Rob Reiner and Albert Brooks | Behind The Lens

  • 2 months ago
Connect with Deadline online!
https://www.facebook.com/deadline/
https://twitter.com/DEADLINE
https://www.instagram.com/deadline/

Category

😹
Fun
Transcript
00:00This is Rob Reiner here with my good friend, Albert Brooke, and we would like to invite
00:07you to Behind the Lens, or Beyond the Lens.
00:13No.
00:14Somewhere near the lens.
00:15It's Beyond the Lens is when you're dead.
00:17Oh, so this is Behind the Lens.
00:19Right.
00:20Who's the guy who hosts the show?
00:21Oh, Pete Hammond.
00:22Pete's been Behind the Lens since I was a kid.
00:25Really?
00:26Yeah.
00:27What's he doing back there?
00:28Nobody can tell.
00:29The lens is too cloudy.
00:31Okay.
00:32Well, watch us if you want.
00:39Do you have any thoughts about what happens after you die?
00:42I don't mind being taken out of the game.
00:44I just don't want to see any more of the game.
00:46Yeah.
00:47Yeah.
00:48So that to me would be agony.
00:49Yes.
00:50To be taken away, but you get a little peek and, well, Rob's still doing well.
00:57And by the way, on nights you sleep and you don't dream, how do you know?
01:00What if you don't wake up?
01:01How would you know?
01:02Yeah.
01:03I mean, God, the first time I had a colonoscopy, it was, I wanted one every day.
01:06It's like the greatest sleep in the world, and if you woke me up a thousand years later,
01:10I wouldn't have any idea.
01:12Right.
01:13So I imagine that's what it is.
01:15A blood, like having a colonoscopy.
01:17Yes.
01:18Yeah.
01:19Yeah.
01:20A big one.
01:21Welcome to Behind the Lens.
01:22I have been waiting for this.
01:23This is exciting for me because not only am I a fan of both of theirs, but the documentary
01:30that they have made together, Rob Reiner directing, and the subject, of course, Albert Brooks.
01:36Welcome the two of you, Albert Brooks, Defending My Life.
01:40I couldn't wait for that, so I told our documentary guy, I'm reviewing this, and I did.
01:47And HBO sent it before it aired, but it met every expectation on that, I have to tell
01:53you.
01:54Thank you.
01:55I was just riveted by this.
01:56And you know, I got to tell you, Albert, during the pandemic and things, we watched movies
01:59on the weekends.
02:00We didn't go out.
02:01And we re-watched every one of your movies, I think, except Real Life, which I'm excited
02:05is coming out on Cri-TV.
02:06Yes, it is.
02:07Yes, it is.
02:08In August.
02:09Yeah.
02:10Yeah.
02:11Along with Mother, those are the two new ones.
02:12Mother.
02:13They have Lost in America and Defending Your Life, and they'll have now Real Life and Mother.
02:18So great.
02:19Seven movies.
02:20They should all be given that treatment.
02:22Box set.
02:23Come on.
02:24Fathered romance.
02:25Speaking of that, watching this documentary, I kept thinking, we need a box set of all
02:31your appearances on Carson, all the TV shows, everything that you came on and did.
02:37You know, I had a period on Carson of four years that were lost.
02:42It was that period where they, I used to get different stories, there was a fire.
02:47But I think the truth is, in the 70s, they taped over those expensive two-inch Ampex
02:57tapes.
02:58Yes.
02:59And they taped them over.
03:01And I had so many appearances when we were doing this.
03:05We would look for a piece that my dad actually went on The Tonight Show with Carson, and
03:10Carson asked him, who was the funniest guy you know now?
03:15And he talked about, at that time it was Albert Einstein, this 16-year-old high school kid
03:21named Albert Einstein.
03:22And we knew he had said it on Carson, we looked for it, and they had destroyed those appearances.
03:28Luckily, my dad in his book talks about that, and in the audio version of the book, we put
03:35it into the film.
03:36Wow.
03:37But a lot of the bits, and I only did the bits once, so you know, they were just gone.
03:42It's heartbreaking.
03:43It's heartbreaking.
