14Speaker 1: tried everything, right, he really did try everything. And the
- 19:18Speaker 1: whole thing of him coming out of high school being
- 19:20Speaker 1: such a superstar, you know, like the homecoming king and
- 19:24Speaker 1: the sock and you know, the track and the wrestling
- 19:27Speaker 1: and the football and adorable and she was adorable and
- 19:31Speaker 1: it all looked so right.
- 19:33Speaker 2: And they still couldn't make it work.
- 19:37Speaker 1: Yeah, So tell me a little bit about how about
- 19:41Speaker 1: the piece of it that talks about his brother's mental health.
- 19:44Speaker 1: In their they sort of like, you know, express it
- 19:47Speaker 1: they felt probably the way he was feeling, although I
- 19:50Speaker 1: don't think any of them talked to each other about it,
- 19:52Speaker 1: but how stigmatized men's mental health can be. And I
- 19:57Speaker 1: thought it was really interesting also the way you portrayed
- 19:59Speaker 1: these guys like the welder, right, and then the guy
- 20:03Speaker 1: that the other brother that was shooting, and the sort
- 20:06Speaker 1: of really physical, physically intense almost it feels it felt
- 20:11Speaker 1: like physically challenging things that they were doing for a living,
- 20:14Speaker 1: all of them. Right, specifically, I was thinking, I don't
- 20:17Speaker 1: know if that's where you're going with the welding, but
- 20:19Speaker 1: that you know, being a man piece of this and
- 20:24Speaker 1: they're having these struggles and not feeling like it was okay,
- 20:28Speaker 1: you know, and not only where to go with those I.
- 20:31Speaker 4: Will say, Phil, who you see welding in the film,
- 20:33Speaker 4: has been He's been promoted, he has.
- 20:36Speaker 3: A great job.
- 20:36Speaker 4: Good. I'm so glad he's you know, his things are
- 20:40Speaker 4: growing great for him. And I'm so glad, you know,
- 20:42Speaker 4: Danny's Danny the other brothers is doing amazing things, building
- 20:47Speaker 4: all sorts of giant things in the middle of the
- 20:49Speaker 4: snow in Alaska.
- 20:50Speaker 3: But yes, I think that's part of the reality.
- 20:52Speaker 4: Look, my dad was a cable splicer for the phone
- 20:54Speaker 4: company and we.
- 20:56Speaker 3: Were really lucky. I was raising a union family.
- 20:58Speaker 4: I was raised with an awareness of, you know, my
- 21:01Speaker 4: identity as a working class person and that being a
- 21:03Speaker 4: good thing. You know, it was a good It was
- 21:06Speaker 4: the best way to be raised in that situation. But
- 21:09Speaker 4: the reality is, when you work that kind of job,
- 21:12Speaker 4: you're donating your body in exchange for money. And we
- 21:14Speaker 4: all are, right, we're all we're all giving our time
- 21:17Speaker 4: in exchange for money. But there's this real physical way
- 21:20Speaker 4: that working class people are doing that.
- 21:21Speaker 3: It's hard on your.
- 21:22Speaker 2: Body, that is what you were showing. Yeah, yeah, with
- 21:26Speaker 2: the welding.
- 21:26Speaker 1: Is that that was the message, right, Like as you
- 21:29Speaker 1: see Biebo lifting luggage all day, welding all day, right,
- 21:32Speaker 1: that's that kind of toil.
- 21:34Speaker 4: And his when you think about what Bibo is doing,
- 21:36Speaker 4: he's what's going on with his knees, with his back
- 21:38Speaker 4: as he enters his thirties. You know, it's like it's
- 21:40Speaker 4: people forget that. People don't when they're on the plane.
- 21:42Speaker 4: They don't look out the window and think that. And
- 21:44Speaker 4: life now is physical and intense and hard, and then
- 21:47Speaker 4: you're supposed to deal with whatever is going on inside
- 21:50Speaker 4: when you're exhausted, you know.
- 21:52Speaker 3: I think that's a unique challenge.
