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They Thought I Would Fail But I Proved Them Wrong Feat James Quattrochi · Harder Than Life

• 0:07
  I'm Kelly Siegel, and this is Harder Than Life, a podcast about self-love, self-awareness, business, and health. We tell outrageous stories and boil everything down to simple, practical advice you can start using today. Let's get living.
• 0:23
  What is up, Hatterton Life Nation? It's Kelly Siegel here, crushing limits and optimizing lives one breakthrough at a time. Today, we're leveling up with James Quattrochi, the relentless actor, producer, and director who's turned Hollywood hurdles into a legacy of grit. From indie triumphs to dominating the Tulsa King and the family business, proving that unbreakable discipline and authentic hustle build empires that last. Welcome.
• 0:47
  James, welcome to Harder Than Life and let's dive deep, optimize your story, and inspire the nation to rise united. Wow, I mean, I hope I can live up to what you just said about me. That was pretty awesome. I'll need to use some of that at some point.
• 1:02
  Before we hit record, we were breaking down what your name means. It means four eyes. But what does that mean to you? Well, besides I wear glasses. The funny, just real quick. When I went to Sicily, I started walking around and there was Quattrochi Square and Quattrochi Bank. And I'm like, wow, my name actually means something. And I was in a restaurant and I put my credit card down. And the waiter looked at the name. He said, Minga Quattrochi. And next thing you know, I'm getting dessert and espresso and more wine. It was pretty cool.
• 1:33
  Does it mean that you see things that others don't? Man, I used to. I need to try to get that back. There was a time where I was a little bit more clairvoyant and then life got in the way.
• 1:47
  I don't know, man. And doing the show prep for you, I was reading through your story. It's pretty remarkable on how you were able to say no to certain things, say yes to certain things. And it even threw me for a crazy person what an auteur is. I had to look up and see what an auteur, because it said you're in a director. You're an auteur, which is someone who actually sets the creative vision. So, yeah.
• 2:11
  That's how I was like, hmm. So knowing that you have four eyes, let's talk about your early childhood. We've all got this hidden childhood hustle that first sparks us. So what was yours that sparked your unbreakable drive to conquer Hollywood? I was diagnosed extremely dyslexic. Wow. And this is gospel truth. They literally didn't think I would get out of high school.
• 2:37
  And I remember my father had a hardware store in the Bronx, New York. I was born in the Bronx. And he said to one of his workers one day,
• 2:44
  Can you kind of try to teach him his skills? I don't know what I'm gonna do with this kid. And my father and I are very close. I love my dad dearly, but that hurt, man. So I got through high school and I applied to college and I got accepted and I said, you know what? I'm gonna fool everybody. And literally I had to study in the library, lock myself up in a quiet, quiet library corner
• 3:09
  and study for six, seven hours a day. But I graduated and I graduated with a 3.0, which is a B, all right, it's not great, 4.0 is great. But I graduated and surprised everybody. Well, what that did for me was that taught me that if I put my mind to something, I can do it.
• 3:26
  And honestly, from there, I had a construction company. I opened a dry cleaner. I opened a fitness center. I opened a tanning salon. I had a blues and jazz club in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. And people were like astonished. And I was like, you know what? I just needed confidence. I just needed a head start. And because everybody told me I was stupid my whole life. Wow. My stepdad did that to me over and over and over. I said, never amount to nothing. I'm stupid. I can't figure things out. Boy, does that...
• 3:53
  that drives me today. If I ever want to get angry, just think of that voice and then just get out of the way. I'm coming for you. You know, and you surprised me with this question. I had no idea we were going to talk about dyslexia. But guys, if you are dyslexic, you can overcome it. You just have to really focus and work hard and be steadfast, be determined. And so that allowed me to write scripts. It allowed me to...
• 4:20
  When I did Young and a Wrestler, I had 20, 25 pages of dialogue a day, and I was able to get through it and then to be able to produce and direct movies. And so I consider myself no longer dyslexic.
• 4:37
  Well, James, you can say anything you want, but all we ever trying to do is we're just trying to pay it forward. I want to make sure that the listeners get something. It's not necessarily just entertainment. They could take something away from it. That five minutes in is a bomb. You can overcome anything. You can be on Tulsa King 2.
• 4:58
  Congratulations on that, by the way, sir. I literally love Tulsa King. Who knew that Sylvester Stallone at 142 years old could be a star again? Well, he's 79 as of July 6th. I'm on set with him. He runs around like a teenager. He's got bigger biceps than me, which pisses me off. He does it all. He directs. He writes. He produces. He acts.
• 5:22
  And he's extremely kind, extremely professional. And he's got the number one show on cable. I mean, go figure. It's unbelievable. Wait a minute. You look young as can be, too. So you must be doing something. How are you keeping yourself looking all young and svelte? I think it's the Italian jeans and definitely the red wine. The red wine.
• 5:44
  All right. So let's talk about this making choices. So how did dumping early acting gigs? So what you say yes to you're actually saying no to other things. So how did dumping early acting gigs for producing reshape your mindset on owning your narrative?