03:44And in this documentary, it's just like gold, it is pure gold.
03:48That was the hard thing for us, because there's so many good pieces that Albert did, to say,
03:55how do we include it all?
03:56I wanted the audience to be able to get a full sense of who this guy is, who I consider
04:01a genius, and is in a class by himself.
04:05How do we capture all that and get that all into an entertaining 90 minutes?
04:11And I think we got the best of it.
04:12I hope we did.
04:13I think Albert...
04:14He's smart, because my inclination was, well, you should put in that, because they won't
04:22know that I did.
04:23And you know, Rob said, we don't want a two and a half hour, we don't want two parts.
04:28It's a new world.
04:30You get on 90 minutes, we'd be lucky for people to sit for that amount of time.
04:35So you know, you've done other things.
04:38It's not everything.
04:40But in the long run, we saw it.
04:45We couldn't go.
04:46They showed it at AFI last year.
04:48And we couldn't go because of the strike.
04:51So about a month ago, they had a screening at the Academy.
04:56And we did a Q&A.
04:58And darn if this thing doesn't play like a big comedy.
05:02You know, 800 people are laughing at these bits that are 45 years old.
05:11It's pleasing to see that.
05:12And it plays like a film.
05:13It plays like a movie, because, you know, you have a main character, which is Albert.
05:19And then you have this kind of story about not only his career, but his life and his
05:24personal life.
05:26And you get wrapped up in it.
05:28And then we tie it back at the end, where he talks about how he has been fighting his
05:33whole life, defending himself, because he is always way out there ahead of everybody.
05:40That's the greatest title, by the way.
05:42If you're going to do a title of an Albert Brooks movie, a documentary defending my life
05:47is perfect.
05:48That is my favorite Albert Brooks movie, you know, for many reasons.
05:53But in fact, I went and saw it recently, not recently, but a couple of years ago, maybe
05:58at the Arrow.
05:59Oh, Jonah Hill posted it.
06:02That had been postponed because of the COVID.
06:06I waited.
06:07I wouldn't watch.
06:08I mean, I have the criteria.
06:09I wouldn't watch.
06:10I really wanted to see it with an audience.
06:11Yeah.
06:12And it plays like day one.
06:13It's lovely.
06:14It plays like day one.
06:15It's a great film.
06:16It's, to me, it's every, it's all of Albert's talent are in one place.
06:22It's funny.
06:23It's moving.
06:24It's deep and philosophical.
06:27His acting is incredible.
06:29His scenes with Meryl Streep are amazing.
06:32And to me, it's the most complete of all of his films.
06:35Not to say I love Modern Romance and Lost in America, real life.
06:38But this is, to me, the best of all of what he does.
06:42I have to ask you, too, when you say Modern Romance, because the opening, you're sitting
06:46there.
06:47It's like my dinner with Andre with clips.
06:48Yeah.
06:49And it's great that way.
06:50But the setting that you chose is like the opening of Modern Romance.
06:54Well, a little bit.
06:56Like a hamburger or a hamlet or something.
06:57Yeah, yeah.
06:58Well, we did.
06:59We did it at Mateo's.
07:00Ah.
07:01The famous sandwich.
07:02Which is closed.
07:03But there's a sense there.
07:04And it has that feeling.
07:06And that was the genesis of the documentary.
07:09Modern Romance was hamburger hamlet.
07:11I thought so.
07:12Yeah.
07:13Which is gone.
07:14I know.
07:15It's so sad.
07:16Everything's gone.
07:17I used to go in there.
07:18Dean Martin would always be in there.
07:19Right.
07:20He would go there.
07:21Yeah.
07:22And he also went to La Familia, which he sat every night.
07:23But the genesis of the film was many years ago.
07:26You remember my dinner with Andre.
07:28And I said to Albert, come on.
07:30Let's do my lunch with Albert.
07:33We'll go to a deli.
07:34We'll talk.
07:35And, you know, if you don't like it, we throw it away.
07:37And, you know, he never wanted to do that.
07:39And time went by.
07:41And then when we eventually came around to doing it, we used that idea, that centerpiece
07:46of the two of us talking.
