Transcript for #134 - Kevin Smith (Part 2)

Brother, my brother just has this expression where he just kind of gives me the slow nod which is, he's gone. You know, my father was dead and I went in and I saw him on a gurney and shit and I was so strange and I go outside and I was a smoker like cigarette smoker in those days. I was go to have a cigarette and Donald comes out and I was like, oh, this is a shock and whatever, you know, we were upset and stuff. And I said, how was it? Because he was there. I said, what happened in Donald tells me the story of like, Dad woke up and had this like big reaction like just like I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, I'm hot, And I go, what? And he goes, he died screaming. And I was like, is that a figure speech? And he goes, no, he literally, he died screaming. And he could see my brother was haunted by it. And my father wasn't like, I wouldn't say he was a butch man or strong man. But he wasn't a soft man, money stretching the imagination. And I never heard him get real loud or anything like that. And the notion of my father dying screaming changed my life because I was like, even a good man in this world. You play the game, you play it straight, you play it by the rules, you do everything you're supposed to. You're in die screaming, and at that point I was like, there's no point in not trying to accomplish every stupid fucking dream I've got. Even if it's dumb shit, like fucking, you know, oh my god, I've always wanted to collect this many fucking Wengretski cards in one fucking binder, or if it's like, I want to make a movie, or if it's like, I want to put on podcast, or I want to do a TV show now. I want to write a book. chase it all down chasing whimsy's what I've been doing for the last few years just smoking weed and chances went whimsy's anytime I'm like back in the day I have a good idea something I really want to fall through on and honestly you can get scared you start thinking about some what some of the fuckers gonna say be like oh it's stupid why would you fucking do that and fucking why why a lot of why people in this world I try to surround myself with the why not motherfucker. So you're like I want to try this to like why not let's go. Let's give it a shot. You got to be gay, man. People help you achieve your dreams and shit. So for me the last few years I've just been trying to accomplish every dopey dream to big shit, the little shit. You got to do them all. You can't just do the climb every mountain shit. You know, sometimes laid a bar down step over and be like, Tada-ha, so you feel accomplished. But chase it all and do it all because we're all going to die screaming and you might as well enjoy it here. And when I say chase it all, Don't fucking do it at the expense of someone else, obviously. Don't hurt somebody else. But go after your dreams, man. If your dream is to, like, I want to kill 12 children. That's, I'm not saying, I'm not talking to you. But go after your dreams if they're not going to hurt anybody.

That's a very... My friends, those dudes, like those, so I was like kidding about like, they don't want to do the show. And that is, they, they really don't want to. I'm not really like Kevin. We don't want to do this. But Walter's just like, oh, man. So you think they just grounded you so much you never gave into the tide of those two craziness I mean I've never had butch friends who like fucking punch you and rational butch I mean it is to a fade dude like me that's butch dudes those are bullies but like the hard boys is my mom is to say I was good leave those hard boys alone Kevin I never, I didn't have the rough house playing around like, let's rest a little shit like that. What I had was more psychological moral and that sounds dirty, but I don't mean moral. More like the dozens. My fuckers keeping it tight. You grow up fat. You got to be fucking sharp, stand your toes or else you're a fucking victim every time you walk in a room because most of the world don't look like you. So you get sharp, you learn how to fucking Take yourself out first before anybody else can steal their thunder. Hey, I'm fucking fat. And then people are like, oh, you know, and then there you've removed their fucking card. You're taking their biggest weapon out of their quiver, the biggest thing they got. And then suddenly you've changed the focus and hey, he's easy with himself, blah, blah, blah. And it makes people, you know, just all that shit you pick up over the years. It's what shapes you, it's what makes you who you are. So being able to hang out with people who were quick enough to like shred you, but you had to be able to protect yourself and find, you know, it's like hang out and ninjas all the time, who just, or not ninjas so much as Kato from the old Pink Panther movies, we're just hired him to literally attack him out of nowhere. That's what your friends do, they just like attack you out of fucking nowhere. And so by doing this all the time, it made me sharp, but it also kept me very, very real. So these cats, even when the movies would take off, when I was doing this one or this one, they were never like, oh my God, the fucking, we had no idea you were hidden genius, they were man, the same exact individual. So tell you, I didn't like that one. Oh fuck yes. Really? Oh yes, in a heartbeat, in a heartbeat, they'll let you know. And I brought them on a mall rents to come work on the movie and stuff. And they made it, they were in it in a few scenes, but they worked beyond the scenes. They quit after about two weeks, because they're just like, I don't want to do this. I have no interest in this. I mean, and that's cool. I respect it. I was like, that's Brian. That's Walter, like, that's who they are rather than be like, all right, man, we're going to do it. The whip makes you fight the white upset kid if we don't. They're just like, oh, we don't want to do this dude.

I wouldn't have had that sense of humor. I think my sense of humor largely came from that. And largely came from my friend. Brian Johnson and Walter also kind of shaped it to some degree. I was funny, like don't get me wrong in high school, I write sketches for the comedy shows and shit like that. But there, it was their sensibility, married to whatever sensibility I had as one of three kids raised Catholic and Highlands New Jersey, that clicked, that kind of made me the version of me, you know, the person that you would want to meet or the person like that was different was like Kev 18 years old 17 18 before he started hanging out with Brian and Walter. Those were the cats that kind of helped me define who I was and if you look at clerks like that movie is I'm kind of Dante and my friend Brian Johnson is meant to be Randall the guy that I'd most wanted to be like he knew always knew what to say was fucking funny in a room and shit like that really missing thropic and stuff And so that it kind of all communicator without those cats. I don't think I know I wouldn't have the jobs I've had because I wouldn't have the sense of humor I have now. And I don't think I'd be, if let's say I got into entertainment, so my doubt I'd be as grounded, knowing those dudes have kept me kind of grounded.

