Welcome William Fay

My guest today is William Fay — who I call Bill. Bill is one of the key architects behind modern blockbuster cinema and a man whose influence on Hollywood spans decades. As co-founder and President of Production at Legendary Pictures, Bill helped build one of the most powerful production companies in the entertainment industry from the ground up. Through his leadership, vision, and instinct for storytelling, he played a major role in bringing some of the most iconic films of our generation to life.

From The Dark Knight and 300 to The Hangover, Independence Day, The Patriot, Superman Returns, Clash of the Titans, and The Town, Bill’s fingerprints are all over films that helped shape culture and redefine blockbuster storytelling. These weren’t just commercially successful movies — they became moments in cinematic history.

But what makes this conversation so meaningful is that it goes far beyond Hollywood. Behind the massive productions, global premieres, high-pressure decisions, and billion-dollar expectations is a deeply grounded man who has stayed rooted in family, creativity, faith, and integrity throughout it all. Bill is a gifted musician, a devoted husband to his wife Jody, and a proud father of three daughters. In an industry that often demands everything from people, Bill has somehow managed to build an extraordinary career while protecting what matters most.

Our friendship actually began through music after we both performed at Alice Cooper's Christmas Pudding. We connected immediately, and over time I came to admire not only Bill’s accomplishments, but the kind of man he is behind the scenes. He carries wisdom quietly. He listens deeply. He leads with humility. And despite being responsible for some of the biggest films ever made, he remains one of the warmest and most genuine people I know.

In this episode, we talk about the realities of Hollywood that audiences rarely see. Bill opens up about the pressure of leading major productions, the responsibility that comes with overseeing films on a global scale, and the lessons he learned while building Legendary Pictures into a powerhouse studio. We discuss what actually makes a movie last over time, how creative risks are evaluated behind closed doors, and what separates films that simply entertain from films that become part of culture.

We also dive into the emotional side of success — the setbacks, disappointments, and difficult seasons that shaped him along the way. From navigating uncertainty to making impossible decisions under pressure, Bill shares honest insight into the resilience required to survive in one of the toughest industries in the world. He speaks candidly about leadership, character, and the importance of staying grounded when success gets loud.

One of my favorite parts of this conversation was hearing Bill reflect on family and legacy. We talk about what being a husband and father has taught him, what he hopes his daughters learned from watching his life and career unfold, and why personal integrity matters more than titles or accomplishments. We also discuss music and creativity, and how storytelling exists far beyond the screen.

For aspiring filmmakers, creatives, entrepreneurs, and anyone chasing a dream, Bill offers incredibly valuable advice about perseverance, risk-taking, rejection, and building a career that lasts. He shares the truths about Hollywood that no one talks about, the mistakes he sees young filmmakers make, and what truly matters if you want long-term success in any field.

There are also lighter moments throughout the episode as we laugh about on-set experiences, iconic actors, favorite films, and of course Bill’s love for The Godfather — which led to a very fun recreation of one of the most legendary lines in movie history.

This episode is ultimately about much more than movies. It’s about leadership, purpose, creativity, family, resilience, and legacy. Bill Fay’s story is a r

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Okay, clap in. Ready? One, two, three.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Close. Close enough.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

We we tried. Um well, it's so interesting because I was thinking about it and I call you Bill, but are you known in the industry as William, right?

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Uh on credits, it's William, but I'm known as Bill.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Do you want to know how I know that? Is that when I met you, we were doing Alice Cooper's Christmas pudding and you told me your name. You're like, I'm Bill Fay. So you're like, come if you come to LA and my wife and I would love to have dinner with you. And so I got nominated for an LA Music Award and we went to dinner. I never went to the music award because we had such a great time at dinner. But then you were like, Yeah, you I would love for you to come see what I do. And I was like, What do you what do you do? What is it that you do? And um you're like, Yeah, I'm in the movie business, but I really didn't understand the gravity of it until I drove to your work and it was Warner Brothers.

SPEAKER_03 1:15

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

And then I was like, Who is this man? Um, and then when you told me um your credits, William Faye, I looked you up and was just like blown away because you are so humble and so kind. And oh, thank you. Also incredible musician. But okay, so I always start off with an intro. Um, my guest today is Bill Faye. William Faye. Bill is one of the key architects behind modern Blockbuster Cinema. As a co-founder and president of production at Legendary Pictures, he helped build the studio from the ground up and oversaw some of the most successful and influential films of the last few decades. During his time at Legendary and earlier at Centropolis and Entertainment. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_03 1:59

That's it.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Bill served as a producer and executive producer on landmark films, including Independence Day, The Dark Knight, 300, The Hangover, Superman Returns, The Patriot, Clash of the Titans, The Town, and Sucker Punch, just to name a few. Just a few films.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

I didn't actually produce The Dark Knight, but we did finance it. Okay, Legendary.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Okay. Um, that's huge.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Um, what if that was worked out well for us?

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Yeah, it did. These um these films were huge blockbusters. They helped define genres, reshape landscape storytelling, but behind the pressure of massive budget and global expectations, Bill remained grounded. He's a gifted musician, a devoted husband to his wife, Jodi, and a proud father of three daughters and a grandson now.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Yes. He is such a beacon of light, I think, in an industry that often demands everything. Bill has built an extraordinary career rooted in integrity and family. Um, I'm just so excited to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much. Thank you. Um well, just you know, just those um credits. It's just incredible what you've done. And I think I was wondering like, how did you get into the film industry?

SPEAKER_02 3:16

Uh well, I was going to um, I grew up in Washington State and was at Stanford, and I started taking some movie courses there. Uh, I never planned to get in the business at all.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

What did you plan on doing?

SPEAKER_02 3:29

I was planning on going to business school or law school.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

You went to Stanford.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

So gosh, that's an incredible school to get into it.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

It was an amazing school to go to. Yeah. But uh, I got bitten by the movie bug. So I ended up going to UCLA film school and uh after UCLA film school got in the business.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

How did you get bit by the film bug at Stanford?

SPEAKER_02 3:50

I took uh a writing course and an acting course and um just got really fascinated by by the business. And actually went to UCLA originally to write scripts.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

That's incredible. So did you go to UCLA Film? Is that what it is?

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Yeah, UCLA Film School. Yeah, and I went to grad school there as well. And it it's um the great thing about film school is first of all, you get to meet lots of other people that want to work in the film business. So that's good. And secondly, you get your hands on everything. So I got I did sound, editing, camera, um, directing. You know, you have to direct a couple of your own movie projects, yeah, um, producing. So you learn a little bit of everything, which is great. When you get in the business, then you sort of know how things work.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Yeah, you understand everybody's jobs.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Yeah, and you can jump in and do something if you need to. One of the first movies I did was actually with uh um for this company called Roger Corman. And they made all these low budget movies. And um, I was working as a PA, and at one point they needed a second unit and they needed an assistant camera on it. And so I was like, Oh yeah, I can do that.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

I got this.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Yeah, got it.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

And it's also great that you're in LA because you're around the industry so much. Don't you think that's important?

