Paul Schneider on Back to the Future

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:26):
Hey, everybody, and welcome to movie Crush. It's Charles W.
Chuck Bryant. Here not in our home studio in Atlanta, Georgia,
but at my home away from home studio c d
M Studios, Ninth Avenue, New York City. So uh, I
had Paul Schneider in here today. And Paul is someone

(00:48):
I met. Actually, the story of how he met it's
kind of funny. I don't know if you remember, if
you're stuff you should know listener. But quite a few
years ago I put out a call when I found
out that somebody I can't even remember who it was
is sort of famous, said listen to the show. I
got a big kick out of that. And I said, Hey,
if there's anyone else out there that's kind of famous,

(01:08):
send me an email and let me know because I
would like to know that. And um, I got one reply,
and that was from Paul Schneider. He sent me an
email that said, hey, I don't know how famous I am,
but my name is Paul Schneider and I'm an actor
and blah blah blah. And I read it and I

(01:30):
was like, dude, I know Paul Schneider. Um, I'm a
big fan of his, and so it was kind of
cool and we started a little pin pal friendship, and um,
then we were able to meet. He came to a
Stuff You Should Know Live show in New York and
we were able to chat a little bit before and after,
and we've since been email pin pals, and that's kind

(01:52):
of how it all got started. We're kind of uh
similar dudes. He's a little younger but in the same
age range, and he's from the South, from Full North Carolina,
and so we kind of relate to one another, I
think in a lot of ways. And Paul was an
obvious choice for when I came to New York to
do some of these recording sessions here, and uh, it

(02:14):
was great. What a great conversation. It's a super size
one because we talked a lot about all kinds of things.
Whenever I get such an accomplished actor in here who's
worked on everything from Parks and Wreck on TV two
movies directed by Jane Campion and Warren Beatty, for God's sake,
I gotta I gotta quism about that stuff. And we

(02:36):
did that for a while, and then we finally honed
in on Back to the Future, and um, that conversation
just went great, A good deep dive into Back to
the Future, one of the great movies of all time.
And uh so here we go. I don't want to
keep delaying this one. Paul Schneider on Back to the
Future right now. I wrote down notes for your for

(03:01):
your programs, So I'm not I mean, I'm taking it
very seriously. Are you still teaching? No, I'm not. How
what was that all about? Was it acting or directing
or writing or I taught directing actors to graduate school
directing students Columbia at Columbia. How'd that go? Um? I really,

(03:23):
I really loved it. Um. I didn't go back because
I kind of needed to work for money. Um. But
it was explaining to the you know, explaining to these kids,
like what what I felt like actors needed in that
situation was like a pretty surprising that they didn't know
and be kind of easy that it's basically just kind

(03:46):
of psychology what I want. It's like and like being
a good coach, you know, like encouragement, you know, like
say three nice things before you give a criticism, and
you know, it's like life skills almost. It's very Um,
all I need to know, I learned in kindergarten. It's
crazy when I hear stories about these directors, like the

(04:07):
tyrannical directors who I just don't get that, and I
don't the whole William Freed can you know, shooting guns
next to Ellen Burston's head and stuff. I just I
there's no way I would deal with that. There's just
no fucking way that I would. I just wouldn't deal
with it. This is not you know, this is not

(04:28):
the end of the world type stuff in the movie.
You know, it should be fun. Yeah, That's why I
don't understand auditions sometimes, because the amount of time they
give you to prepare, the quality of air in the room,
I mean just in terms of sort of attitude in
the room, the vibe. I guess, it doesn't give you

(04:49):
a chance to like, if I want to know what great,
how great an actor you are, I am going to
make you comfortable as comfortable as I can. I'm going
to kind of free up ourselves in terms of conversation.
I'm gonna not shut it down your ideas. I'm gonna
make sort of a free flowing, brainstormy coirement so that

(05:11):
I get all of chuck I see. Oh, he's got
this idea about this and that idea about that. But
when I sort of close it all down, all I'm
getting is the very cocoons protected Chuck, who's only throwing
out ideas that he's pretty sure he's already kind of
vetted in his brain. It's like writing and editing at

(05:33):
the same time. It's just so hard. You just right
and then go back right, which is why when I'm
working with I brought this, I brought this, I brought
this T shirt for you. I wore this T shirt
for you. I should say I saw these T shirts
and I and they when they're online and so like

(05:53):
directed by Martin schriss as, directed by all these people,
and I was thinking, well, I have been directed by Jane.
That's great, that's awesome. So it's it's like, this is
a yeah, literal interpretation of s Yeah. Everyone, he's wearing it,
directed by Jane Campion shirt because you were We'll take it.

(06:13):
We'll take a picture of it later. Yeah, well yeah,
we're going to get a photo. Um. One thing I
always appreciate about you, though, is that you sort of
have a aside from obviously having to make a living,
you've always seemed to have a take it or leave
it attitude, Like I always get the feeling that you
could just go away from it all at any moment.

(06:33):
Well yeah, sure, yeah, I always was it. Rick moranis
who just like up in and and to be with
his kids after his wife died, like to be a
father who could possibly be offended by that? And and
I one thing that I've always thought about is in

(06:54):
acting and sort of this Bologny celebrity culture we live in.
If you're not if your next thing isn't double the
size of your last thing, if you're not constantly being more,
if your image is not constantly more and more propagated,
if people don't see more and more of you, then
the idea is somehow things have gone wrong, right. And

(07:19):
I you know, when I left Parks and Recreation, I
was this like this was I was doing the size movies,
you know, like Bright Star that I really love doing. Um.
You know, I have financial concerns like everyone else. I
want things, you know, I'd like to spend summers in
Spain or whatever. But my overhead is my personal overhead

(07:43):
is really low. And I like the idea of being
sort of a I'm middle class actor, if you know
what I mean, Like I, of course I want to
work with great I want to work with Jane Campion
and and you know the people that I really really
loved when I was growing up. Um. But I but

(08:04):
I just can't. I can't see myself doing something that
I don't really like. Two for what, Like, what's what's
the payoff is? It isn't money? Well yeah, sure, and
and that's great, But I've I've met a lot of
insanely wealthy people, and the general vibe I get is

(08:26):
not and I mean like at film parties or film
festivals or at panels or whatever, you know, And the
vibe you get from some of these folks that are
at the tippy top of the acting profession, it's not
a contented DOLLI lama esque vibe. Man. It is like
bundles of insecurity and bundles of nerves. And I have

(08:48):
that just myself. You know, I don't need to go
get more of that. Um And so you know, I
was talking to my wife about this and and I
just I mean, obviously it's all about the material. Everyone
says that, but it's it's true. I'm not concerned about

(09:10):
where I shoot or how much money I make. It's
all about like do I feel attached to whatever this
guy is there suggesting I play and do I? Um.
And it doesn't even have to be like a great
entire script. I might want to do a character just because,
like I, I don't think the script is great, but
there's something I like about the character himself. UM. But

(09:33):
it's like there's there's there's got to be something that
I can add to it. But I feel like only
I can add to it. Um. Not that anybody else
couldn't do a good job, but but I but there's
a reason why I could say, excuse me, let me,
let me take a crack at this. Um. And oftentimes

(09:54):
characters written you know, I think. I think sometimes the
larger the budget and the larger you might be paid,
and the larger your image, you know, the more your
image might be propagated, and the more quote famous you
might get. Oftentimes those roles because they have to appeal
to the broadest possible audience to make back their capital investment.

(10:20):
It can't be that specific, it can't be that interesting.
It has to be sort of a bland lead character
that everyone can sort of find something to invest in um,
it's it's a it's a broad a broad drawing, not
every deep drawing. Yeah, because I mean you get into that.

(10:40):
You got them Parks and Wreck, which was a great show,
and that's sort of the golden goose for a lot
of actors to get that weekly network series. Um. But
you know, I've read and I've talked to you about
it and read articles in interviews and stuff. It just
that seems to kind of have been the case. There's
like it just wasn't character wise, didn't offer you enough.

(11:03):
And you were I think brave enough to say, like,
you know what, this isn't my bag. Yeah, yeah, and
you know, and and they were brave enough to say
this isn't your bag. I mean it was a mutual Uh,
it was a mutual um us not being into it,
but but the you know, because you know, the forces

(11:26):
being what they were. I kind of signed on for
one character that I thought was specific and interesting, that
being a guy who he he was kind of this
really promiscuous guy, but he was kind of an Eddie
Bower guy, like I really kind of buttoned up dude.
But he had also had sex with everyone in town
and I couldn't remember who he had had sex with,

(11:46):
and but he was very polite about it, and I
thought that was super funny. Um. And then later kind
of because um, you know, as the characters were kind
of shaken down on and and I guess they figured
out like, how do we you know, wait, these characters properly? Um.
I think my characters specificity sort of you know, was diluted.

(12:12):
And UM, I think both they and myself realized that
that I, you know, for myself, I just need to
go in there and be challenged. It's not um, if
the way I think of it is like this, I've
got twelve you know, horrifying angry sled dogs in my head.