It's crazy. It's like at this point here. Yeah, you were in that moment. Yeah.

I'm so not the butch dude that's again. There's that word. I'm so not the dude that's like where's a weapon? I'm gonna do this. My reaction is gonna be like let me suck your dick let us go. I will suck your dick until you let us go and he's like got a girlfriend. I'm like still I'll be better than her Yeah, I can really deliver. That's where I go if I would never go defensive or offensive.

Yeah, I mean, even if you had yourself strapped the dynamite, maybe, yeah, and you could be like, look, it is bitch. Right.

And this isn't fun.

Yeah. You don't think of Burbank as like Bob Hope lived there. How could it be? All right. There could be no tear. Well, too.

Got to be right. Fuck yeah. There are chicks that got to be chicks that want to fuck fucking a hero cop.

Was he doing like what this guy? Yeah, you should be protected, maybe.

That was the only silver lining to that horrible store was like at the end of it the cop was like don't worry kid one day.

They look at a crocodile in the lake. I mean, for reference, you've made to a Jaguar. They care. They care. They care.

Really? Yeah. Like mountain cats.

Yeah, they do. Downing nuts on the. Yeah, it's like mine. All right, man. Let's change up the topic. Now I don't want to go out to my car on this neighborhood. And I don't want to get out of my car.

In a world where you've been following up on wildlife textures. You've just seen all the bear stories.

It's rare. You read that story online about the kid who got bit by the polar bear. Yeah. That was fucking astounding. The dude literally tells a story where him and his trooper on, you know, they're out in the fucking woods or something like that. And there's a kid sleeping next to him and asleep in a tent. And this polar bear comes fucking through the kid woke up to like whaling and gnashing a teeth in the fucking thing ground and blood all over its face. And the thing bit him on the head had his head in its mouth. A polar bear had his kid's head in his mouth and he said It bit so hard that cracked his fucking skull and he heard it crack in his head and what he also heard in his head loud in life sense around style from the 70s was Growlin because it's fucking mouth was over his ear dude And he starts punching this fucking beast in the head. Punching it in the head real hard and shit. And finally, it lets go enough for him to like make a move or something like that. So he survived. The body, his body was right next to him, died. And they interviewed the kid and he's talking about he's like, I got a lot of guilt, man. Like, it could have been me. If I'd slept on that side, I'd be dead. But I'm like, dude, you've got your head bit by polar bear. I'm not going to say it's worse, but that's pretty dangerous.

No, his friend was done for. By the time the kid woke up, the polar bear had taken what it wanted. I think from the his friend. He had mulled him instantly. It said his face. Oh, my God. Yeah, man. Nature, what do you think it is? You think it's like they're hungry and the weather condition changes and they're just coming into the neighborhoods now because you don't hear a lot about this back in the day. But a lot of it happening now, a lot of more shark attacks, a lot more baritacks. Maybe they're really true statistically. Well, I'm asking. I don't know more. Maybe it's just I'm reading more about it.

I'm gonna stand for a bit, and I just don't think they're ever looking at my dick the whole thing.

No, I just find stress.

I'll wait until it gets awkward. And then I'll kick back down.

That's what happened.

That's what it is.

Oh my god dude, all right, I do this all the time. I do too. I sit on the toilet for so long when I get up. I got pins and needles and I can't walk and I can't walk and I can't walk. And then sometimes I'll try to man up and get through it. But by the time I hit the bedroom, like you start laughing because it's so you're out of control because the nerve is all dead.

Is that what you do? I go on an internet tweet.

What the fuck? You mean Stan? Yes, Stan, you know. I've never done that. You never stand and wiped up? Only when I was a kid, and this is weird. Wow, you're getting something out of me. I haven't said publicly, maybe ever. When I was a kid, I remember, like, I've taken a shit, and I'm trying to remember what age this stopped. But I'd be like, I'm done, and somebody would get up and stand up and they wipe your ass for you. And I think I did that till I was like seven. It's just weird. It is weird. Yeah, but it was pretty good. Like in terms of like, I didn't really have to figure out how to fucking wipe my own shit until that point.

But I think it's never perfected an ever perfecting art form like the art of the wipe. It's not, you know, there's no one true measure and And I think it develops as you get older, you learn better technique and stuff. But no, not since then I've never seen, I'm a more of a frontwiper though. Like I'll reach, because I got a lot of back fat, rather than reach around, I'll reach through my lean forward and reach through my legs. So I'm wiping almost like my man puts, but I clear the ball so it doesn't hit my balls or anything like that.

Well, she met was the first one that called them to my potential. I mean, they had baby wipes, but these flushables, they have asshole cleaning efficient. Yeah, big time man. He talks about it in the field.

He literally talks about an interview. He was just like very very son and felt on men and black turned me on to What wipes or handy wipes for for going these like why would you use toilet paper when you can use this? He's like I haven't got back sense So one day when I'm got a pack I was like this fucking amazing. It's like taking a few flush them Yeah, but these are flushable.