SPEAKER_02 5:03

Yeah, I think you almost have to be definitely then, a little less now because it's the business is more spread out, but then you kind of had to be in LA or maybe New York.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Yeah. Okay, so you're you were just showing me a photo of your father, who I mean, it's in it's an incredible photo. Maybe I'll be able to add it into the podcast. But tell about where you got your work that ethic from. And I think I I assume it's from your family.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Yeah, definitely. I got it from my father. He worked, uh, he worked as a uh a logger or tree cutter, like a lumberjack, I guess is what you'd call it. Yeah, um, for a long time. And then he started his own business and he worked like crazy. And we definitely learned a work ethic from him. He got up at four in the morning every morning to go to work. Uh, up in the mountains in the rain and snow and cold and hiking up these steep hills, and it was uh it was amazing. I knew pretty early on that it wasn't gonna suit me. It was way too much work.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Say what you said earlier. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

I mean, uh, because I you have to get up at four o'clock in the morning every morning to go to work. And I thought there's no way I'm gonna do that for like my lifetime job.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

Then of course, when the movie business, you get up at four in four in the morning all the time to go shoot something. So but it's temporary.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Yeah, that is so true. Okay, what was the first movie that you made that made you fall in love with storytelling?

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Um good question. I mean, a couple of the low budget things I did were not very good scripts. I wrote a couple of scripts, um, actually, that got made into a movie. And um, so that kind of got me excited. But then um worked with a friend from Seattle and we raised a little bit of money and we made our own little independent film. And that really kind of got me started on that. Yeah, and then worked on a couple of great little um sort of um cult movies, like one Night of the Comet, which was this great script, this little great little script for a movie that we did, I think, for like two million bucks. Um, that I didn't write or produce, but I worked on it as like the the unit manager. So I got to be around, you know, some really quality stuff.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

And it ignited in you. Yeah, that's so cool. What movie do you think people would be surprised to know took so much more work than you could have ever imagined?

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Um, hmm. I mean, Independence Day, definitely, but I think people would probably imagine that was a lot of work.

SPEAKER_03 7:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

And it was even so. Why was it? Because we were, we were, I mean, it's still probably the greatest movie experience of my life because we were all young. We it was our first big movie. Um we had, well, the director had done Stargate, but this was the first really big movie. And we um and so we didn't have the all that much money to work with. So we were making this giant, we felt like we were making the biggest low budget movie in history. Yeah. And so it was just an incredible amount of work because we couldn't afford to work with any of the major uh visual effects houses. So we actually had set up um uh work with about eight different visual effects houses. So we were just running around like maniacs all the time.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

Yeah. Um, it worked out great, but it was an incredible amount of work.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

That's definitely probably in terms of all the hours put in the hardest.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Did you know that it was gonna be a huge success?

SPEAKER_02 8:25

It was one of those things where every decision seemed to be the right decision. Like we hired Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum. It just seemed to be the right decision. We we um did tests on the way the fire rolled through the street, and we realized that we found something that was just amazing for that. We um, you know, every decision seemed to be right, but the the biggest thing was we put out uh so we felt good about it, but then we put this trailer out that came out during the Super Bowl, and people just went nuts for it. Oh it's right. Something you want to add to this briefing, Captain Hiller? Sir, I'm just all anxious to get up there and whoopy T's ass, that's all they can just sense if a movie is gonna be great. Yeah, and they can also sense if a movie's not gonna work. You can do all the promotion in the world, and people just end up going, no, I'm not gonna show up for that.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

So it's a weird business, but yeah, it was crazy.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Is there a movie that you've done that you thought would do incredible that did not?

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Um let me think. A couple of them. Yeah, I worked on a movie called We Are Marshall, which was a great football movie. I love that movie, and it came out great and it did it did okay, but it didn't do nearly as well as I thought it was going to do.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Um and people always, yeah, lots of people tell me how much they love that movie.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Oh, I love it so much.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

It just didn't catch, you know, we just weren't able to catch the right audience at the right time.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

That's interesting. I because I know I I have so many friends who love that movie so much. So I I think it's incredible, but it's heavy. And so Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

It is, yeah, and it's about football, which means that most people outside the United States didn't really have that much interest in seeing it.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Not the right football not the right football.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Yeah, right. Wrong football.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Is there an actor or an actress that was your favorite to work with looking back?

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Um a few of them. I mean, uh offhand, I would say probably Will Smith was amazing to work with. He's um incredibly charismatic, incredible brings incredible energy to the set. He works his butt off. He um he is one of those people that just by their charisma elevates the set just when they walk on. Everybody wants to do a great job when they're working with him. So I really enjoyed working with him. And you know, I run into him every once in a while, and we still talk about what a great experience that was. And obviously great for his career, too.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Huge for his career. I feel like it was like a turning point for his career, for sure. Um, it's interesting because I just I love him so much. I love all the movies he's done, but I do think he's just so like charismatic. Even it's so amazing how that gets trans it's translated even on the screen.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Yeah, really. It really comes across.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Yeah. Um, what about your favorite actress that you've worked with?

SPEAKER_02 11:40

Um I got to work with Drew Barrymore when she was about 19 years old, which is really great.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

That's really cool. That's really cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

On a Western, which was even better. Yeah, called Bad Girls.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Um who else did I work with that I really loved? Uh um On The Town, we worked with Blake Lively, who I thought was incredible, did an amazing job. That was really a great oh yeah. Um with Ben Affleck, right? Yeah, with Ben Affleck, who is also great to work with. Yeah. But I think really did a great job of showing what her capabilities were.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Yeah. Yeah, she's such a great actress. When you look back, what is the funniest or most most unexpected moment that you experienced on set that people wouldn't even imagine?

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Just oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

There's probably so I know there's gotta be so many.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

There are so many of them. There's so many of them.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

I know one thing you told me is that you were doing when you were doing the hangover, you told me about Zach, Zach Galifanakis. You told me that Zach came up to you and you guys were doing the Dark Dark Knight, remember? And he wanted to be, he's like, I can play Batman.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

And I remember, and you were like with that voice and just his total amazing personality.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

I mean, I think he even said, I'm Batman.

unknown 12:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

When you told me that story, I just remember all of us were laughing so hard. Is it just like that every day, kind of throughout?

SPEAKER_02 13:01

It's uh it's a crazy business that way. I mean, every movie you do is so different. You know, I mean, or one minute you're working on this giant sci-fi movie, and then you're making a movie like The Patriot about the American Revolution, and you learn more about the revolution than you ever thought you'd know. And different things come up on the set. There's always a challenge, there's always something coming up. And if you're working with great people, though, it's it's an amazing experience. It's one of those things where you can't wait for it to end because you're exhausted, but then you don't want it to end because you've got this amazing team. I mean, the hangover is a great example of just a really fun movie to work on.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

And talk about totally changing the trajectory of those actors' careers. I feel like the hangover did.