- 21:54Speaker 4: I also think growing up working class is a challenge
- 21:56Speaker 4: that is not specific to men, but is pronounced in men.
- 22:01Speaker 4: Where if you're growing up working class from the ragged
- 22:05Speaker 4: edge of the middle class, right, you got a lot
- 22:08Speaker 4: of just like problems you're dealing with. You're trying to
- 22:10Speaker 4: pay the mortgage, you're trying to figure out the budget
- 22:11Speaker 4: for the groceries, you're trying whatever, and you don't other
- 22:15Speaker 4: there's problems with the medical system, but just a million
- 22:18Speaker 4: things you're dealing with that aren't You can't just throw
- 22:20Speaker 4: money at to solve, and you're trying to take care
- 22:23Speaker 4: of your family and you're trying to work together to
- 22:24Speaker 4: make ends meet, and you just don't want to bother anyone, right,
- 22:27Speaker 4: And there's all this tocal messaging of like, you know what,
- 22:30Speaker 4: we got enough problems. Don't talk about your feelings, man,
- 22:32Speaker 4: and it can lead to some really disastrous places. And
- 22:35Speaker 4: I hope people start to think about, you know that
- 22:40Speaker 4: that needs to change too.
- 22:42Speaker 1: There's this doctor maybe you know I'm his name as
- 22:44Speaker 1: Scott Galloway, Yeah, and just as an aside, but he
- 22:49Speaker 1: talks a lot about this and a lot about these
- 22:52Speaker 1: challenges for men, specifically right now, how impossible a situation
- 22:58Speaker 1: that they're in trying to buy a house, and then
- 23:03Speaker 1: that the mental toll, right, and it I always I
- 23:08Speaker 1: love him. I think he's fascinating, but it just all
- 23:11Speaker 1: of this ties into that it's just a bitch, the
- 23:13Speaker 1: whole thing. And so tell me about this. I have
- 23:16Speaker 1: to ask about the bird. And there were there wasn't
- 23:19Speaker 1: just one bird that just happened, but I felt like
- 23:22Speaker 1: there were birds everywhere in the film, right there.
- 23:24Speaker 4: Was So Phil's the bird that's God set bick And
- 23:28Speaker 4: I actually remember that day I can't remember exactly what
- 23:31Speaker 4: was going on, but something had fallen through. I think
- 23:33Speaker 4: we were supposed to go to a job site and
- 23:35Speaker 4: we couldn't go to his job site, and we were
- 23:37Speaker 4: sort of standing in the driveway being.
- 23:38Speaker 3: Like, what are we going to do? We've had all
- 23:40Speaker 3: these plans, where are we going to go? And then
- 23:42Speaker 3: all of a sudden fells like, oh, there's a dead
- 23:43Speaker 3: bird over there.
- 23:44Speaker 4: I gotta go pick it up, and we were like wait,
- 23:48Speaker 4: and you know, it's a it's a really tragic moment
- 23:51Speaker 4: in the film, but heartbreaking. Yeah, but I think it's
- 23:55Speaker 4: also just it was such kismet or such such my
- 23:59Speaker 4: God moment where I'm like, is this is is there
- 24:02Speaker 4: something from the Great beyond talking to us here?
- 24:05Speaker 1: I have to be honest with you. I didn't know
- 24:06Speaker 1: that you didn't plant it.
- 24:07Speaker 3: No, No, that happened.
- 24:09Speaker 2: I believe you. I was like, it was just so heartbreaking.
- 24:12Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 24:13Speaker 4: I mean we definitely told Bill Phil like pause, let
- 24:16Speaker 4: us get the camera over there.
- 24:18Speaker 2: It was beautiful though.
- 24:20Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it was crazy.
- 24:21Speaker 1: And he seems so taken by it also, right, Yeah,
- 24:23Speaker 1: like you could see that on his face.
- 24:26Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 24:27Speaker 4: I think also, like, you know, my fit when I work.