But I had a problem, you were probably about, I had a septic problem. Yeah.

I never use the button plate. I just open it and draw them out. And for that very reason, you don't want to touch the poop button ever.

Yeah, poop button.

That should be what I'm into this sincere wipe to the deep sincere. I'll go knuckle deep to why.

Exactly. You never know if somebody's gonna be like tonight's the night I'm gonna eat your ass. People are so funny about assholes.

Yeah. Yeah. You can talk about that.

I'll tell you a pain story about this house. Because it's sitting on the toilet. As you said, for all that time, I got an anal fissure. Oh, Jesus. You ever had one of those? No. You never want one of these. I've never, okay. I've never been punched in a face or choked out or anything fucking cool. But this was the most pain I think I've ever felt my entire life. Really? It's that ring. That sphincter is the folkomier entire body you start to discover. Anything you do. reverberates in your asshole. I know it sounds deep. It's not. Move your finger. You can feel it. Well, you can feel it. And you only really realize it when there's something wrong down there and an anal feature. is when there's a tear right on the fucking lip of your asshole somewhere on the ring or this one extended a little deeper and I didn't know what it was it's painful man like so painful that like I asked my wife like my wife never fucking see me completely naked let alone my asshole I literally was like I'm gonna ask you to do that fucking thing I never imagined I'd ask another human being to do and she's like why and I was like I'm gonna lay on the bed I'm a fucking crane open my two fucking cheeks. I'm gonna need you to look in there and tell me if something looks funky now. I've never even seen my own asshole, but I know for a fact. I'm a dude. I've got hair down there too. So I'm I'm I'm telling her I'm like now You might have to deal with little shrubbery down there. There's no man escaping. So if that's the case you might have to move hair and she's like, oh my god, please don't make me do this. I was like, there's no one but you. I was like, I'm sorry. I wouldn't have been to. I was in pain. I was crying. It's hurt so much. So I laid down and she's looking at me and she's like, I don't know. There's just so many roles. You know, she couldn't get to it. I was like, come on. Do you see any blood? She's like, I think I see some. Blood, I think I see like an inflamed area. And I went to a doctor and a doctor was like, get up on the table and whatnot. And I never went to a proctologist. And I'm laying on the table and he opens my cheek. And he doesn't even, and he puts a flashlight on the outside of my fucking ring piece. He doesn't. I'm waiting for it like the flash move. We're moving. Right. He takes a look with just the flashlight. He goes, oh, anal feature. I go, really? Is that what it is? It goes, yeah. I was like, you're going to, you don't want to go deeper. He's going, I don't need to. He's going, you don't want me to, either. And I said, what do you do about him? He's going to give you two creams. One's top goal, one, little more insertion. He's going, basically, what was the figure he said? Got a camera. He said, in eight to ten weeks, you'll start feeling 50% better. And I looked at him like, what? Are you kidding me? And it may not have been eight to him. It had been four to five. But it was, a long period of time, only 50% better. And I was like, dude, I don't like these odds. He's like, that's his best I could do. He's like, that's either that he can go for surgery, but trust me, you don't want that. He's like, I got some, what's surgery? He's like, well, basically we get in there with a needle and so you up. I'm like, forget it. I'll wait for a deal. And it was fucking misery.

That's the thing. And then it takes for a while the fucking heal. So their whole thing is like, just keep rubbing this top of Glonet, nature, a little heal itself, trying not to

I said like Joe Rogan, I like to massage my ass. What will this mean for that? But he said he's like it's very common he goes if you're in a room 45% of the people in the room are dealing with an official he's gone. Nobody talks about it I said why he's gone because it has everything to do with your asshole. He's gone people. He was saying the exact same thing. He's like people don't talk about this kind of thing publicly. He's been much easier because you wouldn't have people waiting as long as they do to come in. It's going to come in practice. He says, you know how yours happened. And I was like, I don't know. I thought it was going to be like a lot of fucking bathroom activity, man. A lot of fucking blood glory holes and shit. I said, no, no, I don't know how it happened. And he said, you sit on the toilet a lot, I bet. I said, I do as a matter of fact. He's going, well, your weight's sitting on that toilet. And he's going, I bet you don't just go and leave. You sit there for a while. I said, yeah, he's going, it's just think about it. Gravity's just pulling at that. You know, as you sit there, it's not like you're sitting on the toilet and your butt cheeks are clenched in your asshole. It's fucking tight. That's what I said. Is that how you do all my television?

Oh, look out for it. Do you never want that? Oh, my God.

Oh, honestly, it felt like months. I think it was months. Like for months, all I could do literally was like lamb, the bed, belly down. And if I took it, oddly enough, when I took a shit, it felt better. But it only felt better for the moment I was taking the shit. Because then, I guess, I don't know, I can't even tell you the science of it. But when I took a shit, I felt better as soon as I was done taking a shit, that's when the agony kicked in of, like, reminding you it was there. And you would literally just flinch and squirm on the bed, like, fucking, with drawn or something like that. It was mad nasty. The last thing you wanted. Get off the toilet. Yeah. It's the folk of your body.

How did you ship passage and shit get caught up on the banner? No, I don't know.

It was pretty big. And then you ever have one here rather hemorrhoid or grape or whatever?