(12:35):
And if those sled dogs have nothing to pull, I'm screwed,
you know, free time not being challenged not you know,
and I think this is probably true for all of us.
But when those sled dogs have something heavy to pull,
I'm you know, like like in Bright Star, I was terrified.
I had a lot going on. I was asked to
do a lot of things that I was pretty sure

(12:56):
I couldn't do, and that made me kind of, you know,
sort of terrified and satisfied at the end of every day. Well,
those sled dogs want they want to run, that's all
they want to do, you know. And I can't. I'm
not the solo artist, you know, I'm the collaborator artist,
and I can't. I can't. I can't make give them

(13:18):
a sled to pull myself usually. Um. But anyways, are
you looking to direct again? Talk about Yeah, I'd love to. Um.
I mean, directing is certainly something that I feel most
like wrung out doing. Um. Even when I was teaching
and talking about directing with the students, it was wrung

(13:41):
out in a satisfying sense, absolutely satisfied, you know, like
like a just like a rag, completely you know, wrung out,
and um, yeah, yeah, I think of that as a
very positive thing. Um. So yeah, as far as directing, uh,
performance is concerned, you know, there's there's you know, some
things being written, there's some you know, play ideas being

(14:03):
kicked around. Um. You know, I'd love to direct theater.
And that's kind of you know, those those projects they
are all in sort of germinating stages. And I had
Tony schalubin here yesterday. He said he met you a
few times. Really have you met him? Or was he
thinking of someone else? He? Uh, he and I may

(14:24):
have terrible memories. Okay, that's possible. I love Tony Shalub.
Yeah he was great, it was very cool. It was
Barton Fink was like the first thing I saw him
in this one of my altumpaves, so totally. In fact,
In fact, I have the kind of memory where if
I had met someone that I really admire, I would

(14:45):
not remember it because my brain would convince me that
I I wouldn't be so lucky to have met him.
That's funny. I have a pretty poor memory for a
lot of things, but like when it comes to stuff
like that, it's locked. See I can tell you the
first American to to climb Mount Everest, who wasn't Jim
Whittaker um or the or the first, you know, the

(15:07):
first person to climb it without oxygen um Ryinhold Messner.
But but I can't. You know, yea wife's birthdays, right, Yeah,
I mean it's just sort of a mess of congratulations
on getting married to by the way, thank you very much.
I've seen you last that happened. Yeah, it's good. Huh.
She's a lot smarter than me. Yeah, well that's that's

(15:29):
what you should always do. Yeah, it's a it's a
terrifying prospect. Um. So as far as you're like, you
grew up in North Carolina, I did, right, No, No,
I lived. I moved there when I was four. Okay,
where are you born? I was born in outside of Oakland, California.
Oh wow, so you end up in uh what part

(15:51):
of North Carolina? Was it? It was when I grew up.
It was just outside of the Asheville city limits. This
was pre cool hip Asheville last year. Actually, yeah, and
when I sure. But you know, hometowns are sort of
you know, I have a sort of a love hay
relationship with it because you sort of want you were

(16:13):
you grew up outside of yeah, just outside Atlanta, right,
you know, you kind of want your hometown to stay
like a little um, like a snow globe. You know,
we live these crazy transient lives and everybody's changing, but
you want this memory to stay completely fixed. And it's
just it just doesn't. Um, And it's you know, it's

(16:35):
of course it doesn't. That's my fault for wanting to
wanted it something to happen. That's impossible. But um, but yeah,
I when I was there, you know, there was only
one you know, the only music scene was like one
trip concert a year, and the last time I went there,
well a few years ago. I went there and then
like ghost Face Killer was playing. I was like, what

(16:57):
the hell. Yeah, it's like if we if we had this.
But when I was there, you know, we would read
the liner notes of a you know, of of like
Physical Graffiti or you know, another Led Zepplin album, and
we would just say, like, who are these people? Yeah,
you know, it just seemed like they were making this
music on Mars or something. It's just so far away
from But same with movies, and same with actors, and

(17:19):
same with directors, and you know, the idea of being
involved with that world was really just in fact, the
idea didn't occur to you. Yeah, I've talked about that
very thing on this UM. I've had friends that have
that knew that. It seems like they almost had to

(17:41):
have grown up in l A and maybe New York,
but definitely l A to know that, like that's a
job that you can go get. But for dudes like
us that grew up in the South and these kind
of smaller southern cities, I didn't know that that was
an option or even I mean I guess. I one
way it could happen is if you know your dad

(18:04):
or mom had a friend who ran the community theater
in the small town or something. But but I but
my parents didn't know those people either. So even someone
you know in the small town version of the arts did,
I didn't know those people. And um, my parents weren't
even big movie or music people. Not. Yeah, I was

(18:28):
on my own. My brother was obviously an older brother
always helps oler sibling. Yeah, but you need those influences, Yeah,
otherwise you're just adrift. And and the times that you're adrift,
you know, when you do you know, when I did
discover Peter Greenaway, like on my own, you know when

(18:53):
I saw you know, when I saw the cook, the thief,
his wife and her lover when I was I guess
like eighteen, Yeah, I saw that in that the it
or for some weird reason I did too. Like that,
when you find something like that on your own, you
feel like this is mine, you know, like nobody knows
about this influencer. Yeah, exactly, And I feel like that

(19:14):
kind of stuff is a little more you know, it's
a little more hard one, and it's a little more Um,
I guess it's a little more specialty because because nobody
gave it to you, you you just kind of you kind
of But that was why I got into That was
why I went to film schools because my I mean
I've told this story before, but because my parents and

(19:34):
I saw the piano. Oh really wow, and then you
end up working with her. Yeah, that's pretty amazing. Yeah.
Before the piano, it was I think I really didn't
have any career. I just didn't have any career thoughts.
I mean, it was just like, you know, I just
thought I would smoke pot and that would be whatever

(19:58):
job that, you know, whatever the job that is. And
then after I saw the piano, it was it was
really just like a light switch. Like before it was
no film school, and then after it was you know,
film school. Wow. So that was the North Carolina School
of the Arts. Yeah that's right. Wow. So before that

(20:19):
were you were you going to movies with your parents
or friends? Do you have siblings? I do have an
older brother. Um My, we we liked we went to
movies as a family, and I think we probably you know,
if if if one is a family that doesn't go
to movies at all together and ten yeah, and ten

(20:41):
was a family that went to like every movie together.
We were probably like a A A four. Um. And
but I do remember my dad taking me to see
die Hard in Pretty Cool. That was and I was twelve,
and that just ripped my brain open. And and uh

(21:07):
and I you know, in the list of questions that
you sent me, you asked about R rated movies. And
I don't remember my first R rated movie, but I
did remember going to see Die Harve and my dad
and yeah, and then Good Fellows with my dad, and
both of those were very um, well you know, impactual, affecting. Yeah,

(21:38):
so when you get to um and we can get
into however much of this you want to. But at
North Carolina School, the arts is where is that where
you met David Gordon Green and um, Danny McBride and
all those guys. Yeah, so you were all just dudes
in school together. We were all just duding dudes in
school together. Let's go crazy. Yeah, we were making short

(22:02):
films together. I was you know, David, David was in
my short I mean we made many short films, but
like you know one David was one of in one
of my short films. I was in his short film.
I was in Danny's short film. And actually Danny had
made a short film that was a riff on Back

(22:25):
to the Future UM where I was wearing this, you know,
this fac simile of of Marty's um the vest you
know that everyone mistakes as a life life vest. But
but yeah, we were all there and it's it's it's
very strange too. I actually watched a really amazing documentary

(22:47):
series recently about if I'm not mistaken, it's it's about
the like the the avalanche or a mountains services rescue
team in Shamony in France, and it's just this great
group of French guys and women and they get on
helicopters and they save tourists that are like have fallen

(23:08):
down these ice you know, chasms and U and I
you know, And then the series ended and I realized
another guy that we went to school like with, produced it. Yeah,
so this guy named Brian Mandel. Yeah, that's crazy just
to have that amount of talent come out of a
smallish town one of the lesser uh known film schools

(23:32):
probably well. And when we were there, it was we
were in the second class, like it was ever. Yeah,
Like so when we graduated, we were in the second
graduating class. So yeah, that's crazy. You know the movie
I can't think of the name of it now, like
a dummy S didn't look it up. But the indie
that I saw you and not too long ago they

(23:55):
Goodbye to all that. Yeah, yeah, with Heather Graham and
so good. Yeah. And Angus McLaughlin who we shot that
in in Winston Salem. Oh really who directed that? Angus McLachlin,
he wrote, um, fun, you gotta edit this. He wrote, Uh,
what's the that's right, we can what's the movie with? Um?

