Heather Le Roy - Pee-wee's Big Adventure/Magnolia 021

This week on Core Memory, Cortney chats with filmmaker, photographer, and actress, Heather Le Roy, about Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) and Magnolia (1999)!

Follow Heather on Instagram: @heatheraleroy

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Theme song by Ray Duncan: @rayduncanmusic on all platforms
Artwork by Holley Maher: @holleymaher on all platforms
Follow Cortney Warner: @cortneywarner13 on all platforms
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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

It's basically a movie where everyone is just screaming for connection and frogs fall from the sky, which kind of feels like dating in Los Angeles.

SPEAKER_04 0:36

Welcome back to Core Memory, a podcast about movies. I'm your host, Courtney Warner, and I'm so excited because this week we have photographer, filmmaker, actress, screenwriter, comedian, among many, many wonderful things, along with being a wonderful friend. Please welcome everyone. Heather Leroy. Yay! Hey. Well, Heather, thanks for being on the pod. How are you? What's going on?

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Dude, I'm so great. I got my my dog here, Dolly. She's on the pod.

SPEAKER_04 1:05

I have her with me.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

I'm just in LA, man. I'm doing all the things.

SPEAKER_04 1:09

Yeah. You seem like you've been busy. You've had a lot going on, I feel like, from what I've seen, and it seems like it's been going pretty good.

SPEAKER_03 1:15

Yeah, I'm uh I'm still figuring out the distribution aspect of my movie. So hopefully I have some news about that within the next month or two, which is very exciting.

SPEAKER_04 1:24

That is exciting. And and audience, this is the first uh episode I've had where a filmmaker is on discussing movies. So this is really exciting to have someone who actually understands how hard it is to get something anything made, uh, independently or not. And you know, and I feel like, you know, especially with the your favorite movie, I feel like that I feel like that uh aligns more with an independent feeling, you know what I mean? Like as far as like movies that that that director makes. Um, so I'm excited to talk to you about that and just get your insight on things. Um, so uh well let's get right into it. So Heather's first movie that she brought us that she remembers seeing is Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. And for some big for some uh for some stats, it's came out in 1985, directed by Tim Burton, his first his first movie, actually, I learned. Uh, and and sorry, and Paul Rubens, E.G. Daly, Mark Holton, and Diane Salinger. Uh Heather, can you tell me about the first time you saw this movie?

SPEAKER_03 2:18

So it's all a bit of a blur because even when you asked me like my core memory, remember, I was like, oh god, I think it was poltergeist, but I actually had the trauma of poltergeist two confused with poltergeist one. And then I was thinking about it, and this movie kind of radicalized me in my life. I was only radicalized once, and it was by Pee Wee's Big Adventure, and I saw it on VHS at my grandmother's house on a dead-end country road in Alabama.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

Yeah, the middle of nowhere, like literally a dead-end country road in the middle of like a she lived like right at the foot of the mountains. I was getting my Pee Wee Herman dose.

SPEAKER_04 2:57

I love it. And then, so how did um how did it impact you creatively creatively at the time and how did it radicalize you?

SPEAKER_03 3:03

I think as a kid, a lot of um young girls had Barbie dream houses. And Pee-wee, Pee Wee Herman, I mean, he created that character at the Groundlings when I was adult. I learned that. Yeah, it was it was a it was a groundlings character, and he and Phil Hartman and all of these people were members of the Groundlings, and it was first an adult show that was gonna be an HBO and he would take around clubs for adults, and then it became a kid's show. But when I when I first saw it, I think it was this like absurd. I mean, now I can say absurdism and surrealism, but it was so fun, it was so wacky and it was so over the top. I became a bit obsessed with him. Like I would do his voice, I wanted all, I wanted the chair, I wanted like all of his things. So when I saw the movie, um I just like I wanted a red bike, I would say the whole I'm a loner, yeah, rebel. Like I literally was like a young girl imitating Pee-Wee Herman. Yeah, I love it. I guess I learned all of my adult social skills from Pee-wee, which probably explains everything in my life.

SPEAKER_04 4:19

Yeah. Would you say that would you say that Pee-Wee Herman uh inspired how you made your first film? And like, because you know there isn't a lot of surreal. There was a lot I can now see some parallels between the two. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

I think, I think um it definitely shaped my creativity because it was the first time that I I watched something that it it just it felt like ooh, anything was possible and thinking big and like an adult and like a kid's world. There was something about that, and and God knows if I could have had puppets in my movie, I would have. You know what I mean? But I crammed so much in there. There was only so much you could cram in there. But yeah, he definitely influenced me. And I always feel like Phoebe's Big Adventure is like a true crime documentary, but it's got a red bike and uh a guy in platform shoes going to find the victim.

SPEAKER_04 5:12

Yes. No, I I agree. Like I re I rewatched it today and it it's it holds up, it's still really good, just because it I feel like it's so it's so whimsical and fun that I feel like that that just feels kind of timeless too. You know, and it's obviously set in the 80s, made in the 80s, but at the same time, it feels like it could have came out this year and it still would have felt fresh. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 5:33

So Phil Hartman actually came up with the idea. Did you know this? Because he watched a film from I don't know if it's the 40s or 50s, this Italian neorealism film called The Bicycle Thief.

SPEAKER_04 5:44

I saw that.

SPEAKER_03 5:45

I saw that that was one of the inspirations for the movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they took a classic and turned it into a modern classic with absurdism in camp. And I don't I I'll forever love that movie. I got to watch it at uh the cemetery. Did you go to Cinespia when you were in town?

SPEAKER_04 6:00

I I did with me and MK and Paulina saw uh Adam's family, which was really fun.

SPEAKER_03 6:05

Okay, so we went there right after Pee Wee, right after Paul Rubin's passed and watched it and the bike. I got my picture taken on a bike. I sent it to some of my really old friends. They were like, what is this? Like the equivalent of your engagement photo? Like your liter bicycle.

SPEAKER_04 6:22

Oh, I love it. It's like your announcement. It's like, hello, I I found the one. Save the date, baby.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Save the date. I found the bike.

SPEAKER_04 6:31

That should be your Christmas card this year, honestly. Shit. God, Courtney, you have so many good ideas. Oh, thank you. That would be really cute though. Just say happy holidays.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

Happy holidays. I hope you find large Marge. Yeah. That movie also felt like an acid trip, you know, like watching it as a kid, just a completely different. I mean, I don't you're pretty young. It's not like I'm a hundred or anything.

SPEAKER_04 6:59

No, but no.

SPEAKER_03 7:00

But did you have landlines and all that?

SPEAKER_04 7:04

Yeah, I think uh I'm definitely on the tail end of that, but my parents are still so old-fashioned, so like living, so like I think the conservative religious aspect of them kept them in the past, you know, quite a bit. So yeah, had landlines. We had like a phone that had like the cord with it, but then we eventually got a cordless phone. Um, so yeah, all that stuff is is like stuff that I recognize.

SPEAKER_03 7:24

So, so when you have like no internet or cell phone and you're in the middle of nowhere and you see something like this, it's like doing drugs for the first time. Like for me, you know, like not knowing the word camp, but I'm like, throw of course, like a gay man raised me, you know, like it makes sense now. But like, but all of that just it just it felt I can liken it to a bad asset trip I had for three days, but I digress. That's what I felt like, like experiencing Pee-wee's Big Adventure for the first time. And the music, I mean Danny Elfman. Yeah, that that score, I think definitely those sounds were kind of in my mind when I found my composer, even though it didn't sound at all like that. Right. That's energy, definitely.