SPEAKER_03 13:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

And but that was, I I don't, I don't know that any of us were prepared to go into that movie and love it and laugh as much as we did. I mean, I feel like it changed movies. I feel like it changed comedy for sure. I mean, I just remember being like, this is the most hysterical movie I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

And one of the great things I think was the fact that we did cast people that were, I mean, they they they certainly weren't unknowns. I mean, they'd all done stuff and they were certainly respected for what they'd done, but they hadn't really gone out. Yeah. Yeah. Which was interesting because at one point the studio talked about whether we bring in Will Farrell or Adam Sandler or both, or you know, is do we cast it just with big comedy stars? And I think it worked out great the way it it happened because you really discover those guys.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

You know what? That's very interesting. So when you go into making a movie, does the studio so do you have actors in mind when you're when you're creating a movie?

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Sometimes you do, usually you don't.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

That's interesting. Usually you don't.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

And so what does that process look like? You the studio, you work with the studio and you work with casting agents, and then everybody kind of throws around different Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when we were looking at uh Independence Day, I mean the studio's first suggestion was Brad Pitt, which they pushed very hard on. And I'm sure he would have been great in the role, but it's hard to think about it now without Will Smith in that role.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

That is amazing. Okay, do they have other ideas?

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Uh, don't really remember on on that movie, um, but we always felt great about Jeff Goldblum. I think it it that part basically was written for Jeff Goldblum.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

So much.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

Really sort of had to be.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Yeah, it had to be. I love him so much.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

And then uh you have films like um, you know, The Patriot, where um, you know, I mean, Mel Gibson was the biggest star in the world at the time. And, you know, once he says he wants to do it, then you're making a movie.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Yeah, that's so true. I loved him in that movie.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

I think he did a great job, and he was amazing to work with in that movie, too.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

Yes. I mean, and such an incredible, inspiring, powerful movie. Um, it's so interesting because I've asked a lot of people what is your favorite movie? Um, doing the podcast and the Patriots come up quite a bit. Wow, that's cool. Yeah, so fun. Um, it's very interesting. So, did you um who who was the one who fought for Will Smith to be the leading role for Independence Day?

SPEAKER_02 16:17

Uh, the writer, producer, and the director, Roland American Dean Devlin, did most of the fighting on that one. For sure. That's really cool. They really pushed for it. They really pushed for it. And um, and and Will hadn't really done, I mean, he'd done bad boys. So again, people certainly knew who he was. But they were looking for, you know, a star at that kind of a level.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Yeah, you're like, he's done Fresh Prince, Bad Boys, but you have Brad Pitt.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Yeah, but he was perfect. The interesting thing is Roland, uh, the director, really fell in love with him from um that tiny movie that he did with um Donald Sutherland, and I'm forgetting the name of it. Which was it's not a it's not a comedy or action movie or anything else. It's um where Will Smith is sort of like impersonating somebody. Yeah, essentially. But he really liked him from that. So talented. Um on the Patriot, we had a we did an amazing scout for the for the uh uh casting for the person to play Mel's son. And we looked everywhere, and we had crazy scouts all over the world looking for who was gonna play that part. And it it really came down to two people, and we ended up going with Heath Ledger, who I think was 19 or something at the time, and it and it turned out to be the perfect choice.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Perfect choice. Oh my gosh, I think he is one of the greatest actors.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

He is incredible, yeah. And I got to work with him early on and late on too. And he was just a an amazing guy and a real talent.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Yeah, and so tragic what happened to him. But my goodness, I mean, he his his um acting in the dark night is just him and Christian Bale.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yeah, yeah, that is amazing. Yeah, it's pretty incredible.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

I honestly don't think there is another Batman. I mean, I I I don't want to get in trouble saying this, but I just don't think that there is another Batman movie that compares to that movie.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

It's hard to top it. Yeah, it's really hard to top it. And we were just so yeah fortunate to be involved. Actually, Batman Begins, when we created Legendary Pictures, Batman Begins was the first movie that we were involved with. We came in very late on it, but we we stepped in and and and financed that. And through that, we got to be involved with the whole Batman trilogy.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

As co-producers, our our company. So it was an amazing experience.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

How did you go from um, you know, uh getting this bug for film and then owning a like one of the biggest production companies in the world?

SPEAKER_02 18:48

It was, I mean, I got a great experience working with uh Roland and Dean at Centropolis. I was president of Centropolis for a long time and um had always wanted to see if there was a way to put together financing um to do a slate of movies. That what that's what producers need to do. You need to be making movies. And um actually, while we were working at Legendary, I met this young guy from private equity, Thomas Tull, who was fascinated by the movie business, and we kind of hung out and got to be friends. And um, you know, one day we were just actually sitting on the set of a a friend's movie, and he said, We should we should just start our own movie company. Oh wow. And so we which sounds pretty crazy, but uh but you know, he had amazing connections on the financing side, and I sort of knew the Hollywood side, and we we got a couple of other people, great people involved, and it came together.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

That's incredible, but don't I I think that's the thing I love about this industry is people going for it. You have to go for it, you have to take the risk, take the leap of faith.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

Sure. I took two mortgages out on my house because we were not getting paid for the two years we were putting that together.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

And was that with having a wife and kids?

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Yeah, it was scary.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Very scary. Yeah. Okay, let's talk about. I I love Bill's wife, Jodi, so much. I love your wife.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Me too.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

She's so wonderful. Um, I was so glad to see her today. Um, we're at their beautiful home in California, in LA, and um, it is truly stunning, but it's also a historic landmark landmark, is that right? In LA? Is it number 25?

SPEAKER_02 20:33

Yes. Historic landmark number 25.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Historic and where their daughters have had like two out of three weddings and going to have their third one's coming up.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Um, they are in an incredible season right now. They just became grandparents. Their daughter just got engaged, and their other daughter just got married.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Yeah, it's all happening.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

So happy. Life is happening fast. I'm so so happy for you guys. Um, tell us about how you you and Jody met.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

Uh, yes. Well, we met. Um, I was uh going to UCLA grad school film, and uh this job offer came up to work as an assistant to a couple of uh producers and also their post-production, like post-production supervisor. And um so I went in for the interview. Jody was their um their assistant slash receptionist, and I interviewed for the job, and it came down to two guys, me and this like tall, handsome, incredible looking guy who Jody really wanted them to hire. She told me that. Yeah. I ended up getting the job, and um she was very upset about that because she really liked the other guy. And so she would do things like not give me my messages on time and all this stuff. So we basically started, we basically feeling disliked each other. We really disliked each other.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

And um for the first Month I was there. And so after about a month, I went to her and I said, Listen, let's call a truce. Um, I've got an extra ticket to a movie, like a preview screening, and I'm going with all my friends. Why don't you just come with me? And so we went to that. And after the movie, we had this. Uh, it was all friends of mine from Stanford and UCLA, and we had this amazing discussion for three or four hours after that. And she went, Oh, this guy's maybe there's something to this. He's not so bad.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

She said, she said it was the best decision that's ever been that you worked there in that you are the biggest blessing of her entire life.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

It worked out pretty great for both of us for sure.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Let's just meet. Were you inseparable from that moment pretty much on?