(24:18):
The one that Amy Adams got really famous. It's Alexandra
Novola and it's like set in North Carolina about an
art Oh, june Bug. June Bug. Yeah, Angus wrote june
Bug and then he uh, I believe this was his
his directorial debut, that one based on his script. Well,

(24:39):
and I've talked UM. I do these smaller um non
interview shows now for this where I have a lot
of interaction with like people from the listeners, like emails
and top ten lists and stuff like that, and I
do a recommended viewing. And I did all the real
girls for one of the installments and still just one

(25:00):
of the great, great romance movies. To me, such a sweet,
genuine movie. Yeah, it really, I mean it's such a
weird it's you know, it's like looking in your own
It's like it's like it's like looking at your photo
album with an audience. Yeah, and it's very I mean,

(25:26):
you know, I have obviously, I have mixed feelings about
it because you know, it's like I can't it's it's
hard to get totally on board. I mean as a
piece of sort of if I can view it as
a piece of separate art, like, yeah, it's it's I
like it for that reason. I also like it for
the reason that it was just a group of friends
and we're just trying to do this thing, and I

(25:47):
thought that was really great. Um. But also it's kind
of it's kind of tough to get it. You know.
My memories of it were so you know, it was
about such a horrible uh uh, you know, it was
about such a horrible breakup in my early life, and
you know, all the amount of emotion that was poured

(26:08):
into it and pain that was poured into it, and
and uh and maybe that's what makes it enjoyable for
other people, But it's sort of you know when you
when you make something, you know, when you kind of
make something out of a a crappy situation, you know,
and it's and people love people love it, and then
you think like, oh, that's great, but yeah, man, it

(26:31):
was hard, was it? Yeah? Sure, yeah, well, I mean
it was it was so real and everyone. I think
I think the reason why people love that movie is
because you can just so identify with that raw emotion
of being that age and just how important those first
loves were. Yeah, you know, I mean there's nothing like it.

(26:53):
You can go on your life and have a million relationships,
but those first ones are just so impactful and raw
because you don't know how to deal with any of
those feelings yet, and the chemicals in your brain are
like roaring all over the place. I mean it every
day feels like a Magway song. You know. It's like
you know, missing missing a phone call, especially that you

(27:15):
know in those days when there was you know, when
there were no cell phones. You really, you know, when
somebody when you get home and your mom said some
a young lady called it felt like it's like a
Maguay song did start in your head and you were like,
what was her name? And she's like, what does she
sound like? I don't remember, and You're like, so, yeah,

(27:41):
that's so funny, that's so true. All right, well we
can get to back to the future now. Yeah, um,
I should tell everyone that the original not the original plan,
but the plan that you hatched a couple of days
ago was Hey, why don't you come over and watch
it the night before? And I thought that was a
great idea. Yeah, But then you, very wisely, I think,

(28:02):
said you know what, maybe, um, maybe we should not
watch it together because then we'll be recreate because there's
no way we could have sat down and watched it
and I talked about it. Yeah, yeah, in real time.
So in fact, I watched it last night and said
a lot of the lines out loud. I just you know,
I think it was better that I was, better that

(28:24):
I was alone, Yeah, for sure, And I did too,
So I like to think it's kind of funny that
you and I were both in New York here. Let
do you want to go through the questions first? Because
I don't want to forget your questions because I like
the idea of a beat. Yeah, because I like the
idea of your like consistent, you know, like consistent questions

(28:44):
for each guest. I think that's great. Um. Also, I
have a great first movie for you. All right, well
then let's go into five questions. Was the first movie
you remember seeing in the theater? Uh? The Elephant Man
by David What's going on? This is a this is

(29:07):
a true thing. Uh. It came out in eighty when
I was four, And this is right before we moved
from California to North Carolina. Um, and my mom had
she did daycare, so she brought a gang of us
to the movie Song of the South, a movie that

(29:28):
was rereleased in nineteen eighty and now banned because it's
horrifying lely racist. But at that time it was Disney. Um,
and we all know Disney is is lily white and
pure and perfect. Remember the rerelease for sure. Yeah. And
when I worked in in Raleigh, North Carolina. Do I
worked in a tape duplication place, duping videotape and a

(29:51):
lot of people wanted they wanted pale transfers to NTSC
of Song of the South on videotape. So I would
make up a lot of those transfers. But what happened
is my mom took all the kids to uh, the
Song of the South, I think, not having any idea
of its racist overtones. Um. And then I needed to

(30:15):
use the restroom, and I remember it was one of
those early situations where, uh, you have to go into
the ladies restroom with your mom when you're a kid,
and that's a little whatever, it's strange, and so uh
we walked out of the restroom together and she, I guess,
wasn't paying attention, but I walked right into uh The

(30:37):
Elephant Man, which was playing in the theater next next
to Song of This House. And I walked in and
it was you know, it was black and white, and
I was sitting I was standing there staring at the
screen and it was a moment where, uh, John Merrick
is in the in the hospital and this nurse is
bringing him up some tea and she sees him the

(31:00):
first time and she drops the the tea tray. And
when I, as a four year old, saw his face
and his hair and in you know, in a suit,
the way he was addressed, I just you know, it
was like it's probably traumatizing. It was. It was really shocking,
like my whole nervous system was kind of stopped and

(31:23):
to this day. Strangely, it's sort of it's it's um,
it's become something where the song Zippity Dude from Song
of the South terrifies me. But I love the movie
The Elephant Man. That's like it still is you know
you only you. You have like a hundred top five films,
well twenty top five films, and it's definitely one of those.

(31:47):
But that song that conjures up fear still the song, Yeah,
the song Zippity Dude, um not unlike the Magician's Apprentice
from Fantasia. Those kind of happy, happy sounding things are
just like a broken carousel for me. Yeah, it's funny
how those songs, uh, whatever trauma is going on in

(32:11):
your life when you're a kid, those songs years later.
I have one from the BGS, How Deep Is Your Love?
I had a very dark, scary day in elementary school.
Uh one day and my father was my high school principle,
ran into my dad's office crying and that song was on.
So to this day, I mean, all these years later,
that fucking song comes comes on and it just triggers something.

(32:34):
It's like it's science in my body. I guess Oliver
Sacks would have talked about how the song, the music
would imprint deeper than the visuals because when I'm gathering
when I'm telling you that story, and I'm gathering together
the visuals of what happened that, you know, the dress
my mom is wearing, I know, is a dressed I

(32:56):
saw in a photograph of you know, like I'm sort
of cobbling things together there, But the feeling of the
song is not cobbled together. You knows, it's it's in there. Yeah. Um,
what was your first R rated movie? I don't know.
What I do remember is somebody in a couple of

(33:18):
neighborhoods over had HBO and Clan of the Cave Bear
was playing. I never saw it, but the rumor around
school was Daryl Hannah and her boobies were on. We're
on screen, um, and and I had I didn't like
the guy who had HBO, but I tried to get

(33:43):
involved in the sleepover that was happening, but I just
I wasn't. I couldn't do it. Those early cable TV
days are pretty special, totally. There's a lot of clandestine viewing. Yeah,
late night viewing, even shutting your alarm clock at midnight
so you wake up the exact we but I do
you know obviously, you know, die hard, like we said,

(34:05):
and good Fellas was pretty massive. And there was a
moment where I rented my mom loves a good mystery,
and uh, she's also a very a very good Christian
woman and delightfully so and so at the video store
that I later worked at when I was a teenager. Ah,

(34:29):
I convinced her to uh, to rent the name of
the Rose based on the Inverto echo Sean Connery, right,
and it's sort of like a monk as Sherlock Holmes.
And she was like, this is great. You know, it's
Jesus and the Lord, it's Sherlock Holmes coming together. Yeah.

(34:50):
And what she didn't take into account was this insanely
explicit sex scene between Christian Slater and this one in
whose name I should have looked up. She was this
beautiful I think she was an Italian actress that i'd
never seen and have never seen again. Um, but she

(35:10):
was this sort of peasant who who picked through the
trash that the monastery throughout the back of their like
castle wall or something. And when she you know, ripped
off Christian Slater's clothes, it was my first watching the
sex scene with your mom situation. Nothing worse in the

(35:31):
world as a as a young boy, as a nothing
more uncomfortable. I don't know was it eleven or twelve
or some somewhere in there, but it was, um, you know,
you just lock up. That should be panically completely and
and it was. And I think part of the panic
was due to the the the you know, the battling

(35:53):
forces of you know, titilation, you know, because blood is
still rushing to your penis, whether you like it or not.
Biology exactly. Science can't fight with science. And then your
mom's sitting right there and um, and you hear her
her hand moving more and more slowly to the popcorn

(36:15):
bowl into her mouth, and finally it just she just
stops eating popcorn and the chewing of her popcorn completely stops.
And I um. And I remember as I was looking
at it, uh, well, two things. I wanted to go
to the bathroom or I act like, I excuse me, mom,

(36:36):
I just need to, you know, use the rastroom. But
I felt like I was would make more of a
deal had I done that than I wanted to. And
I thought, well, this will be over soon. It wasn't
over soon. It was really explicit and incredible and um,
and and also uh, you know, you just wanted to
stay completely still, but then you think, well that's not

(36:58):
very natural, so you do you like so you stretcher,
you yawn, but that seems very self conscious. And I
remember at one point my mother said, um, after the
chewing and the popcorn eating had stopped. I remember she said, um,
she said, well that's very explicit. Yeah, And I didn't

(37:20):
say anything and then and then it stopped, but I knew.
I think I looked at the VCR like counter, you know,
the time code, that fake time code, and I had
an idea where that scene was so that when she
went to bed you could rewatch it. And I think
she even yeah, so I think I think she even
like took the video cassette and like put it by

(37:42):
the by her car keys or something like I'm taking
this back immediately. Um. But of course I went back
and watched it later that evening, and it was gorgeous
and delightful and and well, it's good filmmaking, it's wonderful.
It's a beautiful woman, it's a beautiful man. Everything was
nice about it. Yeah, if your mom was like UM,
my parents. That for them, that probably let them off

(38:03):
the hook from ever having to talk to you about sex. Yeah,
I'm sure she she checked some box in her head.
I don't have to do that now. Uh. Number three,
will you walk out of a bad movie? I will?
I will walk out of a bad movie. And it's
horrible today in New York because it's like a seventeen
dollar situation. It's a loss, it's a lot, it's a

(38:25):
big loss. Um. Supposedly you can get your money back
if not too much time has passed. I've heard really,
Paula Thompkins said that he's asked and that if it's
within a certain time frame, then they'll they won't give
your money back, but they'll give you a pass to
come back. That well that I did that with um
god him blanket on the movie now it's it's that
German film about the mother and the father and he come.