• 6:00
  When the universe opened up to me and it just presented directing, writing, producing to me, the first time I ever produced a movie, it was the most frightening thing I ever did because I borrowed money from friends and family. And for people who know me, they know if I borrow money from you, I have to pay it back.
• 6:18
  I have to pay it back. It's personal. It's religious for me. I produced my first movie. It was the most frightening thing in the world. It was with the Green Book people, the people that made Green Book. I've made five movies with them now. Oh, that's so good. That book was so good. Yeah.
• 6:32
  Nick Valanga and my dad and his dad, Tony the Lip in Green Book, grew up with my dad in the Bronx. And we were all on Goodfellas where I got my sad card. And that's how we all met. Nick and I became friends and I started producing movies with him. So we produced that movie together in 1994. Most frightening thing I ever did. 1998, two other friends came to me. So let's make a movie. I go, no, I don't ever want to make another movie again.
• 6:54
  Since then, I've made 21 and directed 10, but they convinced me. And I'll just tell you a very quick story. I wrote the screenplay in 12 days with a buddy. And when I wrote in Fate to Black, I don't know what it was. You talked about, you know, did you have vision? Did you have things when you were younger?
• 7:14
  This energy overcame me and I started crying. Nice. For no reason. For no reason. And I'm like, what is going on? And my buddy looked at me and goes, are you okay? I go, yeah, I'm okay. And then I swear to you, as I talk to you, as God is my witness, I heard a voice.
• 7:30
  And we've all had that. You get that little intuition voice. You hear it in your ears. Like, did someone just say something to me? And it said, you have to direct this movie. So I looked at my friend and I said, I have to direct this movie. And he goes, bro, what do you know about directing? I go, absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. But I know I have to do it. And that was the start of my directing career. Martin Scorsese started my acting career. So to answer your question,
• 7:58
  that you asked because I was behind the camera and directing and producing and writing. It gave me the strength or the wisdom to be able to say no. Now, one funny story is my agent called me and she said, I have a guest star for you to read on CBS. And it's an arc. It's recurring. I go, you kidding me?
• 8:22
  She says, yes. And I said, well, what's the character? She goes, well, he's a janitor in his school. I'm like, I can play janitor. He says, yeah, and that night he's a male stripper. I said, what? Yeah, and you have to, do you mind wearing a G-string? And I said, you serious? He said, yes. I said, honey.
• 8:43
  No one on this planet wants to see me ever in a G-string. So I turned it down. And those are the kind of crazy things that I would get from my agent, my manager. And I would go, nah, I'm going to pass on this one. We'll get something better. James, you said the universe opened up. I'm detecting a spirituality out of you. Dig into that a little more. Bear it all for us. When I moved to California, it was very lonely.
• 9:11
  I literally did not know a soul when I first knew Delaware. And I left this Italian family and, you know, there was food on the table and, you know, I had no problem with finances. And then you're out there and it's like, oh, my God, you know, I'm starting to burn through some money here. I haven't worked in a year, almost two years. I need to get a job.
• 9:32
  So I started waiting tables. And I started reading the Bible, because I was lonely. And then after that, I started meditating. And I went to school, teachers training, to be able to teach yoga. And I became a yoga instructor.
• 9:46
  And I just learned about affirmation and putting stuff out, positive thoughts, no negative thoughts into the universe. Because what you put out there comes back at you, according to philosophy. And I started just really on a more positive tear. That doesn't mean I don't get negative, but I tend to catch myself now. And so, oh, I got to stop that. That's wrong, right?
• 10:10
  And I would I would envision almost like daydream, like envision seeing myself working on a set, seeing myself on that. Listen, when I saw Tulsa King first season, I said to myself, I really want to be on the show. And my agent called me. I read for four characters. They gave me the biggest one the same week I read for Blue Bloods. I got Blue Bloods.
• 10:32
  And I'll tell you about how I really believe what you put out there and the intuition you're talking about. Do you remember the Elian Gonzalez story? No. All right. Elian was a kid whose mother put him in a tire tube in Cuba. And she was in a boat, but she didn't survive. And they came from Cuba to America. And I'm not making sense. The dolphins pushed him to shore. Yeah, I do remember this now.
• 11:01
  I was in Florida when that happened, when Janet Reno and Clinton gave Janet Reno the OK and he broke into the house and he kidnapped this kid and they brought him back to Cuba. This kid that made it all the way past the sharks and by some miracle made it to America. And I was watching it. It was Easter Sunday. I was watching it at my sister's house. And just again, that voice, I said, they're going to make this into a movie and I'm going to play that guy. I played Donato the Fisherman.
• 11:30
  So I was back in New York in two weeks. My man, Fox, 20th Century Fox, jumped on this movie of the week really fast. It was two weeks. Agent calls me. You got a reading for Donato for Elian Gonzalez's story. I'm like, that voice again.
• 11:45
  I had to go back to LA. I went to a producer session. It was like 20 people in the room, the head of Fox, everybody. And yeah, it's a little nerve wracking, by the way, especially early in your career. It's like, oh my God, I'm in front of the network, right? I'm in front of the network. I did the audition and I nailed it. If I sucked on the audition, I would just walk out with my tail between my legs and say, thank you and left. But I know I nailed this audition.