SPEAKER_02 22:41

No, we went through all sorts of stuff. She had another boyfriend back home. He showed up eventually.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

It's an entire movement.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

Yeah, yeah. We got engaged and then we got disengaged. We got divorced before we ever got married. So we got that out of the way. That's our theory.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Right. No, I love that. We should all try. So we don't have to go. That's the um that's advice from that's the takeaway from the podcast. Exactly. Break up before you get married. So you don't have to break up. So really, that's interesting. So, how long did it take for you guys to end up kind of coming back together, getting married?

SPEAKER_02 23:14

And it was nine years. Oh my goodness. Yeah. And there were two years in there after we'd been engaged the first time, where we didn't, we barely even saw each other.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

And then we got back together.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

How did you get back together?

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Um, she was flying back to LA or she she was back in LA, flew back to LA, and she went to lunch with my mom. And uh she was gonna drop my mom off at my house. And my mom said, Well, you should just come in and say hello at least. And she came in and then it sort of rekindled.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

That's really sweet. Okay. So were you heartbroken during that period of the breakup?

SPEAKER_02 23:52

Yeah, it was a tough. It was tough. Both of us were.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

Yeah. But then I mean, there was a a lot of time in there. We sort of got over it to a certain extent. We were both dating other people. Um crazy. You know, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

It's fascinating, isn't it? It is. It is, but uh breakups are just so brutal in the moment. Even for that first, you know, people always say, Oh, get over it in three months. I'm like, sometimes it takes a year.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

It just yeah, it takes a long time.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

I think so too. I feel like if your heart was truly invested and you really love the person, it takes a lot longer to heal. And I think people want to busy themselves or distract themselves, but really the truth is it's always like sitting there. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

Yeah. And you can dive into work or do anything like that, but that's not that's not changing what what happened.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

No, and I like it's interesting because a lot of my friends who do that, they don't like hit their, they don't like deal with their feelings head on, deal with it. They that next year they're like a mess over the breakup, and you're like, wait, why aren't you over it? And you're like, oh, they just threw themselves into work or dating other people and didn't deal with it.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

Right. They just put it off.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Yeah, and it's like that's not the way to go because it doesn't get anybody anywhere. But I believe Independence Day will probably be this answer. But out of all the films that you've worked on, do you have a favorite?

SPEAKER_02 25:14

I have a couple of them. Okay. But Independence Day is definitely on the list because I mean, as I said, we were all young producers. I I I mean, we were all young producer, young director, young writer. It was that's a really big movie. It was really a family, and it was the start of a family, uh, like a family affair because we all worked on a bunch of stuff after that together.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

How long can I ask about Independence Day? And or just like on set. How long are you on set for and gone for?

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Uh usually on a big movie like that, it's five months, six months. It's a long time. In fact, you're gone longer than that because usually you arrive early to prepare it.

unknown 25:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Um, Independence Day was shot. We were in New York, we were in Utah, we were in LA. We weren't gone quite so long because we did a lot of the shoot in LA, but for things like the Patriot, I was gone for eight months.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Oh my goodness. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

That's a long time.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

It is a long haul.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

Where were you at for the Patriot?

SPEAKER_02 26:07

We were in South Carolina. We actually shot right by the places that the events that actually took place for Francis Marion, who was the guy that Mel's character was based on.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

Wow. Okay, so what so Independence Day, yeah, the hangover was crazy fun. How could that not be fun? Being on set was it so fun and funny.

SPEAKER_02 26:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

It was like what we all imagine.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

More? Yeah. Definitely. I mean, it was a very well-written script, but then you know, just things would come out of improvisation, especially Zach, you know, would just he always had something coming out that you're just like, what? Where did that come from?

SPEAKER_00 26:49

His comedic timing is unlike anybody else's. He's so funny to me. Um, well, okay, the Patriot, you were gone for nine months, eight, nine months. Um, what does that look like when you have a family? And I think that's a part of the industry. Most of us, like even myself, I didn't even know that. Right. So the the constant um the the sacrifice these people's families are making, the the gravity of that is huge.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

Yeah, it's it's really um it's a challenge. It's funny. The traveling was my favorite part of the job. I mean, I got to work on movies in Japan, Africa, Europe, all over the place. And I loved it. And then once I had kids, it was the worst part of the job. Yeah. Yeah. My three kids were like little when we did the Patriot. They're just little kids. And Jodi was very um adamant that she was, you know, some people will bring their whole family on set and they'll go to school at whatever place they're at, especially if they're staying for a long time. Um, but she was pretty adamant that she wanted to keep them at home, you know, in their school, in their thing.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

So in like their routine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

Which I think was really important. But on the other hand, then I would get to see them, you know, like on the Patriot. I think they flew out for Thanksgiving. That was the only time. And I flew back a couple of times I had to fly back to LA for some business for maybe a couple of days. That was it.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Oh, that's hard.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

And they're little.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

And then you miss your wife, you missed your family. What is it like coming home after five months or eight months?

SPEAKER_02 28:17

It's the greatest. Especially when you're done shooting, because things then usually the next the first couple of weeks after you're done shooting, the editor's cutting all the material together. So you've got a little break before you're going to start looking at the at the uh first cut and everything. And it's a great feeling.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Um, you are such a devoted husband and father. Um, what has family taught you that Hollywood never could teach you?

SPEAKER_02 28:43

Well, I had three girls. So um that was an incredible education for me, I think, and probably really helped me grow as a father and um as a person. Yeah. Just really seeing really being able to see things through my daughter's eyes a little bit was a great great thing for me. They definitely changed me in a in a great way.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

Yeah. Do you feel like they softened you?

SPEAKER_02 29:11

Yeah. Yeah. It just made me more aware that there's there are different perspectives than than the male perspective, I guess. Whatever you would call it.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

Did it help you in even picking movies in the future or storytelling and all of that?

SPEAKER_02 29:27

Yeah, I mean, they I especially as they got older, I'd always get their thoughts on what they thought of the movies that we were working on and all that kind of stuff. So it was it was great for that. Yeah, that's yeah, mainly just, you know, getting me to mature and grow up a little bit.

unknown 29:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

That's interesting. I know, because little girls, they are so sweet and empathetic and nurturing. So bringing out all those sides of you is probably so fun.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

Yeah. It was really great. And and they're amazing kids. I'm incredibly lucky.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

You are. You're so um, they're such incredible girls and their families are so beautiful. You're also a musician.

SPEAKER_03 30:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

Which is how we met. How does music influence just the way that you go about storytelling as well? Because music's all about storytelling. But how did you how did you get into music? And then how is it translated into what you do with film?

