Colleen Camp on Longevity as a Hollywood Chameleon | Don't Kill the Messenger | Kevin Goetz

there's a little known part of Hollywood that most people are not aware of known as the audience test preview the recently released book audience ly reveals this for the first time our podcast series Don't Kill the Messenger brings this book to life taking a peek behind the curtain and now join author and entertainment research expert Kevin getts real character actors are chameleons and completely change from role to role I mean they disappear and transform my guest today is indeed a master of transformation but not just as an actor Colleen Camp who has enjoyed a six deade career in front of the camera has also had a five decade career as a movie producer seamlessly switching between the spotlight and the producer's chair as an actor Colleen has graced screens in over 150 roles including such diverse films as clue Die Hard with a Vengeance Wayne's World an American Hustle as a producer she's helped to orchestrate cinematic Magic on over 25 titles including she's funny that way father stew and monstrous you my dear are a force to be reckoned with I love you I had to say it first welcome Colleen I love you I love you why did you say it first because I want to tell you I love you and you've actually been in my life because when I been at the focus group screenings which you're brilliant at and most recently at a movie I had that just came out which I love and you were so enormously helpful at the gates which just opened and I'm an executive producer on it and I really want people to see the film it's one three festivals including the Savannah festival and it's also won a Latin American Film Festival in New York but what's interesting and why I bring it up is because distribution as you know now which is so much of your field and how movies get placed marketed and distributed is very challenging and I don't know why I'm extrapolating on this but I just produced also a film called day of the fight which is Jack Houston's directorial debut which is brilliant really and it was in competition in Venice and it stars Michael pit who was from Boardwalk Empire and because Jack and I I worked on a film that I produced called above suspicion oh I remember that you remember wonderful picture thank you with Amilia Clark and Jack and then I put jack in a play that Barbara Brockley and I produced called strangers on a train at the Gil good in London and so they have remade that movie strangers on a train I mean so many times because it's such a great story lifetime like multiple it's a great great I want to Brockley happens to be one of your best friends best friends and you just said you stayed over last night for your girl's night well we do CU When She whenever she's in town she said when I stay there it's like having triplets talk about defining other roles I I love what you said because the other day I was talking to somebody and they were talking about Apocalypse Now and of course I did Apocalypse Now smile and The Game of Death and death game all in the same two years and I was thinking about such div the divers those let me ask you something Colleen so you are just a force Barbara describes as having triplets but when you walk into a room I mean the room changes it stops you're like a gravitational pull that you have I love you and as a actress I find you terribly concentrated and so immersed how do you compartmentalize like both parts of yourself I love that question for some reason lately I've been surrounded by many Geminis I'm a Gemini and Barbara's a Gemini Angelica her daughter is a Gemini and I don't know hugely about astrology but I do know that Geminis have multiple personalities dual personalities meaning that they are able to compartmentalize in a sense I can be very very regimented and extremely concentrated on something and when I'm creating a character whether it's the French Maiden clue or whether it's uh a movie called uh the Game of Death opposite Bruce Lee who was dead when I did the movie or whether it's the last movie Betty Davis did called wicked stepmother or American Hustle where I play the wire girl and it's interesting because in that movie Alexander Payne who I worked with on election and I played Rees with this W's mother and the mother's very controlling and you know under the guise of being of course very supporting supportive of Tracy flick you can really see how Tracy flick is driven because mother's driven can you promise me you'll donate your brain to science how you retain names information credits it's really astounding I so admire you for that and you remember important facts there is there is an authenticity to you people that don't know you would describe you as chaotic and they would describe you or dismiss you even as a whirling dervish and I have to tell you there is so much depth to you I get you in such a real and authentic way I love being around you and We Vibe you know oh I love being around you and what I appreciate is the way you feel about me or Barbara or David Russell would say someone who doesn't get Colleen I don't trust oh and it's an interesting statement because it is an interesting St and Sherry brocker said yeah crazy Colleen it's the best cloaking device that's a very interesting way of it's almost like sending you in for reconnaissance yeah that's right and then going okay here's the real skinny on that do you know what's very funny about what you said so funny yeah Fred Roose at this screening of at the gates the other night at the Grove said you just got the biggest compliment I've ever heard this CIA operative that I brought I said you brought a CIA operative he said yes and he pointed out that you'd be a great spy and it was only because I asked somebody a question but it was like an obvious question I asked them how it was working with somebody and he worked with them so it wasn't