That's like I was saying mine is from pushing like I've got a resident just like yours the mostly quiet smogger but periodically Hey, I'm down here and it's always from fucking I've like on the toilet and I'm fucking pushing maybe I'm not ready to go but I'm like if I don't go now I'm not gonna be able to go for a couple hours So once in a while he shoots somebody and there's blood everywhere, you know, it's like a scene.

I want to go to the fight, dude. To the last time. We got to do it. We got to do it. Roll a camera on me, though. Okay. So you could watch me. Okay.

And you do all of them? Are you always the guy?

I'm happy. I'm happy. I won't make sure. Do you get punched in that ring? I'm sure they get paid. I'm happy.

But they must be paid a little bit of our gate, right? That's how they get paid.

What about Canada, Canada? Canada is great. So Canada, I always find it very similar to Australia, or vice versa.

Yeah, it's, you know, you're paying, it's essentially federal and state taxes.

Yeah, you have to, you know, if you're talking about doing dual citizenship.

I'd go for Toronto, hockey, Hall of Fame.

I don't know why they're grabbing these ghosts.

You don't want to go back to it.

I would like to be too. But my way would never let me live in Canada, man. You guys don't like Vancouver? Well, I like Vancouver. I wish you went to school there. I shot a TV show there and movie there. Like I do, but it's not, I'm not into whale art. All right. A lot of that of there, man. That trees, fuck tree.

Totally man. Just look out for the dude behind the fucker. With the axe. I do think that I like to see that go and did you.

China and he couldn't shine that at all. That was a great goddamn moving.

Yeah. No, so much so that he made sure they made another one. Make a worst one. Make a terrible one. This other one was too good. Make a bad one. Yeah, that the TV movie one is tough.

So if I did remember Stephen Weber from Wings. Yeah. This is Jack Nicholson right then and there. I mean, I have to deal with these Stephen Weber because he, that's balls of steel. Dude, you know what I'm saying to be like. All right, I'll give it a shot. Right. The dude or, but to be fair is what Heath Ledger did years later. So he stepped into a role that Jack Nicholson made iconic and stuff. That all being said, hats off to Steve and Weber. That movie is a tough set.

The little bit of crazy. He gets some pills.

It's like fucking like I was. I got into the headspace of the Joker.

Yeah, Shane.

Yeah, yeah, it's a thin line algorithm.

I'm saying create it real make it so real that you're sitting there like look I love that Joker performance at spell bonding, but I said dial like one movie back and look him in the gay cowboy picture. Mm-hmm. That the performance he gives in that movie, that dude exists. Like the Joker performance is big and it needs to be big. Right. And like, pray you never meet someone like that in your life. But you would meet the carer, I think it was Ennis, or Ennis, he played the character he played and broke back mountain. That performance is so fucking frighteningly real. That was the first time I was like this, but the fuckers are an actor. I thought he was that dude from 10 things I hate about you. But he had shops because he made only one other actor Well, two others. Parks, Michael Parks did that for me in from Dustill Dawn. Like, that's why I've read State Exist, because I watched the opening 10 minutes of from Dustill Dawn back in 1995. I was like, this mother fuckers Yoda. Like, how do you, I want to spend a month on set with a dude who can drop science, performance science, this fucking brilliant. This laser sharp, this otherworldly. But then the other one, God, who was that? I just had it on my head, but it was the other one. I said, Parks. Oh, Billy Bob Thornton in a simple plan. Do you ever see a simple plan? That fucking movie is a what's name we got the Spider-Man movie with us as a movie with him. Bill Paxton A simple plane Bill Paxton Bill Bill what's it what did I say his name was you know Billy what's the choice I was going to you know I was going to be a fucking angel in july. Yeah, what you build a joke

Billy Bob Thorne. And who else? Oh, Bridget Fond is in it. This fucking movie is so good. So well done. It's about dudes who find money in the woods, drug money. And then they're trying to like, it's a simple plan. We're going to hold it and whack it up together. We're going to wait some time. And then it just gets more and more complicated and fucking horrible things start happening and shit. Excellent movie. Well done. Billy Bob Thornton gives a performance in this movie where he ceases to be Billy Bob Thornton and you're just like that character exists the man who is in this movie ain't there's no connection to Billy Bob Thornton right like it's literally a dude being possessed of someone else or something like he changes his luck changes his deliverers everything

No doubt about it. Oh, ma'am straight. She thinks she's a little bit crazy.

That is one of those stories that like everybody knows that Daniel Day Lewis Yeah, I'll believe it. Yeah, sure. Everybody's imagination. Whether he was serious about it or not, right, it may have been his most brilliant fucking move because for the next 10 years, whenever somebody says Daniel Day Lewis, somewhere in the next minute they're going to go, you know, he was a fucking he quit to be a copler. He studied shoe making like it captured people's imagination like why would a guy this good at the job go off quit and make shoes for he came back sooner later But that shoe thing captures people's imagination and you think he probably went to it because it wasn't acting it was the furthest thing from acting because you're right You look at dude who gets into a roll like he does he probably does go to someplace fucking dark and you you know a crew a bunch of years of doing that one after another maybe going a fucking make shoes and Milan feels good sounds good simple and require much use a different part of your brain no darkness and fucking cobblin you know unless one was fucking which is show some of his movies where he does go dark are the darkest characters in the history of cinema the fucking guns and love it