(38:48):
It was like the best film of last year or
something that was Erama or anyways. I did that recently
at the soon to be closed Lincoln Plaza Cinemas because
there was nowhere to sit. Oh, there there were seats
at the you know and at the very edges. Yeah,
and because the guys there have to deal with so

(39:10):
many cranky septagenarian New Yorkers because it's like right there
at Columbus, you know, it's it's a couple of blocks
up from from Lincoln Center. Um, my friend and I
just so politely and patiently, I'm you know, I'm sorry
to bother you about this, and they give us a pass.
So actually no, they did give us our money back. Yeah,

(39:33):
because I didn't go back. What do you have you
walked out of one lately that you just hated not lately?
And I and I did, Um, I did try to
remember the few that I have. I walked out of.
The one that I remember from a long while ago
was Strange Days. Oh right, Katherine Bigelow. Yeah, and I

(39:57):
remember the movie. It was pretty bad. Yeah, and it
was it was great too that that just must have
been a misstep. Yeah, I'm I'm, I don't know, I
don't know where I am with Katherine Bigelow and Zero
Dark thirty were both great, I'll say that. Yeah, I
think you're definitely right. Um, but there was some there

(40:17):
was a scene in Strange Days where there was some
kind of like there was some you know, sort of
future hairnet you put on your head where you see
through someone else's eyes who you know. I put on
the hairnet and I see you looking at me in
my brain, and uh, it was some sort of future

(40:39):
contraption like this. And there was a woman, if I
remember correctly, there was a woman being raped and this
bad guy had stuck the hairnet on her, so she
was seeing her own self being raped in her brain
and eyes. That's and I just I just said, this
is this is this is enough. By the same token,

(41:01):
I saw Irreversible for the fourth time last weekend, and
I still think that's a brilliant, amazing movie. What is that?
It's Gas barn Away, Monica Blucci in a ten minute,
horrifying rape scene, right. And And the reason I like
that film so much is because I don't think it
treats rape cheaply. It's so it's it's definitely the most

(41:26):
visceral film I've ever seen in my life. When they
there was a murder on on on screen, I thought
it was I thought to myself, Jesus, they've kidnapped someone
and they've murdered a vagrant on on on screen. And
I feel like in that film they treat these things.
It's like, if you're gonna mess around with something like rape,

(41:49):
you know, let's let's either do it or not do it.
You know, Let's you can't go halfway on this. And
I think part of the reason I was so offended
by it in Strange Days was because he was going halfway,
or they were going halfway. Well, and to use it
as a as a plot device, yeah, and and and
in Irreversible. And there's lots of people that hate that film,
and I just don't care. But um, I mean, that's

(42:12):
what the whole movie is about. And I feel like,
if you're gonna explore that subject, well then it should
it should be what the whole movie is about. We're
making something else. And also, Monica Bluchi deserved a fucking
Academy Award for that movie because she, I mean scraping
cement and fingernails and bloody knees and you know, he said,

(42:35):
guess barn Away said that she had watched a lot
of Deliverance and I spit on your grave. And when
she did this ten minute scene with this kickboxer who
was the guy, Um, I mean, besides the nudity, I mean,
it was like every She was kind of throwing everything
at his performance and it was and to be one

(42:57):
of the biggest stars in Europe and and in the world,
especially at that time. I mean, I just haven't seen um,
I haven't seen actors that definitely female actors. UM. I
hadn't seen anyone go for it like that in a
physical way. I like I saw her. It was. It

(43:18):
was terrifying. I gotta check that out because certainly, you know,
certainly in films, we have this way of you know,
we keep we keep the the very beautiful actresses in
a glass box on on film, and we kind of
let the less attractive people kind of do the dirty
work or do the stunts or do the you know,
the supporting role type stuff. You know, they're the ones

(43:39):
who goes through the death scenes or have the gore
splattered on or whatever. And this was Monica Bellucci taking
the whole film like by the throat and saying, no, no,
I got this. And it was I don't know what
year was that. It was the year No, no, it
was two thousand and maybe it was the year that

(44:02):
All the Real Girls was at Sundance, because I saw
it at Sundance. People, Uh somebody fainted, somebody threw up.
An enormous amount of people walked out. And they didn't
just walk out, they screamed obscenities at the screen. While
they were walking out. The girl next to me sort

(44:22):
of jumped over my legs and collapsed into the lap
of What I came to understand was her boyfriend, who
was sitting on this side of me, um and spent
the whole the whole rest of the movie sort of
crying in his lap while he was like he was
holding her and you know, staring at the screen. That's crazy. Yeah,

(44:48):
it was. It was the nuttiest time I've had. And
then and then of course, after the screening, guest Barnoy,
you know, he stood on on stage and said, what's
the big deal? You know that's all the European exactly. Uh,
do you have guilty pleasure movies or a movie? Well,

(45:11):
I don't know. If I don't guilty pleasure movies, I've
got Guilty Pleasure TV. If I were to throw out
some guilty pleasure movies, it would be like Sound of Music.
But that is an incredible, incredible film, So it's not like, yeah,
yea's that's that. But but what about guilty Pleasure TV? Then,

(45:34):
but I what, we watch a sound of music every
Christmas and then I think every time it's sort of
maybe it's just a very that's not guilty, that's just
a very pleasurable movie. Um. And I was, I was
thinking about this and all of my stuff is like,
to me, these are legitimate pleasures, but it's America's funniest videos.

(45:58):
Um still yeah, yeah, yeah, is that still on? Yeah? Well,
I know I don't watch the Alfonso Robertos stuff. I
watched Tom bergeron the well those Bob sag it was
the O G and then it was John fuel sang
in Daisy Fentez. Yeah, okay, so you go deep and
well I go, I go just the Tom bergeron this

(46:19):
sort of section and uh and so I do that.
That's that's what I do. Um and that that was
like the one show that my all my family could
get get on the p yeah and uh and then
I do um. Bud Greenspan made these Olympics documentaries for

(46:42):
every like every for every Olympic Games. Um. I don't
know if he still does them, and I'm not exactly
sure how far they go back, but I I just
will turn on YouTube and grab one of these, like
you know, the Calgary Winter Olympics, and it's like all
the backstories of all the Olympics or all the Olympians, um,

(47:05):
you know this, you know check Skier and how her
father passed away and he you know, all that kind
of stuff and and how they carried rocks up the
mountain into train and all that stuff. And for some reason,
definitely like sports documentaries are do it for me. Remember
Wide Wild World of Sports when we were kids. That

(47:26):
was just like appointment television on Sunday afternoons, and that's
where as a kid we would be exposed to stuff
that you had never seen before. And I felt like
they always told a bit of a story to write.
Yeah it wasn't It was like the prep story like
yeah yeah uh that and and Great British Baking showy
oh those Yeah. I love any kind of the I

(47:48):
like the Kids Baking Championship. Yeah. I'm a big cooking
show guy. Really yeah, top Chef yeah forever yeah see
I could. I had to do Great Great British because
it's like it's so multiculty and everyone roots for each
other and you know that one of the winners was
this beautiful young you know, a Muslim woman who you

(48:10):
know with an English accent, and she's got four kids.
And they showed her at home and every time someone gets,
you know, voted off, they surround her or him with
hugs and and it's not it's like the anti Gordon Ramsey.
You know, there's not a lot of yelling or anything
like that. And then and then it's so funny because

(48:30):
they do all the competitions on the grounds of some
Downton Abbey looking estate and so the b roll it's
always like baby lambs and like or like drips of
you know, do sort of coming off a blade of grass.
Like it's so anti what America is right now? And

(48:51):
uh and that is Yeah, when Fall hits, I just
kind of rewatched all those seasons. I've heard that other
people talk about the show I need to I need
to get done to that. Well, now it's become something else.
I mean, they change stations and so the first I
think the first four seasons are kind of where um
and that you know, they've got these two hosts, these

(49:11):
two comedians mel and another woman whose name I can't remember,
who are who just you know, and it's it's such
an amazing mix of like soft and sweet English gentility
plus like insane sexual innuendo. Yeah, it's just that it's
like that that britt humor thing, you know, this very