• 12:08
  And I went to leave and I stopped and I turned around and I looked at everybody and they were like, oh boy, here's another actor. And I said, I saw this on the news Easter Sunday when they did this. And I said to myself, they're going to make this into a movie the weekend. I'm going to play that guy. Thank you very much. And I left a riddle.
• 12:26
  And the next morning, my agent called me and said, they loved you, they bought you. So I got to play with Donato, the fisherman. I feel an energy with you. And the funny thing about it to my listeners, I'm starting to sense a common theme about spirituality. Everybody's meditating now, everybody. I haven't missed a day this year. I thought it was the weirdest thing. And all it does, the days that I miss, I haven't this year, but if I do, last year,
• 12:55
  I feel off. It's like a pruning thing for me. Just a 10 minute guided meditation. And your story is remarkable, because you grew up, you were told you weren't smart, and you have just constantly overcome everything, and you leaned in to everything. So guys, this is a successful Hollywood actor,
• 13:17
  telling you step by step how to be successful? Well, I try to pay it back. You used the word payback. I try to lecture in schools, you know, young actors that are coming here from getting the best pictures to how to advance your career to how to get an agent, how to get a manager. Yeah.
• 13:33
  And listen, I made a lot of mistakes in my career. I try to stop these young kids from making the same mistakes and give them a head start. They don't listen. Some do. But I've given away about 40 sad cards. Martin Scorsese gave me my sad card on Goodfellas, and he said, don't let it go to waste.
• 13:50
  And I've given away at least 40 to people who said, I really need my set card. I said, okay, I'll do what I can do if I'm producing the movie, if I'm in the position to do it. And when Marty gave my set card and he said to me, don't let it go to waste. When I directed my first film,
• 14:05
  very famous crooner, Jerry Vale, who sang with Sinatra and Dean Martin. Everybody knows Jerry Vale. He said, give me, because he became a good friend of mine, gave me music for the movie. He said, give me that movie. I'm going to send it to Marty and write a letter. And I did. And son of a gun, man, about six months went by. I get a letter in the mail from Martin Scorsese.
• 14:24
  Saying how much he enjoyed my, you know, my curatorial debut. And it was an incredible first effort. And I created a time and a place. And I still have it. It's on my desk. I look at it every day. Every day. And then I say this to myself. It's a quote from Harrison Ford. Ooh, listen to this, guys. This is huge now. The only difference between them and me is I stayed one more day.
• 14:53
  And I keep that close to my heart and everybody else out there because tomorrow can change your life in an incredible abundant way. You just gave me chills. I say most won't, I will. Most won't, I will. I think that's a humble upbringings. You went to Martin Scorsese and how did that endorsement – wait, let me stop for a second. Okay.
• 15:17
  How does that SAG card work? I think I know, but how does that work? Because you went in that and you're making a big deal. And I can tell it is. Just tell us how it works. Well, you could do non-union work. But if you want to join a union, you have to either get a line on a movie or TV show. Or you need to get three vouchers. Three vouchers are if you're an extra...
• 15:40
  And you're non-union and one of the SAG extras doesn't show up and they bump you up because SAG says you have to have a certain amount of SAG extras and then the rest could be non-union. So if they bump you up, you get a voucher. If they bump you up three different times, you take those vouchers and go join SAG.
• 15:58
  And once you get it, you're life. You're in for life. Unless you're Will Smith. No, he's still in sex. But as long as you pay your dues, you have to pay your dues twice a year. Twice a year. Wait, didn't they? They suspended him for 10 years, though, right? No, no. I paid dues, man. No, no, no. Will Smith. We were just laughing about it. I was just teasing him. Will Smith? Didn't he get... I think that was the Academy suspended him, not Screen Actors Guild. Oh, oh. The Academy is pretty pissed at him for doing what he did on stage to Chris Rock.
• 16:27
  Insane. Insane. We won't even go to, cause this is so good. I want to stay down this path. So Martin Scorsese's endorsement letter became your secret weapon against self-doubt. That's what I'm picking up. Is that what, because we were talking about it and then we kind of went right into that. Is that true? Did that kind of give you that oomph? Yeah. And, and, and continues to do, do that and everything else that I've done for the last 33 years of my career when I started,
• 16:53
  You got to remember, I used to do like grammar school plays and summer camp plays, and then I shoveled it for a long time. So I got back into it in a weird way. I had went through a divorce and my mother finds an article in the newspaper looking for extras and Ghostbusters part two.
• 17:10
  I went down. It was an overnight shoot. It was Manhattan. It was 10 degrees below zero. I came home. She said, how was it? I thought it was the best. Next thing, the penicillin, man. I said, I love it. And I'm going to be an actor, Ma. And she looked at me. She goes, I sent you to school to get an education. It doesn't matter, Ma. I'm going to be an actor. You sent me down there and I loved it. And here I am. So we could blame that on my mom.
• 17:34
  Well, you know, I didn't have parents that did anything for me. So that makes my heart warm. And I love that. I love hearing that. Yeah, she was an angel. She really, mom and dad were married 60 years. And I know they're up there somewhere smiling because I was definitely the entertainment of the family.