All the way. The one and the only conversations I ever had with Martin Scorsese was after screening that movie. I was coming out of the theater and I hear somebody go Kevin and it sounds like Martin Scorsese. I was like, no way. Martin Scorsese would be fucking saying Kevin. I turned around and Martin Scorsese was saying, Kevin, he was talking to me, and I was like, whoa, holy shit, man, how are you? Did you fall single? I did very much. You know what I'm saying? Like in a way, like the way he called me wasn't quite peer, but it was like he had no reason to know my name exactly. And he's like, what do you think? I said, I fucking loved it, man. Like, and I'd stayed through all the crowds of shit. I said, oh my God, I loved you. You got to tell me, how did he arrive at that accent? And he goes, we found cylinders. Old cylinders recorded around what was 18, whatever, the turn of the century, 19, whatever that period, the flick was set. He said we found cylinders which we just sat there and played and Daniel took the accent from there worked on a little bit and took the accent from there and I said what did the cylinders sound like you go surprisingly crystal clear and like you could literally hear what a person like what that guy sounded like in that era. It's not amazing. I mean it was but

We've never heard the cylinder.

Really?

What about Stallone did he convince? No. No. He didn't look like a boxer. No, he didn't look like a boxer.

their hands are down the throne wild punches and flexing their muscles and it's my turn to hit you and then it's your turn to hit me and it looks very obvious nobody they never get into like a 30 second 40 second yeah embrace kind of like with after gets split up

Let me ask you this. Other than Daniel Day Lewis, who has convincingly fought in a movie that earned your respect where you're all right. That looks like it. Was that far as to fucking high, dude? Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

Can't you give me somebody? It's just like

So Daniel, so those are the only two guys that have ever seen it look like real fighters Daniel Day Lewis and Danzo Washington fight each other who went Daniel Lewis. Can the fuck add it?

If we base it on their movie rules, then Daniel Day Lewis held that long time as John Proctor and the Crucible.

When you say, oh, God, yeah. And you know what? They gave them, when they gave them the Oscar for what was, you know, the Malcolm King Kong. No, that's the thing. They should have given them tools. Oh, right, right, right. That performance. If you ever go watch Malcolm X footage, you know, on YouTube, which you can now, they got tons of it, not in the free fascinating. You look at that and you realize like that you to want to talk about a Denzel Washington up at six training like a boxer. He didn't even have YouTube to pull clips from. He became Malcolm X. The mannerisms the way he holds his hand. As he speaks, it's crazy. He should have gotten, I think he got nominated. He should have won that year. He didn't. Then they gave it to him years later for the King Kong, you got nothing on me? Yeah, that was the training day. Training day. Yeah. Which he was really good at it. That's the thing. He's like, I remember when they first came the word I hadn't seen the movie. I was like, oh, they're making up for fucking overlooking Malcolm X. But then you see his performance in that movie and what could be a simple programmer or simple like a good guy, bad guy? He ticked that roll to the next level. Yeah. So it may have been overdue payback for a fantastic performance he didn't get enough credit for. But I think he earned that 10. I agree. I'm training to it. I agree with this performance.

And so she was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And like him giving him the like smoking that he's like, you're smoking the weather. And like he enjoyed it. Like he was a little suspicious.

What's the craziest you've seen? Who you worked with? I've seen someone go to that place. We on Red State, we with Michael Parks, I don't think I've ever seen. Michael Parks and Melissa Leia went to a weird place. It's like incredible places where I'm like, oh shit, this is otherworldly stuff. Like true fucking actors, man, true across the world.

I mean, to a seven year old man with his business turned its back on a long time ago and clearly has better chops and most of his peers who went on to other things. It means something.

That award. It may not mean shit to me. I like me getting awards, but him, that award means something. It's still he comes from an era where it doesn't mean something.

There's you know there's imminent death. Like it's set up right there, but his performance is so riveting. He's so fucking good at the craft. that you'll put, because the movie's moving along at a nice clip right there. We put the movie on pause, be like, ladies and gentlemen, Michael Parks, and he does a fucking essentially guitar solo. The most amazing guitar solo you've ever heard. And rather than be like, move on, fucking get to the murders that we knew were coming. People like Kickback and go like, oh my god, that's so beautiful. And he finishes the solo, and the movie begins again. It's pretty, it's so weird. It's pretty astounding.

I mean, you heard you saw. It's him. It's his voice. I'm talking about more metaphorical.

I was so high. More stone than me. I must be possible.

This ain't even asking that. We're in this meditation tank. You're in the meditation tank and we're just having this conversation. How did that get to come about?

How the character coming back? That guy, the Fred Phelps. How much of this church guy? And basically, that dude created that character for me.

Yeah, a little bit. I mean, it was kind of a two or three-prong thing. Like, number one, I saw parks in from Dustill Dawn, which was Quentin's movie with Robert Rodriguez. And he's in the opening ten minutes. He's astounding. Like, this, I love acting. Love actors. Love people, actresses. People that could take the words off page, make it sing. But, you know, there's only so many ways to scan a cat. And fucking, even the best of them, pretty much like conceded strings and whatnot. You know how acting works. Everyone's in a while, you meet one of these performers, or see a performer. You're lucky you get to meet them. It takes it off the fucking grid, off the charts. Yeah. This guy does this in the opening in this movie, which from Dustle Dawn is a fun vampire, fucking ramp, romp, rather. This guy comes in and drops a performance that could have wanted to show it in a fair, just world would have won a supporting Oscar. nomination. Like, you know, Judy Dunch gets one for Shakespeare and love, and she's in the movie, what, seven or nine minutes. Parks is in from Dustle Dawn, roughly the same time, and gives a performance that's as electric as believable as off the charts. Wonderful, but, you know, it's a genre film, so you don't get the attention and stuff. This guy fell in love with him. I'm watching that from Dustle Dawn, 1995 to Lindley, Lindley, sunset five.