- 24:29Speaker 4: I'm really close with my editor Emiliano Batista. We've cut
- 24:32Speaker 4: a bunch of films together. And when we were talking
- 24:35Speaker 4: about this early in the edit, he's like, you know,
- 24:37Speaker 4: we still had some shooting off you and he's like,
- 24:38Speaker 4: if it fly, shoot it. So we would schedule in
- 24:41Speaker 4: these moments where I'm like, okay, like let's sit in
- 24:43Speaker 4: this area and try to see if we can get
- 24:44Speaker 4: some birds.
- 24:45Speaker 3: And we'd never get any.
- 24:47Speaker 4: And with Karen in particular, or Andre's at the airport right,
- 24:52Speaker 4: that was crazy. Yeah, and I'm like, someone is this
- 24:56Speaker 4: I don't know, I don't know what I believe, but
- 24:57Speaker 4: is someone messing.
- 24:59Speaker 2: With h bibo? I'd like to I would like to
- 25:02Speaker 2: believe that.
- 25:04Speaker 1: Speaking of his mom on the beach and which was
- 25:06Speaker 1: just just heartbreaking, did you were you road tripping with her?
- 25:10Speaker 3: We went, we went with her up Tomorrow Bay.
- 25:12Speaker 4: She takes a road trip in that car every year,
- 25:15Speaker 4: and you know it's sort of it's usually open ended,
- 25:17Speaker 4: but because we were filming, we're like, okay, Karen, where
- 25:19Speaker 4: do you want to go?
- 25:20Speaker 3: What do you want to do?
- 25:21Speaker 4: And she actually came forward and said I want to
- 25:24Speaker 4: put you know, she she they put Bibo's there's still
- 25:27Speaker 4: they're still in the process of distributing Beebo's ashes, and
- 25:32Speaker 4: so you know, they've gone.
- 25:33Speaker 3: All places all over the world.
- 25:35Speaker 4: His sister's gone on trips and brought them, you know, abroad,
- 25:38Speaker 4: and and she just said to us, hey, well what
- 25:41Speaker 4: would you think if we brought Bibo? And I want
- 25:44Speaker 4: to do that for the film, And so that sort
- 25:46Speaker 4: of shaped the trip.
- 25:48Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a really powerful moment. What about his
- 25:51Speaker 1: wonderful co worker, who Wow, what a doll of a man.
- 25:57Speaker 1: And also just what what actually hit me the most
- 26:01Speaker 1: in terms of his story that he felt so guilty
- 26:06Speaker 1: for not pushing Bibo to join him in, you know,
- 26:10Speaker 1: his new job, that he felt you know, guilt about that,
- 26:13Speaker 1: and which is so sad. And I don't know, it
- 26:16Speaker 1: sounds like they were really close, but he seemed to
- 26:18Speaker 1: have just such perfect insight into Bibo's character and also
- 26:24Speaker 1: what was going on around them both and how just
- 26:27Speaker 1: dirty the whole machine was.
- 26:30Speaker 4: Yeah, Andrea's I hope he ends up working for a
- 26:34Speaker 4: labor union or something at some point, I or running
- 26:38Speaker 4: for president.
- 26:38Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 26:39Speaker 2: He's amazing, He's amazing.
- 26:41Speaker 4: I spoke to a lot of guys that Bibo worked with,
- 26:44Speaker 4: and unfortunately most of them weren't able to come forward
- 26:46Speaker 4: because they hadn't moved on from that job or they
- 26:49Speaker 4: felt concerned about what would happen to their employment. And
- 26:52Speaker 4: I think Andreas did a really beautiful job telling that
- 26:58Speaker 4: story on behalf of all of them. But there are men,
- 27:00Speaker 4: many guys that feel that way, And I think that
- 27:02Speaker 4: guilt that people feel. I think, you know, I've lost
- 27:06Speaker 4: people important to me to suicide, and it's you're you're.
- 27:08Speaker 3: Always left with that. What was the last text ascent?