SPEAKER_04 8:11

I can see that too. I can definitely see what you're talking about with that because I think that's probably early collaboration for Danny Elfman and uh Tim Burton as well. It's since it was Tim's first movie. So there's the it's it's fun to see like you know, you see like a beautiful collaboration start out together, you know what I mean? Because it felt you watch it and there's like, oh, there's definitely elements that Tim Burton carried on to his more classic stuff along with Danny Elfin's music. But that for but Pee-wee, Pee Wee's the Pee-wee movie was just uh they're the beginning for them. So it's like, oh, you kind of can get a sense of it squeaking out there. But the energy, I think it's really just the energy that they had together with uh with making that. I I would agree.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

So um had you seen Pee-Wee's Big Adventure before?

SPEAKER_04 8:49

I had. I'd seen not as a kid. I was definitely not allowed to watch anything Pee-Wee Herman as a kid because my parents thought he was my parents thought he was a pedophile, and so I mean, I'm being real. That's why I'm so they were like, you can't watch anything that that pedophile does. And so and I'm like, whatever. And so, but like later on, like when I was like a teenager, I kind of stumbled upon watching uh the TV show and then the movies. I got really into Tim Burton when I was like a teenager, and my parents couldn't control me as much anymore. So I was just kind of going down the rabbit hole of everything Tim Burton had made up until that point, and Pee Wee's big adventure was was on that list, and then the TV show, and then uh Big Top Pee-wee and all those other movies that he made.

SPEAKER_03 9:37

Big Top Pee-Wee has one of the longest uh romantic kisses. Did you did you did you because you had that on your podcast, right? Sometimes I did.

SPEAKER_04 9:45

Yeah, my friend Kristen did it. Uh, that was her first movie.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

Um did you know that whole ordeal about that kiss? No. Oh, yeah. He wanted this really long kiss where he's like eating the egg salad sandwich. Oh, that's right. He wanted this like prolonged kiss, and he fought with the studio about cutting it, and it's the most unromantic kiss. Yeah, like it like not, it's just it's so gross. And so he is one of his regrets was keeping that kiss in there, but it reminds me of the romantic scene in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, which is the top of the dinosaur. Uh-huh. Cowzon. Did you did you did you go there when you were in LA? No, I didn't. I no, I haven't. Oh, we have to go next time you're here. But yes, it's it's it's a giant dinosaur, like on the way to Joshua Tree, and you can go up to the top, like into the mouth.

SPEAKER_04 10:36

That's cool.

SPEAKER_03 10:37

I know someone who had sex there.

SPEAKER_04 10:39

Whoa. Heather, when are you gonna do that? I feel like that's your next journey with Pee-wee. That has to happen.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Let me tell you, I went up to the top of that dinosaur and it is small. They definitely built out a set, they didn't shoot that in the real. When my friend told me this, I was like, Oh, what?

SPEAKER_03 10:56

This is this is not you know, yeah, yeah, maybe he's shorter than me. I don't know, but it's just not enough space up there in between those teeth. Like it's not a full set.

SPEAKER_04 11:05

Yeah, oh god. Man, people will do when people when people people will find a way.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

Uh people are out there doing it, Courtney. They're out there living.

SPEAKER_04 11:17

They are. I uh not me, but you know, good for the other people having sex with dinosaurs. People are having sex in dinosaurs, right? And what what are we what are we doing, Heather? You know, we're just we're talking about them, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

We're talking about sex in dinosaurs, and they're out there having sex inside of dinosaurs.

SPEAKER_04 11:38

Right, right. So I don't know. We're live living that comedian life. I think so. We're making the commentary, uh, which uh we don't have to live if we can just comment on it, and then people think we're geniuses or we should run the world or whatever. You'll be the genius on this combo, I I assure you. Oh, oh, I don't know about I don't know about that. Oh man. So so I'm so I'm curious, do you still love this movie and does it still unpack you on your artistry today?

SPEAKER_03 12:05

Yeah, so when I saw it in the sold-out theater, like right after Paul Rubens died, it definitely made me emotional because it it's so pure and it always takes me back. Like when I think of something wholesome in my life, it's it always goes back to that. I had a bit of a crazy childhood. So that was like pure and wholesome and fun and escapism. And I think I try to bring an element of that weird absurdist uh to the things that I make today. Like I my goal is just to be just bring more absurdity, more of that joy into my life.

SPEAKER_04 12:48

Yeah, yeah. I love that. And I think that you I think that you do that, do a good job of that just as a human being. I see the way you move through the world and stuff, and you're always very like joyful and but it's very real, but like you know, but you're not like fake joy joyful, you know.

SPEAKER_03 13:03

I mean, I did make a movie called My Best Friend Depression.

SPEAKER_04 13:05

I was gonna say, but it's funny, it's a funny movie, so you know you have to know the dark to be able to appreciate the light. Agreed.

SPEAKER_03 13:13

You have to you gotta be able to know both of those. So that's that's what I'm out here doing, Courtney.

SPEAKER_04 13:19

I feel you, I feel you. Um I, you know, it's we re-watching these pee-wee movies kind of recently, Big Top and then Big Adventure. It's so funny that he like is is like this ladies' man, but he has no interest in them. And it's so I'm just like, and what we must be in an alternate universe is what woman is like, yeah, I'm I have the hot for this man, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

Is this where my core did we just work out where my core unavailable man attractions started?

SPEAKER_04 13:48

Oh, so you all oh so you so you accord me. So Pee-wee's your type. Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

A loner, a rebel.

SPEAKER_04 13:59

Yeah, you don't want to be messing up with a guy like we can yet I am Pee-wee. I think it's like, you know, be the fuck boy you want to see in the world. You know what I mean? You can't if you can't beat it, become 'em. So that's what I've learned. I don't think anyone's ever described Pee-wee Herman as a fuck boy, but you know.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

Mind fuck. He's a mind fuck boy.

SPEAKER_04 14:20

He he is because yeah, he's even in Big Top Pee-wee. He had the two women, he had his fiance who wasn't, I don't think she was even the same girl in the first movie. I think it was a different lady, and then the the circus performer. And I'm just like, how is he getting these? How is it because he makes himself unavailable? And that's what I want to understand. It's like women are like, oh, I can't have you, and you're kind of weird.

SPEAKER_03 14:39

He's a rebel, he's on the run, you can't pin him down, you can't figure him out. He doesn't want you because he's not attracted to you, which seems like mystery, but it's actually he's gay.

SPEAKER_04 14:50

Yeah, exactly. He's actually he's very, very gay.

SPEAKER_03 14:53

Is the tail as old as time, Courtney?

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Is it old as time?

SPEAKER_04 14:57

Oh my god, don't I know it? I mean, uh Jonathan Bailey was just named Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine, and boy, is that not. I mean, they got it right for once, but I'm like, what did men do to deserve him? You know?

SPEAKER_02 15:08

I mean, what did they do?

SPEAKER_04 15:10

Not much. No, I don't think so. I don't think they did much to deserve to deserve Jonathan Bailey.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Even my dog is perplexed.

SPEAKER_04 15:20

She's just like, why? Uh but I love that you I love that you also have a little dog, like how Pee-wee had uh, oh my god, what's the dog's name? Spark spike? Spark? Uh spike spike, spike Donovan Spike. Yes. Oh, I love that you even have a little dog like him.

SPEAKER_03 15:38

You know, I didn't think about that, but maybe I am just becoming Pee-wee Hermit, Gourtney. I think that explains everything. I'll Venmo you for this therapy session.

SPEAKER_04 15:45

Oh, please do, yeah. I feel like these episodes do tend to veer on like people being like, I didn't even think about it that way. And I'm like, that's why we're here. Yeah, or I just lay down. So how does that make you feel?