I want to see the vampire movie. And I want to go see this vampire movie made by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Regas. But what I left there was with, I have to work with that man. I don't know who that fucking man is. That's Sheriff Guy. In the first 10 minutes, who spoilers, spoilers, movies fucking 16 years old, but just in case, he gets killed in the first fucking 10 minutes. Home movie, I'm like, no, that dude was the fucking truth. The absolute truth. I walk out of that theater, I go, I gotta work with that guy. To sit at the fucking feet of a Yoda like that, and like for a month on a set, Imagine my mouth fucking information you could clean steel fucking benefit from his pure pure genius in acting form a clear genius when you're watching him it's so spectacular riveting so good I told them there were days on set like I did we didn't do many takes at all because we were just you know we didn't have a lot of money and she was low budget movie And when the performances of that could, you got John Goodman, Leslie, how you got parks, they're crushing it, take one and shut. So, you know, I leave it up to them and they're like, I'm good, if you're good, I'm like, I don't direct the movie as much as I sit there and edit it in my head on set, because you don't direct the microparks when you do go up to them and be like, here's how I do it based on my experience playing Silent Bob over the years.

Oh, yeah, he got in there indefinitely because it seemed like he could probably just start talking in that guy He sees so in two with that fucking character man Yeah, he was well he he had that script for what two three months ahead of time By the time he came to the set and I have no I'm not the author of that performance I got authored his own performance hands down there across the boards you don't direct the movie like red state you just let it happen, but on the track this dudes like his he would he had the script for a while when he came to the set He's like, can I have the space? Can you show him in the space? And we brought him to the chapel and went on. There was still putting the finishing touches on it. But he kind of did a laid out like the way you would lay out a dance. He essentially kind of didn't say the dialogue out loud, but he just sit there and you'd watch him kind of moving his arms and stuff. And it looked like he was slowly walting by himself. And he'd stop somewhere and ask somebody to put a mark here, blah, blah, blah, put a mark here. Then he put it all together. I got to see what he was doing the next morning. He had choreographed this fucking thing. Like he could do it from top to bottom. Like he could do the entire scene, which was I think in the script, 12 pages, 12 pages of dialogue or something ridiculous like that. And he could fucking do it from beginning to end. And you watch him hit his marks. He knew exactly where he wanted to be and stuff. So much so that like I had done a draft right before shooting. And I was like, hey man, this is the new version of the sermon. And he fucking bristled because he was like, no, no, no, no. I mean, that other stuff's great. What do you need this for? And what I realized was because he was dialed in. He knew what was going to happen when he hit that stage. He knew where to be so that he could just let his art come out of his mouth, but he was still framing the movie first, still commanding the stages of movie. Let's keep things moving. He wasn't content to just stand there and deliver dialogue, which he could have, and he still would have fucking captivated you. Instead, he choreographed his movement. It was fantastic. He was a dude that just gave Beyond given you you know, I wrote it with him in mind Go on I know what it's gonna sound like because I'm a big fan of the students work now and even getting to the set He would still deliver over what I heard in my head like I remember I'll never forget what a month Month before we start shooting, we're in my kitchen. It's me, John Gordon is Bruce of the movie, and parks. And we're just talking about when we're going to go, it took a while to get money together. And so we're leaving the kitchen, and we're talking about something in the script, and he stops, and he goes, he delivers one of the lines, and he delivers it so flawlessly. And it was the first time I heard parks do what would be Abe and Cooper. And so I was like, oh my God, Parks, my heart's skipped a beat and shit. He left. And I turned to John Gordon and I was like, dude, he's got a win in the ward. I don't know what it is, but like, there's no way people don't cite him. It's like, if for that one line he slipped into Abe and Cooper, you could hear it. You could, the gravitas of the life that Michael Parks has led informing like every, every job he did or didn't get an entire life. brought to bear on this. He gave a monster some soul. Like you look at that character on the page, very two-dimensional, easy to hate. Michael put a soul on him, where, you know, you still hate him, but you're like, oh, there's somebody under there. You know, he's not just like a two-dimensional cartoon, you could easily write off. He brought something to it. And I wanted him to do two-dimensional cartoon. Like I was just like, I'm gonna put you in track suits, because that's what Fred Phelps wears. and you know you can talk like him because I don't do that if you want me to do a Fred Phelps impression get somebody else he's gone man's fucking boring he's like I came to act I was like right on and he did charismatic instead wow he's a dude man he don't fuck around this is a dude is a straight shooter you eat 70 years old He's not pulling punches. He's going to tell you exactly how your fucking feels.