- 27:10Speaker 3: Why didn't I go get that coffee? Why didn't I
- 27:12Speaker 3: do that? It's a it's a just a sad part
- 27:15Speaker 3: of what suicide does. I think if Bibo.
- 27:19Speaker 4: Knew, I think if he really knew the impact this
- 27:21Speaker 4: would I'm on his mom, on his family, on co
- 27:25Speaker 4: workers like Andreas, on FA people themselves. I don't think
- 27:29Speaker 4: he would have done it. But I think depression monster
- 27:31Speaker 4: and it lies to you, you know.
- 27:33Speaker 1: I I one hundred percent agree. I watched his uh
- 27:37Speaker 1: dear friend from high school that became the doctor. I'm
- 27:39Speaker 1: sorry I don't have I don't have all the names
- 27:41Speaker 1: Chris talking about. Also, like how Bibo if it wasn't
- 27:44Speaker 1: for Bibo flying him, using all of his points and
- 27:46Speaker 1: flying him out to see all of the schools, he
- 27:49Speaker 1: would have never been, you know, maybe never have been
- 27:53Speaker 1: a doctor. And so he seemed like he was also
- 27:55Speaker 1: carrying his own guilt, right, Like, there's got to be
- 28:00Speaker 1: a myriad of emotions. But the Gil piece is hard
- 28:04Speaker 1: to watch because you're looking at these people that are
- 28:05Speaker 1: such wonderful people obviously, you know, and it's so makes
- 28:09Speaker 1: you just feel so awful that they have to carry
- 28:11Speaker 1: this this around. So I'm sure it comes sort of
- 28:14Speaker 1: with the territory of suicide unfortunately. But yeah, I thought
- 28:18Speaker 1: to myself, he is such a great family and he
- 28:20Speaker 1: knows that he does. And so like when you say
- 28:24Speaker 1: he didn't, maybe he didn't know or didn't think through
- 28:26Speaker 1: what it would do to them. He just couldn't bear
- 28:27Speaker 1: life one more second. And I don't know that he
- 28:30Speaker 1: allowed himself to get in touch with, you know, how
- 28:34Speaker 1: his mom was going to feel, how his siblings were
- 28:36Speaker 1: going to feel, how his friends were going to feel,
- 28:37Speaker 1: his wife was going to feel. Because on the plane,
- 28:40Speaker 1: that was what was so chilling, is that I feel
- 28:41Speaker 1: like he was lighthearted and by the way I'm sorry,
- 28:46Speaker 1: I'm excited, so I tend to like just go all
- 28:48Speaker 1: over the place.
- 28:49Speaker 2: Forgive me, I love it, thank you.
- 28:51Speaker 1: So, but why didn't they have somebody a psychiatrist, somebody
- 28:57Speaker 1: they put ground control.
- 28:59Speaker 2: God blessed the guy Andrew.
- 29:00Speaker 1: So why don't they have someone that specialized in mental
- 29:02Speaker 1: health there to talk him down?
- 29:05Speaker 4: I really hope that question gets asked repeatedly and loudly
- 29:10Speaker 4: as this film was released. You know, I think I
- 29:13Speaker 4: think there, I hope the film raises questions about, Yeah,
- 29:17Speaker 4: all the people we see working in this film, Hey.
- 29:20Speaker 3: Well, how do we make these things better? How can
- 29:23Speaker 3: we make these things easier?
- 29:24Speaker 4: What are these people's experiences, whether that's the guys that
- 29:28Speaker 4: are loading your luggage or the guys that are directing
- 29:30Speaker 4: the planes. I think that's a really important question and
- 29:33Speaker 4: we should ask it.
- 29:34Speaker 2: That was a big ask of him.
- 29:35Speaker 1: I felt for him, and I felt I felt for
- 29:39Speaker 1: the manager her name, and talking about how afterwards she's
- 29:43Speaker 1: like go home.
- 29:45Speaker 2: Or no, don't go home, come staying with you.