SPEAKER_02 16:00

Well, it makes me feel.

SPEAKER_04 16:05

I just, yeah, I I I love doing this this show just because uh we get to talk about this kind of stuff, you know. Um, I think movies are a great way to understand yourself, even if you don't know how to articulate how who you are or how you feel. I think film is a great way to express that, you know.

SPEAKER_03 16:22

How's your movie coming along?

SPEAKER_04 16:23

Movies come along all right. Um, it's definitely like I have like my three to five year plan made up because I have a career advisor I've been working with. She's also a friend of mine. So she's awesome. Oh, I love that. Thank you. Send me her info. Oh my god, yes, I will. She's she's she's making we'll make you a whole little flow chart and spreadsheet on like here's what you gonna work on in the short term, the long term, and then uh and then like yeah, her her name's her name's Leah Light. She's one of my best friends. We met at Trader Joe's, giving her some free ad. Maybe her, maybe her uh her her uh consultant, she see consultant agency can sponsor this podcast now. Um, but she uh yeah, she's awesome. She uh gave me, yeah. So we the so the movie's in the three to five year plan. So I have like a gotta get my stand-up special out that I just recorded this past year. I have a one woman show that I'm working on, and then I want to get the movie out. But also basically the way I built it, sorry, this is also not part of the movie, but I think this is like kind of a cool thing. No, it's it's it's all part of it, yes. So the so what I'm the way I kind of look at it is stand-up is like the backbone or like the the trunk of the tree, and then everything else, like my movie, one woman show. I have a few a book that I want to write. All these things are kind of off branches, but like I'll do stand-up probably forever, but it won't be pro always my main focus at some point. But it at least it gives people context so that I can maybe package myself as a holistic artist versus like I'm gonna go work for this person and get into making films that way versus I can just make my own things and hopefully get funding through my own uh just through my own like backlog of other stuff I've made. So that's that's the plan.

SPEAKER_03 17:51

Well, you know, Courtney, I did stand up for nine years and I did two one woman shows and I wrote a movie.

SPEAKER_04 17:57

So I'm in the trajectory.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

That's yeah, you're that's literally the trajectory.

SPEAKER_04 18:02

Well, I'm uh I'm my my ninth year of stand-up is gonna be in January. I'm hitting my ninth anniversary soon. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 18:08

That that was that was it because I've been I've been I've been thinking about doing stand-up again, but it once you're a comic, you're always a comic. Like yeah, that agrees. That doesn't, and that's your storytelling, like that is the backbone of who you are and your your POV and how you see things. Yeah. Um, that's always who you are, even if you I did a clown show, like oh clown is clown is fun, really fun. Oh my god, with Chad Diamani. Oh hell yeah. Oh, he is an absolute genius. It was so fun, and I just wanted to mix things up uh just to get me back into the the being okay with humiliation zone. Uh you know, just just putting myself, my face on the hot stove. Oh, yeah. And uh it was so much fun, it was so much fun. So once a comic, always a comic. Once a clown, always a clown. And I think you put out so much great stuff. Like, I don't even know how you do all of it. I mean, you're always you always have something you're working on.

SPEAKER_04 19:09

Oh, thank you. I uh I appreciate you saying that. As I'm like as we're recording tonight, I'm getting over a sinus infection and the flu that I got. Uh just I think someone went.

SPEAKER_03 19:21

Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_04 19:22

I don't know. I think it's just being an idiot and not taking a break, you know? It's just one of those it's one of those things too where it's like, you know, I and I tell this to my friends, other friends and stuff too, where I feel like for the first 20 years of my life I couldn't express myself fully because I was like living under under my parent under my parents' roof until I moved out and even my homeschooled and college was like a wee kind of not that normal of an experience. I lived at home and I commuted and everything was so controlled by them. And then finally when I got out and was able to start figuring out who I am and what I wanted to do, it's like, oh, I don't want to ever stop. I'm making up for lost time, you know what I mean? So maybe that's what it is. But also I'm thankful that I um everything that I'm doing, I pretty much for the most part, and I don't enjoy doing housework, but I like everything else that I do. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 20:07

So I hate housework.

SPEAKER_04 20:09

Yeah, I hate it.

SPEAKER_03 20:10

Yeah. My ex, it was surreal. It's not like I'm a mess, I'm not like a messy, dirty person, but the thing is, is if you're writing, directing, editing a movie, you're writing jokes, you're running photos, like the last thing you're thinking about is doing Martha Stewart shit.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

I know, I know, dude.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

Like I'm I'm not tablescaping. Yeah. Is that what they call it? I think so. Yeah. Like I'm not tablescaping. I'm literally not. Um, I've always lived a bit utilitarian as an artist, and I try to be less like that, but it's just my space is always just serving the thing I'm making. So housework gets I'm I I do it, but it's not my favorite.

SPEAKER_04 20:57

Dude, same. Like, I mean, it's also because I've been sick, but my house is a mess right now. And it's like, and I don't think I'm super messy, so it is kind of bothering me, but it's also like, I I don't know, even when even when I'm like physically healthy, I'm like, it's just another inconvenience, you know what I mean? When I could be doing anything else more breastfeeding, yeah. It's just more work. It's just more work. And it's like, you know, I I try to be, I you know, I was raised to be very domesticated. I was raised, I was like a you know, super soldier, but for trad wives, I feel like being out being homeschooled. If you know what I mean, being raised in the South, you get it. So we're rebelling.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

We're rebelling. Yeah, so if you want me to do what, I'll cook it on Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_04 21:33

Exactly. Yeah, or you know, we'll order it in. I don't really give a shit. I think you know, like I think that I we probably have the skill sets to be able to do all these things, but and like I I just don't, I'm just like, God, I don't really want to use them right now, you know.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

We all have the skill set, Courtney. I think it's just where on the list uh of priorities is it falling?

SPEAKER_04 21:59

Not very high. Not very high. I have a lot of girlfriends who are like very into baking and all that stuff and like being very like because like you know, and and I I love that for them. And I try to get into it. I have like I make stuff from time to time, but it's like I'm like, how do you guys find the energy or the time to do this? But they they also don't do what we're doing, and I don't think that's a good or a bad thing. You know, I think it's just how they live their life, you know. And I I wish I could do that stuff, but it's like it just uh there's no time, you know.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

Hold on. I was just baking a pie before I jumped on the pond.

SPEAKER_04 22:31

Oh my god. Are you okay? Okay, I was like, oh fuck you.

unknown 22:35

You make a fucking pie.

SPEAKER_03 22:39

I mean, I would for the right person, but not just for myself. Like, I don't like just for for someone if I'm trying to impress them, yeah, I might break out the Alabama cooking skills or bake your pie, but in general, not for me. It's not pleasurable, right?

SPEAKER_04 22:57

Uh, just like in Pee-wee's Big Top where his fiancee makes him the egg salad sandwich. Okay, there you go.

SPEAKER_03 23:03

And in Pee Wee's playhouse where he's got that fancy breakfast and smiley face, and all the pancakes on the ceiling.

SPEAKER_04 23:11

Yeah. Like he's doing that whole thing. Oh, do you want do you want cheery under the pancake? Yeah. Which there's always a way to tie it back in together. But food is a big part of the Pee-Wee movies, I feel like, you know? Food is very, very fun. It is fun. Well, you know, I was thinking about it, and I should look up the date, but watching uh uh Pee Wee's Big Adventure today and watching the all the mechanics that he had for his breakfast, it reminded me a lot of um the Rick Moranis movie Honey I Shrunk the Kids and then Honey I Shrunk Yourselves, which also came out around that same time with like the mechanics and getting the mail and all that stuff. Actually, let me just look up what year that Honey I Shrunk the Kids came out. Oh, it came out a year, it came out four years after Pee-wee's big adventure. So I think Disney might have been a little bit inspired by that because that because that is very and then you also have so you have that the Honey I Shrunk the Kids and ourselves, and then Flubber, the Robin Williams movie, also had a similar uh opening as well. I remember of like him like, yeah, with the always with the breakfast, always more efficient, getting the bow tie on. So Disney ripped off Pee-Wee big time for like five, six years.