(49:34):
kind of like this kind of upright, upright presentation but
with a little sort of dark underpinning and then the
craziest cookies you've ever seen in your life. Yeah, and
then you get that. Yeah, and then I head to
the store sadly movie going one on one? What's your

(49:58):
jam at the theater? Um? I wear a hoodie okay
to block out sounds? Oh, you wear it during the movie, Yes,
to make sure I don't hear any talking. You physically
isolate yourself, I do. I do. Also. I also it
kind of like cuts out the visual field, right, so

(50:23):
I just have the screen. And also people around you think,
is that Paul Schneider or I don't think they just
creep in a hood? I think I think they think
it's just a creep in a hood. And they're right.
If they said I was a creep in a hood,
they would be more right than if they said I

(50:44):
was Paul Schneider. I mean, deep inside, I feel more
like a creepy hooded guy than I do like whoever
Paul Schneider is, Um, are you by yourself or do
you go with Do you shut out your wife and
friends or do they do they just I mean I
would say no, but you'd have to ask my wife
and friends. But so you do it when you go

(51:06):
with them though a little bit, Yeah, because sometimes I'll
tuck my ears out of the hood so I don't
miss any of the surround um. And that's either. Lately
it's been a lot of um like cold water and
sour patch kids. Um. If I feel like it, I

(51:26):
can do some snow caps um. And a couple of
times my wife and I have sat at the way
back of the theater and brought in some boxed wine
and popcorn. Yeah, we had an amazing screening of the
live action Beauty and the Beast um and sat at
the back and got drunk as a couple of ship

(51:48):
house rats and eat you know, a popcorn and had
the greatest time watching that. That's great sneaking in booze
and with the box wine, you don't have to cough
loudly while you open a beer can. Yeah, No, you
just twist it right off and you're you know, you know, SHEBLI, yeah,
that's a good idea because my wife and I can't. Um. Well,

(52:08):
we have a kid now, so we never get to
movies much anymore. But even before that, we would go
to dinner and then you know, I have a little
wine at dinner, and then she's not one. She's like,
after I've had she didn't want to drink in the movie.
She's like, after I've had a glass of wine or two,
I don't want to go sit in a movie there.
I'll get tired, or I'll say, well go or stop

(52:29):
drinking is her thing. So we'll go to the We'll
go to the theater where you can have the glass
of wine. But that never worked either. And well now
they have a lot of them. You know, all the
theaters have food. And he was there. But that's also
us walking to the movie theater. You know that. It's
not like you have to drive blocks away. So that's
why we like where we live. That's great. Uh, where

(52:51):
are you guys? You in Brooklyn? No? Yeah, okay, that's
what I thought. All right, back to the future, bring
it all right, let's do this. I watched it snide
again for them. I don't even know how many times
m H, I assume the same is probably true for you.
Uh it's a damn near perfect movie. And I did

(53:14):
see where USC film school uh trots it out as
the perfect screenplay in their classes. Um, so let's talk
about it, which to me means oftentimes that I won't
like it because it's if it's the if it's the
perfect screenplay. Because when I was in film school and

(53:35):
I was watching movies like Mike Lee's Naked and uh,
keys Lovskis the Three Colors Trilogy and yeah, totally and
um and or Peter Greenaway or whatever, I felt like
for something to be good, they had to be vaguely negative,

(53:56):
you know. It was sort of like they had to
be sort of dark and talking about Syria things, and
that's what made them good and smart. Couldn't be just
a big Hollywood feel good fundment, right and then and
and of course I saw you know, Back to the
Future when I was a kid, and it was great.
And then I didn't see it for many years. And
then I saw it after film school, and I started

(54:17):
to get into the idea of like the science of
plotting and the science of you know, you take Joseph
Campbell and then you lay in math, and then you
get you know, you get you know, inside and incidents
and lock ins and second act breaks and you know,
um um these elements that when I was when I

(54:43):
was younger, I thought were sort of you know that
that's too prescriptive and it's too formulaic, and it's just
not you know, that doesn't create a pleasurable experience for me.
And also the subject matter has to be dark for
it to be good. And and then when I saw
Back to the Future later, I kind of really got

(55:04):
into and started to admire, like the science and the
math of amazing plotting. And then it was so tight
it's it's last night. I I I was thinking about
how many clocks there are in the movie, and I
never thought about that before. Obviously it begins, yeah, obviously that,

(55:26):
But then, um, you know, when when he you know,
when he oversleeps, when he's headed out to meet Doc Brown,
you know, at the Twin Pines Mall to see the
DeLorean for the first time. There's a clock at the mall. Yeah,
and there's a and there's a clock on his like
a an alarm clock on his um on his bed.
As he wakes up and goes oh shoot, I'm late

(55:46):
or whatever. And actually there was another moment last night
where he pulls out the video camera to start recording.
Doc explain, you know, the DeLorean and the flux can
pastor or whatever. And actually Marty looks at his watch
and he shakes it, this little digital Washington shakes it
as if it's not working. And then yeah, it's just

(56:09):
all over. Yeah, So they were really toying with the
idea of time and and at the end, you know,
one of the things that interrupts Doc from fixing the
wire that connects to you know, the lightning the pole
to the thing. It's the it's the the alarm or
the bell of the clock tower, and it's it's ringing,
and he can't hear anything. Um, and it's all over.

(56:32):
I just I mean, if you see I think part
of the enchantment or of the Sea dance, I think,
if I'm not wrong, it might pull out from the
clock face. At some point, there's you know, of course,
and then there's George McFly looking at his his watch,
going I'm late to save Lorraine from this fake right,
fake assault right, which turns out to be a real assault,

(56:54):
which turns out to be super insanely um serious and
and man like. When when I was a kid, it
just seemed so light, but now when you see things
to adult eyes, that scene, yeah, I mean it was
an attempted rape, totally and scary. Well. I remember when

(57:18):
I was a kid seeing it and thinking, um, thinking
seeing it and thinking this is really bad. And I
don't I don't grasp exactly what's going on, but especially
when Leah Thompson leans up and says, George help me. Yeah,
she's really panicked totally and and at that moment, and

(57:40):
it's like last night when I watched it, I was like,
this is really serious, like this is this is really bad? Um,
And I'm surprised that I that that it was. I
don't think it was treated lightly back then, but I
don't I don't know if they would film it the
same way now. Probably not. Yeah. Yeah, there's a couple

(58:02):
of things. Anytime you go back and watch movies from
the eighties, uh through today's lens, there can be problematic sure,
but there was that. And of course the The White
Man really discovers rock and roll, Chuck Berry copies him right,
And I'm sure at the time they just thought what
a clever little thing here. This is how Chuck Berry

(58:24):
got his thing, and they don't think about, oh wait
a minute, what are we saying here really? Or Goldie Wilson.
It was a very sort of step and fetch it
stereotyped black character with a gold tooth and you know,
kind of I'm going to clean up this town. Yeah,
and that was sort of like it was surprising to
see that character so one dimensional when all the other

(58:48):
guys were fully realized and definitely pretty pretty lame way
to do that. And the Libyan terrorists in their p
W butts, yeah exactly, that could drive as fast as
the dolor Yeah, and and well whatever that. You know,
obviously terrorism is a whole another deal. But part of
the reason I liked um, I liked well what When

(59:11):
I was thinking about it last night, I was thinking,
why is this thing so enjoyable? And I think part
of what I came up with is seeing doubles. Yeah,
Like we see one version in and we see one
version for almost everything, even the dog Einstein, who would
never live for thirty years, but we see a puppy in.

(59:34):
You know, that's funny. And I think in general, there's
like this deep sort of brains, sort of reptilian brain
stem satisfaction in seeing growth and decay in time. We
see you know, the you know, the pediments of um

(59:56):
um of the lion estates. The concrete line is dates
or in the future they're kind of crummy, and in
the past they're bright and shined up. And and obviously
the same is true with the town, and we see
how people have turned out, and just like we see um,
you know, just like when we see YouTube videos of

(01:00:17):
some father taking a photograph of his daughter the first
day of school for eighteen years, right, and there's there's
it's some it must be some deep human enjoyment of
seeing time pass um and sort of seeing how things
work out. And and you know that that movie gives

(01:00:38):
us a real thirty year jump. You know, we don't
have to wait thirty years to see how George turns
out or Lorraine turns out or whatever. Um. I mean,
we're seeing these things through Marty, and he's just as
kind of blown away as we would be if we,
you know, if we were in that situation. I feel
like there's something in like seeing doubles and seeing in

(01:01:00):
time pass in an instant, right well, and obviously backwards
and forwards, but I mean, like, if that's your sort
of central core idea, then I think it's automatically enjoyable
to a human being. Yeah, and it's there's Uh I forgot,
I forgot what a magical feeling it was. As soon
as he uh he crashes into the barn, gets shot at, leaves,

(01:01:24):
ditches the DeLorean, and walks into town. And right when
he comes around that corner when Mr Sandman started, it's
like it was magic. It was like all of a sudden,
like you're right, like he goes back to the glory
days of that town before it was graffitied up and
there was the porno theater I think multiple porno Yeah, yeah, yeah,

