Jim Brooks, Mister Gabriel, Brett Butler discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
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Found attachment to him. Yeah, I said, duly noted. Thank you very much. But that secondary to just the fact of how hard that is to do in the first place, you know? There is a great, great clip of Clark Gable at the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta in 1939. In which they said, wow, you know, it's all about old fashioned. Why mister Gabriel? I'm sure that to everybody here. It's great to look forward to your rollers. Do you have any do you have any expectations of how you're feeling right now and Clark give it? Well, is everyone knows those who have read the book have a very specific sense of who Brett butler is. I hope only is that well I live up to what that sense is. And if I do not, well, that's just tough love. He says something like that. And that is the case with any movie that you're making from a much beloved novel. The lesson there is this too shall pass just because it's a great novel. Doesn't mean that you have anything built into. What's going to be coming along with emotion picture. It's got a click on all cylinders, otherwise it just don't. Well, you think that movie is a big swing. Big is a big swing. Biggest movie that probably should work. Like fundamentally and yet, it is one of the most beloved movies of its kind in the last 35 years. It lives on people pass it to their kids. I remember the first time my kids were old enough to watch that immediately put that on. And it's just going to go on for the next 200 years. There's also a world in which that movies a disaster and it goes away and nobody ever thinks of it again in a month, right? We were the way things are so cyclical that we were the last of four movies that were essentially dealing with the same gimmick. The body switch gimmick, yeah. The body, the body switch gimmick of an old guy into a young guy's body or vice versa. I think that was the name of one of the movies. And we killed. You're right. I was that right, okay. And we came out last. You know, we were the last of the four to come out. And it was just inexplicably fabulous. But look, I got to give, this was all penny. I mean, penny, it was Jim Brooks and petty Marshall. Here's this is my understanding of the backstory was it. Whoopi Goldberg was making a movie called jumping Jack flash. And for two and for two weeks, it wasn't going well. And Jim Brooks said called up penny Marshall said, you are going to you are a director of motion pictures. And you are going to come in and direct this movie on Monday. Jumping Jack flash. So they fire one day. And if you do that, I will give you you will direct your next. And we'll figure out what that is later on. So it was all her. And she directed and cast everything that she did was slow to the point of maddening methodical the why is this taking so long? And I'll tell you, I'll tell you this one story, both penny and bob greenhut, who was the producer. The line producer. So we were in New York and we were shooting the movie. And look at some ways I have an instinct of what I wanted to do. But in other times, I'm desperate for anybody to help, you know. The costume penny, how do you want this? What should we do? I think I do this, but is that going to be enough? And petty shot a lot of takes and trying to laugh. So we had shot a version of the zoltar at ride playlist. We shot a version of it. Where I wish I was big or no, actually the final thing where I go back to them and try to get turned back into a kid. We shot one version of it. And it didn't work. So we ended up putting in the scheduled to shoot another version of it. Which we did. And then petty decided they actually needed even more of what it was. And that didn't quite work. So they came back bob green. We're actually shooting this scene in a bank in Manhattan, where I cash my check for the first time and get cash. With a young Billy. And bob greenhood came up and said, hey, did you hear we're going to go back and shoot some more at the rye at the zoltar machine? And I said, why? I mean, jeez, we've had three passes at it. Penny, penny. Are we actually going back and shooting some more of the results? I think we need to try something. Look, guys, guys, we're wasted time. I got to do hold the whole Michigan, and I'm going to have to get back and then you mode of state and we're going to have to do it again. Can't we just can't be just, you know, table it? Let's cut them let's finish the movie cut it together and then figure out what the scene should be after that. It's around, I mean, penny has it. And I want to try this. All right, well, we're going to keep trying stuff. And it's never going to work. We're never going to find out. I mean, why in the world are we going back to shoot this a fourth time? And bob greenhood said, because they're letting us, oh, okay. All right. Actually, I understand that. Okay. All right. We did that. And that's one of those lessons that you learned. It's like never turned down a chance to do it again. Never never not take another swing at that thing. Always come back. And say, oh, we're going to go back and do some more great. Let's try this. Or you want another take time? Sure. Let's do it. Shoot until we lose the light. I'll go on as many times as you want. That's what I do now. Wasn't quite aware of the richness in the luxury of that opportunity then. Because, you know, you're full of yourself and you think that nothing's more important than making the day. I think you undersold your performance in that movie. That's an incredibly incredibly hard moving to pull off. You're playing with somebody who's 13 year old internally. But it's built like a 30 year old, then you have to have kind of that kind of clumsiness that somebody has when they're 1213. There's some real thought put into that. There would no, there was. It's hard. I don't know how to explain what the process is, because I could come up with that moment. I don't know, man. You just throw yourself into a maelstrom of self doubt, self loathing and some degree of instinct that takes you where you're going to go and try it. The thing is, this was a while back and I had made I had done punchline with Sally Field and David seltzer before we made big. And then we made big accurate, but they were released in the opposite way. So I had just gone through this. Grown-up, bitter, really screwed up, comedian that just needed more of everything for his own ego in Salvation and existence. And we, you know, kind of like got beaten up in the whole process of trying to come up with an act and all of it. And working with Sally as well, who was a gem and at the same time was doing this ephemeral thing that I.