SPEAKER_03 24:23

I mean, he he's he's the inspo.

SPEAKER_04 24:26

He radicalized he man, he I you know it's it's radicalized by Pee-Wee Erman. That's that should be your uh that should be your memoir.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

A single woman in Los Angeles radicalized by Paul Rubens on a farm Alabama.

SPEAKER_04 24:44

That would be that I would read that. An actress is for friends. That sounds awesome.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's my that's my memoir.

SPEAKER_04 24:52

So um, so are you ready to move on to your favorite movie?

SPEAKER_03 24:56

Oh my god, my favorite movie.

SPEAKER_04 24:58

I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

Favorite, favorite movie.

SPEAKER_04 25:04

Because this one, this one's a banger. I mean, they're all they're all good, but this one's just like one of the one of the best ever made. Uh, everyone, uh the uh Heather's second movie is Magnolia, came out in 1999, directed, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring an absolutely stat cast of Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Riley, among so many other people. Those are just the top ones that came up when you Google it, but uh absolutely phenomenal movie, an epic. It's over three hours long. Uh, but yeah, it's not remotely boring at any single point in time. And I think that's one of PTA's greatest talents as a filmmaker. Uh so Heather, why is this your favorite?

SPEAKER_03 25:42

It's basically a movie where everyone is just screaming for connection and then frogs fall from the sky, which kind of feels like dating in Los Angeles. And it's like three hours of people having nervous breakdowns, and Tom Cruise like screaming about masculinity, and Julia Moore's like having a nervous breakdown in a pharmacy, and yes, uh that that's like my current take on it. But when I first watched this film, uh I was much younger and I did not have this language available to me. Yes. Uh, and all I knew is that I skipped classes three times to see this in the theater three times. Wow. And I didn't even know what I didn't even really understand what it was about, but when I saw the acting and I what was going on, I just thought, oh, I want I that's the thing. That's the thing that I love. That's that's what I want. Yeah. And this movie's always kind of like a favorite book that you go back to because it's so long and it's so dense. And I watched it in a theater, a 35mm print at the Academy Museum on Easter last year.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 27:02

It was like a spiritual experience hearing it in like the most crisp surround sound, the best picture you can imagine in a sold-out theater on Easter, because that's in LA, how we celebrate Easter. Um I love it. And um it's just a movie that I feel like at different parts of my life I see myself in different characters, but also I think I love um when when a director, writer, director really shows this certain type of intimacy with characters on the screen, like emotional intimacy. And I feel like this is the film. Yeah, and um, Tom Cruise plays a misogynist and motivational speaker whose slogan is respect the cock and tame the cunt. And somehow this is his most vulnerable role.

SPEAKER_04 27:53

Yeah, isn't that crazy?

SPEAKER_03 27:56

This is Tom I stand by it. This is Tom Cruise's best role.

SPEAKER_04 28:01

Yeah, I I thought that too, you know, because I know there's always arguments being made for like Eyes Wide Shut, you know, or Vanilla Sky or like whatever, but like after re-watch, I've I've I haven't seen Magnolia in like over a decade, probably at this point. Uh it's been a long time, but like re-watching it for this for this episode, I hated him. I was disgusted by him, but I was also like, oh, I can see right through him though. You know what it because of the vulnerability that was there. It's insane, you know? And like it's also crazy that that was that was part of a movie that came out in 1999, and that and his character is so relevant today in like everything going on. I watching that just made me watching him made me kind of sick, thinking, like, oh, this is unfortunately how these young men are being radicalized today to to the manosphere. But also, like, yeah, it's like he he's lonely, you know, he wants connection, and so he's like, This is how I'm gonna get it. And I didn't get any free handouts because I worked my way up from the whatever, and it's like, no, you're a sad little man.

SPEAKER_03 28:57

And then we find out he never knew his father. Yeah. And that scene with his father, oh my god. I I show it because I I also am an acting coach and I show that scene a lot of times to students because I feel like what he's doing in that scene when he goes to see his dad, um, and there's just it it's heartbreaking. He's like, Yeah, like like he's really there's so many great meltdowns in this movie. Oh, yeah. My other favorite one is Julia and Moore in the pharmacy, dude.

SPEAKER_04 29:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 29:31

She's like, you don't know me.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

Yeah, you don't know me. I have loved to get sucked my dick.

SPEAKER_04 29:37

Like greatest monologue, dude. I but I it's fully justified. I fucking hate it when people are like, oh, what do you get? What like asking why does she have this medication? Like, what the fuck is wrong with you? You know what I mean? So I think she was justified in the meltdown. Because oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

We all want to have it. The pharmacy, the pharmacy is like not a good advice to me.

SPEAKER_04 29:59

No, dude. I was just there to get my antibiotics from for my sinus infection, some steroids, and I'm just like, nothing about this is helpful. I'm probably gonna get sick again just from being in here, you know. Like, it's just so so when I re-watching that that I I rewatched the uh Magnolia today as well, and I was just like so justified. I totally relate to this. I want to fucking do that whenever I leave the house, honestly.

SPEAKER_03 30:21

Yeah, totally. And I I also really love um so have you ever seen the movie Shortcuts?

SPEAKER_00 30:29

Uh-uh.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

Okay, you have to watch that. And that's like my other these two films are my top favorite films, Shortcuts and Magnolia. But I was really feeling Magnolia when you asked me. No, no, I love it. Shortcuts was directed by Robert Altman, and it has like Lily Tomlin, Tom Waits. Um, it came out. I gosh, I feel like it came out in the early 90s. I'm blanking on the date, but that movie was basically the reason this movie exists. Oh, okay. Yeah, but it but Robert Altman took a bunch of Raymond Chandler stories and turned it into a multi-protagonist uh screenplay about people in LA. And it deals with loneliness and complicated characters, and so that is like the grandf the godfather to this.

SPEAKER_04 31:16

Yeah. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_03 31:18

And yeah, yeah, that's that's the that's the film before this. So if you like this film, I recommend watching shortcuts.

SPEAKER_04 31:24

Hell yeah. I just wrote that down. I'm gonna I need to watch more Robert Altman. I haven't seen a whole lot of his stuff, and I think he's very fascinating just as a director and as a person. So definitely need to watch more of his stuff. But he's definitely a big influence.

SPEAKER_03 31:36

He was a big influence in my movie and how I shot it for sure.

SPEAKER_04 31:39

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, I can see from what I've from what I've seen of his, I can definitely see that too.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

Yeah, I have a lot of one takes and I and I like the kind of cacophony of people speaking over each other.

SPEAKER_04 31:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:50

So my sound guy got really pissed off because I would be like, one scene we had like six lava mics and the tea party scene.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

I don't know if you're like, yeah, and I was like, I'm just trying to have a Robert Altman scene. He's like, Heather, you have to get this individual sound first, okay?

SPEAKER_03 32:06

Like they did it in post. I'm like, come on, give it to me.

SPEAKER_04 32:15

I mean, well, it's good to know that they did it all in post. Watching those movies, I'm just like, oh, they must all just be yapping over each other a hundred 110% all the time.

SPEAKER_03 32:24

Yeah, I think there's an element of that. So what do you what do you think about the soundtrack to Magnolia?