(01:01:49):
exactly sure. Uh and yeah, it's it was a magical experience,
even as an adult watching that when he comes around
and you hear that bum bum bum bum bum, because
I think we all sort of idealize that time. But
what he what he learned was it was mom drinks
and mom will get into a car and make out

(01:02:10):
with a guy. And it wasn't idealized under once he
once he scratched the surface, you know. No, Yeah, it
was interesting because sort of people have. Obviously people have
all the I mean, I mean clearly people have all
the problems you know now that they did then and
then as they do now. But um, but there was

(01:02:32):
a real I don't know if this is a real term,
but I always think of it as like psychological logic.
Like as much as they didn't draw the Goldie Wilson
character correctly, they drew so many other characters correctly. And
I remember I just wrote a note, so I wouldn't
I wouldn't forget it. Oh right, right, right, So like

(01:02:54):
the psychological logic of when Lorraine, when when Marty's back
in five at the very beginning of the movie and
he comes home and they slap down Uncle Joey's you know,
parole cake with that sound effect that is really it's
always been really jarring to me, that whack the metal
pan on that table. Yeah. Um, there's a real logic

(01:03:19):
to when Lorraine describes the night she met George. Um,
she talks about him having been hit by the car
and then her father bringing him and bringing him in
and she says he was like a little lost puppy.
He was so helpless, and that is not the makings
of a good marriage. People don't start great marriages with

(01:03:42):
that first attraction being of of something that is helpless.
It just doesn't and and you and it, and it
makes sense that they'd be kind of in this kind
of fracturess laborious, drunken relationship, or at least her half
of it was drunk um. That raised a couple of
sort of you know, annoying kids, and you know, a

(01:04:04):
father who's totally withdrawn living in the past through Jackie
Gleeson and everything else. And of course, in the same
way that that same woman, Lorraine, who who definitely you know,
needed some kind of feeling of protection. She got it
from George and the second version of the past when

(01:04:25):
he said to Biff, no, if you leave her alone,
and then and what did he do? He punched her out,
or punched Biff out, and then he brought Yeah, definitely,
and Chris, I mean Crispin Glover's performance we could talk
about for an hour. But he punches Biff and he's
looking at his hand and he's going yeah, and then

(01:04:47):
he turns back to Lorraine who's on the ground, and
Leah Thompson is looking looks gorgeous in that you know,
in those moments and he um, he turns to her
and he stops his his sort of heavy I can't
leave what I just did breathing, and he goes, are
you okay? You know, and he's sort of he's just

(01:05:07):
enough of a hero, like you're not going to take
that guy and turn him into into John McClean. He
it's a believable version of hero. And he's just as
amazed that he did what he did as as as
his schoolmates are when they run up and say, was
that George McFly? Yeah, I mean it's a little ham fisted,

(01:05:27):
but also very sweet when it's is that George? You
ever thought about running for class president? Yeah? For sure?
But I mean that punch was that was what changed
the future and set up that perhaps the most satisfying
ending in movie history. Totally Uh well, we'll we'll get
to that in a second. But um, but that that

(01:05:47):
and there was another moment that I saw last night,
or that I've seen forever, but I love at the beginning,
right when Marty meets George, the young version of George
the diner at the diner Um and Biff comes in
with Billy Zane and I didn't realize it was yeah,
and Casey Seize Macco and the other actor who's who's

(01:06:10):
I'm sure is brilliant and a great person whose name
I can't remember, but they um, they you know, Biff
starts bullying George about you know, him having to you know,
recopy some some reports he was going to play giarize
um and uh and the guy in the back with
the you know, with the cut off fingered gloves. He

(01:06:34):
says to Biff, like, look at this guy. He's like,
you know, he looks like he's in the navy here,
what's with his life preserve? And so Biff turns to him,
and the whole gang's focuses back onto Marty and they're
kind of the there's like a moment of making fun
of Marty. And in that moment when they cut back
to Biff, Crispin Glover as George is also making fun
of Marty. Yeah, yeah, what a dorky guy. And it

(01:06:58):
was the perfect the real right, it's the perfect moment
of like, this guy is the victim and now the
focus of the bullies and the gangs are on someone else.
And what does he become? He becomes his own version
of a bully, just he's desperate to get to not
be a victim. Man, I never noticed that. Oh man,
it's the great I don't know if that's Bob Zemeckis

(01:07:18):
or Crispin Glover or what, but it was such the
most real, Like, that's the psychological logic that I don't
that I don't see in Hollywood a ton and I
certainly don't see in those, you know, very formulaic screenplays
a ton and Um, I just didn't. Uh again, I

(01:07:41):
don't know if it's Crispin or Zemeckis, but oh man,
it was like to me and and for and for
an audience member, I see that, I see that serious,
sort of scalpel lesque version of truthful behavior, and I
can believe sort of the rest of the movie. You know,

(01:08:01):
I'm on board with so much of the rest of
the movie based on a couple really seriously observed moments.
I'm sort of on board with kind of whatever they do,
and of course what happens is great, yeh. But but
they can make mistakes along the way and I'd still
be on board. Yeah. Another moment that I thought was
really kind of subtle, as that you see differently as

(01:08:23):
adults is when at the end when Marty says, you know,
if I only had more time, I could go back
and save Doc. I got a time machine ten minutes
all to do it. And as an adult, I'm thinking,
oh my god, give yourself ten hours. Yeah, the day before, like,
why do you want to cut it that close? So
I was laughing at that, but then I thought, no,

(01:08:43):
you know what, that's exactly what a sixteen year old
kid would do. Yeah, because you don't think in those terms.
At sixteen you would because I never noticed that when
I saw it as a kid, I probably thought, yeah,
ten minutes is great, Yeah, plenty of times, plenty of
time to save him from Libby and terrorists. And I
don't remember that the last time I did this, the
car cut out and I couldn't get it started, right,

(01:09:05):
you don't consider those things, yeah, and I just now,
you know, And and just after he types that in
the car wouldn't start, Um, clearly a problem with the
car start. Well, and that's that's that's that's that's the
truth of DeLorean. Well yeah, that's right, right. Uh. But
there were so many little like the car not starting
them At the end, Doc not being able to plug

(01:09:26):
in the thing like just when you think all right,
they've got it, Zamkas throws one more little wrench in
the plan and all that does is just ramp up
the tension and the stakes. And as a fifteen year old,
you don't know that's what's happening. You just know you're like,
oh my god, not that, not that right. And and
of course the lightning scene is is my wife actually

(01:09:48):
came in and we we you know, like that scene
was on and it's just like it's undeniably tense, you know,
I mean, it just keeps on working. And I think
part of the reason it works so well is because
all the all the moments of ratching, all the moments
of tension being ratching it up are realistic. Of course,

(01:10:11):
the branch comes down, and you know what I mean,
like it's it's it's there's not really a jump into
unrealistic action. I mean, maybe the one moment is when
he drops that connector and it rips into his pants.
I mean maybe that's a little hard, but like you said,
you're already on board, right because because other things seem
so realistic. Um, which makes me think you know the

(01:10:35):
other thing that made made me really you know, I
think admire that film. Once I started acting in films,
was this idea of um, the courage it takes for
especially Christopher Lloyd and Crispin Glover to be so out

(01:10:55):
there in their performances before they knew that the that
that out there style of acting would fit into this movie. Yeah, Crisp,
I mean the casting of Crispin Glover and that performance
just gave it enough weirdness totally, you know, But the
movie it's you know, like I I you know, when
I'm making films, I'm always not sure at the beginning,

(01:11:18):
like is it, you know, is this small realistic acting,
is this kind of does this have a mumblecore vibe
or is that what we're doing? Or is this you know,
is this um you know, you know Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory. I mean, are we like really out there?
Can we do anything? Or are we? Or can't we?