- 29:47Speaker 1: It was so traumatic for all of them obviously, But yeah,
- 29:50Speaker 1: I mean, especially in that line of work, you would
- 29:52Speaker 1: think that anything could happen. You're up in the sky.
- 29:54Speaker 1: Don't you need mental health professionals? On hand, I don't know. Yeah,
- 29:59Speaker 1: I thought that was that was weird and sad, and
- 30:03Speaker 1: I'm sure it took its toll on him.
- 30:05Speaker 3: Those people go through a lot.
- 30:07Speaker 1: Yeah, there are so many interesting things about this, and
- 30:24Speaker 1: I think when you know this already, but one of
- 30:26Speaker 1: the most interesting parts of this for me was when
- 30:28Speaker 1: he said he didn't get the promotion because he was
- 30:30Speaker 1: a white guy. And but the way that that translated, right,
- 30:34Speaker 1: and his sibly that's saying no, no, no, and his coworkers,
- 30:39Speaker 1: let's not turn this in to he was a racist.
- 30:42Speaker 2: That's not who he was at all.
- 30:44Speaker 1: And he that was a message that he was sent
- 30:48Speaker 1: as to why he didn't get the job. That didn't
- 30:51Speaker 1: come from his thought patterns or you know, his you know,
- 30:56Speaker 1: his belief system comes from somebody else's who said that
- 31:00Speaker 1: to him. But the way it probably and I guess
- 31:02Speaker 1: that's why, was that snippet part of how this got
- 31:05Speaker 1: politicized for sure, because I don't remember hearing that.
- 31:08Speaker 4: I remember the first time I heard it, and I
- 31:11Speaker 4: heard it after I'd heard a bunch of the other audio.
- 31:13Speaker 4: My heart kind of sank because, like, let us be frank.
- 31:15Speaker 4: It did not sound great without context, right, but when.
- 31:20Speaker 3: It was approached with such assumptive, sort of.
- 31:26Speaker 4: In a just assumptive way, that people didn't say, gee,
- 31:29Speaker 4: why is this kind of it doesn't sound like the
- 31:31Speaker 4: rest of the stuff he's saying. He sounds like a
- 31:33Speaker 4: nice guy, sounds concerned about pay, sounds concerned about all
- 31:35Speaker 4: his coworkers, and then there's this thing that sounds really bad.
- 31:38Speaker 4: What does it mean? And they didn't go find that
- 31:41Speaker 4: story that this was. You know, he told people something
- 31:44Speaker 4: that was said to him. And further, Andreas, his coworker,
- 31:47Speaker 4: provides a lot of context about well, why why it
- 31:50Speaker 4: might be advantageous for people to foster that belief? Why
- 31:55Speaker 4: it might be Yeah, of course, right, it's just stoke
- 31:59Speaker 4: white even in order to achieve their ins And of
- 32:02Speaker 4: course it's all that stuff is opinion, you know, people's experience.
- 32:06Speaker 4: But I think it's really important to listen to Andreas's
- 32:08Speaker 4: words about this because I think there's an important message there.
- 32:12Speaker 1: Yes, it's sort of like you are white trash message
- 32:15Speaker 1: that he he got, you know, not even subliminally, I
- 32:19Speaker 1: don't know, but there are so many interesting talking points
- 32:23Speaker 1: messages in this film. I just what do you what
- 32:27Speaker 1: would be your wish in terms of what viewers take away.
- 32:29Speaker 1: I know there's a lot that you want them to
- 32:30Speaker 1: take away, But is there, you know, anything for you
- 32:35Speaker 1: that you really profoundly want people to hear.
- 32:38Speaker 3: Yeah. I think for me it's two main things.
- 32:40Speaker 4: The there's there's something about how working people, how how
- 32:46Speaker 4: I think we all really need to cooperate and get
- 32:50Speaker 4: together and look at what we share in common. Right,
- 32:54Speaker 4: this is a movie where you look at somebody like
- 32:56Speaker 4: Danny Bibo's brother with the who's at the shooting range
- 33:00Speaker 4: and you know, and Andreas, and you'd say, these people
- 33:03Speaker 4: don't have anything in common ones this end of the
- 33:05Speaker 4: political spectrum.