07:48And then we could spoke out from there and explore his career and his life.
07:53And I think that makes it different.
07:55It really does.
07:56Because that's what you don't see in a normal documentary is that, you know, it's us.
08:01It's two people talking who've known each other forever.
08:05And then you broaden out from there, as opposed to an off-screen narrator or somebody interviewing
08:10you that's never seen.
08:13It was an interesting way to sort of.
08:15And it really, it really works.
08:17And it's beautifully shot and the way it works with you across from each other.
08:23Why did it take this long for you guys?
08:25The only thing I could find that you have been in together was you played yourself,
08:30Bob Reiner in The Mew.
08:32Right.
08:33And, you know, you apparently never cast Albert.
08:36Albert never cast me.
08:37But I asked him a few times.
08:39Yeah, I asked him.
08:41And, you know, he turned me down.
08:44He offered me Harry Met Sally and I was, I was deep into writing Defending Your Life.
08:51Yeah.
08:52And, you know, as a filmmaker, if especially if you're writing your stuff, once you get
08:58past this place, you can't stop because you'll it's juggling the whole idea will go away.
09:06So I just said, I'm too far into this movie, you know, but he offered it wasn't like he
09:13never offered.
09:14Wow.
09:15OK.
09:16Yeah.
09:17No regrets.
09:18Well, I can't you can't live with regrets.
09:19Because where do you start?
09:20Look, you wound up doing Defending Your Life.
09:22Yeah, exactly.
09:23Defending Your Life.
09:24I mean, that's a great piece of work.
09:25And Billy Crystal got his best movie.
09:28So everybody was happy.
09:29Everybody was happy.
09:30Do you have a favorite Rob Reiner movie?
09:32I have a list if I need to remind you.
09:34You don't have to remind me.
09:36Because it's a remarkable lineup.
09:38I told Rob the other day that I rewatch Misery and I just think it's a great movie.
09:45You know that he said that the other day and that's the first time I ever heard him say
09:49that.
09:50Yeah.
09:51Well, because no one asks us.
09:52No, they don't ask.
09:53But I was surprised to hear that.
09:54Wow.
09:55And that made that was a that was a big surprise.
09:57You know, because that's so far away from the kind of movies that you made that you
10:02made that movie.
10:03I make a lot of different.
10:04Yeah.
10:05Yeah.
10:06Well, you know, Albert, you know, he's been won awards, nominations.
10:09I mean, I looked at your list of awards.
10:12Most of them are dry.
10:14You know, I mean, across the board, critics group.
10:17Yeah.
10:18You know, and that I saw that movie.
10:19And we were talking.
10:20I just came back from Cannes.
10:21I saw that.
10:22That was a good Cannes in Cannes.
10:24Fifteen minutes standing ovation.
10:26Well, it seems like every can gets at least nine.
10:28Yeah.
10:29That's more.
10:30I think they're doing something else.
10:33Someone has to look into this.
10:34Yeah.
10:35I think I think they stand up and then somebody buzzes the seat.
10:38Yeah.
10:39It's performance drive is incredible, isn't it?
10:42And that's what's so amazing about Albert.
10:44He does these pieces that make you laugh a circle.
10:47And then he'll do a performance like that or like he didn't broadcast news or a number
10:53of films.
10:54You know, my the most violent year or the one he did, the concussion where he played
10:58Cyril what he'll do taxi driver.
11:01Yeah.
11:02And actually, but I was for my goodness tax.
11:03I know.
11:04I said, you know, you're a very good dramatic actor is what he's.
11:08Well, you know, there's I don't see the line between the two.
11:14It's if you're just a silly person, it might be hard to get you to, you know, calm down
11:22and be real.
11:23But but if you're my comedy comes from such a real place that, you know, the dividing
11:30line between funny and sad is one car accident.
11:37You guys met at Beverly Hills High, correct?
11:40That is correct.
11:42When I was a producer at Entertainment Tonight all those years ago, I went and did a story
11:46on all the famous people that came out of Beverly Hills High drama with that drama teacher.
11:53John Engle.
11:54Yeah.
11:55John Engle.