• 17:51
  60 years, bro. So, yeah, congratulations. 60 years of anything is amazing. So one more question about the director and leaning into being afraid. So what's the untold war story from directing true friends that tested your limits like never before since we were on that topic? Oh, did you find that somewhere? Did someone tell you this story? I can't believe you asked me this.
• 18:18
  Oh, man, you found me. All right, here we go. I'm on True Friends. It's my first day as a director. Okay? Mm-hmm. I do 48 setups with two cameras with kids. So if you don't know how it works, 48 setups...
• 18:42
  in a day on a movie is incredible, especially your first day ever directing a movie. Right.
• 18:49
  And with kids, because you could only have kids a certain amount of time, and they have to go back to school. We have school on the set. And we're filming this Catholic church. I get through the day, and it was April Fool's Day. I'll never forget, it was April 1st. Totally. Like, the gods lined up against me. You ready? The next morning, I come in, and my DP, which stands for Director of Photography, Jeff Boust, dear friend, comes in my trailer, and he says, Jamie, I just heard from the lab...
• 19:18
  There's no image on the negative. I'm like, yeah, April Fool's Day. He goes, no, man, I'm really serious. I thought somebody hit me with a cannonball. I collapsed on the couch. I put my face in my hands, and I really didn't know what to think or what to do. Here I am, my first day out, and I'm a day behind. And I don't have a lot of money to make this movie. So...
• 19:45
  We figured out why. And what happened was one of the camera assistants put a special armature wheel after he cleaned it in the wrong way. And that made the emulsion side go through on the reverse side. So we were recording on the wrong side of the negative.
• 20:04
  If you know one side of the negative has emulsion on it. And so I had to go to the sister who ran the church and plead with her to give me another day and explain to her what happened. She was so gracious. She's no charge. You could have as much time as you need. So that tried my directing skills out.
• 20:27
  More than anything, because again, day one, I'm a day behind. And again, we have limited funds to make this small independent film called True Friends. Are you surprised that it was hard? Isn't everything good hard? You know what? It does make you better.
• 20:45
  does make you better when you overcome something like I could do anything now dad throw it at me give it to me I could deal with it ah man you just hit me right in the gut because that's true I when it gets hard I that's just when I start it's like let's go it if it's easy I'm like whatever so the harder the better um let's start let's lighten it up a little bit have a little fun with you so what's the most ridiculous on set blooper with a big star like Michael Madsen
• 21:13
  Which, by the way, didn't he just recently pass away? Yeah, Michael passed away about two weeks ago. I put him in two movies. He was incredible. You had to pay him with cash and a paperback. You're kidding me! He was a character. Oh, no, I didn't make that up.
• 21:28
  But he was the sweetheart on the set, man. He really, really liked me. You know, and he talks like this, Jamie, come on, let's do another movie. I need a job. You know, he had that deep voice. And listen, he was the star. I mean, you know, Quentin Tarantino loves him. Quentin puts him in everything.
• 21:46
  So let's switch over to Tulsa King because that's what you're promoting right now. And congratulations on the Emmy. I absolutely love it. I never miss it. So how has co-starring on the Tulsa King rewritten your rules for freedom and happiness?
• 22:00
  Oh, it allows me a little bit more financial freedom. You know, the funny thing is you were talking about happiness. It was stressful because at the same time I'm doing Tulsa King in Atlanta, I'm doing the family business in Los Angeles. And I've got to fly every week back and forth. And what my agents and managers and I and I have a great team, but we were all stressed out about is what happens if the days overlap?
• 22:27
  Like, what do you do? Do you do family business or do you do Tulsa King? And you're going to upset one or the other. Thank God that did not happen. But it was stressful. As far as freedom, you know what? I'll give you this. Blue Bloods, Tulsa King and family business in the last two seasons –
• 22:46
  have opened the doors for me, and now, you know, the show's nominated for an Emmy, so that's huge, his second year in a row, where people are calling and they're inquiring, is he available? Would he do this? Would he do that? So to answer your question, the caliber of,
• 23:05
  Blue Bloods, Tulskine, and Family Business opened up the doors and they gave me a lot of freedom, a lot of creative freedom to pick and choose what I really want to do. What I really want to do right now, I want to play an undercover detective on a one-hour dramatic show on network. But something really cool with a lot of depth and a lot of conflict. You just put it out in the universe, so it's going to happen. I would never tell you, man. You're going to help it. You're going to help it because I'm on this great podcast with you. I always say...
• 23:35
  Money doesn't make you happy, but happiness will make you money. So Denzel Washington has a quote for you. He says, money doesn't buy happiness, but it really is a heck of a down payment. And I think that's because, hey, that's Denzel, not me. That's exactly what you just said. That basically leads into what you just said.
• 23:58
  Oh, that's freaking funny. We'll just get some personal stuff. I mean, not personal, it's family. So how did fatherhood during All In's production force you to optimize your life beyond the set? Because we didn't really talk about your family yet.