- 33:05Speaker 3: Ones, this end of the political spectrum, they are not
- 33:07Speaker 3: for me.
- 33:08Speaker 1: The one which one was wearing the Maga hat. That's Danny, Yes.
- 33:11Speaker 4: But actually, if you really listen to them, they're saying
- 33:14Speaker 4: a lot of the same things. And it's been amazing
- 33:17Speaker 4: to see them speak in public about this. And you know,
- 33:20Speaker 4: it's it's silly, but the way it was said to
- 33:22Speaker 4: me when I was growing up, anybody who knows what
- 33:24Speaker 4: a bread sandwich tastes like, they're your friend.
- 33:26Speaker 3: It doesn't matter who they are.
- 33:28Speaker 1: Wow, I love that. I'm absolutely going to use that.
- 33:31Speaker 1: Believe Oh, I may get right now, I've got to
- 33:35Speaker 1: copyright it. Go on.
- 33:37Speaker 4: So I feel like we have to think about that
- 33:39Speaker 4: to solve these problems about the housing crisis, and also
- 33:42Speaker 4: about mental health and about you know, a whole bunch
- 33:45Speaker 4: of factors just going to the grocery store, going to
- 33:47Speaker 4: the gas seat, like where we should be on each
- 33:48Speaker 4: other's team. And we got to find a way to
- 33:50Speaker 4: do that. While we disagree about other things, there are
- 33:53Speaker 4: a lot of things we have in common, and we
- 33:55Speaker 4: got to be in the same boat. And we got
- 33:57Speaker 4: to be skeptical of people who want us to feel
- 34:00Speaker 4: like we're enemies, because those are usually people who don't
- 34:02Speaker 4: have those problems.
- 34:03Speaker 3: So I hope people feel that.
- 34:05Speaker 4: But most importantly, I hope people watch this film and think,
- 34:08Speaker 4: you know what, I got to call my buddy and
- 34:10Speaker 4: ask if he's okay, or when their buddy calls them
- 34:13Speaker 4: and says, hey, hey man, how you doing that they
- 34:15Speaker 4: feel at liberty to answer that question more honestly or
- 34:18Speaker 4: even say, you know what, it's not weak in me
- 34:20Speaker 4: if I need to go get some help. That I
- 34:22Speaker 4: think would be the grand slam. I think that's the
- 34:24Speaker 4: legacy his family really wanted to leave and why they
- 34:28Speaker 4: came and did this painful, difficult thing, because that's that's
- 34:33Speaker 4: and I think that's what people would have wanted.
- 34:35Speaker 1: You know, me too, me too, A little bit in
- 34:38Speaker 1: all of you. I may have a little bit of
- 34:39Speaker 1: a crush on you. I think you ought to be
- 34:41Speaker 1: such a good work. No, because you know what it is.
- 34:43Speaker 1: I watch a lot of Scott Galloway and that message
- 34:46Speaker 1: I don't don't I don't hear it in many places, right,
- 34:48Speaker 1: but because I'm a fan of his and he's my algorithm,
- 34:50Speaker 1: it comes up a lot. And just how hopeless, you know,
- 34:56Speaker 1: our youth is today because there's no they don't a chance, right,
- 35:01Speaker 1: Like just getting just buying a house today is absolutely
- 35:04Speaker 1: impossible for what ninety percent of young people. So anyway,
- 35:10Speaker 1: and I love talking about how we're just drawn to
- 35:14Speaker 1: a certain side and we're being manipulated. I could go
- 35:16Speaker 1: on and on, but I'm sure you have things to do.
- 35:18Speaker 1: But I love the film really, Thank you so much.
- 35:21Speaker 4: I mean, I just it's such a pleasure when I
- 35:23Speaker 4: get to set with people like you who just get it.
- 35:26Speaker 3: You know, I have to say thank you, thank you
- 35:28Speaker 3: so much,