like I was asking some clandestine question but the way the person responded was why are you asking me that question it would be like saying Colleen do you have a daughter why are you asking me that question but you learn a lot from people and maybe it's because of acting and or I've always felt like that acting depends on behavior and ID your syncratic behavior living truthfully under imaginary circumstances sner Meisner love you love that you know I studed with Bill esper Bill esper yeah a genius genius genius but you are genius and what's interesting is that so Meisner was your primary there's a woman named Jo Joan Baron oh Joanne I brought her to Los Angeles she had worked with Bill esper oh yes she did in New York and I brought her out here to do her first class ever and she started the Joanne Baron school before she married GW and Martha kulage and I were in that class is that where I met you at Martha's wedding oh my God I was at Martha's wedding of course so was I and so was Neil and Joanne was there yes but I introduced Joan to Martha but didn't I know before that no you didn't I Martha I knew before because I knew her from Rambling Rose and even before that but you and I go back maybe to your ex-husband John Goldwin yes and like you used to come to so many of the screenings that we've had years all of those I was at all those I did all your father-in-law's screenings in fact my husband worked for Sam I know he did and what's crazy I was with Howard Cohen yesterday Howard used to work for Sam too Howard and Eric yes and Howard Used was going to see Howard Cohen and Eric darala by the way amazing and Howard of course they had road side attractions the best and I had worked with them on Manchester by the sea but that was in whole other capacity not as a producer as an actress but somebody was helping them with a campaign on that yes yes and we are so connected because the genius of you and I really do mean that when I say about distribution and I bring it back to Kevin gets because this year I understand 400 movies were in Toronto and three were sold and I believe that movies are communal and I believe that movies still should exist in theaters and I believe it's proven that they can and what was interesting to me about a little movie called at the gates which cost under a million dollars it's timely it's a it's a wonderful story it's about a woman that is working in an affluent house in Hancock Park and basically she is threatened with deportation and the couple hides her and she has her son with her and the son starts to suspect why are we being hidden in this house and they'd come from El Salvador and I love a movie like that or I love a movie like day of the fight and these movies are more challenging to get distributed irena's vow I just saw how is that wonderful and it's again about a Polish woman who hid 11 Jews during Nazi Germany at the Major's house the Nazi Major's house under his wait floorboards how is that possible I know it's unbelievable and it's a quite a wonderful story oh my gosh wait where do I see it and has it we'll get into it afterwards I'll tell you I know Jeff SackMan produced it and it's uh he just sent it to me and I'm hoping that it really takes hold I want to ask you of all the directors you've worked with and I want to name a few of them here here Francis Ford Copa Herbert Ross Peter bogdanovich Martha kulage Philip Noy John mcin Ang Lee Alexander Payne Rob Riner David O Russell I mean does it get any better who have we missed well there's a few but well Nicholas Rogue I know it's crazy uh the whites Brothers Paul whites Jaye Thompson is there a particular director that really got you well as a result of that you really delivered a performance that you're quite proud of you know it's interesting because I'm thinking about Jonathan Lynn and I'm thinking about Peter bogdanovich and Alexander and David O Russell and Herbert but all in very different ways and I'll clarify Peter bonovich wrote the part for me and they all laughed and he wrote it because he thought I had a specific Cadence and a rhythm and a humor that was almost like a 30s actress whether it was rosin Russell or the Howard Hawks kind of banter banter his Fray kind of thing his girl Friday and in fact what's interesting is that later Jonathan Lynn when I was cast in clue which is the antithesis of the Parton they all laugh but Jonathan asked everyone to watch and we watched his girl Friday as a research before he went into clue now why would his girl Friday because Jonathan Lynn as a brilliant theater director in London the National Theater and he wanted a rhythm and he wanted the people inclue the actors to overlap it's brilliant clue I've seen it recently and it really holds up does it hold up it not it holds up it's a classic and then I did another movie with Jonathan Lynn called greedy with Michael J fox and Kirk Douglas and Phil Hartman and Ed Bagley and and Jerry worms and christien dunce played my daughter and if you look at those movies Jonathan in very specific Rhythm Peter had me playing a very different type of character because they all laughed it's hey dogs honey I can lock him up you know it's like whereas inclue but did is dark upstairs and I'm frighten sub do will anyone go with me I will I will no thank you so it's Michael mcken was so funny and that Chris Lloyd so I'm thinking about Rhythm and I'm thinking about character and great directors understand Rhythm they understand Rhythm Herbert Ross understood Rhythm when I went and auditioned for funny lady and I was also in My Blue Heaven he and Nora K interviewed me and I had just played the human slave in battle for the Planet of the Apes opposite Rody mcdell and Kim Hunter oh God how great it was hysterical and it was really funny and and and I went in to meet with Herbert I was 19 and her Nora was a force of Nature and I went into the audition and the lines were I