• 24:12
  Mike Madsen was in that was in that movie. We had Dominic Swain had my friend Lou Gossett, Jr. Lou Gossett was it was in the movie and he is I mean, he's passed away, too. But he was one of the kindest, most incredible actor. And so I put Lou in two movies, you know, and I became very friendly with him. You know, we got very close. He was he was a really good man.
• 24:37
  So I think during that time, did you have a baby? What was going on in your family? There's something that I wrote down in here about fatherhood for you. Were you juggling something or what was going on there? Was something difficult? Man, you do great research. My mom had to have open heart surgery. So I literally got off the set, jumped on the plane, landed. I remember I had to get a haircut and run to the hospital. And I fell asleep in a barber's chair.
• 25:05
  literally fell asleep it's like when the haircut was over they woke me up went in saw mom she was wonderful uh she did great and i stayed home for two or three weeks i helped change the bandages and clean everything up and really you know nurse her uh my dad would have his hands full doing that so i stayed and helped out so besides that there's one more other story we were filming in a casino
• 25:35
  Thank you.
• 25:36
  you know, what kind of story. And they said, you can't film on the main floor anymore because you did this and that wrong. We didn't do anything wrong. So I said, I have to finish the movie. Well, you could have the banquet room upstairs. So I literally got home from set at seven in the morning, got the phone call, back on set in the casino at 10 a.m. And I had to create a casino in a banquet room or make it look like a casino in 10 hours. And we did it.
• 26:06
  We did it. You literally are the definition of harder than life. You overcome adversity like it's nothing. I wish I would have had a question that would be like something simple and easy. Oh, that was easy. But it's just remarkable. I want people to understand this isn't Hollywood actor successful. It just keeps telling you that life keeps throwing him lemons and he's making lemonade over and over and over again. But you don't go as far as you've gone without some sort of betrayal.
• 26:32
  So what lesser known betrayal in the industry taught you the power of radical accountability? Oh, listen, man, I've made movies with people and we've had a falling out. They've literally said to me, I'm going to make sure you never work in this town again. I'm like, did you say that? So cliche. There was another crazy guy. I'm not going to mention his name, but so he introduced me.
• 26:59
  To Kevin and Sam Sorbo. He says, and I went for an interview. And Kevin, by the way, was Hercules on the Hercules series, if you remember. He was a phenomenal actor, writer, and great director. So I interviewed with Kevin, and it went great. And he hires me to produce a movie called Let There Be Light, a faith-based movie. I've done three faith-based movies with Kevin Sorbo.
• 27:23
  On the set, the guy that introduced me to him and he was from Alabama and he said, you know, well, are you going to give me a producer credit? I said, that's not up to me. That's up to the Sorbo. So I asked the Sorbo. They said, no, he made a phone call. I said, I got to give him a job. I got to give him a job. So I give this guy a job.
• 27:43
  And I say, OK, well, listen, you know, you got to get here. You're going to do this, that and the other thing. And he comes in and he hands me a bag of receipts. I go, what's this? He goes, well, you know, to get here, I had to put gas in the car, lunch, whatever. I said, all right. I handed the bag of receipts into accounting. And accounting calls me in the office like, I don't know, a half hour later. And I'm like, did you OK this or not? I didn't OK anything. I need you to go through it.
• 28:06
  It was like, there was like receipts for, you know, an auto parts store for six months prior and Home Depot for like nine months ago for wood. And I pulled the kid aside. I said,
• 28:18
  You got to be kidding me, right? Like, you can't do this. So then we continued going on. I would ask him to send in his invoice for his first week or second week work. And he would, instead of putting like $1,500, he put $15,000 down. I'm like, dude, do you really think accounting is that stupid? And they're going to pay you? Long story short, after all this and after I protected him the whole time, we got done with the movie.
• 28:41
  He calls up the Sorbo's and tries to sabotage me and saying, you know, James did this and James did that, which was never true. And the Sorbo's know me, and we went on to make two other movies after that. So needless to say, I never talk to him again, but that's just...
• 28:57
  That's just how some people in our business works. You know, when it comes to money and it comes to fame and it comes to getting work again, they're bad. And I would say out of any union and, you know, including Screen Actors Guild, I think the closest...
• 29:15
  Group of people who rely on each other and won't stab each other in the back is the stunt performers. Because their lives rely on each other. And they love each other. And they're so close. And I work so closely with so many of them. And I've given them work. And they've given me work. I take a little note from them and how they treat each other. And I try to treat other people like that.
• 29:38
  Yeah, I can feel the good energy out of you. I want to correct you. I will tell you, I've been in many businesses like you, but I believe that when you involve money, it brings out the worst in people. And I've been, the list is long and distinguished of people that have, have,
• 29:55
  taking shots at me that have tried to screw me up and I just keep going and going. It never even bothers me. And I, I had to sit with an old friend yesterday and he was telling me stories and I'd forgotten about them. He's like, man, you just forget and move on. And it's having that short memory, you know, and you just move on. So it sounds like that's what you do. So I don't know where we got these questions, but some of them are so good at that. I can't even ask you that. You guys are sweet.