SPEAKER_02 30:23

Um, I was always interested in music. I started out playing trumpet and trombone and jazz and stuff like that. And then when I was about 16, realized that girls like guys who played rock and roll. So I picked up the bass. I kept playing the trumpet and trombone. I I played trumpet in a jazz band in college, um, like a Latin jazz band, which is an amazing experience. Um, but bass was really the instrument that I fell into. And I I love singing. So being able to play bass and sing was fantastic. So I played in bands in my 20s and everything, and then got too busy with movies. Totally. And then um in my late 40s, got together with a couple other people in the movie business who'd been touring musicians when they were younger, but then had to find real jobs. And and we put a band together and and started to play. And then this promoter, who I think you even know, Reed, yeah, sort of discovered us and said, You'd be great opening up for my 80s band. So we've opened up for Foreigner and Ario Speedwagon and the Beach Boys and Jefferson Starship. So that's so it's the coolest thing ever. We get to go out in front of these huge crowds and play. It's and then we played, you know, well, like we just had a gig last weekend at the Canyon Club where we're playing in front of 300 people, and that's really fun too.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

I know. I'm so bummed I missed it. Um, I can't I can't wait to come to the next one though. Um, I thought you guys were incredible. I no thanks. So we were at Alice Cooper's Christmas pudding doing his charity event, and um, you guys went on, and I believe it was it was Ario Speedwagon was there as well, right? Yeah, and and Sticks and like a bunch of other guys.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

So one of my rock and roll thrills, by the way, is I got to go up uh like Kevin Cronin. Yeah, uh his manager came and got me before they were doing their encore of Keep On Rolling. Yeah. He grabbed me and said, Kevin wants you to come up and sing backup.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

No way.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

I'm on stage with Kevin Cronin.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

Such a surreal pinch me moment, right? You know what was so cool is Alice and Gerald had asked me to do it a few years in a row. And one of the years in the dressing room was Ted Nugent. He just had his guns out. Oh I was thinking it was just so funny just seeing like all the different people walking in and out, and you know, Johnny Depp and just all of it. And music's so beautiful that way. Do you notice cross-collaborating between um people who wanted to be in the film business that are also musical?

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

Musical that wanted to be in film. You know, just either they made it in one genre, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:59

No, and I mean, being in LA, you're always running into. I mean, I was just at a thing last night where half the people are in the music business and about half of them are in the film business. And it's a great it's so there's a lot of uh creative energy that's sort of um cross-pollinating. Yeah, that's for sure. And I I just love music. I mean, I um, you know, yeah. And the funny thing is, I've never really really made a one of those musical biographies. I worked on one with little Richard for a long time and it ended up getting made uh a while back. Um and I was busy with something else, so I didn't get to actually produce it.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

But it's interesting. I feel like that would have been such a natural lean for you. Maybe in the future.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

Oh, yeah, I'm not I'm not giving up on it for sure.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Um how important is music to a film?

SPEAKER_02 33:45

It's critically important. Um uh making the making a decision on the composer is like one of the two or three most important decisions you have to make on a movie. That's so. They can make everything. I mean, we got to work with David Arnold on Independence Day, who did um I mean, he's done all the Bond movies and everything, and then John Williams on on The Patriot. I mean, there's nobody better than John Williams and and then um working with some amazingly talented guys, uh uh um George Draculius, for example, on The Hangover and a bunch of other movies, these guys who they're they're not composing themselves, but they're putting together the music for them for the movie. And if you think of something like The Hangover, I mean they just nailed it. Oh, totally. Yeah, I mean, that brings so much life and spirit to to the movie and the scenes.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

Absolutely. I thought about how Top Gun, just the soundtrack for Top Gun, is so driving, yeah, right, so important. You have managed this incredible career, but you have stayed so unbelievably humble. And I want to know You sure? Yes, I'm certain. I can say that for a fact. Like, well, obviously, anyone watching you right now would just know that you're just so you're so kind. And where do you believe that comes from?

SPEAKER_02 35:06

Um, I think it comes from my parents and my background. And um I think um I and I don't know how else to be, but I think also it's been um really helpful for me to be very grounded and I still feel like a guy who grew up in you know, outside in rural Washington State. Um, and I think that's really been a an advantage for me in terms of the movies that I work on and recognizing movies that I think are gonna work for audiences because I feel like I'm um as much as I could, I mean, living in Beverly Hills and working in the movie business, you know, keep a perspective on on life and keep a perspective on America and keeping a perspective on what I think people want to see. And I certainly think that's been one of my real gifts is being able to have a sense of what's gonna work and what's not gonna work, what people want to want to see and what's gonna move them.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Yeah, like outside of LA. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

That's so no, because you see definitely it's very, it's it can be an insular society, and you see movies get made here where you kind of go, that's not yeah, the real world. Right, right. You're making movie for uh, you know, yeah, you're making you're making a movie for a niche, not not a global audience.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

Yeah. How important are awards for you?

SPEAKER_02 36:31

Well, I don't have anything on the Oscars, so no, not important at all.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

Is that true or is that not true?

SPEAKER_02 36:38

Uh but hey, it's just we my goal was um, and the companies that I was involved with, we were always focused on making commercial movies, making movies for big audiences, making movies that people would really love to see.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

Obviously, uh making money is really important. And as long as you make movies that make money, you get to make more movies. That's a key thing to remember. As long as you're making movies that make money, yeah, people will keep giving you more money to make movies. So that's important. But but also just the for me, the thrill of making movies that that audiences love and that they want to see is really important. So um, you know, we I just that wasn't part of my career, really making movies that win lots of awards. I mean, we've won lots of awards for visual effects and cinematography and all sorts of stuff like that, but it wasn't really a focus.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

And the dark night, the dark night didn't win, right? Or did it be? No. No, no, I people have I was didn't get nominated.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

I I don't yeah, actually they changed the rules, the Academy to to add a couple more films to it. Because after the Dark Knight. That is The Dark Knight didn't, which is kind of crazy. But yeah, we were never focused on reward type movies. The movies that I make weren't like I mean, some of them were were star-driven, but they weren't star-driven vehicles. They weren't, they weren't, I didn't make a lot of dramas.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

It's interesting because if your gauge, if like you're going into it thinking I want to win, you might be disappointed. But because you went into it going, no, I just want the audience to be absolutely absolutely in love with this movie and I want to keep making movies, then your gauge was it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 38:21

Yeah, and that was our focus at Legendary right from the start. Our focus was we're we're not in the business to make movies that make that win Oscars, or I mean, if we do, that's gonna be great, but that's not the business we're in. We're in the business of making movies that are going to really entertain people.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

That's so good. Will you tell us about your house and how you found this historic landmark? Sure.