You want him to take all of this because of him. And like he'll give you, you know, like I'm a grown-up, so I can take good ideas, leave stuff behind. He gave me the wonderful idea you've seen in the movie, like it ends with somebody going shot the fuck up from off-camera with that spoiler spoiler. That came from parks. It wasn't in the script. It was just, you know, just ended where it kind of ended without that. And parks was like, how about instead, you go off of me and I'm trying to be vague. So it was not to spoil it, but I hope you remember what I'm talking about. Yeah, I do totally. Go off of me, singing. And then you go down to another cell and there you are, you know.

I did a little bit, but again, I said spoilers, but it's a tune out, folks. Yeah. But anyway, he goes, you say, blah, blah, you say that one. And I was just like, I said parks I would love to, but I think it would be weird in this moment. I saw like the idea that line. I said, but cut to me in the movie. I'm not in the movie. And I think people would take people out of the movie. And he goes, why? And I was gone because people would recognize me and he goes, from what? And I realized like, oh my gosh, guy, like... Not he has no clue that like I've had this whole other career as far as he knows like it's red state and red state only knows I made some movies has no idea what they are didn't know I was in a marina thing that was so sweet it was going in pure you know and I'm saying like this dude went in all about the craft and he dropped science on that performance and he would sit there from time to time like can be like can I grab one more take and I'm doing like parks you can have as many takes you want we're literally all here because of you because I saw that performance and from dust till dawn. So it was kind of like the whole movie was kind of a park's celebration. People that didn't know him fell in love with them as we made the movie because the dude just ate. like every day you were odd by something he did. But you were sitting there going, oh my god, like do you remember he started singing in the movie at one point? We had the whole chapel, you know, everyone in the chapel singing. And I said, for some other part of the movie, he said, hey man, while this thing's going on over here on camera, I want to push in on you, you want to sing one of those gospel hymnos, because he picked the other one, old rugged cross. I said, you got another one, you want to go in? And he's like, yeah, man, I can sing farther along. You want that? And I was like, yeah, whatever, sure, totally. And we shoot him. We're pushing in on him. And he sings farther along. And it's kind of as it is in the movie. It's got this beautiful soul for voice, the man that made records. Oh, it sweeps me off my feet, and it's a church song, but I'm still way into it. Next day I come into work. Everyone on set periodically here, I'm going like, oh, they're in the room. And they're all singing it. And I'm like, it's good. I said, right? Like, it's catchy to like, yeah, for a Jesus song, it's pretty catchy and stuff. So he brought that to it too, the elements of singing charisma. And that's what he went for. He said he wanted to play it as a charismatic hip. This whole backstory for like, You know, his not only even Cooper's father, but his grandfather is like always very close to this grandfather.

Yeah. He told me he's just like, look. He was tightly his grandfather and his grandfather was still fire and brimstone. He was charismatic, but he was still strict, but his grandfather still also had a sense of humor for the kid. So his grandfather would be the one in the kitchen, you know, pulling like a train whistle down with a one fist and lifting a leg and farting with the other. So he was still kind of human. So he loved his grandfather and Cooper. Even though he preached the Holy Word and he loved him for it. His father also preached the Holy Word. This is killed me because parts going on all eloquently goes It's father also preached the Holy Word, but he probably touched his dick so he don't talk about his father ever. I was like that's a sounding dude. That's amazing. That's so bizarre. But he gave it thought. He gave thought into buying the outfit. Did he went out? and picked out the wardrobe, but that costume wardrobe person picked every piece. She was like, I've never really done that before. I've gone out with girls who are looking for specific sizes, but he right down to the underwear and the socks, the dude had to be involved in picking the choices that he thought or represented. And he put the outfit together. I remember the first time she showed me a picture of him in the outfit, Beth passed Beth. Beth walked anyway, regardless. Beth shows me pictures of Abe and And in his outfit, Michael Parks. And I'm going, oh man, that ain't it at all. I was looking for tracksuit. Like his dude wearing some gackies and putting down shirt and a tie. Looks like a school teacher. And I had, you know, I'd written, I'd read state on my brain for like five years. You know, wrote five years ago and I'd always had very specific idea of what he looked like, which was stolen from the look of Fred Felt. I remember going, like, I don't know man, like, how do I adjust this? I don't want him to wear this. And she was like, you might want to go with it. He's dialed into the costume. And it was such a good choice because the clothes made the man, like, I don't even know how to say it sounds corny. But the outfit made him just allowed him to do what he had to do up there. He felt like, if you see him early in the movie at one point, he's at the protest holding a cup of coffee outside. He's wearing just a jacket, a windbreaker and a t-shirt or something. But whenever he spoke the Holy Word, he would put on his Sunday best, essentially. And this was his Sunday best, like the button down shirt with the tie. and he believed in presenting, particularly if you're gonna go out there and preach the Holy Word, you should look respectable and blah blah. All this philosophy behind just the outfit. And the whole time, I feared it until we went in front of cameras and I was like, this looks beautiful. Like the outfit is perfect. And some weird way, because it gives him this just air of respectability. And that makes the shit coming out of his mouth that much more heinous. I realized I'm still standing. He was so...