• 30:20
  scaring me i'm afraid to hear the next question okay here's this one this one's funny because i'm i this one's gonna be funny what forgotten physical ritual from filming the nail built your unbreakable resilience what did you do now james no it's a boxing movie and i was showing off a little bit and i hit the back cue i sprained my hand how do you know about that
• 30:46
  It was the good. The Nails, the great movie. Tony Luke Jr. It was great. Tony Danza. And we have Leo Rossi in it. Dianata Torres. Miss Universe from Puerto Rico. It's great cast. So much fun making that movie. I was in Philadelphia for four months. Great food. Great people. Definitely the city of brotherly love. And I just, I miss Philly, man. What has kept you with your staying power? What's the number one thing that has kept you in this business for so long? I love it.
• 31:14
  love for what I do. They have a saying. They say, if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. So in the last 33 years in this business, I haven't worked. I just played and do what I love to do. I'm going to throw a spin on that and you run with this. If you love yourself, you will love everything else.
• 31:40
  Man, that is so important. You know, like I see so many relationships. We're just going to jump into relationships for a minute. I know why certain relationships don't work is because one or both are broken.
• 31:55
  If you're whole and you love yourself and you love people around you and you're a good person and you're forgiving and understanding and you're patient and all the virtues that come with that, you'll be successful in a marriage. Marriage has its doors you have to go through and you have the stumbling blocks, whatever. But yeah, it starts with self-love. You're 100% right. And surrounding yourself with people that build you up and don't.
• 32:21
  Zap your energy and tear you down. My grandmother used to say, show me somebody's friends and I'll tell you about the person. You can meet somebody doing the wrong thing all the time. There comes a time when you got to fill them with love and cut them loose. Oh, man. That's a...
• 32:44
  That is so true. It's cutting out the noise. And they say people are in your life for a season or a reason. I don't believe many people are going to be there for a lifetime. I think it's a season and a reason.
• 32:55
  And as you're growing, not everybody's meant to grow with you. Nobody's going to make it there. So, man, you're dropping some wisdom in between these great stories. Well, you have to do that with family members, right? You have to – unfortunately, when it comes down to it, in some cases, you have to cut loose family members. You're like, okay, I'm done. I did it to my mother. That's why I got all weepy when you said I don't talk to my mother.
• 33:19
  She brought me into this world. I'm grateful. Thank you. Stay the heck away from me. Sorry. It's just too much. They were not good people. But I'm okay with that. I've made peace with it. I'm very grateful that she didn't abort me. She could have. I'm here for a reason. I'm going to make a freaking dent. And I got you on the show. This is awesome. So let's talk about demons. I got a lot of them. The inner demons. So...
• 33:45
  Again, I hate to throw this, how I mince this in, but how did the Sinatra Club's monster vibes mirror your own battles with inner demons? Man, I mean, that was interesting. I was approached by a couple of producers and to do a story about Sal. And Sal was on with his protection program. They called him U-Bots. And in Italian, U-Bots means you're crazy.
• 34:10
  Oh, he's who Bob's, which means he's crazy. Oh, I'm going to run around and say that now. Man, this guy was freaking crazy. But I liked him. And we used to cook Italian food in pre-production. And we rewrote the script together. And...
• 34:25
  Actually, it was about John Gotti and this guy, Sal Polisi. And I was like, okay. And he was on witness protection program because he went on the witness stand against John Gotti. So when I'm going to tell this guy's story, who's also telling a story about John Gotti, I had a friend.
• 34:45
  He was married to Angel Gotti, John Gotti's daughter, but they were divorced. So I went to him, sweetheart of a guy. We had the same birthday.
• 34:55
  And I said, listen, I want to make this movie. Can you find out if it's okay? And so he made some calls back east for probably, you know, John Jr. and whoever. He got back to me. He said, yes, but you have to give this one kid his SAG card. And the kid's father was connected and the kid was a sweetheart. I gave him his SAG card and hopefully he's using it and he's making it work for himself.
• 35:21
  I haven't seen him in a long time, but we made the movie. And then when the movie was over and it was out, John Jr. got upset with me. Oh, and because I was like, well, wait a minute. Your brother-in-law said it was OK. He never came to me.
• 35:39
  ever came to me because I started doing the Gotti movie. I put together the Gotti movie with the finance people and the Gotti family through this brother-in-law. We had to break bread and we had to make peace. How did that, how did that bring up your inner demons? Were you scared? Was there a time, something, a part of you that, or did you feel like you've left some felt left somebody down or what, what was it bringing up inside of you?
• 36:07
  That brought up a part of my old New York growing up. And I was like, well, I'm going to go have this meeting. I got to do whatever I got to do. You know, no one's going to hurt me. That's your life. And you know what? I had a knife.
• 36:29
  and I had somebody come in and put a gun in my belly because he needed help, his friend needed help. And I guess I had a crowded nightclub, it was full. And I turn and I look and there's a gun in my belly. And that's when everything goes silent. Yep. You're nice and quiet. It's very surreal. It's kind of like you're out of your body watching yourself and you're guiding yourself and you speak really calmly.