SPEAKER_02 38:42

Um, I lived in the house across the street, and we always saw this. Yeah. Well, unfortunately, we moved during Legendary, we moved up into the hills to be closer to Warner Brothers and then moved back down.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

But I love where you live.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

Yeah, it's it's a beautiful street. And this is an old Spanish colonial house. It was built uh 1929, 1930, and the first occupant was a famous actor from the 20s and 30s named Joe E. Brown. And the house was built by um what's known as a Beverly Hills master architect. So um, so it's uh for those reasons, and also he had a screening room upstairs. Groucho Marks lives like lived six houses down from here. No way. So they would come hang out here, watch movies, all the all the big Hollywood stars would come over here and go up to his screening room, which is on the second floor. It's so cool and watch movies. We could have done the podcast from the screening room.

SPEAKER_00 39:39

Sorry, we're doing it with this beautiful from my office. From the office. Oh my gosh, that is so cool, but I want to see it before we leave.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

So it was declared a landmark by Beverly Hills, and uh that just means that they can't you can't really change anything in it, which is exactly what we love. Yes, because we don't want to change a thing about this house. We love it.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

It's so beautiful. Wow, that's so that's so awesome. And do you just plan on staying here for as long as forever? Yeah. Um, I love what you shared. Our kids love it too.

SPEAKER_02 40:09

Yes, we got the pool in back. Oh two of the three kids have gotten married in the backyard, and the third is going to get married in the backyard.

SPEAKER_00 40:15

So we were just talking about it. It's so beautiful, and there's so much history, but everything, even I was just looking at even how the beam right there is made and how it's like a beautiful face on it. And right, just everything has the way that they have all the nooks and just the windowsills, there's so much space. And we were saying, like, now they build where they want to just take up all the space and they don't leave a lot of room.

SPEAKER_02 40:37

And yeah, you're trying to maximize square footage as opposed to thinking more about like the the the vibe that you get from the house. It's just this house hasn't, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:48

Would you more in love with it? Yeah, oh my gosh, I can tell why. But would you have ever thought when you came here to go to film school that you would be living in this house and doing the films that you did?

SPEAKER_02 40:59

No. Although I do remember when I was a student at UCLA, I would drive through these neighborhoods and I would see the old Spanish houses and I would be, oh, someday, someday I really want to have a house like that. That's so they're so cool.

SPEAKER_00 41:11

That's awesome. Okay, so you said no. You really did you just you just thought maybe it was too out of reach?

SPEAKER_02 41:17

Yeah, just wasn't sure where it was gonna go. It's a tough business. Um, you know, I always knew I wanted to, I mean, well, I wanted to write and produce, but then early on realized that I could do a lot more as a producer than a writer.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

That's interesting. Yeah. I want to know, uh, tell can you tell us about the hardest seasons or the hardest setbacks that you had and how did you overcome them? How did you keep getting up? And I feel like so much of life is like begin again, begin again, start over.

SPEAKER_02 41:47

For sure. Well, I mean, the first job I had out of film school was working where I met my wife, and that company, I got promoted to associate producer. Um, and then the company went bankrupt.

SPEAKER_03 42:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

And then I went to work for another producer as a produ as a co-producer. Yeah. And that company went bankrupt. So my first two experiences in Hollywood were with companies that went bankrupt and you know, basically left me like totally out in the air. Wow. So that was a I mean, those were huge setbacks.

SPEAKER_00 42:21

What was how many years was that spanning?

SPEAKER_02 42:23

No, that was like the first two years.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 42:26

I was out of school, two and a half years. Yeah, that's and so um that's actually when I got the job as a production assistant working on the Roger Corman movie. Oh, yeah. I worked, I managed to talk my way into working as assistant cameraman. Um interesting side story. Uh, it was on the second unit, which they'd set up. The film was a kind of a disaster, and so they needed um somebody to come in and shoot a bunch of extra footage and shoot all the all the uh visual effects for the movie. And um, so they set up the second unit and they put the production designer of the movie onto it, who was young Jim Cameron. So my first real experience there was working as assistant cameraman for Jim Cameron.

SPEAKER_03 43:12

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 43:13

We were just talking about it like two weeks ago. That's incredible because Jim and I were uh uh his producer was uh my best friend John Landau, and he passed recently. And so Jim and I were together at the launch of John had written a book just before he passed. So we were at the launch of the book.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_02 43:29

Yeah, yeah. He was an amazing guy, like a perfect uh just an incredible role model for everybody whoever worked with him. I've heard that. The greatest guy in Hollywood. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:41

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. Thank you. Oh my gosh, Jim Cameron.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

Yeah. So that was a that was an interesting experiment and uh but uh or experience, but I kind of just went on from there and did a couple of low small jobs, wrote a script or two that got made into movies, and um then got a shot. raising some money and got back, you know, got it back going again. But yeah, it really after the first two or three years, I was sitting there going, This is just a dead end. I'm never going to get anywhere. I, you know, I remember waking up one morning in my bed and just going, I don't think I can get out of bed today.

SPEAKER_03 44:16

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

Hmm.

unknown 44:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

That's a hard is not happening for me.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

Yeah. It's hard too because I'm sure you're around people who are succeeding too. Yeah. All around you, right?

SPEAKER_02 44:26

Right. No, and then we all compare ourselves to Steve Steven Spielberg, who, you know, was 25 and he's directing these huge movies for studios.

SPEAKER_00 44:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

You're going, I'm 25 and I got nowhere.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

And the company went bankrupt again.

SPEAKER_02 44:41

Yeah, exactly. But I'm just bad luck, apparently.

SPEAKER_00 44:44

If you could give advice to somebody who truly loves film and loves directing, producing, writing right now, I mean I know it's a different, it's different world right now, but what is your greatest advice you would give them?

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Uh well the business is changing radically. So there are so many new and different ways to get in. And at the same time it's it's as tougher tougher than it's ever been to really break in in a big way. I think going to film school was great for me for the reasons that I said you learn how to you you get your hands dirty doing everything. And that's a great background for people. You have so much uh more tools to to make movies yourself now. That I mean I think if if you're somebody who wants to produce or direct, you just want to start making movies. Yeah. You know, get just start get a little camera. Yeah. You know, you don't need many lights anymore. The the you know I mean the stock is so fast now that you can shoot things with little to no lighting. So you just need to get out there and and make stuff and then show it.

SPEAKER_00 45:50

Show it.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

Yeah. And if you're if you're here in LA or you're someplace where you've got access to people try and get a job as a writer's assistant or a director's assistant or a producer's assistant and really kind of learn the business that way.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

It's interesting how you said you talked your you've talked somebody into letting you be the camera. Yeah. Like that a lot of it's that right just like push a little hut spot.

SPEAKER_02 46:13

Yeah. Yeah and and basically yeah determination and yourself.

SPEAKER_00 46:18

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:19

And being okay with making yourself look like a fool. Do you know what I mean? Like putting your I even during the podcast I'm like I'm putting so many stories out there, putting so much out there. It's scary. It's there's a lot of fear that comes involved of being so vulnerable and putting yourself out there.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 46:35

You know? Absolutely a lot of people don't talk about it. It is because it looks like confidence. Right. I feel like it's behind and everyone I know in this industry or in any of those industries we're all like man we have so much doubt or fear or insecurities or all of that.