SPEAKER_04 32:29

I think it's great. Um, I thought it was, I thought it once I like I didn't realize it was by that one musician, uh Amy Mann. Amy Mann, yeah, and she did a couple of songs, uh songs for the movie, but like from what I was reading up about it, is that the whole movie was kind of based on her music or like very much inspired by her music, uh, along with uh, like you mentioned, Robert Altman um as well. So I thought that was really interesting that Paul Thomas Anderson was just like, I'm gonna make a movie based on vibes, and uh we'll just go from there, you know.

SPEAKER_03 32:59

I think uh so apparently the song Save Me, which um oh, it's such a this was like it 90s girl breakup, and I'm sure guy too, but like 90s teen girl breakup record, listening to all this Amy Mann music. And she wrote Save Me, uh, allegedly about Dave Foley from Kids in the Hall.

SPEAKER_04 33:23

Whoa. So what is it okay? So you we have that, and then we have Alanis Morissette and you ought to know with Dave Coulier. What the fuck?

SPEAKER_03 33:32

Is with Dave's?

SPEAKER_04 33:34

Yeah, yeah. Are with like weird-looking comedians. Like, what is going on? Courtney, you know, you've been in the scene. Yeah, I mean, I I have you dated have you dated comedians? I have briefly early, early on in comedy. I have not ventured, I'm I won't venture back into that again. Uh, but that was like first couple of years in was was something I was okay with. And now I'm just like, oh no.

SPEAKER_03 34:00

I I'm trying to remember because like when I was doing stand-up all the time, you know, when I was like really I didn't I didn't want to date comics because I just couldn't, I wouldn't be able to handle like someone that I was like dating or hooking up with at the clubs. Like it just some people are fine with that, but I just was like, I cannot mix this, dude.

SPEAKER_04 34:25

And and so and living in Nashville, so many, so many people, so many comics have have not only dated but gotten fucking married. And I'm just like Really? Yeah, there's a lot of couples in in Nashville comedy that have met doing comedy, gotten married, or or are seriously dating. And I'm just like, is this like a southern thing? Because it just seems so I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 34:45

I don't know a lot of comics in LA get married, I gotta be honest.

SPEAKER_04 34:48

Yeah, I don't, I I I mean, I guess if it works, it works. And if you meet the right you meet the one, you can't control where you meet them, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 34:55

But uh I don't think you're gonna meet the one. I feel like you're gonna meet the one soon, Courtney.

SPEAKER_04 35:00

I, you know, I don't know, and it's okay. I feel like the one probably doesn't live in Nashville, is what I'm guessing, you know, at this point. I just think they're all You never know. You never know. That's what they keep saying, you never know. I know, but it's like I know I really don't know. And that's like I I've been trying, I've been trying to work out this joke where it's like people who are in relationships. A lot of my friends are either married or in serious relationships now, you know, and they're always like, oh, Courtney, it'll happen when you least expect it. I'm like, I uh I more expect getting hit by a fucking truck than I do to meet the one, you know? And then I was also like they're also the advice that like coupled up people give is like, oh, well, just work on yourself, focus on yourself. And it's like being loved shouldn't be a reward for being better, you should be loved regardless. And also, like, most of these motherfuckers met their partner while doing Coke and Mickeys, you know what I mean? So it's not like it's not like they were the most virtuous person in the world.

SPEAKER_03 35:57

They weren't working on themselves. No, the truth is a lot of people meet each other and have babies and get married when the last thing they're doing is working on themselves. So I do think that's a bit of a modern society. Um, if you work on yourself, now if you work on yourself and you get your shit together, perhaps you can have a different kind of experience with someone.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Right.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

But I don't know if that guarantees when you're dealing with a romantic relate. I I don't there there really aren't there that many guarantees. Like you can live with yourself, but I don't know if that includes living with someone else, to be totally clear.

SPEAKER_04 36:35

Oh, agreed. I whenever I do think about it, it's like, well, how would I how would that work with someone? I guess we would have to always be in separate houses for forever because I need my personal space. And um, you know, and hopefully they're okay with me being busy all the time. That's always a thing that I get uh when I date guys too, is that and this is um it always comes off innocuous, but it's happened to me enough times now that I realize it's kind of like kind of passive aggressive, where they all is they always say, Are you always as busy? And I'm like, you know, and I'm like, Yes, but I will always make time. And our friend MK was like, next time you should just say, Are you always as lazy?

SPEAKER_03 37:12

Yeah, I really relate to that. I think I think my ex, when we were first together, he was like, You just care about your movie and your dog. But that's not that's not true at all. Like if you meet someone who's having to create something out of thin air or career or they're devoted to their art and they're committed to that being their life, you can't be attracted to them for that and then hold that against them. You know, I I I think for me in looking for a partner, it has to be somebody who um, like in some in some universe, I'm like, maybe I need someone who just is like, you know, a construction worker or someone who is just nine to five. But the other part of me, you have to really meet someone who, like for me, who gets you or who um it which brings me back to Magnolia, that scene, oh my God, where John C. Riley and um she's doing the woman's doing coke in her apartment.

SPEAKER_04 38:12

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:12

And then they and then they, you know, he he's just like he's lost his gun, like all the shit's going down. And then he asks her to go on a date, and then they go on the date and they have that kiss, and she's like, you know, now that now that we've done this, like let's would you like never speak to each other again, whatever the line is.

SPEAKER_04 38:29

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:30

Oh and and I do think that's a a very real feeling sometimes if you meet someone and it's so it's so great. You're like, you know what? Maybe let's just start, let's just, let's just have this moment, yeah. And let's just not talk to each other again. Let me just keep this moment.

SPEAKER_04 38:49

Oh, right, dude. You know what I'm talking about. Oh, I for sure do. I totally get it. And yeah, and and like that watching that scene was so heartbreaking for John C. Riley. He's just like, I don't understand. He's like, I thought my it was fate that I like busted into her house, and if I didn't bust into her house, I want to met her, and so I'm gonna treat her so like he's in his car, like he's like praying to the crucix, and she's like blowing coke, like too imperative coke, and like he's like, I'll be a good man, I promise. And it's like, oh my god, this poor man. But uh does have to be obsessed with you more than I mean. That's what they say. That's what they say on Instagram. That's what I know, and Instagram is never wrong, I'll tell you that much. Instagram therapy has never steered me wrong once, even though my therapist told me to quit using that for my for advice. Lord. Um, but yeah, John C. Riley in this movie, I love him. He was kind of unrecognizable to me at first because like just his whole look. I it took me a minute to be like, wait a minute, that's John C. Riley, right? And I know him and PTA have had a long-standing collaboration over the years too, which I I love that they work together a lot. Um, he just broke my heart. He just made me so sad.

SPEAKER_03 39:58

He was he was so sincere and honest. He was playing this from such an honest and vulnerable place.

SPEAKER_04 40:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:06

It just everything happening to him just uh the circumstances around him, just oh, it was like a knife in the heart. I know. I I I feel like PTA does this really good job of um showing people's loneliness and their brokenness and their the want to connect, but they're all connecting in their own broken way, you know. Did you see one battle after another?

SPEAKER_04 40:34

I haven't yet. I have it's been on my list. I'm so mad.

SPEAKER_03 40:37

I'm I mean you guys were running the movie pod, so listen, you're backlogged. But I'm yeah, a little bit. I will say that that film felt like like he had to become a girl dad to make to make that film.

SPEAKER_04 40:50

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 40:51

Because of how that film ends, and I won't say anything else.