• 36:56
  And I was able to get that guy out of my club and help his friend and point him to the hospital because his friend was really injured. I guess they must have had a big knife fight or something. And this was in Manhattan. You know, I helped his friend, but I wasn't scared. And there's been other times in my life when I've been confronted with stuff like that, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, maybe being stupid, but not trying to do anything wrong. And the next thing I know, I'm in a situation where
• 37:24
  So you talk about inner demons. I talk about just you get soulful. You get to your you get to your higher self. We'll say it's the higher self. You get through it. So. Yeah.
• 37:38
  for lack of a better word, we all have demons. Like, and when I was younger, I had demons. You know, you want to go out, you want to do stupid stuff, you want to drink too much, you want to do whatever you want to do. And you're a little mischievous. I've grown out of that. But I could still say, even now, as a grown man, every once in a while, they surface. And that's where all my training and my yoga and my faith and everything else comes in. And they go, no, that's not a good idea.
• 38:07
  I lost a friend. He was kind of part of a big producing family. And we had done a movie together and I knew he had a problem. And I would be with him every day and talk to him about his problem. And, you know, sure, he was OK. And it was two years ago, Thanksgiving. He went down to the South Bronx and he thought he was buying cocaine and he died in his car.
• 38:32
  And that was very sad. They threw him out of his car. They took his car. They took his wallet, his credit cards. They drove around, they spent his money. And two days later, his brother, who's a very dear friend of mine, got the call. He had to go down to the morgue and identify his brother. So, you know, he was a grown man. He was my age and, you know, people have demons and he had demons and he couldn't fight them. Yeah, we're all gonna die.
• 38:58
  But when you are faced with a situation, I've never said this ever. There were three times a gun. I've been shot at, gun to my head and a gun right in my face. Three different times. It is not fun. Tell me, though, did you get like I did? Everything kind of just go surreal and quiet. And did you just say, I'm going to work through this and just like magic happens. You just do what you have to do.
• 39:21
  The first one, I'll be honest with you, I thought I was dead. I was in a really bad part of Detroit. And we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. And some guy thought we were somebody we weren't and put the gun right to my head. And I said, this is it. I'm done. And I thought I was dead. It was...
• 39:39
  And I remember it like it was yesterday and this I was 16 years old and I'm 49. So it's 33 years ago. I remember like I remember the guy's face. I'm done. It's right here. This is not a movie right here. And I just feel like and then another time I was working and some guy just pulled a gun on me. That one I kind of laughed about. I knew he wasn't going to do it. I go, really, really? What are you going to do?
• 40:06
  And then the third one that somebody shot my friend and it was just at a house party, just stupid. I grew up in the ghetto. It's just. Where'd you come up? Detroit? Yeah. I grew up just, I grew up on 8 Mile. Remember Eminem's movie, 8 Mile? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. That's how I grew up. Great movie. Just like that. So again, you and I have similar stories. We were stupid. It's very stupid.
• 40:27
  You know, we talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time and making stupid decisions. And, you know, I was the king of that back in the day. And I make a joke to my friends. Look, God saved my life three or four times. Once when I was about a year old, I had a hundred and eight fever. I was supposed to die. And somehow I pulled through.
• 40:44
  And my mom and dad would tell that story. It was really horrible for them. I didn't remember a thing. I was a baby. But the other three times I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And I was sometimes thinking with a different part of my body. And I'll leave it at that. Yes, we are related. Understood. Understood.
• 41:03
  But again, we have guardian angels, man. We have spirit guides. We have guardian angels. We have people looking out after us. And you certainly did because you survived. And I know, I know it wasn't me. I know it was some divine intervention that pulled me through some of those dangerous locations and those dangerous moments. And, you know, down to owning a nightclub. Next thing I know, some guy's got a gun in my belly. And I'm like, oh, wow, I did not plan this this evening.
• 41:31
  One more, I got my head shaking because I just left Palm Springs. I had to go to a speaking engagement for the Freedom Festival. And I got something here. It says, what's the absurd fan encounter from your Palm Springs Film Festival days that had you laughing off rejection like a pause? Do tell. It wasn't the Palm Springs one. That went well. Santa Barbara went well. And that was Kingdom of the Blind, by the way. That was the hardest movie I've made. That was 1994's movie. And I swear I'd never make another one.
• 42:01
  I did a movie with a very beautiful playmate. We had a relationship in the movie. And that was 1993. So just do the math. I graduated high school. I remember it. I still get emails from people wondering what it was like to make love to her.
• 42:27
  in the movie. Now, how do I answer that? Knucklehead, it's a movie. We didn't do it. We may believe we did it. You know, and I would get fan mail from people, and they were really, I mean, she was gorgeous, so they were like, tell us more about her. I don't want to mention her name. It's not fair. You know, tell us about her. Tell her what she looked like. What did she look like naked? I'm like, what is wrong with these people? But that's what
• 42:58
  I would say, you know, because back in, you know, 94, 93 was about the same time. That would be the rejection. That would be the craziest fan thing I ever got. Totally off-
• 43:10
  script. What's your take on AI and how it's going to impact the film industry going forward? Are you looking forward to it? Are you afraid? What is your take? Well, I'll put it this way. When I go in a grocery store now and I have to check myself out on a computer or I go to the airport and there's no one to help me and I have to check myself out on a computer...