I'm in bed with James con and I see Fanny Bryce and I go oh my God you're Fanny Bryce and Nora said do it with a Southern accent and I said okay oh my God you're fany BR every time I see you I laugh so hard I can't she you laugh so hard you fall out of bed because she she so it was a very funny scene and it was all about Rhythm it was all about an accent and I had done an earlier film right after that of course you could have played it well that's true are you Fanny Bri that's correct I am just you're right so taken with you by the way what I love about what you just did because it's true and I did another film where I called space it because it was the Nick r film and I played a character with Gary Oldman and Teresa right after Russell after Gary had done prick up your ears he said your names are land he said like that sounds like the name of an airport I go I don't like that the name of an airport what do you mean the name of an airport so that sound how much funnier is that than that quicker Rhythm yes cuz it's like yes it's so you're right it's very different and I was in a movie with David kerine and Jennifer O'Neal called Cloud dancer and I actually was in an airplane that flew upside down and I was was doing a Texas accent it was very funny I I don't like flying in this kind of airplane you know and so that was a different kind of an accent accents Define class they define character depending on how you do that accent when you think about Vivian Lee and Gone With the Wind it was an accent that was you know oh I just don't like going in pod is you know like or whatever her accent had that pouty had that that that but when she what's so interesting that fragility that she had then but then when she asserts herself towards the second half of the film you're like she uses that and she grounds her voice uses voice gets grounded she uses that and it's suddenly like there's a woman that comes out I don't care about that it's like you're right it's like when Rhett turns her and says wait those aren't the hands of a woman and she's I don't care just give me the money it's like all of a sudden you know what I mean give me money but I mean it's brilliant are there any particular lessons give me one actually that some director taught you that has stayed with you for your career because you work with so many Geniuses well I'll tell you two directors to go back to say favorite directors Peter bonovich was one of my best friends and a genius and I produced with him and I wrote a script with him and I was in of course they all laughed with him and the department was she funny that way and I think he was an absolute genius well you know Ben manowitz was was a guest of mine just recently and he did that incredible multi-part podcast on Peter bogdanovich you've got to hear it if you haven't it's really St well I want to because I would say Peter taught me a lot in theed Rhythm and I remember in one of my scenes and they all laughed which was a scene with John Ritter where I touched his body because he said he wasn't feeling very well and I said why don't I give you a massage why don't I give you a touch assist and I give him this very funny touch assist it's my way of seducing him but Peter said we had 7 minutes and it was a four-page scene without a cut he said let's just try to get it before lunch and Peter was wait did you do it we did I did it and I found from Peter my first take was always the best my first or second take now that isn't always the case because the way he works why did he rehearse first I wish there were a rehearsal there was no rehearsal I mean so then why with him was your first there was kind of an energy kind of an excitement it was kind of a you were just revved up whereas in other things like I remember doing a movie called smile and Conrad Hall was the DP and Michael Richie was the director and it was incredible film and he wanted the characters extremely natural as though they were not actors because the many of the actors in that movie were were acting opposite locals in Santa Rosa it was this am the energy in a way it was an American Miss Pageant it was Bruce Stern and Barbara Feldon and and I packed a suitcase as a talent and I remember when I auditioned for the part I had a different kind of Rhythm like hi everybody I'm packing a suitcase and I got the part that way but when we were filming it it almost was though Michael Richie did a docu style because he didn't want it slick so I remember one of the lessons I learned he said you got to do it my way because he wanted it very natural so I would say uh hi everybody I'm Connie Thompson and I I packed my suitcase and I put my naughtiest nighty right on top so it was like scared and there was a different Cadence but to go back to what you said about lessons I learned something on a Happy Days episode where I never did more than the one episode and I Gary yep Gary Marshall oh yeah but and what was really really interesting is this particular episode it was directed by Jerry Paris okay and who I later recommended to direct Police Academy 2 which I starred in and police academy 4 but was that what Sharon was in yes Sharon was in for and I learned a big lesson I made a mistake and I learned from it but I stopped myself after doing a scene with the fwn and I was Rose and they were filming and I had a mulch and I brought it out to the car and I spilled it by accident all over him I I'm really sorry and they said why did you do that you should have kept going it was a happy accident you spilled something a great less it was a great lesson and I learned from that point and it really really helped me because when you work with David O Russell David O Russell likes happy accidents David O Russell is very improvisational so other people he's sort of brilliant isn't he brilliant and so you're working with David and I remember I was doing a scene playing the wire girl and I'm