11:56And before that, Lester.
11:57Oh, my God.
11:58Lester.
11:59His last name was Lester.
12:00Ah.
12:01John.
12:02John.
12:03I can't remember.
12:04Well, you were both out of show business.
12:05Father's, you know, it's like a racehorse class that we were in.
12:11I'm out of park your carcass from Kentucky.
12:14He's out of Carl in New Haven.
12:18But in our class, we had Lee J. Cobb's daughter.
12:22Yeah.
12:23It was Julie Cobb.
12:24We had Groucho Marx's daughter.
12:25Wow.
12:26Melinda Marx.
12:27Oscar LaVance's daughter.
12:28Yeah.
12:29Amanda.
12:30Amanda.
12:31We had Joey Bishop's son.
12:32Larry.
12:33Larry Bishop.
12:34Who else?
12:35And Dreyfus.
12:36Richard Dreyfus was in the class, too.
12:37He was the son of Dreyfus that you didn't hear of.
12:42So you were all going to know you were going to go in, follow the footsteps, be in show
12:46business and started there in high school.
12:48Well, I think so.
12:50I mean, I I never wanted to be a comedian.
12:54I wanted to be an actor.
12:56And when I got back from school and started, there were no acting parts for me.
13:03I was 19 years old and I had an agent, someone else's agent at the time said.
13:11If you if you do comedy, you'll get all the acting you want.
13:17And six years later, I was on the road doing three shows a night, as far from acting as
13:24I've ever been.
13:25I was so deep into comedy.
13:28And I thought, how did I don't want to do this?
13:30I don't know what I wanted to do.
13:33When he came back from school and he was at that time thinking about changing his name
13:37and for an obvious reason, he his middle name Lawrence.
13:41He was saying, OK, I'll be Albert Lawrence for one minute.
13:44One minute.
13:45And he said, I want to be like Steve Lawrence.
13:48I want to be a serious actor.
13:49I said, Albert, I understand.
13:51But you're the funniest person I've ever met.
13:53How can you, you know, just turn your back on that?
13:56You have to you know, you have to let people see how funny you are.
14:00So luckily, he found ways of being able to do both.
14:03Well, it was the only way to get work and it worked.
14:06You know, I could get jobs on television as a comedian.
14:10And so that's where I went.
14:12But it wasn't magical.
14:13Like after two appearances, five great directors were saying, I want you to be in, you know,
14:21my new serious movie.
14:23Yeah.
14:24But that and that.
14:25But that is how I got Taxi Driver.
14:27Oh, it is?
14:28Because Marty was a fan of what he saw on television.
14:31And Marty was a director that knew that if you could do this, you probably could do that.
14:38Wow.
14:39Because that's the way he worked.
14:40You know, he would cast people who weren't even actors.
14:43He would fool with that all the time.
14:46So he had no problem with saying Stanley Kubrick.
14:49Yeah.
14:50The fan.
14:51Yeah.
14:52I just found out he was a fan.
14:53And we became we became we corresponded.
14:57We talked on the phone.
14:59Were you considered for Barry Lyndon or to play the computer and how in 2001?
15:06I wish.
15:07How?
15:08I wish.
15:10I wish I could have that kind of relationship with somebody like Kubrick.
15:12Yeah.
15:13Well, he was a huge, important person in my life because when Modern Romance came out,
15:21after the previews, they wanted changes that I just couldn't comprehend.
15:27And they had seen the movie plenty of times with audiences and were very happy.
15:32And then we had to go up to San Francisco and sneak it before.
15:37I think it was seems like old times.
15:40And that audience wasn't my audience.
15:43And and I they didn't like the cards and they wanted all these changes.
15:48And I said, I can't do it.
15:50And they said, well, you're not going to have a second week.
15:53And that was, you know, a real gut punch.
15:56Stanley Kubrick, because he had this interest in jealousy.
16:01He told me this.
16:03And I think it wound up showing itself in Eyes Wide Shut.
16:08But he loved the subject.
16:10And he said, I got a hold of this.
16:12I've shown it to people.
16:14It's the best movie on jealousy I've ever seen.