SPEAKER_04 40:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:54

Like if you see Magnolia that he made when he was 28, is that is that he made it? And then you see this film that he made in his 50s, which is very the father-daughter relationship, is very a specific kind of relationship. He's he's kind of come full circle to heal his magnolia, I feel from that film.

SPEAKER_04 41:13

Oh, that's amazing. I love I love hearing that. And uh I love that he's still with Maya Rudolph. I think that's awesome. That's see, that's a power couple in my mind, you know what I mean. Power couple, right? And you don't they they talk about each other and they make appearances together, but they're not like in your face about it. It's like, oh no, she's one of the funniest people alive, he's one of the best filmmakers alive. Why wouldn't they be together? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 41:35

Sounds like love to me. I mean, who doesn't want a funny woman? I mean, Courtney, come on.

SPEAKER_04 41:39

That's all I'm saying. I don't know what these idiots are out here doing. These fucking idiots don't understand, but you know, I don't think it's a good idea.

SPEAKER_03 41:46

It's a complicated time. I think everyone is uh has a different radio frequency. Yeah. And I I just don't think I don't even know if we're all speaking the same language. Like we're all speaking English, but text is just all over the place. Are you familiar with um Casavetti's work? Any of his movies?

SPEAKER_04 42:05

Yeah, yeah. Uh like uh what was opening night and uh uh woman under the influence. Yes, so yeah, love all those movies.

SPEAKER_03 42:13

So so I loved him first before I loved Thomas Anderson. And I didn't know when I was younger why I loved his movie so much, but there's a similar quality to his characters that PTA has. And so I read this quote by him, and it he said, all of my movies is me trying to figure out why love leaves. Oh god, oh man. And it's just like that really hits, right? Because I feel like as an artist or storyteller, like that's that's also a theme. Like you mean, you know. I mean like you know, in your own work, right? Like these are even as a comedian, it's like you're still exploring these themes, even with laughter and whatever. And I feel like PTA um has his variation on that. And so it's similar in terms of how they treat their characters, these characters who are doing bad things, but they treat them with such love through their director's lens that um they're so they're so memorable and and it's so heartbreaking. And it and it's just it you feel like, wow, I relate to this and I don't know why. But when I read that Casavetti's, well, I saw an interview with him and he said that. He's like, you know, I'm obsessed. Why, why does love leave? And that's what I want to explore. And that to me, just like, wow, what what what an idea to try to understand. That's a life's work.

SPEAKER_04 43:38

Yeah, no kidding. And I don't know if anyone anyone will ever understand it in their life. Oh, this is a comedy podcast. No, no, God no. We got plenty of giggles on here.

SPEAKER_02 43:50

That's that's well, well, well. Right.

SPEAKER_04 43:59

Well, you know, so Oh man, we don't have to talk about Poltergeist 2. Great. Because what's funny about there's not a whole lot that's funny about that. I was personally not that interested in watching it.

SPEAKER_03 44:09

Another, wait, there's another Philip Seymour Hoffman in Magnolia.

SPEAKER_04 44:14

Incredible. Oh my god. Another long-standing collaborator of PTA as well, R A P. I I love him.

SPEAKER_03 44:21

God, he's so good, and he's so he he makes that phone call. Yes. And he's he's like, uh, I know this feels like it's a movie, a movie or a TV show, but that's kind of what happened. Like now imagine if there weren't if there were cell phones. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 44:40

And in this film. I know. It wouldn't be as dramatic. It wouldn't feel as like. I mean, I couldn't imagine picking up my iPhone and just being like, oh, I think about it. This is a movie, and uh this is the part where you say yes, I guess a movie.

SPEAKER_03 44:54

These movies would be devoid of the yearn.

SPEAKER_04 44:57

Oh, I agree.

SPEAKER_03 44:58

I because they would the yearn is so hard in Magnolia. The yearn, it's so deep, it's so you know, trying to connect all these dots with no um app without an app. Yeah, just the world is happening without a cell phone site, as they say.

SPEAKER_04 45:17

Well, dude, even the the the character that the guy who is the older version of the like who won the the children's uh genius or the one the TV show as a kid and now he's an adult.

SPEAKER_03 45:28

Johnny, uh the qu William Macy's character?

SPEAKER_04 45:30

Yeah, William H. Macy's character.

SPEAKER_03 45:32

God's kid.

SPEAKER_04 45:33

Yeah, yeah. Like how heart that he might have been the most tragic to me out of all of them. Just so sad.

SPEAKER_02 45:38

Oh god, when he's like, I love you.

SPEAKER_04 45:41

Please, I will be good to you. Okay, I got braces because of you. I got braces because of you.

SPEAKER_03 45:49

Would you ever get braces for a man, Court?

SPEAKER_04 45:52

Oh man, no. I don't think that's I can't say I would. I can't say there's not, although at this point, there's not a lot I would do for a man at this point. There's really not a lot, and I think I've done a lot. I think I've done enough over my tenure as a straight woman. I think 32 years, two years old. I think I've done enough. They're not getting the the well is dry, you know.

SPEAKER_03 46:13

You're an old soul. God, I can't believe you're really 32. You always feel like an old soul. I remember the first time I saw you doing stand-up, and I was like, wow, she's really got such a strong POV. Like your POV was so strong in it. I just feel like you really know who you are, and that's always so fun to watch.

SPEAKER_04 46:34

Oh, thank you. I I appreciate you saying that. I I feel like it's it's hard out here sometimes because I think that I I know what's funny or know what works, but then I see what's doing well, you know, in mainstream comedy or whatever, and it's like, well, that's not anything that I want to do. You know what I mean? So it's me kind of uh so I appreciate you saying that.

SPEAKER_03 46:53

People don't really know, right? Like one time I was opening for someone, I was I was living in LA and I was featuring for someone in Atlanta, but like not at the really cool Atlanta comedy club, but the the other one, the the punchline. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:07

I was I was gonna say, is it the punchline? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:11

Wait, wait.

SPEAKER_03 47:12

So so I was I was featuring, I was supposed to be featuring for this guy, and then the the club owner was like, some guy who had just won uh America's funniest. What was that last comic standing? Oh, yeah, like some guy who had just won. She was like, he's in town, and so now we're gonna have you be the host or something. And I was kind of pissed off about it because I had just flown from LA and da-da-da. And so I basically like came out as a character and introduced myself because I I still wanted to introduce myself. This was like so long ago. This was like 15 years ago or something. Anyway, so this woman took me aside, and and she was like, you know, you really need to try to be like everyone. Like, you need to really look at like, you know, talk about relationships and nobody wants to hear about recessions and depressions. She was like, you need to look at like the Chelsea handlers and Whitney Cummings, and they're very funny women, but yeah, but that at the time was like the mainstream, and I was just like, Yeah, that that's like that's not that's not you're leading the punchlines telling me this, like right, you're so edgy. I'm like, why? Because I did a voice to introduce myself, right?

SPEAKER_02 48:25

Edgy, God. You're so alt.

SPEAKER_04 48:28

Like, what dude? I I I've gotten that. I've gotten that my whole 10-year career as a comedian just because I'm not a white person and I talk about my experiences of being a person of color. That oh my god, you're so edgy, you're so political. And I'm like, I don't think I don't think me existing is political. I think I'm just a person, and you don't want to hear about how racist everyone is, but that's your fault, you know? And you're in Tennessee, which is like wild. I know. I I gotta get out of here. I think I've said this on every single episode that I want to move.

SPEAKER_03 49:00

Well, I think I think you're really maximizing your I mean, you got to do it special at the Blue Room.