(01:11:39):
And you know there are moments in you know, there's
Robertson Here's performance in Cape Fear the remake. He's so
out there and his Southern accent is so bad, But
for some reason, I'm into it, like I buy it
for some reason. And he knew how far to push it,

(01:11:59):
and I'm I'm really interested in performances like Christopher Lloyd's
and Crispin Glovers where they can push it as like,
like as far as they can to the edge of
a realistic performance and then they stop, whereas that another
actor who was maybe less ballsy, would sort of keep it,
keep it in the middle somewhere because they weren't sure

(01:12:21):
what style of movie was around them. So when when
we meet Christopher Lloyd and he says, Marty, I mean
that's like if I was on set and I saw that,
I'd be like, oh man, this guy's going back way
too far right exactly, And same with Crispin Glover. But
those guys are so locked in and it's almost like

(01:12:44):
the movie itself sort of rose up to meet their performance. Um.
I mean, granted, it's a it's a time machine movie,
so you know, obviously there's some some room to play well.
And they got to shoot a lot of that wise though,
because you know the Eric Stoltz thing. Yeah, I mean
they shot five weeks. Um. If you listen to the

(01:13:06):
Thomas Wilson, the guy who played Off, he will say
that they shot most of the movie. I don't think
that's quite true, but uh, I did think it's interesting
and I have seen have you seen some of the footage.
It's definitely freaky, you see. But I think it's interesting
to get a redo for the other actors. Uh. And
what if that changed anything on their end? You know? Yeah,

(01:13:29):
I mean, especially if they saw any of the dailies,
which I bet they didn't. But um, I mean the
idea of a redo is I mean, that's I would
be incredible as an actor to be able, oh man,
because all I mean, all you do, after all I
do when I'm done acting is um, you know, a
couple of weeks go by and then I just you know,

(01:13:52):
I just think like I could have done that better,
or I think that's natural. Yeah yeah, but it's it's
surprising to sometimes, you know, when you perform, how you know.
I mean, I was in this Janumo film, uh, Flowers
of War, I was. I was in it for like

(01:14:12):
thirty seconds. But when we shot it, um, it was
Christian Bale and I in a scene and the English
translation of the Chinese script was it was just kind
of wonky and it just didn't It was like a
literal translation which is not which doesn't work. And I
asked Janumo sort of politely. I said, hey, can I

(01:14:36):
can I monkey around with the script a little bit?
This doesn't sound American at all? And he said, what
is monkey around me? Exactly? Exactly exactly. I know. His
daughter is his sort of translator and assistant and editor,
and she's just this, you know, really super intelligent, capable
woman and um. And so Christian Bale and I sat

(01:14:57):
down and kind of uh school the script around, at
least this English part of the script around, and we
kind of came up with what we were going to say,
you know, fifteen minutes before we shot it. And the
budget on this thing was insane. Um. You know, there
were a hundred extras as dead bodies as I'm running
through the streets of this bombed out you know, uh

(01:15:20):
Chinese village, And it was amazing to me that we
had sort of, you know, not written the script, but
we've sort of come up with the script or that
scene minutes before we shot it. We shot it on
a steady cam um with this hot shot operator. I
think we had just done Old Boys. So everyone was

(01:15:42):
I really wished I really I really wanted to have
some I wanted some to get some stories for him,
but he was clearly busy. Um, but you know we
did it. Uh, you know, we probably did it four
four times on my side. We probably did it four
times on Christian side. And was it. And it's it's

(01:16:02):
it's crazy that most of the time while I'm acting,
I'm doing something for basically the first time ever in
my life as someone who I'm not ever supposed to
have been, and we're filming it and that's pretty much it.
So every movie is like me getting on the you know,

(01:16:23):
the pictures mound during the World Series. I've never pitched before.
And then it feels like the next movie is like
me in the NBA Championship. I've never played basketball before,
you know, and then it's like the finals of Wimbledon.
I'm not a tennis player. You know. It feels like
every movie is me doing something for the first time

(01:16:45):
at the highest level. Are kind of with the most
nerves attached, and you kind of have to to just
kind of do it. Yeah, that doesn't sound to me though,
like like a typical actors insecurity, though, that sounds like
something different, almost like you just have to have faith

(01:17:07):
of saying, all right, well, this is this is what
I'm gonna do. I want to try to throw a fastball. Yeah,
And and obviously a lot of it is is kind
of learning how to look like you know how to
do something. And because I edited, I studied editing in
film school, I I mean, the acting thing is very

(01:17:32):
kind of late coming, and and I didn't really mean
to do it, but um, because I spent so much
time editing performances in film school, you know, you kind
of learn how much, h how much power you have
in changing or or um or improving a performance. Is secure?

(01:17:55):
Is a secure feeling, Yeah, definitely. So I think in
that respect, when I'm acting, I'm sort of into the
idea of kind of giving someone options, I mean, options
that are within the bandwidth of what I think is
realistic for this character in this situation. But I don't,
you know, when I when I hear awards, acceptance speeches

(01:18:20):
or people refer to some you know, supreme authorship of
their performance, I think to the actor, well, you know,
I always want to see the shot of the editor.
When you know, when an actor is getting an oscar
saying yeah exactly, and they say like, I couldn't have
done this without X, Y and Z and I want to.

(01:18:41):
I want to, I want to think to myself, like
you absolutely couldn't have done this without the editor, you know,
like you think or no, and that they should thank
costuming and hair and makeup and directing, but they never
thank the editor. But I would say, I mean, all
that stuff is as I clearly, it's legit and a
big d. But there's nobody in the in the filmmaking

(01:19:03):
process that's spending more time staring at you and your
body and your ticks and your mannerisms and your behaviors
endlessly than the editor. Yeah, like stressing over individual frames
of film frames make you seem as good as possible. Right,
So this person has seen like the pixels of your performance,

(01:19:25):
and what do you do? You thank the producer for
the studio exactly, And I mean, obviously that's about getting
your next job, and I understand that, but I mean
as far as as far as what who's really making
your performance happen, it's you and the editor, not even

(01:19:45):
the director. You know, the directors there is they're sort
of you know, they're they're you know they are I mean,
if you're um, they're kind of a passenger on your
particular journey. Um, and they're helpful to point in certain directions,
but you're you have to get there. And that that
brings me back to Michael J. Fox and how you

(01:20:11):
know how a lot of times the lead character, like
we've talked about, has to sort of he has to
be bland, you know, to be able to glom onto
as an audience member and go on his journey. He
can't be too specific. I thought Marty was very specific,
you know, obviously not quite as sort of out there

(01:20:31):
as Christopher Lloyd or or Crispin Glover or Thomas Wilson um.
But he was in no way bland. And I think
part of what I really enjoyed about his performance, like
like after I watched it again last night, was the
physicality of it. He is sprinting from one scene to

(01:20:54):
the next. He is playing guitar, and when he plays, uh,
you know, obviously he didn't play tar, but he learned
the chords apparently to Johnny be Good, so he was
he was sinking along with the chords. And I also
respect a movie where the drummer because I used to
play drums, the drummers were both drummers were on point.
The drummer for the Pinheads at the beginning where Huey

(01:21:16):
Lewis is one of the judges. He was playing the
drums properly and then the drummer for UM Marvin Barry
and the Starlighters. There you go. Um, he was on it.
But but Michael J. Fox is jumping off of the amp,
landing on his knees, you know, sliding on his knees
when he when he sees um Biff sort of slide

(01:21:40):
off the back of UM, I guess it's probably Doc
Brown's car that he borrowed, right, So when he slides
off the back of Doc Brown's car after George Is
punched him out UM Marty's and then the people behind
him say, you know, is that is that George the
fly and Um. When Michael J. Fox sort of realizes

(01:22:02):
what time it is and sort of busts through this
crowd of extras to go get the guys to get
back on stage. He sort of climbs over this one
woman's like for you know, mink stole or whatever she
has on and really pushes them out of the way.
That's just not something that happens on a movie set.

(01:22:23):
You don't sort of grapple with the extras. He gets
a flip over a lady at one point too onto
the sidewalk um where he like he bombs into her
and sort of like he runs into her with the skateboard.
Now I can't remember which part it was, but it
struck me as well of like how he kind of

(01:22:44):
went for it physically totally as a but well like
if I'm if I'm running through a bunch of extras,
maybe I'm a bad actor, but like I don't, I
don't sort of check them with my shoulder as I'm
going past them. But he I mean, but it makes
total sense. I mean, this guy is you know, the

(01:23:06):
stakes used to be that he would be stuck in
that sucks. But then once once he starts seeing his
brother and sister disappears, his life is threatened, and so
that whole formulaic script those whole like you know, the
math of a great script. You know, you have to

(01:23:26):
have the same goal, but the stakes of that goal
have to keep rising, and the strategy for which you
achieve that goal has to change according to um the
skills that you've learned along the way, and the only
way you're going to completely achieve the goal is if

(01:23:49):
you can finally do at the end what you were
scared of at the beginning. That's like deeply Joseph Campbell ship. Well, yeah,
and at the beginning the Pinheads fail. Right at the end,
he succeeds as a musician if he didn't know how
to play guitar, because uh, it's just so perfectly set
up totally with Marvin hurting his hand. So Marty has

(01:24:11):
to literally save himself in his life by getting his
parents to kiss. And even when even there you think, alright, great,
he's playing guitar, they're gonna kiss, Zamakiz throws that dickhead
in there who breaks in and says, this is my
dance or whatever? Can I cut in just another little
level of oh my god, will you plead? Like? And

(01:24:32):
I realized I'm so scared that it wasn't gonna happen. Yeah,
the red haired kid bothers me maybe as much as
Biff bothers me um as an actor. Well, just because
he comes in at that moment of like a moment
of high stress. I mean like he sort of adds
like the top layer of sweat on my forehead in

(01:24:53):
that scene. And I realized last night he was one
of the three kids who was kicking Crispin Glover in
the butt in the hallway when he had to kick
me sign on his back and Strickler Strickland guy's name. Um,
he said, you know, he you know, he grabbed the
sign off his back and said, you know, get your

(01:25:14):
ship together. But he but the red haired kid was
one of those bullies. I don't think I realized that either.
Oh man and he had that laugh and the and
Alan's Sylvestri's music at that point was just like at
its crescendo. Um. Yeah, like that that's the last scene,
you know, that scene and then the one leading up
to the lightning bolt scene is just like if you're