16:17And he started to tell me about the movie business.
16:20He said, you're blaming yourself right now, aren't you?
16:24I said, of course.
16:25He said, it has nothing to do with you.
16:28How this movie is going to do is decided way before you even get to think about it.
16:33It's a corporate decision.
16:35If they're telling you they're not going to do a second week, it means there's no more
16:40advertising.
16:42You can't blame yourself.
16:43And he started to say, I had this trouble.
16:46He told me that 2001 they were going to throw away because they didn't like the way it was
16:52testing.
16:54And there was a famous disc jockey in New York who saw a screening and went crazy on
17:00the radio for it.
17:02And it turned everything around.
17:03Wow.
17:04Yeah.
17:05That's amazing.
17:06So anyway, we corresponded and, and, you know, we, I would write him and then one day I said,
17:12maybe I'll come visit.
17:13No, no, no, no.
17:14That was it.
17:15Don't do that.
17:16I'm fine with you in LA.
17:19Don't don't come here.
17:21Wow.
17:22But it meant a lot because it was really, I was hearing what the movie business was
17:28about from the person that I idolized.
17:31So you know, you are so influential, Rob would be the first person to say, I think there's
17:36so many great comics and things who have stolen from you.
17:40When you look at this material, you see stolen, not several, so much stolen, but influenced
17:45influence because as Chris Rock points out in the, in the doc, you can't steal this stuff.
17:51Yeah.
17:52So personal and unique to Albert that you, you wouldn't know how to steal it or do it,
17:56but influence.
17:57Yeah.
17:58People like Andy Kaufman, who it was a conceptual comedian.
18:02He certainly talks about how Albert influenced them.
18:05Right.
18:06And you know, I noticed Ari Oster, who's a very great guy.
18:09Great guy wrote for the criterion release of defending your life, the centerpiece.
18:16And you know, he, he said, you, you've been, he said, my mother.
18:21Turned me on to you when I was 11.
18:24She was a crazy fan and I was a crazy fan.
18:28And you know, I, without knowing that I like him and his work.
18:34So that's the coolest thing.
18:36If someone you like says that it really is great.
18:38Yeah.
18:39He's a really interesting.
18:40Oh, he's really good.
18:41He's good.
18:42I mean, Midsommar, that movie.
18:43He's good.
18:44He's going to have a very good career.
18:46Yeah.
18:47Yeah.
18:48I mean, see, they're out there, but you don't, you know, I want to ask you about there.
18:51This time, because you don't get that feedback as much now with streaming, with all of these
18:57things.
18:58You get no feedback that way.
18:59You know, comedy needs to play in front.
19:01Like I said, I went to defending your life.
19:02I wanted to see it in a theater again.
19:04It was packed.
19:05Yeah.
19:06You know, and there's.
19:07It just doesn't exist anymore.
19:08The problem is, especially for comedy, also for horror movies and thrillers.
19:13You need an audience.
19:14You need an audience to have the shared experience.
19:17The business is changing in a monumental way right now.
19:23Nobody is, you know, very few people going to the theaters.
19:25I mean, for special events, they go.
19:29But for the films that we love and grew up on, they don't go to see those.
19:33They watch it on the streamer, like you said.
19:35Yeah.
19:36And they don't all watch it at the same time.
19:37Yeah.
19:38So they're, you know, you're in your little pot or your pocket and you're watching something.
19:42And then if you've seen it, you can't even talk about it with somebody else at dinner
19:46because, wait, don't tell me I haven't seen it.
19:49So there's no shared experience and there's no shared ability to discuss the film.
19:55I think it's the water cooler.
19:58And I think it's gone except for sports.
20:02And that's why sports are cost so much for these networks and because that's the last
20:07place where people are watching at the same time.
20:11And I could call you and say, did you see that play?
20:14Chances are you'll say, he was out.
20:16I can't believe it.
20:18But if I called you during a show, during a third episode of an eight episode show,
20:23you'll say, don't say a word.
20:27And we were talking about this the other day, but like when we did all the family back in
20:31the 70s, we were a country of like 200 million people.