all excited and I'm in a scene and I'm getting to a wire no one's made me important and Amy Adams and Bradley Cooper come in and they go oh with champagne and we need you to send this wire I go oh yeah I'm the wire girl nobody ever asked me to do anything like that and then David Goes you love cats off camera I mean it's like he'll throw you something and all of a I'm like looking up he goes don't say the lines but you love cats so all of a sudden I look up and on my desk David O Russell has put four pictures of cats I mean just out of the blue and I went oh there's Barnaby he likes to play the piano so it was kind of a spontaneous moment go and so that's also I love those that's a great lesson but with Alexander Payne he's very precise about words and he's really smart about words and Babaloo and LOL Gant on greedy were also you know they they loved the words and of course writers they're writers and they offer improv but but David was much more improvisational so I would say lessons to be learned is always be ready to improv if you have a scene that happens and that's something happens in the scene that's an accident and you just go with it absolutely becomes very human very Humanes authentic and and and when writers I mean like great writers they wrestle with a period with a comma right they don't just arbitrarily correct so it's important to respect that I think and you know I'm curious because you are like this ball of energy do do you have a particular fun moment on set where you were like this is a ball I don't want it to end please God let's bottle this up oh so many times like on clue I think on clue because the actors were so brilliant meline Khan Eileen Brenan how much better do you get than mine KH and Eileen brenon and and and Leslie and Warren and Chim C Leslie and Warren and Chris Lloyd and Michael mcken and Martin Maul and when you're working with genius in the same way that Phil Hartman and and Michael J Fox on on greedy and we didn't know he was Ill or even on they all laugh to work with Audrey heer and Ben gazara and John Ritter and Patty Hansen and Dorothy Strat make you better they make you better and those are actors that that are generous and they make you better and even Rob Riner when I worked with him briefly these are brilliant brilliant directors and when you are working opposite brilliant actors they really really make you better wow by getting to know these directors is how I merged into producing and I think that on death game the movie that I did in 1975 with sandre lock and Seymour Cel it was Eli Roth who saw that movie and flipped over it and said oh my God this is incredible you're brilliant I said what are you talking about he said death game I said death game that was done in 1975 and Jack Fisk was the production designer and spck and Bill Paxton did the props and he said I want to remake it and then we did knock knock I wish to God you'd been in those previews I put Anor D armas in it and it was Kiana re and Eli directed it and Eli is so wonderful Eli's movie came out Thanksgiving oh successful very I know so he's unbelievable he's terrific and I loved working with him on it and so funny when we had he love working with you he's a really terrific guy and I remember when we had lunch a few weeks ago it was like Eli Lee Daniels I know Lee I just worked with Lee I know and you're so good in that movie you so really are terrific in it and I I I just want to say that we we know everybody it's like between the two of us it's almost nutty I could spend like a week with you and then you wrote the a brilliant book and you're a brilliant writer and you also gave me amazing advice once I mean more than once but you know because I've acted in 200 films and because I've produced movies I am so passionate like you and I entered an arena where if I love a movie if I love The Pianist or I love Brokeback Mountain or I love Slumdog Millionaire or I love parasite when I love a movie I really want that movie to have the opportunity and so when I look at movies that aren't getting the full distribution they should it's not purposeful sometimes it's because of so many things that have happened with streaming with covid when we come back I want to really get into that and that's kind of your sort of next iteration of your career we'll be back in a moment get a glimpse into a secret part of Hollywood that few are aware of and that filmmakers rarely talk about in the new book Audiology by Kevin gats each chapter is filled with neverbe revealed inside stories and interviews from famous Studio Chiefs directors producers and movie stars bringing the Art and Science of Audiology into Focus Audiology how movie goers shaped the films we love from tiller press at Simon and Schuster available now we're back with the great Colleen Camp the funny and hysterical coling Camp The Marvelous advocate for emerging filmmakers young filmmakers and legends alike she's just extraordinary and Colleen during this little commercial break asked me to give her a back massage and she just started with tell us what you just said no it's so funny because David or Russell said what he wants to do is film me all over the world asking anybody for a massage now that could get you in trouble because it's literally 100% it get you in trouble can't do that anymore no you can't do it but the funny thing is it has nothing to do with any sexuality my back hurts so I need a full-time trainer to be walking around with me and it's ridiculous a great one to to I'm G to send you a person it could be because I have a little gravity going on above but my back hurts and talking about gravity and your particular gravity you were a play boy centerfold well yes and no I was never a centerfold I was an earth I was an earth sat centerold because it means that I was well if you see Apocalypse Now I play a Playboy bunny I know and so then in order to do that they had