(01:25:37):
falling asleep, which you shouldn't anyways, but like if you're
falling asleep and that in that screening you're awake. Then yeah,
it's just so expertly put together. Uh. And then that
ending of course satisfying ending in and then I just
remember being fifteen or whatever, um when and um, when

(01:26:02):
the future had changed and his parents had money and
he had the money ruck and Biff was the car waxer. Uh.
It just doesn't get any better than that, even though
seeing it as an adult, I thought, why is his
brother living at home? Yeah? So you know, of course,
now I thought that was kind of fun. But um,

(01:26:24):
it's just such a satisfying ending for a kid to
see and as an adult, because I think all kids
think like especially if you become like you know, we did,
like the middle middle class kids like man, I wanted
the shiny truck want. I didn't want the hand me
down Volkswagen Beetle. No. Um, I was happy to have
it or the or the nine that had. Yeah. And

(01:26:45):
what was great is that like during the opening sequence
of the clocks and the dog food and the plutonium
and all that stuff, there was a you know, during
that kind of Rube Goldberg machine, the the robot arm
or whatever. At some point the um, the radio gets
flicked on, I mean the TV gets flicked on as well,

(01:27:07):
and she talks about the plutonium being stolen and um,
and they say that it's just a clerical error. Um,
it's missing being a clerical error. At some point the
radio has turned on and there's an advertisement for Statler Toyota.
Oh I didn't notice that, which becomes you know, the
Toyota truck that he has at the end. So dense.

(01:27:28):
It's so dense, but for some reason it doesn't. That
crap can get very annoying in some movies, and I
don't understand why it's not this time. I mean it's
it's because you can't say it's subtle either, you know,
like it's not. It's one of those weird things that

(01:27:49):
all just worked, you know. I mean, there was that
you know, when he jumps into the there was one
point where Marty jumps into the DeLorean and there's a
tiny tilt down to the video camera and his walkman
um and of course those become such big deals later

(01:28:09):
on when he gets you know, when he convinces yeah, exactly,
m van Halen, it's great. Yeah uh and then maybe
one of the best. I'm a big fan of movies
that have great last lines, um and and usually it's
like an indie film and not some big Hollywood movie
where I think as a great last line. But Roads,

(01:28:31):
where we're going we don't need Roads is like Hollywood
history right there. And I don't think they. I don't
think they. I would really like to know what what was,
what was improved, or what moment they because I think

(01:28:52):
it's easy to to think that nothing was nothing wasn't
pre planned. But I also don't think that if you
do that you get the life and the vitality. Sometimes
it unless you know how movies are made in reality, right,
But you know, when you get that much pre planning,

(01:29:15):
you know, that much kind of you know, over Hitchcock,
you know, movie making, to me, it really presses down
on on everything. Now. Granted, if you're dealing with like
a mathematician like Hitchcock, you know, yes, he was the
best mathematician, and so we enjoy a lot of his films,

(01:29:35):
but you know, you could feel Jimmy Stewart or you
could feel Carry Grant like trying desperately to like kind
of you know, kind of molt out of this snake
skin of of oppression. And certainly we know that the
women he worked with were just like put in a
you know, trapped in a box um and you know,

(01:29:57):
gazed at with you know, insanely creepy eyes. Of course,
when Grace Kelly, you know, leans in in rear window.
I mean, you know, who's not a creep looking at
Grace Kelly? But uh, but a lot of times when
you feel that that math happening in a screenplay, for me,

(01:30:20):
it it sort of strangles the ability for anyone to
pop out like David Fulis in Naked. You know, you
never get that much of a barf of like humanity.
But for some reason Back to the Future still has that.
And I wonder how much was pre planned, how much

(01:30:43):
was improved, and I and I bet as much as
that movie feels like a constructed, rudimented, structured affair, I
bet that there are moments in there of just happy
accidents of of of you know, because when you sort

(01:31:03):
of set everything in a very particular particular direction, I
think you you make you know, you make those other
moments possible. And you know, I'm sure this is not
the case, but but like you make possible someone, you know,
that last line someone could you know, Christopher Lloyd is

(01:31:24):
so in the head of Doc Brown that I'm sure
if they didn't write that line for him but instead
said you, uh, if you if there's anything you'd like
to say during this last point in the movie, that
go for it, you know, improvo lines, say whatever is
on your mind. I bet you wouldn't. It wouldn't be
so bad, you know, it would probably be in line
with what they wrote anyway, Um, but everything was so

(01:31:49):
popping in that movie, Like you know, Leah. I was
looking at Leah Thompson and I was just like, man,
of course, like yeah, and the whole count you know, yeah,
I mean like it still makes me laugh. It totally
calls him Calvin and and the amount of physical comedy
that that Michael J. Fox throws in when he's putting

(01:32:11):
on his pants and then falls to the floor. But
he's like getting out of her bedroom. There's Dean Kundy
actually sets the mirror of her in her bedroom, like
this vanity mirror in the bedroom, so so so we
can see the door as she's leaving the bedroom, we
can see her out the doorway and we can see
um uh Michael J. Fox in sort of like the

(01:32:35):
you know, the right third of the frame, and we
see in the reflection of the of the mirror, she
opens the door and looks back at one more you know,
one more view of a male in his underwear and
then runs out. You know, she smiles with those bouncing
curls and then she like and true she runs out.
But yeah, so cool. Uh really quickly, I need to

(01:32:56):
tell you about them. When I went to visit my
brother who was in the d G training program. In
the early nineties. I had never been to l A.
Went and visited him. He was working at Universal at
the time, and I went to get him pick him
up very late after work one night, and it was
it was empty. There was no one there at UNI

(01:33:17):
and he said, here, go down here, go around the
corner and pull around here. And sure enough, man, I
pull around the corner. And this was in nineteen like
probably ninety so, not very long after this movie was
out and I look up ahead and it's fucking Hill
Valley town Square. Oh yeah, the backlot. I mean it

(01:33:38):
may still be there as part of the tour, but
there was the strip of road that was the movie theater,
that was the clock tower. And I just a chill
ran up my spine. It was like the coolest thing ever.
That's amazing. Yeah, it was great, and it was empty.
It was it was probably one in the morning. And
I wonder if they you, I mean, certainly they must
have used that in other films. Actually, um Tony Shalubzs

(01:34:01):
movie was The Staying, and the diner from the Sting
was the same as it had already been there. They
used it for Back to the Future, So it's just
a working back lot um that they tricked out with
certain things, obviously to make it Hill Valley, but I
think it's probably still there. I haven't been on that
tour and forever I've never done it. Yeah they I
mean they left it for years because Back to the Future,

(01:34:22):
of course went on to be one of the legendary
movies of all time. But it's definitely cool man, even
as adult, like to walk around that set and that
lot with that clock tower. And there's some documentary they
just had out about the DeLorean. I think, yeah, that
was a hotshit car. It was for a minute, and

(01:34:43):
there was um, there was how I lost what I
was gonna say? That's all right? Do you feel good
about this? Yeah? Do we cover it? Yeah? We sure?
Did you see if I had any other notes that
I wanted to Goldie Wilson, Toyota, right, Lorraine space Camp,

(01:35:04):
Lea Thompson, Oh yeah, god, that was great totally. I
just watched some kind of wonderful lookin the Other Night. Yeah,
I haven't seen that for maybe I've seen that once.
Speaking of Eric Stolts, Yeah right, I forgot. Yeah, they
were in that together. Yeah, and um, I should know this,
but who was the who was the young woman with

(01:35:25):
the short the drummer with the short blonde hair. Oh,
Mary Stewart Masterson as um, she was like the ducky
character in that movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a good one.
That that she may have started my um my her

(01:35:45):
and Carry Lowell in License to Kill the I think
the second Timothy Dalton James Bond film. They both sort
of jump started my insane sexual attraction for women with
short hair, the pixie haircut. Watts that was her name,

(01:36:05):
some kind of wonderful of course it was a masculine name.
Well he named uh it was after Charlie Watts. All
the characters were named after Rolling Stones. I well, good
for him. I never would have thought that. All right, man,
thanks amazing, This is great. I might have to go
and watch the DVD extras now, I think maybe we
should do that. Yeah, all right, thanks, all right, everybody.

(01:36:37):
That was Back to the Future with Paul Schneider. Back
to the Future plus and a whole lot more. It
was fun to talk to Paul, and I wish we
lived in the same town because I think Paul and
I would be pretty good buds. Is my hunch. He's
a good dude and it was great of him to
come in here and watch the movie the night before
and take notes. It always is better when people do

(01:36:59):
that and take it as seriously as you can take
a fun little show like this. So many thanks to Paul.
I can't wait to see what he has coming out
in the hopper next. He's a discerning guy, as uh
as you learned, so I guarantee you whatever he's gonna
be in is gonna be pretty great. So thanks a lot, everybody,
Thanks for joining, and until next week, remember it's one

(01:37:20):
point one chick a lots movie. Crush has produced, edited, engineered,
and scored by Noel Brown from our podcast studio at

(01:37:41):
Pond City Market, Atlanta, Georgia.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Paul Schneider on Back to the Future