20:35And every Saturday night, 45 million people would watch the show and they had to watch
20:41it when it was on.
20:43There was no TV or TV or TV, none of that stuff.
20:47So you had to watch it.
20:48That means you were watching with 40 to 45 million people and you talk about it the next
20:52day.
20:53Now, like Albert says, you know, if you get 10 million people to watch something and they're
20:57not all watching at the same time, they're not having the shared experience.
21:00No, it's really radically changed.
21:02That's why I don't love bingeing.
21:04My wife binges a lot.
21:05I don't like to binge.
21:07I think it works for shows.
21:10Some directors are going back to that now with the dropping their shows, as they say
21:14in the business, one at a time.
21:16Yes.
21:17HB, well, I think it's the service.
21:20Max seems to put on things once a week.
21:25And I like that idea.
21:27Netflix chooses not to do that.
21:30But I think they've been really successful at dumping everything.
21:34It's worked for them.
21:36But it's just a lot of product.
21:40And, you know, even if your movie, when I was putting out movies, even if the movie
21:44didn't make a hundred million dollars, it got two weeks of real good attention.
21:49You know, it got yourself and critics and people writing about it.
21:53And theater lobbies full of posters.
21:55And people talking about it.
21:57And then another movie came.
21:58But how many movies at this moment are on streaming?
22:02Oh, yeah.
22:03A lot.
22:04Well, like one right now, Richard Linklater's movie, A Hitman, which should be in theaters
22:08because it's a total shared experience.
22:10He said the studios could have had it.
22:12They didn't want it.
22:13Yeah.
22:14You know.
22:15Yeah.
22:16And we made three of his movies.
22:17And, you know, you give it the right kind of attention.
22:19People say, oh, let's see the Richard Linklater movie.
22:22You know, it's a new one coming out.
22:24And you can build it and you can't do it now.
22:26You can't build it.
22:27And people, you know, you give a review or you go to the movie theater and you watch
22:31the film.
22:32And before you're seeing previews for films coming up.
22:35Oh, I can't wait to see that.
22:37You know, so none of that stuff.
22:38Well, you shot it could work because we saw what happened with Barbie.
22:41Yes.
22:42And well, that's always going to, you know, you're always going to have a couple.
22:46But that that's not a good sign, right?
22:49Because there should be 17 of them.
22:51Yeah.
22:52You know, and like small films, there would be 40 a year.
22:57Yeah.
22:58And some of them would be hits and some wouldn't.
22:59But they'd be there at the Bruin.
23:01You could go.
23:02I was.
23:03It's funny you should say the Bruin, because I was just about to say it's always lining
23:06up in Westwood and there were lines around the block for which also meant something.
23:11I know that meant, oh, that's a movie I got to see.
23:14There's no word of mouth.
23:15There's you know, I remember the I don't know how many years back, but I remember the first
23:19time a multiplex opened here.
23:21Yeah.
23:22And there were like 14 theaters.
23:24And our first inclination was to say, this is fantastic.
23:30They'll have the current hit.
23:31Then they'll have the little one that couldn't get distribution.
23:35And in six months, the big one was in all of them.
23:38Yeah.
23:39Taking half the screens.
23:40That was it.
23:41So, Barbie.
23:42So when can I see Barbie at 1, 1, 0, 2, 1, 0, 4, 1, 0, 8, 1, 0, 10.
23:50So ever since 2005 with Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, we have not had a movie
23:57directed by Albert Frokes.
23:59I've been waiting.
24:00Was that a bad experience?
24:02I mean, in terms of the distribution, we barely existed.
24:07It was not a nice experience.
24:11That movie was with Sony.
24:14Sony had made the trailer.
24:16We were on our way to Toronto.
24:18All of the posters, everything was made.
24:21And then the Danish cartoons happened that summer.
24:26And they didn't want the word Muslim in the title.
24:31And I said, it's why I made it.
24:33I said, we don't want to chance anybody getting hurt.
24:40And I said, I put the word Muslim in the title to show that you can do something.
24:46I'm the jerk in this movie.
24:49I'm not making fun of Muslims.
24:51I'm the jerk trying to succeed and I can't.