SPEAKER_04 49:06

Yeah, I I think, yeah, I I think I'm making the most of what I have uh for the time being, but at some point, you know, I gotta figure something else out. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 49:16

So the closest I got to the Blue Room was when I first moved to Nashville from New York, they were having record store day, and they had that machine out front where you could make yourself, yeah, make a tiny record, right? Yeah. Neil Young and Jack White were standing on the other side of the booth, and I said, Oh my god, I want to record the first joke that I ever wrote.

SPEAKER_04 49:38

Yeah. Oh, and I recorded it on the Neil Young was standing there laughing.

SPEAKER_03 49:47

Oh, hell yeah. And I was like, that's it. I guess I've done, I guess I peaked now. I guess I peaked. That's the do-it-yourself record, the blue room, you know. Yeah, third man records.

SPEAKER_04 49:56

That's awesome. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 49:59

That's it. That's it. And then I retired.

SPEAKER_04 50:01

Yeah. Then it's like, well, I you peaked.

SPEAKER_03 50:03

Where do you go from there, Court? Where do you go from there?

SPEAKER_04 50:05

You know, you know, I've been asking myself that since I've recorded my special. I'm like, well, where do I go from here? I accomplished a life, lifelong goal. So, you know.

SPEAKER_03 50:14

Um, there was one other thing I would that I wanted to say about um Magnolia, and it's that I can't remember. It's okay. I can't remember what it was.

SPEAKER_04 50:26

I I have a few more questions for you though. So maybe a little jogger. Yeah. So I know you kind of you already kind of mentioned this earlier, how you saw this movie three times uh in theaters. But can you remember the very first time you saw this movie and like why it blew you away?

SPEAKER_03 50:40

I think I think it like the first time I saw it, I had just never seen anything like this before. Yeah. And I'm just so obsessed. Like I'd been obsessed with John Casavetti's because I was a film student. I was I was a film major and I was obsessed with that. But then seeing this and the music and the camera movements, the camera movements, I was like, oh my god, this is like a full sense, like every sense uh sensory experience. Like everything. When I saw one battle after another, I had to smoke for two days. I was like, I need to smoke a cigarette.

SPEAKER_02 51:16

Like I was like, I was like, I need to, I need to, I need to smoke a damn cigarette. Like what just happened to me? Yeah, I need some kind of release here.

SPEAKER_03 51:27

Like this movie was the first film where I was like, oh, because I was never like a big action movie person. It was always about, you know, emotional, complicated, fucked up relationships, you know. Right. I I just felt like I I saw things that I knew, you know, and it it got me very excited uh to be uh I was like, I want to do that. So I think that that that and the performances all of it. It just got me.

SPEAKER_04 51:56

Yeah. Oh, I love that. And I I get you because it the first time I remember seeing it too. I'm like, what is this? You know what I mean? Because it's like also I know PTA was pretty young in his film career at that point, too. I think he had done like Heart Eight, maybe he had done something else, a few other things before then, but like I feel like Magnolia Boogie Nights, yeah. Yeah, Boogie Nights, Heart Eight. I think those had all been kind of earlier on, but like, yeah, Magnolia, because both of those feel like kind of like straight through line of like, here's a plot. We're following the with these two, three characters, you know, through the whole movie. And then you see Magnolia, and it's like you're following like 15 people, and there is no plot really, it's just them exploring stuff. Let me ask you a question. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:35

What were you? I mean, you're not that much older than PTA when he made Magnolia.

SPEAKER_04 52:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:39

What were you doing at 28?

SPEAKER_04 52:42

Uh, it was still COVID, and um what was I, yeah. Uh so not a lot. Um, I was doing stand-up on Zoom and um working at working at Trader Joe's, but I was about to get my my current office like desk job that I have. So uh yeah, I think I was just trying to make comedy happen uh when the world didn't want it to happen.

SPEAKER_03 53:04

I love that. I mean, uh you were you were doing your thing, right? Probably too, yeah. Yeah, I mean you you I I just think about I go, God, that guy made that movie at 28. You know, like what am I doing? Like, I remember when I was making my movie going, Paul Thomas Anderson was 28 when he made Magnolia. What are you doing, Heather? Yeah, dude, I know through anyway, but I pushed through anyway.

SPEAKER_04 53:28

But he had also he had a studio. I mean, his movies are very much more on the indie side, lower budget, but like he definitely had a studio backing him and everything that he's made.

SPEAKER_03 53:36

So it's not like he was breaking off a$125,000 movie and now shit. Like he wasn't running around like you doing his own reshoots that he was acting in.

SPEAKER_04 53:46

Oh, 100%. No, he he doesn't act in any of his movies, so you know, he he was fine. He he was set up. I feel like you know, it's hard to advanced, his dad was a famous person. I was gonna say, I feel like the the nepotism helps, you know, definitely that definitely helps a lot.

SPEAKER_03 54:01

When you're nepot when you're good, I'm not mad about it.

SPEAKER_04 54:03

I'm kind of in that same camp too, where it's like, man, like, yeah, that's awesome that you're you you had a like like my dad worked in HVAC. I guess if I wanted to work in HVAC, I would have had a leg up in the business. So I get it, you know, I get it.

SPEAKER_03 54:14

But my my dad was a nuclear engineer, and right before I moved from LA to New York, I went to my little brother's graduation at University of Alabama. And I'd been touring doing comedy in Ireland, and he goes, We're sitting in the stands. He goes, You know, I could still get you a job working on a nuclear reactor.

SPEAKER_02 54:35

Yeah. I was like, Dad, what? I'm going to New York to do stand-up.

SPEAKER_04 54:41

Yeah. Hey, nepotism, you turned it down.

SPEAKER_02 54:45

Nepotism, that was my in. And I shut it down.

SPEAKER_04 54:48

Yeah. You're like, no, I'm gonna work for this, though. I'm gonna work for this on my own.

SPEAKER_02 54:51

Like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna work this.

SPEAKER_04 54:56

So I think we all have, we, you know, we could all, we all could benefit from that in some way or another, I guess. But um, but oh, and then um, so what correlations do you see between Pee Wee's Big Adventure and Magnolia, if any? I think we discussed a little bit about the landlines, but like what else do you think might be a correlation there?

SPEAKER_03 55:14

I think um I actually wrote, I actually had an idea about that. I think they're they're both emotional roller coasters. Yeah. And in some ways, like there's innocence. Uh in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, there's all this innocence and and magical realism, you know. And then in Magnolia, there's there's m magical realism with the frogs and lost innocence. Yes, you know, whereas being a child, being a grown-ass child in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is kind of the I don't know what the word is I'm looking for here. Uh that that's how he's existing in the world. But in Magnolia, it's like the parents, you know, have done these things. So I think there's something about the magical realism of both of them and something with innocence and lost innocence in one. Um, also just it it kind of says a lot about me, that these are my two.

SPEAKER_04 56:17

See, you know what? Just I'm out here just trying to help people, you know. Well, you can't help the first movie you remember seeing. So that one you can't you can't really. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:26

I mean, I love it. I'm a pee-wee stan.