to replace a photograph on a boat which is the boat that they were traveling along the river and and they had to have a shot of me in a black wig with my top off to match the original centerfold on the boat which was of Linda Carter and Linda Carter was had a Wonder Woman series and I or my father has an obsession with Linda Carter well she's incredible I've only done nudity in three movies and they were all in the same year Apocalypse Now smile and which is bizarre and death game death game was the as I told you the El it was the movie I did with seamour Castell and sandre lock the other movie of course smile was you didn't see me front on it was Melanie Griffith me Michael Richie there were no there were no intimacy cordinators there oh no and it was very tiny nudity and then Apocalypse Now did it make you uncomfortable or well it did and on Apocalypse Now when I first met on it and they said would you do nudity I said no and then Linda Carter was cast it's a true story and then Linda Carter couldn't do it and Linda Carter had a big contract with Wonder Woman they called she already had done some of it that's what you said you had a m she had already done this erat phony centerfold cuz she was never a playmate and so in order for legal reasons they had to replace a prop on the boat and so I had to do this zat centerfold because it was a centerfold on a boat and so I was never actually a playmate and the irony is I'd been asked for years to be a playboy centerfold and are you friends with you Hefner or were you friends with you I had known a photographer named morio casselli and morio casselli shot a lot of the Playboy Centerfolds and through um Cunningham and Associates and a woman named paully paluso Believe It or Not uh I did a lot of uh modeling during that period when I say modeling you know touch the sweeten hand lotion Max Factor Maybelline you know and it was great cuz I I'll never forget it because I was a bird trainer but Gardens I made $2 ma right Macau parrots and cockus and I made $267 an hour and then I was before that I worked at Nai nits and I made $165 an hour that was like a knitting store it was a clothing store and it was called Naes and it was in Panorama City and so when I got a modeling job where I could make $50 an hour and I mean crazy stuff like Resorter magazine fork truck you know like fork truck lifting Fork trucks I mean I'm saying it wrong you were in college then I was I only went to one year of Junior College which was Valley Junior College I started working professionally when I was about 19 and the first show I ever got was Love American Style and it was my first agent Love American Style that's right it was with Karen Valentine and it was uh my agent was Mary Grady and so um I I was was able because I was singing in this group called Peter Lance and Peter Lance had this group of girls and Mary Grady came to see me there and she kind see you any place else you a great singer I said oh yes you can come to my bird show so I performed bird acts at Bush Gardens so when Gardens was in the valley huh that's right in Northridge so I had a great show there it was very very very funny and but I know you asked me an important question a minute ago no I asked becoming a Playboy CER oh right of course the massage a centerfold and all that no no I I want to segue though to something that's important because you and I can kibit like all afternoon exactly uh so you have a business that for the last I don't know decade or so or if not a little bit more than that has really been an advocate for so many movies you love filmmakers I love filmmakers movies and that's why when you said who's the best director you've worked with here's what's interesting about that statement I feel all of these directors and I really really really mean it I feel I've learned so much you know Nick Rogue said he cast me in Track 29 because he saw me in a movie called The Joy of Sex and Martha kulage who I love and she's brilliant I watched Valley Girl recently and I was in Valley Girl and I was in an and joy and I was in Joy of Sex and Nick R cast me because said you're a character actress and he said I saw you in Joy of Sex I thought you were incredible and when I think think of and you say that because you were quite a looker and so you you were more than onen corre is that what you mean to say right you you were a character you could play and that goes back to my introduction as a chameleon and so that's and any actor wants to be a character true and and so though I had a a kind of a look that was you know a F theal Type look and it I really always loved playing characters and I was 26 when I did Girl and Sheila Benson wrote an article in the I believe it was the heral examiner where she said you know Colleen Camp looks younger than the valley girl daughter and and we were pretty much the same age about three years apart but the thing is not that I looked younger but she was making a statement and I loved character Parts I loved doing the seduction with David Scher and Morgan Fairchild and Andrew Stevens I love doing Parts where I would play a lot of different characters and even in sliver with Sharon I played a character named Judy Marx I have red hair I'm her right hand and I I love playing character Parts but I think that because I have always thought a big picture when I'm in a movie I don't think of just my part I think and this is a producer skill and probably why I'm passionate about supporting movies because I always look that the director has the hardest job on that so set because he has to keep it and the producer the director has to keep everything going and he has to have all of the story lines in his head and and make every decision make every decision and thrown upon her or him and deal with different personalities exactly and personalities and actors work in different ways and so it's hard because I my dream is