24:55But I have to have Muslim in the title because that's why I made it.
25:01And they wouldn't do it.
25:03So then we were thrown to the curb and we wound up, I think, at Warner Independent.
25:09And you know, once you get dumped by a studio, nothing is good after that.
25:18It's not good.
25:19And Warner Independent got dumped by Warner Brothers, by the way.
25:21It did.
25:22They didn't know how to release.
25:23It did.
25:24And we have it in the documentary.
25:25I'm going to give them the big distribution panel and here's what we're going to have.
25:30We're going to do it.
25:31Yeah.
25:32We're not going to take out ads on television.
25:33Yeah.
25:34They were trying to make it a good thing.
25:35We're going to do something special.
25:36Everyone does TV ads.
25:37We're going to do something different.
25:39What?
25:40J-Date.
25:41Take out ads on J-Date.
25:42Yeah.
25:43Well, wait a minute.
25:47What about home improvement?
25:49You don't need that.
25:51You need two ugly Jewish men who are probably not going to go to the movies anyway.
25:58It sounds like you had quite a few of those kind of battles to maintain your dignity.
26:04That's why we call the film what it is.
26:06Now, right.
26:07Defending my life.
26:08It's tough.
26:09Even if you're Rob Reiner with the lineup.
26:10I mean, really, I wrote them all out, Rob.
26:12I mean, there was like you had one after another, after another.
26:16And the truth of the matter is none of those films would ever get made and couldn't even
26:22get made then except for the fact that I had a relationship with Norman Lear and that I
26:27ultimately started my own company, Castle Rock, where we finance our own pictures.
26:32None of those pictures are pictures that the studios ever wanted.
26:35Yeah.
26:36It's so interesting.
26:37So you had to take it upon yourself.
26:38Otherwise, I couldn't do anything.
26:41That's wild.
26:42Yeah.
26:43Yeah.
26:44So this movie really shows everything about creativity and, you know, lasting talent on
26:51both your ends.
26:52Is this your first documentary?
26:53Not a documentary.
26:54First real documentary.
26:55It is your first real documentary.
26:56Yeah.
26:57Yeah.
26:58Yeah.
26:59Fake documentary, I admit.
27:00But you have Spinal Tap 2.
27:02Yes.
27:03Yes.
27:04We just finished shooting.
27:05I'm now editing it.
27:06And hopefully at the beginning, you know, either spring or summer of next year, it'll
27:10come out.
27:11How's it turning out?
27:12Listen.
27:14You're the last person to ask.
27:15I think it's good.
27:16But, you know, what do I know?
27:18And I just, I acted in a movie this spring for Jim Brooks.
27:24Ella McKay, right?
27:25Yeah.
27:26And I got to have Jim Brooks sitting right here.
27:28That was a thrill.
27:29Right here?
27:30Yeah.
27:31Right in this seat.
27:32How does that feel?
27:33He was right here.
27:34And he says, I'm going off to direct a movie again.
27:38And you know.
27:39I'm telling you, I think it's a great script.
27:42But I was more impressed with his energy level.
27:45He's like, what, 83?
27:47He's somewhere in there.
27:49And whatever he is, he's 40.
27:52I mean, he's running around.
27:55He's the last one to leave.
27:57There was no sign of anybody getting older.
28:00So I, it was great.
28:02I was thrilled to do it.
28:03Oh my gosh.
28:04Yeah.
28:05Speaking of him, I mean, broadcast news.
28:06Yeah.
28:07Jim's great.
28:08Jim's great.
28:09Tim's great.
28:10I love the wedding shirt scene alone.
28:12It's a cinematic classic.
28:16That's the ultimate description of somebody nervous.
28:19You talk about Albert Brooding like Albert Brooks in broadcast news.
28:25So great.
28:26Well, it's called Defending My Life.
28:29Albert Brooks, Defending My Life.
28:30You can see it on HBO Max.
28:32Max.
28:33Max, it's called.
28:34Now, anytime.
28:36And thanks for coming in and sharing all of this behind the lens.
28:39Thank you, Pete.
28:40Thanks for talking to us.
28:41Thanks for having us.