SPEAKER_02 46:51

Yeah. No and you're one step away from you know from humiliation.

SPEAKER_00 46:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

You can make a couple of great movies and you make a movie that just doesn't work and everybody in the business is going, why'd they do that? They were insane. That was the dumbest thing ever. That was never gonna work. I mean, you know that's rough on your ego.

SPEAKER_00 47:11

Oh yeah that's terrible. And honestly it's like if you're only as good as your last film or only as good as the last thing you did, it's like what an hard industry to be in in general. You know?

SPEAKER_02 47:23

That's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 47:25

Well tell me about you do a ton philanthropically and with charities and I would love for you to share about the board that you're on and the gala I think you do a gala here, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 47:37

Yeah we do once a year at the house.

SPEAKER_00 47:39

Yeah I think like the reason I started this podcast I was like I really I started a nonprofit and we've helped a ton of unhoused community in Arizona and women and children in need. We've actually given over 26,000 bags to women and children in need.

SPEAKER_02 47:54

I know you do some great work that's so terrific.

SPEAKER_00 47:57

Thank you for saying that I'm so grateful to see like where it will go. But in doing it I started partnering with so many different nonprofits and so many different organizations that were loving on our community and I was like gosh if I could start a podcast and I could hear about everybody's like heart for philanthropy and what it means to give back right that's why I was like I want to do that. So that's pretty great. So that's what we're doing and I love it. So I just I'm loving hearing people's stories of white what led them into getting into the nonprofit they're involved in or the charities they're involved in and the importance I think of getting outside of ourselves and giving back.

SPEAKER_02 48:36

For sure for sure it's a pretty great feeling I so the way this came about was actually um the charity was started by a very close friend of mine from Stanford. Okay. And he um was a very successful screenwriter like he was the guy that was like way up here when the rest of us were struggling. I mean he seemed to like got a huge agent at William Morris. He had all this stuff going on um incredible incredibly talented writer when he was um when his daughter was about eight years old uh the mother died passed away and he became a single parent instantly and um so through that started to get very involved in her schooling and everything and really found that there was something missing in terms of what kids were getting from school and it was really kind of about their um soft skills their soul their character their sense of civic community um um all those sorts of things that they weren't getting taught in school they were learning how to read and write right and um so he um being a screenwriter he's first of all he quit his job and devoted himself completely to this and as a screenwriter he thought what can we do that that can help these kids and he started writing these one act plays and so the the charity was built around um the kids in the school like fourth to eighth graders mostly underserved schools who write and perform these one act plays and these one act plays are all built around historical figures like Galileo um Socrates Sitting Bull um you know and and each one of these um each one of these little one act plays tells a story about um you know being true to yourself or you know um respect for your fellow person um communication skills and we take it into these these schools and and it's an incre has an incredible effect on the kids. Gosh I think yeah they um kids that wouldn't say a word in school suddenly will get up and be able to give a speech in front of the crowd. So it's building up their confidence it's building up their team building it's building up their character. Yeah you know and I think everybody across the political divide for all the crazy stuff that's going on everybody can agree that you know that we need help in schools building oh yeah character. Oh my gosh. So that's really where where the focus is and we've served 6000 kids oh my gosh at least I think maybe 6500. We had a program in Maine a program in Boston we've worked all across the country and it's it's just incredible. And we have people that went through it we've now been doing this for 25 years and we've got kids who went through it um or 20 some years I guess and kids who went through it a long time ago as adults that will come back and say this changed my life it's the best thing that I ever did. What is it called Spirit Series?

SPEAKER_00 51:44

Oh my gosh I love that and what is the man who started it his name Richard Strauss is his name.

SPEAKER_02 51:49

And he's still the executive director.

SPEAKER_00 51:51

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 51:52

Yeah he strong armed me into joining the board a while back and and but I've loved it. I really loved it. And then about four years ago I became the chairman board chairman on it.

SPEAKER_00 52:01

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 52:02

So we work together we're talking later today.

SPEAKER_00 52:05

Oh my gosh please tell him I think what he's doing is exceptional.

SPEAKER_02 52:09

It's tremendous he's one of the most exceptional people I've ever met he's incredibly driven and dedicated to this and she can tell yeah he's got a true passion for it and it's it's making a big difference for people so important though that the younger generation knows how beautiful their heart is and how you know just to be able to even use words to articulate a moment and a lot of them I feel like they're not even certain how to do that.

SPEAKER_00 52:37

Like you're saying and so you're giving them these historical figures to reenact.

SPEAKER_02 52:42

It's yeah and you learn you're learning these great lessons like just power of compassion all that sort of thing comes through with it. It's huge if you could tell anybody the the importance of giving back and what it does for you for your soul it's um it's it's it's the most important part of life is giv is is giving right giving to others that's what makes it worth living I think it's hard to imagine um just living for yourself and being caught up in a bubble I don't think you're ever really satisfied. Yeah so getting out there and doing it just makes a huge difference.

SPEAKER_00 53:20

I so agree oh my gosh I think I I just think what you said is just so true. This life is such a beautiful gift. But we all have pain we all have heartbreak we have suffering and then we have the most beautiful you know but like grief is not linear so then we have the good days and I think I I don't understand the point of going through it all and not being able to share with others and help others and get back. No and getting your mind off your own problems is is a very important key to life right hugely important especially when we're all on our like cell phones all the time or all on like you know there's so much there's so much technology now.

SPEAKER_02 54:01

Oh yeah I think it's harder than ever and harder than ever on on kids. This is that's a great part of the program that we that we're doing is it's it's really sort of focusing you on something other than just what's going on in front of you.

SPEAKER_00 54:15

I know how much has social media changed when you look at just Stephen film and just the world how much has it changed?

SPEAKER_02 54:23

Uh well it's definitely um it's interesting because I remember reading something about 10 years ago from a child some big clinical child psychologist who said you know who was warning about cell phones back then like smartphones and saying we're in the middle of the biggest unsupervised scientific experiment in history on children. Yeah and uh children's brains. Yeah and he was right about that I know scary though I was pretty scary do you notice it changing the industry too just AI social media has changed yeah well I mean it's uh uh all those things have made a big change I mean you just look at how um how like short content has become so key just because attention spans are are changing people want just short bursts of things so for a movie producer obviously that's troubling because we like it when people go into a a a theater with a whole bunch of people and have this huge communal experience and watching a movie is a communal experience it really is people laughing together you are taking all this energy off the audience that you're seeing the movie with and you know if you're just looking at a little screen and watching something for a couple of minutes you're not yeah you're not getting the same sort of impact.

SPEAKER_00 55:46

It's the same as like streaming you're watching it with maybe yourself or your family but I mean I love going to the movies. So I I do good I love it so much.