SPEAKER_04 56:29

Like I'm peewee peewee's pee-wee's a great first movie. So, and then Magnolia is just an incredible movie. And I would say, I would agree with you on that. There's definitely some surrealism and some magical elements, like, you know, when especially with the frogs coming come coming in at the end. And yeah, seeing that the kids, the you know, in in this instance, like the little boy who was in the the uh the the uh TV show, um they uh he had more emotional maturity than I think some of the adults did, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 56:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:56

And I and you kind of see the reverse, like where it's like, oh, Pee-wee's this adult being a child, and everyone around him accepts that and accepts him for that, you know, and embraces him for that, but also having like genius children on a TV show, they're embraced for that, but they're also treated like adults, and they're and they're like, I'm just so I think the inverse for both of them, but I think that's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 57:15

I I I'm really bad at articulating like um like so this is this, see, even now when I'm trying to articulate this. I went to see Frankenstein with a friend of mine. And in my mind, when I watch films, I'm mostly focused focusing on relationships. Yeah, like like relationships. So someone could ask me about all these other I'm like, oh, camera movements, relationships, how is this serving a relationship? It could be an action movie, and I'm thinking about explosions and relationships. And my friend, we saw this Frankenstein movie, and she said, Oh my god, after the I said, Yeah, it was really, you know, father son. And then she said, Oh my god, my friend watched it and she gave me this incredible dissertation telling me she's like, Don't you think that's like Peter Thiel and the takeover of the tech bros? And I was like, Wow, I was really just like father-son. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:10

Isolation.

SPEAKER_03 58:11

Yeah. You know, but but Pee-wee and Magnolia Man, those are my two.

SPEAKER_04 58:20

I love it. I need to see Frankenstein too. I I I know that they showed it in theaters, but I know it's gonna be on Netflix soon too, so I'll probably try and catch it at some point. It looks did you like it? Oh, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 58:31

It's a beautifully, it's a beautifully done film. I mean, it's I think it's three hours. Okay, nice. Two hours and 45. Um, I I don't usually watch a lot of fantastical things. I'm trying to watch more fantastical things. Yeah. But it it's a beautiful film. And that film that I was working on in Canada, a lot of the crew on that film had just worked on Frankenstein. Oh, that's cool. Everyone had like Frankenstein stickers, and they'd be like, just on Frankenstein and Gearmo.

SPEAKER_04 59:01

Oh, that's so cool. So cool. Man, uh, if you're looking for more fantastical stuff, I think The Shape of Water, his one of his other movies is really good.

SPEAKER_03 59:09

That's my all-time favorite.

SPEAKER_04 59:11

Oh, okay. So you've seen it. Okay, great. It's it's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 59:14

My favorite film of his, hands down.

SPEAKER_04 59:16

I love it. It's it's it's beautiful, it's perfect. It's just, I mean, yeah, I love that movie. Um, I'm glad that you've seen that. I'm trying to think of any other fan like more fantasy fun movies. I'll think of some and send them to you because I didn't make list. I love that. I love all of those kinds of movies. Um when they're done well, anyway. But um Are you making a fantasy film, Court? Uh, I would love to. I wish I had the brain for it. I just I have friends who write fantasy novels and stuff, but I just don't think I I could do the world building. You know what I mean? Uh, but I that'd be cool if I if I had because it just seems like you have to have a different your brain has to work differently to do sci-fi your fantasy, I feel like. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 59:54

I'm writing an action film and it's a different place for my brain to be. Like it feels like I'm like the cogs have to manually be turned in a certain way. But um Yeah, if you want to do it, just do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:09

I think one day, once I get through being not being sick and getting through the next two months of tons of shows, listening.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:16

You've got plenty of time, you got the three to five-year plan.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:18

I have the three to five-year plan, and three to five-year plan just covers the first movie. So I have more time, but I definitely like I definitely want to transition into being a filmmaker, I think at this point. You know, I think it's time I'll do stand-up forever, but I I don't want to host every single show all the time. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:34

I think it's time for me to I think I like I think I've need you, but we need you.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:38

That's that's what I keep hearing, and I'm like, you know what? I need to do something for myself. Not that I'm not gonna known myself. Yeah, not that I'm yes, I would love I wish, you know what I mean? That would be so helpful. Uh because I like everything that I do, but I just don't have enough time to do everything and also like not like get sick or not, you know, or be able to rest or have a normal life, you know. I you get it.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:01

I know you're committed, you're committed to your art, you know, a lifetime of a commitment to art. Yeah, I think we can take a lot of inspiration from, in closing, uh Paul Rubens and P. T. Anderson, who are two autors who really have committed to the art life. Yeah. Uh David Lynch, they've committed to the art life. David Lynch, yes. Like yeah, that that is the practice of being alive, is the creative life. And it doesn't look like everyone else's life. And you know what? That's the magic in it.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:33

It is. Damn. Oh my god, Heather. Well, that is a beautiful thing. We'll close with that because we'll close with I do have I do have two more questions for you that I have to ask every every guest, but in closing of the movie talk for that. Yes. So uh this one's a two, they're rapid fire, but answer them at any pace that you want. Uh so for both movies for Pee-Wee and Magnolia, if you had to replace the entire cast with all Muppets but keep one human, who would be the human? And who are some of the Muppets you'd want to be in these movies?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:03

Oh God, in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure? Oh, oh my god. That's uh any Muppets? Wow. I definitely would replace um the the crotchety dad, you know, the alcoholic dad. Yeah, with uh those guys that sit in the rafters.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:21

Oh yeah, the the jewel the movie, the the theater reviewers, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:25

Yeah, the theater reviewers, I would have them, and I would definitely have um oh wait, no, that's Magnolia. That's Magnolia. See, I'm cross-contaminant. Magnolia the dad would be the guys in the rafters, yeah. And then Kermit the Frog would be John C. Riley. Oh my god, yes, I love it. Kermit the Frog would be John C. Riley and Julianne Moore would be Miss Piggy. Yes. I need to see Miss Piggy and the Meltdown Pharmacy season.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:53

Oh my god, just like I had the puppet just like wiggling around. Oh my god. See, I when I asked this question, all these movies could be remade with Muppets. Like it they bold every movie, and I'm like, why are why aren't these the Disney remakes that they're making? Disney owns the rights to the Muppets. Why aren't they doing this shit?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:14

Disney's got all's fair with Kim Kardashian. So I think Damn, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:21

Well, I guess a lot of facial movement, not a lot of movies.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:24

Yeah, no, not really. No, they're not that interested in that. And then finally, what is your go-to movie, drink and snack, either at the theater, at home? What do you gotta have?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:37

See, I go to so many movies in LA that there was one week where I went to four movies between the Nubev, the Vista. Yes, the Vista. I consume so much popcorn and raisinettes that I I and I dump it in. Yeah. And I like there was one week where I'd eaten so much. I was like, Heather, you have to you have to quit. Like I was really like counting days off of popcorn and raisinettes. Yeah. The new bed has real butter. Ooh. And so does the Vistas. So my friend turned me on to that a year ago because I was like a dry ass popcorn person. Like I was like, don't get the butter on it. And he was like, Listen, uh, you you gotta put the real butter. And then once that happened, it was like so so always raisinettes on inside my popcorn.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:26

Yeah. Ooh, I like that. Hell yeah. Um, well, Heather, thanks for being on tonight. I really appreciate it. Uh, just tell the audience where they can find you and what do you have going on?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:37

Um, so you can find me at uh well at Heather A. LeRoy on Instagram. And I have a feature film that I wrote, directed, edited, produced, and starred in that uh hopefully is gonna be coming out in a couple of months. So fingers crossed. Thanks for having me on here, Courtney. I'm such a big fan of yours.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:57

Oh, I'm such a big fan of yours. I'm glad we were able to do this. This was so much fun. Um uh thank you so much for being on and audience. Thanks for listening, and uh, we'll see you next week. This has been Core Memory, a podcast about movies, and I'm your host, Courtney Warner. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Uh, please feel free to like and subscribe on anywhere that you get your podcasts. Uh, would absolutely love the uh the support on there. If you enjoyed today's episode and any of our other episodes, also we are on our Instagram at Core MemoryPod. Please feel free to give us a follow on there as well if you want any behind the scenes tidbits or any kind of fun visuals on there. Uh and again, thank you for listening, and we hope that you'll listen again soon.