made that a charming question story. I love this story because it shows you that we're all like fucking kids in this business. We go see the movie. Aquentans guys own fucking movie theaters house looks like a fucking real movie theater movie seats fucking popcorn shit. He's got these awesome sculptures from his movies all around by this artist named Clay Shields. Great own personal movie. There sits about 50 or 60 or something like that. So we go watch Red State there. It's me, Quentin, and Parks. Michael Parks. And he liked it. He liked it. He really loved that. I don't want to oversell it. But he dug the movie so much. He watched it without us when he wasn't supposed to. Like he got the print two days early. He was supposed to watch it with him the day that we joined him. And he was like, I'm going to be honest with you. I watched it already. Twice fucking love it. You know what I was like, oh, do you want to apologize with that? That's fucking awesome, I'm sure. So he watched it with us again. Then afterwards he goes, come in the house and you know, because the theater is separate from the house. He brings us in the house and this fucking charmed me. I will never forget this. He goes, I gotta show you my tape. I gotta show you my Michael Parks tape. And he goes into, you know, he's got big entertainment centers, DVDs everywhere, and stuff, high tech everywhere, but he also still has VHS. And dude, lays hands on a fucking VHS tape, almost as if I thought I hit the fucking flux capacitor, because I ain't seen one in a while. And they're scribble on the fucking side of Marker, because remember we used to write on the side of our video tapes when we made our own tapes? Beth the best of Michael Parks and Quentin froze this tape in and what it is is he's such a fan of this guy's work he loves him going back to then came bronze and he loves the students work so much anytime this dude's gonna turn up on TV or it gets a video of him he records from tape to tape or from TV to tape the segments of his performance, everything that involves Michael Parks, particularly the highlights and shit. So what you have is a collection of like some of the cheesyest exploitation straight to TV movies or straight to, you know, like about a high school volleyball team or college volleyball team and stuff like that murder mysteries and whatnot, like real programmers. And as he shown you the clips, Even though it's programmers all around him, Michael Parks is still in each one of these scenes that Quentin has pulled off and put on to this VHS, dropping science, performance science where you're just like, this is crazy. Like, this dude's doing Shakespeare in the middle of shit. And yet not to put all, you know, anybody who made those movies down or off or whatever, but clearly like everyone else is kind of like you know here we are collecting a check and this is about the best before this week and go and this dude is like crushing it, crushing it, like what movies? I don't even know them, dude. They're all TV movies from like the 60s and 70s is a little bit into the 80s. And that's what Quentin had collected. He would, like, this is guy, you know, a psychopathic knowledge of cinema and even bad trash cinema. There is no such thing as trash cinema to this guy. He watched that movie and he found gold. like diamonds in the midst of shit that was just maybe simple or fucking program material and he collected him for years on a fucking VHS tape long before he ever knew he would be a filmmaker long before he ever knew he'd meet Michael Parks let alone become a filmmaker Make movies with Michael Parks and them direct Michael Parks and inspire me to make a fucking movie where I put Michael Parks in it like he actually said to me is like oh my god, he's gone as a Michael Parks fan. I love this isn't this is the ultimate Michael Parks movie. I was like right right So for me it was, that was, I love that, the tape dude. He still had it. If he had just told us the story of, I said this tape man, the best. That would have been cool enough dude, but he produced it and we all watched it together. And I sat in a chair off to the side and him and Park sat on a couch. And it was, I would have rolled a tear if it wouldn't have embarrassed him both or made him be like, get out. But there they were. Like the man who's who's worked at this kid filmmaker loved so much. Think about the shit you made mix tapes of when you were, he made him this guy's performance. And there he is watching that very same tape. with the guy on the tape, the who, you know, the actor he loves. Oh, it was touching.

But that's like you with with fucking MMA or whatever fuck like the shit that you're into, you're super into, you get geeky about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a game of fucking movies. Yeah, and that passion.

I never want to see a fucking single you was a UFC fight, but when you talked about in the show, I was just like when you came on our show. I was like, you know, I would go see this now. Like, when you talk about it with the passion and enthusiasm you do translates to somebody who was never sold before and I wasn't even on the fence really. But then when I watched you talk about it, I'm like, it's my fucking smart. Like, he's one of the smart dudes I ever met.

And their porn is there's no pubic hair. Yeah. It's only nipples and even those are kind of very strange. Shaking out, but their animation and their comic books. Yeah, or fucking like intense. A lot of bondage. A lot of fucking.

I think it'd be awesome to have a culture, like they have a culture. I mean, we have pop culture, which thank God, because that's why I have a job, but they have a culture that goes back eons. And we don't really have that. And as white muts, we don't really have a culture that goes back eons.

It comes better with age, too, doesn't it? Why don't you find the old areas that it's just like, comes out of the way? With awareness, I think. With awareness? Not even just with age. I think the age is just experience. Well, then that's awareness. Yeah. They're eventually equates to awareness.

I used to be a destination guy. I talked about it with Mosher on Smartcast quite a bit back in the day. I was destination. He was very journey oriented for him. It was all about like, hey man, everything's a journey and it's like the journey is the fucking fun and blah blah blah. And I was like, no, destiny is get there. I just want to get to where we're supposed to be. And the last few years I flipped and now I am kind of like the journey is more important to me.

Yeah, you know what it is. A bit of a fast and I love the expression. And I've co-opted it, but they said, uh, they said, he doesn't Kevin doesn't have to work for anyone anymore because he works for the audience. And I was like, oh God, that's perfect. It's true. That's it. If you could get to that place where it's not about, like, fuck everyone, but you don't rely on anybody, right, for anything. It's all coming from within you, your campus, something like that. Not like there's no help. Of course you get help within your world, but Do you know how comforting it is to know that I don't know?