working with David a Russell spontaneous and wonderful and Alexander Payne incredible Peter McDonald's incredible Jonathan L incredible Martha kulage incredible Penelope spirs and Wayne's World I mean she's a genius and I mean I have been so lucky and I think really lucky Francis Ford Copa apocalypse to be in seminal films and I think the one thing is you never know whether it's waynesworld or valley girl or Police Academy 2 Jerry Paris Game of Death the last Bruce Lee movie Bob clous I brought John Barry into that film that's I met Barbara Brockley I mean I helped John Barry score that movie because John Barry was going through a very difficult time and he needed to get a huge payday fast for a movie and I called Andre Morgan and Raymond Chow and he ended up scoring The Game of Death he' never scored a Kung Fu action film he was doing the bonds and I was at a party and that's where I met Barbara Brockley with him after I had helped get him that that that job so I think I've always been a person that loves to put people together oh yeah galvanizer that is a superpower of yours and so I think I have such a love of directors and Oliver Stone said to me recently I want to really tap into your brain because your memory is so true incredible and it's almost like you're a research machine because I think though as you said people might think it's chaotic I'm actually present though it may appear correct that I'm operating on on multiple levels like as Bob Thurman a Tibetan scholar would say it's like a tornado yeah in a good way a tornado in a good way but I'm actually absorbing the information because I'm passionate and I found that filmmakers would have a movie like say The Pianist and there was all these other movies whether it was Gangs of New York or about Schmid or you know all these other movies a Michael Kane movie and I thought that Adrien Brody was so brilliant in that film and I thought the film was such a masterpiece I really felt it was a little bit of an underdog filmm and I got very passionate about it and that's what it is you it's passion it is and then you'll get behind something because you can't sell something if you're not passion 100% you just said to me today we won't get into the specifics but there was an award show which you were asked to fill with talent and your line was well I don't do that I can only do it organically I can invite someone to a movie that I love right to show up but I can't Wrangle Talent that's someone else's job well it's true and I think that what you just said is very smart Because unless there's a motivation and by the way people want to work with you and do favors for you or show up for you but they want to do that because there's something that they're going to gain a good movie experience exactly help their charity that's whatever right thank you and that's the point what I said so you don't want that currency that's expensive and that's that's meaningful currency and you don't want to give that away give that away and and what I said which was very interesting and I said because I love the people that were asking me that I said but unless I know and there were some illustrious people that were being awarded but I said I'm not a person that just delivers somebody no but tell me about your business now I want to hear I'll tell you what that is so it's and how did it evolve what's it called by the way well it's not even a business it's it here's what's you have six or seven employes yes here's what it is I run three different operations and that is producing movies like I just produced them I produced five movies this year which is unusual one was in competition in doville which was a little movie called Wayward which I love one was in competition in Venice Jack Houston's directorial debut one was called here's Yanni a little tiny piece with Julia Armand rosan Arquette and Joey Cortez one is a movie I love with Don Johnson and and Jack Houston that Andy Tennant directed one was this little movie at the gates and one is a movie with Margot Robbie that I did and Tom murly called borderline now what's interesting you produced that them I executive produced we worked on that yeah terrific it's a beautiful movie and I I want to talk to you about that in detail but what's interesting is that it I don't even how to describe it I'd see a movie like the fighter and I'd say this is brilliant and relativity had never had any movies that had had Awards and I believed it was award driven and because I have a shorthand with directors because I'm an actress and a Shand with producers because I've acted in so many films and produced and produced and I know the lay of the land that I would say no this has to be done like this and we need this person to do this Q&A and no Dave but I believe that this is a better strategy and so I kind of by accident almost it's a produc Serial skill mixed in with your connections with your passion for movies with your putting people together belief in whatever it is whatever whoever it is exactly so I think what happened is for many many years I was doing this out of love and commitment and then what happened is you started to be good at it well and what would be crazy is like and you start to see results well and you'd see okay Black Swan it's really hard what are we going to do but no I know what we do we do this or parasites a perfect example I saw the movie June 1st 2019 with Mickey Lee and nobody had seen this film in California yet and but it had just one can and I was blown away Wendy Goldberg wanted me to meet with Mickey Lee Mickey is just a force of BR a force of nature she just invited me over to her house for one of her dinner songs she's amazing and she's an extraordinary woman she gave me a homework to watch five or six movies oh she's a genius and last night I just wrote her I said I finally finished the last movie and oh she should be on your podcast because