• 43:32
  I am nervous of what the future of AI is going to bring. Now, medical reasons and fixing people and making people survive. Yeah, great. Other industries, it's going to replace human jobs. Like, are we all out to just replace humans everywhere? And as far as what you said, the entertainment industry, they could create your likeness. They can create your voice.
• 43:57
  I literally was offered a job. I think it was from Apple. And they wanted to give me $200 to be able to use my voice in perpetuity. $200. $200? I spent that on Dinner Easy.
• 44:14
  $200? You're not using my voice in perpetuity for $200. There may be a price on that, by the way, and with parameters, but not $200. But so AI can do it all. And I mean, literally, you could put in...
• 44:29
  a storyline and I've tested it and say, I want a synopsis and I want to about story and a synopsis on this, this information. And 10 seconds later, you have a synopsis of Emily in 10 seconds and it's good. And it's really, really good. And now there are people writing scripts with AI. All right, here's the character. Here's the setup of the scene. And this happens, that happens. And the next thing you know, you have a six page scene in 10 seconds.
• 44:58
  Well, it's going to eliminate extras because they can just write them in. Well, we do now. We clone them. Like, they do that CGI. Listen, I did a movie. I had 500 extras. I had a fill-in auditorium of 1,200 people. We didn't have the budget to do it. So we did plates. We shot plates, and we literally moved the same people and changed the color of their shirts so you couldn't tell it they were the same people way back in the audience. So I hired 500 people instead of hiring, like, 1,100 or 1,200 people. I had no choice.
• 45:28
  So you got Tulsa King, what's next? And then what's your, what's a passion project? There's a couple of movies that are getting ready to go. One's called The Reunion, one's called That's a More Day. It's with Nick Von Longa, the Green Book people were working on it. We're close to getting funding on my mom's birthday, July 21st. I start a movie out in Los Angeles with a wonderful director, Martin Gigge. Martin and I have done six movies together. I'm actually part of production on that movie.
• 45:55
  There won't be a role in it for me. But then he has a slate of six others that he always hires me and he brings me in in production. And then I end up acting. So, yeah, I mean, right at my fingertips, that's it. But, you know, we have Tulsa King starting in September. And I'm not sure if it's mid-September, the end of September. We haven't gotten dates yet, but we have a spinoff called Nola King with Samuel L. Jackson. They brought on Robert Patrick this year.
• 46:19
  They brought on Kevin Pollack. They brought on James Russo. Looks like Grillo's coming back. So it's dynamic. I mean, season three was explosive. Season four, from what I hear and the different storylines that are being thrown at me...
• 46:37
  Hold on your hats. I think season four is going to be the best season of Tulsa King hands down ever because they're really going for it. They've greenlit three and four. They haven't talked about five and six. So if they're only going to do four and I have no idea, I have no control over that. They're going to go out with a bang.
• 46:54
  They're going to go out with no pun intended. Yeah, exactly. But literally guns and all that. Right. I did not mean it, but actually it worked pretty well. So, James, I've heard overcoming adversity. I've heard mindfulness. I've heard love. Yeah.
• 47:08
  there's extreme depth and width to you and I can't wait to meet you in person. But what would your final thoughts, parting thoughts about getting around in this universe be just, just maneuvering through life. There's so much, there was so much to this podcast and I loved it and thank you. And, and you know, you're in New York at a, in a hotel and you made, made time for us. And we really appreciate it. I would say like right off the bat, be true to yourself.
• 47:36
  I'll leave you with that. Get around in this universe and enjoy your life. Be true to yourself. And I think that means love yourself. And I think that means give yourself things. It's okay to buy yourself something. If it makes you feel good, do it.
• 47:53
  You know, don't put off for tomorrow what you could accomplish today and what you could do today. Because honestly, guys, we don't know what tomorrow brings. None of us do. Be true to yourself. Love yourself. And I'm sorry. I'm going to say it. Have faith. Have faith. Faith over fear. Be harder than life.
• 48:14
  brother, this has been amazing. You got a new friend of me, a new fan of me. I'm going to literally go watch so many of your movies tonight because I'm not a big TV guy. So I'm like, I got to go watch the Sinatra Club. I got so many. So what you're doing is amazing. I love it. Keep doing it and keep keep shedding the love and showing up who you are, which I know you will. And I can't thank you enough. I don't have to tell anybody to share this one. This has been a doozy.
• 48:40
  Thank you. Sending you all my love and positivity. And you got a friend in me. You call me anytime you want, brother. I'm always there for you 24-7. God bless you. Man, you're awesome. Thank you. Until next time, be hearted in life.
• 48:54
  Please rate and share this podcast. I'm active on all social platforms and love to hear from my Segal supporters. Each and every episode is sponsored by my company, National Technology Management, the easiest and best IT company to do business with, delivering peace of mind with technology every day, even simplifying cybersecurity. Visit TrustNTM.com for more info. Until next week, be harder than life.