SPEAKER_02 55:55

I'm like I feel like there's a lot of people who still do rightfully you know what I mean like I hopefully people are starting to get back into it a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 56:03

Yeah. What year did you retire from Legendary?

SPEAKER_02 56:06

Uh well we sold the uh I left Legendary in 2012 and we sold the company in 2016.

SPEAKER_00 56:12

That's yeah and so you haven't made a film in a while because well I made a few independent films after that. And how is that going?

SPEAKER_02 56:20

It's great. It's fun yeah because it's so um it's still very stressful but there's something great about just being on the set and making a movie where we can do anything we want. We don't have to consult the studio. We don't have to worry about 10 different executives or anything we can just it's like uh that scene's not working let's just throw it out and do something else and we just make this decision on the spot. That's so fun. That's kind of fun.

SPEAKER_00 56:46

And so you can't do that when you're working with the studio.

SPEAKER_02 56:49

You can't just well I mean no I mean you're first of all you're spending a lot more money and and just out of respect for the people that are financing it, you you know you have to make sure everybody knows what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 57:00

Yeah. So will you tell um tell me more about the job that you're in now because I love what you're doing. So um and as l as well as being a touring musician.

SPEAKER_02 57:12

Yeah well I was supposed to start um this big movie um in early 2020 and COVID hit and everything was shut down. The movie business was completely shut down. Yeah. And so um right about that time a friend of mine from school from college came to me uh he's an inventor and engineer and tinkerer and he's works with a couple other guys that work out of this inventions kind of laboratory in Culver City. They came up with this um electromagnetic process that when you run a wine or spirit through this electromagnetic field, you can actually change on a molecular molecular level, you can make changes in the spirit to make it or the wine to make it taste better. Like bring a certain flavor forward or push a certain flavor back. If the if it's over oaked you can push a little bit of the oak back and it's it's really kind of amazing technology. So that's incredible. So they came to me originally saying you know would you help us um you know look for financing and maybe help us like so we can build a prototype for this and I said yes and after about two months I got so excited about it that I said I'll just come in and run the company I'll be the CEO and I'll put all the movie business stuff on hold. That's so great. So I did that and I jumped in with both feet we raised a couple of rounds of financing we build these this electromagnetic system that wine companies and spirit companies use to make their stuff better.

SPEAKER_00 58:39

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 58:40

Yeah and it's a it's a startup business so we're still growing and we've got all the usual growing paints but it's amazing technology. The guys who invented it are really really geniuses. And so all the movie stuff is on hold except for one thing I'm working on a stage play that eventually we hope to take to Broadway that was written actually by a uh a composer from Phoenix wrote the music to it and it's based on this movie that came out about 25 years ago called Happy Texas which is a really cool little movie and it's gonna be an amazing stage show. We got great music and it's really really fun. I can't wait. Still working on that but most of my focus is on this uh on this uh wine and spirits technology company and it's been amazing for me to do this whole sort of like 90 degree turn oh yeah to I've always been kind of technically minded but to really dive in and be working with chemistists and physicists and these smart inventors is really cool.

SPEAKER_00 59:36

Has it been a good change to not be working on film?

SPEAKER_02 59:40

Yeah for me it's just uh I'm just a curious person. So being able to do something totally different and learn about a whole new business and all sorts of new stuff that that I didn't know is great.

SPEAKER_00 59:52

That's really cool. What is your favorite movie like personally not the one you've made just like or maybe it's one you've made my favorite movie it's it's it's a cliche to even say it.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:03

Because it's the Godfather and everybody goes yeah well great couldn't come up with anything more original than that but I mean if I'm being honest yeah it's the Godfather just because it's it's from beginning to end it's just an incredible creation and with amazing characters that you absolutely fall in love with or in hate with but just it's it's kind of the perfect movie in terms of the way it's constructed and how deeply you get into this family and um you know it's as they've always said it's like treating the mafia like it's a family it's a family movie is what it is basically they just happen to be in the crime business. Yeah so they like they like to kill people yeah who is I guess your inspiration for producing and directing um wow um I mean Billy Wilder is certainly a big influence Spielberg is a huge influence um it's uh I mean in terms of modern directors Christopher Nolan is so exciting incredibly talented um as a producer I don't know I mean Jerry Bruckheimer I guess since I was practically a kid has been always amazing in terms of the kind of movies he makes and how he gets it how he just gets them done. Yeah and his success.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:26

What do you hope that your legacy is when all is said and done oh man that's that's not a question for somebody like me to answer.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:35

It is it's a great I'm you know I just I had a I was really I I had a great career I was really fortunate. When I look back on it I just look at it as a series of fortunate events that I got lucky with you know just being in the right place at the right time getting the chance to do Independence Day getting the chance to team up with Thomas and and build this big company I mean it's you know it's it's hard for me not to look at it and go, well this stuff just fell in my lap and I was you know I just yeah like right place and time. Yeah I just got to be part of it. But I you know I do know that I worked really hard. Yeah you do um you know in terms of a legacy as far as my kids and everything go just that they're you know they're inspired to do their best and do something that they can be you know I I guess you can say it's following your passion but it's also just following your curiosity. I mean I really tried to follow my curiosity with everything that I do.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:32

That's really good advice.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:33

Yeah like wow that's something cool and I don't know much about it and I want to see what happens.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:39

Yeah that's really incredible. Um I just can't thank you enough for being on it's my pleasure you're terrific you're terrific you know how much I love you and your wife so right back at you oh thank you though thank you for this and I could talk to you for hours I like I want to go to dinner again and just um thank you though thank you for having us I'll tell you the stories that I can't just say on on on camera sorry guys uh we gotta turn the cameras off we need to go hang out um no I love it though and I just I loved being here and it was so good to see you and Jodi and I can't wait to spend more time with you.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:19

Great to see you too and I'm so excited about your podcast and you're getting amazing guests. I mean I'm flattered.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:25

I'm so honored to have you on are you kidding me but also like it has been so cool because just like you said like the love of music the love of you know sports or arts it's so amazing how those worlds all cross so much and so I feel so I feel really humbled that people are saying yes like you I'm I honestly have to keep pinching myself I think I told like these surreal moments we have in our careers where I'm like even when I was sitting here just talking to you I'm like I can't believe we're doing this I've been editing a bunch and I'm like this is the coolest experience. It's tons of work as you know but I'm so grateful. I I was really like fearful going into it and then I was like you know what no I'm gonna lean into it and I'm gonna go and I'm gonna go do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:12

Good for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:13

Yeah yeah you took a chance I did I followed my curiosity yes you did with the advice okay guys thank you thanks okay thank you thank you so much this was so great so good for you oh my god it was so fun thank you for spending time with us today the heart of the podcast is to highlight incredible stories of hope and the gift of giving back I'm truly loving learning about each guest nonprofit and the impact they're making if you'd like to learn more or get involved you can find links to every charity mentioned on my YouTube and my Instagram under each episode. Thank you for watching and I'll see you next week