there's no M she is a Visionary and Bong junho told me actually something very interesting he said that Mickey Lee in a cultural environment where women haven't always been first the first in in line and that's everywhere in I I would say in the world and I'm not saying that to Bel her but I'm saying the strides she's made in Korea where it's unbelievable she's had it's a multimedia Empire oh a multimedia Empire and by the way she's a genius and is revered and knows movies and is a copile and went to Harvard and did she go to Harvard 100% And you you know I just saw this she showed us at at after dinner she showed us a video of all of the different verticals that are within I guess CJ entertainment she's a gen but the overall company there's food element there's it's crazy well there's no one like her when I saw parasite I wept uncontrollably and I said this is the perfect tale of Karma and and you really were instrumental I just want to say for our listeners in the success of that movie what did you do what did you do specifically that you think helped Drive interest and that award kind of inom Moder well I think because I had worked on some International films and I think that because I believed in a lot of international films where it was cold war or Aroma or movies that I I worked on passionately the thing that struck me about this film was I knew it needed uh a certain caliber of Q&A if you're doing a Q&A if you're trying to figure out who bong Juno is who could do that Q&A Bob alaban David a Russell G deloro who are those aour directors that are on very different playing field but are interesting and they're interesting Bob aliban by getting that kind of Gravitas behind that movie I think is even in the moderator who's correct because if you have David O Russell like he did we did something with Spike Lee and it was like a happening because his enthusiasm and his genius about film and so you're watching happening you're watching David O Russell at The Writers Guild do an interview with B B you and Bong you so this was like the most exciting thing because when you're going through a campaign or you're going through trying to get people to see your movie it can be exhausting it's a lot of work but if you're energized by it and you're dealing with people that give you energy energy is everything I said this to my daughter who's amazing I said Emily hold on Emily let's talk about Emily Stanford Graduate I remember her into horses right cuz uh when she was a kid she was she loved horses she loves excise Martha cuz Martha's a Martha she had her on horses but she's only been on horses a few times she wasn't like a big horseback rider she was into basketball and swimming and musicals and she was starred in Bat Boy a showrunner well she is an executive producer writer and she did Emily Paris she was in Smith she did Amy Schumer show she just wrote a script for Karen rosenfelt and Elizabeth gabler which is a wonderful wedding story which is fantastic she was in the Sunday company of the Groundlings and she did as a performer oh she's brilliant I I'm saying to Emily why are you not writing your own show she is truly one of the funniest brilliant well look at the background that she has with her mother is Colleen Camp her father is John Goldwin I mean it's pretty impressive John's a super super impressive guy he is and you are another force of nature so there's no surprise that Emily is as accomplished as she is and as gifted as she is what do you think is going to be the movies to look out for not yours because we've already talked about yours what are some others that you're excited about the funny thing is when you talk about mine which is interesting I feel a little guilty because of the strike and because I was gone for two months in Savannah producing a movie with Rebel Wilson called brid hard which is a combinations of Bridesmaids and die hard I came back and my little movie opened and Bob Bernie's opening it and of course these distribution companies need funding to make sure these movies can come out I have to literally sit down and watch the movies I have not seen you see the holdovers I love holdovers I think it is brilliant me too I think the movie is incredible I put Divine in briard a comedy based on her performance and holdover it's the antithesis in holdovers but Alexander Payne is a genius it's such a simple movie it's such a simple story but it's emotional when I saw that movie I told Alexander I said your Genius is that within the first five minutes y you craft a world yep like a universe he does that we are immersed in through the camera work through the angles through the just the panning shots and the Rhythm you want to talk about Rhythm Rhythm he understands Rhythm of the movie from the get-go and I said I so appreciated that and I think he really was very uh he loves grateful for that comment I think loves your input and I think he's been I've worked on almost all of his movies I think maybe all of them well I love where he was election he such a talented man and and a really good good guy too a good person and Incredibly SM smart he speaks like seven languages I mean Alexander is so thoughtful and you know Alexander to his credit when we were looking he called me up nine months ahead of Emily's college tours and he he said hi it's Alexander I said I want to take you on a college tour I said what he said we're going to go to Stanford and Berkeley because he went to Stanford undergrad and I'd gone back East with John my ex-husband who I was married to for 19 years to to the east coast but Alexander and Emily and I went to Stanford and Berkeley and it was so funny I said well oh I'm all excited you went to Stanford oh who do I call the school he said call the touring office and just ask some when the Tour times are I mean he didn't pull rank he never there's no pretense to Alexander and I think and and we went and it was and Emily chose Stanford I think based on the experience to be honest that we had going with Alexander on that tour I think it's an incredible movie and did you see AV Rockwell's movie no which is wonderful it's a thousand there's so many very and have you seen I mean I what other movies were you working on that you were doing preview on so many I mean how do you do that because I don't talk about I can't talk about individual movies but I can tell you it's a really movies are alive and well is all I can say and we are very excited to have some very good things that are opening and that's a great thing for that's box office and holdovers no not just box office I'm talking about just beautiful content beautiful pictures beautiful movies and as you know the American Cinema Tech is near and dear to my heart I know it is and you had to postpone it right because of a strike because Helen mirin who is a genius and was being honored but that had to push yours truly I know along with yours trly well you deserve that honor and Spades thank and much and that was probably very disappointing for you to have to postpone well the good news on the postponement is that I got to raise a little bit more money and so we will be well over a million dollars towards a really good cause that is near and dear to both of our hearts Colleen which is going to a movie and seeing it on a big screen 100 enjoying that experience and that's why I mean we have to when I say box office it's because I want to prove and Barbara Brockley and I were talking about this and David and I were talking about this if a movie has some box office this how it's gauged then more movies will be distributed gotcha more movies be get more movies and more good movies be get even better movies like that's it's a it's a self-fulfilling prophecy creativity is at all-time high I refuse to say that things are yeah they're not the way they were but they're I refuse to say that they're worse than they were that quality is going down it's just not true just not I agree with you and I think that and you and I are supporters of those young emerging F we still need to be well that's right and and and what I to go back to that on this award show you know was very interesting because what I said was have you seen a movie called The Accidental getaway driver I said because my dear friends best friend in the world Barbara Brockley and Kimberly Stewart who are always about quality diversity different kinds of films and they use their power I said Barbara had wanted to make chill for 19 years 18 years and because she's such a brilliant producer and I think because she's done so many diverse things I'll see her names on movies where she's executive producer I said you did the Muhammad all you documentary oh she oh oh no I I helped but she what I was really thoughtful about was thoughtful is that when the director won Sundance I said why is this movie not had Dom domestic release yet it has forign with Sony and it's a true story it's about a driver that picked up three fairs late at night and they held him hostage they were they were Escape convicts it's a true story and it was It's A Beautiful film and what I said interestingly enough to the people that were doing this show I said you know this is an important movie and this is an important movie because this director won Sundance it says something and I believe what you just said about American CineMate Tech is that if you can raise money raise it for the quality of what you love and the passion of what you love because there's so many good causes so so many good CA anyone but do what's near and dear to your own heart near and dear to your heart and so what I said to this and I I feel very grateful to them because I said why do you honor some movies that haven't necessarily been splashed all over the place but are those little engines it could you know when you think about what Gary gsman and Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson did an Nina vardis on My Big Fat Greek Wedding I've never seen anything like it that movie opened soft and they went on this tour like a whistle St Nia's amazing she's going to also come on this show I just talked to her the other day and and she's going to be a guest here isn't that wonderful I so appreciate that Colleen we can talk forever I have to just say you are a treasure in my life you're a treasure in my life I love you you are a gift to the industry I think truly a whirlwind of passion of energy of talent of uh making people feel good about who they are and that's a gift my love and I love you you're making me cry you really are because you care and you know I I have to say something Kevin I love you so much and you're making me cry because it brings to mind something I read in Walter isaacson's book about Steve Jobs and someone named Lee CLA is coming in to pitch something to him it was for the Mac account and Lee CLA said I'm never going to get this I'm never going to get it because I'm not with BBD and know and Steve Jobs said no I I want you to come in I I I think you're going to come up with a good campaign and it was of course think different and what was interesting is what grabbed Steve Jobs who was crying spontaneously buckets of Tears Walter isacson said is when and it's so interesting he pitched it with passion Purity and excellence and that's a very rare combination to have those three things well you have them my dear in Spades and well thank you so much to our listeners I hope you enjoyed our interview I encourage you to check out some of the films that we discussed here today for other stories like this one please check out my book Audiology at Amazon or through my website at Kevins 360.com you can also follow me on my social media at kevin3 until then I'm Kevin getts and to you our listeners I appreciate you being part of the movie making process your opinions matter